Editing Clara Petacci (section)

==Death==
[[File:Mussolini e Petacci a Piazzale Loreto, 1945.jpg|thumb|(from left) The corpses of [[Nicola Bombacci]], [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]], Petacci, [[Alessandro Pavolini]] and [[Achille Starace]] in [[Piazzale Loreto]], 29 April 1945]]{{See also|Death of Benito Mussolini}}
On 27 April 1945, Mussolini and Petacci were captured by [[Italian resistance movement|partisans]] while traveling with a ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' convoy retreating to Germany. The German column included a number of [[Italian Social Republic]] members.<ref>Gunther Langes, ''Auf Wiedersehen Claretta. Il diario dell'uomo che poteva salvare Mussolini e la Petacci, a cura di Nico Pirozzi'', Villaricca, Edizioni Cento Autori, 2012. {{ISBN|978-88-97121-37-4}}.</ref>

On 28 April, she and Mussolini were taken to [[Mezzegra]] and executed. One source alleges Petacci's execution was not planned and that she died throwing herself on Mussolini in a vain attempt to protect him from the bullets.<ref>Pierluigi Baima Bollone, ''Le ultime ore di Mussolini'', Milano, Mondadori, 2005, {{ISBN|88-04-53487-7}}., pagg. 89 e succ.ve</ref>  On the following day, the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to [[Piazzale Loreto]] in [[Milan]] and hung upside down in front of a petrol station.  The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/dof/italy/captioned/hanging.htm |title=Death of the Father-Mussolini & Fascist Italy: the 'infamous' exhibit |publisher=[[Cornell University|Cornell Institute for Digital Collections]] |year=1999}}</ref> On the same day, Clara's brother, Marcello Petacci, was also killed in Dongo by the partisans, along with fifteen other people complicit in Mussolini's escape. 

After the war, the family of Petacci began civil and criminal court cases against [[Walter Audisio]] for Petacci's unlawful killing. After a lengthy legal process, an investigating judge eventually closed the case in 1967. Audisio was acquitted of murder and embezzlement on the grounds that the actions complained of occurred as an act of war against the Germans and the fascists during a period of enemy occupation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baima Bollone |first=Pierluigi |title=Le ultime ore di Mussolini |date=2005 |publisher=Mondadori (Italy) |isbn=88-04-53487-7 |pages=123}}</ref>