Giuseppina Tuissi

Giuseppina Tuissi, better known as Gianna (also La Staffetta Gianna; 23 June 1923 – 23 June 1945) was an Italian communist and partisan during World War II. She was part of the 52nd Brigata Garibaldi "Luigi Clerici". From September 1944, she was a collaborator of the partisan Luigi Canali (known as the captain Neri) and, with him, had an important role in the arrest and the execution of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci.

Early life Giuseppina was born in 1923 in Abbiategrasso, in the Province of Milan. She lived and worked as labourer in Baggio, a Milan suburb.

Partisan In 1943, she started serving as a partisan courier, using the pseudonym "Gianna". On 6 January 1945 she was arrested with Canali in Lezzeno by the members of the XI Black Brigade "Cesare Rodini" and tortured for 23 days. Feeling abandoned by her comrades, she disappeared on 23 June 1945, on her 22nd birthday. It is presumed she was killed and her body thrown into Lake Como near Cernobbio.

Her death and those of Neri and other partisans in the late spring of 1945, represent an unresolved mystery of the Italian resistance history.

Literature Fabio Andriola: "Appuntamento sul lago". Milan, SugarCo, 1996. Giorgio Cavalleri: "Ombre sul Lago" Varese, Arterigere , 2007. Giorgio Cavalleri and Franco Giannantoni: "«Gianna» e «Neri» fra speculazioni e silenzi". Varese, Arterigere, 2002 Roberto Festorazzi: "I veleni di Dongo ovvero gli spettri della Resistenza". il Minotauro, 2004. Luciano Garibaldi: "La pista inglese. Chi uccise Mussolini e la Petacci?". Ares, 2002. Franco Giannantoni: "«Gianna» e «Neri»: vita e morte di due partigiani comunisti". Milan, Mursia, 1992. Franco Giannantoni: "L'ombra degli americani sulla Resistenza al confine tra Italia e Svizzera". Varese, Arterigere, 2007. Urbano Lazzaro: "Dongo: mezzo secolo di menzogne". Milan, Mondadori, 1993. Vittorio Roncacci: "La calma apparente del lago. Como e il Comasco tra guerra e guerra civile 1940-1945". Varese, Macchione, 2003.