ASSASSINS

ASSASSINS with Aslan Pahari will be back in a few weeks with a batch of brand new stories about the world's most shocking assassinations. But in the meantime, may we present… What The Duck?! | Nature's Most Wanted.

Who wins in a feud between a Washington Post journalist… and his own Crown Prince? Saudi Arabian columnist Jamal Khashoggi ran monthly op-eds about how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was ruining his country. But MBS is not a man who's known for his tolerance. And something snapped. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls Video Producers: Dylan Behan, Tejas Bhat Sp...

The Army of God has been described by the American government as a domestic underground Christian terrorist organisation. The group's been accused of organising arson and bomb attacks against abortion clinics. But was it also connected to the 2009 killing of abortion provider Dr George Tiller? NOTE: This episode is the second in two parts series about the American abortion provider Dr George Tille...

Bombings. Break-ins. Setting fire to abortion clinics.   The extremist wing of the anti-abortion movement in the United States has actively targeted clinics that provide abortions to women. But it has also attacked the humans working there, sometimes with deadly consequences.   This week, the 2009 assassination of Dr George Tiller, a high-profile abortion provider in Kansas.  Host: Aslan Pahari  P...

The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the majestic Taj Mahal to commemorate his beloved wife Mumtaz after she died. The couple's children, however, were far less loving with each other. They fought a bloody battle of succession that divided them all and ended with Aurangzeb assassinating his brother, Dara Shikoh. How did things get so bad in this powerful 17th century family? Host: Aslan Pahari Prod...

At the 1970 Academy Awards the movie "Z" won the Oscar for best foreign film. The film opens with this line: "Any similarity to actual persons and events is not coincidental. It is INTENTIONAL". You see, it was inspired by the real-life assassination of Greek athlete turned activist, Grigoris Lambrakis. Released just 6 years after his killing, the film was immediately banned in his homeland. Film...

The Greek Olympic long jumper Grigoris Lambrakis was assassinated by right wing extremists in front of police and a crowd of witnesses. Just one month earlier he had walked the full Marathon route in Greece to protest war and military power. His killing shook the nation and foreshadowed the rise of the military dictatorship he had long feared was coming. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Au...

There aren't many Russians who can get away with insulting their president, Vladimir Putin. But for most of his career, Alexei Navalny did. This week, the story of Russia's most famous dissident, and the lengths it took to kill him. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls Video Producers: Tejas Bhat Special thanks: Michael Osmond for archives research Supervising Pr...

In 1975 a young Saudi prince entered the royal palace and shot dead the king, Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The killing was both personal and political, linked to the death of a brother, the tension between tradition and modernisation, and the introduction of television to the desert kingdom. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls Video Producers: Chloe Farrington,...

When Indigenous woman Berta Cáceres helps organise a months-long blockade against multinationals in Honduras she immediately becomes a target. It's 2016, and Honduras is the deadliest country per capita for environmental activists. But Berta and the Lenca people refuse to back down. Their sacred river is at stake. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls Video Produc...

Indira Gandhi, India's first and only female Prime Minister, had many enemies. But after her government ordered tanks to fire on the Golden Temple, one of Sikhism's holiest sites, the backlash became inevitable. Little did she know that her assassin would come from her most trusted inner circle… Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer: John Jacobs Video Producer: Tejas Bhat Special...

It's said that Rasputin, the so-called 'mad monk', had supernatural abilities, could hypnotise people, and was quite the philanderer… It's also said that he was incredibly tricky to assassinate. But how much of that is true? And what's with people claiming to have preserved his severed penis in a jar? Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer: John Jacobs Video Producer: Tejas Bhat S...

Five months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Afghan resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud warned the western world that Al Qaeda was planning something big. But no one took him seriously. And just two days before they committed the most lethal terrorist attack in history, Al Qaeda assassinated Massoud too. But in the carnage that followed, the world barely noticed. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer:...

