1 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:10,120 Speaker 1: September fifth, nineteen forty three the state funeral of King Boris, 2 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: the third of Bulgaria, and the nation is united in grief. 3 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: The streets outside Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral are packed with 4 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:27,319 Speaker 1: weeping crowds. No one speaks and all heads about. Many 5 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: here have waited hours already, but everyone wants to enter 6 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: the church to pay their last respects to their beloved king. 7 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: Inside the cathedral for the service is the royal family, 8 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: the widowed Queen Giovanna Kirol, the king's younger brother and 9 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 1: his two sisters. And standing in front of the open 10 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: casket are two small frightened children, Princess Maria Louisa and 11 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 1: the boy King Simeon. 12 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 2: We first saw him in the chapel of the Palace Chapel, 13 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 2: and then in the cathedral where I was laying in state. 14 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,480 Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, Queen Elizabeth sooner they had 15 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:22,640 Speaker 2: brought me back some memories of what occurs after the 16 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 2: death of his sovereign. 17 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: They've never seen a dead person before, and now protocol 18 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: demands that they embraced their father one last time. 19 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,280 Speaker 3: There was my father, so it just kissed him and 20 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 3: I knew it for a ten year old. You know, 21 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 3: you kissed your father's forehead and it's cold, and it 22 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 3: wasn't easy to this very day. I don't like to 23 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 3: talk about it, but you brought it up. I'm sorry, no, no, 24 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 3: because people should. 25 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: Know, and you remember it clearly as it was yesterday. 26 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:00,880 Speaker 1: Is it never gone? 27 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 4: Never forget it. 28 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: And it must have been really hard for your brother 29 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: as well. 30 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 5: He was even smaller. 31 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 3: Yeah, he was four years long, so it was six still, 32 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:13,839 Speaker 3: you know, you go to a funeral and it all 33 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 3: comes back. 34 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: They're both wearing white knee socks and black armbands. Maria 35 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: Louisa is in a pleated skirt and jacket. Little Simeon 36 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: has on shorts and a frock coat. They clutch at 37 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:35,360 Speaker 1: their mother's hand. They looked so vulnerable, so achingly bereft. 38 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:38,400 Speaker 1: You can't help thinking of the young Princess William and 39 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: Harry as they walk behind Princess Diana's coffin. 40 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 2: It was such a gruesome or terrible feeling to kiss 41 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:52,800 Speaker 2: his forehead being icy cold, that I've got this to 42 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 2: this day, and God knows I'm all this stage, but 43 00:02:56,440 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 2: I still avoid going to burials were one can. 44 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 4: See the dead person. 45 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 2: It's just something which has shocked me so deeply that 46 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:09,079 Speaker 2: I can hardly take it. 47 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 4: It's ridiculous, but there it is. 48 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 2: It's lest something that psychiatrists would probably find all sorts 49 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 2: of explanations. 50 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: It must be an unimaginable trial for the children's mother, 51 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:27,720 Speaker 1: Queen Giovanna too. 52 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 4: My mother was heroic. 53 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 3: She was standing there, never shed a tear in front 54 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 3: of us, never, never, ever, she was stoic, That's all 55 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 3: I can see. And then of course she was on own. 56 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: But on top of all the pain and grief of 57 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: that day, there's also a deep sense of disquiet about 58 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: how the king comes to be lying there at all. 59 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: The queen already suspects her husband didn't die a natural death, 60 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,840 Speaker 1: and King Boris's sister, your Doxia shares that unch. Your 61 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:06,400 Speaker 1: doctier is convinced the Nazis poisoned him. Specifically, she blames 62 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,080 Speaker 1: one of the German doctors who tended the monarch on 63 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: his sick bed. She doesn't trust him. Did she share 64 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 1: that intuition with the queen, Because if she did, if 65 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: your docteer did mention the name doctor Sites, the Queen's 66 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: blood must have frozen in her veins. 67 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 2: Seits was the head of a clinic where my mother 68 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 2: had gone. 69 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,840 Speaker 4: She was almost like a sort of private physician. 