Amerigo Dumini was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 3, 1894, to Italian and British immigrant parents. The family returned to Italy, where Dumini gave up his U.S. citizenship and enlisted in the Italian army in 1913. He fought as an assault trooper in World War I, was severely wounded, and received military honors for his service. After the war, Dumini became involved with the Fascio of Florence, quickly becoming one of Benito Mussolini’s most loyal and feared enforcers. He was proud of his reputation as Mussolini’s “hitman,” and was a prominent leader among the Blackshirts (squadristi).

Dumini’s early fascist career was marked by his participation in violent actions, including the Sarzana incident in 1921, where he led a column of Blackshirts to demand the release of detained comrades. As Mussolini’s regime consolidated power, Dumini’s status grew within the fascist movement, culminating in his recruitment into the Ceka, a secret police force modeled after the Soviet Cheka, tasked with violently suppressing opposition.

On June 10, 1924, Amerigo Dumini led a squad that abducted and murdered Giacomo Matteotti, a prominent socialist parliamentarian who had spoken out against fascist violence and electoral fraud. Matteotti was beaten and stabbed to death—a killing that shocked Italy and exposed the brutality of Mussolini’s regime. While the order for the murder has long been debated, Dumini always operated as a loyal agent for high-ranking fascists, and was closely associated with Cesare Rossi, Mussolini’s aide at the time.

After the murder, Dumini was arrested and initially sentenced to five years in prison, but served only 11 months thanks to an amnesty engineered by Mussolini. Feeling betrayed by the regime’s abandonment, Dumini attempted to blackmail fascist leaders for money and recognition, even confronting Mussolini directly and reportedly declaring, “I am here in order to wash Matteotti’s blood off my hands.” Instead, he was again arrested and sentenced for “offending Il Duce,” serving additional time.

Released in 1927, Dumini was effectively paid off by the state—granted a substantial pension and sent to Italian colonies in Africa. His reputation as a liability to the regime followed him, leading to repeated detentions and increases in pension payments to keep him quiet. During WWII, while in North Africa, he was captured by the British, sentenced to death as a spy, and survived being shot 17 times by a firing squad, later escaping to Tunisia in a dramatic episode that added to his legend.

After the war, Dumini returned to Italy and aligned himself with the short-lived German-backed Italian Social Republic. He was again arrested and retried for Matteotti’s murder in 1947; court records stated that the order came from Mussolini himself. Dumini was sentenced to life, but his term was commuted to 30 years, and he was released under another amnesty in 1953. He lived his final years as a businessman in Florence, benefiting from state pensions and largely avoiding the consequences of his violent past. Dumini died of a heart attack on December 25, 1967, after being accidentally electrocuted while changing a lightbulb.