Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888 – 1927)
Anarchist, who with Ferdinando Nicola Sacco was convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts.
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I did not spittel a drop of blood, or steal a cent in all my life.
Sacco was guilty but Vanzetti was innocent.
If it had not been for these things, I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as now we do by accident. Our words — our lives — our pains — nothing! The taking of our lives — lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish-peddler — all! That last moment belongs to us — that agony is our triumph.
I wish to say to you that I am innocent. I have never done a crime, some sins, but never any crime. I thank you for everything you have done for me. I am innocent of all crime, not only this one, but of all, all. I am an innocent man. I now wish to forgive some people for what they are doing to me.
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