What’s your poison? History of killing with chemistry

From the courtiers of Ancient Greece to Soviet spies and maybe now North Korean agents, poison has a long history as a weapon of murder, favoured by assassins for its stealthy delivery of the fatal blow. The killing of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of the North Korean leader, at a Malaysian airport has revived fascination in the poisoner’s methods. Intelligence chiefs in South Korea say female agents despatched by their secretive northern neighbour administered the lethal dose, with reports suggesting a toxin was sprayed in his face. An autopsy is being carried out. A would-be poisoner can choose from a catalogue chemicals, some of which are relatively easy to obtain.

Ricin, naturally occurring in castor oil plant seeds, and thallium (rat poison) are notorious for their murderous properties.

Arsenic delivers a slow and miserable death, while strychnine induces extreme body spasms as the victim’s respiratory system collapses.

But “cyanide is the fastest killer and the easiest to detect, its pathology appears all over the body,” said Porntip Rojanasunan a forensic expert and adviser to Thailand’s Justice Ministry.

She said the victim’s “bright red blood” in post-mortem is the telltale sign of a potential cyanide poisoning.

Other chemicals such as potassium can cause “an extreme heart arrhythmia.. and can lead to a heart attack very quickly”.

Tales of poisonings — real or imagined — have formed their own mythology.

Poisoning has become a byword for backroom scheming treacherous political rivals, revenge and cold-blooded murder. More recently poison featured prominently in Soviet-era tradecraft. In 1978, Bulgarian dissident Georgy Markov died after receiving a fatal dose of ricin delivered through the tip of an umbrella on a London street. His killer has never been caught.

Moscow was accused of carrying out an assassination on British soil in 2006 when tea laced with highly-radioactive Polonium-210 was served to ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, condemning him to a slow death.

Indonesian rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib was killed after being poisoned on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam.

If Seoul’s spy chief is right, North Korea now appears to have added a new chapter to the chilling history of poison. of deadly by