A Bulgarian journalist believes he has evidence pointing to the identity of one of the Cold War’s most notorious villains: the assassin who killed dissident Georgi Markov in London with a poison-tipped umbrella.
Markov -- a lauded writer, BBC correspondent and outspoken opponent of Bulgaria’s fallen communist regime -- died in 1978 after a stranger shot a ricin-laced pellet into his leg on London’s Waterloo Bridge.
The assassin was most likely a Dane of Italian origin, code-named “Piccadilly”, who was ordered by Bulgaria’s secret service to stop Markov’s criticism against Soviet-backed dictator Todor Zhivkov, Hristo Hristov told Reuters on Saturday.
“He is the most probable person who could have killed Markov,” said Hristov, a journalist whose book on the incident will hit the shelves in Bulgaria next week.
Entitled “Kill the Tramp”, in reference to the code name given to Markov by Bulgaria’s secret service, the book names “Piccadilly” as agent Francesco Giullino. But Hristov stops short of actually labeling Giullino as the murderer.
“I can’t say that, first because access to his file is blocked, and secondly because the secret service never signed documents that would incriminate them for murder,” he said.
“Bulgaria’s investigation into the death of Georgi Markov indicate that 'Piccadilly’ was the only agent in Britain on September 7. He left the next day, and he was under instructions to ’neutralize’ Georgi Markov.”
According to accounts of the incident, Markov, who defected to the West in 1969, was waiting for a bus when he felt a sharp sting in his thigh.
A heavy-set stranger fumbled behind him with an umbrella he had dropped and mumbled “sorry” before walking away.
Markov died four days later, on September 11, 1978, of ricin poisoning, for which there is no antidote.
Haunted by past
The murder sent a shockwave through the West and still haunts Bulgaria.
Since the fall of communism in 1989, the Balkan state of eight million people has fought to disassociate itself from its communist-era secret services, who were also suspected of helping the KGB plot the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
Successive governments here have kept the secret Cold War files sealed, which critics say has let former Soviet-allied spooks leverage their skills and contacts to become powerful players in business, law enforcement, and politics.
In Bulgaria the Markov case is at a standstill. The head of the intelligence service, Kircho Kirov, said over a decade of investigation had failed to unearth a link to his organization. He also disputed whether the dissident’s death was murder.
“Our files have no information that shows the secret service participated in the death of Georgi Markov. ... We have no data to indicate murder at all,” he told Reuters.
A spokeswoman in London said Scotland Yard was still eager to solve the murder, one of Britain’s most notorious.
Giullino, whom Bulgaria recruited after arresting him in 1970 on smuggling charges, was last seen in 1993 when he was detained in Copenhagen on suspicion of a link to the Markov murder, Hristov says. Danish police asked Bulgaria for evidence linking him to its secret service, but Sofia refused. He was freed for lack of evidence and vanished again two months later.
Hristov, who is suing the intelligence service for blocking access to files connected with the case, said he hoped his book would prompt a new investigation from abroad.
“The aim of writing this book is for Britain to demand these documents from Bulgaria and for the truth to be known,” he said.
