ITALY: Gentlemen of Verona

• Share

While Fascismo still paid dividends, Count Galeazzo Ciano supped as well as any. Wedded to Mussolini's daughter, the waspish, predatory Edda, and openly called the heir apparent, he swooped through his duties as Foreign Minister with minimum effort and maximum profit.

Ciano was no fool. He saw the writing on the wall well ahead of the other stal warts of the Fascist hierarchy, began making quiet plans to save himself. His solicitude cost him the favor of the Nazis, later the trust of his fellow-Fascists. Mussolini took over the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, made his son-in-law Ambassador to the Vatican. But he let Ciano save face with a seat on the Fascist Grand Council, and it was there that Ciano pulled down his house of cards about his ears: when the Council voted to oust Mussolini last July, Count Galeazzo 's vote went against his father-in-law.

This week in Verona, capital of the Nazi manipulated Fascist "Republic," Ciano was condemned to death by a puppet court, shot next day.