Jaye Rothman's Blog, page 6
July 5, 2015
Intrigue in Geneva Episode Two
A sheet of the report fluttered onto the plush red carpet. His shadow appeared over her.
“Excuse me, Fraulein. I think you may have dropped this.”
He spoke in hesitant German and handed her the paper. Hadn’t anyone informed him that women found it rude and patronising to be addressed by this old-fashioned title? The West German government had banned the use of “Fraulein” in 1972.
“Thank you,” she said. Dvora peered over the top of her spectacles, appraising him.
The photos had not done him justice – they had been taken by a surveillance team hidden inside a VW station wagon with its German number plates obscured by snow, and showed a man running down a flight of steps. In the flesh, standing at her table, he looked younger than his thirty years, with his boyish, slender good looks. He wore his jet black hair in the style of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. His generous mouth would have been more suited to a woman, as would his long eyelashes and his liquid brown eyes. He reminded Dvora of a gauche foal.
Dvora arranged the papers neatly on the table and replied in rapid German.
“You’ve saved my life. I’d be in a mess if I lost this. It sums up the main points of my presentation tomorrow.”
Looking puzzled, he replied in English.
“I’m sorry, but my German isn’t good.”
Dvora ran a hand through her long raven-black hair, smiled and repeated her thanks in English. She wore a black business suit and a transparent ivory silk blouse underneath her tailored jacket. Her skirt had ridden up her thighs as she crossed her legs. Three-inch black stilettos completed her outfit.
The man held out his hand, and she shook it. His eyes lingered momentarily on her legs.
“I’m pleased to meet you. I’m Omar Rashid. May I join you?”
Dvora hesitated and checked her watch.
“I don’t know. It’s getting rather late.”
“Let me buy you dinner – I’d enjoy the company. Please,” he added.
“No thanks,” she said briskly. “I don’t usually eat with men I’ve just met in a bar.” She scooped up her papers and placed them in an expensive black leather briefcase.
He smiled shyly. “Please – it’s only dinner. I’d enjoy the company,” he said again.
With his well-cut dark suit, conservative grey tie and crisp white shirt, he could pass as a lawyer or a banker, but Dvora knew he was neither. She shrugged her shoulders with resignation.
“OK. Why not? As you said, it’s only dinner.”
Rashid grinned. “I’ve a table booked here every night. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get your name?”
“Elsa Freud.”
“May I?” Rashid indicated the vacant chair opposite Dvora.
“Yes, of course. You must live in Geneva?”
He sat down. “Yes, I do. Would you like a drink?”
Dvora laughed. “I’d thought you’d never ask.”
Rashid raised his hand and clicked his fingers to summon a passing waiter. “I’ll have another double whisky, and…” He looked at Dvora, raising his eyebrows.
“Same again, please.” The order completed, Dvora turned to him. “What line of business are you in?”
“Nothing very exciting I’m afraid,” he replied. “I work in a bank. I’m just a number cruncher.” He leaned his elbows on the table and scrutinised her features. “And Elsa – Freud, did you say? Isn’t that a Jewish name?”
Her pulse quickened, and a stab of fear caught her unawares. “It can be, but it’s also German.”
Rashid watched her carefully. “And are you Jewish, Elsa?”
June 29, 2015
Intrigue in Geneva Episode One
Here it is finally!
After The Hell Of Osirak readers asked me a number of questions about Nikki Sinclair’s lover – Mossad spy Dvora Bar Zahavi. I’ve written a short story featuring Dvora and I’ll be posting episodes here and on my blog for the next few weeks. If you can’t wait to read all of Part One – join my emailing list and I’ll send it to you. Happy Reading and I hope you enjoy!
The Hotel d’Angleterre
Geneva, Switzerland.
February 1980
Dvora Bar Zahavi had studied the three-inch-thick manila file for the last thirty minutes. It contained reports and statistics belonging to an insurance company that did not exist.
