Serbia
Dragutin Dimitrijević (Apis)
1876–1917 Serbian officer and head of military intelligence
Nicknamed "Apis," the bull, for his size and strength, Dimitrijević led the officers who murdered King Alexander and Queen Draga in 1903. He then helped found the secret society Unification or Death, the Black Hand, in 1911 and in 1913 became chief of Serbian military intelligence. A patriotic conspirator who thought of himself as the guardian of the Serbian cause, he clashed with the civilian government of Pašić. The extent of his role in the Sarajevo plot is still debated, but his subordinates armed and trained the assassins. In 1917 a Serbian court-martial at Salonika convicted him of plotting against the regent, and he was shot on 26 June 1917. A Yugoslav court cleared him in 1953.