Achille Starace Achille Starace ( ; August 18 , 1889 — April 29 , 1945 ) was a prominent leader of Fascist Italy before and during World War II . Early life and career . Starace was born in Gallipoli in southern Italy near Lecce . He was son of a wine and oil merchant . Achille Starace attended the Lecce Technical Institute as a young man and earned a degree in accounting . In 1909 , he joined the Italian Royal Army ( " Regio Esercito " ) and by 1912 had become a Second Lieutenant ( " Sottotenente " ) of the élite sharpshooters ( " Bersaglieri " ) . Seeing action during World War I , Starace was highly decorated for his service , winning a Silver Medal of Military Valor . After the war , he left the army and moved to Trento , where he first came into contact with the growing Fascist movement . An ardent nationalist , Starace joined the Fascist movement in Trento in 1920 and quickly became its political secretary . In 1921 , his efforts caught the attention of Benito Mussolini , who put Starace in charge of the Fascist organization in Venezia Tridentina . In October 1921 , Starace became Vice - Secretary of the National Fascist Party ( " Partito Nazionale Fascista " , or PNF ) . In 1922 , Starace participated in the March on Rome ( " Marcia su Roma " ) , leading a squadron ( " squadristi " ) of Blackshirts ( " Camicie Nere " , or CCNN , or " Squadristi " ) in support of Mussolini . Prominence . Later in 1922 , Starace was appointed Party Inspector of Sicily and made a member of the Executive Committee of the PNF . In 1923 , after resigning as Vice - Secretary of the party , he was made commander of the National Security Volunteer Militia ( " Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale " or MVSN ) in Trieste . The MVSN was an all - volunteer militia created to organize former Blackshirts . In 1924 , Starace was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies and made National Party Inspector . In 1926 , Achille Starace once again became Vice - Secretary of the PNF , and , in 1928 , he was appointed Secretary of the Milan branch of the party . Party secretary . In 1931 , his career reached its peak when he was made Party Secretary of the PNF . He was appointed to the position primarily for his unquestioning , fanatical loyalty to Mussolini . As secretary , Starace staged huge parades and marches , proposed Anti - Semitic racial segregation measures , and greatly expanded Mussolini ' s cult of personality . Although Starace was successful in increasing party membership , he failed in the later years of his tenure as Secretary to reorganize the Italian Fascist Youth Organization ( " Opera Nazionale Balilla " ) along the lines of the Hitler Youth ( " Hitler - Jugend " ) . He also failed to inspire a nationwide enthusiasm for Fascism on par with the popularity that the Nazi Party enjoyed in Germany . Starace served as secretary for a total of eight years . This was longer than any other Secretary had served . But , by the mid - 1930s , he had gained numerous enemies in the party hierarchy . War hero . In 1935 , Starace , a Colonel , took a leave of absence as PNF Party Secretary to participate in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and fought on the northern front . In March 1936 , after the Battle of Shire , he was given command of a mixed group of Blackshirts and " Bersaglieri " being assembled in Asmara , Eritrea . Later that month , Starace and his truck - transportable " mechanized column " prepared to advance over rough tracks to seize Gondar , the capital of Begemder Province . Before setting out , " the Panther Man " ( " L ' uomo pantera " ) gave the following speech to his men : The roadbuilding skills of Starace ' s men played an equally important role to their combat prowess . The following morning , April 1 , Starace and the column entered Gondar in triumph and two days later reached Lake Tana , securing the border region with British Sudan . The East African Fast Column ( " Colonna Celere de Africa Orientale " ) had covered approximately 120 km in three days . Return to party secretary . After Ethiopia , Starace resumed his duties as Party Secretary . He continued to be controversial . For example , he decreed that all party flags must be made from an Italian - created textile fabric called " Lanital . " Based on casein , Lanital was invented in 1935 and , according to Starace , it was a " product of Italian ingenuity . " In 1936 , Dino Grandi , the Italian Ambassador to Great Britain , appeared in London wearing a suit said to have been made from forty - eight pints of skimmed milk . During the Munich Crisis in 1938 , Starace was a vocal proponent of the French agreeing to turn over Tunisia to Italy . Dismissal . In October 1939 , Starace was finally dismissed as Party Secretary in favor of the popular Ettore Muti . He was made Chief of Staff of the MVSN and he held this position until being dismissed for incompetence in May 1941 . He was succeeded by Enzo Galbiati . Imprisonment and death . In 1943 , following the demise of Mussolini ' s regime , Starace was arrested by Pietro Badoglio ' s Royalist government . He was arrested even though his real power under Mussolini had ended two years earlier . After unsuccessfully attempting to regain Mussolini ' s favor in the German - backed Italian Social Republic of Salò , Starace was again arrested . This time he was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Verona and was arrested by his former colleagues on charges that he had weakened the party during his tenure as Party Secretary . Starace was eventually released and moved to Milan . On 29 April 1945 , during his morning jog , he was recognized and captured by anti - Fascist Italian partisans . After a summary trial , he was sentenced to death . Starace was taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini , which he saluted just before he was shot . His body was subsequently strung up next to Mussolini ' s .