August 15, 2025 • 54 mins
Do you remember how in the past, Theresa and Angie explained the start of WWI as that time a Serbian shot an Austrian, so Britain declared war on Germany?
Well today, Theresa does a deep dive and explains how a secretive organization within the Serbian government referred to as The Black Hand is the group that trained the assassins who killed Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast.The podcasts where two compulsive nutjobs are
going to mainline history names, and then we'regoing to reflect and compulsively learn the
stories behind them, and then regurgitate thestory we've just heard and learned upon our fellow
(00:32):
co-host and those of you who have decided to tunein. I'm host one, I'm Teresa, and that is Angie, and
we make new apologizing for our regurgitationonto your brains. And you're going to enjoy it or
you're going to tune away, but you know, we hope youcome back. You're going to like it. So I said so. I'm
going to go. I'm going to go because I have a story.I've been wanting to tell. I downloaded an audio
(00:59):
book that was 24 hours long about a topic that Ithought was three paragraphs long. Okay. And then
went, oh, there's so much. Oh, and it just keepsgoing. And so there's like an aspect of this that
(01:20):
I'm going to hyper fixate on. So you'd be preparedto zoom out and zoom back in, zoom out and zoom back
in because like there's like a lot of like, there'sa shit ton of nuance. I'm going to like a heavy
reduction of it down to like a single thing, butthis is a very complex thing. All right. Okay. So
everything I'm about to tell you is true-ish. Youknow what I mean? Like it's true, but there's like,
(01:44):
I'm holding on. Hold on. Are you telling an Angiestory where the story's not resolved at the end and
gosh dang it, we still don't know the answer? No,no, no. The story's resolved at the end. We do know
the ending and you're going to be like, oh, butthere's like, but yeah, but there's also, and you
didn't mention, and okay, like there's going to beso much of that. Okay. So I'm hyper fixating on one
thread and a very large tapestry. Love this for us.Okay. I am going to tell you about the Black Hand,
(02:11):
the secret organization that started World War I.Yes. I wanted someone to do it. Yes. I know, I know
this much. Like, okay. All right. So here we go. Mysources. The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark.
This is like the heavy duty audio book and then itwas just like, oh, this was okay. And then BYU had a
(02:35):
couple of articles both written by MichaelShackleford, the Black Hand, the secret Serbian
terrorist society and Sarajevo, June 28th, 1914,the assassination of Archduke Berghand. So are we
ready? Go. I'm so excited. Yes. Bosnia andHerzegovina, their providence is just south of
(02:56):
Austria and until 1878 they've been governed bythe Turks. Okay. Now I know 1878 is a very long
distance away from World War I, but I promise you,like, I have to zoom out to zoom in, okay? No, this
makes sense because the war doesn't just startyesterday. It would lead up. Yeah. Like, when you
(03:19):
look at the book The Sleepwalkers, it talks abouthow World War I seemed so improbable until you zoom
in and you go, oh no, this was a slow boil. Yeah.Yeah, that makes sense. So 1878 there's this thing
called the Treaty of Berlin and that settled thedisposition of lands that were lost by the Turks.
(03:42):
They'd had a war with Russia and they did not win.Austria was granted power to administer to the two
provinces indefinitely. So they kind of pulled inthese two states. Okay. Now Bosnia is comprised of
(04:03):
three different people groups. You have theCroats who are Roman Catholic. You've got the
ethnic Serbs that are Serb Orthodox. And then youalso have Muslims that are left over from the days
of Turkish rule. There's not a people group, anethnic people group called the Bosnians. See at
the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosnians just live inBosnia, but they're not an ethnic group. But they
(04:29):
belong to any one of these three. Yeah. Right.Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Now the Bosnian
Serbs, they feel a very strong nationalisticdesire to have their province joined to other Serb
nations across the river in Serbia. Okay. And manySerbians. It makes sense. Yeah. Many Serbians are
(04:50):
like, yeah, same, same. You are my kin. Like let usdo this thing. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Reasonable.
Right. Now we're going to fast forward quite a bit.So October 8, 1808, just two days after Austria.
1908. 1908. Thank you for translating. Got you. Weall have one job. Mine is to keep Theresa honest
(05:14):
about the timeline. I mean, look, I'm going to behonest about my facts, but just don't trust the
numbers that come out of my mouth if they don't goalong chronological order. It's what I'm here
for. So two days after Austria annexes BosnianHerzegovina. There's tons of people, many high
ranking Serbian ministers, officials, generalslike Topras. Like if you've got any political
(05:39):
clout, you go into this meeting in City Hall inBelgrade. And then they found this semi-secret
society. So I'm thinking like the best kept opensecret kind of deal. Right. Like now where you
really get the good Swami at Costco. Yeah. Yeah.Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this group is called the
(06:01):
Narodna Utbrana, National Defense, whichtranslates to. Okay. Okay. Now this has a very
pan-Slavic focus. So they believe all Slavsshould join together and be a part of this
brotherhood. The purpose of this group is to trainand recruit partisans for a possible war between
(06:26):
Serbia and Austria. So they're like, should stuffkick off? We want to be prepared. Right. Now they
also undertook a anti-Austrian propaganda,which makes sense to me. You want to do a little bit
of psychological warfare as well. And they'reorganizing spies and saboteurs to operate within
(06:50):
the empire's provinces. Okay. So I honestly, thisfelt very CIA. Yeah. You know, honestly, I think in
my humble opinion, there has been some version ofthe CIA in every country that has had any lack of
power since the beginning of time. Yeah. It's justnever been called the CIA until today. No. And the
(07:11):
CIA is only the CIA here. Right. Exactly. But youget what I'm saying. Right. Yeah. There's always
been some sort of... Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Okay. So this is all happening. There's satellite
groups that are formed in Slovenia, Bosnia,Herzegovina, and Austria. Now the Bosnian group
(07:32):
goes under the name Vlada Bosma, which is youngBosnia. Okay. So that's the splinter cell, so to
speak. So the national defense, their work is soeffective that in 1909, Austria pissed off beyond
(07:52):
belief. They pressured the Serbian government toput a stop to the anti-Austrian insurrection. So
they're calling them out on their bullshit. Lovethis, Russ. They're like, you know what? We can see
what you're doing. You're mean-mugging us fromacross the room. Knock it off. Run around, you're
in turn, you know. Exactly. Like we are theteacher. Quit passing notes in my class. Okay. Or
(08:20):
drawing penises on the whiteboard. Whateveranalogy I need to use here. But they're a little
ticked off. Now Russia, meanwhile, Slavic,they're thinking like, oh, you know, we could
always just... Like Serbia's like, well, Russiawill stand behind us. Russia will back us. Russia,
the big bad world power. Now, Russia's like, I'mkind of not ready to join another war. I kind of just
(08:44):
kind of figuring stuff out, just kind of had one.Kind of having my own issues. Yeah. I kind of want
to, you know, be my own for a while. So they're notready for a show grade. So Belgrade begrudgingly
complies. They don't want to, but they're goingto. So from then on, the National Defense Group,
(09:06):
they concentrated on education and propagandawithin Serbia. And they try to fashion itself into
a cultural organization. Okay. So they just kindof like refine their strategy and focus in on the
psychological aspect and then build dissent fromwithin. Hey, I feel like that's going to work.
(09:31):
Honestly, like all of this, I'm just like, okay,I've seen this pattern play out. So many of these
members, they form a new and again, secretorganization. So secretly secretive. And they
continue their terrorist actions. So there's 10minutes they meet on May 9th of 1911. And they form a
(09:53):
group that I will not try to pronounce in Bosnia.And it translates to Union or death. They serious.
They're, yeah. They become also known as the BlackHand. Okay. Okay. So this is where it's coming
from. Now, by 1914, they're up to several hundredmembers, maybe as many as 2,500. That's decent.
(10:21):
Yeah, that's a decent membership size. Yeah. Now,many of these humans are Serbian officers in the
army. And their professional goal of the group wasthe creation of a greater Serbia by use of violence
if necessary. This also checks. I mean, look, ifyou have a goal, it's important to understand what
(10:48):
that goal's success looks like, how you're goingto measure it, and then how you're going to execute
to get to set it. That's a good goal. That can applyto any number of different forms of life. I don't
care if you're selling candy bars or building awebsite. This is the plan of action. Yeah, every
time. Now, the Black Hand is training guerrillawarfare as well as saboteurs, and they're
(11:14):
arranging political murders. So they are Uberchill, very demure. Very modest. Yeah. Now,
they're organized at a very grass root rootslevel. They only have three to five member cells,
and you pretty much don't know anybody outside ofyourself. I feel like this is just asking for
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problems later when you need to, like, actually, Idon't know, collect and do something with a bigger
group than three to five. And this is also how WorldWar One starts. I mean, maybe, right? So keep all of
this in mind because there's district committeesabove them and then central committees above
that. So there's layers of bureaucracy, and Ithink the bureaucracy bit is fascinating to me
(12:04):
because it's always incredible on wherebureaucracy gets things going and then where
bureaucracy breaks down. Yeah. Yeah, I thinkbureaucracy breaks down as soon as it gets
something going. We've built it and nowpaperwork. But you know, sometimes it's like the
paperwork, it might be a slow moving beast, but itis a moving beast. To some degree. Yeah, to some
(12:28):
degree, I would have to agree with you on that,yeah. Okay, so we have the district committee, the
central committees, the central committees inBelgrade, by the way, at the top of all of that,
there's a 10 member executive committee. Andthat's led by a dude named Colonel Draguten
Demitrivic. Now, he is known by oppies. So fromhere on out, I'm going to be calling him oppies.
(12:57):
Love is for me. I need you to have the visual that Ihave. Which is? Because I have six foot. Go ahead. I
think my six foot two son loves it when he's lookingat me from the top of his bunk bed down because he
says I look like a child with my hands up sayingoppies. Okay, I'm grateful that that's what you
had to because that's all I was hearing with a twoyear old going oppies, oppies. Apparently,
(13:22):
oppies is an, he gets a nickname for his strengthand stamina. Oh, okay. Which is incredibly
different. Okay. Yeah. So anybody in the blackhand probably doesn't know anybody above them
except for maybe one superior and very few knowanybody besides them outside of their own cell.
