Petrovicescu irritated Antonescu by upholding public acts of violent retribution, and this fall-out acquired importance by the close of 1940. In particular, the "Conducător" suspected his Legionnaire subordinate of having played a part in organizing the Jilava Massacre of November 1940, during which the political elite associated with Carol's rule was mass murdered. On January 19, 1941, after the Nazi German Major Döring had been mysteriously assassinated in Bucharest, Sima's faction publicly questioned Antonescu's commitment to Romania's Axis allies, and the "Conducător" used the occasion to strip Petrovicescu of his cabinet office. The official explanation for his decision was that Petrovicescu had not taken the proper measures to secure the perimeter within nine hours of Döring's shooting. The next day, as Antonescu signaled his marginalization of the Guard, a large part of the country was gripped by a Legionnaires' rebellion. At an early stage of the riots, leading Guard member Viorel Trifa issued a manifesto which directly blamed the "brave and upright" minister's dismissal on Antonescu's alleged sympathy for "the British government of freemasons", accompanying such claims with antisemitic language. Other such theories popularized by the Legionnaires had it that Antonescu had personally encouraged Demetrios Sarandos, Döring's Greek-Turkish killer, to carry out his action, thus aiming to discredit Petrovicescu's political abilities.