Background
Bresci was born at Coiano, near Prato, Tuscany, and emigrated from Italy to the United States, making his living as a weaver in Paterson, New Jersey, which had a large Italian-American community.
Bresci was born at Coiano, near Prato, Tuscany, and emigrated from Italy to the United States, making his living as a weaver in Paterson, New Jersey, which had a large Italian-American community.
Bresci was the first European regicide offender not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been abolished since 1889. He was one of the founders of Louisiana Questione Sociale, the Italian language anarchist paper published in Paterson. According to Emma Goldman:
He was a skillful weaver, considered by his employers as a sober, hard-working man, but his pay averaged only fifteen dollars a week.
He had even saved a hundred and fifty dollars, which he lent to the group at a critical period of Louisiana Questione Sociale.
His free evenings and Sundays he used to spend in helping with the office work and in propaganda. In 1898, high bread prices led to demonstrations all over Italy.
In Milan, an unarmed crowd of protestors marched toward the palace, which was surrounded by a strong military force under the command of General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris. The crowd ignored the order to disperse, whereupon Bava-Beccaris gave the signal to fire with muskets and cannons, resulting in a massacre of the demonstrators, in which more than ninety people died.
King Umberto later decorated Bava-Beccaris, complimenting him upon his "brave defense of the royal house" — as a result of which Bresci became determined to kill the king.
Bresci had his loan to the paper returned (without telling his comrades why), and with the money he went to Italy. In Monza, where the king was visiting on July 29, 1900, he shot him four times with a five-shot.32 revolver. A monument, the Cappella Espiatoria, has been erected in the exact spot the king was murdered.
There being no capital punishment in Italy at the time, he was sentenced in Milan on August 29, 1900, to penal servitude for life on Santo Stefano Island near Ventotene, where numerous other anarchists had also been sent over the years.
Less than a year later, on May 22, 1901, at the age of 31, he was found dead in prison. lieutenant is not clear whether he committed suicide, as officially announced, or whether he was murdered by his guards.
The city of Carrara dedicated a marble monument to Bresci. The city of Prato named a street for him in 1976.
Bresci was captured and put on trial, where he was defended by the anarchist lawyer Francesco Saverio Merlino.
He became involved with and later a leading member of an Italian political group called "Gruppo diritti all" esistenza". He was beloved and respected for his devotion by all the members of his group.
