Benito Mussolini

File:Mussolini mug.jpg

Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Fascist Italy during World War II. Althrough he was less racist, ended slavery, crushed the Mafia and defended European Jews from the Holocaust, he was allies with Nazi Germany and Japan. Mussolini overthrew the democratic system and turned Italy into a one party fascist state. He had poltical enemies and people who disagreed with him public exercuted or exiled. Organised invasions of Africa to boast the Italian empire, had his secret police force patrol his country and censored all ideas that disagreed with his own, he also later went on to criticise religion for not allowing enough "free thought". He also created the first race laws in Italy with his "Manifesto of Race" that stripped Jews of there Italian citizenship and prevented them working in many careers such as banking. Arround 300,000 were killed while under his rule.

Mussolini gained a reputation for bullying and fighting during his childhood. At age 10 he was expelled from a religious boarding school for stabbing a classmate in the hand, and another stabbing incident took place at his next school. He also admitted to knifing a girlfriend in the arm. Meanwhile, he purportedly pinched people at church to make them cry, led gangs of boys on raids of local farmsteads and eventually became adept at dueling with swords, and was later a fencing champion. When the New York Times reported on Mussolini’s May 1922 duel against a rival newspaper editor, it mentioned that he bore over 100 wounds received in battle. He and his mistress Clara Petacci was captured and executed by firing squad on April 25, 1945..