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Okay, so it's very much like you can't writeanybody out that you don't know. I mean, keeps
everybody safe. Yeah. Now, are you ready for partof their oath that they say when they're joining? I
can't believe you have this information. Yes. Ofcourse I have this information. Okay. Go. Part of
the oath is before God on my honor and my life that Iwill execute all missions and commands without
(14:12):
question. I swear before God on my honor on my lifethat I will take all of the secrets of this
organization into my grave with me. Oh, theyserious. They, they have big feelings and they
have big plans. And a no mountain high enough.Thanks for that. You're welcome. I'm here just.
(14:37):
Yep. Just for that. I'm here. Now the black hand,they take over all of the terrorist organization
or actions of national defense and they beginworking deliberately at obscuring all
distinctions between the two groups. Okay. Okay.They're trading on the prestige and the network of
(14:58):
the older organization. So they're like, yeah,they're like, Hey, hey, we're part of national
defense, pre national defense. I mean, we'redifferent, but we're also the same thing, you
know, now. Black hand members are also holdinghigh and important positions in the government
and the army. Okay. So incredibly embedded. Yeah.This is, I think how it works. You get them in there,
(15:26):
dig those quads of the. The crown princeAlexander, he's enthusiastic about their
existence as well as a financial supporter. Sothey've got some pretty good backing. Yeah. Of
course, this means that the group is holding someheavy influence over who gets appointed into
(15:47):
positions of government as well as the policiesthat are passed. Okay. Because they've, it's all
the way to the top. Yeah, this makes sense. Now it'sfair to say that the Serbian government is pretty
well informed of all black hand activities as aresult, despite them being secretive. Okay. So
(16:10):
best kept secret, best kept open. Yeah. Okay.Yeah, I love it. Now we get some things that kind of
fall apart because 1914, the black hand becomes alittle bit in their fields with the prime
minister, Nikola Pasek. And they, they don'tbelieve that Pasek is being aggressive enough
(16:34):
towards this pancerbian cause or his pan Slavic.Yeah, pancer, pancer of cause. Like they're like,
he could go harder. No, okay. And go big or go home.Basically. And so now they have this kind of power
struggle about who's going to control theterritories that Serbia annex and the Balkan
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Wars, which are another thing that kind of leads upto this boiling point. Now, basically, the prime
minister is in this very difficult place becausehe knows that if he stands up and says no to the black
hand, it's dangerous because again, they havethis really fun tool at their disposal called
(17:16):
political assassinations and they really likeit. It's very fun. Good at it. Yeah, you know, do,
do, do what you're good at. And so, you know, it'slater on, oppies is thinking, you know what we need
to do that Archduke, Franz Ferdinand. I think wegot to offer him, you know, he's the heir apparent
(17:37):
to Austria. We should just take him out. This willbe a good time. You know, the ruler of Austria is
just this old fart who's going to have to give it tohis nephew because his kid died. So let's, let's
just go after Franz Ferdinand. Nobody likes himanyhow. Ferdinand's an ass. We'd be doing
(17:58):
everybody a favor. You get you the solid out of it,you know. So they're like, okay, you know what
we're going to do? We're going to recruit threeyoung Bosnian serfs and we're going to train them
in bomb throwing and marksmanship. Okay. Andthere's like this little bit of nuance. I was like,
this would have been so much more exciting andsophomore history had they like brought this part
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in. Because I'm like, you were trained in bombthrowing. Well, yeah, I mean, honestly, when you
think about it, there's a lot of school level, likehigh school and middle school level history that
would have been so much better than nuance wastaught. Instead of just the dates and the names. I
mean, like, if they to like, lean forward andwhispered and then they taught them to throw
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bombs. I'd have been like, yeah, can you say thatagain for the kids in the back? What is the proper
bomb throwing technique? Is it the over the over?Do they honor the hand that is your dominant or do
they force you to throw right handed? Like I needdetails. Yeah, honestly, you're not wrong. Are
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you pulling the pen first? Is it a different kind ofthing? Yeah, I mean, I wish I knew people have
answers. They should, but they're like, and thenFreddie, will you read the next paragraph? But no,
no, go back one. Go back one. Okay. Yeah, that'strue. That's true. Prinsip, Gabrinovic and
Grabes, they're the first that are recruited.They're the three that we, you know, the ones in the
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history books that are now. We come to know. Yeah.They're smuggled across the border into Bosnia
via a chain of underground railroad stylecontacts. Nothing is new in this world. Nothing is
new. Okay. Now, it's Api's who decides toapparently like killing the Archduke. That's his
(19:53):
idea. He should get credit for it. But it's alsoincredibly not sanctioned by the full executive
committee. He kind of goes rogue here. I mean, ithonestly checks when you think about how World
Wars operant that it would start rogue. Yeah.Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, the executive committee,
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they probably realized the reason why theyprobably didn't sign off on it is they're like,
ooh, you know what, this is going to end regardlessof France for now just being a putz and needing to go
out. It's going to result in a war between Austriaand Serbia and they're kind of bigger and we really
don't think Russia is going to stand behind us.Even though Russia should fight with us, they may
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set this one out. And if they do, even at all a littlebit, we're going to get our asses handed to us. But
they're like not anticipating World War becausewe've never had one. This wasn't even on the
option. This wasn't on anybody's bingo cards.Right. Now, other in the government, they and some
(21:00):
in the Black Hand Executive Council, they're notas confident in Russia's aid. They're, they kind
of sense Russia may be wanting to just set this out.Like they got some little pebbles before the
boulder. They're like, I don't know. Russia,Russia seems sus here. Now, Russia says they want
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to go home. Yeah. Russia said something about an8am meeting tomorrow in Moscow and that they may
not need to stay out too late tonight. Yeah. Yeah.Now, apparently, Russia had let them down, like in
the, in recent history. So this is kind of what theyhad going for them. And then when word of this plot
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that is bubbling up goes through the Black Handleadership and then to the Serbian government,
Opus is told, don't proceed. Shut it down. Fullstop. Now, Opus kind of makes this little
half-assed attempt to intercept the youngassassins at the border, but oh shucks, they'd
already crossed. Darn it. I tried. I do movequickly these, you know? Yeah. My, these knees
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ain't what they used to be. And yeah. So it's veryweaponized and competent as far as I'm concerned.
I love weaponizing competence. So thishalf-assed recall kind of makes Opus look like
he's a loose cannon and that these young assassinsare these little independent zealots. Well, I
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mean, that kind of is what it looks like. Honestly,you know, here's the crazier part. The recall
happened two weeks before the Archduke's visit.Two weeks. Now you mean to tell me you couldn't get a
fax or a pulling pigeon or something over theborder to let them know? You couldn't send a
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half-hoppled horse? Yeah, seriously. I don'tthink our boy at these is trying very hard. Yeah, I
would, I'd go in on a limb and just say, he kind ofwent, oh no. Anyhow, what are we having for dinner?
What are we having for dinner? So this is all goingon. The assassins are idling around Sarajevo for
(23:20):
an entire month. It's ridiculous. And nothing,nothing is done to stop them. In fact, they have
this incredible network that smuggle them in andthen are feeding and housing them and giving them
the time of their life while they're in Sarajevo.And nothing is utilized to stop them. Okay. They
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couldn't send a text message. Couldn't Facebookmessage them? No. Drop into their DMs? Nothing.
Mark, safe if you've abandoned the plot toassassinate the Archduke. That needs to be the
meme here for us. So all of this is happening. And sothis kind of calls into question, how strong is the
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desire for the government to actually stop thisplot? Because it seems like they really don't give
a crap. Well, honestly, if Abbie fails and nobodyproceeded after him to try to stop it, they're not
looking like they're too hot about it, you know?They do have a couple more attempts I'm going to get
into. Oh, okay. And they're always going to leaveyou with more of the, what? What? Okay. So the
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government, the armies, they all fully know whatthe Black Hand's doing. They're all in on this game
of telephone. The Prime Minister, when he learnsabout the assassination plot, he goes, ooh crap. I
kind of got this big problem in my hands because if Ido nothing and they succeed, the Black Hand's
going to come to light. And then I'm going to be indeath. Okay. Now, if he stops it, now the Black
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Hand's going to be pissed off at him. And he's stillgoing to be in Dutch. And he's still going to be in
Dutch. So he's up a creek without a paddle, thewhole nine, okay? Now, there's this connection
between the Black Hand, the Serbian government.Serbia is going to be in a bad position. Okay. This
is just going to be what it is. And it's going to,he's like, you know what? This is just going to end
(25:24):
with War of Blastria. I might as well just send acannon now, kind of deal, like this sucks. Now,
he's like, send a bigger bomb? I just, I justhonestly, just your own head in a box. Here you go.
My bad. So sorry. Yeah. Now he's like, ooh, shouldI, should I warn the Austrians of the plot? Because
(25:47):
if I do, my countrymen are going to kind of see me as atraitor. But then I'm admitting to a deeper
anti-Austrian action in Serbia, which means thatthey're going to be super angry at me. Like he's,
he's in the worst place. I can only imagine thisman's indigestion. I was just thinking his
(26:08):
irritable vowels. You're right. Yeah. I mean,it's same, same. It's all connected now so that
there's that weak ass attempt to intersect theassassin to the border, which fails. And when it
fails, he decides, well, maybe I'm going to try towarn the Austrians in maybe a very vague
diplomatic way so that I don't expose the blackhand. Okay. And he's like, okay. So he gets ahold of
(26:31):
the Serbian minister to Vienna. And he's like,look, your task, warn the Austrians. That's your
job. Warn the Austrians. But don't say anythingabout the black hand. So now this guy has some very
extremist pancer abuse. And he's not wellreceived by the Austrian Foreign Ministry
services. I mean, what do you need of a diplomat?You need him to get along with that specific
(26:57):
office, right? Typically, that would be what youhope, like, they're supposed to speak the
language, they're supposed to understand thecustoms. So apparently, he spits in the face of
everybody there and his only friend is theMinister of Finance, which feels like the last
person you want to go to and say, hey, maybe keep youat a duke. It seems it's going to rain in Sarajevo.
