On the 29th April 1945, one of the most shocking executions of the Second World War took place
by the side of the road in a rather rural part of Italy.
Benito Mussolini the former dictator of the country who was close with Adolf Hitler was
shot by Italian partisans after he had been captured.
Following this, the remains of the former dictator were taken into Milan where they
were hung upside down in front of a petrol station, and were displayed for hours in front
of an angry crowd.
But to many people who saw Mussolini’s remains that day, they were inquisitive as to the
woman who was placed upside down next to him in the Piazzale Loreto.
Claretta or Clara Petacci was Mussolini’s loyal mistress who remained with him until
the final days, and she too would face the executioner’s bullets as she was seen as
a traitor also.
However the treatment of the remains of Clara and Benito Mussolini was rather brutal, but
Clara years after her death would be exhumed from a grave where she was buried under a
false name, but there were rumours that her remains had been looted and that items from
her tomb and grave had been stolen.
Join us today as we look at the brutal exhumation of Mussolini’s mistress, and remember to
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Clara PEtacci as mentioned was best known for being the mistress of Mussolini, and she
would die with him in the final days of the Second World War in Europe.
She was born into a well to do family, and her father was Dr Francesco Petacci who was
the private doctor and physician to Pope Pius XI, showing how well thought of the Petacchi’s
were, being close to the heart of the Roman Catholic Church.
Her sister was also an actress, and her brother Marcello was also a staunch supporter of Mussolini
who too was executed whilst trying to flee at the end of World War 2.
But as a young girl, Clara Petacci studied music and she was a keen violinist, however
she became infatuated and obsessed with Mussolini and his powerful position as the Dictator
of Italy at a young age.
At the age of 14, she wrote him a letter following an assassination attempt he survived, and
she would throughout the next few years write him dozens of letters.
She completely idolised and almost worshipped Mussolini, writing in one letter ‘O Duce,
why was I not with you, could I not have strangled that murderous woman?’
But she would eventually meet him by chance on the 24th April 1932, and this chance meeting
led to Mussolini’s eyes being captivated by Clara.
Mussolini was a man who despite being married had a number of mistresses, and at the time
he was 49 years old, and had 5 children by his wife, but he also had at least two mistresses,
and one of these gave him an illegitimate child.
She two years later married an Italian military officer, Leftenant Riccardo Federici, but
two years later the couple had split up and were not allowed to divorce.
At this time, she began to visit Mussolini at his office, and he was worried that any
scandal could damage his political career.
She became his mistress when he was 53, and then she would visit the Palazzo Venezia where
a small apartment was rented under her name.
Clara was completely infatuated, and because of this she referred to Mussolini as ‘Ben,’
and they grew closer.
In 1939 she moved in with him to a 32 room villa in Rome which had a huge swimming pool,
tennis court and also a bomb shelter for protection.
Later this would be confiscated when Mussolini fell from power, as it was bought by taxpayer’s
money, and the villa then fell into decay.
Many of her family members knew about the affair, and they benefitted financially from
Clara’s relationship with Mussolini.
But after the Allies invaded and landed on the Italian Mainland, Mussolini was ousted
from power by the Fascist Grand Council, as many of his former allies turned against him
and voted to oust him from power.
Mussolini would later get his own back executing a number of those who turned against him,
but as Fascism fell in Italy she was arrested on the 25th July 1943 but was then released
around 6 weeks later.
But then she left Rome worrying for her safety, and she travelled to Nazi occupied lands in
Northern Italy, and the Italian Socialist Republic, which had been established by the
nazis.
Mussolini would also be later freed from captivity in the Grand Sasso Raid and he was made the
leader of this Nazi puppet state, but Clara would reunite with him in a villa which was
guarded by SS officers.
On the 23rd April 1945, her family decided to flee Italy for Spain, and they knew that
Mussolini’s time in power was over, but Clara decided to stay with him until the very
end.
The two then knew as the war was coming to an end, that there was a good chance Mussolini
would be captured, and the pair decided to flee.
They moved to Milan with false papers and planned to travel by truck convoy to Switzerland.
Clara had packed a suitcase with clothes and money almost like she was going on holiday,
but she would face an executioner instead.
