Mussolini’s Captor Dead at 81
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Urbano Lazzaro, a resistance fighter credited with arresting fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of World War II, died Tuesday at 81 in Vercelli, a town in northern Italy.
Lazzaro, known to his comrades as “Partisan Bill,” fought with a communist resistance group in northern Italy and is known as the man who captured Mussolini in the last days of the war.
In April 1945, with Nazi forces in full retreat and Italians rising up against the fascist puppet state of Salo, Mussolini fled north in a German convoy.
Lazzaro was among a group of resistance fighters who stopped the retreating convoy near Dongo, on the shores of Lake Como. On the lookout for fleeing fascists, the partisans searched the trucks, and Lazzaro recognized “Il Duce” disguised as a German soldier.
Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were executed after a summary trial.
Lazzaro eventually wrote books on those final hours, challenging the official story by claiming that Mussolini was killed by mistake during an escape attempt.
After the war, Lazzaro married and had three daughters who survive him.
