Luigi Galleani

When he came to the US, Bartolomeo Vanzetti was already interested in radical politics. But it wasn't until he came upon the ideas of Luigi Galleani that he found his intellectual home. Vanzetti was so taken with Galleani, in fact, he proudly called him his "maestro."

Born in 1861 in a small town not too far from Vanzetti's home in northern Italy, Galleani grew up in middle class comfort. As a young man he became one of Italy's leading anarchists, one of the most radical members of a radical tradition. Galleani called for the destruction of the government - by violence, if necessary - the abolition of private property, the rejection of religion, and the creation of a new social order that gave people complete freedom to live as they wished. Italian authorities didn't share his enthusiasm for the anarchist cause. Arrested and imprisoned, he fled Italy in 1900. The next year, he moved to the United States, where he resumed his political activities.

By the time Vanzetti met him, Galleani was publishing an anarchist newspaper, Cronaca Sovversiva, in Lynn, Massachusetts. He also traveled up and down the east coast, delivering speeches at radical rallies. And he met constantly with his most devoted followers, talking late into the night of revolution, freedom, and the fearsome acts that might make the new world a reality. Vanzetti was mesmerized. He read Galleani's newspaper religiously, attended his lectures, and joined his own circle of devotees. In the world of the Galleanisti, Vanzetti had found his community.