Mussolini Assassination Report Denied

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1939, Page 7

Mussolini Assassination Report Denied

(Received 2.30 p.m.) ROME, February 17. An official announcement says: “The report of an attempt recently made on the life of the head of the Government is false. The rumour arose from an incident caused by a madman firing shots in the Via Nomentena." The street is near Signor Mussolini’s residence.

A further message says that at 2 p.m. on Tuesday a plain-clothed militiaman noticed an individual, evidently mentally unbalanced. He approached with the intention of calming him. The individual fired, wounding the militiaman in the abdomen.

A man has been arrested and identified as a mechanic. Bruno Simone, aged 38. He had twice been detained in a lunatic asylum, from where he was released last year.

An Earlier Message An earlier message reads as follows: — The British United Press correspondent at Rome states that Signor Mussolini escaped assassination on Wednesday last when his attacker shot a bodyguard in front of II Duce’s residence at Villa Torlonia as Signor Mussolini was departing for the Palazzo Venezia.

It is reported that the bodyguard challenged a loiterer at the main gateway. whereupon the stranger fired a revolver through his coat, wounding the guard in the stomach. Signor Mussolini rushed up as detectives and members of the household staff were arresting the assailant. Police are reported to have ascertained that the would-be assassin was released from an asylum last week, and was still carrying certifying papers.