Letter from Michael MacWhite to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(Personal and Confidential)

The closing chapter of the history of Fascism has just been written. On Saturday, April 28th, at four in the afternoon, near the town of Como, Mussolini toppled over and died before the rifles of a Partisan detachment that had ambushed him a few hours previously as he was making his way towards the Swiss frontier. Several versions of his capture and death have been related, so one cannot write with absolute certainty, but the following is regarded as the most authentic.

On April 27th, Mussolini was still Duce of the Italian Social Republic, presided over a Government, with troops commanded by a General and a radio station at his disposal.

The Patriot Insurrection which had broken out at Milan on April 24th was so well organised that the Germans realised there was nothing left for them but to surrender. Ignoring the existence of Mussolini and his republic, they established contact with the Committee of National Liberation through the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan and agreed to lay down their arms. On learning of the German surrender, General Graziani who commanded the remnant of the five republican Divisions ordered the forces under him to capitulate without notifying his Chief. A few minutes later, Mussolini finding himself alone, endeavoured to negotiate also for surrender through the Cardinal, when he found that he represented nobody but himself. He summoned a meeting of his Cabinet which met at Como in the evening, after which they packed up their precious belongings and in the early morning proceeded towards the Swiss frontier. There were about thirty cars in the convoy including a dozen or so belonging to the German guards.

Some distance from Como the road over which they were travelling was blocked by the Partisans who, in accordance with the terms of capitulation, allowed the Germans to proceed, but arrested all the Italians. Mussolini and his mistress were taken to a farm house a short distance from the main road where a firing squad of Partisans was ready and in a few minutes without any form of a trial carried out the execution. The Cabinet members and the Party insiders were executed in the same fashion a few hundred yards away. All the corpses were then placed in a furniture van and taken to Milan where they were unloaded on the Square of the Fifteen Martyrs, recently named after the victims of Fascism.

The corpses of Mussolini, Clara Petacci, Starace¹ and half a dozen others were then strung up by the ankles to the iron bracket of a petrol pump, in which position they remained during the night, exposed to the jeers and scoffs of the hundreds of thousands who visited the scene, many of whom spat at and kicked the faces of the victims. One woman took a revolver from a Partisan Officer and poured five bullets into Mussolini's head, saying 'one for each of my five sons assassinated by your bandits'. In the morning the corpses were cut down and in the photographs that have been published the head of Mussolini is resting on the breast of his mistress. Starace's body is lying next to them. On Tuesday May 1st the burial took place in the Pauper 's Cemetery in Milan, and so arranged that it is now impossible to know exactly where the bones of Mussolini rest. They are intermingled with those of the 177 other Fascists who were executed the same week and buried at the same time.

On the evening of May 1st the newly appointed Prefect of Milan issued a proclamation in which it was stated that the insurrection which lasted only eight days was at an end, that summary executions were to cease forthwith and that all prisoners in the hands of the Patriot volunteers were to be handed over to the civil authorities so that they could be tried in accordance with the ordinary judicial procedure. All the executions carried out during the insurrection on the initiative of the Committee of National Liberation of Northern Italy are regarded as legal and have been approved by the Bonomi² Government. That, however, is no guarantee that the legality of the procedure may not be questioned by jurists who look at things from a different political angle.

From the way in which Mussolini and his party were ambushed it is evident that the Intelligence Service of the Partisans was highly efficient and that there was a traitor in the other camp. Although it will never be officially divulged, there is little doubt that the Patriot Army which was remarkable for its discipline and organisation had search parties on the look out for them and that the leaders of these parties were specially chosen men with detailed instructions as to how they were to act if they succeeded in finding them. It would be extremely embarrassing for the Bonomi Government to have a State trial here in Rome as it would be certain to drag out and lead to riots and disorders if not civil war. Besides, the leniency of the Roman Courts to Fascist criminals has been the subject of much adverse criticism in the North. So far, they have only imposed three death sentences. From which it is concluded that Fascism has many secret sympathisers in high places which is not surprising when we take into account the hundreds of thousands who have lost everything through its collapse.

There are in Rome many former Fascist Senators, Deputies and high Government officials whose cases were examined by the 'Purge' Commission but who were exonerated or slightly reprimanded who now fear the wind that is blowing from the North. It is quite possible that their cases may be re-opened and investigated by a more relentless Tribunal. As a consequence there is a more uncomfortable feeling all round. To-day, leftist demonstrators carried placards along the streets bearing the inscription 'Death to the King', 'Send the King to the People's Tribunal', and others of a like tenure.

One of the most remarkable facts in relation to Fascism is that there was not a single person who was prepared to give his life for the principle on which it was founded. All the leading members of the Party had amassed great wealth while in Office and there grew up around them a crowd of officeholders as corrupt and immoral as they were themselves. Any voice raised against them was hushed up by forceful methods. The mistresses of Mussolini, Ciano, Farinacci, Teruzzi, Starace, Pavelini and others might have provoked the envy of Oriental potentates. On being arrested, Farinacci who had so much confidence in the power of gold asked his captors 'How many millions do you want'. Before dying, Mussolini is stated to have said 'I will give you an Empire for my life'. There was none amongst the lot with sufficient faith in his cause to say 'I die but Fascism will live after me'.

Mussolini's last mistress, Clara Petacci who superseded her sister Myriam was the daughter of a former Vatican physician who with his wife without any shame or humiliation enjoyed the favours and patronage which the prostitution of their daughters procured for them. The discarded Myriam was married off to an engineer who was rewarded with fat contracts in Albania while she, herself, adopted a Cinema career. Clara became the owner of a large villa in the neighbourhood of Rome which, since the armistice, has been converted into a home for orphan children. Although nobody thought it wise to make public observations on Mussolini's end, gruesome though it was, many feel that the execution of his mistress was an exaggeration.

This morning, a procession of about a thousand students who were demonstrating in favour of an Italian Trieste was attacked by Communists who using Fascist methods beat up the demonstrators with clubs and captured their Italian flags. The students rallied on two or three occasions only to be beaten back by their more sturdy antagonists. A priest who intervened on behalf of the students was himself clubbed. The trouble between the groups was stated to be due to a Communist who shouted 'Long live Yugoslavian Trieste'. These disturbances took place underneath our windows as one party operated from the Esedra Circle and the other from the San Bernardino Square.

In the course of the next few weeks some hundreds of thousands of Italian war prisoners and slave labourers will return from Germany to the homeland where they will find little to eat and less chance of finding employment. Many of them will no doubt drift into the Communist ranks and increase the danger of civil strife which is kept within limits for the time being due to the presence of Allied troops. The necessity for a strong and energetic Government in Italy is urgent. It may materialise as a result of the negotiations now taking place at Caserta between Bonomi and the representatives of the Committee of National Liberation of the North.