# Canonical recap data for Sacco & Vanzetti Trial & Execution (1921)
# Source: https://recap.at/1921/sacco-vanzetti
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: sacco-vanzetti
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1921/sacco-vanzetti"
title: Sacco & Vanzetti Trial & Execution
aliases:
- Sacco-Vanzetti Case
- Braintree Robbery
- South Braintree Murders
subtitle: The controversial execution of two Italian anarchists on disputed evidence became a symbol of American xenophobia and judicial injustice.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1921-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1921
decade: 1920
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists, controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven year
summaryLong: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists, controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were executed in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Most historians consider their conviction unfair due to prejudice against immigrants and radicals.
lede: Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested in 1920 and executed in 1927 for a Massachusetts payroll robbery and murder they likely didn't commit. The case became a flashpoint for American anxiety about immigration, radicalism, and whether the justice system could fairly try political outsiders.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Sacvan.jpg/1280px-Sacvan.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Sacco and Vanzetti"
importance: 72
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Arrest date
  value: May 5, 1920
- label: Robbery date and location
  value: April 15, 1920, Braintree, Massachusetts
- label: Amount stolen
  value: $15,776
- label: Deaths in robbery
  value: 2 (Alessandro Berardelli, guard; Frederick Parmenter, paymaster)
- label: Trial venue
  value: Norfolk County Courthouse, Massachusetts
- label: Judge
  value: Webster Thayer
- label: Execution date
  value: August 23, 1927
- label: Execution method
  value: Electric chair
timeline:
- date: 1920-04-15
  title: Slater and Morrill payroll robbery
  description: Armed robbers steal $15,776 from a shoe company payroll in South Braintree, Massachusetts, killing guard Alessandro Berardelli and paymaster Frederick Parmenter.
- date: 1920-05-05
  title: Sacco and Vanzetti arrested
  description: Police arrest Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both anarchists, in connection with the robbery and murders.
- date: 1921-04-09
  title: Sentencing
  description: Judge Thayer sentences Sacco and Vanzetti to death. Their defense team immediately begins appeals.
- date: 1921-05-31
  title: Trial begins
  description: The trial opens in Norfolk County Courthouse with Judge Webster Thayer presiding. Ballistics evidence is contested; prosecution claims a gun recovered from Sacco fired the fatal bullet.
- date: 1921-07-14
  title: Jury verdict
  description: After six weeks of testimony, the jury finds both men guilty of murder in the first degree.
- date: 1926-04-09
  title: Madeiros confession
  description: Imprisoned criminal Celestino Madeiros claims he participated in the robbery and that Sacco and Vanzetti were not involved. His statement is challenged but reignites doubt about the convictions.
- date: 1927-08-03
  title: Appeals exhausted
  description: Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller, after reviewing the case, declines to grant clemency. All legal avenues are exhausted.
- date: 1927-08-23
  title: Execution
  description: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed by electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. International protests occur outside.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti"
  title: Sacco and Vanzetti
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The trial exposed deep fault lines in American justice and radicalized a generation of writers, activists, and intellectuals. Decades after their execution, evidence emerged suggesting the men were innocent-making the case a symbol of how fear and prejudice can override due process, especially for immigrants and political dissidents.
categories:
- protest
taxonomy:
domain: social_movement
eventTypes:
- activist_campaign
- protest
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- mobilization
impactRadius: national
velocity: cascading
predictability: emergent
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: death
metaDescription: 1927 execution of two anarchists for a crime evidence suggests they didn't commit. A watershed moment in American justice.
wikidataQid: Q833926
peoplesVoice:
- source: Judge Webster Thayer, Massachusetts Superior Court
  voiceType: official
  context: Presiding judge delivered guilty verdict and death sentence on April 9, 1927, after seven years of legal proceedings.
  excerpt: The verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree has been rendered by a jury of your peers. The Court pronounces upon you the sentence of death.
  sentimentLabel: dismissive
  significance: 90
  attribution: Sentencing statement, Dedham Courthouse
  publishedAt: 1927-04-09
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Felix Frankfurter, Harvard Law Professor
  voiceType: expert
  context: Legal scholar published influential critique questioning the trial's fairness and evidence, mobilizing international defense efforts in 1927.
  excerpt: The case against Sacco and Vanzetti for murder rests on circumstantial evidence of the most tenuous character. No eyewitness placed either man at the crime scene with certainty.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 85
  attribution: The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti, Atlantic Monthly, March 1927
  publishedAt: 1927-03-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: William G. Thompson, Defense Counsel
  voiceType: official
  context: Lead defense attorney issued final statement before execution, condemning the trial process on August 22, 1927.
  excerpt: Judge Thayer has been their prosecutor throughout. The trial was a travesty of justice. These men will go to their graves innocent of this crime.
  sentimentLabel: grieving
  significance: 88
  attribution: Statement to press, August 22, 1927
  publishedAt: 1927-08-22
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Boston Globe Editorial Board
  voiceType: media
  context: Prominent Massachusetts newspaper reflected dominant local sentiment supporting conviction and execution in its final editorial before August 23, 1927.
  excerpt: Justice has been served. These anarchists came to America and repaid our hospitality with robbery and murder. The sentence is just.
