Sacco and Vanzetti
In the same year, two Italian immigrants, Sacco and Vanzetti, were arrested and charged with robbery and murder for the killing of a factory paymaster and his guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Both Sacco and Vanzetti were "Galleanists", adherents of Luigi Galleani and his particular brand of violent anarchism. A friend of Sacco and Vanzetti, Mario Buda, is believed to have been responsible for the Wall Street Bombing on September 16, 1920, in which 38 people were killed in response to the indictment of the two men. Thayer presided at the jury trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, at the end of which both men were found guilty and sentenced to death. Thayer denied all post-trial motions for a new trial, an act for which he was condemned by various left-wing and civil liberties groups and prominent legal scholars, including Felix Frankfurter.