Franz Ferdinand Case

Yesterday Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia Chotek were shot to death while visiting the city of Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary. The assassin has been identified as a 19 year old named Gavrilo Princip a member of the "Black Hand" a group of Bosnian extremists.

Princip was part of a group of three men that were assigned the task of killing the Archduke when he was in Sarajevo, the other two men charged with the task were Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez. The men were armed with bombs, pistols and cyanide; they were to kill themselves, after they had performed their task by ingesting their cyanide. All three men are suffering from tuberculoses and therefore are going to die regardless. The men were sent by the leader of the Black Hand, a man named Dragutin Dimitrijevic. The Black Hand had attempted an assassination on the Arch Duke's father Emperor Franz Josef, when this failed they decided to assassinate the Heir; Franz Ferdinand. Nedjelko Cabrinovic had made the first assassination attempt by throwing a bomb at the archduke's car; however the bomb missed and went underneath the car behind the archduke severely injuring two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and Count Boos-Waldeck as well as several spectators. Cabrinovic was apprehended by police after he ingested the cyanide and jumped into a river.

After the official reception at the City Hall, the Archduke was worried about the two men who had been injured in the bomb explosion, he insisted that he must go and see them in the hospital. As they were on their way to the hospital the driver realized that he had taken the wrong route and had stopped to correct his course. Princip happened to be there when the car stopped and noticed that it was the archduke's car. He approached the car and shot several bullets into the vehicle. The Archduke was shot in the neck and the Archduchess in the abdomen. The driver said that the Archduke's last words were "Sophie dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay Alive for our children!" This was to no avail, both of the victims died from their wounds. After shooting the royal couple Princip turned his gun upon himself, a man behind him saw what he was doing aswell as a police officer that was nearby, they stopped Princip from killing himself and he was taken into custody with his two co-conspirators. However Princip is only 19 and therefore not eligible for the death sentence, instead he was given the maximum sentence of 20 years.

It is without a doubt that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand will be remembered as one of the most high profile murders of the 20th century and perhaps of all time. It is still to be seen what affects this has on national relationships between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. Now with the heir of Austria-Hungary gone, it is yet to be seen who is next in line for the thrown. This is one question that only time will answer.