Editing Georgi Markov (section)

== Assassination ==
On 7 September 1978, Markov walked across [[Waterloo Bridge]] spanning the [[River Thames]] and waited to take a bus to his job at the [[BBC]]. While at the bus stop, he reported feeling a slight sharp pain, as if from an insect bite or sting, on the back of his right thigh. He reportedly saw a man picking up an umbrella off the ground behind him.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Will |first1=George F. |title=Enemies of the West |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/11/01/enemies-of-the-west/199dbfdf-3b6e-437c-9d8e-7e320e1f3dc7/ |access-date=14 December 2024 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1 November 1984 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220317221822/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/11/01/enemies-of-the-west/199dbfdf-3b6e-437c-9d8e-7e320e1f3dc7/ |archive-date=17 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

When he arrived at work at the BBC World Service offices, he noticed a small red [[pimple]] had formed at the site of the sting he had felt earlier and the pain had not lessened or stopped. He told at least one of his colleagues at the BBC, Theo Lirkov, about this incident.<ref>{{Citation| last=Volodarsky| first=Boris | title=The KGB's Poison Factory| publisher=Zenith Press|isbn=978-1526724274 | chapter=Georgi Markov| date=February 2018 }}</ref> That evening, he developed a fever and was admitted to St James' Hospital in [[Balham]], where he died four days later, on 11 September 1978, at the age of 49. His grave is in a small churchyard at the [[Church of St Candida and Holy Cross]] in [[Whitchurch Canonicorum]], Dorset.{{fact|date=October 2023}}

=== Later investigation and aftermath ===
[[File:Ricin bullet size.png|thumb|Ricin bullet. For comparison, a pin head is about 2 mm.]]
Bernard Riley, the physician treating Markov, considered many possible causes of his illness, including that he had been bitten by a venomous tropical snake. Riley had the inflamed area at the back of his leg x-rayed, but no foreign object was detected at this time.<ref name="Reunion">{{Citation |title=The Reunion: The Murder of Georgi Markov |publisher=[[BBC]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00p093l}}</ref> Due to the circumstances and statements Markov made to doctors expressing the suspicion that he had been poisoned, the [[Metropolitan Police]] ordered a thorough [[post-mortem]] of his body. Rufus Crompton performed it, noting a red mark on the back of Markov's leg. He cut a tissue sample from the area, with a matching sample from the other leg. These samples were sent for further analysis at the [[Porton Down]] chemical and biological weapons laboratory. There, David Gall, the Research Medical Officer, found a tiny pellet in the tissue sample.<ref name="elbdisliker"/>

The pellet measured {{convert|1.70|mm}} in diameter and was composed of 90% [[platinum]] and 10% [[iridium]]. It had two holes with diameters of {{convert|0.35|mm|3|abbr=on}} drilled through it, producing an X-shaped cavity. Further examination by experts from Porton Down could not detect any remnant of poison. Considering possible poisons, scientists hypothesised that the pellet might have contained [[ricin]].<ref name="elbdisliker"/>

Porton Down scientists also thought that a sugary substance had been used to coat the tiny holes, creating a bubble that trapped the poison inside the cavities, with a specially crafted coating designed to melt at {{convert|37|C}}: [[human body temperature]]. After the pellet was inside Markov, the coating might have melted and the poison released to be absorbed into the bloodstream and killed him.<ref name="elbdisliker"/>

Regardless of whether the doctors treating Markov had known that the poison might have been ricin, the result would have been the same, as no [[antidote]] exists for ricin.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/chemical_terrorism/ricin.htm#:~:text=No%20antidote%20exists%20for%20ricin,seizures%20and%20low%20blood%20pressure. | title=The Facts About Ricin }}</ref>

[[File:Markov umbrella.svg|thumb|right|A diagram of a possible umbrella gun]]

Ten days before the assassination, an attempt was made to kill another Bulgarian defector, Vladimir Kostov, in the same manner as Markov, in a [[Paris Métro]] station.<ref>{{cite book |first=John D. |last=Bell |title=Bulgaria in Transition: Politics, Economics, Society, and Culture after Communism |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |location=[[Boulder, Colorado|Boulder]] |year=1998 |page=251}}</ref>

