2023-06-26 12:09:27
by Antonio Carioti
At the end of the celebrations for the anniversary of the march on Rome, a fifteen year old tries to kill the dictator and is immediately lynched. An episode with dark outlines
This article is part of a series that tells the story of Benito Mussolini through some of the most important dates of his life. The first was the one dedicated to Mussolini’s April 25th.
Narrowly missed. The pistol shot that exploded against him in Bologna on 31 October 1926 pierced the collar of Benito Mussolini’s jacket and the sash of the Mauritian Order of Chivalry that the head of government wears around his neck, but did not injure him. The alleged bomber is grabbed by an army lieutenant, Carlo Alberto Pasolini (father of the future poet and director Pier Paolo), and a fascist, Giovanni Vallisi, steals his pistol. But then other black shirts pounce on the unfortunate victim: a ferocious lynching with stabbings inflicted with the precise intention of killing.
The boy brutally killed is called Anteo Zamboni, he is only 15 years old. Certainly the gun belonged to his father Mammolo, a former anarchist printer who later passed to fascism and a friend of the Romagna hierarch Leandro Arpinati. But the testimonies differ on many points. Even today it is not clear whether it was the solitary gesture of a young man enraged by the idea of tyrannicide, or if behind the incident there was a conspiracy against the Duce of fascist extremists and dissidents, as some indications suggest: strange that a fifteen year old he acted on his own initiative and I suspect the zeal with which he was immediately massacred.
The investigation by the judiciary deals only with the attack on Mussolini, it does not even consider the possibility of prosecuting whoever lynched the boy, even if it is a murder openly committed in public. The Zamboni family ended up under accusation, under the pretext of Mammolo’s past anarchist sympathies. The latter and Virginia Tabarroni, energetic sister of Anteo’s mother, will be sentenced to thirty years in prison, but then pardoned in 1932. The Duce himself thus shows that he is aware of their innocence.
Not the first time that the head of government has been subjected to attacks. A first plot was thwarted before being implemented on November 4, 1925. The socialist deputy Tito Zaniboni wanted to shoot Mussolini with a sniper rifle from a window of the Hotel Dragoni, located opposite Palazzo Chigi (the Duce will move at Palazzo Venezia only in 1929), at the moment in which the head of fascism appeared to greet the crowd on the anniversary of the victory in the First World War. But among the participants in the conspiracy there was a police informant: the bomber was caught in the act and arrested.
Luck instead helped Mussolini on April 7, 1926, when he was shot at by a deranged woman of British nationality, Violet Gibson. The moment the gunshot was fired, the head of government threw back his head, stiffening in the Roman salute addressed to some young people, and the bullet grazed his nose instead of his head. There are photos of him then with a flashy plaster on his face. Mussolini, immediately after the shooting, addressed to the fascists one of his mottos that remained in the collective memory: If I advance, follow me; if I retreat, kill me; if I die, avenge me.
Finally, the action carried out on 11 September 1926 by Gino Lucetti, anarchist from Carrara, who threw a bomb at the black Lancia car in which Mussolini was travelling, near Porta Pia, also in Rome, should be noted. The bomb bounced off the edge of a window and exploded on the ground, injuring some passers-by. And the bomber was immediately captured by the agents who got out of the escort car which followed that of the Duce.
In essence, all these attempts to eliminate him do nothing but enhance the myth of Mussolini, adding a touch of invulnerability that impresses the masses. Even the Catholic press, tolerated by fascism, welcomed the failure of the attacks with jubilation. Pope Pius XI himself in November 1926 expressed in a message his deep execration for what happened in Bologna and his immense joy because the target came out unharmed. The Duce, for his part, flaunts confidence in a message to Arpinati: Nothing can happen to me before my task is finished.
However, Zamboni’s attack is more significant than the others due to the harsh reaction it provokes. Mussolini resumed ownership of the Ministry of the Interior, moving Federzoni to the colonies. And the government dissolves all parties except the fascist one, decrees very strict control over the press, reintroduces the death penalty, establishes a special court to try opponents. On November 8, 1926, the leader of the Communist Party Antonio Gramsci was arrested, although in theory he would still enjoy parliamentary immunity. But at this point the repression no longer pays attention to the formal aspects of legality: a dictatorial regime has now been established in Italy.
June 26, 2023 (change June 26, 2023 | 12:09)
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