ROME, Jan 4: The World War Two fighter who captured Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as he tried to escape Allied forces died late on Tuesday.

Urbano Lazzaro, best known under his nom de guerre ‘Partisan Bill’, stormed into Italy’s history books on April 27, 1945, when he halted a Nazi truck in the village of Dongo and discovered Il Duce (Mussolini) disguised as a Nazi soldier inside.

“His face was like wax and his stare glassy, somehow blind. I read there utter exhaustion, but not fear,” Lazzaro remembered in his memoir. Lazzaro, a member of the Garibaldi Brigade, then found Mussolini’s mistress, Clara Petacci, and high officials hidden in the retreating column of Nazi troops headed for Switzerland.

His death is likely to revive speculation about the details of Il Duce’s execution, which has long been the stuff of legend and controversy.—Reuters