Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born in the Italian town of Villaffalletto on 11th June, 1888. The son of a farmer, Vanzetti emigrated to the United States when he was twenty years old. Vanzetti settled in Plymouth, where he worked as a fish peddler.
Vanzetti was shocked by the way working class immigrants were treated in America and became involved in left-wing politics. He went to anarchist meetings where he met Nicola Sacco, an Italian immigrant working in a shoe-factory in Stoughton, Massachusetts. The two men became friends and often attended the same political meetings together.
Like many left-wing radicals, Vanzetti and Sacco were opposed to the First World War. They took part in protest meetings and in 1917, when the United States entered the war, they fled together to Mexico in order to avoid being conscripted into the United States Army. When the war was over the two men returned to the United States.
On 5th May, 1920, Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco were arrested and interviewed about the murders of Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli, in South Braintree. The men had been killed while carrying two boxes containing the payroll of a shoe factory. After Parmenter and Berardelli were shot dead, the two robbers took the $15,000 and got into a car containing several other men, and driven away.
Several eyewitnesses claimed that the robbers looked Italian. A large number of Italian immigrants were questioned but eventually the authorities decided to charge Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco with the murders. Although the two men did not have criminal records, it was argued that they had committed the robbery to acquire funds for their anarchist political campaign.
The trial started on 21st May, 1921. The main evidence against the men was that they were both carrying a gun when arrested. Some people who saw the crime taking place identified Vanzetti and Sacco as the robbers. Others disagreed and both men had good alibis. Vanzetti was selling fish in Plymouth while Sacco was in Boston with his wife having his photograph taken. The prosecution made a great deal of the fact that all those called to provide evidence to support these alibis were Italian immigrants.
Vanzetti and Sacco were disadvantaged by not having a full grasp of the English language. Webster Thayer, the judge was clearly prejudiced against anarchists. The previous year, he rebuked a jury for acquitting anarchist Sergie Zuboff of violating the criminal anarchy statute. It was clear from some of the answers Vanzetti and Sacco gave in court that they had misunderstood the question. During the trial the prosecution emphasized the men's radical political beliefs. Vanzetti and Sacco were also accused of unpatriotic behaviour by fleeing to Mexico during the First World War. The trial lasted seven weeks and on 14th July, 1921, both men were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death.
Vanzetti commented in court after the sentence was announced: "The jury were hating us because we were against the war, and the jury don't know that it makes any difference between a man that is against the war because he believes that the war is unjust, because he hate no country, because he is a cosmopolitan, and a man that is against the war because he is in favor of the other country that fights against the country in which he is, and therefore a spy, an enemy, and he commits any crime in the country in which he is in behalf of the other country in order to serve the other country. We are not men of that kind. Nobody can say that we are German spies or spies of any kind... I never committed a crime in my life - I have never stolen and I have never killed and I have never spilt blood, and I have fought against crime, and I have fought and I have sacrificed myself even to eliminate the crimes that the law and the church legitimate and sanctify."
The Sacco and Vanzetti Case received a great deal of publicity. Many observers believed that their conviction resulted from prejudice against them as Italian immigrants and because they held radical political beliefs. The case resulted in anti-US demonstrations in several European countries and at one of these in Paris, a bomb exploded killing twenty people.
In 1925 Celestino Madeiros, a Portuguese immigrant, confessed to being a member of the gang that killed Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli. He also named the four other men, Joe, Fred, Pasquale and Mike Morelli, who had taken part in the robbery. The Morelli brothers were well-known criminals who had carried out similar robberies in area of Massachusetts. However, the authorities refused to investigate the confession made by Madeiros.
Many leading writers and artists such as John Dos Passos, Alice Hamilton, Paul Kellog, Jane Addams,Upton Sinclair, Dorothy Parker, Ben Shahn, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Howard Lawson, Floyd Dell,George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells became involved in a campaign to obtain a retrial. Although Webster Thayer, the original judge, was officially criticised for his conduct at the trial, the authorities refused to overrule the decision to execute the men.