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 72
  attribution: Editorial, Boston Globe, August 22, 1927
  publishedAt: 1927-08-22
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Defendant
  voiceType: consumer
  context: Italian anarchist wrote final letter from death row hours before execution on August 23, 1927, asserting his innocence.
  excerpt: I am not only innocent of the Braintree crime, but I never committed a crime in my life. I have struggled all my life for liberty and justice.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 82
  attribution: Final letter to his sister, August 22-23, 1927
  publishedAt: 1927-08-23
  originalLanguage: en
comparisonThenNow:
- metric: Time from arrest to execution
  thenValue: 7 years
  thenYear: 1920
  nowValue: 15-20 years average
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Sacco arrested May 5, 1920; executed August 23, 1927. Modern death penalty cases involve substantially longer appeals processes.
- metric: Public opinion on fairness of trial
  thenValue: Deeply divided by politics and ethnicity
  thenYear: 1927
  nowValue: Historians estimate 80%+ view trial as unjust
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Contemporary accounts show Italian-American communities viewed conviction as persecution; modern scholarship largely agrees evidence was circumstantial.
- metric: Media coverage intensity
  thenValue: International headlines for 7 years
  thenYear: 1920
  nowValue: Sustained academic and documentary focus
  nowYear: 2024
  note: 1920s saw massive protests worldwide; today primarily studied in legal and labor history contexts.
consequences:
- title: International protests and diplomatic tensions
  year: 1927
  description: Executions of Sacco and Vanzetti on August 23, 1927 triggered massive demonstrations in Europe and Latin America. Italy's fascist government, freshly solidified under Mussolini, protested the executions, straining U.S.-Italian relations.
- title: Labor movement radicalization
  year: 1927
  description: The case became a rallying point for anarchist and communist labor organizations. Communist Party USA used the trial extensively in recruitment efforts through the 1930s.
- title: Massachusetts official exoneration
  year: 1997
  description: Governor William Weld issued a formal apology and declared Sacco and Vanzetti free of guilt, 70 years after their execution. This acknowledged ballistic evidence later cast serious doubt on the murder weapon identification.
- title: Legal scholarship on wrongful conviction
  year: 1960
  description: Harvard Law School and criminology departments began systematic study of the trial. Felix Frankfurter's 1927 critique evolved into a canonical example of systematic trial failures taught in law schools.
- title: Cultural memory and artistic works
  year: 1958
  description: Woody Guthrie's song 'Sacco and Vanzetti' recorded; the case inspired novels, plays, and documentaries throughout the 20th century, cementing the narrative of injustice in American consciousness.
culturalContext:
topMusic: []
topFilms: []
topTVShows: []
zeitgeistNote: The trial occurred at peak anti-immigrant xenophobia (peak year for KKK membership was 1925; the trial ran 1921-1927) and during America's first Red Scare. Class warfare, anarchist fears, and Italian-American identity collided publicly. The execution became a touchstone for leftist politics globally-Italian fascists, Soviet communists, and American labor all claimed the case as evidence of capitalist injustice or radical threat, depending on viewpoint.
relatedQueries:
- Sacco Vanzetti ballistics evidence debate
- Red Scare 1920s immigration trials
- Judge Webster Thayer bias Sacco trial
- Italian anarchists America 1920s
- wrongful conviction cases American history
- 1927 executions international protests
- Nicola Sacco Bartolomeo Vanzetti evidence
- Braintree payroll robbery 1920
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Sacvan.jpg/1280px-Sacvan.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Sacvan.jpg/800px-Sacvan.jpg"
  caption: Sacco and Vanzetti
  credit: Wikipedia · "Sacco and Vanzetti"
  width: 330
  height: 186
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Carte_postale_Sacco_et_Vanzetti.jpg/1280px-Carte_postale_Sacco_et_Vanzetti.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Carte_postale_Sacco_et_Vanzetti.jpg/800px-Carte_postale_Sacco_et_Vanzetti.jpg"
  caption: Carte postale Sacco et Vanzetti
  credit: Secours rouge international (SRI)
  width: 1893
  height: 1325
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Postcard_of_Nicola_Sacco_and_Bartolomeo_Vanzetti%2C_c._August_1927._%287088650733%29.jpg/1280px-Postcard_of_Nicola_Sacco_and_Bartolomeo_Vanzetti%2C_c._August_1927._%287088650733%29.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Postcard_of_Nicola_Sacco_and_Bartolomeo_Vanzetti%2C_c._August_1927._%287088650733%29.jpg/800px-Postcard_of_Nicola_Sacco_and_Bartolomeo_Vanzetti%2C_c._August_1927._%287088650733%29.jpg"
  caption: Postcard of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, c. August 1927. (7088650733)
  credit: UW Digital Collections
  width: 835
  height: 527
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260523210455/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti"
  capturedAt: 2026-05-23
  label: Sacco and Vanzetti
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti"
translations:
es:
lede: Los anarquistas inmigrantes italianos Nicola Sacco y Bartolomeo Vanzetti fueron arrestados en 1920 y ejecutados en 1927 por un robo de nómina y asesinato en Massachusetts que probablemente no cometieron. El caso se convirtió en un punto de inflexión para la ansiedad estadounidense sobre la inmigración, el radicalismo y si el sistema de justicia podía juzgar equitativamente a marginados políticos.
