Possess the Air, page 34
199 “declined to write the preface”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 59.
199 “‘guarantee that you’ll approve it’”: Lauro de Bosis to Giorgio La Piana, March 9, 1931, GLP, AHT.
199 “‘It would be glorious!’”: Lauro de Bosis to Eric Wood, Dec. 11, 1930, LDP, HLH.
200 “‘your best chance for success’”: Eric Wood to Lauro de Bosis, Dec. 28, 1930, LDP, HLH.
200 “‘enterprise appeals to you’”: Lauro de Bosis to Eric Wood, Jan. 17, 1931, LDP, HLH.
201 “‘Lauro met me at the station here’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 114.
201 “pedalled off on a bicycle”: Lauro de Bosis to mother, June 26, 1931, LDP, HLH.
202 “‘The individual is moving to America’”: Ministero dell’Interno, “Oggetto: Adolfo de Bosis, detto Lauro,” June 30, 1931, ACS.
202 “‘On a London tube platform’”: Sylvia Sprigge, “A Statue on the Janiculum,” Encounter, Feb. 1958, 7.
202 “a half million of them”: ibid, 8.
202 “‘Does Mussolini really believe’”: Lauro de Bosis to mother, June 26, 1931, LDP, HLH.
203 “‘De Bosis was one of the bravest’”: Owen Cathcart-Jones, Aviation Memoirs, 221.
204 “this breach of etiquette”: ibid, 222.
204 “‘lost sight of him in the haze’”: ibid, 222.
205 “associate was waiting for him with fuel”: Ministero dell’Interno, “Oggetto: de Bosis, Lauro,” Aug. 7, 1931, ACS.
Chapter 18: Merrill & Morris
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206 “identified with such code names”: Caroline Moorehead, A Bold and Dangerous Family, 251.
207 “‘scoundrel of a Bino’”: Lauro de Bosis to mother, June 26, 1931, LDP, HLH.
207 “one of OVRA’s most successful agents”: Caroline Moorehead, A Bold and Dangerous Family, 283.
207 “‘ten thousand minor problems’”: Lauro de Bosis to mother, June 26, 1931, LDP, HLH.
207 “‘also an act of the will’”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 112.
207 “‘required superhuman willpower’”: Gaetano Salvemini, Scritti sul fascismo, 449.
208 “staying at the Hôtel de l’Europe”: Franco Fucci, Ali contro Mussolini, 174.
208 “a baron from the Trentino region”: ibid, 172.
209 “‘could not one play a duet?’”: ibid, 175.
209 “‘a beautiful old manor house’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 120.
209 “point an arrow directly at Lauro”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 112.
209 “wood-framed Messerschmitt M.23b”: Richard Sanders Allen, “A Rendezvous with Pegasus,” Aviation Quarterly, Summer 1988, 246.
209 “longer flying range”: “The BFW M.23: A German Light ’Plane with Many Variations,” Flight, March 21, 1930, 317.
210 “set at eight thousand marks”: “L. De Bosis a survolé Rome,” undated clipping, Le Soir (Brussels), ACS.
210 “‘member of Hitler’s National Socialist party’”: Report from Italian Consulate, Munich, Oct. 13, 1931, ACS.
210 “‘Cape Horn for the Flying Dutchman’”: Lauro de Bosis to Giorgio La Piana, Aug. 4, 1931, GLP, AHT.
211 “P.G. Wodehouse’s short stories”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 107.
211 “‘I’ve gotten so superstitious’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 123.
211 “Ferrari replies with a coded telegram”: Lauro de Bosis to Francesco Ferrari, undated letter from Munich, LDP, HLH.
212 “lighting up the airfield over Cannes”: Max Rainer to Ruth Draper, Nov. 4, 1931, LDP, HLH.
212 “local publisher to ask Georg Hirth”: Report from Italian Consulate, Munich, Oct. 13, 1931, ACS.
213 “‘speaks German very badly’”: ibid.
213 “‘Make sure the machine is here’”: Max Rainer to Ruth Draper, Nov. 4, 1931, LDP, HLH.
213 “‘I have still on my lips’”: Lauro de Bosis to Ruth Draper, Oct. 2, 1931, RDP, NYH.
213 “‘You wanted me to play a role’”: ibid.
214 “‘may he forgive my ruse!’”: Lauro de Bosis, The Story of My Death, 9.
214 “‘desiring its complete annihilation’”: ibid, 11.
215 “‘worth more dead than alive’”: ibid, 16.
216 “‘auf Wiedersehn at Nice tonight!’”: Max Rainer to Ruth Draper, Nov. 4, 1931, LDP, HLH.