By the summer of 1927 it became clear that Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti would be executed. Vanzetti commented to a journalist: "If it had not been for this thing, I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life can we hope to do such work for tolerance, justice, for man's understanding of man, as now we do by accident. Our words - our lives - our pains - nothing! The taking of our lives - lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler - all! That last moment belong to us - that agony is our triumph. On 23rd August 1927, the day of execution, over 250,000 people took part in a silent demonstration in Boston.
Fifty years later, on 23rd August, 1977, Michael Dukakis, the Governor of Massachusetts, issued a proclamation, effectively absolving the two men of the crime. "Today is the Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Memorial Day. The atmosphere of their trial and appeals were permeated by prejudice against foreigners and hostility toward unorthodox political views. The conduct of many of the officials involved in the case shed serious doubt on their willingness and ability to conduct the prosecution and trial fairly and impartially. Simple decency and compassion, as well as respect for truth and an enduring commitment to our nation's highest ideals, require that the fate of Sacco and Vanzetti be pondered by all who cherish tolerance, justice and human understanding."
(1) Bartolomeo Vanzetti, letter to Governor Alvan Fuller, Governor of Massachusetts (28th 1927)
Now, Governor Fuller, you have told me that almost all those who have seen me and say to have seen me have identified me. Now to show you that only such people as witnessed the crime or the passing of the bandits, or something relating to it, I will tell how Bowles did identify me. For three or four consecutive days he brought with company trucks gangs of people from Bridgewater to identify us at the Brockton Police station, hundreds and hundreds of people. You have no idea how many people were brought to identify us by Bowles and others. I remember in the crowd a Chinaman, Japanese, Salvation Army people, Negroes, and people of every kind and class, even children. Even suppose that only a third of them came from Bridgewater. You see that there are a thousand or hundreds of people in a condition to see the crime or the bandits, and out of these several hundred only one or two persons said that they seen me and all the others deny it squarely. Out of the five or six witnesses that perjured voluntarily against me, only one or two have come to identify me when they come together with these hundreds of people. And one of these is Mrs. Georgina Brooks, and I am told she is half blind.
But not to make too long a story, I will also submit to you that these witnesses from Bridgewater came all together on the corridor at the trial, which was for them a real picnic. They laugh and jeer at the Italians that were there, and myself, and there was a clique of them to create a hostile atmosphere in the court against the general sympathy that I have by all the people who know me.
Of course your Excellency cannot expect that any of the jury will admit to you that they made a mistake, or that any witnesses for the Government will now come forward and throw doubt on their own testimony.
Just think of convicting a foreigner on the testimony of a boy who said he can tell a man is an Italian from the way he runs, or what nationality he is by the way he runs. Would that testimony convict an American before an American jury? He said that he identified me; he pointed to me and said, "The man in the booth," with all the despisement at his command, in order to impress the jury against me.
(2) Bartolomeo Vanzetti, statement to court after being sentenced to death (9th April, 1927)
What I say is that I am innocent. Everybody that knows these two arms knows very well that I did not need to go into the streets and kill a man or try to take money. I can live by my two hands and live well. But besides that, I can live even without work with my hands for other people. I have had plenty of chance to live independently and to live what the world conceives to be a higher life than to gain our bread with the sweat of our brow.
My father in Italy is in a good condition. I could have come back in Italy and he would have welcomed me every time with open arms. Even if I come back there with not a cent in my pocket, my father could have give me a position, not to work but to make business, or to oversee upon the land that he owns. He has wrote me many letters in that sense, and as another well-to-do relative has wrote me letters in that sense that I can produce.
Now, I should say that I am not only innocent of all these things, not only have I never committed a real crime in my life - though some sins but not crimes - not only have I struggled all my life to eliminate crimes, the crimes that the official law and the moral law condemns, but also the crime that the moral law and the official law sanction and sanctify, the exploitation and the oppression of the man by the man.
There is the best man I ever cast my eyes upon since I lived, a man that will last and will grow always more near to and more dear to the heart of the people, so long as admiration for goodness, for virtues, and for sacrifice will last. I mean Eugene Victor Debs. He has said that not even a dog that kills chickens would have found an American jury disposed to convict it with the proof that the Commonwealth has produced against us. That man was not with me in Plymouth or with Sacco where he was on the day of the crime. You can say that it is arbitrary, what we are saying from him, that he is good and he applied to the other his goodness, that he is incapable of crime, and he believed that everybody is incapable of crime.
