Two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Batolomeo Vanzetti, died in the electric chair in 1927. Their case was widely seen as an injustice. After convictions for murder, followed by a lengthy legal battle to clear their names, their executions were met with mass protests across America and Europe.
Some aspects of the Sacco and Vanzetti case would not seem out of place in modern society. The two men were portrayed as dangerous foreigners. They were both members of anarchist groups and faced trial at a time when political radicals engaged in brutal and dramatic acts of violence, including a 1920 terrorist bombing on Wall Street.
Both men had avoided military service in World War I, at one point escaping the draft by going to Mexico. It was later rumored that during their time spent in Mexico, while in the company of other anarchists, they were learning how to make bombs.
Their long legal battle began after a violent and deadly payroll robbery on a Massachusetts street in the spring of 1920. The crime seemed to be a common robbery that didn't have anything to do with radical politics. But when a police investigation led to Sacco and Vanzetti, their radical political history seemed to make them likely suspects.