(27:22):
His entire visit. The weather is going to bedeplorable. For weeks. What you can't see is
Theresa and I's faces at each other. Yeah, it'sgoing to be raining men. It's raining men. It's
raining men. You shouldn't send them to Sarajevo.Now, I heard there's going to be a thunderstorm. A
(27:44):
thunderstorm. On Tuesday. So, June 5th, theSerbian Minister tells the Minister of Finance
that it might be good and reasonable if FranzFerdinand were not to go to Sarajevo. Quote, some
young Serb might put a live rather than a blankcartridge in his gun and fire it. So, are we just out
(28:09):
shooting blanks for funsies anyway? That soundslike it's happened before. Yeah, that sounds like
that's just common practice, just to fire blankswhile pointing it at another human. For example.
Of high-ranking stature. Yeah, that's what youdo. Now, the Minister of Finance, because he is in
the accounting department and not a part ofdiplomatic services, he doesn't recognize this
(28:33):
as maybe a subtle diplomatic innuendo. And so, hemisses the warning completely and just responds
with, let us hope nothing like that happens.Idiot. And he just like dood dood dood. And the
Serbian Minister is like, ooh, maybe he didn'tunderstand. But does he double down? Does he
repeat himself? Does he say maybe the birds willhave diarrhea in flight and migrate over his path?
(29:00):
No, no, he doesn't say a damn thing. He just goes,anyhow, it's another bottle of champagne. Would
you like some quenipais? So, literally everybodyin Serbia at this point is phoning it in, as far as
I'm concerned. Yeah, I think you're right. So wehave the three Black Hand trainees. They made
(29:21):
their way to Sarajevo and a month before FranzFerdinand gets there, there's a fourth man named
Denlio Illeg and he joined the group on his own.Then we have the three recruited and then
there's... I have a question. Yeah. And I don'tknow if there's an answer for this, but are they in
(29:43):
Sarajevo for that whole month before just like ifthe idea to prep or in hopes that he'll come sooner
or like why are we there so far ahead of time? Idon't... My assumption is prep. I mean prep feels
really hard. Like prep feels like the rightanswer, but how hard are you prepping? You know
what I mean? Like what do you need to be prepped sohard? Well, I think in this case they weren't
(30:06):
prepping, but in other cases snipers would be, Idon't know, checking their marked locations and
how the wind works there and the height of thebuildings. There's like all kinds of things to
check. I feel like these guys are not. I thinkthey're probably checked out. Yeah, I think
checked out is probably the best way to put itbecause they recruit three others. They recruit
(30:27):
Vaso Kubilovic, Cevetsko Popovic and their 17year old high school students. Oh, okay. Okay.
Like I did not realize in high school they had 17year olds in this plot. I didn't know that. That's
my son's age. Uh-huh. He's not a plot nothing, butwhere dinner comes from? You would think. You
(30:54):
would think. Holy cow. I'm such a time to be alive, Iguess. There's also another human, a third one,
Mahmoud Mahmed Basik, a Bosnian Muslim who's, andhe's added basically to give the group less of a
pan-surb appearance. So he's trying to round outto be the diverse folks at the table. Okay. There,
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they've got six Serbian Army pistols, no, fourSerbian Army pistols and six bombs that are
supplied from the Serbian Army arsenal. So eachhas a bomb. Four of them have guns. Okay. Okay. Now
we're going to zoom out to Franz Ferdinand. Heaccepts the invitation of Bosnian's governor.
(31:43):
Now, he's going to be there to inspect the Armymaneuvers that are being held right outside of
Sarajevo. This is kind of his exact role because heis the inspector general of the Army, and this is
just a logical outcropping of this. This is whatyou would do with that job. Yeah. Yeah, that makes
sense. And it's also been four years since aprominent Hasbrook has visited Bosnian on a
(32:10):
Goodwill trip. Okay. So this is serving multiplepurposes? Yes. Now, literally, the visit also
coincides with Franz Ferdinand's 14th weddinganniversary? Okay. I didn't know that. Now, I
mean, like again, like this is all the things onceyou hear like, oh, holy crap. Now, his wife Sophie,
(32:35):
she's not of royal blood. Like, she's blue blood,but not quite like I would have inherited the
kingdom. And so she's not permitted to ride in thesame car as her royal husband back in Vienna.
That's stupid. It is stupid. Now, these taboos,they don't apply when you travel outside to these
provincial areas. So if you go to Sarajevo,there's certain things that are just looked the
(32:59):
other way. You're allowed to get away of some of thebizarre little bit of etiquette. So she was stoked
because she's going to be able to ride in the carnext to her husband on their anniversary. And for
her, this is a pretty thoughtful anniversarygift. Okay. That's when you know your standards
are low. Yeah. Now, I'm just thinking about howI've never once been, oh, I could ride in the car
(33:27):
next to my husband on her anniversary. Yeah. What agift. What a treat. Thank you. So apparently, so
this should go without saying she's not receivedwell at court because of her heritage at all. For a
bit of girl have normal life. Yeah. Oh, and when,when friends for Nana's told he's going to be the
(33:49):
next, you know, to take the crown, he's told hiskids, Sophie's kids won't be in the line of the
session. Okay. Now, I should also let you know thateverybody also kind of hates France for them. That
wasn't shopping. So they're the shitty powercouple. Got it. Okay. And I feel like we lose that
(34:15):
nuance. Like my history teacher didn't say theysuck ass. Nobody likes mine. Neither. My mind in
fact never even said Sophie's name. Here we go.Yeah. So it should go without saying because this
whole thing has been a shit show that security isnot of the utmost priority when they go to Sierra
(34:35):
Eva. Shocking. Now it's so okay. Franz Ferdinand.He's brave, but he dislikes the presence of secret
servicemen. So brave and stupid. That's a greatcombination. He also doesn't like the idea of
(34:55):
soldiers between the crowd and himself. Right.Okay. That makes sense. We're sensing. He wants to
be seen as a man of the people. Yeah. So for the mostpart, he's welcomed warmly by the Bosnians.
Sarajevo is not hostile. So he's like, look,there's a lot of things we don't need for this. We
can kind of, we don't need to do all that. Sorry. Idon't like the sense because I am easygoing and
(35:22):
they love me anyhow. So he thinks. Now. Thearrangements that were made are not based on the
assumption that the streets are going to be linedwith assassins, which is an incredibly important
thing to think about. They're like, you know what,ain't nobody going to. You're good. So Sarajevo at
(35:44):
this point only has 120 policemen there who aregoing to work this. Three city in the whole of the
city. Okay. Yeah. So it's around 10 a.m. and theArch Ducal party leaves the army camp where Franz
Ferdinand had performed a brief review of thetroops. So he did a thing and the motorcade
consists of six motor vehicles that headed forcity hall for a reception that's hosted by the
(36:08):
mayor. There's a chosen route down this reallywide avenue called Apple Key and it followed the
north bank of the river. The first automobile youhave the mayor, the city's commissioner of police
and in the second automobile at the top folded downflying the Hapsford pennant road, Franz
Ferdinand, Sophie and a general. The driver is thecar's owner whose account and he obviously rides
(36:35):
in front because he's the driver. Now the thirdautomobile in the procession carried the head of
France's military, Sophie's lady in waiting, thegeneral's chief adjunct, adjunct. Wait, the head
of the military for Ferdinand, right? Yeah. Okay.I thought you said for France's military and I'm
(36:58):
like, why Franz? Well, Franz is Franz Ferdinand.I'll go by his first name, not Franz. Sorry. Good.
Thank you for calling that out because I would haveheard it in post and gone. Well, great. What do I do
now? I didn't invite this party. Yeah. There's nocroissants in this deal. Franz, you stay home.
Okay. So basically a bunch of notable but not topbrass, well top brass but not the headliners.
(37:22):
Right. Okay. And the sixth automobile is empty.It's a spare in case something happens, right?
Okay. So it's a warm sunny morning because it's thebest day for parade because nobody said it was
going to ring. Many of the houses and buildings arelined. They're decorated flags, flowers.
Everything is just swept beautiful. It's anincredible small, low European city. It's going
(37:44):
to be gorgeous. There's crowds that are lining.Everyone wants to see the imperial couple. And
then you've got the assassins strung outthroughout the group. Okay. They take up their
assigned positions. The first in line is MokhmetBasik. And he's to the west of the bridge. Near him
we have Cabrinovich and the others are all the wayout to another bridge called the Kaiser Bridge.
(38:10):
Now the motorcade approaches the crowd and thecrowd begins to cheer. Franz Ferdinand's car
passes Mokhmet Basik and he freezes. This guy juststalls, doesn't do a damn thing. The next man in
line. Well, he was there just as the token diverse,right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Not to say that that's an
excuse and that's not exactly why he was there. Butif I was just called to be there because I was the one
(38:35):
white lady in the group, I might just walk away. Imean, I think if you're the first person in the
group, the chance of you breaking is more likely.The one next to you going, I can't break because
they broke. Fair. So fair. And I mean, why are wedoing this? Like, what is, yeah. Yeah. So fair.
Like, I kind of feel bad that we know the dude'sname. Yeah. Now, okay. So all that to say, could
(39:04):
bring the Vic, he ends up having a bit more chutzpahin him, if that's the right word to use here. He
takes the bomb from his coat pocket. He strikes thebomb's percussion cap against the lamp post,
takes aim and lobs it. As he's lobbing it, the bombis flying through the air. There's a ton of things
that take place all at once. The count, who's thedriver of the car, he hears the bomb that hits the
(39:25):
lamp post to strike the percussion cap. He thinksthey had a flat tire. Someone yells, bravo, now we
have to stop. The driver who had seen the objectflying, he does the opposite. He slams his foot on
the gas and he just goes as fast as he can. As aresult, the bombed-in lamp was supposed to go. So
he saved his life. Exactly. Now, Franz Ferdinand,he catches a glimpse of this thing going through
(39:48):
the air. He raises his arm, deflects it away fromSophie, who is sitting to his right. So Franz
Ferdinand strikes the bomb with his arm and thebomb glances off his arm nuts. I had no idea that
ever happened. Right? Okay, it goes off his armunder the folded car top, into the street behind
(40:10):
them, and then the explosion injures about a dozenspectators. The third car's hit with fragments
and it stalls. So one of the guys receives a cut inthe back of his head. The others in the party, they
had minor cuts. Okay? Now, the first and secondcars continue on for a few moments and then they
stop and they assess whether everybody's injuredor not. Okay. Cabrinovic, the guy who threw the
(40:32):
bomb, he had some cyanide tablet that he was givenfor when things hit the fan. He takes it and jumps
into the river. A couple of problems with this. Thecyanide he was given was old. So it only made him
vomit and the river's only a few inches deep. Youwere there for a whole month and you didn't know the
(40:58):
river's only a few inches deep. You know, look,they were drunk at the time. There were other
things to be, like there were public housesavailable. There were other things to do. I got it.