He knew, and not only he knew, but every man of understanding in the world, not only in this country but also in other countries, men to whom we have provided a certain amount of the records of the case at times, they all know and still stick with us, the flower of mankind of Europe, the better writers, the greatest thinkers of Europe, have pleaded in our favor. The scientists, the greatest scientists, the greatest statesmen of Europe, have pleaded in our favor.
Is it possible that only a few, a handful of men of the jury, only two or three other men, who would shame their mother for worldly honor and for earthly fortune; is it possible that they are right against what the world, for the whole world has said that it is wrong and I know that it is wrong? If there is one that should know it, if it is right or if it is wrong, it is I and this man. You see it is seven years that we are in jail. What we have suffered during these seven years no human tongue can say, and yet you see me before you, not trembling, you see me looking you in your eyes straight, not blushing, not changing color, not ashamed or in fear.
We were tried during a time whose character has now passed into history. I mean by that, a time when there was a hysteria of resentment and hate against the people of our principles, against the foreigner, against slackers, and it seems to me - rather, I am positive of it, that both you and Mr. Katzmann have done all what it were in your power in order to work out, in order to agitate still more the passion of the juror, the prejudice of the juror, against us.
The jury were hating us because we were against the war, and the jury don't know that it makes any difference between a man that is against the war because he believes that the war is unjust, because he hate no country, because he is a cosmopolitan, and a man that is against the war because he is in favor of the other country that fights against the country in which he is, and therefore a spy, an enemy, and he commits any crime in the country in which he is in behalf of the other country in order to serve the other country. We are not men of that kind. Nobody can say that we are German spies or spies of any kind.
We believe more now than ever that the war was wrong, and we are against war more now than ever, and I am glad to be on the doomed scaffold if I can say to mankind, "Look out; you are in a catacomb of the flower of mankind. For what? All that they say to you, all that they have promised to you - it was a lie, it was an illusion, it was a cheat, it was a fraud, it was a crime. They promised you liberty. Where is liberty? They promised you prosperity. Where is prosperity?
I never committed a crime in my life - I have never stolen and I have never killed and I have never spilt blood, and I have fought against crime, and I have fought and I have sacrificed myself even to eliminate the crimes that the law and the church legitimate and sanctify.
This is what I say: I would not wish to a dog or to a snake, to the most low and misfortunate creature of the earth - I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian; I have suffered more for my family and for my beloved than for myself; but I am so convinced to be right that you can only kill me once but if you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already.
(3) Bartolomeo Vanzetti, comment to a reporter before his execution (1927)
If it had not been for this thing, I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life can we hope to do such work for tolerance, justice, for man's understanding of man, as now we do by accident. Our words - our lives - our pains - nothing! The taking of our lives - lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler - all! That last moment belong to us - that agony is our triumph.
(4) Edna St. Vincent Millay, Justice Denied in Massachusetts (1927)
Let us abandon then our gardens and go home
And sit in the sitting-room.
Shall the larkspur blossom or the corn grow under the cloud?
Sour to the fruitful seed
Is the cold earth under this cloud,
Fostering quack and weed, we have marched upon but cannot conquer;
We have bent the blades of our hoes against the stalks of them.
Let us go home, and sit in the sitting-room.
Not in our day
Shall the cloud go over and the sun rise as before,
Beneficent upon us
Out of the glittering bay,
And the warm winds be blown inward from the sea
Moving the blades of corn
With a peaceful sound.
Forlorn, forlorn,
Stands the blue hay-rack by the empty mow.
And the petals drop to the ground,
Leaving the tree unfruited.
The sun that warmed our stooping backs and withered the weed uprooted -
We shall not feel it again.
We shall die in darkness, and be buried in the rain.
What from the splendid dead
We have inherited -
Furrows sweet to the grain, and the weed subdued -
See now the slug and the mildew plunder.
