21. Death on the Thames: The Poisoned Umbrella (Ep 2)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Was an umbrella too obvious a murder weapon for an assassination in the heart of London? Why were the KGB hesitant to do the Bulgarian government's dirty work? And how do scientists work with spy agencies to identify lethal poisons? Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident writer, is dead. But, who murdered him? Was it the Bulgarians or the KGB? What about the British? In the aftermath of Markov's poisoning, the Metropolitan Police are struggling to discover the perpetrator behind the umbrella. Listen as David and Gordon continue the story of the mysterious murder of a Bulgarian BBC broadcaster on Waterloo Bridge, and ask: will the assassin ever be caught? ------------------- Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, via this link. ------------------- Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.nordvpn.com/restisclassified It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! Email: [email protected] Twitter: @triclassified Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:11.7	He told me the most extraordinary story that he had been jabbed with an umbrella tip.
1:14.6	It was almost as if he didn't want to believe it himself.
1:17.0	And I don't think he wanted to frighten me with it.
1:19.3	But he showed me the mark the umbrella had made.
1:22.5	It was like the point of a hypodermic needle.
1:25.2	Well, welcome to the rest is classified.
1:26.7	I'm David McCloskey.
1:27.9	And I'm Gordon Carrara.
1:38.1	And that was the testimony of Annabel Markov, wife of the murdered Bulgarian dissident and writer, Georgie Markov.
1:48.0	And we have been looking at the amazing story surrounding the death of Georgie Markov in London, in central London in 1978. So last time, in the last episode, we talked about how Markov, Gordon had been feeling
1:53.7	ill after he felt something jab him on Waterloo Bridge, September of 1978. Within days,
2:00.2	Markov is dead and a post-mortem is going to find a
2:03.1	tiny pellet inside his leg. Tests are going to later reveal that the deadly toxin
2:08.9	is the most likely culprit in this murder, but we still have no idea of exactly how it was
2:16.2	delivered. And I think, as we're going to see here, that Markov gives
2:21.1	sort of the critical clue to his wife, Annabelle, in the hours after he's poked on Waterloo Bridge.
2:29.5	That's right. He clearly remembers that moment of being on the bridge of feeling something. He
	...

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