Foreign News: Trial of Errors

In Rome’s dank Palazzo della Sapienza (Palace of Wisdom), the High Court for Punishment of Fascist Crimes weighed the fate of ailing General Mario Roatta.

Through a month of bickering testimony the stocky, jut-jawed Blackshirt, who was Mussolini’s Chief of Staff and Chief of SIM (secret service), had denied all charges against him. No! no! he cried, he had not ordered the murder of Carlo and Nello Roselli, famed anti-Fascist refugees in France. That crime had been done while he was busy in Spain’s civil war, in which he led the Italian flight from Guadalajara. But the prosecution brushed aside his protests, demanded his imprisonment for life. While the judges deliberated, Roatta’s weak heart fluttered. He was allowed to rest in a military hospital. Suddenly one night the hospital’s lights went out. An hour later they came on again. But for Mario Roatta it was Guadalajara all over again. He had fled.

Promptly the Italian Government offered a 1,000,000 lire ($10,000) reward for Roatta’s recapture. Bitterly the Rome press laughed, gibed at a “trial of errors.” Serenely the High Court continued his trial in absentia.