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Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants. The two men acknowledged that they were radicals and that they had avoided serving in World War One.

In May 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and accused of armed robbery on a shoe factory, during which a significant amount of money was stolen and two people were killed. They had radical anti-government pamphlets in the car when they were arrested and both owned guns. They could not indisputably prove where they had been on the day of the murders. From the beginning, public opinion was against them because of their political ideas and because they were immigrants. They both had guns when they were arrested.

Although 61 witnesses said they had seen them, the defence had 107 witnesses alleging that they had seen them somewhere else when the crime was committed. During the court case in May 1921, Judge Webster Thayer was prejudiced against the two men. Although a man named Celestino Madeiros later admitted that he had committed the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti lost their appeal. In August 1927 they were both executed by electrocution in Charlestown prison.

This case highlighted the attitudes and discrimination immigrants experienced.