EyeSpy Markov's Waterloo

Take a photo of this microbug on Waterloo bridge in London England. In the photo, should be a recent copy of the Evening Standard clearly showing the date.

A dissident defects from his communist country much to his government's embarrassment. Assassins are dispatched and with the help of the KGB, he is poisoned with a jab from an umbrella tip on a crowded London Bridge.

Sound like a plot line from a Tom Clancy novel? It's not!

It's the story of Georgi Markov.

Georgi Ivanov Markov was born 1929 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He was an acclaimed novelist and playwright ("The Archangel Michael" and "Personal meetings with Todor Zhivkov") in Bulgaria. He left Bulgaria for London where he worked for the BBC. He had a large listening audience in Communist Bulgaria. Due to his outspoken broadcasts, Georgi Markov received several anonymous threats to stop broadcasting his inside knowledge of Bulgarian Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov and government officials.

In 1977, Zhivkov told a Communist Party Politburo meeting that he wanted Georgi Markov silenced, He said: "All measures could be used to neutralize enemy émigrés". A few month earlier Zhivkov asked KGB to help him silence Georgi Markov. Following two unsuccessful attempts, the KGB head resident in Washington bought several umbrellas and sent them to the KGB who rebuilt the umbrellas.

The final, and successful, attempt was staged in London September 7, 1978, Bulgaria's Communist dictator Mr. Todor Zhivkov 67th birthday.

That day Georgi Markov drove to a parking lot on the south side of Waterloo Bridge. It was his habit to take a bus across the half-mile Waterloo Bridge to the BBC headquarters in the Bush House. From the parking lot near the Waterloo Bridge, Markov climbed the stairs to the bus stop. As he neared the queue of people waiting for the bus, he experienced a sudden stinging pain in the back of his right thigh. He turned and saw a man bending to pick up a dropped umbrella. The man who was facing away from Georgi Markov, apologized.

Georgi Markov subsequently remembered that the apology was made with a foreign accent. The man then hailed a taxi and departed. Markov later described him as heavy set and about 40 years old. Though in pain, Georgi Markov boarded the bus to work. But the pain continued.

Georgi Markov noticed a small blood spot on his jeans. By evening, Georgi Markov had developed a high fever. His was taken to a London hospital, where he was treated for an undetermined form of blood poisoning. His condition fast worsened. He was not responding to doctor's efforts. The next day he went into shock, and after three days of agony and delirium he died on September 11, 1978

Scotland Yard began an investigation into the death. An autopsy was performed at Wandsworth Public Mortuary. The doctors found a tiny metal pinhead in the wound. When they attempted to extract the "pin", a tiny pellet fell on the table. A team of the England's foremost specialists in forensic medicine examined the pellet. They found that two 0.34 millimeter holes had been drilled in the pellet, possibly using a high - technology laser at right angels to each other, producing an X - shaped cavity. The holes were empty.

After weeks of research and experimentation, in January 1979, a Coroner's Inquest in London ruled that Georgi Markov had been killed via a poison called ricin (it is several times deadly as cobra venom and has no antidote). Today the pellet remains on permanent display at New Scotland Yard headquarters in London.

Investigator established that the Bulgarians used a low - level Italian criminal Francesco Guilino with the code name " Piccadilly " to commit the murder. In 1993, Guilino was located in Denmark, Copenhagen and questioned for 6 hours by Scotland Yard and Bulgarian investigators about his involvement. The questioning was inconclusive and the suspect was said to have fled Denmark.

Today his whereabouts are unknown.