MUSSOLINI’S LIFE IN DANGER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 281, 12 November 1929, Page 7

MUSSOLINI’S LIFE IN DANGER

SIXTH ATTEMPT MADE. SHOTS FIRED AT CAR. London, Nov. 11. The “Daily Chronicle’s” Nice correspondent reports that the sixth attempt on Signor Mussolini’s life was made on October 10, but kept secret till now. Three rifle shots were fired at the Duce’s motor car in Ostia, but Signor Mussolini happened to be travelling in the third car in the procession instead of the second. Nobody was injured. Two hundred suspects were quickly arrested one of whom, report says, was a Fascist officer who was recently cashiered. He was shot a few hours later. The trials of various assailants who have attempted the life of Signor Mussolini are conducted under his Defence of the State Act, which provides for the death penaltv 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 retrospective. The first person tried under the Act was the Hon. Violet Gibson, who fired at Mussolini, wounding him in the nose in April, T 926. She was acquitted on the grounds of insanity, and was removed to England in the custody of her family. Zaniboni, a Socialist ex-deputy, who was captured in November, 1925. with a machine gun trained on the balcony of the palace where Mussolini was shortly due to appear, was captured and tried, and sentenced to 30 years ’imprisonment together with nn 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 nnd hit to death by nn infuriated crowd. The Duce was not injured.