78 Years later-Sacco and Vanzetti, what's the verdict?

[underpants]

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272960&day=10272988

August 23

1927 Sacco and Vanzetti executed


Despite worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder.

On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard. The murderers, who were described as two Italian men, escaped with more than $15,000. After going to a garage to claim a car that police said was connected with the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with the crime. Although both men carried guns and made false statements upon their arrest, neither had a previous criminal record. On July 14, 1921, they were convicted and sentenced to die.


Anti-radical sentiment was running high in America at the time, and the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti was regarded by many as unlawfully sensational. Authorities had failed to come up with any evidence of the stolen money, and much of the other evidence against them was later discredited. During the next few years, sporadic protests were held in Massachusetts and around the world calling for their release, especially after Celestino Madeiros, then under a sentence for murder, confessed in 1925 that he had participated in the crime with the Joe Morelli gang. The state Supreme Court refused to upset the verdict, and Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller denied the men clemency. In the days leading up to the execution, protests were held in cities around the world, and bombs were set off in New York City and Philadelphia. On August 22, Sacco and Vanzetti were electrocuted.

In 1961, a test of Sacco's gun using modern forensic techniques apparently proved it was his gun that killed the guard, though little evidence has been found to substantiate Vanzetti's guilt. In 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation vindicating Sacco and Vanzetti, stating that they had been treated unjustly and that no stigma should be associated with their names.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Tough call. You have to seriously factor in the Espirit du temps.

Sacco and Vanzetti were caught up in the times of the Red Scare, the Palmer Raids, and they admitted to be anarchists (terrorists of THEIR times . . . ). They could have been convicted just for that alone in public opinion, but a criminal charge for something else made it possible to persecute, prosecute, and convict them because of their political beliefs.

This was repeated with the trial for the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s in order to send a message to black men to keep their distance from white women.

Same thing perhaps with the conviction of Bruno Hauptman for the alleged kidnapping of the first son of hero, Charles Lindbergh ("alleged" because theories have floated that it was an inside job and Hauptman was convicted for being German at the wrong time in American history).

Y'never know . . . and you may never know.

[underpants]

2. Side note on the Lindberg baby

the sheriff of the town was....Norman Schwarzkopf. Father of Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf of Gulf1 fame and post Gulf1 infamy.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. That trial was the Michael Jackson/OJ trial of the times.

Celebrities like Jack Benny came to Flemington to watch the trial like it was a Broadway show. Crowds pressed to get a few coveted seats. Headlines like Natalie Holloway. It was awful. I'm sure the jury was even more susceptible to public media pressure to convict.

[skooooo]

4. Sacco & Vanzetti & Scotsboro boys...

...are all mentioned in Allan Ginsberg's poem "America."