Benito Albino Mussolini

[Peter H]

Mussolini's illegitimate son:

http://www.trivia-library.com/a/childre ... solini.htm

A 6th child, Benito Albino (b. 1915-?) was illegitimate. His mother was Ida Dalser, whom Mussolini denounced in 1917 as "dangerous, unbalanced, and criminal." He had her interned as an enemy alien, and she spent the last 10 years of her life in a mental institution. The boy grew up under the supervision of guardians, and died during the war under mysterious circumstances--some say in an institution, like his mother; others, in naval action. His existence was not generally known until after his father's death.

Is this true?

http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic130a.asp

During World War II Benito Albino Mussolini, the illegitimate son of Il Duce and Ida Dalser born in 1915, seems to have served as a radio operator in the Regia Marina.

[Davide Pastore]

Is this true?

During World War II Benito Albino Mussolini, the illegitimate son of Il Duce and Ida Dalser born in 1915, seems to have served as a radio operator in the Regia Marina.

AFAIK no.

There is a recent (2006) book on the subject:
http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/BIT ... Dalser.htm
http://www.garzantilibri.it/default.php ... &CPID=2087
http://www.liberonweb.com/asp/libro.asp?ISBN=8811600502

According to the first review, Albino died (was medically killed, to be more precise) in a psychiatric hospital in 1942 "after seven years of internment" (i.e. he had been an inmate 1935-1942).

According to this other website:
http://www.romacivica.net/anpiroma/fasc ... ismo28.htm

Albino served on a Regia Marina ship in China (as far from Italy as possible...) only during his compulsory military service (so probably during 1933-34).

Benito Albino si spegne, in altro manicomio, secondo la diagnosi per deperimento fisico, nel 1942 [...] nella realtà a causa di ripetute iniezioni di insulina (una trentina), vere torture, che lo mandano nove volte in coma, come si evince dalle cartelle cliniche reperite. Mussolini sapeva? Gli possono essere attribuite tali atrocità?.Gli autori del documentario affermano categoricamente di sì.

Benito Albino died, in another lunatic asylum, according to diagnosis for poor state of health, in 1942 [...] actually after repeated insulin injections (about 30), true tortures, which sent it into coma nine times, as written in the clinical files. Did Mussolini know? Could these athrocities be ascribed to him? The authors of the documentary [Italian TV, 2005] answer a cathegorical yes.

As a pure guess, the tale of Albino's wartime service might have been invented by Mussolini's family and/or by Italian right-wing politicians (as you may been aware, we have here a notorious madame who - having had a remarkable career from men-only magazine pinup to Parlamento member - happen to share both background) as a way to cover some very embarassing facts.

Davide

[Lupo Solitario]

Benito Albino, born November 11, 1915, entered in Regia Marina in 1932 under pressure of his legal tutor. In 1935 is interned a first time in Taranto military hospital. After that, is resigned by service and definitely interned in Mombello mental illness hospital in date august 5 1935. He will never leave it til his death happened august 26, 1942.

There is an version (totally false) for which the guy is dead in 1941 in the sinking of Conte Verde but it had been spread by fascist wartime sources I don't know why.

All those data from Millenovecento historical magazine, January 2005 issue

[Davide Pastore]

Benito Albino, born November 11, 1915, entered in Regia Marina in 1932

So, when he was barely sixteen (seventeen in November). Haste to put him far from Italy?

Davide

[Lupo Solitario]

possible.

I translate literally the part of article related to his military service:

"The close physical relation between the boy, who is 17, and the father is noted by everyone...Bernardi [the tutor, NdT] makes the boy enroling in Navy e send him to La Spezia naval school. To control him better, places aside him a nephew ordering him to never let him alone e refer everything about actions and thougths of Benito Albino...
In summer 1934, when naval school ends, Benito Albino and Giacomo Minella are sent in the Far East to serve on cruiser Quarto, in Shangai harbour, China Sea...Benito Albino never stops to speak about his connection with Duce and sometimes also with different navies officers. Minella please him to be more controlled and refers to Bernardi.
In Spring 1935 Benito Albino is made to believe that his mother has dead... he continues to crticize openly the Duce. The ship commander decides to send him back in Italy for being "dangerous for himself and others"...
Benito Albino is immediately sent back from China and isolated in Navy barracks at Brindisi for three weeks...From Brindisi he is moved to Taranto Military Hospital....
The Navy Command orders to Taranto Hospital to give Benito Albino to his adoptive father Bernardi who makes him interned at Milano mental hospital at Mombello di Limbiate, August 5, 1935..."

[Peter H]

Great information Gentlemen.

This as well:

The Times January 13,2005,by Richard Owen

BENITO MUSSOLINI drove his secret first wife and son to early deaths in lunatic asylums because they threatened his rise to power. His henchmen then tried to erase all traces of their relationship.

A documentary to be shown on state television tomorrow will shock Italians after recent attempts to rehabilitate Mussolini, who has been portrayed in recent family memoirs as a paternal figure and patriot.

But the documentary, Mussolini's Secret, paints a black picture of Il Duce's ruthlessness.

It claims that as a 31-year-old aspiring politician Mussolini married Ida Dalser, 34, a beautician from Sopramonte, near Trento -- then part of Austria -- in Milan in 1914 at the start of the First World War. The following year -- by which time Mussolini was fighting at the front -- Signora Dalser gave birth to Benito Albino, whom Mussolini accepted as his son in sworn statements.

The film quotes passionate love letters from Mussolini to Ida. But the marriage turned sour and after Mussolini had risen to power in 1922, Fascist agents sought to erase all traces of the relationship. They overlooked, however, a certificate by Milan city council ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments and referring to "his wife Ida Dalser" and their child. Gianfranco Norelli, who produced the documentary, said that "the Milan authorities would not have issued such a document without proof of marriage".

Ida refused to bow down. When she tried to meet a Fascist minister visiting Sopramonte she was interned in a local mental hospital. She struck back by denouncing Mussolini to the Interior Ministry for treason, saying that she had proof that he had taken a substantial bribe from the French Government to use his influence to commit Italy -- initially neutral -- to war against Austria in the First World War.
"This could have finished Mussolini's career before it had begun," Signor Norelli said. The accusation was shelved, however, and Fascist doctors in Trento committed her to an asylum in 1926.

Ida's niece, Alda Cimadom, 90, recalls that Benito was abducted by Fascist police and told that his mother was dead. He was ordered to stop declaring that Il Duce was his father. In 1931, at 15, Benito was adopted by the former Fascist police chief at Sopramante. Researchers found that in 1942, at the age of 27, he died at an asylum near Milan where he was given repeated coma-inducing injections.

Ida died in 1937 of a "brain haemorrhage" at an asylum on the Venetian island of San Clemente. She and her son were officially described as "a danger to themselves and others" but newly found hospital records show that both were lucid.

[Arska]

There was a document of this on finnish national TV just less than two weeks ago.

[Keir]

I still can't find any definitive evidence of this supposed son of Mussolini whom the latter had killed by lethal injection. None of my biographies mentions this supposed event; I have only come across it in an otherwise mediocre documentary embarrassingly entitled 'Evolution of Evil "Mussolini"'