On a normal weekday evening, the faux-English bar would be heaving with after-work drinkers standing shoulder to shoulder. Tonight, though, the weather forecast had predicted a heavy snowfall. Geneva’s risk-averse inhabitants had heeded the warning and elected to return to the safety of their homes.
At the next table, two middle-aged men dressed in Pierre Cardin suits paid her no attention. They had just secured a successful business deal and were celebrating with double whiskies and bar food.
Dvora stared out the large picture window. In the daytime it commanded a magnificent, unrestricted view of Lake Geneva. Now she could barely see the other side of the street. Large snowflakes flew and bounced against the glass with increasing intensity.
In the reflection, she observed him sitting alone at a small table, inspecting her as if she were a highly paid prostitute. His eyes roamed blatantly over her body, causing her to look away. She would have loved to light a cigarette, but his dossier stated that he disapproved of women smoking. She felt his stare penetrate through her, causing her hand to tremble. She took another sip of her red wine, appreciating the smooth warmth of the vintage as it coursed down her throat and soothed her jangling nerves.
Dvora didn’t care much for Switzerland, the well-ordered home of chocolate, cuckoo clocks, watches and pharmaceutical products. Here, life continued on, as it had for many years, untouched and peaceful. During World War Two, Germany had elected not to invade it, perhaps because of Swiss neutrality or – more likely – the lure of a safe haven for its officials. Nazis who had stolen gold and other valuables from the Jews they murdered had stashed their ill-gotten gains in Swiss banks. After the war, those who fled Europe for South America were able to access their accounts with impunity and start a new life.
Of course, it had been a very different story for the Jews. During the 1930s, as the Nazis rose to power, they, too, had believed their money would be safe and secure in Switzerland and many had opened bank accounts there. However, many thousands had not survived the concentration camps, and when the war ended, the Swiss banks refused to assist the heirs of the survivors. Rules and regulations insisted upon a certificate of death or knowledge of the account numbers. Of course, most survivors had neither. It was estimated that over five million Swiss francs currently sat in dormant Swiss bank accounts.
Dvora lifted her glass, drained the last of her wine and, with a flourish of her Mont Blanc pen, scrawled a note in the margin of a report.
Another hundred and twenty seconds and her fate would be sealed.
The Hotel d’Angleterre
June 21, 2015
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Markov, a Bulgarian dissident who worked for the BBC was waiting for a bus on Waterloo Bridge when he felt a sharp stab in his right thigh. He recalled a man running across the bridge and jumping into a taxi. He died four days later of ricin poisoning.
So who did actually murder Georgi Markov in 1978?
It seems unbelievable, but this dreadful murder is still unsolved. Several enquiries have taken place in the UK and Bulgaria but no one has been convicted of his murder.
One theory according to a number of articles, is that CIA master spy Aldrich Ames, who betrayed his country to the Soviets, probably also betrayed female MI6 agent Mercia MacDermott.
It is alleged that she encouraged Bulgarian minister Alexander Lilov to order Markov’s murder. This would have increased Lilov’s standing within his own party and with the Soviet’s.
Is it entirely credible that MI6 would have come up with a plan to assassinate Markov on the streets of London?
There is another suspect – known in Bulgarian secret files as Agent Piccadilly. He is Francesco Gullino. He was a Danish national of Italian origin, and worked for the Bulgarian Communist regime.
Gullino has always denied being involved in the murder. According to the private investigator Klaus Dexel, Gullino was paid 30,000 pounds between 1978 and 1990 by the Bulgarian secret service. His cover was of an antique dealer, which gave him unlimited scope to travel.
After the Communist regime fell in 1990 a secret file was found in the archives containing false passports in Gullino’s name, and receipts for thousands of pounds of cash given to him in 1978.
However, there is no real evidence that Gullino stabbed Markov. Dexel believes another Bulgarian agent named “The Woodpecker” who flew into London before the killing and flew out the next day might have killed Markov.
