[Music] in 1920 much of the world was still in turmoil following the ending of the first world war [Music] the bolsheviks were fighting on all fronts to achieve power in russia among their enemies was the newly independent republic of poland some semblance of normalities seem to be returning further west britain's royal family gathered to see albert edward prince of wales off on a visit to the united states [Music] everywhere he was greeted by enthusiastic crowds and among his engagements was a review of cadets at west point america's military academy [Music] troops were also out in boston for a different purpose escorting two men to trial for a crime many people felt they were being framed for [Music] nicola sacco and bartolomeo vanzetti were accused of robbery and murder but it was widely felt that they were being made scapegoats for the unrest which was sweeping the united states rapid industrialization during the last quarter of the 19th century and first part of the 20th had seen an explosive growth in america's great cities [Music] millions of immigrants had been drawn in from europe seeking a new life away from the squalor and oppression of many of the regimes there [Music] but for many of these new americans conditions in the new world were to turn out a little better materially than those they had left wages and working conditions were still miserable and the slums of the new cities just as bleak both before and after the first world war labor unrest was widespread trade unions led massive strikes and demonstrations to demand better conditions [Music] and these turned increasingly to violence [Music] this violence was not confined to the streets in june 1919 the home of united states attorney general mitchell palmer was bogged he vowed to crush what he called the red movement the communists anarchists and even traditional unions which were seen as a single international subversive movement threatening the whole fabric of american society troops were deployed in many cities to prevent any further gatherings or demonstrations for many people this seemed to confirm that widespread chaos might erupt at any time on the 2nd of january 1920 palmer's justice department raided immigrants homes arresting some 1 000 people and confining them without trial in makeshift camps most were soon released when it was ruled that their constitutional rights had been abused but there was initially little concern when two italian immigrants sacco and vanzetti were taken into custody on the 5th of may 1920 having been found carrying anarchist literature for their home city of boston had seen some of the most violent unrest and brutal police action the crimes of which they were soon accused had occurred about 20 miles south of boston some three weeks before on the 15th of april in the little town of south braintree two american express security guards met the morning train from boston and signed for an iron box from the guards fan they took the box from the railway station to their office in nearby hampton house it contained some twenty seven thousand dollars the week's wages for two of the largest companies in the town as they arrived one of the guards noticed a shiny dark colored car parked across the street there was also a thin fair-haired man watching from a doorway a little later frederick parmenter the accountant from one of the two companies slater and morrill arrived with security guard alexander baradelli to take their share which had been put in two cash boxes to the factory a few hundred yards away as this later reconstruction shows the american express guards watched them set off just before 3 pm down railroad avenue [Music] as they turned into pearl street and walked up it across the level crossing the two men stopped to talk briefly to jimmy bostock the company's repairman they were then seen by workers on a building site crossing the road in front of the rice and hutchins factory the other major company in the town [Music] there two short stocky men were hanging about on the pavement as parmenter and beradelli crossed towards them they pulled pistols out of their pockets their adelie was shot and collapsed parmenter turned but was hit twice in the back a dark-colored touring car now appeared and the two men grabbed the cash boxes and jumped in watched by several witnesses including jimmy bostock there was another man on the running board who jumped off firing at onlookers and again at beredeli all the men now piled into the car which headed off westwards [Music] the car was stopped by the level crossing barrier but the crossing keeper was forced at gunpoint to raise it he was one of many witnesses who referred to a fair-haired driver and two swarthy men no one mentioned that any of them had a moustache a little while later a dark touring car was seen driving fast on the road going south towards brockton and west bridgewater [Music] veradelli died in the street before he could be moved and parmented shortly afterwards in hospital the bullets were removed from their bodies at post-mortems and the ones which appeared to be fatal were carefully marked a hold-up had occurred on the previous christmas eve at west bridgewater about 20 miles south of braintree this had also involved a dark-coloured getaway car the local police chief suspected italian immigrants who had settled in the area of being involved and wondered if the two incidents were connected his suspicions grew when a car was found abandoned on the 17th of april in woods near west bridgewater this was quickly identified as the one used during the killings at south braintree searches of the local area were now begun and on the 20th of may two men were stopped on a tram at campello they were saco and