In 1946 the body of what was the Duce was stolen in Milan by nostalgic of fascism and began an odyssey of over a decade. In an Italy that was trying to get out of the war tragedy, that disappearance was the past that does not pass. A book reconstructs the story.
At first, they imagined “kidnapped” The corpse of Mussolini – on April 28, 1946 – On the day of the first anniversary of the shooting of the Duce del Fascismo. But some rumors (moreover only imagine) on more rigorous measures for the guard shifts to the Milanese cemetery where it was buried, advised to anticipate the “blow” in the hours between 22 and 23 April. The action plan was far from irresistible. He succeeded because a revolt had exploded in the prison of San Vittore, with the result that the agents on guard at the burial were diverted under the prison. Four Picconate in the land of nobody rekindled their attention on pages of history still powerfully current. The odyssey of a corpse began in the darkness of that night and lasted four thousand days before – August 9, 1957 – was delivered to the family in Predappio where Mussolini He was born and where he had hoped to want to return to his dead.
The – accidental – path of this “wandering corpse” is proposed by Ugo Savoia in a text that, inevitably entitled Mussolini’s body (Neri Pozza), It captures the moods and anxieties of an agitated post -war period and outlines its contradictions. The corpse was hidden in the Cemetery of Musocco, on the north-west suburbs of Milan. Not a cross and no indication. That area had served to be buried some Germans who died in the months ago. At the end of April 1945, 11 corpses brought us: Mussolini and Claretta Petacci killed – according to the version of the partisans – in Giulino di Mezzegra, eight hierarchs shot in Dongo, as well as Achille Starace, captured while running in gymnastic suit and, in an amen, brought in front of the execution platoon. The place of the burial of the Duce – officially – did not exist. The authorities feared that a tomb discoverically indicated could become a destination for inappropriate pilgrimages. The nostalgics, of course, in search of a regurgitation of passion but also the enemies, animated by the desire to vent a hatched ailment or, worse, the curious – who never fail – deluded to be part of contexts greater than them.
The idea of stolen the body came to Domenico Leccisi who, Being born in 1920, he was not a fascist of the first hour but, when he was registry, he wore his black shirt with the disproportionate euphoria of the unconsciousness. And even after the fall of the regime, he did not change his mind, founding a fascist democratic party. The “kidnapping” was influenced by two reasons. One – moral – consisted in the desire to ensure an “honorable burial” in Mussolini. The other – more political – aimed to defend the former marginalized fascists in the gray areas of the cities. “Stealing” the corpse to attract attention could be an effective initiative but – exactly – where was the pit with Mussolini? Leccisi, in an autobiographical publication published fifty years later, confessed that the “blow” came from a South Tyrolean soldier who worked on the cemetery. The body of the Duce was in tomb number 384 of Campo 16. Macabra operation that of digging until he hears the solid of the coffin, leverage to discover it and illuminate the corpse with a torch of acetylene. The breeze of the night was not enough to appease the smell of rancid that came out of the cashier.
The body was naked, swollen by the fury of Piazzale Loreto and by the summary autopsy practiced later. The trousers he wore had been thrown over the corpse. In addition to Leccisi, the commando started Mauro Rana and Antonio Parozzi. They had to win the disgust when they wrapped the body in a sheet. To jump the protection of protection, they slipped. One distracted the ankle and the other escaped one knee. The corpse, already in a precarious state of conservation, lost three phalanges of one hand. That the action had margins of improvisation is shown by the fact that, after the theft, the three did not know where to go. They chose Madesimo where the province of Sondrio is already almost Swiss because one of the three had a hug for rent. The corpse ended up in a trunk that, after four hours of work, was placed at the bottom of the woodshawd. The effect of the disappearance was disruptive and, in the absence of certainties, galloped the imagination. The most far -fetched thesis concerned a witness who reported that he had met the Duce – alive – in Ceylon. But there was no lack of originality even the declarations of those who saw the bundle with the corpse on the boat on the Po, in a hot air balloon above the Alps, on a Spanish plane or in an urn that contained the ashes obtained after cremation. They also asked a seer – Ciriaco Manenti – who, of work, was a customsman but, by vocation, he cultivated the study of the “radio bio”. In fact, after having “pushed” the cells to match, “saw distinctly” the corpse while he was stolen but, because of subsequent cosmic interference, he could not follow him on the escape route …
Italy was laboriously recovering a dimension of normality after the war. That it was possible to reconstruct on the rubble was demonstrated by the engineer Corradino D’Ascanio who recycled the starting engines of the military planes to transform them into motorcycles. The “Vespa” was born. Which did not serve for the bombings, but it was useful for ordinary people who could move more easily. Fausto Coppi was the hero by bicycle and Turin’s “grenade” (in 1946) won their third championship. It was politics that wagbated into the restlessness. Ferruccio Parri, he was president of the Council of Ministers only for 172 days, then he had to pack his bags and give way to Alcide De Gasperi. The interiors were entrusted to Attilio Romita, struggling with the organization of the referendum between Monarchy and Repubblica.
To justice, Palmiro Togliatti had to deal with the communists of his party who thought they had acquired the right to govern by winning the elections but also without.
Understandable that the theft of Mussolini’s corpse had turned on the freshly dormant (of someone) feelings and inflamed those (of others) already fiery enough. Also because Leccisi, on behalf of the “democratic fascists”, turned to the newspapers offering the return of the corpse in exchange for an amnesty that concerned the former black shirts. Impossible, thus highlighting, not leaving traces. The investigators crawled the commando of thieves who found themselves forced to move the remains. They turned to the friars of the Angelicum of Milan Alberto Parini and Enrico Zucca who “for Christian charity” agreed to keep the uncomfortable dimensions. It took two rubberized bags to hospitalize the remains of Mussolini but, above all, to contain the stench of death that came out of it. They hid him under a trap door, in front of the altar of San Matteo.
Soon, however, even that refuge became precarious. The investigators arrived in Giorgio Muggiani who had not participated in the action but knew the details and indicated the names of the managers who were arrested. Paradoxically, in prison, they realized the objectives they had proposed. On June 22, 1946, Togliatti promulgated the amnesty which was the non -negotiable request for democratic comrades. And, even if they served eleven years, Leccisi was decisive for the return of the corpse of Mussolini to the family.
In May 1957, one of the many government crises brought the Prime Minister Antonio Segni to resign. To succeed him, Adone Zoli was indicated, who could count on a restored majority of the bone. Indeed, for the vote of trust he was missing a vote that came from Leccisi who had been elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Italian social movement but without being part of the parliamentary group. The fact that it was formally an “independent” left to him an important margin of autonomous action and removed the Christian democracy from the impaccio to accept votes by those who were judged “heirs” of fascism. Leccisi voted Zoli and these spare parts removing the embargo on Mussolini’s body. In the meantime, the Duce was in a suitcase and, this time, with the consent of the government, he ended up at the Certosa di Pavia. The problem remained not to transform the dead tyrant into a cult object. They previded that the prior was committed to maintaining absolute secrecy. And silence was, until the moment to deliver the coffin to his wife Rachele for a real burial. The marketing of nostalgia had faded. Even if not entirely.