Gullino was detained and questioned by the Danish intelligence service in 1993, but was released due to lack of evidence.
Where is he now?
He could be anywhere in Europe, as he travelled frequently to a number of European capitals. Or he could be dead.
It has also been noted that Markov’s murder was similar to Alexander Litveneko’s murder in 2006.
Both of them were poisoned in London.
Next time – Intrigue In Geneva –
Murdered by a tip of an umbrella
June 6, 2015
THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
Last week I wrote about Mercia MacDermott who was a close friend of Alexander Lilov one of the principle movers and shakers of the Politburo to murder Georgi Markov a dissident who was an outspoken critic of the Bulgarian Communist regime. This happened on the streets of London in September 1978.
Before Markov was murdered he was under surveillance by an elderly English lady called Mrs Bartlett. Immediately before Markov’s assassination she travelled to Sofia in Bulgaria, where she still resides.
Aldrich Ames was a counterintelligence officer and analyst at the CIA who worked on the Soviet-Eastern European division. From 1985 CIA agents in the Eastern Bloc countries started to disappear at an alarming rate. Initially the CIA did not believe that one of their own could be giving highly classified material to the Soviets.
The CIA had found it deplorable that the trio of Burgess, Maclean and Philby, who were all high ranking officers in the intelligence services, had betrayed Great Britain and their allies for years, before they were unmasked.
The British intelligence services were certain that Aldrich Ames betrayed Mrs MacDermott.
Mercia MacDermott was permitted to continue to live in Bulgaria but her influence declined rapidly. She eventually returned to England. She never returned to her beloved Bulgaria.
In April 1991 the Bulgarian government announced the names of two non-Bulgarians that had received medals in 1979. This was for their involvement in the Markov murder. According to the author Gordon Logan, their code names were ‘Hector’ and ‘Atanas’.
‘Atanas’ was Mercia MacDermott who received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Mrs Bartlett was ‘Hector.’
According to Wikipedia Alexander Lilov came to live in London around 1985. He had fallen from favour in Bulgaria for criticising the communist government’s economic policy. Lilov was the government minister that decided to have Markov’s murdered on the streets of London.
So why would the British government allow Lilov to live in England?
Who did murder Georgi Markov?
More in the next post.
May 30, 2015
WAS MI6 BEHIND MARKOV’S MURDER?
The question is who killed him?
His killers have never been brought to justice. Theories abound on the internet of who actually murdered him.
Gordon Logan’s articles on the internet, state that a British woman agent named Mercia MacDermott was involved in the plot. According to Logan she used to live in Bulgaria and was popular because she wrote biographies of national heroes.
She was a loyal member of the Communist party and maintained a close relationship with members of the Communist Politburo, particularly Alexander Lilov who was responsible for Ideology in the government. Lilov’s desperately wanted to become the next leader of Bulgaria, so he was keen to impress the KGB and Politburo.
So the plot was hatched.
Why?
It would improve Mrs MacDermott’s standing with the Communist Government, so she would be completely trusted and gain more useful Intel for the British.
For the Bulgarians they would be rid of a dissident that continually criticised them, and Lilov’s star would be on the rise.
Markov was not the sort of defector liked by MI6. He was indiscrete, and did not get on with his BBC colleagues. He continually criticised his adopted country, and didn’t believe the BBC was neutral. He was a thorn in the British establishment’s side. Homesick for his beloved Bulgaria, he apparently sent a letter to the Deputy Minister of the Interior asking what his sentence would be if he returned. This probably decided his fate.
What happened to Mrs MacDermott?
More next time….
Lilov was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee.
WAS MI6 BEHIND MARKOV’S MURDER?
In September 1978 Georgi Markov a Bulgarian dissident who lived in London and worked for the BBC was murdered on the streets of London. The killer stabbed him with the tip of an umbrella, which caused a pellet to be injected into his skin, it released a toxic poison called ricin. Markov died a few days later in hospital.
