Andrea Salsedo (21 September 1881 – 3 May 1920) was an Italian

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

whose death caused controversy as it was caused by a suspicious fall from the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

(BOI) offices on 15 Park Row in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Depending on the source, his death was either a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

David Felix, ''Protest: Sacco-Vanzetti and the Intellectuals'' (1965), 75-76, 80 or a

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

committed by detaining officers;McCormick, Charles H., ''Hopeless Cases, The Hunt For The Red Scare Terrorist Bombers'' (2005), Lanham Maryland: University Press of America, p. 60 nevertheless, the case was widely debated both for its unclear nature and for its consequences on the Bureau and was one of the premises of the

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

case.

Biography

Andrea Salsedo was born in

Pantelleria Pantelleria (; Sicilian: ''Pantiddirìa'', Maltese: ''Pantellerija'' or ''Qawsra''), the ancient Cossyra or Cossura, is an Italian island and comune in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and east of the Tunis ...

, in the Italian region of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. A committed anarchist since his youth, he soon became involved in local politics, and was part of the anarchist club Circolo Sociale founded by Luigi Galleani, who was in Pantelleria as he had been exiled there. In those years, Salsedo became a personal friend of Galleani. On November 11, 1900, he was tried because of subversive views he had expressed in a letter published in ''L'Avvenire Sociale'', a newspaper published in

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

; the trial, however, did not lead to any conviction. Salsedo then moved to the United States, and after a brief period in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, he arrived in New York City in 1910. There he met his friend Galleani and supported him in the creation and distribution of his magazine ''

Cronaca Sovversiva ''Cronaca Sovversiva'' (Subversive Chronicle) was an Italian-language, anarchism in the United States, United States-based anarchist newspaper associated with Luigi Galleani from 1903 to 1920. It is one of the country's most significant anarch ...

''. Salsedo also wrote a number of articles for the magazine. The Justice Department of New York included Salsedo in a list of anarchists who fled to Mexico in order to avoid

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...

. The list also included Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Roberto Elia and Luigi Galleani. All anarchists who were part of Galleani's acquaintances, who were also called ''

Galleanists (Italian for Galleanists), followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, were primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920 in the United States. Composition The Galleanisti were a group of Italian anarchists and radicals in ...

'', were put under surveillance, as they were considered dangerous and possible

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. On 25 February 1920, Salsedo, who was working in the Canzani Printshop as a typesetter at the time, was arrested and brought to the BOI offices on Park Row during or immediately after the

Palmer Raids The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists ...

. Salsedo was considered as one of the writers of radical pamphlet ''Plain Words''. At the BOI offices, Salsedo was harshly interrogated and was denied the right to phone his lawyer and his family. According to some sources, he stayed in the offices for eight weeks,

incommunicado Incommunicado, from the Spanish incomunicado, means "cut off from contact", "impossible to reach". It may also refer to: *''Incommunicado'', an album by Alex Smoke * "Incommunicado" (song), a 1987 single by Marillion * Solitary confinement, one o ...

. On 3 May 1920, his body was found on the pavement in front of the BOI offices: he had fallen from the 14th floor. How Salsedo died is still unclear. Some sources say that he got up at night, silently walked across the room and jumped out the window, killing himself. According to Roberto Elia, Salsedo could have been killed for fear of betraying other fellow anarchists. The ''Boston Herald'' reported that before dying, Salsedo gave names of other anarchists. Other sources, on the contrary, say that Salsedo was severely beaten numerous times during his interrogations,Michael Newton, ''The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes'', Infobase, 2009, p. 9. and was ultimately killed by officers, who hurled him out the window. Salsedo's death happened just two days prior to Sacco and Vanzetti's arrest.

References

External links

Andrea Salsedo of Pantelleria
libcom {{DEFAULTSORT:Salsedo, Andrea Anarchism 1881 births 1920 deaths Galleanisti Insurrectionary anarchists Italian anarchists Italian emigrants to the United States Deaths by defenestration Death conspiracy theories American anarchists

Biography

See also

References

External links