Sacco and Vanzetti - a Cause Célèbre

By luigi_pagano

Thu, 03 Apr 2014
  • 1717 reads
6 comments
 

On April the 15th Nineteen-twenty
a robbery and a murder took place.
Two payroll guards were shot;
of the killers there was no  trace.

A hunt for the culprits was started,
foreign-born radicals were sought;
in the frantic mêlée that followed
Sacco and Vanzetti were caught.

Anarchy was gaining ground,
the whole nation was alarmed;
the two adherents were stopped
and found to be well armed.

The authorities knew them well
for their anarchic, extreme views,
for urging indiscriminate violence,
and for having a very short fuse.

They spoke the language badly,
and came from peasant stock;
were arrested, tried and convicted:
the public was numb with shock.

The trials did prove to be farcical,
the verdict that was rendered, unfair.
The judge and the jury were biased,
it was the chair for the hapless pair.

© Luigi Pagano 2014

Certificate U
Poem
Mutevoli pensieri
Other Non-fiction
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

It is an interesting summary, and made me look up the details of the case. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

The wole case is much more involved and interesting but I had to condense the facts to put them into a poem. Thanks very much for your comment, Rhiannon.

Luigi

 

Submitted by Bee on

Really well done, Luigi. 

Bee

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thanks Bee.

Luigi

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Two men who deserve to be remembered. Joan Baez sings a song based on Sacco's letter home 'My mother dear I am a prisoner... and only silence is shame.' The men were innocent Italian anarchists, they went to meetings to discuss what was wrong with society and how to build a better one. Vanzetti worked as a fish pedlar and used to hand out political leaflets to his customers.

Murder, well that was bad but robbery was the offence that really rattled USA law and order. Robbery is an onslaught on capitalism and might encourage more robbery if justice is not seen to be done immediately. And so two innocent men were put to death.     Elsie

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

I see that you are well informed on this infamous affair, Elsie. In 1977 Massachusset 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. They were never pardoned because to do so would imply that they were guilty. Woody Guthrie also wrote a set of Sacco an Vanzetti ballads.

Kind regards, Luigi