04/16/2026
If you look at what experts have proclaimed in the century since, they were probably innocent. They might have been guilty, but they were definitely railroaded. The U.S. justice system decided that because they were Italian immigrant anarchists, just fu***ng execute them. And that’s what happened.
--On This Day in History S**t Went Down: April 15, 1920--
There was plenty of anti-immigrant and anti-Italian sentiment in 20th century America. But Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were also anarchists. In Sacco’s own words: “No government, no police, no judges, no bosses, no authority.” That’s some bu****it. Famed historians Will and Ariel Durant said, “Freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.” Wait, what? True story. If you’re equal to me, I lack the freedom to kill or enslave you. Throughout history, the strong dominated the weak because there were few laws infringing upon their freedom to do so. Some authority is necessary because people suck. End tangent. The government murdered these guys.
The pair moved to America in 1908 as young men, and met in 1917 as followers of Luigi Galleani, an Italian anarchist who preached violent overthrow of the government. And Galleanists did bomb and assassinate government officials. The U.S. considered Italian anarchists to be public enemy #1.
Opposing World War I, Sacco and Vanzetti fled to Mexico to avoid the draft. They returned to find most of their fellow anarchists arrested and deported. But the cops knew the pair were Galleanists and had their eyes on them. Then, on April 15, 1920, in Braintree, Massachusetts, two men were murdered during a payroll robbery. It was believed the robbery was done by Italian anarchists to fund their activities, and three weeks after the crime Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested with pistols in their possession.
Being known radicals prejudiced the judge and the jury, and the pair was convicted the following year and sentenced to the dirt nap. But six years of appeals revealed recanted testimonies, conflicting ballistics reports, allegations of planted evidence, jurist malfeasance, and evidence of someone else being guilty. Also, the money was never recovered. The fate of the men became an international cause célèbres, with protests worldwide calling for pardon. In March 1927 future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote a lengthy essay for The Atlantic examining the evidence and proclaiming them innocent. Sacco and Vanzetti asserted their innocence to the end, saying they’d been framed for being Italians and anarchists. Mind you, plenty of guilty people make such proclamations, but it’s worth noting the pair never once confessed.
Being atheists, prior to the ex*****on the men both refused a priest several times, which probably had many Bible-thumping Americans even more convinced they had to die. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed via electric chair on August 23, 1927, at Charlestown State Prison. Sacco’s final words were, “Farewell, Mother,” and Vanzetti’s were “I wish to forgive some people for what they are now doing to me.”
It’s possible they were guilty. Unlikely, but possible. Regardless, the trials were farcical and their ex*****on a gross miscarriage of justice.
NOTE: This piece was researched and written by a human, not some bu****it "ai" plagiarism software.
Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says “f**k” a lot. Get both volumes of ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY S**T WENT DOWN at JamesFell.com/books.
