May 5 (Vatican City) The Vatican's Swiss Guard, the world's smallest and perhaps most colorful army, got a new commandant Monday. Pope John Paul II named Alois Estermann, 43, to be the new "Captain Commandant" of the 100 guards, who protect the pope at the Vatican. Estermann, who has been deputy commandant since 1989, joined the guard in 1980. He distinguished himself a year later when he jumped on the moving popemobile in St Peter's Square seconds after Turkish Gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope on May 13, 1981. The main job of the guards, who must be Swiss nationals and Roman Catholics, is ceremonial. May 5 (Vatican City) The new head of the Swiss Guard who shielded Pope John Paul during a 1981 assassination attempt was found shot dead with his wife and another guard in a Vatican apartment, the Vatican said Tuesday. The triple deaths were the first killings in the Vatican in living memory. Capt. Commandant Alois Estermann, 43, his wife Gladys Meza Romero, a Venezuelan, and Vice Corp. Cedric Tornay, 23, were found dead in the apartment Estermann shared with his wife, Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. He said there was preliminary evidence to suggest Tornay killed the new commandant and his wife in a "moment of madness" before turning a gun on himself. More Real News Swiss Guard Commander Appointed, Murdered On Same Day Ex-Slave Soldiers Honored For Victory Kula Announces New Journal: Simulacrum Back to Cry Havoc #22 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com