Chapter 19: Bombarding the Boss
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219 “rising to twenty-six degrees”: “Bolletino meteorologico,” CDS, Oct. 4, 1931.
219 “a St. Martin’s Summer”: Franco Fucci, Ali contro Mussolini, 186.
219 “twice what the unemployed received”: E. Lorenz, “Italy in the Storm of the Economic Crisis,” International Press Correspondence, Oct. 29, 1931, 1000 1.
219 “in a cage midway up the stairs”: “Wolf and Eagle Get New Homes in Rome,” NYT, Apr. 29, 1935.
220 “pouring in from the six regions”: “I reparti celere dei Fasci giovanili,” CDS, Oct. 2, 1931.
220 “choruses of ‘Giovinezza’”: “Le celere marce dei Giovani Fascisti,” CDS, Oct. 4, 1931.
220 “benefit of dredges or steam shovels”: Kenneth M. Murchison, Architectural Forum, Oct. 1930, 407.
221 “gendarmes dressed in hooded red burnoose”: “La prima Mostra d’arte coloniale,” CDS, Oct. 2, 1931.
221 “simulation of an African souk”: “La Mostra coloniale a Roma,” CDS, Oct. 1, 1931.
221 “‘chemicals weapons and the sky’”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 255.
221 “named Governor-General of Libya”: Claudia Lazzaro, ed., Donatello Among the Blackshirts, 75.
222 “at the Excelsior in Via Cavour”: “Spettacoli d’oggi,” CDS, Oct. 3, 1931.
222 “taking its toll on enrolment”: Lucia Valentine, The American Academy in Rome 1894–1969, 95.
222 “meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism”: “Il Gran Consiglio fascista approva la continuità della politica monetaria,” CDS, Oct. 2, 1931.
223 “sketched out his route in pencil”: Lauro de Bosis, sketch, [Sept. 1931?], LDP, HLH.
223 “clocked his take-off at 3:15”: Max Rainer to Ruth Draper, Nov. 4, 1931, LDP, HLH.
223 “thirty thousand automobiles”: Spiro Kostoff, The Third Rome, 15.
224 “galloping up the Spanish Steps”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 33.
224 “separating in the light breeze”: Lauro de Bosis, The Story of My Death, 6.
225 “Next came the Quirinal Palace”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 33.
225 “he’d had translated and printed”: Lauro de Bosis to Giorgio La Piana, Aug. 12, 1931, GLP, AHT.
225 “For thirty minutes”: Lauro de Bosis, The Story of My Death, 6.
225 “a crowd gathered at an outdoor cinema”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 33.
226 “the military airfield at Ciampino”: Milizia Volontaria S. Nazionale, “Oggetto: Lancio Manifestini sovversivi,” Oct. 4, 1931, ACS.
227 “a ‘putrefied corpse’”: Lauro de Bosis, The Story of My Death, 18.
227 “‘its program frightens the regime’”: ibid, 19.
227 “Whoever you are”: text of third leaflet from Lauro de Bosis, The Story of My Death, 18–19.
228 “he was enraged”: William D. Carter, “Report on My Trip from Paris to Rome,” Oct. 12, 1931, LDP, HLH.
228 “two airfields, Ciampino and Centocelle”: Franco Fucci, Ali contro Mussolini, 184.
229 “Mussolini himself had ordered”: “Report on My Trip from Paris to Rome,” Oct. 12, 1931, LDP, HLH.
229 “‘Roman Fascism is ready’”: Il Popolo d’Italia, Oct. 6, 1931, 1.
Chapter 20: Dov’è de Bosis?
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230 “‘Can you imagine?’”: Dorothy Warren, The World of Ruth Draper, 71.
230 “‘there is no dictatorship’”: “Il valore morale d’un gesto,” La Libertà, Oct. 15, 1931.
231 “‘rendering me a cause of sadness’”: Lauro de Bosis to Ruth Draper, Oct. 2, 1931, RDP, NYH.
231 “kissed her on both cheeks”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 126.
231 “‘Italians regard with adoration’”: Manchester Guardian Weekly, Oct. 9, 1931.
231 “newborn son Timothy Lauro”: Sylvia Sprigge, “A Statue on the Janiculum,” Encounter, Feb. 1958, 9.
231 “‘It takes the children’”: Lauro de Bosis, The Story of My Death, 10.
232 “‘Hero of Liberty’”: Giustizia e Libertà newsletter No. 30, Oct. 1931.
