L’Écho d’Alger
- After the Attempt on Mr. Mussolini
- The Plot Against the Spanish Government
- A Mother-in-Law's Crime
The front page of L'Écho d'Alger for 5 November 1926 carried three short wire reports. From Rome came word that Anteo Zamboni had indeed fired at Mussolini in Bologna, using his brother Vico's revolver, and that police had also arrested a communist, Rodolpho Passardi, who had told friends he meant to kill the Duce. From Perpignan came a vivid scene from the breaking of a plot against the Spanish government: police burst into a hotel at Millas where 'revolutionary troops' were lunching, and a Genoa-born prisoner broke free and grabbed a bomb from a suitcase. From Lille, the paper reported that Marie Lefebvre, the 'murderous mother-in-law' sentenced to death by the Douai assize court, had dropped her appeal and could now hope only for a presidential pardon.
Translation
After the Attempt on Mr. Mussolini
Rome, November 4. – Word from Bologna is that Anteo Zamboni is indeed the author of the attempt on Mussolini. The boy took the revolver of his brother Vico. The police have also arrested the communist Rodolpho Passardi, who told friends of his intention to kill the Duce. Inquiries are under way into whether any connection exists among these various statements.
The Plot Against the Spanish Government
Perpignan, November 4. – The insurgents were determined to use rather dangerous instruments of coercion. Witness the following anecdote: The scene took place at Millas, where the second convoy of revolutionary troops, having just arrived, was having lunch in a hotel. The warlike tourists were finishing their lunch when the police burst into the establishment: "Hands up!" shouted the commissioner. All obeyed, and the search was beginning when one of the prisoners, Mario Traverse, a vehicle painter, born on March 18, 1890, in Genoa and living at 34, avenue de la Défense, in Courbevoie, broke away with a leap, ran to open a suitcase and seized a bomb from it.
A Mother-in-Law's Crime
Lille, November 4. – Mrs. Marie Lefebvre has given up appealing to the Court of Cassation against the judgment of the Douai assize court sentencing her to death. The murderous mother-in-law can therefore now count only on a presidential pardon. In a few days she will leave the Cuincy jail for the Lille prison. Precautions will be taken to prevent possible demonstrations.
Context
The Bologna shooting of 31 October 1926 and the question of Zamboni's guilt
The Rome dispatch treats it as settled that Anteo Zamboni fired at Mussolini, adding that the boy used his brother Vico's revolver. The shooting happened on 31 October 1926: as Mussolini was driven through Bologna along via Rizzoli, a bullet passed through his collar. Later accounts name the shooter as a 15-year-old anarchist, Zamboni. The dispatch does not mention that the boy was already dead. The crowd seized him and Fascist admirers of Mussolini killed him on the spot with blows and blades, so no court ever tested the charge. The terrorism scholar J. Bowyer Bell later judged the boy probably innocent and described the affair as either a put-up job or a plot among Fascists. The paper's 'indeed' therefore reports the official version, not an established fact. Four days after the shooting the police were still widening the inquiry, as their check for links with the communist Rodolpho Passardi shows.
How the regime turned the attempt into exceptional laws
Zamboni's shot was one of three attempts on Mussolini in 1926 alone. On 7 April Violet Gibson fired a pistol whose bullet grazed his nose, and on 11 September the anarchist marble worker Gino Lucetti threw a bomb at his limousine at Porta Pia in Rome. One modern writer calls the Bologna attempt a 'Reichstag Fire-like pretext' for a package of repressive measures: the creation of a secret police, the dissolution of the political opposition and the reintroduction of the death penalty. The same 'most Fascist laws' (leggi fascistissime) brought in the Special Tribunal for the Defence of the State, which judged crimes against the regime. The crackdown came quickly: within days the Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci was thrown into prison. The police search in the Rome dispatch for links between Zamboni and a communist who had talked of killing the Duce belongs to this climate, in which the regime treated a single shot as grounds for moving against the whole opposition.
Francesc Macià's Prats de Molló plan
The 'revolutionary troops' arrested at Millas belonged to an armed expedition organised by Francesc Macià, who had founded the separatist party Estat Català in 1922. In 1926 he attempted an insurrection against the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, planning a military invasion of Catalonia from France to win its independence. Armed groups were to cross the border through Prats de Molló in French Catalonia, take Olot and then go on to Barcelona. To avoid suspicion, volunteers were to leave Paris and other French cities dressed as hikers; the paper's mocking 'warlike tourists' refers to that disguise. Macià also enlisted Italian exiles, many of whom had fought in the Garibaldine Legion during the First World War, because he wanted the military experience his own militants lacked. Mario Traverse, the Genoa-born vehicle painter from Courbevoie who snatched the bomb, may well have been one of these Italians living in France, though the sources consulted do not name him.
How the plot was broken up and what became of Macià
The expedition collapsed because the French police knew of it in advance, apparently through a leak from the circle of Ricciotti Garibaldi Jr, grandson of Giuseppe Garibaldi and in fact a spy for Fascist Italy; through him Primo de Rivera also learned of the planned invasion. The police had little difficulty arresting most participants near the Spanish border, 111 people in all, and Macià himself was arrested on the 4th at the country house he was occupying, the same date as the Perpignan dispatch. His trial opened on 21 January 1927, and he was sentenced to two months in prison and a fine of 100 francs. Despite the failure, Macià and his cause became very popular in Catalonia, and on 14 April 1931 he proclaimed the Catalan Republic in Barcelona's Plaça de Sant Jaume. The episode also links the two foreign stories on this page: a Fascist informer among Italian exiles helped defeat a plot against the Spanish dictatorship.
Original
Après l'attentat contre M. Mussolini
Rome, 4 novembre. - On mande de Bologne qu'Anteo Zamboni est bien l'auteur de l'attentat contre Mussolini. L'enfant a pris le revolver de son frère Vico. La police a arrêté également le communiste Rodolpho Passardi qui déclara à des amis son intention de tuer le Duce. On recherche si des relations existent dans ces différents propos.
Le Complot contre le Gouvernement espagnol
Perpignan, 4 novembre. - Les insurgés étaient décidés à se servir d'engins de coercition assez dangereux. Témoin, l'anecdote suivante: La scène se déroula à Millas où le second convoi des troupes révolutionnaires venant d'arriver déjeunait dans un hôtel. Les touristes guerriers achevaient de déjeuner lorsque la police fit irruption dans l'établissement: «Haut les mains!» cria le commissaire. Tous obtempérèrent et la fouille commençait quand l'un des prisonniers, Mario Traverse, peintre en voitures, né le 18 mars 1890 à Gênes et habitant 34, avenue de la Défense, à Courbevoie, s'échappa d'un bond, courut ouvrir une valise et y saisit une bombe.
Le crime d'une belle-mère
Lille, 4 novembre. - Mme Marie Lefebvre a renoncé à se pourvoir en cassation contre l'arrêt de la cour d'assises de Douai, la condamnant à la peine de mort. La belle-mère meurtrière ne doit donc plus compter que sur la grâce présidentielle. Dans quelques jours elle quittera la maison de Cuincy pour la prison de Lille. Des précautions seront prises pour éviter des manifestations possibles.