JOHN PETER ALTGELD

Stars Burgess Meredith. Eight anarchists are accused in 1886 of conspiracy to murder when policemen are killed during the Haymarket Riot in Chicago—four of the prisoners are hanged and one commits suicide. On assuming the Illinois governorship, Altgeld, convinced they were illegally convicted, frees the remaining prisoners despite the public outcry. Issues: equal justice under the law, anarchism and free speech, and social pressures of industrialization.