On this date....

On April 28, 1945, the Communist partisan Colonel Valerio broke into the room where Benito Mussolini and Clara had been resting after their capture the previous day. Valerio told them he had come to rescue them. They hurried to the awaiting car. They drove about a mile away and stopped near gate to the Villa Belmonte. They were ordered to get out of the car and stand next to the stone wall. Machine guns were raised and both were shot. A guard was placed over their bodies.

Valerio drove back to Dongo, where he rounded up the remainder of the 15 prisoners selected for execution from a list compiled by the Liberation Committee. They were hurriedly brought out to the square and given 3 minutes for the ministrations of a priest. They were shot down by a partisan firing squad. Marcello Petacci(Clara's brother) was also shot while trying to escape by jumping into Lake Como.

The next day, the bodies were collected and driven to a square in Milan. Another high-ranking Fascists was located and marched to the square and summarily executed. Seven of these were hung up by their heels on a girder of a gas station. The crowd cursed and spit at IL DUCE and his mistress for all the troubles and heart-ache from the loss of their loved ones in Italy's wars in Egypt, N. Africa and Russia. The crowd became excited and almost out of control, so the partisans in control of the situation used fire hoses to move the crowd back. The bodies were taken down that evening and Mussolini was temporarily buried in a secret grave. Then his body was removed and hidden in a small trunk until years later, when he was re-buried in a family plot.

The Plaza in Milan; April 29, 1945

For a complete story, see Execution of Mussolini.

Steve