In this Book
- In Search of Sacco and Vanzetti: Double Lives, Troubled Times, and the Massachusetts Murder Case That Shook the World
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Northeastern University Press
summary
It was a bold and brutal crime—robbery and murder in broad daylight on the streets of South Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1920. Tried for the crime and convicted, two Italian-born laborers, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, went to the electric chair in 1927, professing their innocence. Journalist Susan Tejada has spent years investigating the case, sifting through diaries and police reports and interviewing descendants of major figures. She discovers little-known facts about Sacco, Vanzetti, and their supporters, and develops a tantalizing theory about how a doomed insider may have been coerced into helping professional criminals plan the heist.
Tejada's close-up view of the case allows readers to see those involved as individual personalities. She also paints a fascinating portrait of a bygone era: Providence gangsters and Boston Brahmins; nighttime raids and midnight bombings; and immigration, unionism, draft dodging, and violent anarchism in the turbulent early years of the twentieth century. In many ways this is as much a cultural history as a true-crime mystery or courtroom drama. Because the case played out against a background of domestic terrorism, in a time that echoes our own, we have a new appreciation of the potential connection between fear and the erosion of civil liberties and miscarriages of justice.
Tejada's close-up view of the case allows readers to see those involved as individual personalities. She also paints a fascinating portrait of a bygone era: Providence gangsters and Boston Brahmins; nighttime raids and midnight bombings; and immigration, unionism, draft dodging, and violent anarchism in the turbulent early years of the twentieth century. In many ways this is as much a cultural history as a true-crime mystery or courtroom drama. Because the case played out against a background of domestic terrorism, in a time that echoes our own, we have a new appreciation of the potential connection between fear and the erosion of civil liberties and miscarriages of justice.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
- pp. iii-vi
- Introduction
- pp. ix-xii
- Note on the Text
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Part One
- 1 | Sudden Death
- pp. 3-8
- 2 | “This Human Flotsam”
- pp. 9-21
- 3 | Crime Wave
- pp. 22-33
- 4 | “Organize! O Toilers”
- pp. 34-57
- 5 | Constructing a Case
- pp. 58-62
- 6 | “Conscription Was Upon Them”
- pp. 63-74
- 7 | Dry Run at Plymouth
- pp. 75-95
- 8 | “Terrorist Plot Is Seen”
- pp. 96-122
- Part Two
- 9 | Dedham: Curtain Rising
- pp. 125-131
- 10 | Docket Nos. 5545 and 5546
- pp. 132-161
- 11 | Dedham: Curtain Falling
- pp. 162-174
- Part Three
- 12 | Prison Crucible
- pp. 177-199
- 13 | Battles In and Out of Court
- pp. 200-219
- 14 | Clinging to Razor Blades
- pp. 220-244
- 15 | Groundswell
- pp. 245-254
- 16 | Brink
- pp. 255-271
- 17 | Afterlives
- pp. 272-287
- 18 | Two Mysteries
- pp. 288-310
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 311-312
- Abbreviations Used in the Notes
- pp. 313-314
- Selected Bibliography
- pp. 367-372
Additional Information
ISBN
9781555537784
Related ISBN(s)
9781555537302
MARC Record
OCLC
801440209
Pages
352
Launched on MUSE
2012-06-26
Language
English
Open Access
No