Search For Lost Italian Treasure
(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)
(Rec. 8 p.m.) PADUA (Italy), April 30.
A group of Italian war-time partisans admitted today that they had stripped the Fascist dictator, Mussolini, his mistress, Claretta Petacci, and his Ministers of their valuables when they tried to flee to Switzerland in April, 1945, but they denied having kept anything for themselves.
They were giving evidence in the court investigating the mystery of the disappearance of the fabulous “Dongo treasure’’—estimated at between £1,725,000 and £6.325,000 —which Mussolini tried to smuggle out of Italy after the final collapse of the Fascist regime.
All they took—“as mementoes” were handkerchiefs, a belt, a watch, and a few cigarettes, the partisans said. The Court asked what happened to the treasure after the fleeing Mussolini and his Ministers were seized by partisans at Dongo, on Lake Como, on April 27, 1945. The partisans repeated: “We have no idea.”
Thirty-five war-time partisans, including a Communist member of the Chamber of Deputies, Dante Gorreri, are on trial charged with the theft of a large part of the treasure and the murder of at least four people who might have known what happened to the “Dongo treasure.”
The trial opened yesterday before a packed court.
At least 300 witnesses are due to be called.
Police kept a special guard on three of the defendants, Michele Moretti, a partisan leader reputed to have had a large part in the secret execution of Mussolini and his mistress near Dongo on April 28, 1945, and Pietro Vergani and Dante Gorreri, two leaders alleged by the prosecution to have played major rolaa in the treasure mystery.
Neo-Fascists yesterday attempted to beat up the three men when they left court—they are not under arrest and go home after the hearings. They were whisked away just in time by a Communist Party car. The defendants questioned today were ' partisans who had searched and disarmed the Fascist leaders and confiscated their possessions. "We handed everything, except for a few valueless things, to our commanders,” they declared. One partisan claimed that he dropped two rolls of banknotes on the road near an armoured car when the Fascists opened fire on him.
A hand grenade landed on the banknotes and destroyed them in the short, vicious battle which followed, he said.
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Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28266, 2 May 1957, Page 6
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382Search For Lost Italian Treasure Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28266, 2 May 1957, Page 6
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