Mussolini's body taken from grave (4-23-46)

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The Evening Star (April 23, 1946)

Duce’s body taken from grave in Milan by ‘unknown’ persons

Officials believe Fascists may have removed remains from cemetery for veneration

MILAN, Italy (AP) – Milan municipal authorities reported today that the body of Benito Mussolini was removed during the night from Maggiore Cemetery here by “unknown” persons.

An inquiry to ascertain the responsibility was under way. The discovery was made by workers who were in the cemetery to exhume other bodies.

Watchmen were placed today in that section of the cemetery where Mussolini had been buried. They forbade anyone to approach the site.

Some Milan officials said they believed Fascists removed the body for veneration. Police said they saw no connection between the theft and the Easter rioting in St. Vittore Prison, still in progress.

Morgue officials said Mussolini’s body was stripped of clothing before it was buried almost a year ago. Police theorized that persons with a knowledge of the undertaker’s trade probably were involved “because it is difficult to remove a body from a coffin after one year without specialized knowledge.”

A dispatch to Il Journal in Rome said part of Mussolini’s leg encased in a boot remained in the coffin which was left in the cemetery.

Mussolini was buried in a pauper’s grave in the cemetery soon after his execution by partisans near the Swiss border in April 1945.

The bodies of Claretta Petacci, his mistress, and five henchmen who were executed at the same time were buried near his grave.

Mussolini was captured on the shores of Lake Como attempting to escape into Switzerland. After a summary trial, he and the others were shot. The bodies were brought to Milan and hung up for exhibition in the public square.

The Maggiore Cemetery is called “the German camp” by Milanese because Germans who died before the liberation of Italy are buried there.

Grave was unmarked

Mussolini’s grave was unmarked. Two Associated Press photographers and a correspondent went to the cemetery yesterday to get pictures of Mussolini’s grave and found everything in order.

A cemetery watchman pointed out what he supposed was Mussolini’s grave, saying that the body of Achille Starace, former secretary of the Fascist Party, was nearby.

But only three or four persons actually knew the true place where Mussolini was buried. Giovanni Cavazza, a lawyer and high municipal official, two days ago told the complete story of the burial.

Late in the afternoon of April 30, 1945, a military truck brought three coffins to the cemetery. They contained the bodies of Mussolini, Claretta Petacci, Mussolini’s mistress, and Starace. The coffins were unmarked and only a commune official knew in which coffin was the body of Mussolini.

After a military priest had given the benediction, they were buried near the German graves. Attending the ceremony were an official of the Red Cross and the military personnel on the truck. Claretta was not buried near her lover because, Cavazzo said, he gave orders “not to place two adulterers, sinners against God’s law, together.”

Ground over grave was bare

The ground over Mussolini’s grave was completely bare, as was the ground over 22 other graves. Flowers were rarely seen there. Yesterday only a simple bouquet was on the ground near the place where Il Duce was probably buried.

While a photographer was taking a picture of the place, a woman kicked the flowers away, saying, “This is the only bad thing I have done against him; he has done a lot of evil to me.”

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The Evening Star (April 24, 1946)

Body of Mussolini reported spirited south from Milan

ROME (AP) – A mysterious telephone caller told the Milan newspaper Corriere Lombardo today that the body of Benito Mussolini, stolen from a grave in potter’s field yesterday, has been spirited south across the river Po.

The anonymous caller said: “This night at 3 o’clock Mussolini’s body has passed the Po River at Caorso.”

Caorso is near Piacenza. The caller said the body of the assassinated Fascist dictator was taken across the river in a boat, but refused to say how many were aboard.

The newspaper said the man was believed to be the same as the one who called it yesterday and declared “a body has been stolen from Maggiore Cemetery in Milan.” The newspaper refused to believe the story until a communique three hours later told of the stealing of the remains of Mussolini.

Highways ordered blocked

Meanwhile, Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Romita ordered police to block all highways from Milan in an effort to frustrate any attempt to bring Mussolini’s body to Rome.

Romita declared that “one man alone” knew the exact location of the unmarked grave in a Milan potter’s field from which the former Duce’s remains were stolen. He refused, however, to identify the man while the investigation still is under way.

Milan newspapers, meanwhile, reported that police had found near the open grave a note which was signed by the “Democratic Fascist Party” and which said:

“Duce, finally you are with us. We repeatedly requested of the authorities that you be given a worthier tomb, but this always was denied us. Now you will have a grave worthy of your person and of all you accomplished, covered with roses and flowers.”

Napoleon’s burial cited

The newspaper Il Momento said that for some time pamphlets had been circulating in Milan asserting that “regardless of opinion on Mussolini, he belongs to history and therefore has a right to burial. Napoleon, too, led France to disaster, but nobody questions the Invalides – his tomb.”

Milan police, reconstructing the theft of Mussolini’s body, said the marauders had climbed two small fences to gain entrance to the rear of the cemetery. After uncovering the body they apparently dumped it into a sack and carried it to an automobile, which was believed to have headed toward Gallarate, a small town 20 miles distant.

The trail reportedly was lost there.

Fears that an attempt might be made to bring Mussolini’s body to Rome were roused by the letter reportedly found near the open grave.

“The time will come,” the letter said, "in which Benito Mussolini in his coffin, kissed by our sun, will parade through the streets of Italy, and all the roses of the world and all the tears of our women will not be enough to give extreme greetings of the country to this great son.”

‘Light of eternity spreading’

The letter, signed by “the Central Directive Committee of the Democratic Fascist Party,” said the body, from which “the light of eternity is spreading,” was taken because the party could bear no longer “the cannibal slurs made by human dregs organized in the Communist Party.”

The bullet-riddled, savagely-battered corpse was buried in Maggiore Cemetery almost a year ago, its location reportedly hidden from all but a few persons to prevent attempts to dig up the body.

A dispatch to L’Osservatore Romano from Lanuvio yesterday said grave robbers had looted the ancient tomb of Duke Filippo Cesarino, chief magistrate of Rome in 1668, who was buried in Lanuvio churchyard in 1685. The dispatch said the robbers, presumably motivated by the legend of treasure buried with the duke, had broken up and carried off his lead casket.