Curse Of The Austrian Death Car
by Dean Terry
Of all things jinxed, few have bestowed more misery than a motor car owned by the Hapsburg dynasty of imperial Austria.
The cursed 1911 Gräf & Stift Bois de Boulogne
touring car
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Archduchess, Sophie were gunned down by an assassin. The car they were in was a red, six seat, open touring car. This was the event that started World War I.
The car’s next owner was General Portiorek, who suffered an embarrassing military defeat and was summoned to Vienna where he was humiliated. He suffered mental problems and died in an insane asylum.
A captain of Portiorek’s staff then took charge of the cursed vehicle. Nine days later he was driving the car and two peasants walked onto the road in front of him. He tried to miss them by swerving the car, but they were hit and the car veered off the road and hit a tree. All three were killed at the scene of the accident.
Next, the governor of newly created Yugoslavia acquired the car. He restored it, but was in four accidents with the car. He lost his arm in one of the mishaps and decided the car was bad luck.
His friend, Dr. Srikis, thought this notion was silly and bought the car. Six months later, he was killed when the car overturned.
The next person to own the car was a diamond dealer who had such misfortune that he committed suicide.
The car was then bought by a doctor, whose patients were so horrified that the doctor would own a vehicle with such notoriety, that his practice suffered. Things got so bad for the doctor that he was forced to sell the car.
The next owner of the car was a Swiss race driver who was killed when he crashed against a stone wall and was thrown out of the vehicle.
A Serbian farmer who paid a fantastic sum for the car, which he thought had great historical value, was the next owner and victim. He was towing the car with a horse and cart one morning because the engine would not turn over. He forgot to switch off the ignition and the engine caught suddenly. The car lurched forward into the horse and cart, and overturned, killing the farmer.
Tiber Hirshfield, a garage owner, was the very last person to own this terrifying car. He lost his life in the car on his way to a wedding. He tried to overtake a long line of vehicles and was killed as the car spun out of control. The spin out killed both him and five of the six friends with him.
Now, the Archduke’s car is in the Heereschichtliches Museum in Vienna in the Sarajevo Room, along with Francis Ferdinand’s blood stained uniform. The car is never taken out on the road.
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