Assassinations Podcast

In the final installment of our three-part investigating into the death of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, we find out what the US Central Intelligence Agency knew about the gruesome events that took place inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was killed. In January of this year, eleven men were put on trial in Saudi Arabia for their alleged involvement in the crime. But other people who...

Part 2/3. In the second installment of our three-part investigating into the death of Jamal Khashoggi, we find out about the circumstances that led him to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. When he failed to come out of the building, the Turkish government launched an investigation, prompting the Saudi authorities to issue an evolving stream of explanations for what might have happened. As m...

Part 1/3. In October, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, was killed during a seemingly routine visit to a Saudi consulate. A prominent critic of the Saudi government, Khashoggi's death became a major news story that brought international attention to human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and cast a pall over the kingdom's relations with the rest of the world. In this, the fi...

Threats against journalists pose a threat to the democratic right of free speech. In the third season of our podcast, trailed here, we’ll look into cases of assassinations and alleged assassinations of journalists from around the world.

In the last episode of our second season, we re-examine the case of Alexander Litvinenko. A vocal critic of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, he died of poisoning in London in 2006. It took the British ten years to release a report into his apparent assassination, which gathered a huge quantity of evidence relating to his death. However, the inquiry was riddled with inconsistencies— and it kept...

Part 3/3. In the third and final part of our look at the case of Sergei Skripal & the Poisoned Perfume, we find out about recently made claims of a connection between the Salisbury poisonings and an alleged assassination attempt against a Bulgarian arms dealer. We wade through the informational battleground between Britain and Russia, where claims, counterclaims, propaganda, and "fake news" al...

Part 2/3. Far from retiring after his move to Britain in a spy swap, Sergei Skripal was still actively engaged in intelligence work. He met with his MI6 handler, Pablo Miller, and continued to work with British and American agencies until at least 2017. In Part 2 of this three-part episode, we find out about Miller's connection to a private company called Orbis Business Intelligence, which prepare...

Part 1/3. Sergei Skripal was a Russian military intelligence offer who betrayed his country to work for the British in the 1990s. He later moved to England, where he seemingly lived in retirement in the quaint cathedral city of Salisbury. But it appears that Skripal had not entirely left the world of spies behind him. Was this why he, with his daughter, was poisoned in March 2018? In Part 1 of a t...

Thomas Edward Lawrence was a British intelligence operative who participated in the Arab Revolt during the First World War. He became a celebrity upon his return to England, though he was uncomfortable with fame. After a subsequent career in the air force - and possibly as a spy - he died under strange circumstances. We interview Mark Griffin, whose upcoming film, "Lawrence: After Arabia,” explore...

In Part 2 of this episode, we find out how Ashraf Marwan was outed as a spy and we look into the events leading up to his death. Marwan fell from the window of his fifth floor apartment in London, but the investigation that followed left many unanswered questions. And we will ask: did he fall, did he jump ... or was he pushed? For more information about the people and music featured in this episod...

Ashraf Marwan fell from the window of his fifth floor apartment in London's exclusive Mayfair. A billionaire businessman, he'd lived a quiet life in England for many years. In Part 1 of this episode, we look into his previous work as a spy - perhaps the greatest spy of the 20th Century. An Egyptian, in the 1970s he provided huge amounts of high level government information to Israel. These intelli...

In Part 1, we reenacted a radio interview in which Boris Korczak made remarkable claims about multiple assassination attempts that followed his being outed as a CIA agent inside the KGB. We now take a look at Korczak's background, his work for the CIA in Denmark, and his subsequent fight against the US Government. For more information about the people and music featured in this episode, visit the...

Born in Polish Lithuania, Boris Korczak fled from Communism and settled in Denmark. There he became embroiled in Cold War espionage. He worked for seven years as a CIA asset operating within the KGB. After his cover was blown, Korczak sought help from the Americans, including US citizenship - but the CIA had different ideas. In a remarkable radio interview, reenacted here, WRC’s Joel Spivak interv...

Georgi Markov died following a strange encounter on the streets of London. But as we discovered in Part 2 of the episode, there were even more unusual - and disturbing - things going on. In the final part of our episode, we examine the contradictory claims associated with the case, and we ask what might really have happened. To learn more about Georgi Markov and the music used in this week’s episo...

Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov died following an encounter on the streets of London - the so-called Umbrella Assassination. As the British media speculated as to what exactly caused his death, behind the scenes more strange and disturbing drama unfolded. In Part 2 of our episode, we investigate an attempted murder in Paris, which at first appeared to solve the case … but ended up raising more ques...

In one of the most infamous moments of the Cold War, Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov died following a strange encounter on the streets of London. The incident came to be known as the "Umbrella Assassination", after the British press picked up on claims that Markov had been killed by a mysterious man carrying an umbrella. But the truth might be different - and even more shocking - than the lurid med...

Imperial Japan had overrun much of China by the end of the 1930s. The great city of Shanghai was ruled by a puppet government with its feared secret police. Amidst the horrors of war, a beautiful young woman must use her talents to lure a dangerous and corrupt official to his death. For more information about Zheng Pingru and the music used in this week’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast...

In the world of espionage, truth can be stranger than fiction. The second season of our podcast will uncover the secret plots and deadly gadgets used by spies against their foes. 

Jörg Jenatsch murdered a rival during a period of turmoil in 17th Century Switzerland. Years later, Jenatsch would pay for his crime when he was attacked by a bear with an axe at a party in a pub. Who says Switzerland is boring?

Radama, the king of the island nation of Madagascar, wanted to open up his homeland to the modern world. Supposedly strangled to death by his own troops, a legend flourished that Radama survived - and that he would return some day to reclaim his throne.

Mary's own father, King James V of Scotland, predicted that his daughter and sole heir would bring calamity upon the royal House of Stuart. Though her reign was dramatic and tragic, with scheming and murder aplenty, it actually led to the greatest dynastic triumph for the Stuarts - winning the throne of the "Auld Enemy", England.

Princess Diana's death in a car crash stunned Britain and the world. It did not take long for critics of the official police investigation to ask the question: had Diana, with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, been murdered by dark forces within the state? This episode contains explicit language. For more information about the people and music featured in this episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast web...

The most famous woman in the world died in a car crash on the streets of Paris in the summer of 1997. Diana's death caused unprecedented scenes of public mourning, with Britain stunned by the news that the "people's princess" had met such a shocking end. Conspiracies soon swirled - could it be that the death of Diana was no accident? For more information about the people and music featured in this...

Though the economy was on the ropes and there were angry protests against him, Allende retained a strong degree of support. Crucially, he had the backing of the head of the armed forces. But when that top general was forced to resign in 1973, Allende found himself at the mercy of General Pinochet. In Part Two of this episode we look at the US-backed coup against Allende, and examine the terrible c...

Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile in 1970. Within three years, he was dead. In Part One of this episode, we witness Allende making powerful enemies in the Nixon administration and among Chilean conservatives. Through economic woes and civil unrest, Allende maintained his radical politics. But those lined up against him would never let a socialist rule in Chile. For more information a...