Today in Labor History July 29, 1900: Italian anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto of Italy. He did it to avenge the scores of workers the army killed during the Milan insurrection of 1898, also known as the Bava Beccaris massacre. The authorities arrested Bresci. He was later found strangled in his cell at Santo Stefano Prison, on May 22, 1901. Anarchists regarded him as a martyr. His act of regicide inspired Leon Czolgosz to assassinate President McKinley.
Bresci was radicalized and drawn to anarchism from a young age. He began working in a textile mill, in Italy, at the age of 15. In his early 20’s, he was arrested for insulting a police officer and later served time for organizing a textile strike. In 1897, he emigrated to the U.S., getting a job at a silk mill in Patterson, New Jersey. There he married an Irish-American woman and had two children. He joined the Right to Existence Group, and co-founded and wrote for its newspaper, La Questione Sociale. He saved Errico Malatesta’s life by disarming an assassin who had shot Malatesta at one of the group’s meetings.
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