The Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti

On April 15, 1920, a guard and a paymaster were killed while delivering payroll for the Slater and Merrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by Judge Webster Thayer in 1921. Despite numerous appeals asserting their innocence, the men’s claims were consistently rejected, with many critics arguing that Judge Thayer's anti-immigrant and anti-anarchist prejudices influenced the trial's outcome. By 1926, the case had gained global attention and sparked widespread protests. Nevertheless, on Aug. 23, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were marched to the electric chair and executed.

The story of Sacco and Vanzetti has been passed down through generations and has inspired a wide array of artistic expressions, including poems, paintings, films and music. In 1946, Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records, commissioned Woody Guthrie to create a series of songs exploring the truth behind Sacco and Vanzetti’s story. Years later, as Woody Guthrie faced Huntington’s Disease, he shared that the "Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti" was the most significant album of his career.

Discover more about Sacco and Vanzetti’s story through interviews with filmmaker Peter Miller, author Bruce Watson and Professor Michele Fazio.



Listen to Woody's "Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti":
   • Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti  

View Peter Miller's full documentary "Sacco and Vanzetti":
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/saccoandva...

Read Bruce Watson's book "Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind":
https://www.amazon.com/Sacco-Vanzetti...