Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Loading
RN![]()
author
Richard Newby
Richard Newby was born on 15 June 1924 in Bridgeton, Indiana. He grew up in Ridge Farm, Illinois
He served on the USS Bennington in WW II.
He earned his B.A. and M.A. degr...view moreRichard Newby was born on 15 June 1924 in Bridgeton, Indiana. He grew up in Ridge Farm, Illinois
He served on the USS Bennington in WW II.
He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in English in 1950 and 1953 from Southern Illinois University and his Ph. D. in English from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1970.
After Newby joined the Illinois State University faculty in 1958, he developed a keener understanding of people during his 13-year stint, 1976-1989, as teacher of creative writing. His work in judging short stories by ISU students proved to be excellent training for the warring Sacco and Vanzetti arena.
On 14 June 1988, Newby told the Managing Editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica that Britannica must revise its entry on Sacco and Vanzetti because the appended bibliography was biased. On November 2, 1990, Britannica''s General Editor Robert McHenry told Newby that the entry on Sacco and Vanzetti and the appended bibliography were revised in April 1990; and he assured Newby these revisions would be in Britannica''s 1991 printing.
In 1990, Newby began reading widely on the Sacco and Vanzetti case. In April 1993 he bought Paul P. Appel''s six volumes on the Plymouth and Dedham trials. He bought twenty additional books on the case.
In May 2003, Newby found new evidence on Sacco and Vanzetti in two newspapers: The Eastern Gazette, a weekly published in Dexter, Maine, and the Bangor Daily News. Both newspapers (1914) gave an account of the fire that gutted the grocery store of Frank N. Morgridge in Dexter, Maine, on 1 February 1914. Newby claims this fire, never mentioned in the 1921 Dedham trial, sharpens the debate on Vanzetti''s revolver. To date, Newby has not found a U. S. history textbook that mentions this fire.
On 19 April 2004, Newby published "Sacco & Vanzetti: Were They Really Innocent?" at History News Network online (George Mason University). In this article, Newby presents a summary of important events in the Sacco and Vanzetti debate, noting ballistics tests and the relevant Morgridge fire.view less