Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists who were accused, tried, and convicted of a double murder in Braintree, Massachusetts.

On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and a payroll guard were shot to death during a payroll heist in Braintree, Massachusetts, near Boston. Three weeks later Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with the crime. Their trial aroused intense controversy because of a widespread belief that the evidence against the men was flimsy and that they were being prosecuted (and persecuted) for...