7.22: INTERVIEW: KIT KLARENBERG
This interview follows on from a past episode of the show, which looked at the apparent assassination attempt targeting Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Sergei was a former Russian spy turned British double agent, who was living in exile in England when he was allegedly poisoned by a “Novichok” chemical weapon in 2018. Kit and Niall consider the many strange aspects of the case and the official investigation, and they look at some recent developments.
They also discuss the role of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which investigated the Skripal incident at the same time as it was engaged in an investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria. This connects the Skripal case to the previous episode of the show - the death of James LeMesurier.
7.21: James Le Mesurier
An upper class English army officer then private security consultant, James Le Mesurier was not, at least on the surface, a typical do-gooder. And yet - for a while - he was hailed around the world as the founder and mainstay of the White Helmets in Syria, a group praised by Hollywood celebrities and western politicians as humanitarian heroes.
But were there secrets lying behind the well-publicized facade? What demons might have been haunting Le Mesurier when he died - under rather questionable circumstances - in November 2019 in Istanbul, Turkey?
7.20: RAFIC HARIRI
Due to the impact of Hurricane Ida on New Orleans, Niall’s had to make this a shorter than expected episode. Still, we’re going to romp through the turbulent years in which Rafic Hariri rose from humble origins in Lebanon to make a vast fortune in Saudi Arabia, before returning home to lead his country. There were bitter political rivalries within Lebanon, and the country was (and remains) a focal point of regional rivalries. Who, amidst all those scheming in the shadows, was the architect of the assassination?
7.19: KLAUS BARBIE & CHE GUEVARA
On the surface, you couldn’t find two more different men. Guevara was an idealistic doctor whose compassion for the poor and downtrodden metastasized into a Marxist revolutionary crusade that led him from victory in Cuba, to frustration in the Congolese jungle, to disaster in the valleys of the Andes.
Barbie was a fanatical Gestapo killer who at the end of the Second World War seamlessly swapped loyalties from the Third Reich to the United States of America. Spirited away from Europe - where he was wanted for war crimes - he was afforded protection in Bolivia. There he would spend the next four decades lending his sick expertise to anti-Communist activities across Latin America.
The destinies of both men would intersect, when “Che” was assassinated in a remote village in Bolivia.
7.18: ALFRED HERRHAUSEN
The head of one of Germany’s leading financial organizations, as well as a top advisor to the West German government, Herrhausen was assassinated in 1989 when a sophisticated and powerful roadside bomb detonated at the moment his chauffeur-driven Mercedes drove by. Though a far-left militant group was blamed for the hit, there are signs that other forces might have been at work.
7.17: GERALD BULL
By the time he started to work for Saddam Hussein in 1988, Canadian engineer Gerald Bull had been developing so-called super guns for decades. Project Babylon, as the Iraqi weapons program was called, would have given Hussein a powerful artillery piece capable of hitting Israel - potentially with a “dirty bomb”.
Before the scheme could come to fruition, Bull was assassinated in 1990. But by whom? The answer might not be so obvious as it might seem.
7.16: 100th Episode: Wrath of the Assassins
To celebrate the hundredth episode of the show, we have woven a little historical fiction about the deadly warriors of a Shia sect known as the Order of Assassins. We also give a shout-out to some of the people who have helped the podcast over the last three years.
100th EPISODE TRAILER
Here’s a sneak peak at next week’s 100th episode, where we will be going back to tarry awhile with the elusive sect who gave us the very name of this show!
7.15: INTERVIEW: SUE WOOLMANS
The murder of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo in 1914 was the tragic prelude to the horrors of the First World War. In this special episode of the show, host Niall speaks with Sue Woolmans, co-author of the book The Assassination of the Archduke.
7.14: ROBERTO CALVI PART 3
After years of lobbying, City of London Police eventually agreed to open a murder investigation into the death of Roberto Calvi. Italian authorities then tried several people for the crime. During that trial, sensational claims were made, including the suggestion that the banker had made enemies within the Vatican. Was his death a Mafia hit? And what might British intelligence have had to do with things? A tail that leads us from sunny Tuscany to the stormy South Atlantic, this is the third and concluding part of our look into this most extraordinary case.
