Benito Mussolini stepped out onto the Piazza del Campidoglio at 10:58 in the morning of April 7, 1926. He had just delivered a speech prepared for him by his lover, the Jewish writer Margherita Sarfatti.

The speech had been a success, and Mussolini left satisfied, making his way through the cheering crowd.

Suddenly, a woman approached within a few meters of the Duce. She was holding a Lebel, a deadly revolver issued to the French army during the first world war. She pointed it at the dictator and fired.

Mussolini was grazed on the nose by the bullet. The next day’s newspapers reported that he was saved by a sudden shift of his head while giving the Roman salute. The woman attempted a second shot, but the gun failed to fire.

Blocked and beaten by the crowd, the woman was immediately arrested and taken to the Mantellate prison (a Roman female prison), where she gave her personal details. She claimed not to remember the attack and appeared surprisingly calm and indifferent.

The woman in question was Violet Albina Gibson, the daughter of the 1st Baron Ashbourne Edward Gibson. The Baron was the Lord Chancellor of Ireland for almost 20 years (1885-1905), before its independence from Great Britain. Gibson was born in Dublin on August 31, 1876, into a pro-British Anglican family.

After the assassination attempt, Gibson was branded insane. The political motive behind the attack was hushed up to reduce the embarrassment of both British and Italian governments.

Only by downgrading the attack to the senseless behaviour of a madwoman – judicially certified by a court – could it have been possible, as indeed happened, to proceed with Gibson’s repatriation, as all parties hoped.

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This version of history was believed for decades. It was only in 2014 that Gibson’s story was brought to a wider audience by the documentary, Violet Gibson, The Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini, based on the work of historian Frances Stonor Saunders. Finally, in 2021, Dublin Council honoured her stand against tyranny with a plaque outside her childhood home.

Now, new evidence buried in a number of Italian archives, uncovered by one of us (Giovanni), further substantiates Gibson’s clear anti-fascist political motives and reveals how the attack was carefully planned. It shows how:

When Gibson moved to Rome, she lived next door to the Duke of Cesarò, an opposition leader, prominent anti-fascist and a man she would later claim was her lover.

When Gibson moved to Rome, she lived next door to the Duke of Cesarò, an opposition leader, prominent anti-fascist and a man she would later claim was her lover.

Gibson’s acquaintance with the Duke was further corroborated by a new analysis of her psychiatric report.

Gibson’s acquaintance with the Duke was further corroborated by a new analysis of her psychiatric report.

Gibson moved to Italy after the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, the socialist leader kidnapped and killed by a fascist squad.

Gibson moved to Italy after the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, the socialist leader kidnapped and killed by a fascist squad.

Gibson travelled to the small town where the trial of Matteotti’s murderers took place.

Gibson travelled to the small town where the trial of Matteotti’s murderers took place.

Evidence from several key witnesses was ignored or twisted.

Evidence from several key witnesses was ignored or twisted.

Who was Violet Gibson?

At the age of 18, Gibson was a debutante in the court of Queen Victoria. Debutantes were young, upper-class women who were presented to the monarch to mark their official entry into high society and the marriage market.

Gibson was photographed standing next to the future King George V in 1897 during a visit to the Ashbourne family in Howth Castle, when he was Duke of York.

In conflict with her family, Gibson converted to Catholicism at the outbreak of the first world war and Scotland Yard registered her “anti-British pacifism”. Over the years, she would develop a Christian-socialist attitude that saw her sympathise with the poor.

She also had strong ties to Italy, a country she had visited frequently and for long periods as a young woman. Partly because of her father’s interest in Italian reunification, on which he had written extensively, she had always followed Italian politics with passion and apprehension as the country was falling towards right-wing extremism.

She was extremely worried about the rise of fascism, starting at least from the 1923 assassination by a fascist squad of the priest Don Giovanni Minzoni.

Then, according to her family, in August 1924 she reacted furiously to one of the first BBC news broadcasts reporting the discovery of the body of socialist leader Matteotti.

Matteotti’s murder, on June 10, 1924, is one of Italy’s most infamous cold cases which one of us (Andrea) has researched extensively.

Read more: The murder of Giacomo Matteotti – reinvestigating Italy’s most infamous cold case

The suspicions of Mussolini’s involvement in plotting his murder ushered in a long period of crisis that the Duce only managed to overcome in January 1925. It accelerated his authoritarian drift toward dictatorial power, with support he had won from King Victor Emmanuel III.

British reaction to Gibson’s arrest

There were violent reactions from the fascist movement following Gibson’s attempt. The fascists were by then a powerful force in........

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