Webster Thayer

Webster Thayer (July 7, 1857 – April 18, 1933) was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, USA, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti case.

Thayer was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts, on July 7, 1857. He attended Worcester Academy and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1880 where he captained the baseball and football teams. He learned law through an apprenticeship rather than by attending law school and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He enjoyed a modest career in local politics, first as a Democrat and later as a Republican. He was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts in Dedham 1917.

In 1920, Thayer gave a speech to new American citizens decrying Bolshevism and anarchism's threat to American institutions. He supported the suppression of radical speech and rebuked a jury that failed to return a conviction because they believed that an overt act was required rather than speech alone.

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.

Thayer's behavior both on and off the bench during the trial drew criticism. A Boston Globe reporter, Frank Sibley, who had covered the trial, wrote a letter of protest to the Massachusetts attorney general condemning Thayer's bias. Others noted the frequency with which Thayer denied defense motions and the way he addressed defense attorney Fred H. Moore. Thayer defended his rulings to reporters saying, "No long-haired anarchist from California can run this court!" According to onlookers who later swore affidavits, in private discussion Thayer called Sacco and Vanzetti "Bolsheviki!" and said he would "get them good and proper". In 1924, referring to his denial of motions for a new trial, Thayer confronted a Massachusetts lawyer: "Did you see what I did with those anarchistic bastards the other day?" the judge said. "I guess that will hold them for a while! Let them go to the Supreme Court now and see what they can get out of them!" The outburst remained a secret until 1927 when its release fueled the arguments of Sacco and Vanzetti's defenders. The New York World attacked Thayer as "an agitated little man looking for publicity and utterly impervious to the ethical standards one has the right to expect of a man presiding in a capital case."

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