Commonwealth v. Sacco & Vanzetti
The story began one night in 1920, when two factory workers transporting payroll were shot dead in a robbery. Weeks later, police arrested Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and found loaded pistols on their persons. Questions were raised about the subsequent trial and the state's investigative methods: did Sacco and Vanzetti receive a fair trial, or were they condemned simply for their nationality and connections to violent revolutionary groups? Prominent figures such as future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini called publicly for action in this political powder keg of a lawsuit.
Learn firsthand about a case that remains unclear to historians today with our digital collection, Commonwealth v. Sacco and Vanzetti, featuring case files and affidavits, court documents, letters, hearing transcripts, and image exhibits. Explore the rabbit hole that inspired state-wide judicial reforms, international discourse, media, protests, bombings, and a century of investigation.
Flyer for International Protest Meeting at Ford Hall, March 11, 1923:
Back Sacco's Protest! Hear the Story
of Sacco's Hunger Strike
Photograph of Nicola Sacco
L'Ideale Anarchico
Mailers from the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee to Mary E. Haskell
Photograph of the Railroad
Shanty Looking East on Pearl Street
at South Braintree
Il Cinquantenario
Glass Plate Negative for Photograph of Nicola, Rose, and Dante Sacco
Blueprint of a Primer Anvil and the
End of a Shell
Indictment of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Advertisement for a
Bayard Automatic Colt Gun
Photograph of Celestino Madeiros
Photograph to William P. Kelley, Assistant District Attorney (Southeastern District)
Financial Report of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, from the Date
of the Organization May 5, 1920 to
July 1925
Photograph of Buick Car - 'D'
Order of Commitment and Warrant for Commitment to Bridgewater State Hospital for Nicola Sacco
Bertillon Card for Nicola Sacco
Sentence to Death for
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Bertillon Card for Bartolomeo Vanzetti
The case against Sacco and Vanzetti sparked worldwide protests. Notable figures such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, and H. G. Wells urged Massachusetts governor Alvan T. Fuller to grant the men a retrial. Sacco and Vanzetti, maintaining their innocence, both went on hunger strikes. Judge Webster Thayer ultimately denied all motions for a new trial, despite Celestino Madeiros' later confession.
This portrait of Nicola Sacco was taken between 1920 and 1921. Sacco was born in Southern Italy in 1891. In 1908, at the age of seventeen, he arrived in the United States. Sacco lived in Stoughton and worked as a shoemaker and night watchman. He had a wife, Rose, and a son, Dante. At the time of his arrest, Sacco and his wife were expecting their second child.
L’Ideale Anarchico, which translates to The Anarchist Ideal, is a pamphlet from 1911 that was used as evidence during the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Its author, Luigi Fabbri, was an Italian anarchist writer and educator.
Shortly after the arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee was established by a friend of theirs, Aldino Felicani. The committee’s purpose was to defend these two men and prove their innocence through fundraising, distributing propaganda, publicity, and organizing meetings and demonstrations.
This photograph shows Pearl Street in Braintree, where the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company factory– the site of the crime– was located.
Il Cinquantenario, which translates to The Fiftieth Anniversary, is a pamphlet from 1911 that was used as evidence during the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Its author, Paolo Valera, was an Italian journalist and anarchist.
This photograph shows Nicola Sacco standing with his wife, Rose, and their son, Dante.
While being searched by police following his arrest, Sacco was found to have an Italian passport, anarchist literature, a loaded .32 Colt Model 1903 automatic pistol, and several .32 automatic cartridges on his person. This was incriminating evidence due to the fact that a coroner’s report and subsequent ballistic investigation revealed that the bullets removed from Berardelli and Parmenter’s bodies were of .32 automatic caliber. Ultimately, Sacco’s .32 Colt could not be positively identified as the murder weapon.
This indictment by the Superior Court, dated September 1920, states that Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti “did assault and beat Alexander Berardelli with intent to murder him by shooting him in the body with a loaded pistol and by such assault, beating and shooting did murder Alexander Berardelli.” Berardelli was a security guard at the factory where the crime occurred. In addition to Berardelli, Sacco and Vanzetti were also convicted of murdering Frederick Parmenter, a paymaster.
While being searched by police following his arrest, Sacco was found to have an Italian passport, anarchist literature, a loaded .32 Colt Model 1903 automatic pistol, and several .32 automatic cartridges on his person. This was incriminating evidence due to the fact that a coroner’s report and subsequent ballistic investigation revealed that the bullets removed from Berardelli and Parmenter’s bodies were of .32 automatic caliber. Ultimately, Sacco’s .32 Colt could not be positively identified as the murder weapon.
In an affidavit dated June 1926, Celestino Madeiros claimed to have been present at the time of the shooting, stating: “I had never been to South Braintree before. These four men persuaded me to go with them … They said they had done lots of jobs of this kind. They had been engaged in robbing freight cars in Providence. … I sat on the back seat of the automobile. I had a Colt 38 calibre automatic but did not use it. … Sacco and Vanzetti had nothing to do with this job … It was entirely put up by the oldest of the Italians in Providence.”
Shortly after the arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee was established by a friend of theirs, Aldino Felicani. The committee’s purpose was to defend the men and prove their innocence through fundraising, distributing propaganda, publicity, and organizing meetings and demonstrations.
The getaway car, a stolen Buick, was found abandoned two days after the robbery.
In this order signed by Judge Webster Thayer, Sacco is described as being “in such mental condition that he should be committed to an institution for the insane for proper care and observation pending the determination of his insanity … for his best interests as well as those of the Commonwealth.” Judge Thayer’s decision was influenced by evidence that Sacco “would do his best to escape from any hospital to which he might be committed.” The threat of suicide was also a factor. “If the defendant was determined to commit suicide,” Thayer stated, “he would commit it no matter to what hospital he was committed as he already had attempted at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital.”
This card, dated May 1920, includes a photograph of Nicola Sacco along with descriptive information. It states that Sacco was 29 years old and had black hair, a dark complexion, light brown eyes, a medium build, and was 5 ft. 5 in. tall.
On April 9, 1927, Bartolomeo Vanzetti was sentenced to “suffer the punishment of death by the passage of a current of electricity through [his] body.” Nicola Sacco received the same sentence. Both men were executed at Charlestown State Prison on August 23, 1927.
This card, dated October 1920, includes a photograph of Bartolomeo Vanzetti along with descriptive information. It states that Vanzetti was 33 years old and had a sandy red beard, dark complexion, and a medium build. His teeth were described as “fair,” and his ears were pierced.
With Assistance From: John Eckert
