BARTHOLOMEO VANZETTI (1888 - 1927) Italian laborer and philosophical anarchist known for his controversial trial and subsequent execution along with Ferdinando Sacco by the state of Massachusetts on August 23 1927. Excessively rare fine content A.L.S. ""Bartholomeo Vanzetti"" 6pp. 4to. Dedham (Norfolk County) Jail May 22 1927. Almost three months to the day before he would die in the electric chair Vanzetti writes to Lilly Sarnoff a sympathizer. In part: ""...Dear comrade Lilly …we are hoping very little...we have never hoped in Courts and Judges…we are still hoping only on what the comrades and the people will compel the State to give us. Because our case is grave the solidarity so vast and great the accuse [sic] so weak and wreched [sic] and our defencive [sic] proofs so strong and evident…the people hoped in a victory and they always got a defeat. Now we are in the hands of Gubernatorial discretion. A bad beast believe me. But as the evidence in our favor are so strong as the protest is universal the people hope again in a victory. Our case proved…that a handful of men invested of power by the stupidity of the people and who call themselves public servants care a fig for the people [sic] wishes and pay no attention to the people claims…I guess is was Victor Hugo who said that 'Hope would be the last goodness in life were it not for disperation'. I think there is something beyond desperation and I have learnt that man cannot live without hoping…Oh! About the Madison Square Garden….The 'Corriere of America' an fascista-daily of New York…reported that there was 300 or 400 people at the demonstration and that the orator attacked the fascismo and were violently radical in their words. The Boston Herald said there were 10 000 people and the Daily Worker that were 20 000. I think the Herald was the more exact of the three…the Corriere published a letter of an Italian captain asking what attitude the radical would assume if S. & V. [Sacco and Vanzetti] were fascista. I wanted to answer that we would not even have been indicted if instead to be anarchists we would have been blackguards…."" He interrupts his reaction to the reports of the demonstration in New York with personal musings about how his experiences and thoughts might: ""make a wonderful book."" He continues: ""Now returning to the meeting I said it to be of the Madison Square Garden…the comrades have been…galvanized by our trial and our performing wonders. Mankind has done for two obscure and rebellious workers what on the past would have only be done for saints and kings…."". At the time Vanzetti wrote this exceptionally detailed letter the Sacco and Vanzetti case had almost reached its historical conclusion. Their appeals were exhausted and as Vanzetti refers to here their case was now in the hands of Massachusetts Gov. Fuller to whom they appealed for clemency. Their appeal was denied. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested for murder during a payroll robbery in Braintree Massachusetts a crime both denied committing. As Italian immigrants and open anarchists they were caught up in the fear and prejudices of the Palmer Raid and Red Scare of the 1920's . Both men received a posthumous pardon by former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis but the controversy of their innocence remains. Vanzetti's eloquence also endures as is evidenced in this letter from jail. Despite his misspellings and occasional incorrect syntax this letter bears witness to one of America's liberal heroes. Toned bends and slight chips to margins margin creases one hole on third sheet near the correspondent's name generally very good. A genuine rarity!