Antonio Riva " Capitano " ( It . captain ) Antonio Riva , ( 8 April 1896 Shanghai – 17 August 1951 Beijing ) was an Italian pilot and a World War I flying ace , credited with seven confirmed and seven unconfirmed aerial victories . Early life and infantry service . Antonio Riva was born in Shanghai , China on 8 April 1896 . Being of Italian heritage , he returned to Italy as World War I engulfed Europe . He volunteered as a reserve officer on 31 December 1914 , before Italy entered the war . On 11 July 1915 , he was commissioned a " Sottotenente " in the Italian Army ' s 70th Infantry Regiment . On 12 November 1915 , he was wounded , not returning to duty until 16 March 1916 . He was transferred to the 201st Infantry Regiment on 15 June 1916 ; on 30 June he was once again wounded in action . He returned to the front with the 44th Infantry Regiment on 22 August 1916 . The next month , he went on leave ; upon his return , he found himself bucked to the 49th Infantry Regiment . However , on 25 September 1916 , he was accepted for pilot ' s training at San Giusto . World War I aerial service . Riva became a " Tenente " ( " Lieutenant " ) while in aviation training ; his promotion was effective 25 February 1917 . He completed his training in April 1917 , while stationed in Foggia . His first assignment was to a reconnaissance two - seater unit , " 29a Squadriglia " . After just 12 sorties with them , he undertook fighter conversion training on Nieuport s in June 1917 . In July , he underwent gunnery school at San Giusto . On 19 July , he was posted to a fighter squadron , " 73a Squadriglia " . He transferred out to " 71a Squadriglia " at the end of July . Riva began his successes while flying a Nieuport 11 with this fighter squadron when he shared a victory with Antonio Amantea and another Italian pilot . The trio shot down Austro - Hungarian ace Julius Kowalczik in his Albatros D . III on 24 August 1917 . Riva was promoted to " Capitano " on 31 October 1917 . He switched over to command " 78a Squadriglia " on 12 November 1917 and changed mounts to a Hanriot HD . 1 . His next successes came on 26 December 1917 , when he shot down a DFW reconnaissance plane solo , followed by a second win over another DFW , shared with Silvio Scaroni and three British pilots . A month later , on 27 January 1918 , Riva teamed with Guglielmo Fornagiari for a fourth victory . On 15 June 1918 , Riva became an ace . He and Amedeo Mecozzi teamed to down a Hansa - Brandenburg C . I . After a string of five unconfirmed claims , he would down two more planes in 1918 , to bring his total to seven ; he had an equal number of unconfirmed claims . Riva was assigned on 10 September 1918 as commanding officer to form a new squadron , " 90a Squadriglia " , equipped with a new fighter aircraft , the SVA 5 . During this assignment , he continued to fly , and post his victory claims with , " 78a Squadriglia " . Antonio Riva ended World War I having been awarded the Silver Medal for Military Valor and the Knight ' s Cross of the Military Order of Savoy . List of aerial victories . See also Aerial victory standards of World War I Confirmed victories are numbered and listed chronologically . Unconfirmed victories are denoted by " u / c " and may or may not be listed by date . Post World War I . On 1 February 1919 , the Bongiovanni commission review of the aerial victories of the Italian Army ' s pilots confirmed seven of Antonio Riva ' s aerial victory claims . In 1920 , Riva was stationed in China , placed in charge of the Chinese stopovers for a Rome to Tokyo flight . He was discharged in January 1921 . Little is known of the next couple of decades , except that Riva remained in the Reserves of the " Regia Aeronautica " as late as February 1935 . Death . Antonio was executed in Beijing , People ' s Republic of China , by a firing squad in 1951 , along with a Japanese citizen , Ruichi Yamaguchi . They were convicted of being involved in a plot to assassinate Mao Zedong and other high - ranking Communist officials . The plot allegedly involved attacking Mao and other officials atop Tiananmen Gate with a mortar on 1 October 1950 , during National Day celebrations . However , there were several issues with the plot . Most obviously , the idea that two foreigners could carry a mortar all the way to Tiananmen Square during a large celebration seems highly improbable . The mortar seized from Riva ' s house was a nonfunctional part of an antique from the 1930s which could not have been used to attack anyone . Riva had found the antique in a junk pile outside the Holy See legation ; the unfortunate priest whose house was next to the other parts of the mortar was imprisoned for life . A map of the square seized from Yamaguchi ' s house and used as evidence was actually commissioned by the Beijing Fire Department , to whom Yamaguchi was selling firefighting equipment . It was alleged that the ringleader of the plot was an American serviceman named David Barrett , but he was simply a neighbor to the two who had moved out a year before . In any case , the incident was used to banish the Holy See from China . Two decades later , PRC prime minister Zhou Enlai apologized to Barrett and invited him back to China .