Gatti was born in
Milan in 1913 and graduated in
law in the early 1930s. After the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War, he enlisted in the
Corps of Volunteer Troops and fought on the
Francoist side from 22 December 1936 to 10 March 1939, when he married Moras Maria del Pilar, four years younger than him. After returning from Spain, he embarked on a political career, being appointed in 1939 as Secretary of the
Nuoro section of the
National Fascist Party. In 1942, he became federal secretary of the PNF of
Treviso, and on 18 April 1943, he started working for the
Ministry of the Interior. After the
armistice of Cassibile in September 1943, he joined the
Italian Social Republic; he was appointed second class
prefect on 28 October 1943 and a week later he returned to Treviso, where he was appointed Head of the Province, a position he held until 22 June 1944, when he was replaced by Francesco Bellini. He was then employed by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Social Republic and served as prefect of Milan from 23 June 1944 to 2 April 1945, when he was appointed as Mussolini's private secretary at the proposal of
Nicola Bombacci, of whom Gatti was a trusted collaborator. Gatti proposed that the Duce flee to Spain, where he would be hosted by his in-laws, but this plan never materialized. During the twilight of the Italian Social Republic, he was tasked by Mussolini, together with Bombacci, with carrying out a "counter-investigation" into the murder of
Giacomo Matteotti, aimed at showing he had not been involved at all in the crime. After sheltering his wife and three children in a
convent in Milan, Gatti followed Mussolini to
Menaggio, where at dawn on 27 April 1945 he was taken prisoner by the
partisans; a few hours later he was taken to
Dongo and shot along with other Fascist leaders and officials. His body was among those later exhibited in
Piazzale Loreto in Milan. ==References==