This week in 1927

“Viva l’anarchia!” [Italian: Long live anarchy!]

A moment later, in English:
 “Farewell, my wife and child and all my friends.”

After the death mask had been fitted:
 “Farewell, mia madre!” [Farewell, my mother!]

— Ferdinando Nicola Sacco, convicted of murder, electric chair, Massachusetts.
Executed August 23, 1927

Sacco and friend Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both Italian immigrants, stood trial for killing Alessandro Berardelli, a security guard, and Frederick Parmenter, a pay clerk, during an armed robbery in 1920. The controversial case gripped the nation, as both men were Galleanists, members of an Italian anarchist group suspected in a string of bombings. Numerous books have since been written questioning the guilt or innocence of the men. Their case was included in the 1992 book “In Spite of Innocence” among almost two dozen cases in which the editors believed “an innocent person was executed.”