Evil does not overwhelm
The larkspur and the corn;
We have seen them go under.
Let us sit here, sit still,
Here in the sitting-room until we die;
At the step of Death on the walk, rise and go;
Leaving to our children's children this beautiful doorway,
And this elm,
And a blighted earth to till
With a broken hoe.
Nicola Sacco
Nicola Sacco había nacido en la italiana ciudad de Torremaggiore el 22 de abril de 1891. Emigró a los Estados Unidos cuando tenía diecisiete años.
Sacco encontró trabajo en una fábrica de zapatos en Stoughton ,Massachusetts . Se casó y formó una familia. Sacco también se involucró en la política de izquierda y en un anarquista encuentro reunió Bartolomeo Vanzetti , un italiano inmigrante a trabajar como vendedor ambulante de pescado en Plymouth . Los dos hombres se hicieron amigos y con frecuencia asistió a las reuniones políticas mismos grupos.
Al igual que muchos radicales de izquierda, Sacco y Vanzetti se opusieron a la Primera Guerra Mundial . Ellos tomaron parte en manifestaciones de protesta y en 1917, cuando Estados Unidos entró en la guerra, huyeron juntos a México con el fin de evitar ser reclutado en el Ejército de los Estados Unidos . Cuando la guerra terminó, los dos hombres regresaron a los Estados Unidos.
El 5 de mayo de 1920, Sacco y Bartolomeo Vanzetti fueron arrestados y fueron entrevistados sobre los asesinatos de Frederick Parmenter y Berardelli Alessandro, en South Braintree . Los hombres habían sido asesinados en el ejercicio de dos cajas que contienen la nómina de una fábrica de zapatos. Después de Parmenter y Berardelli fueron muertos a tiros, los dos ladrones se llevaron los $ 15.000 y se metió en un coche que contiene varios otros hombres, y se los llevaron.
Varios testigos afirmaron que los ladrones parecía italiano. Un gran número de inmigrantes italianos fueron interrogados, pero finalmente las autoridades decidieron cobrar Sacco y Bartolomeo Vanzetti , con los asesinatos. Aunque los dos hombres no tenían antecedentes penales, se argumentó que habían cometido el robo de adquirir fondos para su anarquistas campaña política.
El juicio comenzó el 21 de mayo de 1921. La principal evidencia en contra de los hombres fue que los dos estaban con una pistola cuando fue detenido. Algunas personas que vieron el crimen que tiene lugar identificado Vanzetti y Sacco, como los ladrones. Otros no estaban de acuerdo y los dos hombres tenían coartadas buenas. Vanzetti vendía pescado en Plymouth , mientras que Sacco se encontraba en Bostoncon su esposa tener su fotografía tomada. La fiscalía hizo una gran parte del hecho de que todos los llamados a presentar pruebas que respalden estas coartadas eran inmigrantes italianos .
Vanzetti y Sacco estaban en desventaja por no tener un conocimiento completo del idioma Inglés. Webster Thayer , el juez tenía prejuicios claramente en contra de los anarquistas. El año anterior, reprendió a un jurado para absolver anarquista Sergie Zuboff de violar el estatuto de anarquía criminal. Quedó claro en algunas de las respuestas Vanzetti y Sacco dieron ante el tribunal que había entendido mal la pregunta.Durante el juicio el fiscal hizo hincapié en las creencias de los hombres políticos radicales. Vanzetti y Sacco fueron acusados también de la conducta antipatriótica huyendo a México durante la Primera Guerra Mundial .
En el juicio de Sacco dijo: "Sé que la sentencia será entre dos clases, la clase oprimida y la clase rica, y siempre habrá colisión entre uno y otro nos confraternizar a la gente con los libros, con la literatura tú persigues.. las personas, los tiranizan y los matará. Nosotros tratamos de la educación de la gente siempre. Intenta poner un camino entre nosotros y de alguna otra nacionalidad que odia a los demás. Es por eso que estoy aquí hoy en este banco, por haber sido de la clase oprimida. Bueno, tú eres el opresor ". El juicio duró siete semanas y el 14 de julio de 1921, ambos hombres fueron declarados culpables de asesinato en primer grado y sentenciado a muerte.