Right, I got it. Yeah. So the crowd sees as them,they arrest him and the motorcade continues on to
City Hall passing by the other assassins. Okay.Now, they either thought that Cabrinovic had
(41:24):
succeeded or they failed to act and froze up aswell. Unclear. Okay. Okay. At City Hall,
Fransford Mandet has some big feelings about allof this and he confronts the mayor. I mean, fair. I
mean, I would, my adrenaline would be a littlehigh. My heart rate would be a bit up there and I
(41:46):
would probably spout out and say some stuffbecause you turned the oven on. I'm going to cook. I
love that phrase. Good for you. So FransfordMandet says, and I quote, Mr. Mayor, one comes here
for a visit and is received by bombs. It isoutrageous. I think I'd have gone a bit harder. But
here we are. Here are some trees. Now, after apause, he regains himself and he let the mayor
(42:14):
speak. The mayor, either completely unaware ofwhat's happened or maybe he's just ill-equipped
for crisis and he had one stump speech and thiswasn't it. He launched into his prepared speech to
the crowd, your royal and imperial highness, ourhearts are full of happiness. That's how it
starts. Wow. Yeah. His improv skills were not up tosnuff. I don't think he actually knew what improv
(42:42):
was. No, no. Probably, I'm hoping, was alsounaware that this guy just had a bomb lobbed at him.
I mean, I think he'd be pretty aware after he saidthat. He said when he got there, but, you know, hey,
yeah, but either way, either way, mistakes fromit, which I think is the title of the entire
episode. And yes, I would have to agree. By the endof the mayor's speech, for the end, he's regained
(43:07):
his composure completely. He thanks the mayor forthe cordial welcome and the activities go on as
planned. Of course they do. Now, there'sdiscussions happening about do we change
everything that we had planned coming up because,I mean, this wasn't a fascination attempt. And the
R-student is like, no, no, we're not going tocancel the visit to the museum and the lunch at the
(43:29):
governor's residence. That's going to happen.But we will do a slight deviation because I want to
go visit my man, Marisi, at the hospital who got thecut on the back of his head. All right. That makes
sense. Yeah. So that feels noble. That feelshonorable. So the same motorcade goes out along
the same route, but neither the mayor's driver norFranz Ferdinand's driver had been informed of the
(43:52):
change of schedule because that would have beenthe do-in-the-hospital's job. And the
do-in-the-hospital is in the hospital. So we tookout a key chunk. Now, the young assassins, they
didn't have a plan B. They had planned, like,somebody on this route will just take him out.
We've all failed now. And, yeah. Okay. So they hadno idea that Franz Ferdinand was going to follow
(44:18):
his original itinerary. And so they all took upkind of various positions along the key. Gavriel
Princip, he crosses the key and strolls down FranzJoseph Street, and he steps into Marie Schiller's
food store to get a sandwich. It's my favorite partof the whole story. And as he emmers, he meets a
(44:39):
friend who inquired about a mutual friend. Hey,have you seen our man? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pietro or
whatever it is. You know, like, they're justshooting the shit. Now, the mayor's car, followed
by Franz Ferdinand's car, they turn off of apel-qui, a pel-qui, onto Franz Joseph Street as
originally planned to travel in the museum. Andthat's where the general leans forward. And he
(45:00):
says, what is this? This is the wrong way. We weresupposed to take a pel-qui. Now, the driver put on
the brakes and began to back up. And the car stoppedliterally in front of Schiller's store five feet
away from Princip. It is so wild to me that, like,this is the part of the story I'm familiar with, and
I can't... It always just kind of sits there in theback of my mind that, like, this happened on
(45:24):
accident. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Princip, standingthere, and I can only imagine sandwich in hand. The
whole hoagie. I'm seeing it. Yeah, right. And he'skind of like, oh crap, I see what's going on here.
And then he pulls his pistol from his pocket, takesa step towards the car, and fires twice. The
(45:44):
general looks directly at Princip as he fired, andhe thought the report was a little quiet. And so
both Sousferdinand and Sophie are still sittingupright. So the general thinks the shots missed,
given the assault, and ordered the driver to drivedirectly to the governor's residence. Okay. Did
(46:05):
not... Was not aware of that part. Princip thenturns the gun himself, but gets mobbed by the
crowd, and police had to come rescue Princip fromthe crowd before they could arrest him. Now,
Princip had also followed the poison, but it camefrom the same batch as Convrilovich, so he becomes
violently ill, but doesn't die. Okay. Now... Whatis the point of cyanide, if all it's going to do is
(46:29):
make you violently ill? I mean, if you're justtrying to fake death, not the... That's the way to
go, but if you're trying to end it, yeah, maybe notsuffer unduly. So the car goes across the bridge,
there's blood streaming from Princip's mouth.He'd been shot in the neck. Sophie, seeing this,
explained for heaven's sakes what happened toyou, and she sank from her seat. The general and the
(46:55):
driver thought that they had fainted, and weretrying to help... Or thought she'd fainted and
tried to help her up. Francford had, knowing hiswife better, suspected the truth. Sophie had been
shot in the abdomen and was bleeding internally.So he cries out, Sophie, dear, Sophie, dear, don't
die. Stay alive for our children. Mmm.Devastating. I mean, checks. Now, the black hand
(47:54):
and their involvement wouldn't get unraveled forseveral years to come, and Vienna felt that they
shouldn't have to wait for conclusive proof thatthey had enough circumstantial evidence to just
go for it. Okay. So they took a hard line to getSerbia and the other powers of Europe begin to take
sides. And everyone's like, look, you know, youremember the last time you were shot, you remember
(48:15):
this? We traded sandwiches for Doritos. You're onmy team. You said you hate so-and-so, so you're on
my team. Gang rules. Mm-hmm. Yep. Now, the wheelsof war begin to turn in game speed. The stakes kind
of keep growing, and this squabble gets bigger andbigger. And it ends up becoming less about the
(48:38):
Archduke, Ferdinand, and Sophie being shot, andmore just about these tensions. Like, they begin
to refer to it as the July crisis, not theassassination of the Archduke. Okay. Because
they're like, look, we hated them anyhow. Thisguy's been a pain in the ass for years. And so that
was one of those things where I was like, oh, oh.Now, the involvement- Yeah, I kind of-that's
(49:05):
funny. I kind of thought, like, up to this pointthat he was like the beloved son of, and it was-and
that's why. No. It was just a devastating blow thatDad was like, absolutely not to war. The beloved
son, he ended up killing himself. Of course. And sothen they had nobody else, and Frans Ferdinand was
(49:25):
like the next in line as like the nephew, and he'slike, well, put down the comic book and drop them
out and do, and I suppose, I guess, you can sit on thethrone when I kick it. Do we know the name of the
beloved son? I think that was Frans Joseph. Ithink. I'm not quite sure. Now that you asked me, I
(49:48):
can't-off air, I seem to be stopped recording.I'll be like, oh yeah, so and so. But right now, I'm
like, I don't know. I don't remember. No, no, no,you asked me on the spot. This wasn't in my notes.
I-I sped up. Yeah. So you get the panic dancer, notthe real one. Yeah. I'll Google it later. It's
fine. That's good. We can Google it now, but I'dlose my steam. But basically, like, it takes a ton
(50:09):
of time for everything in the black hand to come tothe top, because everybody else is too busy being
like, well, I hated you for years, and I hated yousince that. And then you stepped on that
borderline, and that was part of my territory, andwe should have gotten that first. But that is how a
small secret organization started World War I.Thank you for that. Oh, and I should mention that
(50:35):
this black hand is not a secret organizationcalled the black hand that I mentioned during Mrs.
Sherlock Holmes' episode. You know what? That'sso funny. I had to go back and look through one of my
episodes, because I thought that one of the secretorganizations I had talked about was a black hand,
but it was a black dragon. Yeah, no. So there's beena couple of black hands. This is-this is not that
(50:57):
one. And also, part of the problems leading upbetween Austria and Serbia was a pig war, but it
wasn't the pig war that we talked about in Americanhistory. This one was not near as petty. Yeah, so
there's like a lot of the- Sad. Wait, what? No, notthat one. Serbia didn't care about the Americans
versus the British shooting each other's pigs.It's only happened twice, but it's just weird that
(51:22):
it's happened more than once. Yeah. Yeah. Sothat's been kind of what's been running through my
brain as I'm like trying to tease all of this apart,being like, but wait a minute, who was Uppies
again? You know? Uppies. Yeah. He was Uppies. Hewas Uppies. I wonder what happened to him. Oh crap.
(51:48):
I don't remember. I feel like I knew that and then Ididn't put it down. I bet you he lived the rest of his
life in like marginal obscurity and died like old.Well, I mean maybe because they did go to war,
right? And he was a high-ranking dude in thegovernment. Okay, so I could go both ways. So yeah,
(52:12):
I can't say I know fully what happened to him.Either way, thank you. That was awesome. My
pleasure. You've made my day. Yeah. So that wasjust a lot of the, and I tried so hard to take so many
names out because it was just like, well, thisperson's important for a paragraph. Yeah. Yeah.
(52:37):
No, that makes sense. No, I think you did a fabulousjob. Well, thank you. And I think we have like an
awkward amount of time where it's like this couldbe an entire episode. I think we'll have like five
minutes. Yeah, pretty much because I can't say Ipaid attention to when we started. We started just
after one. Oh. Yeah, so you're good. Oh wow, thiswasn't a entire episode then. Okay, well on that
(53:00):
note, it's you're thinking, holy crap, I can'twait until they told us about Uppies. Does Down get
a story? Tune in next week. Downies get to be here?Yeah, like, rate, review, subscribe, share us
with our favorite person who you know wouldprobably start a secret organization to lead to a
next world war. We all have that one friend that's alittle unhinged. Or the one friend that's totally
(53:27):
a little unhinged and would stop and get a sandwichon their way when it's vaccination. I'm that
friend. Look, we've got time for snacks. Oh, wealways have time for snacks. And if you have time 462 00:53:38,620 --> for snacks, welcome to the club. Yeah, we can be friends. And on that note, goodbye. Bye.
Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast.The podcasts where two compulsive nutjobs are
going to mainline history names, and then we'regoing to reflect and compulsively learn the
stories behind them, and then regurgitate thestory we've just heard and learned upon our fellow
(00:32):
co-host and those of you who have decided to tunein. I'm host one, I'm Teresa, and that is Angie, and
we make new apologizing for our regurgitationonto your brains. And you're going to enjoy it or
you're going to tune away, but you know, we hope youcome back. You're going to like it. So I said so. I'm
going to go. I'm going to go because I have a story.I've been wanting to tell. I downloaded an audio
(00:59):
book that was 24 hours long about a topic that Ithought was three paragraphs long. Okay. And then
went, oh, there's so much. Oh, and it just keepsgoing. And so there's like an aspect of this that
(01:20):
I'm going to hyper fixate on. So you'd be preparedto zoom out and zoom back in, zoom out and zoom back
in because like there's like a lot of like, there'sa shit ton of nuance. I'm going to like a heavy
reduction of it down to like a single thing, butthis is a very complex thing. All right. Okay. So
everything I'm about to tell you is true-ish. Youknow what I mean? Like it's true, but there's like,
(01:44):
I'm holding on. Hold on. Are you telling an Angiestory where the story's not resolved at the end and
gosh dang it, we still don't know the answer? No,no, no. The story's resolved at the end. We do know
the ending and you're going to be like, oh, butthere's like, but yeah, but there's also, and you
didn't mention, and okay, like there's going to beso much of that. Okay. So I'm hyper fixating on one
thread and a very large tapestry. Love this for us.Okay. I am going to tell you about the Black Hand,
(02:11):
the secret organization that started World War I.Yes. I wanted someone to do it. Yes. I know, I know
this much. Like, okay. All right. So here we go. Mysources. The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark.
This is like the heavy duty audio book and then itwas just like, oh, this was okay. And then BYU had a
(02:35):
couple of articles both written by MichaelShackleford, the Black Hand, the secret Serbian
terrorist society and Sarajevo, June 28th, 1914,the assassination of Archduke Berghand. So are we
ready? Go. I'm so excited. Yes. Bosnia andHerzegovina, their providence is just south of
(02:56):
Austria and until 1878 they've been governed bythe Turks. Okay. Now I know 1878 is a very long
distance away from World War I, but I promise you,like, I have to zoom out to zoom in, okay? No, this
makes sense because the war doesn't just startyesterday. It would lead up. Yeah. Like, when you
(03:19):
look at the book The Sleepwalkers, it talks abouthow World War I seemed so improbable until you zoom
in and you go, oh no, this was a slow boil. Yeah.Yeah, that makes sense. So 1878 there's this thing
called the Treaty of Berlin and that settled thedisposition of lands that were lost by the Turks.
(03:42):
They'd had a war with Russia and they did not win.Austria was granted power to administer to the two
provinces indefinitely. So they kind of pulled inthese two states. Okay. Now Bosnia is comprised of
(04:03):
three different people groups. You have theCroats who are Roman Catholic. You've got the
ethnic Serbs that are Serb Orthodox. And then youalso have Muslims that are left over from the days
of Turkish rule. There's not a people group, anethnic people group called the Bosnians. See at
the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosnians just live inBosnia, but they're not an ethnic group. But they
(04:29):
belong to any one of these three. Yeah. Right.Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Now the Bosnian
Serbs, they feel a very strong nationalisticdesire to have their province joined to other Serb
nations across the river in Serbia. Okay. And manySerbians. It makes sense. Yeah. Many Serbians are
(04:50):
like, yeah, same, same. You are my kin. Like let usdo this thing. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Reasonable.
Right. Now we're going to fast forward quite a bit.So October 8, 1808, just two days after Austria.
1908. 1908. Thank you for translating. Got you. Weall have one job. Mine is to keep Theresa honest
(05:14):
about the timeline. I mean, look, I'm going to behonest about my facts, but just don't trust the
numbers that come out of my mouth if they don't goalong chronological order. It's what I'm here
for. So two days after Austria annexes BosnianHerzegovina. There's tons of people, many high
ranking Serbian ministers, officials, generalslike Topras. Like if you've got any political
(05:39):
clout, you go into this meeting in City Hall inBelgrade. And then they found this semi-secret
society. So I'm thinking like the best kept opensecret kind of deal. Right. Like now where you
really get the good Swami at Costco. Yeah. Yeah.Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this group is called the
(06:01):
Narodna Utbrana, National Defense, whichtranslates to. Okay. Okay. Now this has a very
pan-Slavic focus. So they believe all Slavsshould join together and be a part of this
brotherhood. The purpose of this group is to trainand recruit partisans for a possible war between
(06:26):
Serbia and Austria. So they're like, should stuffkick off? We want to be prepared. Right. Now they
also undertook a anti-Austrian propaganda,which makes sense to me. You want to do a little bit
of psychological warfare as well. And they'reorganizing spies and saboteurs to operate within
(06:50):
the empire's provinces. Okay. So I honestly, thisfelt very CIA. Yeah. You know, honestly, I think in
my humble opinion, there has been some version ofthe CIA in every country that has had any lack of
power since the beginning of time. Yeah. It's justnever been called the CIA until today. No. And the
(07:11):
CIA is only the CIA here. Right. Exactly. But youget what I'm saying. Right. Yeah. There's always
been some sort of... Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Okay. So this is all happening. There's satellite
groups that are formed in Slovenia, Bosnia,Herzegovina, and Austria. Now the Bosnian group
(07:32):
goes under the name Vlada Bosma, which is youngBosnia. Okay. So that's the splinter cell, so to
speak. So the national defense, their work is soeffective that in 1909, Austria pissed off beyond
(07:52):
belief. They pressured the Serbian government toput a stop to the anti-Austrian insurrection. So
they're calling them out on their bullshit. Lovethis, Russ. They're like, you know what? We can see
what you're doing. You're mean-mugging us fromacross the room. Knock it off. Run around, you're
in turn, you know. Exactly. Like we are theteacher. Quit passing notes in my class. Okay. Or
(08:20):
drawing penises on the whiteboard. Whateveranalogy I need to use here. But they're a little
ticked off. Now Russia, meanwhile, Slavic,they're thinking like, oh, you know, we could
always just... Like Serbia's like, well, Russiawill stand behind us. Russia will back us. Russia,
the big bad world power. Now, Russia's like, I'mkind of not ready to join another war. I kind of just
(08:44):
kind of figuring stuff out, just kind of had one.Kind of having my own issues. Yeah. I kind of want
to, you know, be my own for a while. So they're notready for a show grade. So Belgrade begrudgingly
complies. They don't want to, but they're goingto. So from then on, the National Defense Group,
(09:06):
they concentrated on education and propagandawithin Serbia. And they try to fashion itself into
a cultural organization. Okay. So they just kindof like refine their strategy and focus in on the
psychological aspect and then build dissent fromwithin. Hey, I feel like that's going to work.
(09:31):
Honestly, like all of this, I'm just like, okay,I've seen this pattern play out. So many of these
members, they form a new and again, secretorganization. So secretly secretive. And they
continue their terrorist actions. So there's 10minutes they meet on May 9th of 1911. And they form a
(09:53):
group that I will not try to pronounce in Bosnia.And it translates to Union or death. They serious.
They're, yeah. They become also known as the BlackHand. Okay. Okay. So this is where it's coming
from. Now, by 1914, they're up to several hundredmembers, maybe as many as 2,500. That's decent.
(10:21):
Yeah, that's a decent membership size. Yeah. Now,many of these humans are Serbian officers in the
army. And their professional goal of the group wasthe creation of a greater Serbia by use of violence
if necessary. This also checks. I mean, look, ifyou have a goal, it's important to understand what
(10:48):
that goal's success looks like, how you're goingto measure it, and then how you're going to execute
to get to set it. That's a good goal. That can applyto any number of different forms of life. I don't
care if you're selling candy bars or building awebsite. This is the plan of action. Yeah, every
time. Now, the Black Hand is training guerrillawarfare as well as saboteurs, and they're
(11:14):
arranging political murders. So they are Uberchill, very demure. Very modest. Yeah. Now,
they're organized at a very grass root rootslevel. They only have three to five member cells,
and you pretty much don't know anybody outside ofyourself. I feel like this is just asking for
(11:37):
problems later when you need to, like, actually, Idon't know, collect and do something with a bigger
group than three to five. And this is also how WorldWar One starts. I mean, maybe, right? So keep all of
this in mind because there's district committeesabove them and then central committees above
that. So there's layers of bureaucracy, and Ithink the bureaucracy bit is fascinating to me
(12:04):
because it's always incredible on wherebureaucracy gets things going and then where
bureaucracy breaks down. Yeah. Yeah, I thinkbureaucracy breaks down as soon as it gets
something going. We've built it and nowpaperwork. But you know, sometimes it's like the
paperwork, it might be a slow moving beast, but itis a moving beast. To some degree. Yeah, to some
(12:28):
degree, I would have to agree with you on that,yeah. Okay, so we have the district committee, the
central committees, the central committees inBelgrade, by the way, at the top of all of that,
there's a 10 member executive committee. Andthat's led by a dude named Colonel Draguten
Demitrivic. Now, he is known by oppies. So fromhere on out, I'm going to be calling him oppies.
(12:57):
Love is for me. I need you to have the visual that Ihave. Which is? Because I have six foot. Go ahead. I
think my six foot two son loves it when he's lookingat me from the top of his bunk bed down because he
says I look like a child with my hands up sayingoppies. Okay, I'm grateful that that's what you
had to because that's all I was hearing with a twoyear old going oppies, oppies. Apparently,
(13:22):
oppies is an, he gets a nickname for his strengthand stamina. Oh, okay. Which is incredibly
different. Okay. Yeah. So anybody in the blackhand probably doesn't know anybody above them
except for maybe one superior and very few knowanybody besides them outside of their own cell.
(13:47):
Okay, so it's very much like you can't writeanybody out that you don't know. I mean, keeps
everybody safe. Yeah. Now, are you ready for partof their oath that they say when they're joining? I
can't believe you have this information. Yes. Ofcourse I have this information. Okay. Go. Part of
the oath is before God on my honor and my life that Iwill execute all missions and commands without
(14:12):
question. I swear before God on my honor on my lifethat I will take all of the secrets of this
organization into my grave with me. Oh, theyserious. They, they have big feelings and they
have big plans. And a no mountain high enough.Thanks for that. You're welcome. I'm here just.
