CBRN event in United Kingdom on Mon 11th September 1978

Mr Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian defector who broadcast anti-Communist propaganda back to Communist countries died slowly and painfully as a rare poison seeped into his bloodstream from a pin-head sized pellet implanted in his leg. But the identity of his assassin remains a mystery, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mr Markov, aged 49, whose death last September brought the fantasy world of James Bond to reality as it was followed by an attack on another Bulgarian defector and broadcaster. Mr Vladimir Rostov, who was similarly stabbed in the back in Paris, but survived, is still under investigation by Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad.

But yesterday, the drama behind the attempts to save Mr Markov’s life, and the efforts to trace the poison which brought in experts in bacterial warfare agents from the Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire, was told to a coroner in London. After two hours of pathological evidence, Mr Gavin Thurston, the Inner West London coroner, said that under new investigation he was prevented from returning a verdict of murder or manslaughter.

“Mr Markov has died of toxaemia caused by the implantation of a metal pellet containing ricin, and that it is quite impossible that this was done by Mr Markov himself.”