9.2: ALEX ODEH
Alexander Odeh was a Palestinian Arab displaced by the 1967 Arab-Israel War. He moved to the United States in the 1970s, working as a college lecturer, as well as writing poetry. While engaged in political activism in support of Arab people, both in the Middle East and in the USA, he was killed in a bombing attack in 1985 that was widely attributed to a Jewish American terrorist cell.
The alleged perpetrators subsequently fled to Israel in order to evade murder and terrorism charges. One of the potential killers, Andy Green (who changed his name to Baruch Ben-Yosef), is back in the news in earlky 2024 as he seems to be a leader of protests by ultra nationalist Jewish people in Israel, which aim to prevent essential aid from reaching the malnourished Palestinian people living in war-torn Gaza.
9.1: Erik Jan Hanussen
A legend and a mystery in his own lifetime, the decades following his death have only added to the mystique — and confusion — about who Jan Erik Hanussen really was and what his role in the rise of the Nazis might have been. We find out about the various dubious accounts that have shaped public perception about this once-famous mesmerist and clairvoyant, and how an entire subcategory of popular history was born — Occultism and the Nazis.
8.9: LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN
Blown up while sailing on his fishing boat along the coast of County Sligo in Ireland in 1979, the assassination of Lord Mountbatten resulted in international condemnation of the IRA, which claimed responsibility for the blast. Three other people — two teenaged boys and a woman in her eighties — were also killed. Many wondered why the IRA had chosen to kill Mountbatten, an old man who had long ago retired from public life, and who regularly summered in Ireland. It was especially strange that the Irish Republican group would choose to carry out the assassination on the same day as, and overshadowing, a bombing attack against a British Army barracks.
Many years later, it was revealed that there was another aspect of Mountbatten’s life, quite apart from his royal status, that might have put a target on his back. A disgraceful secret that could have made him a liability to the British.
8.8: THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
We explore the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which threatened the life of King James, his wife, and their two sons. History records that a gang of Catholic rebels, including Guy Fawkes, sought to blow up the king as he opened a session of the English parliament. But might someone else — James’ own spymaster — have engineered the entire conspiracy as a “false flag”?
8.7: NEPALESE ROYAL MASSACRE
Did Crown Prince Dipendra single-handedly nearly wipe out his entire dynasty, the Shahs, who had ruled in Nepal for centuries? Did he really murder in cold blood his parents and siblings? If so, why? No solid motive was ever uncovered.
Maybe he was a patsy, a pawn in someone else’s game. Or could he have been a victim framed to look like the perpetrator?
And who stood to really benefit from one of the bloodiest moments in Nepal’s modern history?
8.6: FAISAL AL SAUD PART 2
One of the most vocal opponents and the State of Israel, Faisal lavished money on Palestinian causes. Following the 1973 Ramadan / Yom Kippur War, the Saudi king instituted an oil embargo against the United States and other countries that backed Israel. Other Muslim oil-producing countries joined the embargo, leading to the Energy Crisis, which had a damaging impact on the global economy. When Faisal was assassinated in 1975, many in the Muslim world thought that he had been targeted by the Americans or the Israelis in retaliation. Part 2 of 2.
8.5: FAISAL AL SAUD PART 1
Long before the House of Saud became synonymous with fabulous wealth flowing from their oil rich kingdom, they were tribal warriors who aspired to unite the Arabian Peninsula — and control the holy cities of Mecca and Medina — under their flag and guided by their obscure interpretation of the Islamic faith. Before we look at the details of the assassination of King Faisal, this episode considers the origins of the Saudi royal family, including their connection to British intrigues in the Middle East. Part 1 of 2.
8.4: ALEXANDER II OF RUSSIA
Tsar Alexander II of Russia was reformer who granted freedom to over twenty million serfs in 1861. Two decades later, he was on the brink of signing into law a program of changes to the Russian system of government that might have set the empire on a road to some form of democracy and constitutional monarchy. That was thwarted when assassins from a shadowy radical group called People’s Will killed the Russian emperor on the snowy streets of St. Petersburg.
8.3: ALEXANDER I OF YUGOSLAVIA
The slaying of the Yugoslavian king on the streets of Marseille, France, in 1934 sent shockwaves throughout Europe. His assassination by a squad of Croatian and Macedonian nationalist militants was part of an international conspiracy by more powerful forces that sought to reshape the map of Europe. After a narrative historical recounting of events, host Niall discusses the case with Dr. Chris Millington of Manchester Metropolitan University.
8.2: Philip II of Macedon
Struck down in his prime on the day of his daughter’s wedding in 336 BC, the murder of Philip shocked ancient Greece.
This episode includes a narrative telling of the assassination, before going on to consider the lives of Philip and his much more famous son, Alexander the Great. Then we ask the question: To what extent can we say that the assassin’s blade, plunged into Philip’s heart that fateful day, changed the course of world history?
8.1: STEPAN BANDERA
Reviled by many as a Nazi collaborator who committed atrocities against Jews, Poles, and Russians during the Second World War, Stepan Bandera is regarded by some people in Ukraine as a national hero. His name and legacy have been in the news lately as a result of the war in Ukraine — a conflict rooted in deep historical and geopolitical tensions.
This episode also serves to announce the theme of the new season of the show.
7.24: INTERVIEW: LUCA TRENTA PART 2
Despite the so-called “ban on assassination” instituted by President Gerald Ford, successive administrations have found ways to justify - often using euphemistic language - the killing of people around the world for a variety of political, strategic, and military reasons. From Contra death squads, to the wars on terror, to drone strikes, historian Luca Trenta discusses the evolving policies adopted in Washington’s corridors of power.
7.23: Interview: Luca Trenta Part 1
Luca Trenta, an academic at the University of Swansea, joins Niall for a conversation about the evolving US policy towards the use of assassination throughout the Cold War.
This is the first installment of a two-part discussion.
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.
