LONE ANARCHIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 9

LONE ANARCHIST.

"DEEDS NOT WORDS." Assailant of Mussolini on Trial. WOMEN REFUSED ADMISSION. " • i ßy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 3 2 noon.) ROME, .Tune 10. Tlio youth. Gino Lucetti, who, on September 11, 1926, threw a bomb at a motor car in which Signor Mussolini was driving in Rome, has been brought to trial. The accused faced the special State defencc tribunal with amazing coolness and callousness. \\ omen wore refused admission to the ( nurt consequent on a recent complaint by Mussolini about the introduction of too gay a note by the fashion display at tho trial of Zaniboni, who had also attempted to assasinate him. Lucetti. in a calm recount of his preparations for the attempt on Signor Mussolini's life, said: "I first conceived the idea of killing the Prime Minister in December, 1925. I did not say anything to anybody, because deeds must be accomplished rather than talked about. I preferred a bomb to any oth'T weapon as likely to achieve better results. I intended to use a pistol if the bomb failed." Accused cynically confessed that he had placed poisoned bullets in a revolver for the purpose of making them destructive. The poison was supplied by a friend who lived in France. Lucetti asserted that he was a lone anarchist, and came expressly from .Marseilles to Rome to commit the deed. Tin- hearing was adjourned.

The trials of various assailants who have :itt«*nii>le«l the lite of Signor Mussolini are l.cmg conducted under Ins Defence of the State Act, which provides for the death penalty being carried out on any person who conspires against the life of a member of the reigning family, or the head of the State, and the provisions of which were made restrospective. The first person tried under the Act was the Hon. Violet Gibson, who fired at Mussolini, wounding him in the nose in April, 1926. She was acquitted on the grounds of insanity, and was recently removed to England in the custody of her family. Zaniboni, a Socialist ex-deputy, who was captured in November, 1920, with a machine gun trained on the balcony of the palace where Mussolini was shortly due to appear, was tried two months ago, and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, together with an accomplice, Lieutenant Capello. The bomb outrage by Lucetti was the fourth attempt against Mussolini's life. On October 31, 1926, a youth of 15, who fired a revolver at Mussolini, was stabbed and hit to death by an infuriated crowd. The Duce fras not injured.