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HISTORY


A new music piece about Sacco and Vanzetti: The Italian Years by Mary Ellen Melnick

03/06/2014 - What I would hope the listeners would get out of this composition is the feeling of these men's convictions, their strength and absolute bravery. Their dedication to their beliefs and their humbleness and great wisdom and struggle for equality for the working man must ring in our ears forever, and I can only hope this music and the recurring themes will begin to haunt the listener so that they are inspired to read about these men and think more about how much their lives and deaths contributed to the common good. Composing is not about me at all. It is about the subject matter and emotion and the love of sound.

To listen to a clip of the piece click here.

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District Attorney Katzmann: Interview by David Whelpley with Frederick Pope

Ocala, Florida. September 23, 2011. Edited by Jerry Kaplan.

This audio interview concerns the life and times of Frederick Gunn Katzmann; the District Attorney (and later appointed special assistant District Attorney) for Norfolk County during the Sacco and Vanzetti Case. Frederick Pope, the interviewee, is Katzmann's last surviving relative to remember Katzmann personally. The conductor of the interview, David Whelpley, is a direct descendant of both Katzmann and Pope.

To listen to the interview (mp3) click here.




La Marcia del Dolore / The March of Sorrow
The Funeral of Sacco and Vanzetti

Today various versions of film footage that show the funeral of Sacco and Vanzetti can be easily found on the internet. Practically all owe their origin to a single source, the silent film originally titled, "The Good Shoemaker and the Poor Fishpeddler." (It should be noted that this phrase is commonly attributed to Vanzetti and is often used to identify the two men. But it should be emphatically noted that it was never said or used by Vanzetti and that it critically mischaracterizes the two men -Sacco was a very skilled shoe worker: not a shoe maker; Vanzetti sold fish for less than 6 months of his life.) ...

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The Sacco and Vanzetti Funeral Footage in Chronological Order

Not one of the many versions of the Sacco and Vanzetti funeral footage found on the internet appears in its correct chronological order. That the sequence in which the shots appear is not quite right is apparent from even a casual viewing of the film. Additionally, while a number of shots are out of sequence, others are repeated in ways that make little sense. Both the order and repetition of the shots that make up the funeral footage can be attributed to their having been taken from same source which spliced together surviving footage from two copies of the original, but badly deteriorated, film.

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Interview with Theodore Grippo, author of the book "With Malice Aforethought, The Execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti"

24/07/2012 - "When I was ten years old, I asked my father about Sacco and Vanzetti. I had heard their names, probably on the radio, in connection with the tenth anniversary of their executions. I still remember the look on my father's face as he explained that Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti had been sentenced to death for robbery and murder, but many believed they were innocent. My father spoke emotionally of the beautiful letters Sacco wrote to his children just before he was executed, and of Vanzetti's kind nature and brilliant mind. I believe that my father, an Italian immigrant shoemaker, identified with Sacco, an Italian immigrant shoe trimmer. My father's expression and tone denoted sadness marked with a fear I could not then understand. I later learned he felt threatened by the ill will many Americans displayed toward Italians as a result of that case."

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Monument in the North End against intolerance, prejudice and hatred

The Metro Boston Edition of December 6, 2010 on its front page includes the headlines: "North End memorial to murder? - Group trying to erect a plaque to two men convicted in the '20s. - Sacco and Venzetti (sp) case is infamous". Then on the full page of a small article the reporter, Justin Rice, continues the stereotypes via a sub-heading: "- Group of anarchists trying to memorialize convicted killers in the North End".

The facts are that Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti indeed where convicted for the killing of Parmenter and Berardelli in a robbery in Braintree, but then and now virtually the entire world doubted that they were the real killers in the case. Historical consensus indicates that instead they were executed because they were anarchists and Italian immigrants. Prejudice and judicial manipulation were in the end their executioners.

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2007: Historical Marker to Sacco and Vanzetti Rededicated in the North End of Boston

02/12/2007 - Nearly 40 people braved the Boston cold on Saturday, December 1st. 2007, to unveil and rededicate a historical marker for Sacco and Vanzetti in the North End. The plaque was reinstalled at 256 Hanover Street, the place where the Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee functioned from 1925 to 1927. An original plaque had been installed there in 1976, during the bicentennial of the U.S. independence, as part of the Freedom Trail. Early in the 80s, however, the plaque disappeared. The Sacco and Vanzetti Society formed this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti decided to correct this situation and now there is a new plaque in place with the original wording and marking as it was in 1976.

To view video of the event in YouTube click here.

Pictured is Jake Carman from the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement

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