Benito Mussolini
The Man They Hated to Love

 

Bouquets for Benito

In 1926, a writer interviewed the Italian dictator, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini and recorded his impressions for his readers:

I have been in eight republics in the last ten days, including our own, and every one of them ought to be under Mussolini.

If he died tomorrow, Italy would always be indebted to him for practically four years of peace and prosperity.

You never saw a man where as many people and as many classes of people were for him as they are for this fellow. Of course he has opposition, but it is of such a small percentage that it wouldn't have a chance to get anywhere.

No, this was not written by the Italian journalist, Andrea Torre, editor of La Stampa. La Stampa, originally famous for its anti-Benito advocacy, had switched to a decidedly pro-Duce stance when a Benito-friendly corporate fat-cat bought out the paper's controlling interest. Nor is this the opinion of Ugo Ojetti, who was one of Mussolini's favorite journalists and who was one of the signatories of the oxymoronic Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals.

Instead these words appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, then the leading magazine in the United States. And the writer was Will Rogers. Yes, Will Rogers - American humorist, radio and motion picture star, and American home-spun philosopher. And whose statue now stands in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building.

Of course, Will was a professional comedian and so we might hope that he was just being sarcastic. Benito was a good target for satirists with his beetle brow, jutting jaw, and self-parodying manner of speaking.

Well, sorry, but it's all too clear from Will's other writings that he was one of Benito's greatest and most vocal fans. Will even became a convert to Benito's particular brand of government. In fact, he wrote:

Dictator form of government is the greatest form of government there is, if you have the right dictator. Well these folks [the Italians] have certainly got him.

So what, we ask, was going on?

 

Benito and His Fans

We can't dismiss Will's opinion as simple naïveté. Will Rogers was not an uneducated rube. He had come from a well-to-do family who had sent him to private schools. Although he never graduated, his formal education was by no means out of the ordinary for the time. He was certainly not the jesting country bumpkin of his professional persona.

But what is a surprise is that Will's high regard for Benito was by no means unusual. As can be verified by searching through old newspapers, magazines, and film clips, Benito had his fans. And not just in Italy or America. Just get a load of some other members of the the Mussolini Admiration Society.

In 1931, Mohandas K. Gandhi - the Great Mahatma and now a venerable 62 years old - wrote to the French writer Romain Roland:

[Mussolin's] care of the poor people, his opposition to over-urbanization, his attempt to bring about coordination between capital and labor seem to me to demand very careful attention.

My own fundamental doubt of course abides in that these reforms are forced. But that is true even of democratic institutions. What strikes me is that behind Mussolini's ruthlessness is the motive of serving his people. Even behind his bombastic speeches there is a ring of sincerity and burning love for his people.

True, the Mahatma's words are scarcely a starry-eyed endorsement of the man. But neither are they the stern denouncement we would expect from the Great Soul for a brutal autocrat. All in all we see more empathy than criticism.

And what about this opinion:

There seems no question that [Mussolini] is really interested in what we are doing and I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose of restoring Italy and to prevent general European trouble.

That is what the new American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wrote.

Of course, quotes like these are often cited by people who don't like FDR, Mohandas, and other (ptui) "liberals". Huh! Looks like to be leftist is to praise Mussolini!

But hold on there, Pilgrim. Let's look at some other quotes:

Mussolini is making a new nation out of Italy. He is one of the world's most vigorous personalities. Many of his measures are unique and they are effective.

- Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury under Calvin Coolidge.

He was in those years in his foreign policy a sound and useful leader, no more aggressive in his nationalism than many a democratic statesman.

- Henry Stimson, Secretary of State under Herbert Hoover

In his own country he was the antidote to a deadly poison. For the rest of Europe he has been a tonic which has done to all incalculable good. He is the greatest figure of our age.

- Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere, Conservative Member of the British Parliament

You can find similar praise from other notables including Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Edison. So we see that praise for Benito crossed party and ideological lines.

It wasn't just politicians and celebrities who gave Benito praise. If you leaf through the periodicals of the time, you'll find stories about Benito the family man, Benito the intellectual, and Benito who advocated a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. There were write-ups in American magazines and newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, Time, McCall's, Cosmopolitan, and even (get this) Good Housekeeping.

And still somehow by 1945 Il Duce (pronounced ill DOO-chey) had gone from being admired by humanitarians like Mahatma Gandhi and Will Rogers to being one of the most hated men in the world, despised second only to Adolf Hitler. How was this possible?

 

Benito Makes It Big

The years from 1900 to 1920 were times where the world underwent changes even more radical than in the years from 1980 to 2000. In 1900, the world was ruled largely by kings and queens. People moved about on foot or by horse and carriage. To travel across the oceans you went by boat.

But within two decades people were driving cars and flying in airplanes. Radio was a commercial enterprise, and motion pictures were rapidly replacing live theaters as popular mass and sedentary entertainment.

And the old monarchies were falling like flies.

In 1900, Nicholas II had been five years on the Throne of All the Russias, and Kaiser Wilhelm was sitting firm the saddle as Emperor of Germany. But by 1920, Nicholas was dead and gone - as were his wife, the Empress Alexandra, their daughters Anastasia, Maria, Olga, Tatiana, and their son, Alexei. Kaiser Bill was living in exile in Doorn in the Netherlands. Taking the hint, most of the remaining kings and queens had given up all but ceremonial duties.

Italy had undergone changes, too. In 1900, Italy had been a unified country for only about 40 years. It was in 1861 that Giuseppe Garibaldi had established Vittorio Tommaso as king of a United Italy. So when Vittorio, as King Victor Emmanuel, died in 1878, his son, Umberto I, was only the second king of Italy.

By 1920 Umberto was still on the throne, yes, but Italy was in a tough spot. The country was falling apart and all because of what happened in a country far, far away called Ethiopia.

You see, in the 19th century, Europeans decided it would be best if they ruled the world. The people of non-western cultures - "races" was the term - should realize this and wait to be carefully trained and nurtured until they were ready for self-rule.

It was England, of course, who had a leg up on colonization. By 1900, the sun quite literally never set on the British Empire. Queen Victoria - until recently the longest reigning British monarch - was one of the few royalty still secure on the throne and looked forward to expanding her empire in the new millennium even further.

Italy, too, had gotten into the game. In 1889, they had invaded the East African country of Somalia and then moved into Etruria to the north. These countries were perfect staging grounds to invade Ethiopia which would give the Italians a gateway into Central Africa with its lucrative trade in exotic items like ivory.

