In 1921, two anarchists of Italian origin, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were condemned to death by the American justice system, while shouting their innocence.

To trigger the press campaign, May Picqueray sent a parcel bomb containing a defensive grenade and leaflets to the American embassy.

Because of Leon Trotsky's responsibility in the crushing of the Kronstadt rebellion, and his perceived betrayal of Nestor Makhno, she refused to shake his hand when she met him, even as she asked him to release the anarchists locked in prison by the Bolsheviks.

Her friendship with Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman as well as her trip to the USSR confirmed the dictatorial character of the communist regime, even though Stalin was not yet at the head of the country.

Finally, in 1941, in the midst of the war, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-May, whom she conceived with Isaac Gilman, a Biel-Russian Jew who had taken refuge in Toulouse.

An important figure in the French anarchist milieu, May Picqueray was the founder of the newspaper Le Réfractaire ("Libertarian organ for the defense of peace and individual freedoms"), which she published monthly from April 1, 1974, until her death on November 2, 1983.