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Title: Michael Schirru Author: Max Sartin Date: May-June 1933 Language: en Topics: Michael Schirru Source: http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9cnptx Notes: Man! Vol. 1, Nos 5–6 (May-June 1933).
M. Schirru was arrested on February 3^(rd), 1931 in a hotel room in Rome
and taken to the police sub-station of Trevi. Here he was about to be
searched for arms when, with flashing rapidity, he reached for his gun,
fired at each of the three officers in the room and then at himself, in
the head. Two of the officers were but slightly wounded, while the third
and Schirru himself were found to be in a very serious condition.
Schirru had to undergo an operation to be saved from immediate death.
Meanwhile, the police discovered that, in addition to the one in which
he had been arrested, he was also renting another hotel room where two
bombs loaded with powerful explosive were found and which, Schirru
readily admitted, belonged to him. As soon as he was able to speak he
declared that he had come to Rome purposely to kill Mussolini, and that
the bombs were meant for this use. When his sudden arrest came to thwart
his plan and deprive him of the liberty to execute it, he resolved to
exact as great as possible a price for his life and liberty then ending
his own life together with that of the police tools of Mussolini who
were arresting him.
During his arrest, pending trial, he tried to communicate with his wife,
who was living in New York with their two children, but failed. His wife
on her side was trying to communicate with him, but to no avail. On
March 27^(th), he wrote to his father, who was living in France: “This
is my eighth letter to you, and no answer has come. I have written
several times to Minnie also, and as I have had no reply from her I
believe my letters are not forwarded… All I have received is the text of
a telegram form Minnie saying she and the children are well and that she
is doing her utmost to assist me.”
In fact, Mrs. Schirru was trying to interest the U.S. Department of
State on her husband’s behalf. She is an American citizen by birth,
while Schirru was one by naturalisation and had been travelling in
Europe with an American passport. Mrs Schirru obviously thought that she
was entitled to the protection of her Government. But the State
Department has no interest whatever for Americans of Anarchist beliefs
and didn’t care about Schirru’s treatment at the hands of the Fascist
bandits. In fact the State Department of the United states was heeding
more the information it received from the Fascist Embassy in Washington
than to Mrs. Schirru’s plea that her husband be assured at least of a
“fair trial.”
What passed in those days between the State Department and His Fascist
Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington is, of course, unknown to me, but I
cannot help recalling that the same attitude of complacency which the
Italian Government had assumed a few years before when two Anarchists of
Italian origin were slowly being done to death in Boston, was being
repaid by the same attitude of complacency by the American Government,
while Mussolini’s personal tribunal of assassins were preparing for
Schirru’s murder.
The trial took place on May 28^(th), late in the afternoon. Cristini — a
young fascist cut-throat raised to the highest ranks in the hierarchy as
a reward for his bloody propensities — presided. No jury. No defence. No
lawyers and no witnesses are admitted before Mussolini’s Special
Tribunal — so called — unless approved by the Tribunal itself which is
military in its formation and composed of the most trusted tools of the
dictator.
Schirru conducted himself with great dignity during his trial — which,
under the circumstances could hardly be called a trail. He repeated his
former declaration of intention to kill Mussolini and gave his reasons.
His lawyer — officially named by the Tribunal — gave a semblance of a
defence, and in no time the Tribunal sentenced the “culprit” to be shot
in the back.
Schirru received the sentence with fortitude and calmness: Not a word,
not a movement.
At 2:30 o’clock, the next morning, he was awakened from his sleep and
told that his execution would take place at sunrise. He asked permission
to write his last words to his dear ones; declined the assistance of the
priest and then was taken to the Braschi fortress, on the outskirts of
Rome, where he was executed — only eight and a half hours after sentence
had been passed — by a firing squad of twenty-four fascist militiamen.
Schirru’s execution was plain murder, even according to the fascist law.
He had not killed anybody. He had simply had the intention to kill
Mussolini, but he had never been at firing distance from Mussolini.
Furthermore that intention was evidenced exclusively by his own
declaration, and the shooting which followed his arrest at the Trevi
police station did not carry the death penalty, as capital punishment
existed in Italy at that time only for the murder of the king, the crown
prince and Mussolini.
Thus Schirru was assassinated for his intentions as proved by his
admission.
He faced death heroically. he well knew that, by asserting his intention
of ridding Italy of its tyrant, he was throwing himself in the hands of
the tyrant’s executioners. Nevertheless he did not hesitate. As he
himself says in his Testament, which was published in Italian after his
death, life had come to have for him only one purpose: the devotion of
it to fighting for the liberation of the Italian people form the
mediaeval tyranny that degrades it — and the instant he found himself a
prisoner, unable to realise his long coveted design, he could no longer
dedicate his deeds by his words and sacrifice.
