The ANNOTICO Report

My Friend Anthony Ghezzo was a partisan fighter in the Florence area in
WWII (Yes, he admits to being older than Dirt!!! :),and wrote a brief
"History of Fascism in Italy". Below is his response to an article in the
London Times that claims it was two British Agents (although both were
Italians), rather than by Italian partisans led by Walter Audisio — code
named  “Colonel Valerio” that executed Mussolini.

What I also found revealing was that I was reminded that Mussolini was carrying
compromising letters from Churchill written over a period of years involving
a deal under which Italy would make a separate peace with the Allies, a
breach of Churchill’s agreement with President Roosevelt at Casablanca to
seek the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers.

“Churchill, who like Mussolini was a life-long antiBolshevik, was looking
ahead to the coming conflict with the Soviet Union.”

I also was reminded that Hitler committed suicide just two days after
Mussolini was executed.

At least Americans admitted from the very beginning (May 1945) that they
raced against time and didn't make it: they arrived in Milan, in Piazza
Loreto, the following day (April 29, 1945) where people were still looking
at the gas station where Mussolini and Claretta Petacci had been hung by
their feet so that people could see them for the last time.

No matter what "John" and "Giacomo" had to say years later, Benito and
Claretta were executed by Colonnello Valerio (code name for Walter Audisio)
at Giulino di Mezzegra, just south of Menaggio on the Lake of Como,
approximately 4-5 feet from the iron gate of Villa Belmonte."

London Times
By Richard Owen in Rome
July 29,2005

A documentary says Il Duce’s death was covered up because of incriminating
letters from Britain’s wartime leader

BENITO MUSSOLINI was murdered by a two-man team led by a British secret
agent acting on the orders of Winston Churchill, according to a new
investigation.

In the official version, the Italian dictator and his final mistress, Clara
Petacci, were shot by Italian partisans led by Walter Audisio — codenamed
“Colonel Valerio” — at the gates of Villa Belmonte at Mezzegra near Lake
Como at 4.10pm on April 28, 1945. Their bodies were then hung upside down
in
Milan.

But it is now suggested that this was cover-up, and that Mussolini and
Petacci were really killed at 11am that day by Bruno Lonati, an Italian
partisan codenamed “Giacomo”, and “Captain John”, a British Special
Operations Executive agent of Sicilian parentage whose name was Robert
Maccarrone.

An Italian state television documentary claims that Mussolini was carrying
compromising letters from Churchill written over a period of years
involving
a deal under which Italy would make a separate peace with the Allies, a
breach of Churchill’s agreement with President Roosevelt at Casablanca to
seek the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers.

“Churchill, who like Mussolini was a life-long antiBolshevik, was looking
ahead to the coming conflict with the Soviet Union,” Peter Tompkins, a
veteran American journalist who coproduced the documentary, said. Some
biographers of Mussolini deny that the secret correspondence existed.

But a number of letters have come to light, including Mussolini’s last
letter, written on April 24, in which he pleads with Churchill to
“intervene
personally” and guarantee him “the chance to justify and defend myself”.

Signor Lonati, 83, a former Communist who became a Fiat manager after the
war and now lives in Brescia, claims that “John” was sent to northern Italy
with the specific aim of eliminating Mussolini and answered directly to
General (later Field Marshal) Alexander.

“John” and Signor Lonati went together to the house where Il Duce and his
mistress were being held after being captured by partisans near Dongo. When
arrested, Mussolini was clutching a briefcase that he told his captors was
“of historic importance for the future of Italy”.

Signor Lonati said: “Petacci was sitting on the bed and Mussolini was
standing. John took me outside and told me his orders were to eliminate
them
both, because Petacci knew many things. I said I could not shoot Petacci,
so
John said he would shoot her. He was quite clear that Mussolini had to be
killed by an Italian.”

He said that, when Mussolini stepped out to get some air, under guard,
Petacci said with a sad smile: “So, it’s all over for us.” She asked them
to
shoot “at the chest, not the head”. At the corner of a lane leading down to
the lake, less than a mile from Villa Belmonte, “John” and “Giacomo” stood
their victims against a fence and opened fire.