Each week on If You're Listening, host Matt Bevan explains the biggest story in world news while hiding in his basement from assassins (not us!) and authoritarian regimes. In this episode, Matt brings you the story of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In the early hours of July 31 this year, Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran. It's presumed Israel was behind the...

Hosted by Marc Fennell, No One Saw It Coming is a podcast that focuses on moments in history that seemed inconsequential but turned out to be momentous. And in the episode that we're bringing you today, one of the most infamous assassinations of all time — that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It's the event that's seen as the trigger for World War One, but it didn't happen quite the way the history b...

Editor's note (22/12/2025): In this episode, we discuss how, under Gandhi's leadership, the spinning wheel became a symbol of rebellion in India. We then say, "Which is why, to this day, that wheel appears on the Indian flag." This is incorrect. Although it is true that the spinning wheel featured on an earlier version of the Indian flag, in 1947 it was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra. Mahatma Gandh...

In 2020, Iran's top nuclear scientist, Professor Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was gunned down on a remote stretch of road outside Tehran. But as the dust settled, one thing stood out as being particularly strange. Apart from the victim, his wife, and their security detail, there was no one else around. No assailants, no witnesses, and no collateral damage. Israel was the prime suspect. Had they just enacte...

July 2024. Donald Trump is speaking at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when his speech is interrupted by a volley of gunshots. Trump instinctively touches his right ear and drops to the ground where he's swarmed by his security detail — who quickly move to get him out of the firing line. Surrounded by security, blood streaming down the right side of his face, Trump raises a fist to the c...

As the longest serving Prime Minister in Japan's history, Shinzo Abe deserved a relaxing retirement. Instead, he was out on the campaign trail for a colleague when an assassin's bullet struck. But this wasn't a politically motivated kill. It was actually connected to a global cult-like religion. And a young man whose mother was in too deep. Host: Aslan Pahari Producer: Hannah Jose Audio Engineer:...

Tupac Shakur was a poet. A performer. A radical. He might have only been alive for 25 years, but in that time, he became the voice of his generation. And then one night, after a fight in Las Vegas, he was shot four times and left for dead. This is his story. How he lived. How he fought. And how, nearly three decades later, his murder is still being untangled and interrogated. Host: Aslan Pahari Pr...

You'd never expect to see an assassination broadcast on live TV. But that's exactly what happened in 2023. In the badlands of India's most populous state, a gangster-turned-politician met his end while millions watched. So what did the notorious Atiq Ahmed do to get himself publicly executed? How did his assassins get through a police escort to reach him? And who was powerful enough to give the or...

For over 3000 years, the death of Pharaoh Ramses III was one of history's great mysteries. Then, in 2012, scientists cracked the case, revealing that Ramses III, the last of Egypt's Great Pharaohs, had been assassinated. But how did they do it? Science journalist Maddie Massy joins Aslan Pahari to dig deep into this discovery, and how scientists use cutting edge technology to reveal secrets from t...

Is Ancient Egypt's 3000-year-old murder mystery history's coldest case? Ramses III was the last of Egypt's Great Pharaohs; a saviour of the empire, a military genius, a god-king. But for over 3000 years, his death remained a mystery. Then, in 2012, scientists uncovered the truth. They found a wound nobody had noticed before — the type of wound that could only have one explanation: Pharaoh Ramses I...

How long do you remain conscious for after having your head chopped off? For centuries, people thought that a severed head might be aware of what's going on for up to 30 seconds after decapitation — or even longer! That folklore has its origins in the assassination of revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday, the French Revolution's "Angel of Assassination". You might know that in...

How do you assassinate someone when you don't know what they look like? The K-Pop Demon Hunter of her time, Korea's first empress, Queen Min, was a total bad ass. But there weren't any reliable images of her, so no one beyond her immediate court knew what she looked like. Which turned out to be a problem when samurai assassins, part of a rabble-rousing mob, stormed her palace early one morning wit...