Franz Ferdinand assassination pistol found

The Browning pistol that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the crisis leading to the First World War has been discovered gathering dust in a Jesuit community house in Austria.

The weapon is going on show in the Vienna Museum of Military History in time for the 90th anniversary of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian empire and his wife, Sophie. . .

The pistol will be displayed next week with the Graf and Stift imperial car and the archduke's bloodied tunic. For decades the murder weapon, serial number 19074, was in the possession of a community of Jesuits in Styria, southern Austria. They inherited it from a close friend of the archduke and his wife.

A Jesuit priest, Anton Puntigam, gave the couple the last rites and later made public his intention of opening a museum in memory of the archduke. . .

Once [the assassin] was sentenced, the Bosnian ministry in Vienna granted Fr Puntigam possession of the pistol and other items: petals from a rose attached to Sophie's belt, the cover of the cushion on which the fatally wounded archduke rested his head and the bombs and pistols used by Princip's accomplices.

Posted by David on June 22, 2004 4:40 PM