Italian Police in the 1930s

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AndyE

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I'm writing a book set in Italy in the mid-1930s. I've done a fair bit of research but there are a few niggling questions about the police force that I have been unable to answer.

In no particular order:

Were the police routinely armed and if so what weapons did they carry?

What means of transport were available to them? I know the ordinary rank and file would be on foot/bicycle but I have seen newsreel footage of motorbikes and sidecars. What motorbikes would they be likely to ride? Would senior officers (ispettore and above) have access to their own cars? And what type of van would be used - if any - to transport prisoners?

Would senior officers (again ispettore and above) be in uniform and if so, what colours would they typically be?

Finally, a more general question: is it true (as I have read) that Italy did not have a death penalty in the interwar period?

Many thanks!
 
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lonestarlibrarian

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From Capital Punishment in Italy---

In 1926, it was reintroduced by dictator Benito Mussolini to punish those who made an attempt on the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the Prime Minister as well as forespionage and armed rebellion. The Rocco Code (1930, in force from July 1, 1931) added more crimes to the list of those punishable with the death penalty, and reintroduced capital punishment for some common crimes. It was used sparsely, however; until the outbreak of war in 1940, a total of nine executions were carried out, allegedly not for political offenses, followed by another 17 until Italy's surrender in July 1943 (compared to almost 80,000 legal executions in Nazi Germany, including courts martial).[SUP][2][/SUP][SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4][/SUP]The last people executed for civil crimes were three Sicilian robbers, also convicted of murder, who battered and threw into a well ten people (while still alive) on a farm near Villarbasse (province of Turin) in 1945. The president, Enrico de Nicola, declined to pardon them, and they were executed by a firing squad on March 4, 1947 atBasse di Stura riverside, in the suburbs of Turin. This was the last execution in Italy.

The Rocco Code is more formally called the 1930 Italian Penal Code-- I suppose Rocco was the Minister of Justice under Mussolini when it was enacted. There's an English translation here, although if you don't have JSTOR access, you might find an English translation elsewhere as well.
 

waylander

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Moto Guzzi were founded in 1921, Gilera in 1909. I have no information on whether they supplied motorcycles to the police, but they were making motorcycles in the 1930s.
 
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