The Umbrella: murder weapon or not?

This blog is about a book that I was involved in publishing, which was subsequently suppressed due to its sensitive content. On Wednesday 17th May, there was a documentary on Channel 5 at 8.00pm, and I published this blog to coincide with it. Please scroll down and read my first posting for background to the story.

Georgi Markov was assassinated in 1978. Until that point, most of the world was unaware of his existence, yet, 28 years later, his murder is still widely remembered because of the James Bondish nature of his death. You only have to Google "umbrella murder" to know that. Even Prince Charles made reference to it in a letter to Jessica Douglas-Home, following his attack on Ceausescu:

"...Anyway I hope what I said helps to stir up the debate and raise some people's awareness. I also hope you receive this before some frightful undercover agent stabs me in the left buttock with a poisoned umbrella!"

From "The Prince of Wales, A Biography" by Jonathan Dimbleby.

It was an incredible story. Markov was shot by a pellet containing ricin, one of the world's most deadly poisons, from the tip of an umbrella. Or was he?

Markov reported that he felt a small sting, like a wasp bite, as he stood at a bus stop on Waterloo Bridge. A man behind him apologised as he bent down to pick up his dropped umbrella. At the time Markov thought no more of it. The man left the bus stop and got into a waiting taxi.

The story of the umbrella gun grew from this recollection, yet there is no real evidence that the pellet was shot from an umbrella. It's a supposition, fueled by reports that the KGB had been developing an umbrella with a compressed air device. What is generally not known is that it wasn't found to be powerful enough to fire a pellet through clothing and into flesh deep enough to deliver a lethal dose of ricin.

Ten days prior to Markov being shot, another Bulgarian dissident, Vladimir Kostov, was shot by a ricin pellet in Paris. He saw the assailant and there was no sign of an umbrella. He survived because the sugar coating on the pellet had partially been removed as it penetrated his thicker clothing, thereby delivering a smaller dose of poison.

There had been a previous attempt on Markov's life. Whilst he was on holiday in Sardinia, there had been a plan to administer poison by mixing it in a drink or into some suncream. Markov was warned and the plan failed.

Following the blanket of secrecy following Markov's death, the only news to leak out was his own account of the events, as related by his wife. The international press loved it and even in Bulgaria there were pictures of the inner workings of the umbrella gun in their newspapers. The sensational assassination was a strong message to other Bulgarians to think twice about defecting. (Bulgarian visitors to the west were forced to endure downpours of rain rather than risk carrying an umbrella.)

So why was this myth perpetuated and never corrected? Thereby hangs a long tale, painstakingly researched by two Bulgarian journalists. Their book was published in 1994 but suppressed before it could be sold. It contains information which was not revealed in the recent documentary. To my knowledge the book is being sold by Amazon and other distributors illegally on the internet. I don't know who has released the books and I am not receiving a penny of the money due to me. If anyone has any information about this, I would like to hear from them. It is yet another mystery surrounding the whole story.