Domenico Leccisi

Domenico Leccisi (born May 20, 1920 in Molfetta , Bari Province , † November 2, 2008 in Milan ) was an Italian political activist, member of parliament and journalist.

On the night of April 23, 1946, Leccisi and two helpers kidnapped the body of Benito Mussolini from an anonymous burial ground in the Cimitero del Musocco cemetery in Milan . A year earlier, at the instigation of the Allied authorities, the bodies of the killed fascists, which had been hung in Piazzale Loreto , had been buried there. The kidnappers took the body to the Certosa di Pavia , where it was discovered three and a half months later. Mussolini's body was then taken to the Capuchin monastery of Cerro Maggiore near Legnano , where it rested anonymously until 1957. Domenico Leccisi was identified as the perpetrator and sentenced to six years in prison. However, he was released through an amnesty after 23 months .

Leccisi joined the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) and represented this party from 1953 to 1963 as a member of parliament in Rome . As a member of parliament in 1957, he brokered the release of Mussolini's body to his family with the Christian Democratic Prime Minister Adone Zoli . Mussolini was subsequently buried on August 29, 1957 in the family vault in Predappio .

In 1969 he left the MSI because he accused it of having "betrayed the old ideals". He subsequently worked as a journalist for right-wing publications. In 1991 his autobiography was published in Rome. Leccisi died of circulatory failure in the Pio Albergo Trivulzio nursing home in Milan in 2008 .

Books by Leccisi

• La Casaccia: romanzo , Milan: Alcione, 1967
• Con Mussolini prima e dopo piazzale Loreto , Roma: Settimo Sigillo, [1991]

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• Corriere della Sera of November 3, 2008
• Amos Elon : The Duce's Body. In: Le Monde diplomatique , German edition of March 10, 2006.