Though Khadafy was felled by the same bloody sword he wielded unmercifully in life, not all tyrants got their comeuppance in death. Stalin, Mao and Franco all shuffled off this mortal coil while still in power. Hitler, whose genocidal evil nearly eradicated a people, was able to dictate the hour and the manner of his demise.

However, Mussolini's execution at the hands of his captors was so grisly that it shocked even the battle-hardened Dwight D. Eisenhower: "God, what an ignoble end." Ironically, Il Duce's Fascist troops - whom writer Dorothy Rabinowitz dubbed "an army of Schindlers" - had defied their German allies and protected all the Jews in every Italian zone of occupation.

Rosario A. Iaconis,
Chairman,
The Italic Institute of America