7.13: ROBERTO CALVI PART 2
Calvi wrote to Pope John Paul II in June of 1982 that the imminent collapse of Banco Ambrosiano would bring catastrophe to the Church. Days later, the shamed banker disappeared. From the chambers of parliament, to the boardrooms of commerce, to the sepulchral halls of the Vatican, nobody would come away unscathed from the biggest financial scandal in modern Italian history.
This series concludes next week.
7.12: ROBERTO CALVI
One of Italy’s preeminent financiers, Calvi was called “God’s banker” because of his work with Banco Ambrosiano, which was associated with the Istituto per le Opere di Religione - better known as the Vatican Bank. Embroiled in one of the country’s biggest financial scandals, the exposure of Calvi’s misdeeds shed light on the extent to which the Church traded in, or was at least associated with, dirty money. But his connections to the darker side of life in Italy went beyond financial skullduggery. He was a member of a shadowy Masonic lodge with political designs, a cult-like underground organization whose weird initiation rite we dramatize in this week’s episode.
Part 1 of a three-part series.
7.11: QASEM SOLEIMANI
A powerful military and political figure in Iran and across the Middle East, General Soleimani enjoyed victory on the battlefield and successes in geopolitical strategizing over a long career leading up to his assassination in 2020. He had gained the admiration of many of his fellow countrymen and others in the region, but earned the deadly ire of powerful foes.
7.10: COUNT BERNADOTTE
A diplomat for the fledgling United Nations, Folke Bernadotte was sent to Palestine to broker a ceasefire and attempt to establish a peace deal in the conflict zone. With the competing interests of the British Empire, various Zionist groups, the native Palestinian population, and neighboring Arab states, the task was well-nigh impossible. But one group was determined to ensure, by the ultimate means, that the Swedish nobleman would not live to pursue his mission.
7.9: MAHMOUD AL-MABHOUH
For a man who had been on the run from Israel’s feared Mossad intelligence agency for over two decades, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh did not show much regard for his security. Rather, he left himself more or less an open target prior to his assassination in 2010. An Israeli kill team was sent to Dubai to liquidate their target - a task that they carried out, though not without a few seemingly inexplicable steps along the way.
7.7: William McKinley
The 25th President of the United States, William McKinley was the third occupant of the White House to be assassinated within the span of just four decades. We begin this episode with a narrative account of the Pan-American Exposition, a grand celebration of achievement in the Western Hemisphere, where McKinley was fatally wounded by an anarchist on the 6th of September, 1901.
7.6: JILL DANDO PART 3
Barry George was convicted of Jill’s murder in 2001. Six years later, he walked out of prison a free man, having been acquitted of the crime. The case against him had always been tenuous, and now Britain was left with one of the most baffling unsolved crimes of modern times. Then, in 2014, came a shocking claim that the murder might have been connected to a massive scandal that was rocking the BBC.
Part 3 of 3.
Episode 7.5: Jill Dando Part 2
Was Ms Dando murdered on the orders of Slobodan Milošević, the President of Serbia? As strange as it might seem, this idea was considered by British police and it made a splash in the tabloid newspapers. The theory was dismissed, but with other suspects ruled out and ideas about potential motives evaporating, desperate detectives looked back at a potential suspect who they had previously dismissed.
Part 2 of 3.
7.4: Jill Dando Part 1
By 1999, Jill Dando was one of the most famous people in Britain. Her execution-style shooting outside her home shocked the country. We recreate the events leading up to her murder, and begin to look at the theories that have been put forward to explain the killing of a trusted journalist and well-liked public figure. Part 1 of 3.
7.3: Thomas Becket
From humble beginnings in Cheapside, London, Becket rose to the highest offices in England. He earned his success in part thanks to his own skill as an administrator; but, ultimately, he owed everything to the largesse of his sovereign, King Henry II. When Becket defied the will of his king, in order - as he saw it - to serve the will of God, he entered into a conflict that would cost him his life.