Which in 1895 is exactly what they did. But there was just once small hitch: The Ethiopians. They were already ruled by a king, and they didn't want to be Italian subjects.

Huh! Big deal! The Italians had a modern European army. It should be no sweat to defeat a bunch of "savages".

But unfortunately (for the Italians), the Ethiopian army trounced the invaders most soundly. This was not what anyone expected.

Naturally the Italians blamed their king. Although Umberto had been dubbed "The Good", Il Buono, some of the people were now clamoring that he step down.

Of course, he didn't, and so a young man named Gaetano Bresci decided to help him step down. On July 29, 1900, Umberto was visiting Milan, and Gaetano walked up and pumped four bullets into his sovereign. With no capital punishment in Italy, Gaetano was sentenced to life imprisonment. That wasn't too long, though, since less than a year later Gaetano was found dead in his cell. His death was officially ruled a suicide. Yes.

So Umberto's son, Victor Emmanuel III, became king. Italy, like most monarchies at that time, was a constitutional monarchy. There were elected representatives sitting in a parliament and a prime minister had the actual political power. Free elections were held and the government passed laws that, in principle, were for the good of the people.

But for some citizens this wasn't good enough. Why bother with a king at all? Let any executive functions be handled by the prime minister and the minor functionaries take care of the details. And the citizens can decide who they want in office based on the platforms of the various political parties.

Now Gaetano had been an anarchist, and although it seems contradictory, there were organized anarchist political parties. But being an anarchist had never been particularly hip and cool and gradually anarchism pretty much fizzled out.

Instead, what had become hip and cool was to be was a socialist. And in the late 1870's, Alessandro Mussolini, the town blacksmith of Predappio, a small town about 40 miles east-southeast of Bologna, had become dedicated to the principles espoused by Henri de Saint-Simon, François-Marie-Charles Fourier , and especially those of Friedrich Engels and his buddy Karl Marx.

Now to this day socialism is a type of government that no one can explain to everyone's satisfaction. Mainly because there is no one type of socialism. But basically the philosophy rejects the idea that the rich capitalists are the ones responsible for their wealth and instead holds that the income from a business is really created by and should be owned by the employees themselves. But most of all socialism wants to avoid the boom-or-bust cycles that continually plague the capitalistic system and wreak havoc on the lives of the workers.

So socialism advocates an economic system where the government directly plans factory and agricultural output, controls prices, and regulates wages. Everyone will then adopt a share-and-share-alike attitude and be content with their equitable distribution of wealth. Although socialism has always seemed like a good idea, in practice it never quite pans out, particularly once you get rich politicians and fat cat businessmen involved.

Today most socialists say they are not in favor of the revolutionary tactics of Marxist Communism. Instead they want to effect changes through legislation. And it was only after the Russian Revolution that communists and socialists really acquired distinct identities. Plenty of socialists, including Alessandro Mussolini, saw virtues in Marxist philosophies.

So while serving as the town blacksmith, Alessandro Mussolini, the socialist, had been vocally advocating overthrow of the government. This was an advocacy that in 1878 got him arrested and sentenced to house arrest. House arrest made a lot of sense. For one thing it was cheap. Alessandro would not have to stay inside his house, but he could go anywhere on his property. He would continued to work as a blacksmith and pay for his own food, wine, and clothes.

But after a few years, Alessandro had tired of being an imprisoned martyr to the socialist cause. So he asked to be set free. The authorities said OK provide he promised to be a good boy.

Sadly, although Alessandro promised, he still couldn't control his pugnacious temper. During political discussions, if anyone disagreed with him he would threatened to destroy their private property. Sometimes the police had to tell him to simmer down.

By 1882 Alessandro had simmered down - at least enough to marry Rosa Maltoni. As the local school teacher, Rosa lived in a city-provided house that served as both the school and the Mussolini family residence. There on July 29, 1883, Benito was born.

So we see that the Mussolinis were a perfectly respectable family. They lived frugally and so had money left over for books which - this is not just apologistic revision - young Benito loved reading.

Alessandro's own work and political activities didn't leave much time for parenting, and he remained a distant and somewhat formidable figure to his son. Nevertheless, Benito seems to have looked up to his dad, and we suspect that what emerged as a fractious and pugnacious personality was an admiring son's emulation.

Whether a milder father would have produced a milder Benito, we will, of course, never know. But it soon became evident that Benito was what we now call a "handful". He got into fights at the slightest provocation and eventually his parents had to pack him off to various boarding schools run by stern no-nonsense priests.

These schools were not much help. Benito continually ran into trouble. The fault, though, was not solely on one side. The other students tended to come from the uppercrust and so Benito was ridiculed and bullied for his humble origins. Never one to suffer in silence, at one point Benito became so angered that he stabbed a schoolmate with a pocket knife. That got him expelled, and he was packed off to another, more secular school in Forlimpopoli, a small town about 10 miles from Predappio.

There Benito did fairly well, at least academically. It was also in Forlimpopoli that he found he had a talent for both writing and speaking.

Amazingly Benito graduated. Then in 1901 and at age 18, he decided to follow in his mom's footsteps. He received his certificate to teach and became an elementary school master. But like his dad, Benito also became involved in socialist politics.

Suddenly in 1903 Benito up and moved to Switzerland. Whether this was because job opportunities were better across the Alps or whether Benito just wanted to avoid military conscription depends on who is telling the story. Most authors say it was the latter.

But in Switzerland, Benito also continued with his political activities. He helped organize strikes for workers, and he continued to develop his speaking skills.

Today we look at movie clips of Benito on the stump and it's hard to keep from laughing. But we should remember that when viewed from a crowd a hundred yards away, such flamboyant posturing and projection doesn't look so ridiculous. And it wasn't until we had the close-up clips that Benito became more of an object of derision than of fear.

Benito's activities in Switzerland are a bit obscure. His mom had given him some money to tide him over (he evidently told her he had a job lined up) but once the money was gone, he had to get by scrounging from the locals, and if need be, a little two-bit thievery.

It was also in Switzerland that Benito found there was a demand for someone who could crank out political rhetoric. So he began writing articles for the local socialist newspapers and magazines. His articles brought him to the attention of the local party members and allowed him to improve his writing skills to a professional level. Best of all the editors actually paid him. One of the magazines he wrote for was L'Avvenire del Lavoratori (The Future of the Workers). In his articles, Benito railed against private property, censorship, and war.

