I think a botched fire / escape / insurance claim is plausible.House collapses on top of itself. Dad, Mom, older bro and sis have accidentally murdered their 5 youngest in an insurance scam. As one of our favorite posters points out, town did not really GAF about them then and even less now.
In regards to animosity towards the family stemming from Mr. Sodder's support of Mussolini, such support (usually tacit and not direct) was fairly common prior to the US entry into WWII.
Starting with the "Red Scares" in the 1920s and continuing into how to best address the Great Depression, anti communist sentiments were strong in the US. So was the idea of a need for a right wing, law and order minded leader to keep the commies away and the US on the right path (get it, get it).
Mussolini, needless to say was very anti communist and law and order minded. Furthermore, unlike his Hitler, his genocidal ally, Mussolini was not antisemitic.
In the end, tacit support of Mussolini or even, well, Hitler prior to WWII would not have been unusual in US society. Open, direct support of Mussolini prior to Pearl Harbor would probably have been seen as odd (why care that much about places so far away), but usually no cause for animosity per se.
After Pearl Harbor, support for Mussolini would cause animosity. But.... by then many had uhmm....."re phrased" their prior support to the acceptable: "Support Mussolini? Oh, God- no, absolutely not! I just thought he had some good ideas".