Page 45 - All About History - Issue 38-16

15 Mad Murder Plots

Jenatsch’s demise inspired many literary works, and one
version told that his murderer was actually ‘Lucrecia’ von
Planta, the daughter of his murdered rival Pompeius

Jörg Jenatsch

METHOD: AXE, WIELDED BY A MAN DISGUISED AS A BEAR
WHEN: 24 JANUARY 1639
One of the most controversial
01 figures of his day, Swiss politician
and military leader Jörg Jenatsch
had been implicated in the brutal
murder of a rival and even killed
his own comrade, but his occasional bursts of
terrifying violence did nothing to stop his rise to
the top. What did stop it was a man in a bear
costume who accosted Jenatsch at a carnival in
Churl. The unknown assassin successfully buried
his axe in the politician’s skull, ending his career
and his life. The moral of this story? Never trust a
bear with a very sharp axe.

Reinhard

Heydrich

METHOD: BOMB
WHEN: 27 MAY 1942, DIED 4 JUNE 1942
When the
02 conspirators
behind the
Operation
Anthropoid
assassination plot attempted to
shoot the man known as the
Butcher of Prague as he drove
through the city, their gun
jammed. Heydrich ordered his
driver to stop and was about to
confront the gunmen when one
of them, Jan Kubiš, hurled a bomb
at the car. This time there was no
mishap and Heydrich was badly
wounded in the explosion. He
died a week later from sepsis,
poisoned by shrapnel from the
The explosion didn’t kill Heydrich springs and horsehair upholstery
immediately, and he emerged from the
vehicle to return fire on his assassins of his car’s seats. Kubiš was later
shot while evading arrest.

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