On 7 April 1926, Gibson shot Mussolini, Italy's National Fascist Party leader, as he walked among the crowd in the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome after leaving an assembly of the International Congress of Surgeons, to whom he had delivered a speech on the wonders of modern medicine. Gibson had armed herself with a rock to break Mussolini's car window if necessary, and a Modèle 1892 revolver disguised in a black shawl.
She fired once, but Mussolini moved his head at that moment and the shot hit his nose; she tried again, but the gun misfired. Mussolini's son, in his memoir, gives an alternative account, recounting that Gibson fired twice, once missing and once grazing Mussolini's nose. Gibson was almost lynched on the spot by an angry mob, but police intervened and took her away for questioning.
Mussolini was wounded only slightly, dismissing his injury as "a mere trifle", and after his nose was bandaged he continued his parade on the Capitoline Hill. It has been thought that Gibson was insane at the time of the attack and the idea of assassinating Mussolini was hers and that she worked alone. She told interrogators that she shot Mussolini "to glorify God" who had kindly sent an angel to keep her arm steady.
As she did not hold Irish citizenship due to her Unionist views, she was deported to Britain after being released without charge at the request of Mussolini, an act for which he received the thanks of the British government. The assassination attempt started a wave of popular support for Mussolini, resulting in the passage of pro-Fascist legislation which helped consolidate his control of Italy. She spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital, St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton, despite repeated pleas for her release. She died on 2 May 1956 and was buried in Kingsthorpe Cemetery, Northampton.
Always clean and oil your weapons, test fire round from the batch you're going to use, and carry, like, idk, seven back-up pieces.
Or speak your truth with a pinball machine
spend more time at the range and use one size larger gun than you think you need, people!
I tried but the next town over kept complaining so now 40mm are banned from the range.
I had seen this picture before and didn't know the context behind it
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I really hope she took the opportunity to laugh and yell, "Got your nose!"
Citing the Belfast Telegraph, the article states:
The assassination attempt started a wave of popular support for Mussolini, resulting in the passage of pro-Fascist legislation which helped consolidate his control of Italy.
Suggesting a causal link between the assassination attempt and Mussolini's supposed popularity. Meanwhile, elsewhere on wikipedia:
On 7 April 1926, Mussolini survived a first assassination attempt by Violet Gibson, an Irish woman and daughter of Lord Ashbourne, who was deported after her arrest.[83] On 31 October 1926, 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni attempted to shoot Mussolini in Bologna. Zamboni was lynched on the spot.[84][85] Mussolini also survived a failed assassination attempt in Rome by anarchist Gino Lucetti,[86] and a planned attempt by the Italian anarchist Michele Schirru,[87] which ended with Schirru's capture and execution.[88]
All other parties were outlawed following Zamboni's assassination attempt in 1926, though in practice Italy had been a one-party state since 1925 (with either his January speech to the Chamber or the passage of the Christmas Eve law, depending on the source)
I’ve always wondered why neither the USSR nor the West ever seriously attempted to assassinate Hitler. From the USSR perspective they may have understandably been concerned about the other Allies deciding they preferred a military-led Germany to the Soviet Union. I was taught that the UK/US never tried it because they thought Hitler was a strategic liability to the Germans, although honestly that doesn’t sound very plausible to me
I'm sure they did and we don't know. there were like 4? assassination attempts on Hitler and the West did manage to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich.
