That night Markov came down with a fever four days later he was dead from ricin poisoning.
The man, who spoke with a foreign accent, apologized and hurried into a cab that whisked him away.
Behind him, he saw a man picking up an umbrella. In 1978, Georgi Markov was on his way to work at the BBC in London when he felt a sharp sting on his thigh. A replica of the “Bulgarian umbrella” used to kill Markov.