Two Italian anarchists made headlines when they committed a cold-blooded murder. Before it was over, it would develop into a worldwide controversy.
On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and guard of a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts, were shot and killed, and the payroll of over $15,000 was stolen. Three weeks later, the police arrested Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartholomeo Vanzetti, a fish salesman, and charged them with the crime.
The case came up for trial on May 31, 1921. At first, this murder and robbery generated only local interest, but soon the case attracted wider attention due to the politics of the accused murderers. Sacco and Vanzetti were immigrants, but politically they were anarchists who had participated in armed labor strikes. They were also pacifists who had evaded the draft in 1917 by going to Mexico.…
