A jinxed car or just very unlucky series of events
(from NBCi - 03 November 2000)
A car with a history of death
Of all jinxed objects, few can have bestowed more misery than a motorcar owned by the Hapsburg dynasty of imperial Austria. The open topped limousine was given to the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the troubled throne. He rode it in July 1914 on a state visit to Sarajevo, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the car with the archduke on this ill-fated day were his wife, General Potiorek of the Austrian army, three other dignataries and a driver. A fervent young nationalist called Gavrilo Princip stepped in front of the vehicle on it's official tour of the city and shot the archduke and his wife, Archduchess Sophie. The event was to trigger the First World War. General Potiorek became the car's next owner. Several weeks into the war, his armies suffered a rout at the hands of the ill-organised soldiers of Serbia, and the general was summoned back to Vienna by the Emperor Franz Joseph I. There in the capital, his reputation ruined, his sanity destryed, he died. A captain on Potiorek's staff took charge of the jinxed vehicle. Nine days later, in a terrible accident, he killed two peasants on the road before swerving into a tree and killing himself. After the war, the governor of the newly independant Yugoslavia took charge of the car and endured a succesion of terrible accidents, one of which cost him his left arm. The car was then sold to a doctor, who was crushed to death when he overturned it into a ditch. The next owner was Simon Manthrides, a diamond dealer. He fell to his death from a precipice. The car passed into the hands of a Swiss racing driver who killed himself in an accident while driving it. The next owner - and victim - was a rich Serbian farmer. He paid an unknown but reputedly fabulous sum for the vehicle, which had by now acquired great historical value. One morning, the engine would not turn over, so he ordered one of his farm hands to tow him with a horse and cart. Unfortunately, the owner forgot to turn off the ignition and the engine started suddenly. The car lurched forward into the cart, oveturning it and killing the farmer. Finally, a garage owner lost his life in the car while returning from a wedding. He had tried to overtake a long line of vehicles but was killed as the car spun out of control. The car now rests harmlessly in a Viennese museum. It is never taken out on the road. Find other Automobiles articles
Comments
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Herman: Would be nice to have the type of the vehicle as well as his present location in a museum.(02/09/2011)
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Jacob R: Look up another famous car - a Porsche that belonged to James Dean, a famous racecar driver.(23/03/2008)
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see comment: LMAO(21/12/2007)
- ...: Christine? (09/11/2005)
