One of the closest allies of Adolf Hitler was the fascist dictator of Italy, Benito
Mussolini.
Mussolini and Hitler formed a tight friendship and together united their two nations under
the Axis alliance during the Second World War.
Mussolini was seen as a figure of hatred alongside Hitler by the Allies, but he met his end in
brutal scenes following his execution.
The images of the former dictators body hanging upside down at a service station in Milan
being spat at, stoned and abused by the crowd showed the upset within Italy at Mussolini.
He became incredibly powerful, but as with a number of infamous politicians, he had a
number of dark secrets that were covered up by his government to protect his reputation
and legacy.
Mussolini was known for having a number of mistresses, but what wasn’t as well known
is that before he married Rachele Guidi, his wife who bore him 5 children, he was married
before allegedly and had bore a son.
However this first wife and the subsequent child, a boy named after its father, Benito
Mussolini.
The story of this child is a tragic one, and is one of neglect, denial and subsequent alleged
killing or execution.
Join us today as we look at, ‘The BRUTAL Execution of Mussolini’s Son.’
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Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy following his March on Rome in 1922,
and served until he was deposed in 1943.
His early political ideas were heavily influenced by his father who was a socialist, he would
work with his blacksmith father and talk about politics and ideas.
He was then sent to a boarding school which was run by monks, and it was noted that as
a student here he was sometimes violent and defiant despite also being shy.
He eventually achieved good grades and qualified as a schoolmaster in 1901, but in 1902 he
then left and lived in Switzerland to avoid being drafted into compulsory military service.
Whilst here he worked in different jobs in different cities such as Geneva and Bern,
but could not settle.
But here it was where he began to delve deeper into political philosophy, and he began to
learn of the importance of direct action, violence and strikes to help overthrow democratic
systems.
Whilst in Switzerland he became known to different Italian socialist groups, and was involved
in writing speeches, and also organising meetings.
He began to serve as the Secretary of the Italian Workers union, and was even introduced
to Lenin at one point.
But he was a troublemaker in Switzerland, being arrested for advocating violent strikes
and he was then deported back to Italy where he then went back to Switzerland.
He studied at University, but in December 1904 he went back to Italy as he had previously
been sentenced in absentia for avoiding military service and for desertion, but at the time
there was an amnesty for this crime.
He continued teaching, but in 1909 he left Italy to take the job as a secretary Trento
which was within the Austro-Hungarian empire at the time.
He was also doing other jobs for the local socialist governments and their newspaper.
It was in Trento and a village near there that Benito Mussolini’s first wife Ida Dalser
was born.
She was born in Sopramonte, and was well thought of in the local area being the daughter of
the town’s mayor.
She went to France in particular Paris to study but when she came back, she opened up
a French style beauty salon in Milan.
It’s not known whether Ida Dalser and Mussolini first met when he was in Trento, where he
had found work as a journalist in 1909, or whether the two met whilst they were in Milan
where he moved later on.
In 1912, 20 year old Mussolini became the editor of Avanti, an Italian Socialist Party
newspaper, and he was involved with the newspaper for a couple of years before the outbreak
of the First World War.
He split then with the party due to whether the country should be involved in the war
or not, but Mussolini favoured the Italian involvement.
Mussolini resigned from Avanti over this, and he then began to start his own newspaper
named the People of Italy.
However at the time he had began to become romantically involved with Ida Dalser, who’s
beauty salon attracted many wealthy Milan women to visit.
It’s unknown how they first met, but when they first started their relationship, Dalser
gave Mussolini money and financial help for him to fund his newspaper and political activity.
She worked in her salon, but gave Mussolini money.
It’s said that Dalser even may have pawned her jewellery to give Mussolini money that
he needed to start his new enterprise, and she even fell so hard for him she sold her
beauty salon so he could continue the newspaper.
The pair were allegedly married in 1914, however in 1915 Ida Dalser then gave birth to a son,
named Benito Albino Mussolini.
This child would go on to have a miserable life, and would be killed upon the orders
of his father who would be nowhere to be seen.
But despite being married to Ida Dalser, Mussolini was known to have had a long term mistress
at the time.
The marriage did not last long, and even before his child had been born, Mussolini had married
Rachele Guidi his mistress, who would later go on to give birth to a number of his children
herself.
But an edict from the city of Milan at the time did denote and state that Mussolini must
have made payments in maintenance for the child to his wife Ida Dasler.
But the child bearing Mussolini’s name was forgotten about and neglected never being
fully accepted by his father.
The child was left with its mother, and when Italy did enter the First World War, Mussolini
entered the army.
Following the war he returned to politics and founded the National Fascist Party in
1921, before being elected to the Italian Parliament.
