Just after Midnight on August 23, 1927 three men were executed at the Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown by the hand of Robert G. Elliott, Executioner. This is probably the most famous murder case and execution ever. It certainly had the most notoriety. Celestine Madieros, a gangster, went first followed by Nicola Sacco, a cobbler and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler. They were found guilty of the double murder of F. A. Parmenter, Paymaster and Alesandro Bernadelli, Guard in a robbery at a South Braintree, Massachusetts Shoe Factory in which $15,000 was taken and never recovered.
What makes the case unique is that Sacco and Vanzetti were Anarchists and their case was debated around the world by the literary intelligentsia. Both Sacco and Vanzetti were armed when arrested and Sacco's gun was clearly shown to be the murder weapon through ballistics. All over the world the literary elite sent letters and organized demonstrations as they tried to prevent the executions. They were convicted and sentenced at Dedham Superior Court and, after many appeals and almost seven years were executed at Charlestown. In addition to the intelligentsia they had many anarchist friends who were violent. The night of the execution four men were arrested on Rutherford Avenue planting dynamite on the outer wall of the Death House. The Anarchists did threaten Elliott and subsequently bombed his house. Fortunately no one was injured.
The Italian Community in Boston and World Wide fought for years to exonerate them and in 1977 Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a Proclamation stating that they had not been fairly treated.
In all fairness to the then Governor Alvin T. Fuller it should be noted that he issued many stays of execution and when the Courts failed to change the sentence he appointed a special Commission to investigate the case. Fuller chose Harvard Law School to conduct the investigation because the School was considered to be a left wing institution and many of the faculty sympathized with the Anarchists. The Commission found that the Trial was extremely fair and that the Commonwealth and the Governor had bent over backwards to ensure a fair disposition of the case.
As with many cases of this type where you have anarchists, radicals or others who would overthrow the Government by force the anarchists do not consider themselves criminals but soldiers. They enlist the aid of criminals to show them how commit crimes to get money to further their cause. They linked with Madieros who was a known criminal. Sacco and Vanzetti had no police records. Clearly, from the evidence, Sacco had the murder gun. Vanzetti was guilty by association and they had no alibis.
Recently, it has been said that the Boston Police Department manufactured the ballistic evidence. But it is easy to accuse a long dead police officer who cannot defend himself of committing a crime. But why would he? Eighty years later all the witnesses are dead and the memories are gone. It is easy to call the facts into question.
The long and short of it is that people will be fighting over the Sacco and Vanzetti case forever.