Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: 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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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,