Instead of doing What Happened Today in History?, I’m finally doing What Happened This Week in History? This week it’s October 13th to October 17th, the 42nd week in the year, but what actually happened this week in history.
On October 13th, 1943, the government of Italy declared war on its former Axis partner Germany and joined the side of the Allies. When Mussolini was killed and removed from power, the fascist government collapsed in July and General Pietro Badoglio, Mussolini’s former chief of staff and the man who had assumed power in the Duce’s stead by request of King Victor Emmanuel, began to negotiate with General Eisenhower regarding the surrender of Italy to the Allies. The new Italian government allowed the Allies to land in Salerno, southern Italy, and fought the Germans back up the peninsula on September 8th. Hitler made plans to fight back against the Allies in Italy and came up with Operation Axis when Italy surrendered. Operation Axis was used as an attempt to occupy Italy and to make Italy fascist country once again. As German troops entered Rome, General Badogilo and the royal family fled to southeastern Italy, to set up a new anti fascist government. Badogilo set into motion his agreement with Eisenhower, Italian troops joined the Allied Operation to capture Rome from the Germans. It was extremely slow with the British general describing it as “slogging up Italy.” Bad weather and miscalculations made the race to Rome harder with every new region captured. When it was all over, and Rome was once again free, General Badogilo would do his final step in freeing Italy, and that final step would be him stepping down from his position.
This next historical event occurred close to home, here on Long Island. On October 14th, 1975, Ronald DeFeo Jr. goes on trial for killing his parents and four siblings in their Amityville home. The family’s house served as an inspiration and was later said to be haunted for the “Amityville Horror” books and movies. In the evening on Wednesday, November 13th, 1974, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. entered an Amityville bar and told people that his parents had been shot in their home. Several bar patrons accompanied DeFeo back to his family’s home, at 112 Ocean Avenue, where a man named Joe Yeswit called Suffolk County police to report the crime. When officers arrived to the home, they found the bodies of Ronald DeFeo Sr., age 43, his wife Louise DeFeo, age 42, and their children Dawn DeFeo, age 18, Allison DeFeo, age 13, Marc DeFeo, age 11, and John DeFeo, age 9. All the victims were shot in their beds while they were asleep. Ronald DeFeo Jr. first tried to say that the murders were caused by the mob; however, by the next day he confessed to committing the crimes himself. One part of the case that puzzled investigators was how the neighbors did not hear the gunshots coming from the home, despite the fact that DeFeo used a rifle without a silencer. What would cause someone to murder their family? The answer is still unknown with many speculations including family conflict, greed, psychosis, and drug use. That November was when DeFeo was found guilty of counts of second-degree murder and later sentenced to 6 consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison. He died in prison on March 12th, 2021. The murder case led to the publishing of the novel named Amityville Horror in 1977, leading to a movie with the same name in 1979.
On October 15th, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “leading role in the radical changes in East-West relations” that helped end the Cold War. Some of his efforts that led to the end of the Cold War included disarmament, his reform policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), and not intervening as Soviet-backed communist regimes fell in Eastern European countries. A representative accepted the award for Gorbachev on December 10th, 1990, but Gorbachev later gave his Nobel lecture in June 1991.
On October 16th, 1793, Marie Antoinette was executed by guillotine for being found guilty of treason against the French state. This execution was part of the French Revolution and was a turning point in French history. For most of French history, France was ruled by a king and queen, but when the French helped the Americans in the American Revolution, it caused public outcry from the poor classes against the upper classes of French society. Before we ever talk about the execution of Marie Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI, we have to talk about the scene in France. There are three Estates in French Society: the Third Estate (made up of commoners), the Second Estate (made up of nobility), and the First Estate (made up of the clergy). The commoners had to pay a lot of the taxes, but had little political power compared to the nobility and clergy, where they enjoyed privileges. There were enlightenment ideas promoting reason, human rights, and the idea that the government should be derived from the people. The National Assembly is the revolutionary body created by the commoners and was key to ending the monarchy in France. Marie Antoinette played a role in the revolution with her luxurious lifestyle with her extravagant spending, which was said to further depleted the treasury. She hosted massive balls and parties, while the commoners starved with bread shortages happening in the country. The famous phrase “let them eat cake” might’ve never been said by Marie, but was used as a powerful piece of propaganda. She was first held in the Temple prison with her family, until her husband was executed, causing her to be transferred to the Conciergerie in Paris. She would spend 76 days in prison before her execution, and beheaded in front of an audience of the hundreds of thousands. After the execution, Maximilien Robespierre led the Reign of Terror, a period of mass executions for those considered enemies of the revolution, later being executed by the guillotine. The French Revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor of France.
On October 17th, 1931, gangster Al “Scarface” Capone was convicted of tax evasion, signaling the downfall of the biggest of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s. He was later sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and fined $50,000. Al Capone was originally from Brooklyn, New York, but moved to Chicago, where he became in charge of the criminal organization that he was a part of. Al Capone was known for overseeing illegal alcohol sales, gambling, prostitution, and other schemes through violence and bribery. One notorious event that made him a celebrity gangster and a symbol of organized crime was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, where men from his South Side gang dressed as police officers and killed several members of Chicago’s North Side gang. Federal agents led by Elliot Ness, were known as “The Untouchables,” worked to bring down Capone’s empire, but their primary success came from prosecuting him for tax evasion. Capone spent time in federal prison, like Alcatraz in California, and was released in early 1939. Capone later suffered from syphilis, which caused brain damage and contributed to his death in 1947 at the age of 48.
