1889–1945
✕ Executed by partisans
Fascist party secretary from 1931 to 1939 who staged the Mussolini cult and mass mobilisation
Born in Gallipoli, Apulia, he joined the army in 1909 and was much decorated in the First World War. He joined the Fascist movement in Trento in 1920, became deputy party secretary in 1921 and led a Blackshirt squad in the March on Rome in 1922, commanding the militia in Trieste from 1923. As party secretary from 1931 he spent eight years staging parades, issuing daily order sheets, proposing antisemitic segregation and inflating the cult of Mussolini, while drawing the population into party youth and leisure organisations. In Ethiopia in 1935 he led a mechanised column and allegedly executed prisoners. Dismissed in 1939, he was chief of staff of the Blackshirts until 1941. Partisans caught him in Milan in April 1945 and shot him at Piazzale Loreto.
Activities and affiliations
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1909–1918
Military command
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1920–1943
National Fascist Party (PNF)Main
Political and party leadership -
1922
Military command
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1923–1941
Blackshirts (MVSN)Chief of staff of the Blackshirts
Military command