The Umbrella Assassin

September 7, 1978 – Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident living in London, was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police while waiting at a bus stop near the Waterloo Bridge. Markov originally worked as a playwright and novelist before defecting from Bulgaria in 1969. He then moved to London where he took a job with the BBC as a broadcaster and journalist. He frequently criticized the Bulgarian regime over the radio, inciting members of the Bulgarian government to dispose of him. As Markov stood at the bus stop on the morning of September 7 he described feeling a slight sharp pain, similar to a bee sting, on the back of his right thigh. He turned to see a man behind him picking an umbrella up off the ground. The man then hurried across the street and got in a waiting taxi. By the time Markov arrived at work a red pimple had formed at the site of the “sting” and within a few hours he had developed a fever. He was admitted to the hospital that evening and died three days later. A subsequent autopsy revealed that the cause of death was poisoning from ricin-filled pellet the size of a pinhead shot into Markov’s leg by means of a specialized umbrella gun.