Episode 25 Georgi Markov
Join Eileen from the CrimeLapse podcast as she discusses a case that is beyond bizarre – the death or Bulgarian playwright Georgi Markov. Markov, a Bulgarian dissident who had defected to England, was living in London and working for the BBC Bulgarian service. He also freelanced for Radio Free Europe, a western-centric broadcast news company that was critical of the government in his native Bulgaria. In September 1978 he was taken to a London hospital, where he died of blood poisoning. Before he died, Markov made sure doctors noted a small puncture mark on his thigh, which he said resulted when he was stabbed with the tip of an umbrella by a man he did not know. He came down with a fever within hours of the contact with the umbrella. And sure enough, a post-mortem revealed a metal pellet in his leg, believed to have been shot by a sophisticated gun. The tiny projectile was believed to contain ricin, and the attack on Markov was labeled a homicide. Who killed Georgi Markov?