from the Democratic Fascist Party and another from the Mussolini Action Squad. While the bullets were flying, the Milanese neo-Fascist paper Il Meridiano dâItalia , which under editor Franco De Agazio took a critical approach to the Resistance, decided to reconstruct the precise movements of the Communist partisans at Dongo following their capture of Mussolini. In the course of its breathless account, the paper revealed documents that made it possible to name Walter Audisio. On March 3, Audisio gave an interview to a Swiss radio station in which he admitted to having shot Mussolini. Eleven days later followers of Volante Rosso killed De Agazio, firing four bullets at close range.
De Agazio was an unusual Fascist journalist in that his political roots lay in Italian liberalism. His paperâs representation of the Resistance as caricature cost him his life. But in effect, the articles published in Il Meridiano dâItalia were the first of thousands on the âmysteries of Dongoâ that the popular press turned out over the next fifty years. Somewhere between detective mysteries and bodice rippers, they offered a mixture of hasty executions and private vendettas, hidden treasure and lusty passions. âIn America they would have made a couple of movies by nowâ about Il Duceâs end, one weekly observed of Il Meridiano dâItalia âs scandalizing. 2 The approach was quickly picked up by the establishment press. What could be more interesting than to populate the scene where Mussolini and Claretta were shot with attractive partisan women and undercover Communist agents?
Before De Agazio died, he did more than launch the âmysteries of Dongoâ scandal sheet formula; he was enlisted by Giorgio Almirante, leader of the Italian Social Movement, to work with the cardinal of Turin to form anti-Communist squads in the Piedmont region. Meanwhile, the cardinal of Milan was meeting with another neo-Fascist, General Leone Zingales, who had been chosen by the military to investigate possible crimes by partisan forces at Lake Como after the Liberation.
These clandestine encounters organized by neo-Fascists and the Vatican did not escape the notice of U.S. intelligence, which was convinced that Yugoslav spies had a role in De Agazioâs death. In the Cold War climate, U.S. agents in Italy wanted to exploit the murder of the neo-Fascist journalist to gather American support for the Italian Christian Democrats and other parties of the center right. Thus, in the weeks following De Agazioâs assassination, Communist leaders had more urgent things to worry about than the public identification of Walter Audisio. They were facing a combined front of Christian Democrats, the Vatican, and the Truman administration in its efforts to eliminate the Communist Party altogether. Still, the labored way the Communist executive dealt with the revelation of Audisioâs identity seems to reflect more than just the leadersâ preoccupation.
For weeks after Il Meridiano dâItalia published its revelation, the Communists downplayed the matter, criticizing the âyellow pressâ and insisting that Il Duceâs execution was a routine affair ordered by the Committee of National Liberation. Some two weeks later party secretary Togliatti was still telling an Italian news agency that Mussoliniâs execution had been âone of the greatest, perhaps the greatest contribution that the movement of national liberation made to the nation.â 3 It was not until March 21, eighteen days after Audisio himself acknowledged his role in the execution, that Togliatti officially confirmed that Colonel Valerio and Audisio were indeed one and the same. At the end of March, Audisio was formally presented at a Communist Party rally in Rome. The Communists reluctantly unveiled their role in Mussoliniâs execution, and only because it had already been revealed in the neo-Fascist press. Accordingly, the party
De Agazio was an unusual Fascist journalist in that his political roots lay in Italian liberalism. His paperâs representation of the Resistance as caricature cost him his life. But in effect, the articles published in Il Meridiano dâItalia were the first of thousands on the âmysteries of Dongoâ that the popular press turned out over the next fifty years. Somewhere between detective mysteries and bodice rippers, they offered a mixture of hasty executions and private vendettas, hidden treasure and lusty passions. âIn America they would have made a couple of movies by nowâ about Il Duceâs end, one weekly observed of Il Meridiano dâItalia âs scandalizing. 2 The approach was quickly picked up by the establishment press. What could be more interesting than to populate the scene where Mussolini and Claretta were shot with attractive partisan women and undercover Communist agents?
Before De Agazio died, he did more than launch the âmysteries of Dongoâ scandal sheet formula; he was enlisted by Giorgio Almirante, leader of the Italian Social Movement, to work with the cardinal of Turin to form anti-Communist squads in the Piedmont region. Meanwhile, the cardinal of Milan was meeting with another neo-Fascist, General Leone Zingales, who had been chosen by the military to investigate possible crimes by partisan forces at Lake Como after the Liberation.
These clandestine encounters organized by neo-Fascists and the Vatican did not escape the notice of U.S. intelligence, which was convinced that Yugoslav spies had a role in De Agazioâs death. In the Cold War climate, U.S. agents in Italy wanted to exploit the murder of the neo-Fascist journalist to gather American support for the Italian Christian Democrats and other parties of the center right. Thus, in the weeks following De Agazioâs assassination, Communist leaders had more urgent things to worry about than the public identification of Walter Audisio. They were facing a combined front of Christian Democrats, the Vatican, and the Truman administration in its efforts to eliminate the Communist Party altogether. Still, the labored way the Communist executive dealt with the revelation of Audisioâs identity seems to reflect more than just the leadersâ preoccupation.
For weeks after Il Meridiano dâItalia published its revelation, the Communists downplayed the matter, criticizing the âyellow pressâ and insisting that Il Duceâs execution was a routine affair ordered by the Committee of National Liberation. Some two weeks later party secretary Togliatti was still telling an Italian news agency that Mussoliniâs execution had been âone of the greatest, perhaps the greatest contribution that the movement of national liberation made to the nation.â 3 It was not until March 21, eighteen days after Audisio himself acknowledged his role in the execution, that Togliatti officially confirmed that Colonel Valerio and Audisio were indeed one and the same. At the end of March, Audisio was formally presented at a Communist Party rally in Rome. The Communists reluctantly unveiled their role in Mussoliniâs execution, and only because it had already been revealed in the neo-Fascist press. Accordingly, the party
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