(14:37):
Yep. Just for that. I'm here. Now the black hand,they take over all of the terrorist organization
or actions of national defense and they beginworking deliberately at obscuring all
distinctions between the two groups. Okay. Okay.They're trading on the prestige and the network of
(14:58):
the older organization. So they're like, yeah,they're like, Hey, hey, we're part of national
defense, pre national defense. I mean, we'redifferent, but we're also the same thing, you
know, now. Black hand members are also holdinghigh and important positions in the government
and the army. Okay. So incredibly embedded. Yeah.This is, I think how it works. You get them in there,
(15:26):
dig those quads of the. The crown princeAlexander, he's enthusiastic about their
existence as well as a financial supporter. Sothey've got some pretty good backing. Yeah. Of
course, this means that the group is holding someheavy influence over who gets appointed into
(15:47):
positions of government as well as the policiesthat are passed. Okay. Because they've, it's all
the way to the top. Yeah, this makes sense. Now it'sfair to say that the Serbian government is pretty
well informed of all black hand activities as aresult, despite them being secretive. Okay. So
(16:10):
best kept secret, best kept open. Yeah. Okay.Yeah, I love it. Now we get some things that kind of
fall apart because 1914, the black hand becomes alittle bit in their fields with the prime
minister, Nikola Pasek. And they, they don'tbelieve that Pasek is being aggressive enough
(16:34):
towards this pancerbian cause or his pan Slavic.Yeah, pancer, pancer of cause. Like they're like,
he could go harder. No, okay. And go big or go home.Basically. And so now they have this kind of power
struggle about who's going to control theterritories that Serbia annex and the Balkan
(16:54):
Wars, which are another thing that kind of leads upto this boiling point. Now, basically, the prime
minister is in this very difficult place becausehe knows that if he stands up and says no to the black
hand, it's dangerous because again, they havethis really fun tool at their disposal called
(17:16):
political assassinations and they really likeit. It's very fun. Good at it. Yeah, you know, do,
do, do what you're good at. And so, you know, it'slater on, oppies is thinking, you know what we need
to do that Archduke, Franz Ferdinand. I think wegot to offer him, you know, he's the heir apparent
(17:37):
to Austria. We should just take him out. This willbe a good time. You know, the ruler of Austria is
just this old fart who's going to have to give it tohis nephew because his kid died. So let's, let's
just go after Franz Ferdinand. Nobody likes himanyhow. Ferdinand's an ass. We'd be doing
(17:58):
everybody a favor. You get you the solid out of it,you know. So they're like, okay, you know what
we're going to do? We're going to recruit threeyoung Bosnian serfs and we're going to train them
in bomb throwing and marksmanship. Okay. Andthere's like this little bit of nuance. I was like,
this would have been so much more exciting andsophomore history had they like brought this part
(18:22):
in. Because I'm like, you were trained in bombthrowing. Well, yeah, I mean, honestly, when you
think about it, there's a lot of school level, likehigh school and middle school level history that
would have been so much better than nuance wastaught. Instead of just the dates and the names. I
mean, like, if they to like, lean forward andwhispered and then they taught them to throw
(18:46):
bombs. I'd have been like, yeah, can you say thatagain for the kids in the back? What is the proper
bomb throwing technique? Is it the over the over?Do they honor the hand that is your dominant or do
they force you to throw right handed? Like I needdetails. Yeah, honestly, you're not wrong. Are
(19:06):
you pulling the pen first? Is it a different kind ofthing? Yeah, I mean, I wish I knew people have
answers. They should, but they're like, and thenFreddie, will you read the next paragraph? But no,
no, go back one. Go back one. Okay. Yeah, that'strue. That's true. Prinsip, Gabrinovic and
Grabes, they're the first that are recruited.They're the three that we, you know, the ones in the
(19:31):
history books that are now. We come to know. Yeah.They're smuggled across the border into Bosnia
via a chain of underground railroad stylecontacts. Nothing is new in this world. Nothing is
new. Okay. Now, it's Api's who decides toapparently like killing the Archduke. That's his
(19:53):
idea. He should get credit for it. But it's alsoincredibly not sanctioned by the full executive
committee. He kind of goes rogue here. I mean, ithonestly checks when you think about how World
Wars operant that it would start rogue. Yeah.Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, the executive committee,
(20:17):
they probably realized the reason why theyprobably didn't sign off on it is they're like,
ooh, you know what, this is going to end regardlessof France for now just being a putz and needing to go
out. It's going to result in a war between Austriaand Serbia and they're kind of bigger and we really
don't think Russia is going to stand behind us.Even though Russia should fight with us, they may
(20:39):
set this one out. And if they do, even at all a littlebit, we're going to get our asses handed to us. But
they're like not anticipating World War becausewe've never had one. This wasn't even on the
option. This wasn't on anybody's bingo cards.Right. Now, other in the government, they and some
(21:00):
in the Black Hand Executive Council, they're notas confident in Russia's aid. They're, they kind
of sense Russia may be wanting to just set this out.Like they got some little pebbles before the
boulder. They're like, I don't know. Russia,Russia seems sus here. Now, Russia says they want
(21:20):
to go home. Yeah. Russia said something about an8am meeting tomorrow in Moscow and that they may
not need to stay out too late tonight. Yeah. Yeah.Now, apparently, Russia had let them down, like in
the, in recent history. So this is kind of what theyhad going for them. And then when word of this plot
(21:40):
that is bubbling up goes through the Black Handleadership and then to the Serbian government,
Opus is told, don't proceed. Shut it down. Fullstop. Now, Opus kind of makes this little
half-assed attempt to intercept the youngassassins at the border, but oh shucks, they'd
already crossed. Darn it. I tried. I do movequickly these, you know? Yeah. My, these knees
(22:08):
ain't what they used to be. And yeah. So it's veryweaponized and competent as far as I'm concerned.
I love weaponizing competence. So thishalf-assed recall kind of makes Opus look like
he's a loose cannon and that these young assassinsare these little independent zealots. Well, I
(22:34):
mean, that kind of is what it looks like. Honestly,you know, here's the crazier part. The recall
happened two weeks before the Archduke's visit.Two weeks. Now you mean to tell me you couldn't get a
fax or a pulling pigeon or something over theborder to let them know? You couldn't send a
(22:58):
half-hoppled horse? Yeah, seriously. I don'tthink our boy at these is trying very hard. Yeah, I
would, I'd go in on a limb and just say, he kind ofwent, oh no. Anyhow, what are we having for dinner?
What are we having for dinner? So this is all goingon. The assassins are idling around Sarajevo for
(23:20):
an entire month. It's ridiculous. And nothing,nothing is done to stop them. In fact, they have
this incredible network that smuggle them in andthen are feeding and housing them and giving them
the time of their life while they're in Sarajevo.And nothing is utilized to stop them. Okay. They
(23:46):
couldn't send a text message. Couldn't Facebookmessage them? No. Drop into their DMs? Nothing.
Mark, safe if you've abandoned the plot toassassinate the Archduke. That needs to be the
meme here for us. So all of this is happening. And sothis kind of calls into question, how strong is the
(24:08):
desire for the government to actually stop thisplot? Because it seems like they really don't give
a crap. Well, honestly, if Abbie fails and nobodyproceeded after him to try to stop it, they're not
looking like they're too hot about it, you know?They do have a couple more attempts I'm going to get
into. Oh, okay. And they're always going to leaveyou with more of the, what? What? Okay. So the
(24:37):
government, the armies, they all fully know whatthe Black Hand's doing. They're all in on this game
of telephone. The Prime Minister, when he learnsabout the assassination plot, he goes, ooh crap. I
kind of got this big problem in my hands because if Ido nothing and they succeed, the Black Hand's
going to come to light. And then I'm going to be indeath. Okay. Now, if he stops it, now the Black
(25:03):
Hand's going to be pissed off at him. And he's stillgoing to be in Dutch. And he's still going to be in
Dutch. So he's up a creek without a paddle, thewhole nine, okay? Now, there's this connection
between the Black Hand, the Serbian government.Serbia is going to be in a bad position. Okay. This
is just going to be what it is. And it's going to,he's like, you know what? This is just going to end
(25:24):
with War of Blastria. I might as well just send acannon now, kind of deal, like this sucks. Now,
he's like, send a bigger bomb? I just, I justhonestly, just your own head in a box. Here you go.
My bad. So sorry. Yeah. Now he's like, ooh, shouldI, should I warn the Austrians of the plot? Because
(25:47):
if I do, my countrymen are going to kind of see me as atraitor. But then I'm admitting to a deeper
anti-Austrian action in Serbia, which means thatthey're going to be super angry at me. Like he's,
he's in the worst place. I can only imagine thisman's indigestion. I was just thinking his
(26:08):
irritable vowels. You're right. Yeah. I mean,it's same, same. It's all connected now so that
there's that weak ass attempt to intersect theassassin to the border, which fails. And when it
fails, he decides, well, maybe I'm going to try towarn the Austrians in maybe a very vague
diplomatic way so that I don't expose the blackhand. Okay. And he's like, okay. So he gets ahold of
(26:31):
the Serbian minister to Vienna. And he's like,look, your task, warn the Austrians. That's your
job. Warn the Austrians. But don't say anythingabout the black hand. So now this guy has some very
extremist pancer abuse. And he's not wellreceived by the Austrian Foreign Ministry
services. I mean, what do you need of a diplomat?You need him to get along with that specific
(26:57):
office, right? Typically, that would be what youhope, like, they're supposed to speak the
language, they're supposed to understand thecustoms. So apparently, he spits in the face of
everybody there and his only friend is theMinister of Finance, which feels like the last
person you want to go to and say, hey, maybe keep youat a duke. It seems it's going to rain in Sarajevo.
(27:22):
His entire visit. The weather is going to bedeplorable. For weeks. What you can't see is
Theresa and I's faces at each other. Yeah, it'sgoing to be raining men. It's raining men. It's
raining men. You shouldn't send them to Sarajevo.Now, I heard there's going to be a thunderstorm. A
(27:44):
thunderstorm. On Tuesday. So, June 5th, theSerbian Minister tells the Minister of Finance
that it might be good and reasonable if FranzFerdinand were not to go to Sarajevo. Quote, some
young Serb might put a live rather than a blankcartridge in his gun and fire it. So, are we just out
(28:09):
shooting blanks for funsies anyway? That soundslike it's happened before. Yeah, that sounds like
that's just common practice, just to fire blankswhile pointing it at another human. For example.
