ITALY: Paranoiac

"A woman! Fancy, a woman!" Such was the first, involuntary exclamation of Signer Benito Mussolini, when an old, white-haired Irishwoman attempted to assassinate him (TIME, April 19, 1926), as he strode out from addressing the International Congress of Surgeons, in Rome.

The old woman edged through the crowd unnoticed, holding a small revolver between her cupped hands which she extended toward Il Duce, as though in adoring supplication. Taking careful, point-blank aim she pulled the trigger; but at that same instant a band struck up the Fascist hymn "Giovinezza," and Signor Mussolini...