Sacco & Venzetti the anarchists, killer K. Bourdin, + Rudolph the Martyr

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Aug. 23, 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
 Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a
1920
 robbery. They were vindicated in 1977 by Massachusetts Gov. Michael S.
 Dukakis.

I know of several Communists and fellow travellers of the 1920s and 30s
who mourned the political murders of Sacco and Venzetti --even though
they were anarchists.

Yesterday, Kathy Bourdin was paroled.  The NYTimes shook an angry
editorial  finger, invoked the orphans of the dead, and put Boudin's
case on a level above that of any other individual involved in a bank
robbery that went awry.  Whether or not one agrees with the
methodologies of the Weathermen, one can recognize a political case
especially if one's face is shoved into it by the "paper-of-record."

Contrast this with the coverage of Rudolph the abortion doctor-killer
who was characterized as a person of principles and conscience by media
interviews in the mountains where he hid out as a fugitive.  Killing so
that others may live... what a self-sacrifice.

As it turns out, Sacco and Venzetti were most probably innocent, and
were quite definitely denied justice.  And Bourdin didn't fire a shot at
anybody.