232 “she’d wired 45,000 francs”: William D. Carter, “Report on My Trip from Paris to Rome,” Oct. 12, 1931, LDP, HLH.
232 “was eating a croissant in a café in Paris”: Dorothy Warren, The World of Ruth Draper, 72.
233 “they’d learned from the radio”: Franco Fucci, Ali contro Mussolini, 188.
233 “‘He was especially struck’”: William D. Carter, “Report on My Trip from Paris to Rome,” Oct. 12, 1931, LDP, HLH.
233 “Zanotti Bianco’s research”: Stephen L. Dyson, Eugénie Sellers Strong, 182.
234 “Lauro might have landed in the trees”: William D. Carter to Ruth Draper, Oct. 17, 1931, LDP, HLH.
234 “‘My whole state of mind’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 117.
235 “Lauro’s act as ‘sheer romanticism’”: Nancy Cox McCormack, “La Famiglia de Bosis,” part 1, p. 18.
236 “‘I wanted none of it!’”: ibid, part 5, pg. 2.
236 “five thousand were now foreigners”: Matthew Kneale, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, 299.
236 “enough money to feed his horse”: Nancy Cox McCormack, “La Famiglia de Bosis,” part 6, p. 1.
236 “‘a human spider conscious’”: ibid, part 7, p. 2.
237 “‘The boy was lost at sea”: ibid.
238 “been blown into the chimney”: Nancy Cox McCormack, handwritten note, 1945, LDP, HLH.
238 “telegrams were sent by provincial prefects”: reports from Prefettura di Viterbo (etc), Oct. 6, 1931, ACS.
239 “occurred in the town of Tuscania”: report from Lt. Commander, Roncigilione, Oct. 7, 1931, ACS.
239 “the Merchant Marine reported”: report from Direzione Generale della Marina Mercantile, Oct. 12, 1931, ACS.
239 “‘an ‘unverifiable source’”: report from Console Generale, Marseilles, Oct. 21, 1931, ACS.
239 “‘enterprise of a similar kind’”: report from Direttore, Divisione Polizia Politica, Rome, Nov. 6, 1931, ACS.
239 “a seaplane pilot has reported”: “Search for Lauro de Bosis,” Times of London, Oct. 7, 1931.
239 “secretly transported to Rome”: reported in Le Soir (Brussels), Nov. 8, 1931.
239 “OVRA informant in Marseille”: unsigned report from Marseilles, Nov. 11, 1931, ACS.
239 “ clipped ‘in the American style’”: unsigned report from Madrid, July 3, 1931, ACS.
240 “one of the few accounts”: Franco Fucci, Ali contro Mussolini, 190.
240 “‘Smile at Anti-Fascist Leaflets’”: New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 11, 1931.
240 “‘what can ever console us?’”: Franco Fucci, Ali contro Mussolini, 189.
240 “‘I loved my mother more’”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 55.
240 “‘I never failed Adolfo’”: Lillian Vernon de Bosis to Nancy Cox McCormack, Nov. 23, 1934, LDP, HLH.
241 “final photo in Lillian’s album”: photo album, LDP, HLH.
Chapter 21: The New Augustus
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242 “refer to as the ‘years of consensus’”: Renzo de Felice, Gli anni del consenso, 1929–1936.
243 “declared the Mafia defeated”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 458.
243 “1929 Lateran Accords”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 258.
243 “First-grade students were given primers”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 461.
243 “more than ten children with gold prizes”: ibid, 471.
243 “to just 70,000 in 1934”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 251.
244 “stock market lost a third of its value”: ibid, 288.
244 “banned the handshake”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 510.
244 “high-speed cross of rugby”: ibid, 492.
244 “replaced by the Italianate neologisms”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 344.
244 “gradually embraced ‘autarky’”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 291.
244 “bloated class of Fascist bureaucrats”: Borden W. Painter, Jr., Mussolini’s Rome, 18.
244 “bread made of mashed chickpeas”: Jane Scrivener, Inside Rome with the Germans, 144.
245 “redecorated in an angular Rationalist style”: Borden W. Painter, Jr., Mussolini’s Rome, 26.
245 “seven-metre-tall crucifix”: from Luce newsreel, “Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista,” Oct. 28, 1932, accessed at patrimonio.archivioluce.com/luce-web/detail/IL5000009152/2/roma-mostra-della-rivoluzione-fascista.html
245 “Mostra’s guests of honour”: Borden W. Painter, Jr., Mussolini’s Rome, 29.
246 “carried 6.2 million automobiles”: Joshua Arthurs, Excavating Modernity, 62.
