Intelligence

Mussolini killed 'on Churchill's orders by British agents'

By Richard Owen in Rome
A documentary says Il Duce’s death was covered up because of incriminating letters from Britain’s wartime leader

BENITO MUSSOLINI was murdered by a two-man team led by a British secret agent acting on the orders of Winston Churchill, according to a new investigation.

In the official version, the Italian dictator and his final mistress, Clara Petacci, were shot by Italian partisans led by Walter Audisio — codenamed “Colonel Valerio” — at the gates of Villa Belmonte at Mezzegra near Lake Como at 4.10pm on April 28, 1945. Their bodies were then hung upside down in Milan.

But it is now suggested that this was cover-up, and that Mussolini and Petacci were really killed at 11am that day by Bruno Lonati, an Italian partisan codenamed “Giacomo”, and “Captain John”, a British Special Operations Executive agent of Sicilian parentage whose name was Robert Maccarrone.

An Italian state television documentary claims that Mussolini was carrying compromising letters from Churchill written over a period of years involving a deal under which Italy would make a separate peace with the Allies, a breach of Churchill’s agreement with President Roosevelt at Casablanca to seek the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers.

“Churchill, who like Mussolini was a life-long antiBolshevik, was looking ahead to the coming conflict with the Soviet Union,” Peter Tompkins, a veteran American journalist who coproduced the documentary, said. Some biographers of Mussolini deny that the secret correspondence existed.

But a number of letters have come to light, including Mussolini’s last letter, written on April 24, in which he pleads with Churchill to “intervene personally” and guarantee him “the chance to justify and defend myself”.

Signor Lonati, 83, a former Communist who became a Fiat manager after the war and now lives in Brescia, claims that “John” was sent to northern Italy with the specific aim of eliminating Mussolini and answered directly to General (later Field Marshal) Alexander.

“John” and Signor Lonati went together to the house where Il Duce and his mistress were being held after being captured by partisans near Dongo. When arrested, Mussolini was clutching a briefcase that he told his captors was “of historic importance for the future of Italy”.

Signor Lonati said: “Petacci was sitting on the bed and Mussolini was standing. John took me outside and told me his orders were to eliminate them both, because Petacci knew many things. I said I could not shoot Petacci, so John said he would shoot her. He was quite clear that Mussolini had to be killed by an Italian.”

He said that, when Mussolini stepped out to get some air, under guard, Petacci said with a sad smile: “So, it’s all over for us.” She asked them to shoot “at the chest, not the head”. At the corner of a lane leading down to the lake, less than a mile from Villa Belmonte, “John” and “Giacomo” stood their victims against a fence and opened fire.

Signor Lonati said: “Mussolini had a look of surprise on his face, but not Petacci.”

After the shootings, “John” took a camera from his knapsack and photographed the bodies, with Signor Lonati beside them. He had also referred to “very important documents” which he was ordered to recover from Il Duce.

Mr Tompkins, who coproduced the documentary with Maria Luisa Forenza, said that there was evidence that the photographs existed. “Lonati went to the British consulate in Milan in 1981,” he said. “The consul sat opposite Lonati with them, but said he needed authorisation to hand them over. Lonati received a letter from the consulate promising to get in touch, but never heard any more.”

Mr Tompkins, himself a secret agent for the Allies in occupied Rome in 1944, said that he had approached the British Embassy in Rome about the pictures. An embassy official “promised to see what he could do, but later apologetically said ‘no’. He did not say they did not exist”.

Signora Forenza said that Signor Lonati’s claims, first advanced ten years ago, had been greeted with scepticism “but we spent three years testing his account and find it completely convincing, with no discrepancies”.

By contrast, the official version of Mussolini’s death changed frequently and was “riddled with inconsistencies and lies”. This month, the French-made MAS submachinegun with which Mussolini was said to have been shot by Walter Audisio came to light in Albania. Signor Lonati said that he and “John” had used Sten guns.

The documentary by Rai, the Italian state television station. entitled Mussolini: The Final Truth, includes testimony from Dorina Mazzola, who was 19 at the time. She said that she heard the firing: “I looked at the clock, it was almost 11.”

She said that her mother, Giuseppina, who was in the garden, saw the shooting.

Partisans arrived soon after and took the bodies away, holding Mussolini up to make it look as if he was still alive, she said. The documentary says that partisans were later dressed as Mussolini and Petacci and driven to the gates of the Villa Belmonte, where the bodies were already laid out. “Colonel Valerio” and others then pretended to shoot them. Roberto Remund, who was at the scene, said that the bodies were “ unnaturally stiff and contorted” and that there was “very little blood”, suggesting that the killings had happened earlier.

The programme includes interviews with Claudio Ersoch, grandson of Tommaso David, Mussolini’s head of covert operations, who said that his grandfather confirmed that the correspondence existed and that Churchill had promised in it to restore to Italy lost territory such as Istria. The programme claims that postwar painting trips made by Churchill to the Italian lakes were a cover for efforts to retrieve the correspondence.

Christopher Woods, researcher for the official history of the SOE in Italy, disputed the suggestion that a British spy had led the assassination mission. He said: “It’s just love of conspiracy-making. The leaders of the Resistance in Milan, particularly the left-wing parties, decided that Mussolini should be killed before the Allies arrived.”

THE LAST DAYS OF WAR

Mussolini’s death in April 1945 came as the end of the Second World War was in sight and the Soviet Union and the West were already vying to shape the postwar world. Three days earlier talks to found the United Nations were held in San Francisco

When Il Duce was killed, Nazi Germany was crumbling and the remnants of Mussolini’s last Fascist regime at Salo on Lake Garda were fleeing

In March, US forces had crossed the Rhine, the first Nazi concentration camps were liberated and the race was on between the Allied armies and the Russians to enter Berlin. The Red Army won, flying the Red Flag in Berlin on April 21

Two days after Mussolini was killed, Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun in his Berlin bunker. On May 7 Germany surrendered unconditionally and the next day was celebrated as Victory in Europe (VE) Day

The war in the Pacific continued but, in August, Truman, who became President in April after the death of Roosevelt, took the decision to use the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the surrender of Japan

Despite his achievements as war leader, Churchill was defeated in the July 1945 election by the Labour Party led by Clement Attlee

Churchill returned to power in 1951 and served as Prime Minister for four years. He died in 1965

Copyright 2004 Times Newspapers Ltd.

August 27, 2004 at 11:48 PM in UK | Permalink | TrackBack (38) | Top of page | Blog Home