vanzetti they gave confused explanations as to who they'd been visiting and when searched were found to have guns concealed on them a loaded 38 pistol and a 32 colt automatic as well as the anarchist literature nicola sacco who was clean-shaven and usually wore a trilby and bartolomeo vanzetti who had a large moustache claimed that they were carrying the guns for self-defense and that they had no anarchist or communist connections but the fact that they had been found carrying subversive literature was enough for them to be detained for the night for anarchism with its hatred of capitalism and established authority had long been a particular concern in the united states it had burst on the national scene in 1901 at an exhibition in buffalo when president william mckinley was assassinated by a deranged polish immigrant and self-proclaimed anarchist leon chalgosh [Music] as a political creed anarchism had begun in europe and flourished particularly in russia and eastern europe as a focus of resistance to the absolutist regime of the tsars anarchists had been responsible for many bombings and assassination attempts [Music] anarchism and communism had been carried to the united states with the great waves of immigration from eastern europe and russia which had flooded through ellis island in the 1890s [Music] the movement played a major role in the fight for better working conditions in the years before the first world war [Music] along with communism anarchism acquired an even more sinister face after the war with the overthrow of the tsar and the seizure of power in russia by lenin and his bolsheviks [Music] at first the authorities said nothing to sacco or vanzetti about the south braintree murders but the next day both men claimed to have been at work on the 15th of april [Music] it emerged that nikolasako was a shoemaker he had been born in southern italy on the 22nd of april 1891. he had come to the united states in april 1908 and at first found work in a road camp he studied shoemaking got a good job and soon gained a reputation as a conscientious and skilled craftsman who earned a good wage sacko got married in 1912 to an italian girl rosina and they had a son named dante [Music] sacco was a devoted family man but he became increasingly involved in workers causes distributing anarchist literature and helping raise money for strikers [Music] bartolomeo vanzetti was also born in italy on the 11th of may 1888 he trained as a pastry chef and baker but when he came to the united states in june 1908 he gave this up and took to laboring he too was increasingly involved in anarchist activities acting as a strike coordinator at a factory in plymouth but he ended up opposing both the traditional unions and the management when the united states entered the first world war in 1917 both men like many other immigrants fled across the border to mexico to avoid conscription they returned at the end of the war but this action only served to increase popular suspicion of immigrants sacco went back to his job at the shoe factory while vanzetti began selling fish from a hand cart in the boston markets he became a well-known street character forever arguing politics [Music] the men's decision to lie about their anarchist connections towed against them when it was discovered that neither had a proper permit for the guns the police began to feel certain that they had been involved in the south braintree murders however none of the witnesses to whom they were shown could positively identify them although several picked out vanzetti as having been involved in the bridgewater hold up on christmas eve sacco had a cast iron alibi and vanzetti produced 16 different witnesses from the italian community in boston to say that they had bought fish from him that day [Music] nevertheless five witnesses on the bridgewater wages case remained adamant that they had seen him so on the 11th of june vanzetti was charged with assault and attempted robbery when the case came to court much was made of the fact that vanzetti's alibi was provided by fellow italians many of them family friends the jury chose to believe that there had been collusion and on the 16th of august vanzetti was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison then on the 11th of september sacco and vanzetti were charged with murder and robbery at south braintree there was an immediate outcry particularly within the italian community and a sacco vanzetti defense committee was formed [Music] protest demonstrations were broken up there was concern when it was learned that district attorney katzman who was in charge of the case had dismissed the police officer leading the investigation it emerged later that captain proctor had been concerned that most of the evidence seemed to point away from the two anarchists the case did not come to trial until the 31st of may 1921 in the superior court building in dedham massachusetts armed police surrounded the court and all those entering were searched for guns [Music] large crowds watched the two men arrive [Music] sacko was defended by an abrasive radical lawyer from california fred moore he soon clashed with the judge 63 year old justice webster thayer over the selection of the jury moore was determined to exclude anyone even remotely middle class or educated he also fell out with vanzetti's lawyer who was convinced that an educated jury would be better able to understand the flimsiness of the case against the two men jury selection took over four weeks and in the end it consisted mainly of shopkeepers and factory workers [Music] when attorney general katzman opened the case he tried to produce eyewitnesses who would link the two men to the shooting but under cross-examination 26 