The Photo Shows Wounded Benito Mussolini After 1926 Assassination Attempt
In late August 2024, a photograph circulated on social media purportedly showing fascist dictator and former Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini shortly after his attempted assassination in Rome by Violet Gibson of Ireland in 1926.
One Reddit user shared the image with the caption: “First pic of Mussolini after an assassination attempt during a rally. The bullet grazed his nose.”
First pic of Mussolini after an assassination attempt during a rally. The bullet grazed his nose
byu/Brutal_Deluxe_ inpics
One Facebook user wrote: “This looks suspiciously photo shopped…” and on X, another user shared a slightly different version of the photograph, stating: “The gods of history are having a good laugh. Here is Mussolini with a bandage on his nose after an assassination attempt in 1926.”
The gods of history are having a good laugh. Here is Mussolini with a bandage on his nose after an assassination attempt in 1926. pic.twitter.com/x6xlP3UBaz
— Elizabeth Kolbert (@ElizKolbert) July 18, 2024
Claim – A photo shared online in late August 2024 showed fascist dictator and former Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini after his attempted assassination in 1926.
In short, because the in-question photograph indeed showed Mussolini after his attempted assassination in 1926, we rated this claim as “True.” The image was real. However, the image being shared appeared to be slightly edited, as the original version featured a small imperfection on Mussolini’s clothing that was later retouched.
TinEye reverse image-search results indicated that a minor inconsistency in the original photograph was retouched in later versions of the image to present a more polished appearance (see image below). Such edits are not uncommon in historical photos and are often made to enhance the subject’s portrayal or to correct minor flaws in the photograph.
(TinEye)
The picture of Mussolini was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons with a caption in Italian stating it showed Mussolini with a wound on his nose and it was captured after the attempted assassination by Gibson. The source of the photo was cited as a 2021 article on the Italian news magazine The Vision, though it provided no further details regarding the image’s origins.
Additionally, the same photograph featured on the cover of the book “Giocatori d’azzardo” by Virman Cusenza.
(www.ibs.it)
Cover credits (translated from Italian) in a copy of the book noted that it depicted Mussolini with a nose wound after the attack by Violet Gibson, alongside Telesio Interlandi in 1926. Similarly, an article published by Italian newspaper La Repubblica indicated that the person standing next to Mussolini was Telesio Interlandi, a leading fascist journalist and writer.
The credits in the “Giocatori d’azzardo” book also indicated that the photo was sourced from the website of the Italian newspaper L’Unità. In fact, TinEye reverse image-search results confirmed the photo was indeed once available at the website of L’Unità, but the page was no longer online, as of this writing.
(TinEye)
Moreover, Serbian Ilustrovani List also featured the picture of a wounded Mussolini in a 1926 edition of its publication on page 13.
A similar image featuring the Italian dictator with a bandaged nose was also available on Getty Images:
(Getty Images)
The image’s Getty description read:
Italian Premier Benito Mussolini (1883 – 1945) leaving for Tripoli, 13th May 1926. His nose is bandaged after an assassination attempt on 26th April by Violet Gibson, who shot him with a revolver at close range.
