Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were executed in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison.
Jesse Harding Pomeroy was a convicted American murderer and possible serial killer and the youngest person in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be convicted of murder in the first degree. He was found guilty by a jury trial held in the Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County in December 1874. He was also a suspected serial killer.
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility.
Francis Patrick Salemme, sometimes spelled Salemmi, also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "Julian Daniel Selig", was an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.
The Massachusetts Correctional Institution—Cedar Junction, formerly known as MCI-Walpole, is a mens maximum security prison under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. It was opened in 1956 to replace Charlestown State Prison, the oldest prison in the nation at that time. MCI-Cedar Junction is one of two maximum security prisons for male offenders in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As of January 6, 2020, there was 346 Maximum and 65 Medium inmates in general population beds.
The Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord (MCI-Concord) was a medium security prison for men located in Concord, Massachusetts in the United States. Opened in 1878, it was the oldest running state prison for men in Massachusetts. It was under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. The facility had a total capacity of 614 general population beds, but with a long-term decline in the number of men incarcerated for the entire state, the population as of January 2024 had decreased to about 300, which made Governor Maura Healey announce a plan to close the prison in the summer of that year and transfer the remaining prisoners to other facilities.
Alvan Tufts Fuller was an American businessman, politician, art collector, and philanthropist from Massachusetts. He opened one of the first automobile dealerships in Massachusetts, which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership", and made him one of the state's wealthiest men. Politically a Progressive Republican, he was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916, and served as a United States representative from 1917 to 1921.
Fred H. Moore (1882–1933) was a socialist lawyer and the defense attorney of the controversial Sacco and Vanzetti case. He had collaborated in many labor and Industrial Workers of the World trials. He played a minor role in several celebrated I.W.W. trials, including the Los Angeles Times bombing case in 1911 and the Ettor–Giovannitti case, which arose from the 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile strike. Following the acquittal of Ettor and Giovannitti, Moore spent the next several years roaming the country defending I.W.W. organizers. He was involved in the Centralia massacre trial and the mass prosecution, on charges of sedition, of the I.W.W. in Chicago in 1918. Errors in a later trial, however, led Big Bill Haywood to demand Moore's resignation as I.W.W. attorney in 1920. Moore's career was revived by his being hired to head the defense team for Sacco and Vanzetti in the summer of 1920.
The Massachusetts Department of Correction is the government agency responsible for operating the prison system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The Massachusetts Department of Correction is responsible for the custody of about 8,292 prisoners throughout 16 correctional facilities and is the 5th largest state agency in the state of Massachusetts, employing over 4,800 people. The Massachusetts Department of Correction also has a fugitive apprehension unit, a gang intelligence unit, a K9 Unit, a Special Reaction Team (SRT), and a Tactical Response Team (TRT). Both of these tactical units are highly trained and are paramilitary in nature. The agency is headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts and currently headed by Commissioner Carol Mici.
The Charles Street Jail, also known as the Suffolk County Jail, is an infamous former jail located at 215 Charles Street, Boston, Massachusetts. It is listed in the state and national Registers of Historic Places. The Liberty Hotel, as it is now known, has retained much of its historic structure, including the famed rotunda.
Boston is a novel by Upton Sinclair. It is a "documentary novel" that combines the facts of the case with journalistic depictions of actual participants and fictional characters and events. Sinclair mixed his fictional characters into the prosecution and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Edward Holton James was an American socialist and, later, fascist. He was the nephew of philosopher William James and novelist Henry James.
Capital punishment, more commonly known as the death penalty, was a legal form of punishment from 1620 to 1984 in Massachusetts, United States. This practice dates back to the state's earliest European settlers. Those sentenced to death were hanged. Common crimes punishable by death included religious affiliations and murder.
Daniel J. Hurley was an American football player and doctor. He played college football at the halfback position for the Harvard Crimson football team and was selected as a consensus All-American in 1904 and 1905. He was team captain for two years. Hurley was once badly injured, suffering a blood clot in the brain.
Concord Prison Outreach (CPO) is a non-profit organization based in Concord, Massachusetts, and dates back to 1968. The organization is independent, volunteer-driven and maintains an active steering committee and board of directors.
Warry S. Charles was a Chinese American businessman and Hip Sing Association leader who was tried and convicted for organizing a hit during the Tong Wars in Boston's Chinatown.
Joseph A. Langone Jr. (1896–1960) was a Massachusetts state senator from 1933 to 1940, and was Boston Election Commissioner in the 1940s.
Not all of the 5 million Italians who immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 1978 came through Ellis Island. Many came through other ports, including the Port of Boston. Exactly how many stayed in Boston is unknown, but it was enough to make Italians the second largest ancestry group in Boston, after the Irish. Most settled initially in the North End; others settled in East Boston, the West End, Roxbury, and other neighborhoods. These groups of Italians now mainly reside in the suburbs mostly north/northwest of the city. But the North end and Eastie still retain much of there Italian culture.
"Sacco-Vanzetti Story" is a two-part American television play that was broadcast on June 3, 1960, and June 10, 1960, as part of the NBC Sunday Showcase series.
Victor Folke Nelson was a Swedish-American writer, prisoner, and prison reform advocate. He spent many years incarcerated in both the New York and Massachusetts prison systems and came to the attention of neurologist Abraham Myerson and penologist Thomas Mott Osborne for his potential as a writer. In 1932, Nelson published his book Prison Days and Nights with the assistance of Dr. Myerson.
