Mussolini death
Clara Petacci
Mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (–)
Clara "Claretta" Petacci (Italian:[klaˈrettapeˈtattʃi]; 28 February – 28 April ) was a mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. She was killed by Italian partisans during Mussolini's summary execution.
Early life
Daughter of Giuseppina Persichetti (–) and the physician Francesco Saverio Petacci (–), Clara Petacci was born into a privileged and religious family in Rome in [1][2] Her father, a physician of the Holy Apostolic Palaces,[3] became a supporter of fascism.
A child when Mussolini rose to power in the s, Clara Petacci idolised him from an early age. After Violet Gibson attempted to assassinate the dictator in April , the year-old Petacci wrote to him commenting "O, Duce, why was I not with you? Could I not have strangled that murderous woman?"[4]
Relationship with Mussolini
Petacci had a long-standing relationship with Mussolini while he was married to Rachele Mussolini.
Petacci was 28 years younger than Mussolini.[5] They met for the first time in April when Mussolini, driving with an aide to Ostia, overtook a car occupied by the twenty-year-old Petacci and family members. She called out, "Duce! Duce!" and when he stopped, told him that she had been writing to him since her early teens.[6]
In , Petacci married Italian Air Force officer Riccardo Federici, but she parted ways with her husband when he was sent to Tokyo as Air Attaché in [7] Petacci then became the mistress of the fifty-three-year-old Mussolini, visiting his headquarters in the Palazzo Venezia, where a small apartment was reserved for her.
Her infatuation with Mussolini appears to have been genuine and permanent. The affair became widely known and members of the Petacci family, notably her brother, Marcello, were able to benefit financially and professionally by influence-selling.[8]
Part of Petacci and Mussolini's correspondence has not been released on the grounds of privacy.[9]
Death
See also: Death of Benito Mussolini
On 27 April , Mussolini and Petacci were captured by partisans while traveling with a Luftwaffe convoy retreating to Germany.
The German column included a number of Italian Social Republic members.[10]
On 28 April, she and Mussolini were taken to Mezzegra and executed.
Clara claretta petacci bodies The dead body of Benito Mussolini next to his mistress Claretta Petacci and those of other executed fascists, on display in Milan on 29 April , in Piazzale Loreto, the same place that the fascists had displayed the bodies of fifteen Milanese civilians a year earlier after executing them in retaliation for resistance activity.One source alleges Petacci's execution was not planned and that she died throwing herself on Mussolini in a vain attempt to protect him from the bullets.[11] On the following day, the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Piazzale Loreto in Milan and hung upside down in front of a petrol station.
The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.[12] On the same day, Clara's brother, Marcello Petacci, was also killed in Dongo by the partisans, along with fifteen other people complicit in Mussolini's escape.
After the war, the family of Petacci began civil and criminal court cases against Walter Audisio for Petacci's unlawful killing.
After a lengthy legal process, an investigating judge eventually closed the case in Audisio was acquitted of murder and embezzlement on the grounds that the actions complained of occurred as an act of war against the Germans and the fascists during a period of enemy occupation.[13]
See also
References
- ^Barber, Tony (17 February ).Benito mussolini His body was pulled out of the lake and thrown onto a lorry, on top of a pile of shot fascists, including the bodies of Mussolini and Clara. The lorry arrived in Milan at around 3 in the morning. Piazzale Loreto had been chosen because fifteen anti-fascists had been publicly executed by the fascists there in August
"Claretta by RJB Bosworth — Mussolini's last lover". . Archived from the original on Retrieved
- ^Downing, Ben (). "In Bed With Il Duce". Wall Street Journal. ISSN Retrieved
- ^De Felice () p.
- ^Thomson, Ian (25 February ). "The Ben and Clara affair". . Archived from the original on Retrieved
- ^(in Spanish) Giuseppina Persichetti, La enamorada de Mussolini, Madrid, Ediciones Caballero Audaz,
- ^Gallo, Max ().
Mussolini's Italy.
Clara claretta petacci bodies found Clara "Claretta" Petacci (Italian: [klaˈretta peˈtattʃi]; 28 February – 28 April ) was a mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. She was killed by Italian partisans during Mussolini's summary execution.Abelard-Schuman. p. ISBN.
- ^Boswort, R.J.B. (). Mussolini. Bloomsbury.
- ^Gallo, Max (). Mussolini's Italy. Abelard-Schuman. pp.– ISBN.
- ^(in Italian) Giampiero Buonomo, Quel carteggio tra Mussolini e la Petacci.
Clara claretta petacci bodies pictures
Clara Petacci hanged after execution. "Mussolini's girlfriend Clara."'Milan, Italy. 29 April After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in the Musocco cemetery, to the north of the city.Storici sacrificati sull’altare della privacy, in Diritto e giustizia, 16 luglio
- ^Gunther Langes, Auf Wiedersehen Claretta. Il diario dell'uomo che poteva salvare Mussolini e la Petacci, a cura di Nico Pirozzi, Villaricca, Edizioni Cento Autori, ISBN
- ^Pierluigi Baima Bollone, Le ultime ore di Mussolini, Milano, Mondadori, , ISBN, pagg.
89 e
- ^"Death of the Father-Mussolini & Fascist Italy: the 'infamous' exhibit". Cornell Institute for Digital Collections.
- ^Baima Bollone, Pierluigi (). Le ultime ore di Mussolini. Mondadori (Italy). p. ISBN.
- ^"Rachele Mussolini perde la causa non riavrà più i beni di un tempo" [Rachele Mussolini loses the case: She will not have again the goods of time ago].
La Stampa (in Italian). 13 May p. Retrieved 7 February
- ^Annovazzi Lodi, Stefano (3 December ). "Il grand hotel della riviera che faceva sognare Fellini" [The grand hotel on the riviera that made Fellini dream].
Claretta petacci biography: Clara "Claretta" Petacci (Italian: [klaˈretta peˈtattʃi]; 28 February – 28 April ) was a mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. She was killed by Italian partisans during Mussolini's summary execution.
ELLE Decor (in Italian). Retrieved 3 February
Sources
- De Felice, Renzo () []. Mussolini. Il Duce. 2: Lo stato totalitario, – (in Italian) (2ed.). Torino: Einaudi.
Further reading
- Bosworth, R.J.B. ().
- Claretta petacci biography
- Clara claretta petacci bodies photos
- Claretta petacci
- Farrell, Nicholas (). Mussolini: A New Life, Phoenix Press: London ISBN
- Garibaldi, Luciano (). Mussolini: The Secrets of His Death, Enigma Books, New York ISBN
- Moseley, Ray (). Mussolini: The Last Days of Il Duce, Taylor Trade Publishing, Dallas ISBN
Claretta: Mussolini's Last Lover, Yale University Press ISBN