The Case That Will Not Die. Commonwealth vs. Sacco and Vanzetti

London: W.H. Allen. 1970. Large octavo size [16x24cm approx]. Very Good condition in Very Good Dustjacket. DJ has some minor wear and is now protected in our purpose-made clear archival plastic sleeve. A nice copy. DJ very lightly rubbed. Illustrated with Black and White Photographs. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels. 576 pages. Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during the armed robbery of a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts, USA in 1920. Both were sentenced to death in April 1927. Responding to a massive influx of telegrams urging their pardon, Massachusetts governor Alvan Fuller appointed a three-man commission to investigate the case. But after weeks of secret deliberation, which included interviews with the judge, lawyers, and several witnesses, the commission upheld the verdict. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair on August 23, 1927. Since their deaths, a consensus of critical opinion has concluded that the two men were convicted largely because of their anarchist political beliefs and unjustly executed. Investigations of the case continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The publication of the men's letters, containing eloquent professions of innocence, intensified belief in their wrongful execution. Additional ballistics tests and incriminating statements by the men's acquaintances have clouded the case. In 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried and convicted and that "any disgrace should be forever removed from their names." The case is still officially open. . 1st Edition. Hardback.