246 “pitch-black Apuan marble”: Heather Hyde Minor, “Mapping Mussolini,” Imago Mundi, Vol. 51 (1999), 149.
247 “‘stand out in unimagined splendour’”: Stewart Bagnani, “Ten Years of Fascism,” unpublished article, GBP, TUA.
248 “‘did not make a bella figura’”: Gilbert Bagnani to mother, Dec. 24, 1930, GBP, TUA.
248 “‘presumptuous and antifascist’”: Ian Begg, “Fascism in the Desert,” in Michael L. Galaty, ed., Archaeology Under Dictatorship, 36.
248 “discovered next to the railway tracks”: Richard Hodges, Visions of Rome, 1.
249 “‘To us he was more a fellow-Roman’”: “Obituary, Dr. Thomas Ashby,” Times of London, May 26, 1931.
249 “discovered an enormous sanctuary”: Gilbert Bagnani, “The Great Egyptian Crocodile Mystery,” Archaeology, June, 1952.
249 “second-largest cache of papyri”: Ian Begg, “Gilbert Bagnani: A Life in Focus,” 13.
250 “dispatch 650,000 troops to east Africa”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 503.
250 “Mussolini’s son Vittorio led”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 307.
250 “Giornata della Fede”: Borden W. Painter, Jr., Mussolini’s Rome, 118.
251 “lost only 4,5000 troops”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 507.
251 “‘Our peninsula is too small’”: ibid, 493.
251 “typhus in concentration camps”: ibid, 496.
251 “on the fated hills of Rome”: Joshua Arthurs, Excavating Modernity, 125.
251 “Only 3,200 Italian peasants”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 320.
251 “‘eight million bayonets’”: Borden W. Painter, Jr., Mussolini’s Rome, 141.
252 “to make Africa ‘fit for Fiats’”: Ernest Hemingway, “Wings Always Over Africa,” Esquire, Jan. 1936.
253 “‘would not have existed without the black shirt’”: quoted in R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 260.
253 “worst of European blood groups”: ibid, 266.
253 “life-sized bust of Il Duce”: ibid, 270.
253 “‘Thirty centuries of history’”: ibid, 282.
253 “his first meeting with Hitler”: ibid, 281.
253 “over two hundred Jewish Fascists”: Caroline Moorehead, A Bold and Dangerous Family, 340.
253 “allowed three thousand German Jews”: ibid, 335.
254 “opposing them in ‘one unshakeable will’”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 510.
254 “‘Today in Spain, tomorrow in Italy’”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 318.
255 “pour 50,000 men into Spain”: Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny, 508.
255 “under-equipped and below strength”: Matthew Kneale, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings,” 316.
255 “military power was a ‘tragic bluff’”: R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, 352.
255 “named the ‘Lauro de Bosis company’”: Charles F. Delzell, Mussolini’s Enemies, 151.
Chapter 22: The Despot’s Rage
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256 “‘wait and be ready for anything!’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 130.
256 “‘Machiavellian in its cruelty’”: ibid, 132.
257 “dark-haired young man of Italian appearance”: Dorothy Warren, The World of Ruth Draper, 78.
257 “‘Lauro de Bosis is still alive’”: report to Arturo Bocchini from Direttore Generale per i servizi della Propaganda, Jan. 25, 1938, ACS.
257 “carry Ruth’s letters to Lillian”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 117.
258 “‘rare really great men are’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 185.
258 “series of a dozen one-week engagements”: ibid, 136.
258 “‘Lauro and I would have been married’”: Dorothy Warren, The World of Ruth Draper, 74.
258 “appearances in Capetown and Khartoum”: ibid, 81–3.
258 “Salvemini became the first appointee”: Iris Origo, A Need to Testify, 117.
259 “‘I am going there as to prison’”: Caroline Moorehead, A Bold and Dangerous Family, 338.
259 “‘and that is to kill Mussolini’”: ibid, 342.
259 “Nello was stabbed to death”: ibid, 349.
260 “‘a superbly gifted writer of polemics”: quoted in Mollie della Terza, “Lauro de Bosis,” Harvard Library Bulletin, July, 1982, 274.
260 “‘absolutely a free agent in what he did’”: John Haynes Holmes, “The Greatest Single Deed of Heroism in Our Time,” 11, LDP, HLH.
260 “‘Only pilots can realize the courage’”: Owen Cathcart-Jones, Aviation Memoirs, 224.
260 “‘Italy will never forget him’”: quoted in Jean McClure Mudge, The Poet and the Dictator, 169.
260 “‘I feel a great weight off my heart’”: Dorothy Warren, The Letters of Ruth Draper, 187.
