DID FREEMASONS KILL ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND?

Here is what Vladimir Dedijer wrote in his book The Road to Sarajevo:

Two of the members of Princip's conspiracy who survived the First World War, Vaso Cubrilovic and Ivo Kranjcevic, have given their versions of Cabrinovic's statement at the trial about Freemasons. Vaso Cubrilovic told Luigi Albertini that the accusation was initiated by Father Puntigam and Cabrinovic's counsel, Dr Konstantin Prezmusic, and it happened in this way:

After the first days of the arrest the defendants began to communicate among themselves by an alphabetical system made up of long and short knocks on the wall in a method that had all learned from Stepnyak's Underground Russia, thus keeping one another informed of the proceedings of the preliminary investigation. One day Cabrinovic signaled:
"Advocate Premuzic [who was a Clerical under the influence of Archduke Ferdinand's confessor, Father Puntigam] tells me that the Freemasons must have had a hand in the outrage and that it would be for the good of Serbia and myself if I made the confession that I am a Mason and that Freemasonry made me perpetrate the outrage. What shall I do?"
The advice came back:
"Let him believe it; it can't do us any harm and will draw attention from Serbia."

This was the origin of the legend, which the accused, especially Cabrinovic, in vain tried to substantiate in their evidence.

Ivo Kranjcevic confirmed this story in his memoirs, written after the Second World War.

Puntigam was Ferdinand's Confessor. But he was also apparently the leader of the Jesuits in Sarajevo. Did Puntigam tell Ferdinand that Freemasonry had condemned him to death? Or did Ferdinand tell Puntigam? Or did they learn independently of each other? The journal that made that prophecy of Ferdinand's death on 15th September 1912, Revue internationale des Sociétés Sècretes, was founded and run by a Catholic priest who may also have been a Jesuit.

Ferdinand had also told Count Czernin that Freemasonry wanted him dead, and also told Czernin that several Austrian and Hungarian politicians must have known.

One fine quality in the Archduke was his fearlessness. He was quite clear that the danger of an attempt to take his life would always be present, and he often spoke quite simply and openly of such a possibility. A year before the outbreak of war he informed me that the Freemasons had resolved to kill him. He even gave me the name of the town where the resolution was passed—it has escaped my memory now—and mentioned the names of several Austrian and Hungarian politicians who must have been in the secret.- Count Czernin, In The World War

Ferdinand had also confided in his nephew Charles that, "I am sure I will be assassinated. The police know about it."

When rumours of Freemasonry's possible role in the assassination surfaced an investigation into those rumours was shut down.

The chancellery of Emperor Franz Josef in Vienna received reports about these links [to Freemasonry], but Prince Montenuovo ordered that the matter should not be further investigated. - Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo

Montenuovo was a lifelong enemy of Ferdinand (as I said a few days ago, Ferdinand had many enemies, even within Austria) and turned Ferdinand's funeral into an international farce, so Montenuovo was glad to see Ferdinand dead.

Germany's General Luddendorf made many accusations concerning Freemasonry's role in engineering the war, even accusing a Major Susley in the British Foreign Office of participating in the assassination.

But the above section from The Road to Sarajevo throws doubt onto the role of Freemasonry actually pulling the trigger. There may still be a Freemasonic role in the planning, provision of weapons etc for the assassination. But there are just too many statements made BEFORE the assassination that it could not have been a coincidence.

And actually it would be better for Freemasonry to use someone else who had the same desire to kill Ferdinand but not have any explicit link to Freemasonry...particularly if they were trying to engineer a world war.

But it looks like Ferdinand's Jesuit confessor knew about the prophecy made on 15th September 1912 and tried to incriminate Freemasonry, but perhaps in the wrong way.