What Did Mussolini Tell Clara Petacci in His Last Days? A Mystery Waiting to be Solved

By Philip Cannistraro

The gruesome photograph of Benito Mussolini’s body strung up by its feet in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto on April 29, 1945 is deeply embedded in the historical memory of Italians who suffered through World War II. Hanging next to him were the bodies of some of his most notorious gerarchi, and that of a young woman, Clara Petacci.
Captured in the town of Dongo on April 27th, Mussolini was shot the following day by communist partisans of the 52nd Garibaldi Brigade. Beside him, as he uttered his last words to his executioners – “Get it over with!” – was the thirty-three-year-old Petacci. “Claretta,” as she was known to her intimates, had gotten her wish to die together with the man she loved. The partisans took their corpses to Milan so that the people could see for themselves the ignominious end of their dictator.
As a young school girl Petacci had developed a crush on Mussolini, and sometime after they met in 1932 she began a long and devoted love affair with the Fascist dictator, thirty years her senior. Her father, Dr. Francesco Petacci, had been the senior physician to the Vatican and his children moved in fashionable social circles. Gossip had it that her brother, Marcello, had been involved in questionable business opportunities secured through her influence.
Petacci, who authored vapid poetry with a heavy romantic streak, saved some 600 letters that Mussolini sent to her. She also began keeping a secret diary in 1933 in which she recorded her love affair with Mussolini. When Petacci left her residence on Lake Garda on April 18, 1945 to join Mussolini, she placed his letters and her diaries with friends for safe keeping. After the war, the Italian government confiscated the documents These are now in the state archives in Rome, closed to scholars and the curious public. What secrets, if any, can these letters and diaries contain? What can the letters tell historians about high politics in the Fascist era and the workings of Mussolini’s mind? Are the diaries merely the amorous rantings of a star-struck young woman with little or no political understanding?
Despite the regulations prohibiting the consultation of these letters and diaries, some Petacci materials are already known – scholars have been able to see the fawning letters she sent to Mussolini in the 1920s, before they met. There are also transcripts of numerous telephone conversations between Mussolini and Petacci. Mussolini, who often wrote explicit love notes to his lovers, exchanged pillow talk with Petacci on the telephone. From these documents we also know that Mussolini did confide matters of state to her, often telling her before the fact, of important events about to happen, such as the Italian declaration of war in June 1940 or the meeting of the Fascist Grand Council on the night of July 24-25, 1943 that overthrew him. There seems little indication that Petacci herself had much to say about these matters, other than trying to bolster Mussolini’s spirits and encourage him to rely on his political instincts and his will.
Based on the evidence already available, therefore, the historical importance of the Petacci papers would appear to lie in what they can reveal about Mussolini’s attitudes, inner thoughts, and decisions. However, only when the papers are eventually opened to scholars will we know for sure.
Meanwhile, still another mystery surrounding the Petacci papers has surfaced. This fascinating cache of materials has been conserved in the archives for a half-century, principally contained in its original suitcase and 68 packages. Yet in December 2002, archive officials discovered that some of Mussolini’s letters are missing. What happened to them remains unknown.

*Dr. Cannistraro is Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center/CUNY. He is currently writing a biography of Benito Mussolini.