The Swiss authorities, though, weren't too impressed with the reformists politics of a young provincial who wasn't even a citizen. The rabble-rouser - who was soon advocating violence - was arrested and deported back to Italy. There he was still subject to conscription, and in 1904 he again hopped across the border to Switzerland. This stay, though, was brief as Italy issued an amnesty for the draft dodgers - provided they serve their time.

Benito probably would not have returned except that his mom was ill. So he completed his stint in the Italian army and in 1906 he was discharged. Sadly, his mom had died in the interim, and Benito took up teaching again. But now at least he could stay in Italy.

We can't say that Benito was much of a role model. He had developed a fondness for the ladies whether they were single or married. He also liked to drink and gamble and like many gamblers he would vent forth voluble and vehement oaths - particularly when he lost.

We get variable reports on what the students thought of Benito. Some say the kids didn't like him and saw him - big surprise - as a tyrant. In other cases we heard they said he was OK. The parents, though, seemed never to have approved of Benito's drinking, gambling, and fiddling around with the local ragazze.

Eventually Benito decided elementary kids were just too tough to teach. So he qualified to teach French in high school and moved to Forli where his dad had relocated. But he wasn't any more successful there, and he soon left for a school at Onelgia. This was on the other side of the country and is where Italy turns onto the Riviera. But Benito stayed there only a few months.

Clearly Benito was not cut out to mold the minds of Italy's youth. In fact, it seems he wasn't worth un fico secco at almost anything.

Except rabble rousing. He definitely had developed the knack for banging out his inflammatory opinion pieces. In 1908 he went to Austria where he worked on the staff of a local newspaper in Trento. He also wrote a novel that was (eventually) published (an English translation appeared in 1928). If you read reviews that say it's a good book, forget it. It stinks.

So as the first decade of the twentieth century drew to a close, we find historians have courteously dubbed Benito a "journalist". And it was as a newspaperman that Benito finally found a stable avocation.

But not that stable. His political writing and activity once more got him booted back to Italy where in 1910, he was again living in Forli. There he began editing his own paper, La Lotta di Classe (Class Struggle). He continued to champion the workers, freedom, and peace while calling for the overthrow of monarchies.

It was at Trento that Benito met a young lady named Ida Dalser. She was three years his senior and although it actually appears they later got married and had a son, Benito never acknowledged their union. He had, in fact, met and - ah - "set up housekeeping" with a young lady named Rachele Guidi. Rachele was also from Predappio and she and Benito had been in a relationship even before he married Ida. Legal obligations to Ida notwithstanding, Benito married Rachele in 1915, and they had a total of five kids. But Benito never got tired of entertaining other ladies, and he was always had least one girlfriend on the side.

Benito was now focusing on politics and journalism, and there was one lesson he learned from being a writer - as did another young newspaperman, Mark Twain. You can write fake stories, and if the people liked what you wrote, they would believe you even if the stories made no sense. Better yet, you could contradict yourself and people would forget what you had written earlier.

And by 1910, Benito was a formidable speaker. So he decided to enter into politics for real and became the secretary of the Forli branch of the Socialist Party.

Then in 1911, Italy - still intent on colonizing Africa - invaded Libya. Italy had claimed the country earlier, but the then-powerful Ottoman Empire - ergo, Turkey - was in charge as they were with most of the Middle East.

The war only lasted a few months and in the end about 2500 Italian and 4000 Turkish soldiers died. There was a negotiated settlement, and the terms were so favorable that historians usually talk about an Italian victory. The Ottomans then pulled their armies out of Libya and Italy now with their other African colonies, spoke about their empire.

There was just one wee little problem with the victory. It had bankrupted Italy. What had been a time of increasing prosperity had turned into an economic depression for a not particularly wealthy citizenry.

And Benito?

By now Benito was a firm pacifist, and like most agitating pacifists during wartime, he had been quickly arrested and tossed into prison. But the government didn't seem too concerned about an increasingly follicularly challenged two-bit editor. He was released in five months.

The socialists, though, saw Benito as their rising star. He had become so adapt at writing his ranting pro-socialist articles that the party bigwigs made him the editor of Italy's leading socialist newspaper, Avanti! (Forward!). The party's confidence was justified when under Benito - who was now just turning thirty - the readership quadrupled.

But Benito was not just a name on some inside page masthead. With Avanti! becoming both popular and notorious, Benito himself quickly achieved celebrity status.

As Benito's fame grew, the Socialist party officials started having second thoughts. It seems that Benito did what he wanted, wrote what he wanted, and didn't give a hoot what the party leaders wanted. Still he did succeeded - as the increased circulation of Avanti! proved. Benito's star as a socialist leader continued to rise.

Then came 1914.

Today historians still debate on what caused the complex domino effect where the various alliances and agreements between disparate countries blew up. All we know is that in August the First World War was on.

Italy had treaties of friendship with Austria and Hungary - then a single country - and so officially they should have been on Germany's side. But the government recognized that going to war so soon after the Pyrrhic Libyan victory was not popular with the people nor did it make any economic sense.

So Italy declared neutrality. Then in a secret pact with Britain, Italy agreed to attack Austria-Hungary from the south. This would draw off German troops from the stalled western front thus making it possible for Britain and France to push into Germany.

Just do that, Britain said sweetly, and after the war Italy can have south Tyrol (east of Switzerland), as well as Istria, Dalmatia, and Albania along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea near western Greece - all that and the German colonies in Africa.

Ha! Africa at last! With such a generous deal, Benito, doing a decidedly non-pacifistic flip-flop, supported the war.

But supporting the war was counter to the Socialist Doctrine. So now with a good excuse, the party leaders booted Mussolini off the staff of Avanti! and out of the party.

There was, though, a war on, and one that Benito had publicly supported. So he volunteered for the army. Stationed in the Alps, Benito's service was satisfactory.

Then in February 1917 he was with a group of soldiers when their grenade launcher exploded. Several of the men were killed and Benito ended up with over 40 bits of shrapnel in his body. But the wounds were not particularly serious, and following the Armistice, he was discharged as an honored veteran.

Although we may be getting a bit ahead of the story, we have to ask. Just how did Benito in 1919 go from being a former and rotten school teacher who had never held an elected office in his life to being Italian dictator in 1922?

Well, with the Avanti! job gone, Benito started editing his own paper, Il Popolo d'Italia (The Italian People). Clearly he couldn't claim to be a socialist anymore, but as the name implies, the new paper still took a strong populistic stance.

Not just a populistic stance but nationalistic as well. Italy and its people came first. None of this "Workers of the World Unite!" or other diversity-driven drivel. Soon a lot of the original Avanti! readers also left the party and began seeing Benito not just as a newspaperman, but as their leader. But leader of what was not yet clear.

