THE SOMERTON MAN WAS ASSASSINATED : NKVD & KGB: ASSASSINATION SIGNATURES. First Published January 2020

THE ASSASSINS

You will find a number of posts on this blog on the subject of how the Somerton Man met his death. He was assassinated and by his own side. The question is just who may have done that? 

Recently published the name of a man who was in Australia at the time and who had the right credentials, that man was Vitaly Pavlov. It is likely that he didn't carry out the deed himself, my view is that he coordinated the event and then trained and organised the local resources who did.

It needs to be made very clear, whilst assassinations within the Soviet Union at the time were numerous, these were in the main shootings or bombings, no one cared who would have done it. When it came to overseas operations against Western countries, that was a totally different matter, that took a highly specialised and expert team. Most of these killings were by poison as per previous and numerous posts on this blog. You will read a little more of the methodology later in this post.

Nikolai Yezhov

This man has nothing to with the case, he was, however, a trained Soviet Assassin. No, we are not about to talk about this man specifically, this post is about the telltale signs left behind by NKVD agents following an assassination.

The Soviets had a well-organised laboratory specifically focused on the creation of drugs and poisons for the use of their highly trained agents. These men, they were mostly men although some females were employed, planned their work with precision, right down to the weight and height of their victims so that just the right poison or blend of poisons could be formulated. Additionally, they may well order a truth drug to be given ahead of the killing so they could extract any valuable information they needed. Mairanovsky left as part of his legacy 'Injection C' a truth drug given 24 hours before the death for just that purpose.

The following is an extract from the book, 'The KGB Poison Factory', which you can buy on Amazon as an ebook for Kindle or similar:

'The second big group are deadly poisons with different toxicity ratings (almost always as high as 5 or 6 – the top marks) that fall under three categories: chemical agents, biological agents and radiological weapons. This arsenal has been constantly refined over the years as advancing science opens new possibilities and as Kremlin leaders develop new requirements. Whenever a new type of poison is used, like the dioxin 2,3,7,8-TCDD-based preparation in the Yushchenko case or polonium-210-based jelly in the Litvinenko case, it is being catalogued and studied by Western experts.

Whenever police investigate crimes where Moscow’s hand can be traced or suspected, several ‘signature indications’ invariably bear the hallmark ‘Made in Russia' at the crime scene. 

First of all, the substance used must make the victim’s death or illness appear natural or at least produce symptoms that will baffle doctors and forensic investigators. 

To this end the Kamera (Laboratory) developed its defining specialty: combining known poisons into original and untraceable forms.

Second, the poisonous agent is always ‘tailor-made’ like a bespoke suit from London’s famous Savile Row. Those agents are also ‘bespoke’ as they are first discussed in every detail and then tailored for the specific target in a well-planned and oft-rehearsed environment.

Finally, the operation will always be carried out in such a way that the victim’s self-defence instincts or vigilance will be minimised, so that he will not be expecting treachery and may even not see or remember the poisoner. All the cases described in this book follow this pattern.

The Somerton Man case fits this description like a glove, it's the NKVD Modus Operandi.