Clara Petacci
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Clara Petacci (Claretta Petacci) (28 February 1912 – 28 April 1945) was an upper class Roman who became Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's mistress. Her father had been the personal physician to the Pope. She was twenty-nine years younger than Mussolini.
Petacci was with Mussolini to the end. On 27 April 1945, when a convoy of escaping Italian Social Republic members, including Mussolini, was captured by Communist partisans, it is said that Petacci was offered the opportunity to go unmolested, but there is no solid evidence for this. On 28 April, she and Mussolini were taken to Mezzagra where she and the Duce were shot. On the following day, 29 April, Mussolini and Petacci's bodies were taken to the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and hanged upside down in front of an Esso petrol station. The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.
Many photographs show the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci hanging between four other bodies. Mussolini and Petacci are together in the middle with two bodies hanging to either side of the couple. However, this photograph taken from the rear shows three bodies hanging on Mussolini's side to the right of the couple as seen from the rear. This indicates that Mussolini and Petacci were hanged upside down with five others at the petrol station.