 

Benito: From Insegnante to Duce

World War I was a complex war. History says the "Bad Guys" were Germany, Austria and Hungary (lumped together), and Turkey (called the Ottomans). The "Good Guys" were England, the United States (who just caught the tail end of the mess), France, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Russia (for a while), Japan, Serbia, Montenegro, the Arabs, Thailand (then called Siam), and, of course, Italy. The Good Guys won, naturally, and the question now was how to divide up the spoils.

Italy, you remember, had made a deal with Britain. But now the English sadly shook their heads.

Italy had not carried their weight, they said. The Italian army was supposed to have invaded Austria and drawn off the German army. But the Italian soldiers had only advanced north a whopping ten - count 'em - ten miles across the border.

With Italy making such a paltry contribution, Britain was being generous indeed when they granted Italy only the south of Tyrol and Istria. Forget about the rest of the Adriatic Coast, much less the German colonies in Africa. If Italy didn't like the deal, well, that was just tough tiddy.

So by 1920 the windfall of war had been split between England, France, and America. England and France continued to expand their empires by grabbing up the Middle East, and in America the war led to the boom times of the Roaring Twenties and the nation's emergence onto the international stage fully at par with the two traditional Empire builders.

But in Italy - who had spent more on the war than their total expenses for the last 50 years - was in a mess. Economic recession set in and to say times were tough is like saying the Titanic was delayed by frosty weather.

Naturally when times get tough people blame the politicians. It doesn't matter that the people voted them in the first place. The government is still being run by a bunch of jerks who couldn't pour piscio from un stivale with the istruzione written on the tacco. And the people weren't just sitting around and griping either. They were doing something.

In fact, the poor farm workers - the "peasants" - were banding together and threatening to seize property owned by the aristocrats. Some did.

Things were even worse in the cities. There the workers had already been taking over the factories and kicking out the owners and managers. What made all this worrisome was that at the same time, the Communists in Russia were winning what was a horrible civil war and it was clear that they would soon establish a Marxist state. The rapid and unexpected success of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and the rest of the Bolsheviks had made mainstream Europeans and Americans decidedly nervous.

But not as nervous as the big boys in Italy. And not just nervous. The middle class and wealthy were terrified. So knowing that the government's action would be glacial, the big businessmen and landowners began hiring the newly discharged veterans - particularly the elite Arditi troops - as private militias. Riots broke out, and civil war was becoming a real possibility.

Now we saw that Benito had started out being a socialist, championing the shop owners, the small farmers, and the factory workers. But Benito began thinking. He was still for the working class, of course. But how could the working class thrive unless the agriculturalists and the industrialists prospered first? Then - although this isn't exactly as Benito expressed it - the benefits would, shall we say, "trickle down" to the rest of the population. But strong action was needed and quickly if the Communist were to be kept at bay.

Living in Milan, Benito had continued writing Il Popolo and the readers increasingly saw themselves as his followers. But there was no real organization, and so Benito formally created what was in effect his own personal party.

Called the Milan fascio, the name simply means the Milan "bunch", a name Benito borrowed from the Latin fasces. As anyone with a smattering of Roman history knows, the fasces was the bundle of rods signifying the imperium of a Roman leader. If you want to see a picture of the fasces, look no further than the speaker's platform of the United States House of Representatives.

But the "Milan bunch" isn't a great name for a political party. So soon they became simply the Fascisti. And that's what they've been called ever since.

Of course, with a political wing, Benito needed an operational wing. So he got a bunch of the army veterans and put them in uniforms with distinctive black shirts. Now he could wage war - verbally, journalistically, and physically - against the Communists and his old buddies, the Socialists.

Seeing that Benito was now on their side, the well-heeled citizens, including some of the government officials, discreetly approached him. Perhaps he might use his private army to - well - to "handle" the rioters? The government would be most grateful, and of course the industrialists and agriculturalists would be happy to provide generous financial contributions to keep Benito and his friends going. After all, counter-rioting against rioters can be hungry and thirsty work.

Soon the Black Shirts were in the streets. Although they had guns, they preferred smashing heads. Murder was not good for business, and too much violence of any type might produce backlash from the consumers and voters which is the last thing anyone wanted.

So Benito turned to one of the strangest weapons devised. That was castor oil. After a riot Benito's gangs would force a pint of castor oil down their prisoner's throats. The tactic was also used on otherwise peaceful citizens who publicly defied the Fascists. The physiological effects of this foul tasting "treatment" - although in these enhancedly interrogative days is sometimes referred to in a humorous manner - were debilitating and even dangerous.

But castor oil was then - not so much today - also used as a treatment for stomach ailments if taken in teaspoon quantities. So some people - including Will Rogers - used the metaphor that a little castor oil was a good thing - implying that in the right amount Benito's violence was justifiable and even beneficial since it was the remedy that cured Italy's ills.

Unfortunately, the country remained in a mess, financially and literally. Riots increased and rather than avert civil war, it looks like Benito was helping start it.

Benito definitely had the knack for making his higher-ups uneasy. As his socialist mentors in the old Avanti! days had found, Benito would do want he wanted and seemed entirely incapable of taking advice from more experienced politicians. Benito was useful, true, but it was clear he would have to be controlled.

Then in 1920, the Italian prime minister, Giovanni Giolitti, had a brilliant idea. Benito himself had never held office, but growing numbers of his Facisti followers were even now sitting in the parliament. So Giovanni would ask them to form a coalition and he, as prime minister, could control them without any help from Benito.

Fat chance. The coalition was fragile from the beginning, and by 1922, the country was still in chaos with riots between the Fascists and other parties taking up a lot of the time. The coalition fell apart.

Then Benito had a simple idea. The reason the coalition failed is that he was the leader of the Fascists. If you want them controlled, put him in charge.

Benito didn't just ask. He told. Make him prime minister, he said, or he and his followers would march on Rome.

To this day a lot of people think Benito and his buddies did march on Rome and took over. But it turned out the march was unnecessary.

When King Victor Emmanuel learned of the plan, he nearly dropped a load. He quickly summoned Benito and asked him to serve as prime minister. So Benito Mussolini, the drinking, gambling, and whoopee making-failed elementary teacher, who had never held elected or appointed office and who had absolutely zero experience in government, became prime minister of Italy.

But being appointed prime minister by constitutional means was too dull. So Benito had his followers go ahead and march to Rome just so they could say they had. One author said it was a joke. A single army regiment could have stopped them. But Benito was already in charge and the - quote - "March on Rome" - unquote - went down in history.