Of high-ranking stature. Yeah, that's what youdo. Now, the Minister of Finance, because he is in
the accounting department and not a part ofdiplomatic services, he doesn't recognize this
(28:33):
as maybe a subtle diplomatic innuendo. And so, hemisses the warning completely and just responds
with, let us hope nothing like that happens.Idiot. And he just like dood dood dood. And the
Serbian Minister is like, ooh, maybe he didn'tunderstand. But does he double down? Does he
repeat himself? Does he say maybe the birds willhave diarrhea in flight and migrate over his path?
(29:00):
No, no, he doesn't say a damn thing. He just goes,anyhow, it's another bottle of champagne. Would
you like some quenipais? So, literally everybodyin Serbia at this point is phoning it in, as far as
I'm concerned. Yeah, I think you're right. So wehave the three Black Hand trainees. They made
(29:21):
their way to Sarajevo and a month before FranzFerdinand gets there, there's a fourth man named
Denlio Illeg and he joined the group on his own.Then we have the three recruited and then
there's... I have a question. Yeah. And I don'tknow if there's an answer for this, but are they in
(29:43):
Sarajevo for that whole month before just like ifthe idea to prep or in hopes that he'll come sooner
or like why are we there so far ahead of time? Idon't... My assumption is prep. I mean prep feels
really hard. Like prep feels like the rightanswer, but how hard are you prepping? You know
what I mean? Like what do you need to be prepped sohard? Well, I think in this case they weren't
(30:06):
prepping, but in other cases snipers would be, Idon't know, checking their marked locations and
how the wind works there and the height of thebuildings. There's like all kinds of things to
check. I feel like these guys are not. I thinkthey're probably checked out. Yeah, I think
checked out is probably the best way to put itbecause they recruit three others. They recruit
(30:27):
Vaso Kubilovic, Cevetsko Popovic and their 17year old high school students. Oh, okay. Okay.
Like I did not realize in high school they had 17year olds in this plot. I didn't know that. That's
my son's age. Uh-huh. He's not a plot nothing, butwhere dinner comes from? You would think. You
(30:54):
would think. Holy cow. I'm such a time to be alive, Iguess. There's also another human, a third one,
Mahmoud Mahmed Basik, a Bosnian Muslim who's, andhe's added basically to give the group less of a
pan-surb appearance. So he's trying to round outto be the diverse folks at the table. Okay. There,
(31:21):
they've got six Serbian Army pistols, no, fourSerbian Army pistols and six bombs that are
supplied from the Serbian Army arsenal. So eachhas a bomb. Four of them have guns. Okay. Okay. Now
we're going to zoom out to Franz Ferdinand. Heaccepts the invitation of Bosnian's governor.
(31:43):
Now, he's going to be there to inspect the Armymaneuvers that are being held right outside of
Sarajevo. This is kind of his exact role because heis the inspector general of the Army, and this is
just a logical outcropping of this. This is whatyou would do with that job. Yeah. Yeah, that makes
sense. And it's also been four years since aprominent Hasbrook has visited Bosnian on a
(32:10):
Goodwill trip. Okay. So this is serving multiplepurposes? Yes. Now, literally, the visit also
coincides with Franz Ferdinand's 14th weddinganniversary? Okay. I didn't know that. Now, I
mean, like again, like this is all the things onceyou hear like, oh, holy crap. Now, his wife Sophie,
(32:35):
she's not of royal blood. Like, she's blue blood,but not quite like I would have inherited the
kingdom. And so she's not permitted to ride in thesame car as her royal husband back in Vienna.
That's stupid. It is stupid. Now, these taboos,they don't apply when you travel outside to these
provincial areas. So if you go to Sarajevo,there's certain things that are just looked the
(32:59):
other way. You're allowed to get away of some of thebizarre little bit of etiquette. So she was stoked
because she's going to be able to ride in the carnext to her husband on their anniversary. And for
her, this is a pretty thoughtful anniversarygift. Okay. That's when you know your standards
are low. Yeah. Now, I'm just thinking about howI've never once been, oh, I could ride in the car
(33:27):
next to my husband on her anniversary. Yeah. What agift. What a treat. Thank you. So apparently, so
this should go without saying she's not receivedwell at court because of her heritage at all. For a
bit of girl have normal life. Yeah. Oh, and when,when friends for Nana's told he's going to be the
(33:49):
next, you know, to take the crown, he's told hiskids, Sophie's kids won't be in the line of the
session. Okay. Now, I should also let you know thateverybody also kind of hates France for them. That
wasn't shopping. So they're the shitty powercouple. Got it. Okay. And I feel like we lose that
(34:15):
nuance. Like my history teacher didn't say theysuck ass. Nobody likes mine. Neither. My mind in
fact never even said Sophie's name. Here we go.Yeah. So it should go without saying because this
whole thing has been a shit show that security isnot of the utmost priority when they go to Sierra
(34:35):
Eva. Shocking. Now it's so okay. Franz Ferdinand.He's brave, but he dislikes the presence of secret
servicemen. So brave and stupid. That's a greatcombination. He also doesn't like the idea of
(34:55):
soldiers between the crowd and himself. Right.Okay. That makes sense. We're sensing. He wants to
be seen as a man of the people. Yeah. So for the mostpart, he's welcomed warmly by the Bosnians.
Sarajevo is not hostile. So he's like, look,there's a lot of things we don't need for this. We
can kind of, we don't need to do all that. Sorry. Idon't like the sense because I am easygoing and
(35:22):
they love me anyhow. So he thinks. Now. Thearrangements that were made are not based on the
assumption that the streets are going to be linedwith assassins, which is an incredibly important
thing to think about. They're like, you know what,ain't nobody going to. You're good. So Sarajevo at
(35:44):
this point only has 120 policemen there who aregoing to work this. Three city in the whole of the
city. Okay. Yeah. So it's around 10 a.m. and theArch Ducal party leaves the army camp where Franz
Ferdinand had performed a brief review of thetroops. So he did a thing and the motorcade
consists of six motor vehicles that headed forcity hall for a reception that's hosted by the
(36:08):
mayor. There's a chosen route down this reallywide avenue called Apple Key and it followed the
north bank of the river. The first automobile youhave the mayor, the city's commissioner of police
and in the second automobile at the top folded downflying the Hapsford pennant road, Franz
Ferdinand, Sophie and a general. The driver is thecar's owner whose account and he obviously rides
(36:35):
in front because he's the driver. Now the thirdautomobile in the procession carried the head of
France's military, Sophie's lady in waiting, thegeneral's chief adjunct, adjunct. Wait, the head
of the military for Ferdinand, right? Yeah. Okay.I thought you said for France's military and I'm
(36:58):
like, why Franz? Well, Franz is Franz Ferdinand.I'll go by his first name, not Franz. Sorry. Good.
Thank you for calling that out because I would haveheard it in post and gone. Well, great. What do I do
now? I didn't invite this party. Yeah. There's nocroissants in this deal. Franz, you stay home.
Okay. So basically a bunch of notable but not topbrass, well top brass but not the headliners.
(37:22):
Right. Okay. And the sixth automobile is empty.It's a spare in case something happens, right?
Okay. So it's a warm sunny morning because it's thebest day for parade because nobody said it was
going to ring. Many of the houses and buildings arelined. They're decorated flags, flowers.
Everything is just swept beautiful. It's anincredible small, low European city. It's going
(37:44):
to be gorgeous. There's crowds that are lining.Everyone wants to see the imperial couple. And
then you've got the assassins strung outthroughout the group. Okay. They take up their
assigned positions. The first in line is MokhmetBasik. And he's to the west of the bridge. Near him
we have Cabrinovich and the others are all the wayout to another bridge called the Kaiser Bridge.
(38:10):
Now the motorcade approaches the crowd and thecrowd begins to cheer. Franz Ferdinand's car
passes Mokhmet Basik and he freezes. This guy juststalls, doesn't do a damn thing. The next man in
line. Well, he was there just as the token diverse,right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Not to say that that's an
excuse and that's not exactly why he was there. Butif I was just called to be there because I was the one
(38:35):
white lady in the group, I might just walk away. Imean, I think if you're the first person in the
group, the chance of you breaking is more likely.The one next to you going, I can't break because
they broke. Fair. So fair. And I mean, why are wedoing this? Like, what is, yeah. Yeah. So fair.
Like, I kind of feel bad that we know the dude'sname. Yeah. Now, okay. So all that to say, could
(39:04):
bring the Vic, he ends up having a bit more chutzpahin him, if that's the right word to use here. He
takes the bomb from his coat pocket. He strikes thebomb's percussion cap against the lamp post,
takes aim and lobs it. As he's lobbing it, the bombis flying through the air. There's a ton of things
that take place all at once. The count, who's thedriver of the car, he hears the bomb that hits the
(39:25):
lamp post to strike the percussion cap. He thinksthey had a flat tire. Someone yells, bravo, now we
have to stop. The driver who had seen the objectflying, he does the opposite. He slams his foot on
the gas and he just goes as fast as he can. As aresult, the bombed-in lamp was supposed to go. So
he saved his life. Exactly. Now, Franz Ferdinand,he catches a glimpse of this thing going through
(39:48):
the air. He raises his arm, deflects it away fromSophie, who is sitting to his right. So Franz
Ferdinand strikes the bomb with his arm and thebomb glances off his arm nuts. I had no idea that
ever happened. Right? Okay, it goes off his armunder the folded car top, into the street behind
(40:10):
them, and then the explosion injures about a dozenspectators. The third car's hit with fragments
and it stalls. So one of the guys receives a cut inthe back of his head. The others in the party, they
had minor cuts. Okay? Now, the first and secondcars continue on for a few moments and then they
stop and they assess whether everybody's injuredor not. Okay. Cabrinovic, the guy who threw the
(40:32):
bomb, he had some cyanide tablet that he was givenfor when things hit the fan. He takes it and jumps
into the river. A couple of problems with this. Thecyanide he was given was old. So it only made him
vomit and the river's only a few inches deep. Youwere there for a whole month and you didn't know the
(40:58):
river's only a few inches deep. You know, look,they were drunk at the time. There were other
things to be, like there were public housesavailable. There were other things to do. I got it.