The question is who killed him?
His killers have never been brought to justice. Theories abound on the internet of who actually murdered him.
Gordon Logan’s articles on the internet, state that a British woman agent named Mercia MacDermott was involved in the plot. According to Logan she used to live in Bulgaria and was popular because she wrote biographies of national heroes.
She was a loyal member of the Communist party and maintained a close relationship with members of the Communist Politburo, particularly Alexander Lilov who was responsible for Ideology in the government. Lilov’s desperately wanted to become the next leader of Bulgaria, so he was keen to impress the KGB and Politburo.
So the plot was hatched.
Why?
It would improve Mrs MacDermott’s standing with the Communist Government, so she would be completely trusted and gain more useful Intel for the British.
For the Bulgarians they would be rid of a dissident that continually criticised them, and Lilov’s star would be on the rise.
Markov was not the sort of defector liked by MI6. He was indiscrete, and did not get on with his BBC colleagues. He continually criticised his adopted country, and didn’t believe the BBC was neutral. He was a thorn in the British establishment’s side. Homesick for his beloved Bulgaria, he apparently sent a letter to the Deputy Minister of the Interior asking what his sentence would be if he returned. This probably decided his fate.
What happened to Mrs MacDermott?
More next time….
Lilov was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee.
May 21, 2015
What MI6 didn't want the British public to know.
Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer who vocally criticized the Bulgarian communist regime. He was murdered in London in 1978 while waiting for a bus by a pellet containing ricin (a lethal poison) concealed in an umbrella.
When I was writing my book Murder By Umbrella, goo.gl/Tb8tfP I came across this article dated 2006.
This post by SooBrett claims that a previous attempt had been made on Markov’s life in Sardinia, were he was holidaying. The plan was to mix poison in sun screen. Apparently Markov was warned of the plot.
According to SooBret's post two Bulgarian journalists researched Markov’s death and published a book about it in Bulgaria in 1994. Apparently it was suppressed by the Bulgarian government before any copies could be sold.
Jane Tienne and Sue Brettell decided to publish the book in England, So Tienne set up her own publishing company and SooBrett agreed to help finance the venture. The launch was held at the Clink Museum in London, and the book “The Umbrella Murder” was well received and had good reviews in the media.
Out of the blue Tienne was served with an injunction. All copies of the book were recalled. Tienne sought legal advice, but did not pursue any actions.
Both Tienne and Brettell stopped communicating, and both of them were ruined financially. Journalists attempted to contact Tienne but she refused to return phone calls. Perhaps she was too frightened to speak out?
I've tried to buy a copy of the book 'The Umbrella Murder' via the internet, but I've had no luck .
As Soobrett says in her blog, there are so many answered questions.
Yes there is.
I'd like to know what happened to the 20,000 copies of 'The Umbrella Murder' that were printed? Did MI6 have them destroyed?
What did the book reveal?
Apparently there was the merest suggestion in the book that MI6 could have been involved in Markov’s murder. Could this be true?
Did this alarm the British security services?
Or did the Bulgarians kill Markov to warn other dissidents not to defect to the West?
What MI6 didn’t want the British public to know?
When you Google The Umbrella Murder or Georgi Markov you can find articles and conspiracy theories galore.
Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer who vocally criticized the Bulgarian communist regime. He was murdered in London in 1978 while waiting for a bus by a pellet containing ricin (a lethal poison) concealed in an umbrella.
When I was writing my book Murder By Umbrella, goo.gl/Tb8tfP I came across this article dated 2006.
This post by SooBrett claims that a previous attempt had been made on Markov’s life in Sardinia, were he was holidaying. The plan was to mix poison in sun screen. Apparently Markov was warned of the plot.