 

The Roaring Benito

We must repeat. Today the world sees Benito as the strutting jutted-jawed stronzo that emerged in World War II, and who allied himself with the worst mass-murderer in history. But with the throes of the Great Depression, there were many Americans that yearned for such a leader.

That does not mean that Benito was tossed accolades by everyone. His brutal hand worried a lot of people. The famed conductor, Arturo Toscanini, had hoped - as did most Italians - that the new regime would be good for Italy. But when he realized what Il Duce was all about he became an instant and rabid opponent of Fascism in general and Benito in particular. He flatly refused to play Giovinezza, the Fascist anthem at concerts. In doing so he was making a direct political statement and was literally taking his life into his hands. Once before a concert a group of Black Shirts stopped him at the theater door and asked if he was playing the song. When Arturo defiantly said he was not, one of the thugs lashed out and the group beat Arturo so badly he had to be taken back to his hotel. It was only Arturo's world wide fame that kept him alive, and when he left Italy to take over the New York Philharmonic he didn't return home until after the war.

Then only two years after he became prime minister, Benito was being accused of murder.

On June 19, 1924, Giacomo Matteotti, an Italian journalist and member of the Chambers of Deputies, was kidnapped and murdered. Since Giacomo had been one of Mussolini's strongest opponents and an ardent socialist and anti-Fascist, it was assumed that Benito ordered the killing.

No one, of course, will ever know if Benito did or didn't. An Official CooperToons Opinion is that it wasn't necessary. The big boss always has enough underlings who are happy to act without being told. That way the boss can be shocked! shocked! if the word gets out about the dirty work of his flunkies.

But that Benito approved afterwards is not to be doubted. Nor did it help that after some Fascists were arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime, that they were just as quickly pardoned.

But other than approving of the murders of his political opponents, just what did Benito do when he got in charge?

Well, for starters once it was clear that freely and fairly elected political opponents made life difficult, Benito did away with free and fair elections. He declared a state of emergency, got himself voted absolute powers, abolished rival political parties, and claimed to have made the trains run on time.

Ironically during all of Benito's tenure, Italy was officially ruled by a constitutional monarch, King Victor Emmanuel. So it's probably no surprise that the first thing Italy did after Benito was gone was to abolish the monarchy.

For his part, once he was in office, Benito realized his foamy mouthed and spittle flinging diatribes - which included inciting violence against his opponents - had made him look bad to the rest of the world. So he now had to make it look as if he didn't mean all those horrible things he had said that had made him so popular.

Gone were the uniform, boots, and funny cap. Benito decked himself out in top hat, coat and tails, and yes, spats. He also went out of his way to assure Americans that he was their friend. Appearing on film, he spoke directly to Americans of the great friendship between their countries. And he spoke in English - rather quaint English, true, but English nonetheless.

As far as his doing something for Italy - which was now his job - the most immediate changes were in education. First of all the new Education Minister Giovanni Gentile (pronounced "gen-TILL-ee") created "subsidiary" schools for the kids who would not enter universities. Ostensibly this was to keep the schools more in step with the job market. Then somewhat contradictorily for an education minister, Giovanni reduced the number of teachers colleges. However, for the middle class and rich kids, universities became easier to get into as long as you wanted to study economics and the humanities. Study of science and technical subjects declined.

It turns out that the reforms were not popular with most parents - not even with Benito's supporters. Instead the new programs and schools had actually limited social mobility for their kids.

All in all, the new educational programs were un casino from the start. Filling teachers slots became more difficult and science education - which had produced outstanding scientists like Enrico Fermi - declined. It was hard to pretend that Benito's "innovations" had worked particularly since the subsidiary schools were abolished a few years later only to be replaced with vocational training institutes - which is what they had been in the first place.

As far as Benito's much vaunted financial programs we need to remember the story told by Vance Randolph in his iconic and masterful book Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales.

A farmer was having digestive problems which produced effects that were driving his family out of their home. His wife told him to go to the doctor.

The doctor asked if the gentleman could give him an example of the problem and as soon as the doctor stopped gagging he exclaimed:

"My God! Something must have crawled up inside you and died!"

"Do this right away!" he said. "Go home and eat a big dish of raw onions with ground garlic and wild ramps for dinner, and drink two pints of beer. Then before you go to bed eat a half pound of Limburger cheese."

"Do you reckon all that will cure me?" the farmer asked.

"No, I don't think it will cure you," the doctor admitted. "But it might help some.

And Benito's programs did help some.

Benito liked to use military jargon. He started what is now called the Battle for Grain. The goal was to increase domestic cereal production and reduce imports. So if farmers planted grain they received subsidies and government support.

And Benito also initiated the Battle for Land which involved the draining of swamps to expand arable areas. Other battles were the Battle for the Lira - to shore up the value of the currency - and the Battle for Births - to get more little Italians sprouting up in the country.

That Benito's programs helped some isn't denied, particularly by those who like Benito. The Battle for Grain did in fact increase grain production and reduced imports. The Battle for Land increased employment á la the Works Projects Administration of FDR, as well as opening some new lands for cultivation.

On the other hand, the programs affected only a small part of the population. In the Battle for Land, the areas reclaimed were too small to have any impact on the economy as there was really no change in the amount of land owned by small vs. the large landowners. The Battle for Grain actually discouraged production of other produce which would have been better suited for specific regions (after all, vineyards are best for hilly regions). Still, the programs were trumpeted as great successes. And at least it looked like the government was doing something.

 

The International Benito

Benito's economic plans looked good - at least when reported in the Italian press. But we shouldn't forget that in the 1930's Benito's status rose in the international world as well. And given what happened later, the reasons are surprising, especially since some of the accolades were for the way he stood up to Hitler.

Ha? (To quote Shakespeare.) Benito stood up to Hitler?

Yes, Benito stood up to Hitler.

You see, starting in 1933 and his first year in office, Hitler decided that Austria should be part of a "Greater" Germany. So he went to speak to the Austrian premier, Engelbert Dollfuss.

How about it? asked Adolf. Wouldn't you like to be a German citizen? Naturally, Engelbert said no. That was not in Austria's national interests.

Benito agreed wholeheartedly with Engelbert. In fact, he and Engelbert were personal friends. Benito railed against Hitler who, confronted with international opposition and possible military resistance, backed down. Then when a year later Engelbert was murdered by the Nazis, the international outcry - with Benito being among the most vocal - was so great that again Hitler put his plans of annexation on hold.

