Clara Petacci

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Clara Petacci
Clara Petacci.png
Petacci in the 1930s
Born(1912-02-28)28 February 1912
Rome, Italy
Died28 April 1945(1945-04-28) (aged 33)
Giulino di Mezzegra, Italy
NationalityItalian
Known forBeing the mistress of Benito Mussolini
PartnerBenito Mussolini (1933–1945)
RelativesMiriam di San Servolo (sister)
Marcello Petacci (brother)

Clara Petacci, known as Claretta Petacci (Italian: [klaˈretta peˈtattʃi]; 28 February 1912 – 28 April 1945), was a mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. She was killed during Mussolini's execution by Italian partisans.

Early life

Daughter of Giuseppina Persichetti (1888–1962) and the physician Francesco Saverio Petacci (1883–1970), Clara Petacci was born into a privileged and religious family in Rome in 1912.[1][2] Her father, a physician of the Holy Apostolic Palaces,[3] became a supporter of fascism. A child when Mussolini rose to power in the 1920s, Clara Petacci idolised him from an early age. After Violet Gibson attempted to assassinate the dictator in April 1926, the 14-year-old Petacci wrote to him commenting "O, Duce, why was I not with you? ... Could I not have strangled that murderous woman?"[4]

Relationship with Mussolini

Petacci had a long-standing relationship with Mussolini while he was married to Rachele Mussolini. Petacci was 28 years younger than Mussolini.[5] They met for the first time in April 1932 when Mussolini driving with an aide to Ostia overtook a car occupied by the twenty-year old Petacci and family members. She called out "Duce! Duce!" and when he stopped told him that she had been writing to him since her early teens.[6]

in 1934 Petacci married Italian Air Force officer Riccardo Federici, but she parted ways with her husband when he was sent as Air Attaché to Tokyo in 1936.[7] Petacci then became mistress to the fifty-three year-old Mussolini, visiting the Palazzo Venezia where a small apartment was reserved for her. Her infatuation with Mussolini appears to have been genuine and permanent. He by contrast welcomed a long-term controlling relationship of an easily dominated and credulous young woman. The affair became widely known and members of the Petacci family, notably her brother Marcello, were able to benefit financially and professionally by influence selling.[8]

Part of Petacci and Mussolini's correspondence has not been released on the grounds of privacy.[9]

Death

The corpses of Bombacci, Mussolini, Petacci, Pavolini and Starace in Piazzale Loreto, 1945
See also: Death of Benito Mussolini

On 27 April 1945, Mussolini and Petacci were captured by partisans while traveling with a Luftwaffe convoy retreating to Germany. The German column included a number of Italian Social Republic members.[10]

On 28 April, she and Mussolini were taken to Mezzegra and executed. On the following day, the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Piazzale Loreto in Milan and hung upside down in front of an Esso petrol station. The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.[11] On the same day, Clara's brother, Marcello Petacci, was also killed in Dongo by the partisans, along with fifteen other people complicit in Mussolini's escape.

After the war the family of Petacci began civil and criminal court cases against Walter Audisio for her unlawful killing. After a lengthy legal process, an investigating judge eventually closed the case in 1967 and acquitted Audisio of murder and embezzlement on the ground that the actions complained of occurred as an act of war against the Germans and the fascists during a period of enemy occupation.[12]

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. ^ Barber, Tony (17 February 2017). "Claretta by RJB Bosworth — Mussolini's last lover". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 2017-02-18. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  2. ^ Downing, Ben (2017-03-24). "In Bed With Il Duce". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  3. ^ De Felice (1981) p. 278
  4. ^ Thomson, Ian (25 February 2017). "The Ben and Clara affair". www.spectator.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2020-08-25. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  5. ^ (in Spanish) Giuseppina Persichetti, La enamorada de Mussolini, Madrid, Ediciones Caballero Audaz, 1947.
  6. ^ Gallo, Max. Mussolini's Italy. p. 216. ISBN 0-200-72140-2.
  7. ^ Boswort, R.J.B. (2010). Mussolini. Bloomsbury.
  8. ^ Gallo, Max. Mussolini's Italy. pp. 270–271. ISBN 0-200-72140-2.
  9. ^ (in Italian) Giampiero Buonomo, Quel carteggio tra Mussolini e la Petacci. Storici sacrificati sull’altare della privacy, in Diritto e giustizia, 16 luglio 2005.
  10. ^ Gunther Langes, Auf Wiedersehen Claretta. Il diario dell'uomo che poteva salvare Mussolini e la Petacci, a cura di Nico Pirozzi, Villaricca, Edizioni Cento Autori, 2012. ISBN 978-88-97121-37-4.
  11. ^ "Death of the Father-Mussolini & Fascist Italy: the 'infamous' exhibit". Cornell Institute for Digital Collections. 1999.
  12. ^ Baima Bollone, Pierluigi (2005). Le ultime ore di Mussolini. Mondadori (Italy). p. 123. ISBN 88-04-53487-7.
  13. ^ "Caesar and Claretta". British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  14. ^ Enrico Lancia (1998). I premi del cinema. Gremese Editore, 1998. ISBN 88-7742-221-1.
  15. ^ "Mussolini: The Untold Story (1985): Virginia Madsen: Claretta Petacci". IMDB. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  16. ^ "Mussolini and I". IMDB. Retrieved 16 November 2021.

Sources

  • De Felice, Renzo (1996) [1981]. Mussolini. Il Duce. 2: Lo stato totalitario, 1936–1940 (in Italian) (2 ed.). Torino: Einaudi.

Further reading

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