Partisans shot Mussolini, fascists stole his body from an unmarked grave, and the state hid it in a monastery for 11 years before trading it for votes

Partisans shot Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci on 28 April 1945. Their bodies were dumped in Milan's Piazzale Loreto, abused by the crowd and hung by the feet from the girder of an unfinished service station. American authorities had them taken down. Brain samples from the post mortem were sent to the United States. The state buried Mussolini in an unmarked grave in Musocco cemetery to prevent pilgrimages. In April 1946, near the first anniversary of his death, the fascist Domenico Leccisi and two others dug him up at night. They hid the body in a trunk and then with friars in Milan, and offered to return it in exchange for an amnesty for fascists. Police found it in August 1946 at the Certosa di Pavia, with one leg missing. The government then hid it for 11 years in a Capuchin monastery at Cerro Maggiore. The family was not told where. Leccisi was sentenced to six years, was freed under an amnesty, and was elected to parliament. In 1957 the new prime minister, Adone Zoli, needed far-right votes, and Leccisi voted for him. The government lifted its hold on the body. On 9 August 1957 it was handed to Mussolini's widow, Rachele, and on 1 September it went into the family crypt at Predappio, his birthplace. In 1966 the brain samples were returned to Rachele and placed in the tomb. Leccisi died in Milan in 2008.