We see, then, that far from seeing Benito as a toady to Hitler, the world recognized him as one of Adolf's most vehement and effective opponents. Benito's status in the international community rose accordingly. He should have quit while he was ahead.

Benito knew that his economic programs were not - to quote modern business patois - "meeting projected expectations". All the state controlled news stories couldn't change that fact. And as every world leader knows, there's one sure-fired way to fix domestic failures. Just start a war.

And what better place to start a war than Ethiopia?

It still rankled that the Ethiopians had trounced the Italians way back in 1895. So Benito decided that an attack on Ethiopia and their king, Haile Selassie, was in order. This time Benito made sure the Italians were better armed, and in short order they were occupying what was then called Italian East Africa.

Again there was an international outcry and this time it was against Benito. Haile went to the League of Nations, and they voted for sanctions against Italy.

Suddenly Benito didn't look so much like a champion of freedom anymore. Even Will Rogers, Benito's long time fan, began to lump Benito in with Hitler (whom Will despised). But as happens today, western countries will rarely waste time regarding troubles, massacres, and genocides in less developed countries unless the less developed countries have resources that the western countries want. Italy stayed in Ethiopia.

And if Benito could take over Ethiopia, then Hitler felt it was time to return to the Annexation of Austria. But Benito was still concerned that the Annexation (called Anschluss or "Connection") would result in loss of south Tryol and Istria which had been given to him after World War I (and which now, in fact, are part of modern Austria). There seemed to be only one thing to do.

Make a deal with Hitler, of course. So in 1936, Germany and Italy agreed to serve as an "Axis" - that is the center about which all other European countries should rotate. The next year Japan joined in.

Not coincidentally, the formation of the Axis Powers coincided with another event which today a lot of Americans are no longer aware of. That was the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War was one of the most bitter wars ever fought. It was caused, like so many civil wars, by free and fair elections.

You see, Spain also had political parties composed of ordinary people as well as socialists, communists, and yes, fascists. So when the socialists and communists made inroads in the 1936 elections, the generals - among them the Chief of Staff General Francisco Franco - said they were in now charge.

Naturally the Spanish government objected. Although some people think Franco booted out the king, the truth was Alphonso XIII was sympathetic to the military. In fact in 1931 he had already left the country.

As in Italy, the socialists and communists were a force. And once they had been voted in, they planned to abolish the monarchy and replace it with a - quote - "Republican government" - unquote. And so Alphonso thought there was no point to stick around.

Actually the "Republicans" were so openly socialistic and communistic that they were suspect in countries like Britain and America. And once the fighting started, large numbers of American and British communists and socialists went to Spain to join in. The Americans became known as the "Abraham Lincoln Brigade", and although they were never part of a single unit, they continued to hold reunions into the late 20th century. The last Lincoln Brigade member died in 2016.

On the other hand, the "Nationalists" were supported by Italy and Germany, both of whom were supplying the Spanish generals with men and matériel. In particular Germany sent airplanes from their revitalized Luftwaffe, the German Air Force, which had been so admired and praised by Colonel Charles Lindbergh. The German planes (and pilots) had advanced to the point where they could drop tons of bombs on cities in just a few minutes.

On April 26, 1937, the Basque city of Guernica (population ca. 7000) was bombed by Fascist planes. Ostensibly the attack was to destroy a bridge across the Mundaca River to prevent Republican forces from retreating. But the raid flattened the entire town. Estimates of the number of civilians killed ranges from around 200 to over 1500. Although the bombing was first denied by Franco and his friends, newspaper reports and photographs left no doubt that this dry run of World War II bombing tactics really happened.

After the mid-1930's, then, the Spanish Civil War had changed the way people saw Fascism. It was no longer just a political party that - sure, there a few extremists - could fix problems when things got tough. Instead Fascists were dropping bombs on civilians.

Worse, Benito - once the man who stood up to Hitler - had now become his good chum. After being given assurances that Italy could keep southern Tryol, Benito waved any objections of the Anschuss. On March 12, 1938, Austria became part of Germany.

Well, we know what happened. Adolf kept demanding more land and kept getting it. But then he said he needed Poland. Neville Chamberlain, the English Prime Minister, and who had been agreeable to Hitler's earlier aspirations, said no soap. If Hitler invaded Poland, England would declare war on Germany. Well, he did, and they did, and on September 3, 1939, World War II began.

Now some historians have claimed that one big difference between Adolf and Benito is that Benito's brand of Fascism did not have racial or religious bigotry as part of its doctrine. But we also know that Clara Petacci, Benito's girlfriend for his last ten years, said that Benito was fiercely anti-Semitic even before he came to power. And it's definite that Benito rapidly brought Italy's laws to par with Adolf's.

After 1938 Benito initiated a number of anti-Semitic laws. It was mandated that Italians and Jews were distinct races, and Italian Jews were stripped of professional jobs in universities, the military, the civil service, or in the financial industry. Jewish children could not enroll in Italian public or private schools. Intermarriage of Jews and non-Jews was forbidden. By 1940, even the licenses of Jewish small businesses were revoked. They must - the law said - sell their businesses to "Aryans". And yes, concentration camps for Jews were established on Italian soil.

In fairness, the Italians people seemed less inclined to fall into lockstep with either Benito or Adolf. When things began to get really bad - with Italian Jews being shipped to Germany - more than 60% of the Jewish population was in hiding and most were sheltered by Italian civilians. One lady was hidden in the home of an Italian woman and had food brought to her by a small boy. She was later hidden in a convent by the local priest who gave her a nun's habit for disguise. Although books have been written that Pius XIII was sympathetic to Germany, many Jews were hidden in the Vatican itself. Still, it's been estimated 15 % of Italian Jews were shipped to and died in German concentration camps.

 

Benito Bumbles

As we said, World War II began on September 3, 1939. And due to the treaty with Germany, Benito declared a sympathetic war on England in 1940. Then on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the next day America declared war on Japan. Three days later, December 11, Italy and Germany declared war on America and later the same day America declared war on Italy and Germany.

After that, nothing went right for Benito. He sent troops into France, and it was soon found they weren't needed since France quickly surrendered to Germany. Then the British invaded Libya, which you'll remember had been occupied by Italy. The English defeated the Italians wherever they fought, and so Benito ordered the invasion of Egypt which had been held by the English for decades. The Italians had only advanced about 60 miles when the 80,000 Italians were defeated by 30,000 British.

Hitler, realizing that Benito needed help, sent in General Erwin Rommel. However, British General Claude Auchinleck stopped Rommel at El Alamein only 100 miles east of Alexandria. When Erwin tried again at the same spot in late 1942, he was defeated by Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. So within a year of America entering the war, the Italians had already become sick of the whole silly mess.