According to SooBret’s post two Bulgarian journalists researched Markov’s death and published a book about it in Bulgaria in 1994. Apparently it was suppressed by the Bulgarian government before any copies could be sold.
Jane Tienne and Sue Brettell decided to publish the book in England, So Tienne set up her own publishing company and SooBrett agreed to help finance the venture. The launch was held at the Clink Museum in London, and the book “The Umbrella Murder” was well received and had good reviews in the media.
Out of the blue Tienne was served with an injunction. All copies of the book were recalled. Tienne sought legal advice, but did not pursue any actions.
Both Tienne and Brettell stopped communicating, and both of them were ruined financially. Journalists attempted to contact Tienne but she refused to return phone calls. Perhaps she was too frightened to speak out?
I’ve tried to buy a copy of the book ‘The Umbrella Murder’ via the internet, but I’ve had no luck .
As Soobrett says in her blog, there are so many answered questions.
Yes there is.
I’d like to know what happened to the 20,000 copies of ‘The Umbrella Murder’ that were printed? Did MI6 have them destroyed?
What did the book reveal?
Apparently there was the merest suggestion in the book that MI6 could have been involved in Markov’s murder. Could this be true?
Did this alarm the British security services?
Or did the Bulgarians kill Markov to warn other dissidents not to defect to the West?
British Newspapers reporting on Markov’s murder
May 8, 2015
Murder on the streets of London
The year is 1978. In a secret facility set in a quaint village in the beautiful English countryside, scientists are developing nerve toxins.
Two of the scientists who are defectors from the Eastern Bloc are murdered within a week of each other in Oxford Street, London. The weapon is an umbrella.
You may wonder if this is a plot from a James Bond novel. No, it’s the plot of my new book Murder By Umbrella featuring MI6 agent Nikki Sinclair.
The inspiration for my book came from the cold blooded murder of a Bulgarian dissident named Georgi Markov killed on the streets of London by a tip of an umbrella.
Markov took three days to die, during this time he alleged he had been poisoned. An autopsy ordered by the Metropolitan Police found that a small pellet, the size of a pinhead buried in his thigh. It contained traces of ricin. This is a poison which is highly toxic. The smallest amount is lethal. It has been used, and is probably still used to create biological warfare weapons. There is no known antidote.
Ten days previously in Paris another Bulgarian dissident, Vladimir Kostov reported feeling a sharp pain in his back when he was travelling on the Metro. He was an intelligence officer for the Bulgarian Secret Service before he sought political asylum in 1977.
During the next 48 hours Kostov complained of a high fever and a pain in his back. He reported the attack to French Intelligence officials. Kostov had an x-ray, which showed a small pellet about two millimetres in size lodged in his back. This was removed by a surgeon. The analysis of the pellet was a match to Markov’s including traces of ricin. He survived because he was wearing a heavy overcoat.
Who attempted to murder Kostov? Who murdered Markov?
I’ll reveal more information on this disturbing murder in my next post.
Here’s the link to Murder By Umbrella.
He survived.
April 30, 2015
Fact or Fiction?
The man that was stabbed by the umbrella was Georgi Markov, a 49 year old Bulgarian journalist who worked for the BBC in London. Three days later, he was dead. His murderer had stabbed him with an umbrella. A pellet was situated on the tip which contained the poison ricin.
The murder of Markov was known as the Umbrella Murder. It captured the imagination of the British public at the time and for years afterwards.
There was extensive coverage on the tv and in the newspapers. Who could have murdered him? Where the KGB responsible? How could this happen on the streets of London?
Don’t forget it was the height of the Cold War. The thought of KGB spies operating on the streets of London, caused widespread consternation throughout the United Kingdom.
I set my new book a Cold War spy thriller featuring Nikki Sinclair in 1978, because I have always been intrigued by Markov’s tragic death. It’s called Murder By Umbrella.
Here’s the link.
http://goo.gl/x7NzuB
"http://spiesliesandlesbians.com/wp-co...
