Clara Petacci (Claretta Petacci) (28 February 1912 – 28 April 1945) was an upper class Roman who became Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's mistress. Her father had been the personal physician to the Pope. She was twenty-nine years younger than Mussolini.
Petacci was with Mussolini to the end. On 27 April 1945, when a convoy of escaping Italian Social Republic members, including Mussolini, was captured by Communist partisans, it is said that Petacci was offered the opportunity to go unmolested, but there is no solid evidence for this. On 28 April, she and Mussolini were taken to Mezzegra where she and the Duce were shot. On the following day, 29 April, Mussolini and Petacci's bodies were taken to the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and hung upside down in front of an Esso petrol station. The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.[1]
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