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Nicola Sacco was born in Torremaggiore, Italy in 1891. Sacco was one of the five million Italians who immigrated to the United States between the 1880s and the 1920s. Nicola Sacco learned the trade of a shoemaker and he was very skilled. In 1913, Nicola married Rosina Zambelli and their children were Dante and Ines.

Grippo, Theodore W. With Malice Aforethought: The Execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Bloomington, IN: IUniverse, 2011. Print.

Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born in Villafalletto, Italy in 1888. He had two sisters and one brother. He immigrated to America in 1908. Vanzetti was a thinker and a reader. He struggled to keep a job and was a fish peddler at the time of his arrest.

Grippo, Theodore W. With Malice Aforethought: The Execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Bloomington, IN: IUniverse, 2011. Print.

In the early 1900s, the highest number of immigrants were Italians. Many native Americans were not pleased with so many people emigrating from Italy, especially southern Italy from where Sacco and Vanzetti came. Many immigrant workers were unhappy with the working conditions and the government in America and they formed labor unions to protest against what they thought was unfair. Many were anarchists.

Rappaport, Doreen. The Sacco-Vanzetti Trial. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1992. Print.

Anarchism is the belief that the laws and power of government should be replaced by people working together freely.

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2006. Print.

Sacco and Sacco and Vanzetti belonged to a group of anarchists that was being investigated by the federal government because the group believed that the government needed to be overthrown for there to be true equality in the United States. Many believe that it is Sacco’s and Vanzetti’s connections to this group that led to one of the most controversial trials of the century. Rappaport, Doreen. The Sacco-Vanzetti Trial. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1992. Print.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, on April 15,1920, a paymaster and his guard were carrying a factory payroll of $15,776 through the main street of South Braintree, Massachusetts. A couple of men who were standing near a fence suddenly pulled out guns and fired on them. The gunmen snatched up the cash boxes dropped by the paymaster and the guard and jumped into a waiting automobile and got away. Both the paymaster and the guard were dead.

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html

On May 5, 1920, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested for the robbery and murders in Braintree and an attempted robbery in Bridgewater, also a suburb of Massachusetts.

“A year later, a jury convicted Sacco and Vanzetti of murder during a period of anti-communist hysteria in America. They were executed after six years of failed appeals, despite proven misconduct by prosecutors and the judge and the testimony of a confessed participant in the crime who swore that the two Italians were not involved. Worldwide protests erupted. Millions claimed the two were framed and executed for their political beliefs” (Cover)

Grippo, Theodore W. With Malice Aforethought: The Execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

Bloomington, IN: IUniverse, 2011. Print.

View the video clips to learn more about the Case of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Primary Source Video http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=215473

Video Trailer for DocumentaryFilms.com http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1471239/sacco_and_vanzetti/

“Here’s to You” by Ennis Morricone and Joan Baez http://www.metrolyrics.com/ballad-of-sacco-and-vanzetti-pt-2-video-joan-baez.html

The Travel Channel: Key Piece of Evidence http://www.travelchannel.com/video/sacco-and-vanzetti-innocent