---
title: Il Becco Giallo cartoon 'Tombola!' on the Matteotti murder, Rome, 1925
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/becco-giallo-tombola-matteotti-1925/
description: Cartoon of caricatured men playing tombola (Italian bingo) round a table, one holding up a card.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Il Becco Giallo cartoon 'Tombola!' on the Matteotti murder, Rome, 1925](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/becco-giallo-tombola-matteotti-1925.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/becco-giallo-tombola-matteotti-1925.jpg)

# Il Becco Giallo cartoon 'Tombola!' on the Matteotti murder, Rome, 1925

Cartoon of caricatured men playing tombola (Italian bingo) round a table, one holding up a card. The printed lines give De Bono the call '47, the dead man who speaks' and Mussolini the shout 'Tombola!'. The gambling frame and the lottery slang for a corpse label named officials as players in the murder, by insinuation rather than by any evidence shown in the image.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
De Bono: — 47 morto che parla.
Mussolini: — Tombola!
(Da Il becco giallo)

[signature at lower left of the drawing: illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
De Bono: — 47, the dead man who speaks.
Mussolini: — Bingo!
(From Il Becco Giallo)

[signature at lower left of the drawing: illegible]
```

The credit line '(Da Il becco giallo)' was added in the 1972 book reproduction, not in the original weekly. 'Tombola' is the Italian game of bingo and also the call for a full card.

[← "Sous le soleil équatorial" (Le Petit Journal illustré, 6 July 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/petit-journal-congo-ocean-railway-1924/) [Делегату 1-го Всеузбекского с'езда (To the Delegate of the 1st All-Uzbek Congress): bilingual Uzbek and Russian Soviet poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/delegatu-vseuzbekskogo-syezda-1925/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
