They called him l'uomo che la morte non vuole—the man whom death does not want. Amerigo Dumini, the St. Louis-born Italian gangster-politician, had sent many men to their death, but somehow always managed to dodge it himself. He lost a hand in World War I, and lived. He stopped a bullet with his head in World War II and lived, recovering miraculously after he had been abandoned as dead in a cave near Bengasi. Yet his most famous dealings with death occurred in the infamous days between the two wars, when he organized the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, the brilliant Socialist deputy who tried to stand up against the Duce.
Half the world accused Mussolini of having instigated the brutal murder. For appearance sake, Mussolini had Dumini and four accomplices put on trial. Dumini got off with two months in jail. Last January, 23 years later, he was put on trial again by the re-established Italian Republic. He took the stand in Rome's Court of Assizes, looking as jaundiced as the walls with their ornate Roman eagles, whose gilt was flaking off from time to time and floating gently down into the courtroom. He seemed to snarl as he spoke, because his World War II bullet wound had distorted his mouth. For the first time after two decades of rumor, Dumini told a graphic story of the famous killing:
"I was driving along the Tiber with four friends. . . . Suddenly one of them yelled to stop and they jumped from the car. ... I turned and saw them surround the man we had been waiting for. I watched them punch and kick him in the belly. . . . They dragged him quickly into the car. I slipped into gear and sped off. ... He struggled. ... I hollered to him to be quiet. . . . He was lying in the car, spitting blood. I knew he suffered from tuberculosis. . . . Soon he was just a corpse. ... It was a nightmare. I just began to drive wildly . . . for seven hours. At one point we were so lost that I stopped and asked a carabiniere where we were—despite the horror we carried in the back seat. [Finally] we saw woods. . . . We dragged his body over there, just covered it with dirt. ... It was so long ago. . . ."
Last week, Dumini was sentenced to life imprisonment,* which was immediately commuted to 30 years. Amerigo Dumini was still not wanted by death.
* Sentenced to life imprisonment with him were Accomplices Amleto Poveromo and Giuseppe Viola (still at large). Two others were acquitted, two "absolved."