70 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: Doctor sites was not just any old doctor. He was 71 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: a personal friend at the queen's And so I have 72 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:46,120 Speaker 1: to ask did he use that friendship to infiltrate the 73 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:52,479 Speaker 1: palace and commit the ultimate act of treachery the murder 74 00:04:53,360 --> 00:05:02,520 Speaker 1: of the king? From Lanchad House and exactly right, media, 75 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 1: this is the Butterfly King. I'm Becky Milligan, Chapter three, 76 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: Snake in the Grass. Remember that lead on the Asiatic poison. Well, 77 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:02,800 Speaker 1: I'm back in Bulgaria with my producer EJ following it up. 78 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,039 Speaker 1: There's a historian here who's promised us some new information 79 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:10,800 Speaker 1: about Boris's death. Our route to his office takes us 80 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 1: right past the royal Palace, the one where he spent 81 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: his final days. The palace is over there. That's where 82 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,039 Speaker 1: they all lived, the royal family. 83 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 6: And it's where he died. 84 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:26,400 Speaker 1: I think, I think so. It's right in the middle, 85 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: isn't it. That is quite grand. That's grander than the 86 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:32,839 Speaker 1: palace that we've been to. 87 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 6: It's quite yellow, freezing. 88 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: I forgot to put on another help. So far, we've 89 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:47,359 Speaker 1: only been to Varana palace, the family's country retreat. But 90 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:50,680 Speaker 1: it's this one, the one in downtown Sofia, that was 91 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,599 Speaker 1: King Boris's main residence, and it's here he was taken 92 00:06:54,640 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: ill and died. Was built in the late nineteenth century, 93 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,520 Speaker 1: but after the Second World War, when the Soviet Union 94 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: invaded and abolished the monarchy, it became an art gallery. 95 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:14,720 Speaker 6: Pity it's a national gallery. Yeah, mind you if you 96 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 6: think about Buckingham Paris, I mean that passed the way 97 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:19,400 Speaker 6: open up to visitors. 98 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 1: Yes, it does. Yeah, Actually he doesn't like it, does he, 99 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: the king. He doesn't want to live there, so maybe 100 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:26,239 Speaker 1: it will become more open. 101 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 6: Well, poor old Simeon doesn't have much choice, does it, 102 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 6: because this is no longer a royal palaces. The art 103 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 6: gallery and that's just it. 104 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: I wonder if he did have his eye on it 105 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: and they just you know, he couldn't get it back 106 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: after he came back after the communist regime. Yeah, it's okay. 107 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: It is handsome, large palace like, but not extraordinary in 108 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: my view. 109 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,400 Speaker 6: Right, I wake bite for your birthday. 110 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: The historian we've come to meet, Professor vladimir' Latarski, is 111 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,840 Speaker 1: a forensic researcher you know, the. 112 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 7: Work of the historian is that you start with an article, 113 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 7: a document, and you are trying to make the whole 114 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 7: story concerning the death of King burhists step by step. 115 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: So step by step he's turned the archives inside out 116 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,240 Speaker 1: looking for evidence about the King's murder. Not the Bulgarian 117 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: archives we already know those were stolen when the Communists 118 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:39,800 Speaker 1: occupied Bulgaria after the war. The German archives. He discovered 119 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:44,599 Speaker 1: some very interesting things among the Nazis' personal papers, information 120 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:48,880 Speaker 1: that was never meant to be shared, completely off the record, 121 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: and the evidence came from this. 122 00:08:51,840 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 7: Man, the diary of Joseph Jobbels, the Minister of the 123 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:04,119 Speaker 7: Propaganda Joseph Gebels. 124 00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: Gebels was Hitler's right hand man. As propaganda minister, he 125 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,560 Speaker 1: was effectively the voice of the Nazi party. His diaries 126 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: are full of twisted anti Semitic dogma, but they also 127 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: give us access to some of the most secret goings 128 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:22,839 Speaker 1: on within the regime. The originals are kept in the 129 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:27,720 Speaker 1: Hoover Library in Iowa, but professors Latarwski read copies in Berlin, 130 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:32,960 Speaker 1: and in one particular entry he spotted a very intriguing passage. 131 00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:37,320 Speaker 1: It talks directly about the death of King Boris and 132 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: about how he was killed. 133 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 7: After the death of the king, there was a meeting 134 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 7: between the doctor team and Hitler, but after the conversation 135 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:53,120 Speaker 7: of obviously, Hitler spoke with Goobbos. 136 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:56,760 Speaker 1: And Hitler told Gerbels that the doctors had revealed to 137 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: him the cause of the king's death. 138 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,640 Speaker 7: Said to gorb Bills, it is quite sure that the 139 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,560 Speaker 7: king was poisoned. That is what he had heard from 140 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:09,200 Speaker 7: the doctors. 141 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,559 Speaker 1: But the doctors went much further than that. They actually 142 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: named the poison. 