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Clara Petacci was born on February 28, 1912, into a well-off family in Rome. Her father, a physician working within the Vatican, was a staunch supporter of fascism and imparted his admiration for Mussolini to Clara from a young age. As she grew up, Clara idolized the dictator, even expressing her fervent support in her early teenage years. After an assassination attempt against Mussolini when she was just 14, she wrote fervently about wishing she had been there to protect him.