In 1943 things could only get worse. And they did. Although Benito dispatched ships into the Mediterranean and even the Atlantic, they ended up being defeated at almost every turn. German troops finally moved into Italy itself, a move that the Italians - except for the dwindling number of Fascisti - did not like.

So much for the good news. The bad news was that on July 9, 1943 the Allied Forces - commanded by American General Dwight Eisenhower - landed in Sicily. The Allies were greeted as liberators and all in all, they got along with the people very well. The Italian army was in total disarray.

Two weeks later, on July 24, Benito ordered a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council to decide what to do next. Count Dino Grandi, who was one of the few Italian Fascists to oppose the war but was nevertheless still a member of the Council, stood up and began to trash Benito most vigorously. He then made a motion for King Victor Emmanuel to resume his constitutional authority. The vote carried by a 2:1 margin and so the live grenades that Dino had strapped to his person were not needed. On orders of the King, Benito was arrested. Among those who had agreed with Benito's ouster was his own son-in-law, the Count Galeazzo Ciano.

Thinking things would now be a bit easier with Benito out of the way, the Allies crossed the Straits of Messina and landed on the Italian mainland. A week later the Allies moved into the Bay of Naples and landed at Salerno. On September 8, Italy surrendered.

However, the Germans - who had troops stationed in Italy - quickly took over the country and urged the repudiation of the surrender. King Emmanuel and most of the anti-Mussolini faction managed to escape. One exception was Count Ciano who was in his turn arrested, - quote - "tried" - unquote - and executed.

But things weren't easy for the Germans either. Italy was now engaged in a civil war where the Germans and their sympathizers were fighting "partisan" guerillas and resistance fighters. The Germans had little help from the Italian military which for the most part felt the war was over. Italian soldiers left their regiments in droves and went home or joined the guerillas.

Benito, though, was still being held prisoner and was being shuttled around the country. However, the precautions were to no avail. On September 12, SS Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny ordered gliders filled with German commandos to land at the Campo Imperatore Hotel, a still extant resort in the Italian Alps and where Benito was being held. Otto and his troops rushed in and found Benito, who quickly grabbed a trench coat and fedora, and hustled him into a small plane and freedom.

Benito should have gotten out and stayed in Germany. However, after a brief visit with Adolf he returned to Italy and set up his headquarters in the northern half of Italy which was still occupied by the Germans. Called the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI), or in English the Italian Social Republic. For those who prefer informality, the Republic of Salò is fine. Operating from Milan, Benito said he was willing to continue fighting to the last Italian life - except as we soon learned, his own.

Gradually the British and Americans worked their way north and at the beginning of 1945 they were nearing Milan. Among the casualties of the Allied bombing was the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie where Leonardo da Vinci had painted The Last Supper. Fortunately, the monks had protected the painting by packing sandbags inside and out. When the church took a direct hit, that wall remained standing.

By mid-April, 1945, Benito had decided to see if anything could be salvaged. He met with a group of partisans but they said there wasn't any reason for them to negotiate with him since the Germans themselves had been exploring the possibility of a separate surrender.

Benito saw it was time to "git". So he, his girlfriend, Clara Petacci, and their hangers-on loaded up in cars and accompanied by German soldiers headed north. Benito put on a Wehrmacht greatcoat hoping to disguise himself. They had only a vague notion of what to do and they took the scenic route along the western shore of Lake Como.

The details of Benito's itinerary is a bit complex but he mostly headed toward the small village of Dongo. Since everyone knew the surrender of Germany was imminent, there had developed an unofficial truce between the German soldiers and the local guerilla bands. Roadblocks had been set up but generally the German soldiers were allowed to pass - provided there were no Italians with them.

So as Mussolini and the rest drove along the road, their progress was hampered by roadblocks and rain. Then at one point they heard a warning burst of gunfire. The convoy had driven past a roadblock, and after the cars stopped, they saw a group of men come out of the trees.

As usual the partisans were not interested in the Germans. They let them go but insisted that all the Italians be handed over.

Although for nearly a quarter of a century Benito had plastered his face all over Italy and strutted around for film crews, newspapers, and magazines, no one recognized him until a local shoemaker picked out his features. When he said they had captured Il Duce, at first the others didn't believe him.

But eventually everyone decided, yes, it was Benito. They debated what to do, and some suggested turning him over to the British and Americans. In any case, they told Benito he was under arrest.

After the group drove into Dongo, the mayor told Benito he would not be harmed. "I am certain of it," Benito said. "The population of Dongo is generous." The next day, April 28, the partisans lined Benito, Clara, and 16 other Fascists against a wall and shot them down.

 

The Further Travels of Benito

Most everyone has seen the pictures and films of Benito and Clara hanging upside down outside the service station in Milan. But few know what happened afterwards.

The obvious thing would be to cremate the body and scatter the ashes. However, at the time cremation was forbidden by the Catholic Church except in extraordinary circumstances such as plague. The only proper option was a Christian burial.

So Benito was interred in an unmarked grave in Section 16 of the Musocco Cemetary in Milan. But word of the location soon got out and a year later three young Fascists, Domenico Leccisi, Maruo Rana, and Antonio Parozzi, snuck in and dug up the Duce. The job was surprisingly easy since there were only two guards. One of them was asleep and the other was away all night - "at home eating dinner" as he later explained.

Domenico and his buddies kept hauling Benito around the area and finally hid him in the Certosa di Pavia monastery where they had assistance from one of the priests, Father Alberto Parini.

It seems Domenico couldn't keep mum and undercover work by the Italian police soon led them to the three thieves and eventually to Father Parini. The priest agreed to tell them where Benito was if they guaranteed a Christian burial and that no one - not even Benito's immediate family - would be told where it was.

Actually the police didn't keep their part of the bargain. They packed Benito in a crate where his resting place has been reported as a police warehouse. But actually the Box with Benito came to its uneasy rest hidden at the Capuchin Monastery in Cerro Maggiore about 10 miles northwest of Milan.

There for more than a decade Benito lay more or less scrunched up in the box. Then in 1957 and after repeated requests from Rachele Mussolini - now in her mid-sixties - as well as pressure from the Fascists politicians, the body was removed from the crate. Looking very much the worse for wear, Benito was sent to the family in Predappio, the town where he was born.

