10 Facts About Luigi Lucheni

Luigi Lucheni served in the military for three years and moved to Switzerland, where he befriended anarchists in Lausanne.

On September 10,1898, Lucheni used a tapered file to fatally stab Empress Elisabeth of Austria during her visit to Geneva.

Luigi Lucheni was apprehended upon fleeing the scene and his file was found the next day.

Luigi Lucheni told the authorities that he was an anarchist who came to Geneva with the intention of killing any sovereign as an example for others.

Luigi Lucheni used the file because he did not have enough money for a stiletto.

Luigi Lucheni was furious to find that capital punishment had been abolished in Geneva, and wrote a letter demanding that he be tried in another canton, such that he could be martyred.

Luigi Lucheni wrote his childhood memoirs while in Geneva's Eveche prison.

Luigi Lucheni was harassed in prison and his notebooks were stolen.

Luigi Lucheni was found hanged in his cell on October 19,1910.

Luigi Lucheni's head was preserved in formaldehyde and transferred to Vienna in 1986.