[[KGB]] defector [[Oleg Kalugin]] alleged that the Bulgarian Secret Service arranged the murder with help from the Soviet KGB. Nobody has been charged with Markov's murder, largely because most documents relating to it are unavailable, probably destroyed. Kalugin said that Markov had been killed using an umbrella gun.<ref name=kirilenko>{{cite news|first1=Anastasia |last1=Kirilenko |first2=Claire |last2=Bigg |title=Ex-KGB agent Kalugin: Putin was 'only a major' |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-ex-kgb-kalugin-putin-only-a-major/26930384.html |publisher=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]|date=31 March 2015}}</ref>

''[[The Sunday Times]]'' reported <!--WRONG DATE? on 17 May 2006 (page 27) --> that the prime suspect was an Italian, [[Francesco Gullino]] or Giullino, who was last known to be living in Denmark.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/dane-named-as-umbrella-killer-7s59qcww8pn |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917183154/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article530164.ece |archive-date=17 September 2008 |newspaper=Sunday Times|via=[[Times Online]] |location=UK |first1=Jack |last1=Hamilton |first2=Tom |last2=Walker |title=Dane named as umbrella killer|date=5 June 2005}}</ref> A British documentary, ''The Umbrella Assassin'' (2006), interviewed people associated with the case in Bulgaria, Britain, Denmark and America, and revealed that Gullino was alive and well, and still travelling freely throughout Europe.  There were reports in June 2008 that Scotland Yard had renewed its interest in the case. Detectives were sent to Bulgaria and requests were made to interview relevant individuals.<ref name=casereopenedinduk>{{Cite news |last=Brown |first=Jonathan |title=Poison umbrella murder case is reopened |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |location=UK |date=20 June 2008 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/poison-umbrella-murder-case-is-reopened-851022.html |access-date=20 November 2009}}</ref> Gullino died in Austria in August 2021.<ref name=gullinodead>{{Cite news |last=Pachner |first=Jurgen |title=Notorious agent (75) was dead in Welser apartment |newspaper=[[Kronin Zeitung]] |location=[[Germany]] |date=17 August 2021 |url=https://www.krone.at/2486314 |access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref>

=== In culture ===
Markov's assassination is mentioned in John D. MacDonald's 1979 novel ''[[The Green Ripper]]'' when a character is murdered.

The incident is the subject of the song "Wet Job" by [[Fingerprintz]] from their 1979 album ''The Very Dab''.

The idea of a poison-injecting umbrella was used in the Hindi film [[Raazi]] and the French comedy ''[[The Umbrella Coup]]'' (O.T. "Le coup du parapluie").

Markov's assassination is mentioned in season two, episode seven of ''[[CSI: Crime Scene Investigation]]'', by a character as he describes people poisoned with ricin to Gil Grissom.

The Markov assassination is the subject of a test in the first season of the show [[MythBusters|Mythbusters]]. [[Adam Savage]] and [[Jamie Hyneman]] test if the assassination could be feasible using an umbrella gun. After testing the duo confirm that an umbrella gun could be used in an assassination in this way.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-04-23 |title=MythBusters 2003 Episode Guide {{!}} MythBusters {{!}} Discovery |url=http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/2003-episodes/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423092607/http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/2003-episodes/ |archive-date=23 April 2019 }}</ref>

Markov's assassination is also mentioned in the [[neo-Western]] crime drama series ''[[Breaking Bad]]'', season two, episode one, "[[Seven Thirty-Seven]]" as [[Walter White (Breaking Bad)|Walter]] and [[Jesse Pinkman|Jesse]] think of plans to kill [[Tuco Salamanca]].  

In August 2018 the case was the subject of the [[BBC Radio 4]] programme ''[[The Reunion (radio series)|The Reunion]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bgblcd|title=BBC Radio 4 – The Reunion, The Murder of Georgi Markov|publisher=BBC|access-date=7 June 2019}}</ref>

Markov's assassination is used as the basis for an assassination story in the US drama series ''[[NCIS (TV series)|NCIS]]'', season seven, episode twenty-one, "[[Obsession (NCIS)|Obsession]]". The character, Lt Hutton, is working on a classified program at the Naval Info-Ops Centre (NIOC) and is discovered to have been murdered using the same method as Markov, leading to a Soviet KGB plotline.

