The Sacco & Vanzetti Trial: A Chronology

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June 11, 1888	Bartolomeo Vanzetti is born in Villafalletto in northern Italy.
April 22, 1891	Nicola (nee Ferdinando) Sacco is born in Torremaggiore in southern Italy.
April 1908	Sacco and his brother Sabino emigrate to the United States.
June 1908	Bartolomeo Vanzetti emigrates to the United States.
May 1917	Vanzetti and Sacco meet in Boston at a meeting of Galleanist Anarchists. One week later they depart for Mexico with other Italian anarchists to avoid conscription.
September 1917	Sacco and Vanzetti return to the United States.
Feb. 22, 1918	At the height of the Red Scare, the office of the Cronaca Sovversiva, an anarchist newspaper both Sacco and Vanzetti had written for and donated money to, is raided. The names Sacco and Vanzetti are for the first time linked by officials to anarchist activities.
February 1919	“Go-Head!” --a circular attributed to “The American Anarchists”-- appears throughout New England. In it, the American Anarchists, presumably the Italian-American Anarchists, threaten to “dynamite” officials in retaliation for the ongoing deportations and repression the anarchists are enduring.
April 28, 1919	A bomb plot is discovered. The plot involved sending over 30 dynamite bombs to persons on the anarchists' enemies list, including A. Mitchell Palmer, the U.S. Attorney General, J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (who one year later would become the first commissioner of baseball).
June 2, 1919	In another round of bombings Carlo Valdinoci (who had been in Mexico with Sacco and Vanzetti two years earlier) blows himself up outside the home of Attorney General Palmer. Sacco and Vanzetti are rumored to have taken part in the bombing.
November 1919	The Justice Department begins rounding up anarchists.
Dec. 24, 1919	Four men attempt to rob the payroll of the L.Q. White Shoe Company in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. One, later known as the “shotgun bandit,” fires at the moving payroll truck. They are unsuccessful and no one is hurt. The would-be bandits escaped.
Early 1920	Sacco and Vanzetti consider returning to Italy.
March 8, 1920	Roberto Elia and Andrea Salsedo, anarchists who worked for the Cronaca Sovversiva, are taken into custody by the Department of Justice without a warrant or being arrested. They are beaten until they agree to inform on their fellow anarchists.
April 15, 1920	In South Braintree, Massachusetts, two men armed with handguns shoot and kill Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli, employees of the Slater & Morrill Shoe Company. The thieves rob the men of the $15,776.51 payroll they were carrying. The thieves are picked up by a car carrying other men.
April 16, 1920	Ferruccio Coacci, an Italian anarchist who was to be in East Boston to be deported the day before, tells Bureau of Immigration Inspector O. L. Root that he did not report as scheduled because his wife was sick and he needed a few days to take care of her. Suspicious, Root asks Michael E. Stewart, Bridgewater chief of police, to look into Coacci’s story. Stewart had patrolman Frank LeBaron accompany Root to talk to Coacci. When they arrive at Coacci’s, they find Coacci’s wife in fine health and Coacci packing a suitcase and insisting on leaving immediately. He was taken to the immigration station and left for Italy two days later....Stewart will later conclude that both of the South Braintree hold-ups done by the same group of Italians, Coacci being one of them.
April 17, 1920	The car used by the South Braintree bandits, a stolen Buick, is discovered two miles from Coacci and Buda’s home.
April 20, 1920	Stewart goes to Coacci’s former home and talks to Mario Boda. Boda claims he is a salesman and that his car is being repaired at the Elm Square Garage.
April 22, 1920	Stewart talks to Simon Johnson, owner of the Elm Square Garage, and sets a trap for Boda by instructing Johnson to call him when anyone comes for the car.
May 3, 1920	Andrea Salsedo--perhaps acting out of guilt--commits suicide by jumping out of the fourteenth-floor room.
May 3, 1920	Vanzetti takes a train to Sacco’s house.
May 4, 1920	Sacco and Vanzetti learn of their comrade Salsedo’s suicide and become scared they will be found and implicated in a bomb plot. They agree, with Mario Boda and Riccardo Orciani (another anarchist), to meet the following day at the Elm Square Garage in WestBridgewater (where Boda’s car was being repaired) and dispose of incriminating evidence. Sacco goes to Boston to obtain a passport.