El caso de Sacco y Vanzetti recibió una gran cantidad de publicidad. Muchos observadores creyeron que su convicción como resultado de los prejuicios en contra de ellos como inmigrantes italianos y porque tenían convicciones políticas radicales. El caso dio lugar a manifestaciones antiestadounidenses en varios países europeos y en uno de ellos en París , una bomba explotó matando a veinte personas.
En 1925, Celestino Madeiros , un portugués de inmigrantes, confesó ser un miembro de la banda que mató a Federico Parmenter y Berardelli Alessandro. También nombró a los otros cuatro hombres, Joe, Fred, Pasquale y Morelli Mike, que habían participado en el robo. Los hermanos Morelli eran conocidos delincuentes que habían llevado a cabo robos similares en el área de Massachusetts . Sin embargo, las autoridades se negaron a investigar la confesión de Madeiros.
Muchos escritores y artistas como John Dos Passos , Alice Hamilton , Kellog Pablo , Jane Addams , Upton Sinclair , Dorothy Parker , Ben Shahn , Edna St. Vincent Millay , John Howard Lawson , Floyd Dell , George Bernard Shaw y HG Wells llegó a estar implicado en una campaña para obtener un nuevo juicio. A pesar deWebster Thayer , el juez original, fue oficialmente criticado por su conducta en el juicio, las autoridades se negaron a hacer caso omiso de la decisión de ejecutar a los hombres.
En el verano de 1927 se hizo evidente que Sacco y Bartolomeo Vanzetti sería ejecutado. Vanzetti comentó a un periodista: "Si no hubiera sido por esto, que podrían haber vivido mi vida hablando en las esquinas a los hombres, despreciando yo pudiera haber muerto, sin marca, sin saberlo, un fracaso Ahora no somos un fracaso... . Esta es nuestra carrera y nuestro triunfo Nunca en nuestra vida completa se puede esperar a realizar los trabajos para la tolerancia, la justicia, para la comprensión del hombre por el hombre, como ahora lo hacemos por accidente Nuestras palabras -. nuestras vidas - nuestros dolores - nada El! la toma de nuestras vidas, las vidas de un buen zapatero y un pobre vendedor de pescado - todo Ese último momento nos pertenece -. esa agonía es nuestro triunfo, el 23 de agosto de 1927, el día de la ejecución, más de 250.000 personas participaron en una manifestación silenciosa en Boston .
Cincuenta años después, el 23 de agosto de 1977, Michael Dukakis , el gobernador de Massachusetts , emitió una proclama, efectivamente absolver a los dos hombres de la delincuencia. "Hoy es el Sacco Nicola y Bartolomeo Vanzetti Día de los Caídos. La atmósfera de su juicio y las apelaciones están impregnados por los prejuicios contra los extranjeros y la hostilidad hacia el poco ortodoxas opiniones políticas. La conducta de muchos de los funcionarios involucrados en el caso de arrojar serias dudas sobre su voluntad y capacidad para llevar a cabo el procesamiento y juicio justo e imparcial. simple decencia y compasión, así como el respeto por la verdad y un compromiso permanente con los más altos ideales de nuestra nación, requieren que el destino de Sacco y Vanzetti ser consideradas por todos los que aman la tolerancia, la justicia y el entendimiento humano ".
(1) Nicola Sacco, la declaración a la corte después de ser condenado a muerte (09 de abril 1927)
No soy un orador. No es muy familiar conmigo el idioma Inglés, y que yo sé, como mi amigo me ha dicho, mi compañero Vanzetti hablará más largo, así que pensé que le diera la oportunidad.
Yo nunca supe, nunca más se supo, incluso leer en nada la historia tan cruel como este Tribunal. Después de siete años fiscales que todavía nos consideran culpables. Y estas personas están dispuestas suaves aquí con nosotros en este tribunal hoy.