Right, I got it. Yeah. So the crowd sees as them,they arrest him and the motorcade continues on to
City Hall passing by the other assassins. Okay.Now, they either thought that Cabrinovic had
(41:24):
succeeded or they failed to act and froze up aswell. Unclear. Okay. Okay. At City Hall,
Fransford Mandet has some big feelings about allof this and he confronts the mayor. I mean, fair. I
mean, I would, my adrenaline would be a littlehigh. My heart rate would be a bit up there and I
(41:46):
would probably spout out and say some stuffbecause you turned the oven on. I'm going to cook. I
love that phrase. Good for you. So FransfordMandet says, and I quote, Mr. Mayor, one comes here
for a visit and is received by bombs. It isoutrageous. I think I'd have gone a bit harder. But
here we are. Here are some trees. Now, after apause, he regains himself and he let the mayor
(42:14):
speak. The mayor, either completely unaware ofwhat's happened or maybe he's just ill-equipped
for crisis and he had one stump speech and thiswasn't it. He launched into his prepared speech to
the crowd, your royal and imperial highness, ourhearts are full of happiness. That's how it
starts. Wow. Yeah. His improv skills were not up tosnuff. I don't think he actually knew what improv
(42:42):
was. No, no. Probably, I'm hoping, was alsounaware that this guy just had a bomb lobbed at him.
I mean, I think he'd be pretty aware after he saidthat. He said when he got there, but, you know, hey,
yeah, but either way, either way, mistakes fromit, which I think is the title of the entire
episode. And yes, I would have to agree. By the endof the mayor's speech, for the end, he's regained
(43:07):
his composure completely. He thanks the mayor forthe cordial welcome and the activities go on as
planned. Of course they do. Now, there'sdiscussions happening about do we change
everything that we had planned coming up because,I mean, this wasn't a fascination attempt. And the
R-student is like, no, no, we're not going tocancel the visit to the museum and the lunch at the
(43:29):
governor's residence. That's going to happen.But we will do a slight deviation because I want to
go visit my man, Marisi, at the hospital who got thecut on the back of his head. All right. That makes
sense. Yeah. So that feels noble. That feelshonorable. So the same motorcade goes out along
the same route, but neither the mayor's driver norFranz Ferdinand's driver had been informed of the
(43:52):
change of schedule because that would have beenthe do-in-the-hospital's job. And the
do-in-the-hospital is in the hospital. So we tookout a key chunk. Now, the young assassins, they
didn't have a plan B. They had planned, like,somebody on this route will just take him out.
We've all failed now. And, yeah. Okay. So they hadno idea that Franz Ferdinand was going to follow
(44:18):
his original itinerary. And so they all took upkind of various positions along the key. Gavriel
Princip, he crosses the key and strolls down FranzJoseph Street, and he steps into Marie Schiller's
food store to get a sandwich. It's my favorite partof the whole story. And as he emmers, he meets a
(44:39):
friend who inquired about a mutual friend. Hey,have you seen our man? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pietro or
whatever it is. You know, like, they're justshooting the shit. Now, the mayor's car, followed
by Franz Ferdinand's car, they turn off of apel-qui, a pel-qui, onto Franz Joseph Street as
originally planned to travel in the museum. Andthat's where the general leans forward. And he
(45:00):
says, what is this? This is the wrong way. We weresupposed to take a pel-qui. Now, the driver put on
the brakes and began to back up. And the car stoppedliterally in front of Schiller's store five feet
away from Princip. It is so wild to me that, like,this is the part of the story I'm familiar with, and
I can't... It always just kind of sits there in theback of my mind that, like, this happened on
(45:24):
accident. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Princip, standingthere, and I can only imagine sandwich in hand. The
whole hoagie. I'm seeing it. Yeah, right. And he'skind of like, oh crap, I see what's going on here.
And then he pulls his pistol from his pocket, takesa step towards the car, and fires twice. The
(45:44):
general looks directly at Princip as he fired, andhe thought the report was a little quiet. And so
both Sousferdinand and Sophie are still sittingupright. So the general thinks the shots missed,
given the assault, and ordered the driver to drivedirectly to the governor's residence. Okay. Did
(46:05):
not... Was not aware of that part. Princip thenturns the gun himself, but gets mobbed by the
crowd, and police had to come rescue Princip fromthe crowd before they could arrest him. Now,
Princip had also followed the poison, but it camefrom the same batch as Convrilovich, so he becomes
violently ill, but doesn't die. Okay. Now... Whatis the point of cyanide, if all it's going to do is
(46:29):
make you violently ill? I mean, if you're justtrying to fake death, not the... That's the way to
go, but if you're trying to end it, yeah, maybe notsuffer unduly. So the car goes across the bridge,
there's blood streaming from Princip's mouth.He'd been shot in the neck. Sophie, seeing this,
explained for heaven's sakes what happened toyou, and she sank from her seat. The general and the
(46:55):
driver thought that they had fainted, and weretrying to help... Or thought she'd fainted and
tried to help her up. Francford had, knowing hiswife better, suspected the truth. Sophie had been
shot in the abdomen and was bleeding internally.So he cries out, Sophie, dear, Sophie, dear, don't
die. Stay alive for our children. Mmm.Devastating. I mean, checks. Now, the black hand
(47:54):
and their involvement wouldn't get unraveled forseveral years to come, and Vienna felt that they
shouldn't have to wait for conclusive proof thatthey had enough circumstantial evidence to just
go for it. Okay. So they took a hard line to getSerbia and the other powers of Europe begin to take
sides. And everyone's like, look, you know, youremember the last time you were shot, you remember
(48:15):
this? We traded sandwiches for Doritos. You're onmy team. You said you hate so-and-so, so you're on
my team. Gang rules. Mm-hmm. Yep. Now, the wheelsof war begin to turn in game speed. The stakes kind
of keep growing, and this squabble gets bigger andbigger. And it ends up becoming less about the
(48:38):
Archduke, Ferdinand, and Sophie being shot, andmore just about these tensions. Like, they begin
to refer to it as the July crisis, not theassassination of the Archduke. Okay. Because
they're like, look, we hated them anyhow. Thisguy's been a pain in the ass for years. And so that
was one of those things where I was like, oh, oh.Now, the involvement- Yeah, I kind of-that's
(49:05):
funny. I kind of thought, like, up to this pointthat he was like the beloved son of, and it was-and
that's why. No. It was just a devastating blow thatDad was like, absolutely not to war. The beloved
son, he ended up killing himself. Of course. And sothen they had nobody else, and Frans Ferdinand was
(49:25):
like the next in line as like the nephew, and he'slike, well, put down the comic book and drop them
out and do, and I suppose, I guess, you can sit on thethrone when I kick it. Do we know the name of the
beloved son? I think that was Frans Joseph. Ithink. I'm not quite sure. Now that you asked me, I
(49:48):
can't-off air, I seem to be stopped recording.I'll be like, oh yeah, so and so. But right now, I'm
like, I don't know. I don't remember. No, no, no,you asked me on the spot. This wasn't in my notes.
I-I sped up. Yeah. So you get the panic dancer, notthe real one. Yeah. I'll Google it later. It's
fine. That's good. We can Google it now, but I'dlose my steam. But basically, like, it takes a ton
(50:09):
of time for everything in the black hand to come tothe top, because everybody else is too busy being
like, well, I hated you for years, and I hated yousince that. And then you stepped on that
borderline, and that was part of my territory, andwe should have gotten that first. But that is how a
small secret organization started World War I.Thank you for that. Oh, and I should mention that
(50:35):
this black hand is not a secret organizationcalled the black hand that I mentioned during Mrs.
Sherlock Holmes' episode. You know what? That'sso funny. I had to go back and look through one of my
episodes, because I thought that one of the secretorganizations I had talked about was a black hand,
but it was a black dragon. Yeah, no. So there's beena couple of black hands. This is-this is not that
(50:57):
one. And also, part of the problems leading upbetween Austria and Serbia was a pig war, but it
wasn't the pig war that we talked about in Americanhistory. This one was not near as petty. Yeah, so
there's like a lot of the- Sad. Wait, what? No, notthat one. Serbia didn't care about the Americans
versus the British shooting each other's pigs.It's only happened twice, but it's just weird that
(51:22):
it's happened more than once. Yeah. Yeah. Sothat's been kind of what's been running through my
brain as I'm like trying to tease all of this apart,being like, but wait a minute, who was Uppies
again? You know? Uppies. Yeah. He was Uppies. Hewas Uppies. I wonder what happened to him. Oh crap.
(51:48):
I don't remember. I feel like I knew that and then Ididn't put it down. I bet you he lived the rest of his
life in like marginal obscurity and died like old.Well, I mean maybe because they did go to war,
right? And he was a high-ranking dude in thegovernment. Okay, so I could go both ways. So yeah,
(52:12):
I can't say I know fully what happened to him.Either way, thank you. That was awesome. My
pleasure. You've made my day. Yeah. So that wasjust a lot of the, and I tried so hard to take so many
names out because it was just like, well, thisperson's important for a paragraph. Yeah. Yeah.
(52:37):
No, that makes sense. No, I think you did a fabulousjob. Well, thank you. And I think we have like an
awkward amount of time where it's like this couldbe an entire episode. I think we'll have like five
minutes. Yeah, pretty much because I can't say Ipaid attention to when we started. We started just
after one. Oh. Yeah, so you're good. Oh wow, thiswasn't a entire episode then. Okay, well on that
(53:00):
note, it's you're thinking, holy crap, I can'twait until they told us about Uppies. Does Down get
a story? Tune in next week. Downies get to be here?Yeah, like, rate, review, subscribe, share us
with our favorite person who you know wouldprobably start a secret organization to lead to a
next world war. We all have that one friend that's alittle unhinged. Or the one friend that's totally
(53:27):
a little unhinged and would stop and get a sandwichon their way when it's vaccination. I'm that
friend. Look, we've got time for snacks. Oh, wealways have time for snacks. And if you have time 462 00:53:38,620 --> for snacks, welcome to the club. Yeah, we can be friends. And on that note, goodbye. Bye.
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