Benito Mussolini Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (, RSI), informally known as the "Salò Republic". In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was
Clara Louise Burnham Clara Louise Burnham Clara Louise Burnham (May 25, 1854 – June 20, 1927) was an American novelist. After the success of "No Gentlemen" (1881), other books followed, including "A Sane Lunatic" (1882), "Dearly Bought" (1884), "Next Door" (1886), "Young Maids and Old" (1888), "The Mistress of Beech Knoll" (1890), and "Miss Bagg's Secretary" (1892). The daughter of George Frederick Root, she wrote the text for several his most successful cantatas. The 1923 film, "A Chapter in Her Life" is based on Burnham's 1903 novel "Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life". Born in Massachusetts, she died at the family home in