On the 28th April, the Nazi convoy was intercepted by communist partisans, and the Nazi soldiers
were released, but the Italians inside the convoy were held.Mussolini and Clara were
recognised and were then arrested, and there was talk inside the Partisans as to what to
do with him.
But later, the order to execute Mussolini and his mistress was given and it was Walter
Audis and Aldo Lamprey who were the ones to execute Mussolini and Petacci.
The couple were driven to the entrance of the Villa Belmonte, and were told to get out
of the car at 4:10pm.
They were then shot dead with a machine gun by Walter Audisio, and Petacci was not spared
at all.
There were questions as to why she was killed, but the debate emerged around the fact she
had advised Mussolini and had inspired his decisions and politics.
Clara’s brother was also killed, and his corpse was placed on the same truck as hers
and Mussolini’s.
But the next day on the 29th April, the remains of the couple were taken to Milan and were
displayed in public with thousands mutilating them by throwing rocks, shooting at them and
kicking and beating them.
The iconic image of Petacci, her lover and others hoisted six feet off the ground at
a petrol station is a morbid and shocking site, and she was placed next to her lover
Mussolini as the crowds continued to taunt.
The Americans later ordered her remains to be cut down, and it was noticed that her eyes
glazed over and were staring into space.
Also she was wearing very expensive shoes, and she was unrecognisable because of what
the crowd did to her.
The Roman Catholic Cardinal of Milan had also protested for the remains to be taken down,
however when Clara’s body was cut down it was placed into a wooden coffin and was taken
to the city’s mortuary.
Whilst here shockingly a photographer moved Clara and Mussolini’s bodies to be placed
in a morbid pose next to each other, almost arm in arm.
An examination of her remains showed she had been shot dead with 9mm bullets, which questioned
the weapon used.
After this she was placed back into a wooden coffin, and quietly on the 30th April 1945
she was buried in Milan under a false name, Rita Colfosco, which was a pseudonym she had
used previously.
But on that same day, Hitler took his own life after learning what had happened to Mussolini’s
body, and he ordered the same of Eva Braun his now wife, as he was worried the same would
happen to her as what happened to Clara Petacci.
But after lying in the ground under a pseudonym for 11 years to prevent her grave becoming
a Fascist memorial, she was then exhumed and disinterred from where she had been laid to
rest.
The Petacci family when they came back from exile in Spain to Italy ordered the removal
of Clara’s body, and they were then interred in a different site, and specifically the
Verano Cemetery in Rome.
This was done in a sense to give her a burial which was more high profile, and she was interred
inside a pink marble tomb, which was topped with a white marble statue.
However in 2015, it was said that her tomb was in a very poor state of decay and neglect,
and that her family were not looking after it.
But then in 2017 it was restored as funding from citizens paid for it.
At the time it was a very real possibility that Clara Petacci would have had to have
been exhumed yet again from her tomb, and buried somewhere more low profile because
the family would not pay for it, and neither could the authorities find many descendants
for her.
The tomb was even cordoned off as it was collapsing for safety reasons, and it was seen as too
expensive to fix.
Only 1000 people a year were visiting her tomb, but 100,000 each year visit Mussolini’s.
However what was shocking is that a rumour exists and persists relating to the PEtacci
family, and specifically her tomb.
There was gossip around the time that her corpse was exhumed by her family to retrieve
some of the jewels that were hidden in her skirt, and it was believed that some of these
alleged jewels could have been stolen from Jews from concentration camps.
As mentioned this was rumours that emerged in the local area, but it is rather shocking
to consider that someone may have broken into her tomb to grave rob possible valuables.
But the relationship Clara Petacci had with Benito Mussolini the Fascist dictator of Italy
is one which is very strange, but it shows how devoted a mistress Clara was to Mussolini.
From an early age she was infatuated with him, and she remained with him until the very
end which resulted in her execution.
What was shocking was how the Italians treated her remains following her execution, and her
family ordered her exhumation but then could not afford to pay for the upkeep of her tomb,
or possibly they wanted to cut off ties with her due to her links to Mussolini, a man who
was close to Adolf Hitler.
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