SACCO AND VANZETTI
Sacco and Vanzetti were victims of the short-lived Red Scare, which was the United States’ fear of the growing power of Communists, or Reds. When a factory paymaster was robbed and murdered along with his guard, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested after witnesses described the murderers as being Italian. Sacco was a shoemaker and Vanzetti was a fish peddler. Despite the fact that they had alibis and that there was only circumstantial evidence against them, they were found guilty by the jury and received the most extreme of punishments, death. However, they didn’t leave the world silent. Many people protested their execution because of the unfair and prejudice treatment of the two radical, Italian immigrants. Even Edna St. Vincent Millay contributed to their defense by writing a poem on the subject. Their efforts against the unjust punishment did not save Sacco and Vanzetti. The Massachusetts governor reviewed the case and despite the overwhelming evidence of their innocence, he still allowed for their executions. Before his death, Vanzetti made a speech, which talked about how he had never stole, killed, spilled blood in his life and that not only had he never committed any of those crimes, he had worked to prevent such crimes from happening. He said that they weren’t
being punished not for the crimes that they did not commit, but for what they were guilty of, being radicals and Italian. On August 23, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were put to death in the electric chair.