Signor Lonati said: “Mussolini had a look of surprise on his face, but not
Petacci.”

After the shootings, “John” took a camera from his knapsack and
photographed
the bodies, with Signor Lonati beside them. He had also referred to “very
important documents” which he was ordered to recover from Il Duce.

Mr Tompkins, who coproduced the documentary with Maria Luisa Forenza, said
that there was evidence that the photographs existed. “Lonati went to the
British consulate in Milan in 1981,” he said. “The consul sat opposite
Lonati with them, but said he needed authorisation to hand them over.
Lonati
received a letter from the consulate promising to get in touch, but never
heard any more.”

Mr Tompkins, himself a secret agent for the Allies in occupied Rome in
1944,
said that he had approached the British Embassy in Rome about the pictures.
An embassy official “promised to see what he could do, but later
apologetically said ‘no’. He did not say they did not exist”.

Signora Forenza said that Signor Lonati’s claims, first advanced ten years
ago, had been greeted with scepticism “but we spent three years testing his
account and find it completely convincing, with no discrepancies”.

By contrast, the official version of Mussolini’s death changed frequently
and was “riddled with inconsistencies and lies”. This month, the
French-made
MAS submachinegun with which Mussolini was said to have been shot by Walter
Audisio came to light in Albania. Signor Lonati said that he and “John” had
used Sten guns.

The documentary by Rai, the Italian state television station. entitled
Mussolini: The Final Truth, includes testimony from Dorina Mazzola, who was
19 at the time. She said that she heard the firing: “I looked at the clock,
it was almost 11.”

She said that her mother, Giuseppina, who was in the garden, saw the
shooting.

Partisans arrived soon after and took the bodies away, holding Mussolini up
to make it look as if he was still alive, she said. The documentary says
that partisans were later dressed as Mussolini and Petacci and driven to
the
gates of the Villa Belmonte, where the bodies were already laid out.
“Colonel Valerio” and others then pretended to shoot them. Roberto Remund,
who was at the scene, said that the bodies were “ unnaturally stiff and
contorted” and that there was “very little blood”, suggesting that the
killings had happened earlier.

The programme includes interviews with Claudio Ersoch, grandson of Tommaso
David, Mussolini’s head of covert operations, who said that his grandfather
confirmed that the correspondence existed and that Churchill had promised
in
it to restore to Italy lost territory such as Istria. The programme claims
that postwar painting trips made by Churchill to the Italian lakes were a
cover for efforts to retrieve the correspondence.

Christopher Woods, researcher for the official history of the SOE in Italy,
disputed the suggestion that a British spy had led the assassination
mission. He said: “It’s just love of conspiracy-making. The leaders of the
Resistance in Milan, particularly the left-wing parties, decided that
Mussolini should be killed before the Allies arrived.”

THE LAST DAYS OF WAR

Mussolini’s death in April 1945 came as the end of the Second World War was
in sight and the Soviet Union and the West were already vying to shape the
postwar world. Three days earlier talks to found the United Nations were
held in San Francisco

When Il Duce was killed, Nazi Germany was crumbling and the remnants of
Mussolini’s last Fascist regime at Salo on Lake Garda were fleeing

In March, US forces had crossed the Rhine, the first Nazi concentration
camps were liberated and the race was on between the Allied armies and the
Russians to enter Berlin. The Red Army won, flying the Red Flag in Berlin
on April 21

Two days after Mussolini was killed, Hitler committed suicide with Eva
Braun
in his Berlin bunker. On May 7 Germany surrendered unconditionally and the
next day was celebrated as Victory in Europe (VE) Day

The war in the Pacific continued but, in August, Truman, who became
President in April after the death of Roosevelt, took the decision to use
the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the surrender of Japan

Despite his achievements as war leader, Churchill was defeated in the July
1945 election by the Labour Party led by Clement Attlee

Churchill returned to power in 1951 and served as Prime Minister for four
years. He died in 1965

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
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