Chapter 10: Sacco and Vanzetti Summary and Analysis

Chapter 10 looks at the high-profile case of two Italian immigrants named Niccola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In April 1920, two men attacked a messenger carrying a large amount of cash while he walked along a sidewalk in Braintree, Massachusetts. The messenger and his assistant were both shot dead and the bandits fled. Police suspected an Italian anarchist named Mike Boda was involved in the plot and began watching him. They eventually arrested two of Boda's associates, Sacco and Vanzetti, when they arrived to pick up a car that Boda had left at a repair shop. Sacco and Vanzetti attempted to flee the police, raising their suspicion that the two men were guilty of the robbery and killings.

No direct evidence tied the men to the crime. Ballistics evidence was inconclusive. The men did not match the...