Dragutin Dimitrijević Dragutin Dimitrijević ( Serbian Cyrillic : Драгутин Димитријевић ; 17 August 1876 – 24 June 1917 ) , also known as Apis ( Апис ) , was a Serbian colonel . He was a leading member of a military group that organized the overthrow of the Serbian government in 1903 . He personally participated in the murders of King Alexander and his wife Queen Draga . He was also the leader of the Black Hand group implicated with assassination of Franz Ferdinand , Archduke of Austria in June 1914 . The latter triggered the July Crisis which led to the outbreak of World War I . Early life . Dragutin Dimitrijević was born in Belgrade , Principality of Serbia in the summer of 1876 . Dimitrijević entered the Belgrade Military Academy at age sixteen . A brilliant student , Dimitrijević was recruited into the General Staff of the Serbian Army immediately after his graduation . May Overthrow . Captain Dimitrijević and a group of junior officers planned the assassination of the king of Serbia . On 11 June 1903 , the group stormed the royal palace and killed both King Alexander and his wife Queen Draga . During the attack Dimitrijević was badly wounded , and , although he eventually recovered , the three bullets from the encounter were never removed from his body . The Serbian parliament described Dimitrijević as " the saviour of the fatherland " and he was appointed Professor of Tactics at the Military Academy . He visited Germany and Russia where he studied the latest military ideas . During the Balkan Wars that took place in 1912 and 1913 , Dimitrijević ' s military planning helped the Serbian Army achieve several important victories . Dimitrijević ' s main concern was what he viewed as the liberation of all South Slavs , especially Serbs , from Austria - Hungary . Although Serbia was already an independent country , many Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia and Vojvodina were still under Austro - Hungarian rule . Dimitrijević , who used the code name " Apis " , became leader of the secret Black Hand group . Sarajevo assassination . In 1911 , Dimitrijević organised an attempt to assassinate the octogenarian Austrian Emperor Franz Josef . When this failed , Dimitrijević turned his attention to the heir to the throne , Archduke Franz Ferdinand . Dimitrijević was concerned about Ferdinand ' s plans to grant concessions to the South Slavs , fearing that , if this happened , a unified Serbian state would be more difficult to achieve . When Dimitrijević heard that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was planning to visit Sarajevo in June 1914 , he sent three members of the Young Bosnia group , Gavrilo Princip , Nedeljko Čabrinović , Trifko Grabež and four others from Serbia to assassinate him . At this time , Dimitrijević was Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence . Unknown to Dimitrijević , major Vojislav Tankosić was informing Nikola Pašić , the prime minister of Serbia about the plot . Although Pašić supported the main objectives of the Black Hand group , he did not want the assassination to take place , as he feared it would lead to a war with Austria - Hungary . He therefore gave instructions for the three young would - be - assassins to be arrested when they attempted to leave the country . However , his orders were not implemented , and the three men arrived in , what was then known as , the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina , where they joined forces with fellow conspirators , Veljko and Vaso Čubrilović , Muhamed Mehmedbašić , Danilo Ilić , Cvjetko Popović and Miško Jovanović . After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 , several Black Hand members , under interrogation by the Austrian authorities , claimed that three men from Serbia ( Dimitrijević , Milan Ciganović , and Major Voja Tankosić ) had organised the plot . On 23 July 1914 , the Austro - Hungarian government sent its July Ultimatum to the Serbian government with a lengthy list of ten different demands . In his response on 25 July 1914 , Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić , accepted all the points of the ultimatum except point # 6 , demanding Serbia to allow an Austrian delegation to participate in a criminal investigation against those participants in the conspiracy that were present in Serbia . Three days later the Austro - Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia . In 1916 , Dimitrijević was promoted to colonel . Execution . Nikola Pašić decided to get rid of the most prominent members of the Black Hand movement , by then officially disbanded . Dimitrijević and several of his military colleagues were arrested and tried on charges blaming them with attempted assassination of regent Aleksandar I Karađorđević . On 23 May 1917 , following the so - called " Salonika Trial " , Dimitrijević was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death . A month later , on 24 June 1917 , he was executed by firing squad . In 1953 , Dimitrijević and his co - defendants were all posthumously retried by the Supreme Court of Serbia and found not guilty , because there was no proof for their alleged participation in the assassination plot .