Sacco/Vanzetti

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In the very interesting story of September 27 about Professor Sacvan Berkovitch and the origin of his first name. The Crimson stated that the famous anarchist Sacco and Vanzetti, "were hanged in Boston for treason during the Red Scare." They were not indicted for treason but for killing a guard during an armed robbery, and they were not hanged but electrocuted, as I have first-hand reason to know.

In that August of 1927, when I was a Harvard undergraduate and, indeed, an editor of The Crimson, I visited the funeral parlor in East Boston where Sacco and Vanzetti were lying in state. On their temples I saw the daubs of white which were used to cover the burns where the fatal electrodes had been attached.

Looking down on their faces, I naively, impressionistically, came to the conclusion (one to which some of their dedicated supporters later also came) that Vanzetti was innocent but Sacco appeared capable of the crimes with which he was charged. Robert Corham Davis