ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Assassination Weapons, MechanicalSo clever was this method of murder that it took sometime before Western intelligence operatives realized whathad happened, and arranged for Markov’s body to beexhumed. Only then did they discover the pellet.In this and other such cases, a biochemical agentactually caused death, yet the method of delivery wasmechanical. In the same way, poison that passes througha syringe (a hydraulic pump) into the victim’s body is abiochemical weapon delivered by mechanical means. Bycontrast, when the Aum Shinrikyo cult employed ricin tokill 12 commuters, and injure thousands more, in a Tokyosubway in 1995, they used it in the form of gas—an almostpurely biochemical technique. Victims inhaled the gas,which went to work immediately on their systems.Basic types of mechanical assassination weapon. Theweapons under discussion here fall into a few broadcategories: bludgeons; knives and other sharp objects;guns and other firing devices; and miscellaneous weapons.An encyclopedic treatment of such weapons wouldfill an entire book, especially where guns are concerned.Therefore, the focus here is confined to weapons, notedfor their clever design or means of concealment that weredeveloped by and for covert action organizations or similargroups. Even then, it is possible only to touch on a fewnotable examples.Few of these weapons are known to be associatedwith a particular assassination, in part because most assassinationscommitted by covert-action organizationsprobably go undetected. Furthermore, the vast majority ofassassinations are probably not directed against figureswell known to the public at large, and therefore are likelyto escape public attention. When Markov died, for instance,the people most likely to note the event wereprimarily in Bulgaria, where state-fed disinformation effectivelycovered all incriminating details regarding thecause of death.Bludgeons and blunt instruments. A number of the potentialassassination weapons that fall under the general headingof bludgeon are or were weapons for close combat alsoused in situations other than assassination missions. Anexample is the club-like instrument known as the cosh orblackjack, employed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency(CIA), the East German Stasi, and others. Though intendedto stun the victim with a blow to the head, a cosh couldcertainly cause fatal injury if wielded with enough force. Ina situation where a metal detector or other device wouldhave revealed the presence of a gun, and where theoperative was likely to be at close quarters with his victim,a cosh might well have been the weapon of choice.In the 1950s, the CIA provided agents with an assassinationmanual that, due to the Freedom of InformationAct, is now available to the public. In discussing bluntweapons, the author shows obvious respect for thesesimple tools of the trade, although he notes they “requiresome anatomical knowledge for effective use,” The mainadvantage of a common blunt instrument such as a hammeris its universal availability.Knives, edge weapons, and pointed instruments. The CIAauthor was equally explicit in discussing ways to use edgeweapons, a term encompassing not only knives, but alsoother sharp weapons. British special forces in World WarII, for example, used the push dagger and the thrustweapon, both sharp instruments that are more like stakesor spikes than knives per se. Other British forces, servingas commandos in North Africa, employed a combinationof knife and brass knuckles, by which the user could firststun the victim, then put the knife itself to work.As with most assassination weapons, concealment isa key issue. Hence, many units responsible for specialoperations in World War II used thumb knives, which wereso small they could only be gripped with the thumb andforefinger. Their size made them easy to hide in the user’sclothing, or even in a closed hand. Also during the war, theBritish Special Operations Executive (SOE) designed aningenious knife kit for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services(OSS), forerunner of the CIA. The kit, made to fold up andfit neatly in a pocket, contained a plethora of knives andsharp instruments, ranging from a tiny knife painted black(so as to be nonreflective) to a fierce-looking open-handleddagger. OSS never officially adopted the kit, butmany of its agents took a liking to it, and acquired theirown while undergoing training in Britain.Miscellaneous and hybrid devices. There are also miscellaneousassassination devices that either combine aspects ofthe bludgeon and edge weapon, or use strangulation as ameans of killing. A notorious example of the latter is thegarrote, typically used when the killer is able to approachthe victim unsuspected from the back. Consisting of twohandles joined by a thin, strong wire a little longer than aman’s shoulders, the garrote is a highly effective low-techweapon. Some are even designed with blade-like edges tothe wire so that they can double as saws if the user needsto escape from a jail cell.Similar to the garrote is the device known as the Giglisaw. Named for Leonardo Gigli, a nineteenth-century Italianphysician who used it in performing surgery, the Gigliconsists of long thin tempered steel blades arranged in anoval shape, with finger rings at either end. Made to cutthrough bone, it could certainly be used as a killing instrument,though mercifully it is more well known as anescape device employed by British intelligence operatives.An all-purpose device, combining aspects of both thebludgeon and the sharp instrument, was the Peskett closecombatweapon. Used in Allied special operations duringWorld War II, the Peskett was a veritable warehouse oflow-tech killing equipment. Its wrist strap and attaching64 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security