The woman who shot Musolini

[Matthew Mussolini]

"Almost exactly eighty years ago, at half past nine in the morning, Italian time, Charlie Gibson's Auntie Violet shot Mussolini through the nose. The bullet went clean through both nostrils shortly after he'd given a speech on the wonders of modern medicine
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometru...ost%20exactly% 20eighty%20years%20ago%2C%20at%20half%20past,even% 20reported%20in%20The%20Times%20%28see%20link%20be low%29.

Five assassination attempts on the man who singlehandedly destroyed the cradle of Democracy with no one voting for him and without killing anyone.

Now do you believe in ghosts?


In the book Soviets knew Duce had a weakness for women so sent a pretty mistress to poison him. She served him a drink and apparently he was immune to the toxin.

[Matthew Mussolini]

An account of the unsuccessful assassination attempt of Benito Mussolini by anarchist Gino Lucetti who threw a bomb at his car in Rome on 11 September, 1926.

The plot was hatched in anti-fascist Italian exile circles in the south of France. And not just by anarchists but also members of the Giustizia e Libertá groups of the Action Party and others of differing persuasions - all convinced of the need to eliminate the fascist leader physically. This gave the attempt a different context to the individualist “propaganda-by-deed” anarchist assassinations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as that of Italy’s King Umberto by Gaetano Bresci or that of President McKinley by Leon Czolgosz. These propaganda by deed attacks were supposed to “inspire” the working class to rise, and in this were entirely unsuccessful. In this instance, however, the urge to kill Mussolini was the expression of a convergence of opinion among many popularly representative political groupings, and was commonly perceived as a necessity at that point in time.

He returned to Italy and Rome there to make his attempt on the Duce's life on 11 September 1926. An unsuspecting countryman of his, Lina Squassoni who lived in Aubagne near Marseilles, lent him the money for the trip. He loitered near the Porta Pia waiting for the Duce to pass by: when the famous Lancia carrying Benito Mussolini drew near, Lucetti hurled a bomb (of the SIDE type) which smashed against the windscreen. However, it failed to detonate, bounced onto the running board and only exploded when it was some metres away on the pavement. In the ensuing confusion, Lucetti sheltered in the doorway at No. 13, Via Nomentana, but the Duce's police bodyguards soon caught up with him. Kicking and punching him, they found him in possession of a second bomb of the same make, a handgun with six dumdum bullets poisoned with muriatic acid, and a dagger (he had certainly come prepared!).

At police headquarters, under ferocious questioning, he let it be known that his name was Ermete Giovanni, from Castelnuovo Garfagnana. On account of this phoney story, he led the regime on a merry dance, as a result of which their enquiries focused solely upon uncovering the leaders of the conspiracy of which he was allegedly part, in Garfagnana and nowhere else! Roadblocks were thrown up and dozens of people arrested: when Lucetti at last gave his true particulars the whole investigation was shown up as ridiculous.

After his trial in 1927, he was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. Two others, held to have been his accomplices, Leandro Sorio and Stefano Vatteroni were sentenced to 20 years and 19 years 9 months respectively. Vatteroni served the first three years of his time in complete isolation and the only company allowed him was that of a sparrow which visited his cell.

Lucetti was lodged in the Santo Stefano prison where he spent nearly 17 years before being moved to Ischia where he died on 15 September 1943.

https://libcom.org/history/1926-attempted-assassination-mussolini

[Matthew Mussolini]

One of the men who had Mussolini executed in cold blood without trial was a political prisoner who wrote the Duce a letter begging to provide for a needy family. Mussolini had compassion on him and let him walk free.

The wife of the Duce writes about it in her biography and Sergio luzzatto writes about it as well.

He didn't have people court martialed for things the American president would have and Joseph Stalin would have had them executed.

I'm wondering if the Dictator was maybe too gentle for the times he was living in?