State Claims Sacco-Vanzetti Documents

A Massachusetts official said yesterday the state may take Harvard to court if the University does not recognize the state's claim to ownership of almost half the "Sacco-Vanzetti file" of documents released to the public yesterday.

John J. McGlynn, state supervisor of public records, said many of the documents found among the papers of former President A. Lawrence Lowell, Class of 1877, are "part of the public record" of the trial and conviction of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two self-proclaimed anarchists executed for murder in 1927.

Lowell chaired a commission that investigated the case and upheld the convictions.

Because the state government apparently paid for some or all of that investigation, it legally owns any of Lowell's papers that resulted from the inquiry, McGlynn said. He estimated that about half of Lowell's papers relating to the case belong to the state.

McGlynn added that he has made an informal offer to Harvard that would allow the University to retain custody of the documents for 100 years. If Harvard and the state do not reach an agreement, the state would most likely press its claim to ownership in court, McGlynn said.

James A. Sharaf '59, an attorney in the general counsel's office, yesterday declined to comment on McGlynn's announcement.

"If and when we receive a written claim from the state, we will decide then how to respond--but we would expect to contest any such claim," Sharaf said.