The following year he led 25,000 paramilitary blackshirts in the march on Rome to force
the King to appoint him as the prime minister, and following this he was very much in power.
It was key for him to establish himself as a clean but powerful leader with no scandal,
and the news that Mussolini had already been married and had not divorced his first wife
before marrying his second could have destroyed his early reign as Prime Minister and Dictator.
He was technically a bigamist, and also a father who neglected his child, and this would
not have sat favourably with the Italian people, but Ida Dalser did not remain quiet.
Once Mussolini was in power, Dalser was placed under close watch and surveillance by the
police, and even her child Benito was followedd by the police.
They tracked down all the paper evidence of their marriage and relationship and destroyed
all of the paperwork to ensure that nothing could haunt Mussolini.
However his first wife continued to claim that she was the Dictators rightful wife,
and she denounced Mussolini as being a traitor.
She claimed that during his time in Milan, he had been taking bribes from the French
Government to help to comapign for the involvement of a neutral Italy in the war, in the hope
that Italy would support the French.
This would have made Mussolini a traitor taking money from the enemy of the First World War,
but outraged by this the dictator of Italy was furious.
Benito Mussolini junior was even followed, and along with his mother their birth certificates
were even destroyed.
But a number of documents were not destroyed, including one in which Mussolini in 1915 acknowledged
Dalser as his wife, and Benito Junior as his son.
He also in 1916 in a document repeated his acknowledgement and said he would help with
financial support.
But when he came into power he continued to deny the existence of his son, and his first
wife.
Dalser continued to push fascist officials to learn of her story, but in 1926 she was
arrested and was locked up.
It was said that she was abducted upon the orders of Mussolini, was beaten and then forced
into a straitjacket and declared insane by doctors.
She spent the rest of her life in a number of mental hospitals and units before she died
its suspected of a ‘brain haemorrhage.’
By doing this, Mussolini attempted to silence his ex wife, and he eventually got this when
she died in 1937.
However, what happened to Benito Mussolini Junior?
Well he too was abducted by Mussolini’s officials, and at a young age was told that
his mother was dead.
In 1931, he was adopted as an orphan at the age of 15 by the fascist ex police chief of
Sopramonte.
It’s assumed that within this household, Mussolini could have controlled the care of
his son.
He had been sent to a number of boarding schools, but the child knew who his father was and
was banned from referring to Mussolini as his father, and was then ordered to change
his surname to Bernardi.
But the death of Benito Mussolini Junior is incredibly sad, and was obviously orchestrated
by his father and his government, and it could be seen as a organised execution.
When Benito Albino Mussolini was old enough he enrolled in the Italian Royal Navy and
still whilst serving remained under close surveillance by government officials.
It’s assumed that he did serve in the Second World War on ships in some capacity, but he
continued to tell people and claim he was the son of Mussolini.
Because of this, he was seen as dangerous and shortly after seeing service, he was arrested
and then was sent like his mother to a mental hospital.
It’s clear that there was nothing psychiatrically wrong with Benito Mussolini Junior, and infact
he was just telling the truth that his father the leader of Italy was a bigamist, and that
he was his son.
But Mussolini to eliminate the threat of people knowing about his son, silenced him by institutionalising
him.
He was held inside of an asylum in Mombello, in Milan and it was here where he was brutally
killed by the doctors inside.
It’s clear that the doctors must have been under orders to kill Benito Albino Mussolini,
the son of the dictator.
The fascist government must have passed instructions for him to be killed, and there are different
accounts as to how it happened.
It’s claimed by some accounts that the son of the dictator was killed at the age of 17
in July 1942 by coma inducing injections.
With this he was practically just given medication in the form of a lethal injection that killed
him, sending him to sleep.
But there are other sources that document that he was killed from a number of electric
shock treatments that he was given, his body being given shock treatment whilst inside
of the institution.
It’s considered that his death must have been ordered in an attempt to erase him from
history, and the organisation of it runs parallel to as if it was an organised execution.
If this is the case, Mussolini the dictator of Italy happily ordered the execution of
his own son, and following his death he was buried in an unmarked grave.
Interestingly, the downfall of Mussolini would come not too long after the death of his first
born son.
In July 1943 a year after Benito Mussolini juniors death, his father would be arrested
and deposed initially.
The tragic story of Mussolini’s first wife and son shows us how ruthless and brutal the
dictator of Italy could be, and also how he would stop at nothing to ensure the public
did not know about his first marriage which could have caused many to dissent against
him.
He technically was a bigamist and a father who abandoned his child, but ultimately he
would in a sense organise the executions in the medical facility of his own son and his
first wife.
The stories of Ida Dalser and Benito Albino Mussolini need to be told.
They are forgotten victims of the man who was in the pocket of Adolf Hitler during the
Second World War.
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