May 5, 1920	Sacco and Vanzetti take the streetcar to West Bridgewater and meet Buda and Orciani at the garage. Finding the garage locked, the four go to the house of the owner, Simon Johnson, who advises Boda not to take the car because the license plates had expired. Meanwhile, his wife telephones the police. Boda and Orciani ride off on Orciani’s motorcycle while Sacco and Vanzetti walk to the streetcar to return home. At 10:00 P.M. as the streetcar pulls into Brockton, a policeman boards and arrests Sacco andVanzetti as “[s]uspicious characters.” Both men are armed. Vanzetti is found to have shotgun shells, leading to the authorities’ belief that he was the “shotgun” bandit at Bridgewater. Sacco and Vanzetti lie to police about their politics, their guns, why they were in Bridgewater, and deny knowing Coacci and Buda. They repeat these lies to the District Attorney.
June 11, 1920	Vanzetti--despite having no previous criminal record--is indicted for the Bridgewater hold-up. He is quickly brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to the maximum sentence of 12 to 15 years by Judge Thayer.
Sept. 11, 1920	Sacco and Vanzetti are indicted for the South Braintree murders.
Sept. 16, 1920	Boda detonates a horse-and-buggy bomb at the corner of Wall and Broadstreets in Manhattan causing thirty deaths, over 200 injuries, and $2 million in property damage. The bomb is revenge for the prosecution of Sacco and Vanzetti.
May 31, 1921	Trial begins at Dedham, Massachusetts.
June 3, 1921	After several days of voir dire, only seven jurors have been selected and the entire panel of 500 people exhausted. The Court directs the Sheriff to bring in 200 more potential jurors.
June 4, 1921	The defense challenges the way in which the additional potential jurors were arbitrarily rounded up. Judge Thayer denies the challenge.
June 7, 1921	Assistant Prosecutor, Harold Williams, delivers the opening statement for the State.
June 9, 1921	Eyewitnesses Carrigan, Bostock, and Wade testify that were unable to identify any of the bandits they had seen at the crime. Mary Splaine, a bookkeeper, testifies thatshe saw Sacco leanout of the automobile as it crossed railroad tracks. On cross-examination, Splaine denies saying at the preliminary hearing that she had doubts as to whether she could identify Sacco, though her statement is in the record.
June 10, 1921	Lewis Pelser testifies that Sacco is the “dead image” of the man in the car. Headmits in cross-examination that he earlier told the police that he had not witnessed the robbery and had run away because he was scared.
June 11, 1921	Lola Andrews testifies that she had spoken to a man working under a car in front ofthe shoe factory the day of the robbery and identified Sacco as the man. She denies stating during an interview that a picture of Sacco did not resemble the man she had seen.
June 13, 1921	Vanzetti is identified by Michael LeVangie, the gate-keeper at a railroad crossing, as being the driver of the bandit car.
June 14, 1921	Harry Dolbeare testifies that Vanzetti is the man who was in the back of the get-away car. Two other witnesses, Heron and Tracy, identify Sacco as the man they had seen around East Braintree the day of the robbery.
June 15, 1921	The final identification witness, Goodridge, testifies he had seen Sacco shooting from the car. The defense tries to impeach his testimony by implying a larceny charge had gone unpunished in return for his testimony. Judge Thayer refuses to allow the defense to introduce its impeaching evidence.
June 16, 1921	Testimony is given concerning the finding of a Buick touring car near West Bridgewater. The car is identified as being the car used in the Bridgewater and South Braintree hold-ups.
June 17, 1921	Connolly, the officer who arrested Sacco and Vanzetti on the train, testifies that Sacco and Vanzetti reached for their guns when they were arrested.
June 20, 1921	Employees of the Iver Johnson Company testify that the gun taken from Vanzetti when he was arrested was “of the same kind” as the one left at their store by the victim Berardelli. Sacco’s boss testifies that a cap found at the scene was similar to one Sacco wore.
