Et Tu, Brute?: The Assassination of Benito Mussolini

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From the evening edition of the March 18th, 1936 New York World- Telegram:

MUSSOLINI SHOT, CONDITION BELIEVED CRITICAL

Duce Wounded During Speech At Fascist Youth Rally

From a CBS Radio news broadcast later that same night:

Flash--A spokesman for the Italian embassy in Washington has confirmed just moments ago that Italian Fascist prime minister Benito Mussolini has died as a result of gunshot wounds sustained in an attack made against the Duce earlier this evening while he was speaking at a Fascist Youth rally in Palermo. In a statement just released a few minutes ago, the head of Italy’s OVRA secret police agency vowed that Mussolini’s assassin would be, quote, made to answer for his cowardly murder of the Duce, unquote...

From a speech made by Nazi German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels dated March 20th, 1936:

Italy may rest assured that the German people and their Führer will do everything in their power to see to it that the scoundrel who so heinously murdered the Duce will pay dearly for his unforgivable crime. For by this atrocity the assassin has not only proven himself to be a traitor to his own country, he has also unmasked himself as an enemy of the Reich...

From the morning edition of the March 22nd, 1936 New York Times:

THOUSANDS LINE ROME’S STREETS TO PAY FINAL RESPECTS TO MUSSOLINI

Marshal Badoglio, Chief Strategist of Ethiopian War, Sworn In As Head Of Emergency Government

Duce’s Suspected Killer Believed To Be Trying To Reach German Embassy In Rome

From the 1986 BBC documentary Fallen Caesar: The Death Of Mussolini:

Mussolini’s assassin had hoped to exploit lingering animosities between Rome and Berlin over Austria to gain political asylum in Germany. But at the time Mussolini was killed the Nazis had begun making overtures to the Italian government aimed at improving German-Italian relations, and they were anxious to avoid undermining those overtures by doing anything that might implicate the Reich in the Duce’s murder; when the assassin finally made it to Rome’s German embassy the Gestapo detail in charge of security at the embassy coldly refused to admit him onto the embassy grounds...

From the March 24th, 1936 Daily Mail:

ALLEGED MUSSOLINI KILLER ARRESTED IN ROME

High Commissioner’s Office In Italy Question Badoglio Regime’s Official Account of Accused Gunman’s Capture

From an NBC Radio news broadcast dated April 2nd, 1936:

The trial of Benito Mussolini’s accused killer began today in Rome amid heavy police and army guard....

From the April 5th, 1936 Washington Post:

ACCUSED MUSSOLINI ASSASSIN BREAKS DOWN ON WITNESS STAND AS TRIAL ENTERS THIRD DAY

Defendant Under Observation In Rome Psychiatric Ward

From a CBS Radio news broadcast dated April 7th, 1936:

Sources in the Italian interior ministry say the accused assassin of the late Benito Mussolini may remain under observation for several more days....

From the April 15th, 1936 Montreal Gazette:

ACCUSED MUSSOLINI ASSASSIN RELEASED FROM PSYCHIATRIC CARE

Scheduled To Return To Courtroom Tomorrow Under Heavy Guard

From a Columbia Pictures newsreel released April 18th, 1936:

The man accused of assassinating the late Italian premier Benito Mussolini cut a decidedly pathetic figure as he shuffled into the courtroom-- a far cry from the demonic monster which the Italian press have made him out to be since his arrest for the Duce’s murder. Spectators in the gallery jeered at him and had to be admonished by the presiding judge to refrain from making any further outbursts...

From the April 23rd, 1936 Chicago Tribune:

VERDICT IN MUSSOLINI ASSASSINATION TRIAL EXPECTED BY TOMORROW

From a BBC Radio newscast that same day:

The political and social tensions which have been gripping Italy since the death of Benito Mussolini more than a month ago boiled over today in a riot in Milan this afternoon. 28 people have been confirmed dead so far in clashes between police and anti-Fascist demonstrators...

From the April 24th, 1936 Boston Globe:

ETHIOPIAN CAMPAIGN VETERAN FOUND GUILTY IN MUSSOLINI ASSASSINATION

Milan Gripped By Second Day Of Riots

From Fallen Caesar:

By the time Mussolini’s killer was executed nearly every major Italian cith was experiencing some kind of domestic unrest, and many foreign diplomats in Rome feared Italy itself might be approaching the brink of civil war. The U.S. ambassador in Rome cabled President Roosevelt with a top secret five-page report suggesting the Fascist regime could face an insurrection as early as the second week of May...

From the 2006 History Channel documentary Infection Of The Soul: The Man Who Killed Mussolini:

Vittorio Francesco, the one-time army lieutenant who was convicted and eventually executed for Mussolini’s assassination, had once been one of the Duce’s most loyal followers. Francesco was the first in his platoon to join the Fascist Party in 1919, played an active part in engendering army support for Mussolini’s 1922 March on Rome, and had enthusiastically signed up for combat duty in Ethiopia; however, as he saw his men dying grotesque deaths on the battlefield, he began to lose faith in the Fascist regime; after his son Giorgio was killed in a friendly fire incident in late October of 1935 he was so angry he turned his back on the Fascist regime altogether...

From the April 25th, 1936 New York Times:

CONVICTED MUSSOLINI ASSASSIN TO BE HANGED TOMORROW

Claims He Did It To Avenge Son’s Death, Calls Fascism “An Infection Of The Soul”

Riots Continue To Plague Milan, Rome, Salerno

From the April 27th, 1936 Manchester Guardian:

VITTORIO FRANCESCO EXECUTED

RIBBENTROP SAYS BERLIN “GREATLY CONCERNED” ABOUT ITALY TURMOIL

From an NBC Radio news broadcast dated April 29th, 1936:

The Italian ambassador to Germany was summoned to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop’s office earlier today for a debriefing on the civil unrest that continues to plague Italy’s Badoglio regime...

From the May 1st, 1936 St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

COMMUNISTS TO RALLY DOWNTOWN TODAY AGAINST BADOGLIO

Organizers Say March Also Intended To Protest Francesco Execution

From the book Marx In Missouri: An Oral History Of The U.S. Communist Party’s St. Louis Branch, copyright 1997 Washington University Press:

Few things aroused the collective outrage of the CPUSA’s rank and file more than the Badoglio regime’s execution of Vittorio Francesco; the party had long been opposed to capital punishment, believing it to be not only a violation of the most basic human rights but also a tool of repression that the rich used to brutalize the working class. As the descendant of a family of bricklayers, Francesco thus became in the eyes of socialists around the world a martyr for the cause of liberating the masses from the oppression of the wealthy elite. Given that the tragic death of Francesco’s son had been his chief motivation for his assassination of Benito Mussolini, his eventual execution was also viewed by the party as evidence of the Italian Fascist regime’s utter inhumanity....

From the May 4th, 1936 New York Herald Tribune:

ITALO BALBO UNDER HOUSE ARREST

Longtime Mussolini Crony Alleged To Be Planning Coup D’etat Against Badoglio

From a BBC Radio newscast dated May 7th, 1936:

The Italian war ministry today denied rumours that the army is preparing to institute martial law in an attempt to quell the civil disorders which have been plaguing Italy since the assassination of the late Benito Mussolini.... Meanwhile, former Mussolini associate Italo Balbo has been indicted by a Fascist tribunal in Rome on charges of treason against the Italian government for his alleged role as mastermind of a conspiracy to topple current Italian premier Pietro Badoglio....

From the May 8th, 1936 Washington Post:

38 BELIEVED KILLED IN RIOTS IN BOLOGNA

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