Mussolini Had His Son-In-Law Executed
Galeazzo Ciano was appointed ambassador to the Vatican and served in that capacity until July 1943, when he and other Grand Council members succeeded in forcing Mussolini from office. His son-in-law was never pardoned by Mussolini. Mussolini retook control of northern Italy at Hitler's orders (and with assistance from German forces). As soon as he regained control, he set out to exact revenge on friends and family who, in his opinion, had betrayed him. Galeazzo Ciano, his own son-in-law, was one of them.
When the new provisional administration started putting together charges of embezzlement against him, Ciano quickly left Rome for the north. Ciano was accused of treason after unintentionally running into the arms of fascist militants in northern Italy. His father-in-law ordered his execution on January 11, 1944; Mussolini had been put in charge of a German-installed puppet government. The brutally candid and sarcastic observations Ciano made about the wartime personalities in his diaries are regarded as an essential element of history.
Mussolini was only able to maintain his position of authority during the war's final years thanks to declining German power. He realized that time was of the essence. "I used to be a fascinating person seven years ago. I am essentially dead right now," he claimed in a 1945 interview. "I no longer identify as an actor. I believe I am the last of the observers. He ultimately fled, pretending to be a member of the Luftwaffe, to the Swiss border with Claretta Petacci and other people. On April 28, 1945 (two days before Hitler committed suicide), Communist partisans shot him and Petacci because they recognized him. His corpse was carried back to Milan, where it was displayed to the public by being hanged upside down and dragged through the streets.