To this unsurpassed devotion to the cause of liberty, the Italian
workers look as to a source of courage and hope for the future.
M. Schirru was arrested on February 3^(rd), 1931 in a hotel room in Rome
and taken to the police sub-station of Trevi. Here he was about to be
searched for arms when, with flashing rapidity, he reached for his gun,
fired at each of the three officers in the room and then at himself, in
the head. Two of the officers were but slightly wounded, while the third
and Schirru himself were found to be in a very serious condition.
Schirru had to undergo an operation to be saved from immediate death.
Meanwhile, the police discovered that, in addition to the one in which
he had been arrested, he was also renting another hotel room where two
bombs loaded with powerful explosive were found and which, Schirru
readily admitted, belonged to him. As soon as he was able to speak he
declared that he had come to Rome purposely to kill Mussolini, and that
the bombs were meant for this use. When his sudden arrest came to thwart
his plan and deprive him of the liberty to execute it, he resolved to
exact as great as possible a price for his life and liberty then ending
his own life together with that of the police tools of Mussolini who
were arresting him.
During his arrest, pending trial, he tried to communicate with his wife,
who was living in New York with their two children, but failed. His wife
on her side was trying to communicate with him, but to no avail. On
March 27^(th), he wrote to his father, who was living in France: “This
is my eighth letter to you, and no answer has come. I have written
several times to Minnie also, and as I have had no reply from her I
believe my letters are not forwarded… All I have received is the text of
a telegram form Minnie saying she and the children are well and that she
is doing her utmost to assist me.”
In fact, Mrs. Schirru was trying to interest the U.S. Department of
State on her husband’s behalf. She is an American citizen by birth,
while Schirru was one by naturalisation and had been travelling in
Europe with an American passport. Mrs Schirru obviously thought that she
was entitled to the protection of her Government. But the State
Department has no interest whatever for Americans of Anarchist beliefs
and didn’t care about Schirru’s treatment at the hands of the Fascist
bandits. In fact the State Department of the United states was heeding
more the information it received from the Fascist Embassy in Washington
than to Mrs. Schirru’s plea that her husband be assured at least of a
“fair trial.”
What passed in those days between the State Department and His Fascist
Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington is, of course, unknown to me, but I
cannot help recalling that the same attitude of complacency which the
Italian Government had assumed a few years before when two Anarchists of
Italian origin were slowly being done to death in Boston, was being
repaid by the same attitude of complacency by the American Government,
while Mussolini’s personal tribunal of assassins were preparing for
Schirru’s murder.
The trial took place on May 28^(th), late in the afternoon. Cristini — a
young fascist cut-throat raised to the highest ranks in the hierarchy as
a reward for his bloody propensities — presided. No jury. No defence. No
lawyers and no witnesses are admitted before Mussolini’s Special
Tribunal — so called — unless approved by the Tribunal itself which is
military in its formation and composed of the most trusted tools of the
dictator.
Schirru conducted himself with great dignity during his trial — which,
under the circumstances could hardly be called a trail. He repeated his
former declaration of intention to kill Mussolini and gave his reasons.
His lawyer — officially named by the Tribunal — gave a semblance of a
defence, and in no time the Tribunal sentenced the “culprit” to be shot
in the back.
Schirru received the sentence with fortitude and calmness: Not a word,
not a movement.
At 2:30 o’clock, the next morning, he was awakened from his sleep and
told that his execution would take place at sunrise. He asked permission
to write his last words to his dear ones; declined the assistance of the
priest and then was taken to the Braschi fortress, on the outskirts of
Rome, where he was executed — only eight and a half hours after sentence
had been passed — by a firing squad of twenty-four fascist militiamen.
Schirru’s execution was plain murder, even according to the fascist law.
He had not killed anybody. He had simply had the intention to kill
Mussolini, but he had never been at firing distance from Mussolini.
Furthermore that intention was evidenced exclusively by his own
declaration, and the shooting which followed his arrest at the Trevi
police station did not carry the death penalty, as capital punishment
existed in Italy at that time only for the murder of the king, the crown
prince and Mussolini.
Thus Schirru was assassinated for his intentions as proved by his
admission.
He faced death heroically. he well knew that, by asserting his intention
of ridding Italy of its tyrant, he was throwing himself in the hands of
the tyrant’s executioners. Nevertheless he did not hesitate. As he
himself says in his Testament, which was published in Italian after his
death, life had come to have for him only one purpose: the devotion of
it to fighting for the liberation of the Italian people form the
mediaeval tyranny that degrades it — and the instant he found himself a
prisoner, unable to realise his long coveted design, he could no longer
dedicate his deeds by his words and sacrifice.
To this unsurpassed devotion to the cause of liberty, the Italian
workers look as to a source of courage and hope for the future.