Mussolini's last note found in Milan

The last note written by Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, just hours before he was shot by partisans, has come to light among the personal possessions of the widow of a resistance fighter, it was revealed yesterday.

The handwritten note, on lined paper and signed "Mussolini", had been known to historians, but disappeared several decades ago. It was found recently in a cupboard in Milan, among other papers relating to the wartime resistance, after the death of Silvia Codognotto, the widow of a partisan fighter, Carlo Capece.

The message, folded four times and kept in a blue envelope, reads: "The 52nd Garibaldi Brigade captured me today, Friday April 27, in the piazza of Dongo. I was treated correctly during and after my capture. Mussolini."

Handwriting experts said the hand was undoubtedly the dictator's although the slightly scrawled writing betrayed the tension and fatigue of the moment.

Mussolini was captured on April 27 1945 as he tried to escape to Switzerland disguised as a German soldier in a German motorised column. They were stopped by partisans, who insisted on searching all the vehicles before allowing the Germans to proceed.

The resistance leaders ordered Mussolini to be shot, together with his long-time lover, Claretta Petacci.

Their bodies, along with those of other fascist leaders, were hung upside down in Piazza Loreto, the same Milan square where the Germans had exposed the bodies of 15 political prisoners executed the previous summer.

Controversy continues in Italy to this day over the precise circumstances surrounding Mussolini's death, and the fate of confidential documents he was believed to be carrying with him at the time.

A recently television documentary suggested that a member of the British secret service had played a key role in his death and had recovered compromising papers that might have embarrassed the British government.

The document attesting to his honorable treatment by the partisans has now been donated to the National Institute for the History of the Liberation Movement in Italy and will be made available to scholars.

A spokesman for the institute said the 60-year-old document had been crudely restored with strips of tape and would need more professional conservation work before it could go on display.

In the meantime, a reproduction has been published on the website of the National Association of Italian Partisans. The heirs of Mr Capece, who worked as an accountant after the war, said they had no idea that their grandfather had played a significant role during the resistance.