In a discussion of product liability in Restatement of Torts I came upon this passage: “Many products cannot possibly be made entirely safe for all consumption…. Ordinary sugar is a deadly poison to diabetics, and castor oil found use under Mussolini as an instrument of torture.” My question: what did Mussolini do with the castor oil? My boss doesn’t know. My parents don’t know. All the WWII-vintage people I’ve asked don’t know. Please, Cecil, help the world remember and keep this heinous event from being repeated. –Gabrielle, Madison, Wisconsin
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No danger, kid–for starters, where would a would-be torturer get the castor oil? Besides, castor oil wasn’t really in the same league as the iron maiden and the rack. It was more an instrument of mob violence, sort of like tar and feathers. A gang of Fascisti would grab one of their opponents, beat him up, and pour castor oil down his throat. Why? To give him the world’s worst case of diarrhea, that’s why. Sometimes the hoods would squirt a quart (OK, liter) or more into the guy, sometimes they’d mix it with gasoline, and sometimes, as a consequence, the victim died. But I gather most people lived through the experience, which was meant mainly to put the fear of Il Duce in them and in the populace generally.
Sounds almost quaint, and well it might. The Fascists had few qualms about killing people when it suited their purpose, but did not do so often for fear of turning the masses against them. When Mussolini’s thugs exceeded their orders (or so some historians think) and murdered an opposition leader in 1924, the Italian public was outraged. For a time the Duce thought the jig was up. In an era when mobs, bombers, and death squads randomly slaughter thousands, one almost longs for a time when the worst the bad guys dared do to somebody was to give him a case of the runs.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Illustration/Slug Signorino.
