I am doing my presentation on Sacco and Vanzetti Thursday. I'd like to give you a bit of background on who they are and their situation to help situate the letters. I was not able to make it to the library today to set aside the specific letters to look at, but they will definitely be ready before class tomorrow (Tuesday). If all you get a chance to look at is the letter that Dr. Irmscher put online, that is absolutely fine. (iu.box.com/vanzetti).
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists that lived in Boston, MA. They were both convicted of murder in 1920 for killing two men during the robbery of a factory in Braintree, MA. They had two trials, and were both executed on August 23, 1927 after serving 7 years in prison. Another man, Celestino Medeiros, confessed to the murders, the robbery and that neither Sacco nor Vanzetti were present, but this did nothing to halt their execution. For this reason, among others, the case is still officially open. There is still much controversy surrounding the Sacco and Vanzetti case, so the bulk of information can be rather dense and confusing. If you are interested in the timeline of events, this is a chronology that someone at the University of Missouri made: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/chronology.html
An important aspect of this case is the fact that both Sacco and Vanzetti were ardent and active anarchists. Here is an article on the type of anarchism specific to Sacco and Vanzetti, if you are interested. It is fairly long, so I won't ask you to read it unless you really want to. (I will also talk more about their anarchism in class)
A major issue that these letters bring up is censorship. The letters were published in 1928 by the Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee. A lot of letters were completely omitted, and many of the ones included in the publication were corrected, paragraphs were omitted, and things were changed-- including the letter that is posted on the course site. I'd like to ask you to think about why they might have done this and what repercussions such actions may have. (I will have a copy of the published version of the letters in class on Thursday as well).
This is such a great archive. It seems worth mentioning (since the chronology doesn't) that poor Medeiros was the first to be electrocuted on that awful day. No one remembers him anymore, but see http://www.daleyhistory.com/Lectures/Sacco-Vanzetti/Med.html
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