admitted that they could not seven thought that they might have seen sacco and two put vanzetti in the getaway car although neither had mentioned his moustache before [Music] katzman then turned to the guns which had obviously been acquired and carried illegally he made little attempt to prove forensically that either of them had fired the fatal bullets although captain proctor did admit that one of the bullets might have come from a cult although not necessarily the one in question [Music] katzman dwelt heavily throughout on the anarchist threat and the fact that both men were known to be supporters he tried hard to get them to admit that they were determined to overthrow the government of their adopted country he made much of the fact that both had fled to mexico rather than fight for it both men denied that they would ever have used violence to further their beliefs sacco made an impassioned speech arguing that his flight to mexico had shown that he was a dedicated pacifist who would never use violence in his summing up for the jury judge there said little about the thinness of the prosecution case he too chose to emphasize the threat of godless anarchism to american society in the end it was these fears which swayed the jury rather than the fact that there was no conclusive evidence to link either man to the south braintree killings after five hours deliberation on the 14th of july they found both men guilty of murder judge there decided that he would pass sentence at a later date once defense appeals for a retrial had been heard as the two men were led away sacko cried out they killed two innocent men the two men were taken under heavy guard to charlestown prison where they were to remain for more than five years [Music] the verdict brought immediate and massive protests which reflected widespread disquiet at the lack of solid evidence the protests were not confined to the united states and massive demonstrations took place in other countries including france and italy hopes of changing the authorities minds were kept alive by reports that even the few original witnesses who had seemed certain were now becoming more hesitant [Music] in the united states a series of legal teams funded by the unions and popular donations kept up the fight over the next five years six separate motions were lodged for a retrial but each one was rejected by justice there more significantly in 1925 a convicted murderer in dedham jail confessed that he had been one of the killers celestino medeiros refused to name his accomplices but was known to belong to the boston morelli gang members of the gang had been seen near braintree before the shootings mederos testimony was rejected by the massachusetts authorities they seemed determined to stand by the jury's decision regardless of any new evidence sako's wife visited him in prison and also spent time with vanzetti who had no family to support him sacco refused to allow his daughter ines who had been born after his arrest to come but he corresponded lovingly with her once she was old enough to understand his letters on the 17th of february 1923 sacko went on a 31 day hunger strike he was taken for treatment to the bridgewater hospital for the criminally insane fanzetti did have a real nervous breakdown and was taken to the same hospital on the 2nd of january 1925. on his return to prison he wrote our execution is already a fact on the 5th of april 1927 the massachusetts supreme court dismissed the final appeal for a retrial and the way was clear at last for justice there to pass sentence four days later he sentenced sacco and vanzetti to die in the electric chair there was another massive outcry and the us government came under diplomatic pressure from dozens of countries to intervene but the authorities insisted that it was a matter for the state alone [Music] appeals for mercy were received from prominent international figures such as albert einstein and thomas mann but none had any effect on the 4th of may vanzetti made a final appeal to massachusetts governor alvin fuller fuller set up a committee to review all the evidence but on the 3rd of august he announced that there would be no retrial the executions would go ahead in one week then on the 10th of august 30 minutes before they were due to go to the chair sako and vanzetti were granted a 12-day stay of execution so that their attorney could produce new evidence but this could not save them at midnight on thursday the 22nd of august both men were executed some 500 armed policemen had taken up position during the afternoon to seal off charlestown prison from a huge crowd that same night in the same prison celestino madeiros whose confession had seemed to exonerate the two men was executed as well the next morning the bodies were taken from the prison [Music] huge crowds demonstrated in union square in new york and there were protests and vigils in other cities throughout the united states to mourn the deaths [Music] some of the protests turned violent as the homes of jurors and the judge were attacked [Music] as the two men were given a lavish funeral attempts to clear their name posthumously continued then in 1973 a mafia defector vincent teresa revealed that on his deathbed boston gang boss frank morelli had admitted that his men had carried out the south braintree robbery and killings he is alleged to have said we whacked them out we killed those guys in the robbery those two grease balls took it on the chin on the 19th of july in 1977 sacco's grandson spencer sacco received a proclamation from massachusetts governor michael dukakis [Music] this declared that any stigma and disgrace should be forever removed from the names of nicola sacco and bartolomeo vanzetti [Music] you