Mussolini Death: Who assassinated Benito Mussolini?

Benito Mussolini was an Italian political leader who ruled Italy as a fascist dictator from 1925 until 1945. He was a revolutionary socialist before founding the paramilitary fascist organisation in 1919 and becoming Prime Minister in 1922.

Known to his compatriots as “Il Duce” (the Leader) or simply “Mussolini,” he aligned himself with Adolf Hitler during World War II, relying on the German dictator to prop up his authority.

There are contradictory accounts of Mussolini’s death, although autopsy records claim that the dictator was assassinated by firing squad on April 28, 1945, shot by troops who fired multiple bullets, four of which struck his heart, causing immediate death.

Both Mussolini and Petacci’s bodies were hung upside down in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto and displayed for crowds to kick and spit on. Hitler committed suicide the next day, and Germany surrendered the next week.

Mussolini’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave that was discovered in 1946 by Fascist sympathisers who transferred it to a convent in Lombardy. It was retrieved by the government and buried in a convent near Milan.