Frances Stonor Saunders on Violet Gibson and Mussolini, at 5x15

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Frances Stonor Saunders on Violet Gibson and Mussolini, at 5x15

17 May 2010

Speakers: Frances Stonor Saunders

Frances Stonor Saunders talks about the Honourable Violet Gibson, the woman who, in 1926, attempted to assassinate Benito Mussolini. She was then confined to a Northampton mental asylum, where she died in 1956. Stonor Saunders elaborates on the events that led to Gibson's confinement, starting in 1920s Italy, when Mussolini's career was just taking off. Stonor Saunders describes the initial fallout of this event, the crowd, the doctors, the police; the excitement; the astonishment and the shock.

Gibson fired three shots at Mussolini, hitting him twice, but only injuring his nose. She was then attacked by an angry crowd, taken to jail and then subsequently interred in a mental asylum. Stonor Saunders questions Gibson's 'madness' and questions why Gibson has evaporated from history. Violet Gibson, in Stonor Saunders' opinion, did in fact have a motive - a staunch Catholic, she found Mussolini's religious arrogance offensive. However, for the British Government and press, as well as Mussolini, Gibson 'mad' was more convenient than 'bad'. Stonor Saunders ends by examining the ironies that surround Gibsons story - namely the rise and subsequent fall of Europe's first dictator Mussolini.