Miriam Petacci; Sister of Mussolini’s Companion

Miriam Petacci, 68, who spent her life defending her sister’s love for dictator Benito Mussolini. Her sister, Claretta, 10 years older, was shot to death along with Mussolini in 1945 after he was captured and court-martialed. Their bodies were hung outside a gas station in Milan where crowds spat on them. Miriam Petacci recalled in her memoirs that she was 9 when she and Claretta met Mussolini on a drive to the beach at Ostia, near Rome. Claretta was not the pet of the Fascist regime, her sister would repeat untiringly throughout her years; she was a woman in love. Miriam said her sister had a chance to take a flight to Madrid and escape the wrath of Italian partisans out to get Mussolini but preferred to stay with him to the end. As a teen-ager, Miriam sang lyric opera. Her debut in a Rome opera house was broadcast on radio so Mussolini could hear it, but her career never developed. On June 1 in Rome of respiratory complications after throat surgery.