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The Crime Museum in London houses a tiny metal sphere measuring just 700ths of an inch. It is smaller than the head of a pin. But he is capable of killing a person. This is the only physical evidence of a crime that has puzzled the police for almost half a century. Now, using the latest technology, we are shedding light on this mysterious subject. This strange tiny sphere was found in the body of a deceased man. At first glance, the sphere looks completely innocent, but the devil is in the details.
The sphere is made of two of the rarest and most valuable metals in the world. It is covered in small scratches, but there are also holes running through it. These holes are only four times wider than a human hair. The two holes intersect inside, forming a cross-shaped pattern. What was inside? What are these microscopic holes for? Who created this strange sphere? And how did she become the center of one of the strangest crime stories of our time? London, September 8, 1978, 11:00 p.m. 49- year-old Bulgarian playwright Georgi Markov is being rushed to
St. James's Hospital. Markov is in terrible condition. He complains of pain and nausea. He is constantly vomiting. He has a very high fever, dizziness, and severe pain. The white blood cell count is incredibly high, and it doesn't make any sense at all. And on September 11, Markov had a cardiac arrest. At 10:40 am, they declare him dead. Doctors call the cause of death septicemia- blood infection caused by bacteria. But this is just the doctors' assumption. They are at a dead end. They don't understand why a person who was completely healthy at that time Before his death, Markov tells doctors that he considers himself a victim of an assassination attempt.
Markov fled Bulgaria ten years ago and later moved to England. In Bulgaria he was a famous playwright and satirist, but after moving to Britain he became one of the most ardent critics of the Soviet bloc regimes. The ruler of Bulgaria, Zhivkov, is a dictator. This is a person who will not tolerate objections, dissent, or criticism. A possible murder attracts the attention of British police. Scotland Yard orders an autopsy on Markov, knowing that he is a Bulgarian defector and the circumstances of his death are suspicious. After completing their investigation, they find a tiny pin prick, as if he had been injected with something.
They excise the wound site and send it to the UK's top-secret biochemical weapons research center, Porton Down. The team at Porton Down cuts it open with a scalpel and stumbles upon a tiny metal sphere, just 1/700th of an inch in diameter. This is the same tiny sphere, magnified almost a thousand times. Could something so small actually be connected to Markov's death? We know that there are many types of toxic metals. Whether it's mercury or thallium, you know, there are a whole bunch of elements on the periodic table that are definitely bad for you. So, was Markov killed by a toxic metal?
Analysis of this small sphere showed that it was composed of 90% platinum and 10% iridium. And these two metals belong to a group in the periodic table called noble metals. These metals are incredibly chemically and also biologically inert. The sphere itself cannot explain the strange death of Georgy Markov. Two weeks after the attack on Markov, British police receive a call from the French capital, Paris. It turns out that on August 26, two weeks before the Markov incident, another Bulgarian defector, a guy named Vladimir Kostov, reported feeling a stab in the back as he was leaving a Paris metro station.
Kostov fell ill with almost the same symptoms as Markov, but, unlike Markov, he survived. When the doctors examined it more closely, they found something very familiar-a tiny injection mark on his back. And in that puncture wound is a microscopic metal sphere. On Tuesday, a metal object was removed from Mr. Kostov's back. And our scientists are now examining it, and we are quite convinced that it is identical in size and composition. Police are now convinced that a metal sphere killed Markov. So it could just be something that was contained inside the microscopic holes.
Whatever this substance was, it was only a fifth of a thousandth of a gram, and that was enough to kill a grown man. Most known chemical agents, such as cyanide or arsenic, require a much larger amount of the chemical than what Markov found. So, synthetic toxins can be crossed off the list. There is only one class of toxins that might be suitable. The remaining toxic substances are biological substances, such as those that can be extracted from spiders, snakes, plants, or any other living organism. And one biotoxin, in particular, stands out among the others. Inside the holes was poison, which is very, very dangerous and quite deadly.
British scientists have finally identified the poison hidden inside the sphere that killed Georgy Markov. Ricin. Ricin is very easy to obtain because it is extracted from castor seeds; The oil itself is not dangerous, but the waste that remains in large quantities contains a highly toxic substance-ricin. When ricin enters the bloodstream, it blocks cells from producing vital proteins. The body's reaction is rapid and extremely dangerous. Ricin causes vomiting, very high white blood cell counts, fever, sweating, and abdominal pain. This is very typical of poisoning, and since Markov had exactly these symptoms, it is clear evidence that he was poisoned with ricin. So why didn't Kostov
die in Paris? The French sphere turned out to be identical to the Markov sphere in all respects except one. The holes are not empty. They contain tiny amounts of a certain substance-not poison, but something completely harmless. Investigators believe the wax acts as a plug. So, the sphere itself is simply a delivery mechanism for this poison. The poison is hidden inside, covered in wax. Until the sphere enters the body. At this point, it heats up and releases its contents.
