Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands.
Ida Irene Dalser (1880–1937) was the first wife of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (1883–1945).
They got married in 1914 and in 1915 she bore him his first child, Benito Albino Mussolini, whom Mussolini legally recognised as his son.
However, in 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Benito Mussolini, and on 17 December 1915, Rachele Guidi and Benito Mussolini married in a civil ceremony in Lombardy. When this became known to Ida Dalser, a legal dispute began between her and the new couple.
Once Mussolini was in power, Ida Dalser and her son were placed under surveillance by the police, and paper evidence of their relationship was tracked down to be destroyed by government agents. She still persisted in claiming her role as the dictator’s wife, and even publicly denounced Mussolini as a traitor. Eventually, she was forcibly interned in the psychiatric hospital of Pergine Valsugana, and then transferred to that of the island of San Clemente in Venice, where she died in 1937. The cause of death was registered as “brain haemorrhage.”
Rachele Mussolini remained loyal to Mussolini until the end, and ignored his various mistresses. But, on 28 April 1945, she was not with Mussolini when he and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured and executed by Italian partisans.
On 28 April, Claretta Petacci (1912–1945) and Mussolini were taken to Mezzegra where they were shot. On the following day, their bodies were taken to the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and hung upside down on meat hooks in front of an Esso petrol station. The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.
photo { A giant M installed to greet Mussolini’s arrival in a small Piemonte village (Italy, 1938) | photo: Farabola/LEEMAGE | Enlarge }
related { Benito Mussolini: British Secret Agent }
