The execution of the Yugoslav King Alexander I, carried out in Marseille by Vlado Chernozemski, no doubt ranks among the biggest assassinations in the world history of the 20th century.
The king has long been sentenced to death by the VMRO because of the forcible Serbization of the Bulgarians in Macedonia, and in the specific murder he acted together with the far-right Croatian liberation movement of the Ustashi. On October 9, 1934, Alexander I arrived on an official visit to France. Tens of thousands of Marseille residents filled the streets. In the monarch's car is the French Foreign Minister Louis Bartou.
At 4:20 p.m., Chernozemsky jumped out of the crowd, slipped between two policemen, and shot point-blank at King Alexander and his companions. He then tries to kill himself but is caught. At eight o'clock in the evening, however, he expired from his wounds received by the French policemen. The Yugoslav king died a few minutes later, and Minister Bartu a few days later.
The assassin was secretly buried in a sealed coffin in the cemetery “St. Peter".
Vlado Chernozemski is the pseudonym of Velichko Dimitrov Kerin. He is also known by the name Vlado the Driver. He was born on October 26, 1897 in the village of Kamenitsa, today a neighborhood of Velingrad, Pazardzhik. Participated in the First World War (1915-1918) in the automobile units of an active army. He became a member of the VMRO in 1922. One of the first actions in which he participated was the Kyustendil action of the VMRO, when the squads of Pancho Mihailov and Ivan Berlio occupied Kyustendil.
On February 15, 1930, at a meeting in Lucerne, an agreement was reached between the VMRO in the person of Ivan Mihailov and the Croatian revolutionary organization Ustasha in the person of its leader, Dr. Ante Pavelic, to liquidate the Yugoslav king Alexander Karadjordjevic. Ivan Mihailov, Simeon Evtimov and Toma Karayovov were present at the talks from the Bulgarian side, and Dr. Ante Pavelic and August Kosutich from the Croatian side. The proposal to liquidate King Alexander is Pavelic's. After extensive preparation, the right person was chosen.