6. Lieutenant-Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević was the mastermind of the Sarajevo Assassination
Lieutenant-Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, also known as Apis or ‘The Bull’ (because of his large size), played a key role in Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo. Born in Belgrade, Principality of Serbia in the summer of 1876, Dragutin Dimitrijević was the leader of the Black Hand, a Serbian gang comprised of military officers who were planning to overthrow the Serbian government in 1903. Initially, the Black Hand and the Serbian government were on friendly terms and worked together mainly to make sure that Serbia became the dominant power in the region using violence, sabotage, and political murder if necessary. But after a policy disagreement in 1914, Black Hand leaders took control of the organization and didn’t care about official policies from the government.
It is at this time that Dragutin Dimitrijević organized Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination. He recruited three young Serbians who were annexed by Austria six years earlier for the job and added four others later on. Gavrilo Princip, a maladjusted yet fanatic nineteen-year-old finally finished the job when he shot Franz Ferdinand together with his wife on their state visit to Sarajevo.
Apart from the Sarajevo incident, the violent conspirator also organized and participated in Belgrade’s 1903 palace coup, which saw King Alexander and his wife Queen Draga not merely murdered but butchered with body parts cast onto the streets.