THE UMBRELLA ASSASSIN

0:04 Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that tells gripping life and death spy stories and the amazing devices and operations that made them possible. Now let's get started.

0:25 Have you ever heard of the man by the name of Georgi Markov? Well, if you haven't, you will now. This is the story of the poison tipped umbrella and the death of Georgi Markov. In nineteen seventy eight, a post mortem examination was held to determine who killed a Bulgarian playwright who defected to the West. In nineteen sixty nine, Georgie Markov, aged forty nine, died in a London hospital of septasimia, a form of blood poisoning. Before he died, he claimed he had been stabbed with an umbrella by a stranger who bumped into him in the strand. Mister Markov was on his way from work with the BBC Bulgarian Service at bush House. Mister Peter Franco, the head of the BBC Eastern Europeans, described Markov as an outstanding

1:09 broadcaster and writer. He had heard about mister Markoff's fears he had been stabbed, but added that the broadcaster had been in poor health and had kidney trouble. A puncture mark was found on mister Markov's thigh, but the fact that his death did not lead to a post mortal examination immediately may mean that police are skeptical about mister Markov's known fears of the Bulgarian secret agents, so they wondered was he just paranoid or not? Well, we're going to learn a little bit more about that. See Markov use forums to conduct the campaign of sarcastic criticism against the incumbent Bulgarian regime, which, according to his wife at the time he died, he eventually became vitriolic and including

1:53 really smearing mud on the people in the inner circles. So was he killed or not? Never seventh, nineteen seventy eight. Again, as we mentioned, he walked across Waterloo Bridge, spanning the River Times in England, writing to wait to take a bus to his job at the BBC. While at the bus stop, he felt a slight, sharp pain, as a bug or a bite or a sting on the back of his right thigh. He looked behind him and saw a man picking up an umbrella off the ground. The man quickly crossed to the other side of the street and guy in a taxi and then drove away. Some have called this the umbrella murder. When he arrived at work at the BBC World Service Offices, Markov noticed a small red piple had formed the side of the sting

2:34 he had felt earlier, and the pain did not stop. He told at least one of his colleagues at the BBC about the incident. That evening, he developed a fever and was admitted to Saint James's Hospital in Balham, where he died four days later on September eleventh, nineteen seventy eight. The cause of the death was poisoning from a rice and filled pellet. Later investigation, due to the circumstances and statements Markoff made, doctors expressing the suspicion he had been poison really didn't do much. But the police didn't do much, but they order to throw an autopsy. Eventually, doctor Bernard Riley of Forensic Pathologists discovered a spherical's metal pellet the size of a pen head embedded in Markov's leg. You

3:18 see that little tiny pellet was placed in the tip of that umbrella. The pellet measured about point point seven zero millimeters in diameter. And was composed of ninety percent platinum and ten percent iridium. It had two holes with diameters of about zero point three to five millimeters drilled through it, producing an X shaped cavity. Further examination by experts from Porting Down show let the pellet contained traces of the toxin ricin. A sugary substance coated the tiny holes, creating a bubble that trapped the rice in inside the cavities.

3:54 Let's go ahead and take a quick look at risin, which is a highly potent toxin producing the seeds of the castor oil plant. A dose of purified rice and powder the sides of a few grains. Listen to this of table salt. Just a few grains of table salt can kill an adult. The medium lethal dose of risin for mice is around twenty two micrograms per kurlogram of body weight. Oil exposure to risin is far less toxic, Oddly enough, and estimated oil dose in humans is approximately one milligram per kilogram of body weight. There's a little bit of an idea of tyson of risin. I'm sorry, tyson ricin that was used in killing Markoff. Now it has been used before the US investigated risin for its military potential during World War One. At that time, it

4:46 was being considered for use either as a toxic dust or as a coating for bullets and shrapnel. The dust cloud concept could not be adequately developed in the coated bullet trapnel concept would violate the heg the Hog Convention of A ninety nine, which just says it is especially prohibited to employ poison or poisoned arms. World War One ended before the United States ever weaponized risin. During World War Two, the US and Canada undertook studying rising again for cluster bombs. Though there were plants for mass production at sever field trials with different bomb let concepts, the end conclusion was that it was no more economical than using phost gene. FoST gene was a colorless gas. This odor resembles that of freshly cut hay or grass, but

5:31 it can also be very dangerous as well. So let's go back to our story of markof and see what's up happening with him. Especially crafted coating was designed to melt at ninety nine degrees fahrenheit, the human body temperature. That's how they coded this little pellet. After the pell was shot into Markoff, the coating melted and the ricin was free to be absorbed into the bloodstream and kill them, regardless of whether the doctor's treating Markov had known that the problem poison was rice, and the result would have been the same, as there was no known antidote to rison at the time. Ten days before the murder, and attempt was made to kill another Bulgarian defector, Vladimir Costaff, in the same manner in a Paris metro station, KGB

6:14 defector Oleg Khalugan confirmed that the KGB arranged the murder, even presenting the Bulgarian assassin with alternatives such as poisonous jelly de smear and Markov's skin, but to date, no one has been charged with Markov's murder, largely because most documents relating to it are unavailable or even properly destroyed.

6:32 The prime suspect, according to a British newspaper, is an Italian named Francesco Giuliano. He was last known to be living in Denmark. A British documentary called The Umbrella Assassin interviewed people associated with the case in Bulgaria, Britain, Denmark and revealed that the prime suspect was Francesco, who is alive and well and still traveling freely throughout Europe. There were reports in June two thousand and eight that Scotland Yard had renewed his interests in the case. Detectives were sent to Bulgarian requests were made to relevant individuals. In twenty eighteen, the case was the subject of the BBC radio program The Reunion. Oddly enough, in twenty twelve, a German Man not named died almost a year after being

7:14 stabbed with an umbrella in the city of Hanover. German police, who noted a resemblance to the mark Off case, believe the umbrella was used to inject mercury, and the reported cause of death was mercury poisoning. Thanks for listening, everybody,