There on August 31, 1957, Benito was buried at the Cimitero di San Cassiano. Unlike the tomb of his girlfriend, Clara - which is now so dilapidated that Rome's city administrators are thinking of demolishing it - Benito's crypt is well maintained. Marked by a marble bust of Benito which, although not a great likeness at least features the prominent trade-mark jutting jaw and bald pate, the grave is one of the most popular tourist traps in Predappio. Typically Benito gets about 100,000 visitors a year. After all, he still has his fans.

References and Further Reading

Mussolini: A Biography, Denis Mack Smith, Knopf, 1982. By many considered the definitive Benito biography.

Benito Mussolini: Fascist Italian Dictator, Brenda Haugen, Compass Point Books, 2007. A nice introduction to Benito's life.

Benito Mussolini, Jeremy Roberts, Lerner Publishing Group, 2005

Mussolini: A New Life, Nicholas Farrell, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2000. A more sympathetic pictures (maybe a bit too sympathetic for comfort).

Censorship in Fascist Italy, 1922-43: Policies, Procedures and Protagonists, George Talbot, Palgrave MacMillan, 2007.

Will Rogers: A Biography, Ben Yagoda, University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

"Documentary Traces Fate of Mussolini's Corpse", Trisha Thomas, CNN News, December 13, 2011.

Letter To Romain Rolland, Mohandas Gandhi, December 20, 1931.

On Active Service in Peace and War, Henry Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, Harper Brothers, 1948. Henry's quote is given verbatim from this book, but it is rather strangely written in the third person. But if Henry put his name on the book, we are certainly justified in citing the writing as a direct quote.

Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America, Princeton University Press, 1972

The Economic History of Italy 1860-1990, Vera Zamagni, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993.

The United States and Fascist Italy: The Rise of American Finance in Europe, Gian Giacomo Migone, Molly Tambor (Translator), Cambridge University Press, 2015

Mussolini's Early Diplomacy, Alan Cassels, Princeton University Press, 1970.

"When We Loved Mussolini", Adam Tooze, The New York Review, August 18, 2016

"Scholars Reconsidering ItalyÕs Treatment of Jews in the Nazi Era", Paul Vitellonov, The New York Times, November 4, 2010.

"Who Are the War Criminals?", George Orwell, My Country Right or Left: 1940-1943, Volume II, The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, George Orwell, Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus (Editors), Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1968.

The Papers of Will Rogers, 6 Volumes, University of Oklahoma Press, 1996 - 2006. Probably the best source regarding availability and price, although there naturally is some selectivity to keep the size down.

The Writings of Will Rogers, Will Rogers, 1973 - 1983, 21 Volumes, Oklahoma State University Press. If Will wrote it, it's bound to be here.

The Writings of Will Rogers, Will Rogers, http://www.willrogers.com/papers/intro.html. The online edition but by no means as extensive as the hard copies.

"Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President", Will Rogers, Saturday Evening Post, pp. 82-84, July 31, 1926. The letters were collected in the book, Letters Of A Self Made Diplomat to His President first published by Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., in 1926.

Roger-isms: The Cowboy Philosopher On Prohibition, Will Rogers, Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1919

"Charles Lindbergh: Hitler's All American Hero", Paul Callan, Daily Express, September 24, 2010. A decidedly negative article about Charles but it does cover the controversy regarding his advocacy of neutrality. For his own part Charles later stated he was not anti-Semitic and his wife, Anne, said he even supported creation of a Jewish homeland.

"Murnau, Movietone, and Mussolini", Janet Bergstrom, Film History, Volume 17, pp. 187-204, 200. An article about the British film company's newsreel of where Benito makes a friendly greeting to America and in English.

Movietone Digital Archive, http://www.movietone.com. Mussolini made more than one newsreel in English and they can be found on this site. Benito speaks in rudimentary English, and it's a good bet he is reading from idiot cards.

"The Death of the Last Veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade", David Graham, The Atlantic, March 4, 2016.

Charles Lindbergh, http://charleslindbergh.com. A website about Charles Lindbergh with good detail about his life. It doesn't skirt the controversy of Charles's stand on neutrality with Germany, and also includes a good account of his service to the US Army Air Corps during World War II.

Mussolini: Italy's Nightmare, Host: Jack Perkins, Narrator: Liev Schreiber, Director, Molly Thompson, A&E, 1996.

"Mussolini, Mistress Executed by Firing Squad", James Roper, United Press International, April 29, 1945.

Guernica Guernica, Herbert Southworth, University of California Press, 1977.

Inferno, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Pocket Books, 1976. We won't give away the plot or why this book is listed here.

Cardinal's Mistress, Benito Mussolini, Albert and Charles Boni, New York, 1928. Note the publishers are the same who published Will Roger's book where he reported his interview with Benito.

Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce, Ray Moseley, Taylor Trade Publishing, 2004.

Il corpo del duce, Fabrizio Laurenti (Director), Sergio Luzzatto and Fabrizio Laurenti (Writers), Gioele Dix (Narrator), Cinecittˆ Luce, 2011. The author and illustrator of this essay has seen this Italian language film in its entirety. Not for the faint-heated, but seeing modern scenes of people giving the Fascists salute before Benito's grave and the huge crowds of the faithful gathering at his memorials are even more chilling than seeing the pictures of Benito after he had been packed away for ten years.

"A Dead Dictator Who Draws Tens of Thousands in Italy", Elisabetta povoledonov, The New York Times, November 2, 2011.

"Blackshirts Salute Duce at Burial Site: Widow Weeps; 3 Masses Said", Chicago Tribune, September 1, 1957.

Richard the Lionheart, John Gillingham, Times Books, 1978.

Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales, University of Illinois Press, 1976.

The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini's Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy, Sergio Luzzatto, Frederika Randall (Translator), Holt, 2005.

"Tomb of Mussolini's Executed Mistress Faces Demolition After Her Family Failed to Pay for Its Upkeep", Patrick Lion, The Daily Mail, August 24, 2016. Note when we use the word "tomb" this means monument that stands above a grave. This doesn't mean Clara will be exhumed. It seems that the problem is there none of Clara's relatives are left or at least don't want be be known.

Mussolini segreto, Clara Petacci, Mauro Suttora (Editor), Rizzoli, 2009. Although when you see another diary about a famous figure, you think, "Oy, vey! Not again!", these do indeed seem to be the actual diaries from 1932 to 1938 of Benito's girlfriend. But be careful! There were a set of forged Mussolini diaries floating around and came close to being declared authentic. Claims on the Internet that Clara was Jewish seem to have no documentation. Possibly the story arose because Clara's sister, whose birth name was Maria, adopted the stage name Miriam di San Servolo when she became an actress.