The assassination served as inspiration for a similar poisoning by KGB agents utilising an umbrella, in the [[historical drama|period]] [[spy fiction|spy drama]] [[The Americans]], in the second episode of the first season, [[The Clock (The Americans)|The Clock]]. 

Markov's assassination is also mentioned in season two, episode one from ''[[Slow Horses]]'', where River Cartwright and Shirley Dander point to the possibility of the same technique being used to murder a former MI6 agent, who was following a former KGB agent, possibly "Cicada". Then River finds out that some poison was inserted into the arm, through a similar but different method.

A replica of the umbrella used to assassinate Markov is on display at the [[International Spy Museum]] in Washington, DC., US<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bulgarian Umbrella (replica) |url=https://www.spymuseum.org/exhibition-experiences/about-the-collection/collection-highlights/bulgarian-umbrella-replica/ |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=International Spy Museum |language=en}}</ref>

''[[Time Shelter]]'', the [[International Booker Prize]] 2023 by [[Georgi Gospodinov]], (translated by Angela Rodel), mentions Markov's assassination.

A fictional Bulgarian spy chief central to the plot of the first episode of the second season of [[The_Sandbaggers|The Sandbaggers]] , Vladimir Galabov, is "...almost certainly behind the umbrella murder in London September '78..."

=== Similar attacks ===
On 11 May 2012, a German man died almost a year after having been stabbed with an umbrella in the city of [[Hanover]]. German police – who noted a resemblance to the Markov case – analyzed the syringe which the victim had managed to take from the perpetrator, and found [[dimethylmercury]];<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-25 |title=Namen genannt! Wird der Regenschirm-Mord an Familienvater Christoph (†40) endlich gelöst? |url=https://www.tag24.de/unterhaltung/tv/aktenzeichen-xy/namen-genannt-wird-der-regenschirm-mord-an-familienvater-christoph-40-endlich-geloest-2592039 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220825122815/https://www.tag24.de/unterhaltung/tv/aktenzeichen-xy/namen-genannt-wird-der-regenschirm-mord-an-familienvater-christoph-40-endlich-geloest-2592039 |archive-date=2022-08-25 |access-date=2022-08-30 |website=TAG24 |language=de}}</ref> the reported cause of death was [[mercury poisoning]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Albers |first1=Anne |last2=Gies |first2=Ursula |last3=Raatschen |first3=Hans-Jurgen |last4=Klintschar |first4=Michael |date=2020-09-01 |title=Another umbrella murder? – A rare case of Minamata disease |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00247-y |journal=Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology |language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=504–509 |doi=10.1007/s12024-020-00247-y |issn=1556-2891 |pmc=7449996 |pmid=32323188}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thelocal.de/20120511/42495/ |title=Umbrella stab victim dies of mercury poisoning |language=en |date=11 May 2012 |website=www.thelocal.de |access-date=13 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/quecksilbervergiftung-mann-stirbt-nach-angrif-mit-spritze-in-hannover-a-832677.html |title=Quecksilbervergiftung |trans-title=Mercury poisoning |magazine=[[Der Spiegel]] |language=de |date=11 May 2012 |access-date=3 September 2020}}</ref>

In 2016, police in [[Chennai]], India solved three separate murders when the four killers confessed to having used an umbrella tipped with a [[potassium cyanide]]-filled syringe. They had ridden past the victims on a bike and jabbed them in the thigh.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |last3= |first3= |date=2016-04-28 |title=How cops found, arrested an 'umbrella murderer' |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/how-cops-found-arrested-an-umbrella-murderer/articleshow/52017965.cms |access-date=2022-08-24 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Narayanan |first=Vivek |date=2016-05-08 |title=Syringe murders: Three bodies to be exhumed |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/syringe-murders-three-bodies-to-be-exhumed/article8574928.ece |access-date=2022-08-25 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref>