iirc, it was a surprise that they could make a hole that small, in an object that small.
Posted on 06/20/2008 8:53:48 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The cold war murder of Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident who was assassinated using a poison-tipped umbrella, is being reinvestigated by Scotland Yard. Counter-terrorism detectives spent two weeks in Bulgaria last month, applying to interview 40 witnesses and to access archived documents on the case - one of Britain's most famous unsolved murders which resembles the plot of a spy novel.
On a September evening in London in 1978, Markov, a prize-winning Bulgarian author and BBC broadcaster who had been classified as a "non person" by the communist authorities, was waiting alongside commuters for a bus on Waterloo Bridge when he felt a stinging pain in his thigh.
A heavily built stranger dropped an umbrella, mumbled "sorry" and fled in a taxi.
Markov thought little of the seemingly trivial incident and continued his journey home; he was dead of a high fever in three days and was later buried in Dorset.
The James Bond-style murder weapon was an umbrella, partly developed by the Soviet KGB, which fired a pellet the size of a pinhead, containing the poison ricin.
Three years ago a book citing leaked Bulgarian intelligence documents named the alleged hitman as Francesco Giullino, a Dane of Italian origin who worked for the Bulgarian secret service.
He is described as agent "Piccadilly" who worked for the communist era Durzhavna Sigornost (DS), the Bulgarian equivalent of the KGB. One intelligence report said of him: "He does not feel fear."
Files allegedly show the DS sent Giullino, now 62, on three trips to London in 1977 and 1978 to "neutralise" Markov, who was a persistent critic of the regime in radio broadcasts for the BBC Bulgarian service. The DS files appear to confirm that he was the only agent in London at the time of the killing.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
BAN all umbrellas!!!
Let it go. Whoever did it was acting on behalf of their government, not as a criminal, in an undeclared war. That war is over. So, under the Supreme Court’s new doctrine, the combatants in that war, unlawful though they may be, are entitled to be treated as POWs. Even if you found out who it was, you have to release them at the end of the war.
You are assuming that that particular war is over.
If you are ever hit by one of these, then get away as quickly and as safely as possible. Once in a safe location, remove the cyanide bee-bee (actually it is slightly larger than a conventional bee-bee) and there should be some (black) thread to remove along with it. If you do not remove it in 24 hours you will most likely be dead.
This is a very poor weapon against people of above average intelligence.
A little-known fact about this case is what Markov exactly said that so upset the Bulgarian authorities. It has been generally thought that Markov's anticommunist rants were to blame. Not true! The Bulgarians were plenty used to anticommunist criticism. No, what got Bulgarian authorities so hopping mad was the fact that Markov was broadcasting gossip about their personal lives -- e.g., extramarital affairs, bribes and graft, etc. He named names, and Bulgarians listened to the broadcasts with relish. So the killing was less political than commonly thought.
Getting so a super secret spy can’t do anything now.
iirc, it was a surprise that they could make a hole that small, in an object that small.
Now, looking back, it can be indeed be considered an evil thing in light of the Markov incident.
At least by nanny-staters.
I think it did end. But, like WW2, it started up again.
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