DIMITRIEVIC, Colonel Dragutin (1876-1917), Serbian soldier and conspirator, was born on Aug. 17, 1876, and was the principal organiser of the conspiracy which ended in the murder (1903) of King Alexander Obrenovic of Serbia (q.v.) and his wife Draga. He was at first treated with great consideration by King Peter Karageorgevic, and advanced rapidly in his profes sion. He became lecturer in tactics at the Military Academy of Belgrade, and contributed largely to the reorganisation of the Serbian army. In time, however, he became estranged from the dynasty, and as the semi-official "Narodna Obrana" was too luke warm, in his opinion, he founded (May 1911) the secret society "Ujedinjenje ill Smrt" (Union or Death), a league composed mainly of officers, and known generally as "the Black Hand," which aimed at uniting all Southern Slav districts, by no matter what means. This league, and Dimitrievic himself, took an active part in the comitadji warfare in Macedonia, and also in the anti Austrian propaganda in Bosnia. In June 1913 Dimitrievic was ap pointed chief of intelligence of the Serbian general staff. He was the prime author and organiser of the murder of Sarajevo. The "Black Hand" had quarrelled with the civilian administration and Radical party over the latter's administration in Macedonia. On Dec. 15, 1916, Dimitrievic and his principal partisans were arrested at Salonica on a charge of conspiring to deliver the Serb front to the enemy ; he was condemned to death for inciting to mutiny and conspiring to assassinate the crown prince (later king) Alexander of Serbia, and shot June 1917.
Dimitrievic (commonly known as "Apis") was a man of great courage, intelligence, patriotism and energy, but ruthless and ut terly unscrupulous in his methods. Personal details are given most fully in Boghichevich, Le Proces de Salonique (1927), while the evidence regarding the Sarajevo crime is best given in R. W. Seton-Watson, Sarajevo (1927).