Sé que la sentencia será entre dos clases, la clase oprimida y la clase rica, y siempre habrá colisión entre uno y otro. Nos confraternizar a la gente con los libros, con la literatura. Usted perseguir a la gente, los tiranizan y los matará. Nosotros tratamos de la educación de la gente siempre. Intenta poner un camino entre nosotros y de alguna otra nacionalidad que odia a los demás. Es por eso que estoy aquí hoy en este banco, por haber sido de la clase oprimida. Bueno, usted es el opresor.
Tú lo sabes, el juez Thayer - usted sabe toda mi vida, ¿sabes por qué he estado aquí, y después de siete años que ha estado persiguiendo a mí ya mi pobre esposa, y todavía hoy nos condena a la muerte. Me gustaría decirle a toda mi vida, pero ¿de qué sirve? Usted sabe todo acerca de lo que digo antes, es decir, mi compañero, va a hablar, porque está más familiarizado con el idioma, y le daré una oportunidad.
Te olvidas de todo esto la población que ha estado con nosotros desde hace siete años, a simpatizar y nos dan toda su energía y toda su bondad. No me importa para ellos. Entre los que los pueblos y los compañeros y la clase obrera hay una legión grande de personas intelectuales que han estado con nosotros desde hace siete años, para no comprometer a la inicua sentencia, pero aún así la Corte sigue adelante. Y quiero agradecer a todos ustedes, que los pueblos, a mis compañeros que me han acompañado durante siete años, con el caso de Sacco y Vanzetti, y daré a mi amigo una oportunidad.
(2) Bartolomeo Vanzetti , los comentarios acerca de Nicola Sacco (09 de abril 1927)
Sacco es un trabajador desde su infancia, un amante experto en la materia de trabajo, con un buen trabajo y sueldo, una cuenta bancaria, una buena esposa y encantadora, dos hermosos hijos y un hogar pequeño y limpio en el borde de un bosque, cerca de un arroyo . Sacco es un corazón, una fe, un carácter, un hombre, un amante de la naturaleza del hombre y de la humanidad. Un hombre que lo dio todo, que sacrifica todo a la causa de la libertad y de su amor por la humanidad, el dinero, el descanso, las ambiciones mundanas, su propia esposa, sus hijos, a sí mismo ya su propia vida. Sacco no ha soñado que robar, no asesinar. Él y yo nunca he traído un pedazo de pan a la boca, desde la infancia hasta la actualidad - que no se ha ganado con el sudor de nuestras frentes. Nunca. Su pueblo también se encuentran en buena posición y de buena reputación.
Oh, sí, puede ser más witfull, como algunos lo han puesto, yo soy un charlatán mejor que él, pero muchas, muchas veces en escuchar su voz de timbre corazón lleno de una fe sublime, al considerar su sacrificio supremo, recordando su heroísmo me sentía pequeño pequeño en presencia de su grandeza y me encontré obligado a luchar por mis ojos las lágrimas, y saciar mi corazón molestando a mi garganta para no llorar delante de él - este hombre llamado ladrón y asesino y condenado. Pero el nombre de Sacco vivirá en los corazones de la gente y en su gratitud cuando Katzmann y los huesos de los suyos se dispersa por el tiempo, cuando su nombre, su nombre, sus leyes, instituciones, y su dios falso, sino una estimen recuerdo de una maldición pasado en el que el hombre era lobo para el hombre.
(3) Michael Dukakis , gobernador de Massachusetts, la proclamación en el caso de Sacco y Vanzetti (23 de agosto de 1977)
Hoy es el Sacco Nicola y Bartolomeo Vanzetti Memorial Day. La atmósfera de su juicio y las apelaciones están impregnados por los prejuicios contra los extranjeros y hostilidad hacia los no ortodoxos puntos de vista políticos. La conducta de muchos de los funcionarios involucrados en el caso de arrojar serias dudas sobre su voluntad y capacidad para llevar a cabo el procesamiento y juicio justo e imparcial. La decencia y la compasión, así como el respeto por la verdad y un compromiso permanente con los más altos ideales de nuestra nación, requieren que el destino de Sacco y Vanzetti ser consideradas por todos los que aman la tolerancia, la justicia y el entendimiento humano.
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