summaryShort: Nicola Sacco y Bartolomeo Vanzetti fueron inmigrantes italianos y anarquistas, acusados controversialmente de asesinar a Alessandro Berardelli y Frederick Parmenter, un guardia y un tesorero, durante el robo a mano armada del 15 de abril de 1920 de la Slater and Morrill Shoe Company en Braintree, Massachusetts, Estados Unidos. Siete años
summaryLong: Nicola Sacco y Bartolomeo Vanzetti fueron inmigrantes italianos y anarquistas, acusados controversialmente de asesinar a Alessandro Berardelli y Frederick Parmenter, un guardia y un tesorero, durante el robo a mano armada del 15 de abril de 1920 de la Slater and Morrill Shoe Company en Braintree, Massachusetts, Estados Unidos. Siete años después, fueron ejecutados en la silla eléctrica en la Prisión Estatal de Charlestown. La mayoría de los historiadores considera que su condena fue injusta debido a los prejuicios contra los inmigrantes y radicales.
generatedAt: "2026-06-08T10:30:03.192Z"
fr:
lede: Les anarchistes immigrés italiens Nicola Sacco et Bartolomeo Vanzetti ont été arrêtés en 1920 et exécutés en 1927 pour un vol à main armée et un meurtre dans le Massachusetts qu'ils n'ont probablement pas commis. L'affaire est devenue un point focal des craintes américaines concernant l'immigration, le radicalisme, et la question de savoir si le système judiciaire pouvait juger équitablement les outsiders politiques.
summaryShort: Nicola Sacco et Bartolomeo Vanzetti étaient des immigrés italiens et des anarchistes, accusés de manière controversée d'avoir tué Alessandro Berardelli et Frederick Parmenter, un gardien et un trésorier, lors du vol à main armée du 15 avril 1920 de la Slater and Morrill Shoe Company à Braintree, Massachusetts, États-Unis. Sept ans plus tard
summaryLong: Nicola Sacco et Bartolomeo Vanzetti étaient des immigrés italiens et des anarchistes, accusés de manière controversée d'avoir tué Alessandro Berardelli et Frederick Parmenter, un gardien et un trésorier, lors du vol à main armée du 15 avril 1920 de la Slater and Morrill Shoe Company à Braintree, Massachusetts, États-Unis. Sept ans plus tard, ils ont été exécutés à la chaise électrique à la prison d'État de Charlestown. La plupart des historiens considèrent leur condamnation comme injuste en raison des préjugés contre les immigrés et les radicaux.
generatedAt: "2026-06-08T10:30:06.022Z"
de:
lede: Die italienischen Immigranten und Anarchisten Nicola Sacco und Bartolomeo Vanzetti wurden 1920 verhaftet und 1927 wegen eines Überfalls auf eine Lohnzahlung und eines Mordes in Massachusetts hingerichtet, die sie wahrscheinlich nicht begangen haben. Der Fall wurde zum Brennpunkt für amerikanische Besorgnis über Einwanderung, Radikalismus und die Frage, ob das Justizsystem politische Außenseiter fair verhandeln könnte.
summaryShort: Nicola Sacco und Bartolomeo Vanzetti waren italienische Immigranten und Anarchisten, die umstritten des Mordes an Alessandro Berardelli und Frederick Parmenter, einem Wachmann und einem Lohnmeister, während des bewaffneten Überfalls auf die Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, Vereinigte Staaten, am 15. April 1920, beschuldigt wurden. Sieben Jahre
summaryLong: Nicola Sacco und Bartolomeo Vanzetti waren italienische Immigranten und Anarchisten, die umstritten des Mordes an Alessandro Berardelli und Frederick Parmenter, einem Wachmann und einem Lohnmeister, während des bewaffneten Überfalls auf die Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, Vereinigte Staaten, am 15. April 1920, beschuldigt wurden. Sieben Jahre später wurden sie auf dem elektrischen Stuhl im Charlestown State Prison hingerichtet. Die meisten Historiker betrachten ihre Verurteilung als unfair wegen Vorurteilen gegen Immigranten und Radikale.
generatedAt: "2026-06-08T10:30:08.829Z"
