A day before Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini met a more public end. He and his mistress, Clara Petacci were caught by partisans while trying to flee into Switzerland. On April 29, 1945, the two were shot to death in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra. Their corpses were then taken to the Piazzale Loreto in Milan and strung up on meat hooks above a gas station. Crowds threw stones at the bodies for several days.