An anarchist's three shots ended King Umberto I
On this day · 29 July 1900
On a summer night in Monza, an Italian weaver who had sailed home from New Jersey shot the king of Italy dead.
On the evening of 29 July 1900, King Umberto I of Italy left a gymnastics exhibition in Monza, hosted by the sporting society Forti e Liberi. As his carriage prepared to depart, Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist weaver, stepped from the crowd and fired three or four revolver shots. The king was struck in the throat and chest and died within minutes.
Bresci was no stranger to grievance. He had emigrated to Paterson, New Jersey, a hub of Italian-American radicalism, and returned to Italy with one purpose: revenge for the Bava Beccaris massacre of 1898, when soldiers fired on demonstrators in Milan and Umberto later decorated the commanding general.
“Ho ucciso il Re” — I have killed the King.
Tried within weeks, Bresci was sentenced to life on the prison island of Santo Stefano, where he was found dead in his cell less than a year later. The killing fed a wave of anarchist assassinations that swept monarchs and presidents around 1900.
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