Top Spy Gadgets Of The 60s And 70s - In Pictures

Bulgarian umbrella

A shooting umbrella for assassinating a dissident. It was modified by the KGB to contain a poisonable pellet instead of bullets. It was used to eliminate the Bulgarian dissident and writer Georgi Markov, who was killed in London in 1978. Markov passed by a bus stop and felt a stab in the shin. Turning around, he saw a gentleman with an umbrella. The owner of the umbrella apologized and retired in an unknown direction.
Georgi died 3 days later, having told before his death about the episode with the umbrella. Later, a tiny metal capsule with cyanide was found in his calf.