June 21, 1921	Proctor, a ballistics expert, testifies that shells found at the scene and taken from the bodies of the decedents were “consistent with” having been fired by Sacco’s pistol; it was later challenged that the word “consistent” was used purposely to lead the jury to believe that Sacco’s pistol was the murder weapon without explicitly saying so.
June 22, 1921	The defense begins to present its case.
June 28, 1921	Kurlansky testifies that Mrs. Andrews had once told him she could not identify the defendants but a government agent was forcing her to do so. Defense expert witnesses testify that Sacco’s gun did not fire the bullet that killed Berardelli.
July 5, 1921	Vanzetti takes the stand. He is questioned at length about his political views during cross-examination.
July 6, 1921	Sacco takes the stand. He tries on the cap found at the crime scene, and it did not fit (yet they did not acquit).
July 7, 1921	During cross-examination, Sacco, too, is questioned at length concerning his political views.
July 14, 1921	The case goes to the jury. At 7:30 in the evening the jury returns its verdict: Sacco and Vanzetti are both found guilty of murder in the first degree.
Nov. 8, 1921	The Ripley motion for a new trial is made. The defendants argued that it was reversible error for the the jury foreman, Ripley, to have had brought into the juryroom 38 caliber cartridges, presumably to show the other jurors what they looked like. The defense also produces an affidavit stating that Ripley had responded to a comment that the defendants might not be guilty by saying “They ought to hang anyway.”
May 4, 1922	The Gould and Pelser motions are made. The Gould motion is based on affidavit by Gould, an eyewitness, stating that during the shootout a man who did not look like Sacco or Vanzetti fired at him from the car. The Pelser motion is based on the retraction of Pelser, the witness who said Sacco was the “dead image” of the person who shot Berardelli. Pelser now alleges that Assistant District Attorney Williams persuaded him to make the identification.
July 22, 1922	The Goodridge motion for a new trial is made. It is based on the lack of credibility of prosecution witness Goodridge, a known felon who testified under a false name.
Sept. 11, 1922	The Andrews motion for a new trial is made. It is based upon Mrs. Lola Andrews’ retraction.
April 30, 1923	The Hamilton motion for a new trial is filed. It is based upon criminologist and gun case expert Hamilton who signed an affidavit stating that said the bullets at the scene and in Berardelli did not come from Sacco’s gun.
Nov. 5, 1923	The Proctor motion for a new trial is made. Prosecution expert witness Proctor admitted that the use of the ambiguous phrase “consistent with” was prearranged by the District Attorny to allow the jury to believe he was testifying that Sacco’s gun was the gun that killed Berardelli.
Oct. 1, 1924	Judge Thayer denies all motions for a new trial.
November 1925	Celestino Medeiros, a Portugese convict doing time for murder, allegedly confesses to Sacco that he had been involved in the South Braintree hold-up.
May 12, 1926	The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts upholds Sacco and Vanzetti’s convictions and denies their motion for a new trial.
May 26, 1926	A motion is filed for a new trial based upon Medeiros’ confession and information about the Morelli gang, an Italian gang that robbed freight cars in Providence, R.I. and New Bedford, Mass.
Late May, 1926	Anarchists issue a new call for bombings as a result of the Massachusetts’ Supreme Court decision.
June 1, 1926	A bomb explodes at Samuel Johnson’s home, presumably mistaking him for his brotherSimon (the man whose call led to the arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti).
Sept. 13-17, 1926	The Medeiros motion is argued before Judge Thayer.
Oct. 23, 1926	Judge Thayer denies the Medeiros motion.
Jan. 27-28, 1927	Appeal from the denial of Medeiros motion argued before the Supreme Judicial Court.
April 7, 1927	The denial of the Medeiros motion is affirmed.
July 28, 1927	After being interviewed for several hours by Governor Fuller, Vanzetti writes a letter to the Governor providing more complete answers to the Governor's questions and pleading for the Governor to stop the scheduled executions.
Aug. 3, 1927	Gov. Fuller announces that he will not intervene to stop the scheduled executions.
Aug. 23, 1927	Sacco and Vanzetti are electrocuted.
Sept. 27, 1932	Judge Thayer’s house is bombed (presumably for his role in the Sacco and Vanzetticase).
Aug. 23, 1977	Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis proclaims "Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Day" on the fiftieth anniversary of their death

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