44 Facts About Gaetano Bresci

Gaetano Bresci killed the king in July 1900 during Umberto's scheduled appearance in Monza amid a sparse police presence.

The government of Italy suspected that Gaetano Bresci had been a part of a conspiracy but no evidence was found to indicate that others were involved.

Gaetano Bresci inspired some anarchists to carry out their own acts of propaganda by deed, most prominently Leon Czolgosz's assassination of United States president William McKinley.

On 11 November 1869, Gaetano Bresci was born into a lower middle-class family in Prato, Tuscany.

Gaetano Bresci came to blame the Italian state for his family's experiences with poverty.

When he was 11 years old, Gaetano Bresci began an apprenticeship as a weaver at a textile factory.

Gaetano Bresci was radicalized by his experiences of exploitation in the workplace, and he joined the Italian anarchist movement.

Armed police dispersed the group and Gaetano Bresci was later arrested for the act.

Gaetano Bresci was sentenced to 15 days in prison, and was marked in police files as a "dangerous anarchist".

Gaetano Bresci was arrested again in 1895, after organising a textile workers' strike, for which he was exiled to Lampedusa by the government of Francesco Crispi.

Gaetano Bresci was granted amnesty in 1896, and returned to the mainland.

Gaetano Bresci developed a reputation as a dandy and engaged in numerous affairs, possibly fathering a child with one of his co-workers.

From New York City, Gaetano Bresci moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, where he met and married Sophie Kneiland, an Irish-American with whom he fathered two daughters: Madeleine and Gaetanina.

Gaetano Bresci indulged in purchases of fine clothing with his wages, and developed photography as a hobby.

In Paterson, Gaetano Bresci quickly became involved in the local trade unions and the immigrant anarchist movement.

Gaetano Bresci briefly joined the Right to Existence Group, but left after a few months as he found the group insufficiently radical.

At one of the group's meetings, Gaetano Bresci reportedly saved the life of Errico Malatesta, when he disarmed a disgruntled individualist anarchist who had shot and wounded Malatesta.

Gaetano Bresci co-founded and financially supported its newspaper, La Questione Sociale, for which he became a prolific "firebrand" contributor.

Gaetano Bresci wrote to his brother that they benefitted from freedom of the press and relative political equality in the United States, but that anti-Italian sentiments ran high, recalling that Anglo-Americans called Italians "pigs".

In 1898, Gaetano Bresci received news of the Bava Beccaris massacre.

Gaetano Bresci swore revenge against King Umberto I of Italy, who he held personally responsible for the massacre as he had decreed a state of siege in Milan and awarded a medal to Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris, the general who ordered the shooting.

Gaetano Bresci set sail in May 1900, disembarking at Le Havre and briefly staying in Paris, before leaving for Italy.

In June 1900, Gaetano Bresci returned to his home city of Prato, where he stayed with his brother's family.

Unsurveilled, Gaetano Bresci was free to practice firing his revolver daily.

In July 1900, Gaetano Bresci visited his sister in Castel San Pietro Terme, before moving on to Milan.

Gaetano Bresci learned that Umberto was due to attend a gymnastics competition at the Royal Villa of Monza.

Gaetano Bresci found a room near the Monza train station and waited to strike.

Gaetano Bresci had positioned himself along the road exiting the stadium to give himself a chance at escape; the excited crowd swept him within three meters of the king's car and blocked his way out.

Gaetano Bresci proposed that the decriminalization of radical ideologies and the resumption of civil liberties would put an end to propaganda of the deed, the anarchist practice of political assassination.

Gaetano Bresci's character was further defended by his old foreman, a long-time co-worker, and his own wife, who herself expressed surprise that her husband could have committed the assassination.

The government of Italy assumed Gaetano Bresci had acted as part of a conspiracy.

Gaetano Bresci was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, the most severe punishment available, as Italy had already abolished the death penalty.

Gaetano Bresci was initially held in Milan's San Vittore Prison, then transferred to a prison in Elba, where he was illegally held in an underground cell below sea level.

Gaetano Bresci was moved to solitary confinement on the remote Santo Stefano Island, where he was held in a small, unfurnished cell, with his feet shackled.

Gaetano Bresci was only allowed to keep a few personal items, such as clothing and hairstyling tools.

Gaetano Bresci reportedly remained in high spirits throughout his time in prison, which the authorities reported was due to his belief that he would be freed in an imminent revolution.

On 22 May 1901, Gaetano Bresci was found hanging by the neck in his cell.

All of this occurred at a time that Gaetano Bresci was awaiting the results of an appeal to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation.

Gaetano Bresci left wine and cheese uneaten, which he had reportedly purchased that morning.

The circumstances of Gaetano Bresci's death aroused suspicion and several 21st-century historians have suggested he was murdered.

Gaetano Bresci was praised in the same paper by Emma Goldman, who said he had "loved his kind, felt the existing wrongs in the world, and dared to strike a blow at organized authority".

On Italian anarchist postcards, Gaetano Bresci's face was superimposed onto the Statue of Liberty, and his deeds were eulogized in a poem by the American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre and in Italian revolutionary music.

In 1911, Italian anarchists inspired by Gaetano Bresci planned to assassinate Victor Emanuele III and Giolitti at the Turin International but were arrested before they could carry out their attack.

In 2013, Gaetano Bresci's name was adopted by a short-lived occupied social center in Catania.