Sacco & Vanzetti

Political activists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were framed and executed for murder in a wave of anti-immigrant hysteria in Boston in the 1920s. Their story is a salutary one, illustrating the way in which anarchists and immigrants were painted as terrorists - a grim reminder of the consequences of using fear as a political weapon. Eventually pardoned in 1977 by Governor Dukakis, Sacco and Vanzetti’s case sparked an unprecedented international defence campaign backed by writers, artists, politicians and musicians. It remains one of the most famous political trials in history.