143 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 7: It was some kind of poison from India, probably snake poison. 144 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 1: Snake poison from India. Now that adds up because India 145 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:35,079 Speaker 1: plus snakes equals asiatic poison. So is snake venom what 146 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,839 Speaker 1: killed King Boris, the third of Bulgaria. I need to 147 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:43,440 Speaker 1: speak to a herpetologist, basically a reptile expert, and preferably 148 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:45,199 Speaker 1: one with a thing for snakes. 149 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:51,960 Speaker 8: I had a lot of snakes. I mean I was 150 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:54,600 Speaker 8: keeping and breathing snakes at home. I had probably about 151 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 8: two hundred at one time in the seventies. 152 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:00,959 Speaker 1: Snake experts don't come more experts. The marc O Sha 153 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,320 Speaker 1: he's a professor of herpetology at the University of Wolverhampton 154 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:09,000 Speaker 1: in the UK. He's got long gray hair and a 155 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 1: flowing white beard. He'd make a brilliant wizard. I can 156 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: safely say he knows a thing or two about snakes 157 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: and absolutely everything about snakes from Asia. 158 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:24,920 Speaker 8: Around the world. Every year, up to one hundred and 159 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 8: thirty eight thousand people die of snake bite. Out of 160 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,680 Speaker 8: the one hundred and thirty eight thousand, the majority the 161 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 8: lion's share die in South Asia. Tropical Asia has a 162 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,640 Speaker 8: horrendous snake bite death rate. 163 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,400 Speaker 1: Can you name the venomous snakes in Asia? Just a 164 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:42,040 Speaker 1: short You know five or six of them? 165 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:42,600 Speaker 7: Oh? 166 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:47,720 Speaker 8: Shortlist? Well, the big four common cobra, common crate, Russell's viper, 167 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,080 Speaker 8: sourscale viper. That's the big four. But there's plenty of others, 168 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:54,319 Speaker 8: and there are several species of cobras. There are several 169 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:55,320 Speaker 8: species of crits. 170 00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: At last, I feel we're getting somewhere. I've just looked 171 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:03,080 Speaker 1: top of picture of the Indian creed. It's glossy jet 172 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:07,520 Speaker 1: black with milky white bands. According to Mark, It's highly 173 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:12,120 Speaker 1: toxic venom makes it an efficient killer. But the cobra, 174 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:16,360 Speaker 1: she's an even better murder weapon because she sinks her 175 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:20,720 Speaker 1: fangs far more deeply into flesh. A precision killing. 176 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:25,640 Speaker 8: My favorite snake's my favorite species of king cobra. There's 177 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,040 Speaker 8: something going on behind those eyes. Anyone who's worked with 178 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,319 Speaker 8: kings will tell you that. And I've met king cobra's 179 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:33,880 Speaker 8: in India, and I had a king cobra for many years. 180 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,480 Speaker 8: Sleeping beauty, She's my wallpaper on my computer. 181 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: Is the king cobra, the one that stands up and 182 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: looks at you? 183 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:41,720 Speaker 5: Yeah? 184 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:45,719 Speaker 8: Oh, all cobras will rise up and hood spitting cobras 185 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,640 Speaker 8: much less than non spitters because they tend to raise 186 00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 8: their head a bit, spit and drop again. 187 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: Oh the poetic irony a king killing the king. Now 188 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: in Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, snakes themselves are used 189 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:06,040 Speaker 1: as murder weapons, and Mark has actually given evidence in 190 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:09,400 Speaker 1: homicide trials where snakes were involved. 191 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 8: I do think that some snakes are more intelligent than 192 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:14,559 Speaker 8: we used to think. 193 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:20,760 Speaker 1: So before his Majesty arrived at the Wolf's Layer, could 194 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,600 Speaker 1: Hitler or one of his henchmen have hidden the snake 195 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: in the bunker under the King's bed, and then that 196 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: night as the king slept. Could the venomous serpent have 197 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: slithered across the floor up onto the King's bed and 198 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:42,080 Speaker 1: bitten him as he slept? 199 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:47,359 Speaker 8: Couldn't have the Really, if you want to kill somebody, 200 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:49,880 Speaker 8: they're going to say, can you guarantee this is going 201 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:50,280 Speaker 8: to work? 202 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:50,760 Speaker 7: Well? 203 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:52,160 Speaker 8: Sorry, no? 204 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 1: Oh right. 205 00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 8: I doubt very much whether Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle 206 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:02,680 Speaker 8: interviewed her ptologists when they were thinking of murdering somebody 207 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 8: with snake venom. 208 00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:06,080 Speaker 1: Of course, there's James Bond as well. There's always a 209 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: snake in the bed. There isn't there doing some you know, 210 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:09,800 Speaker 1: ready with his venom? 211 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,200 Speaker 8: Yes, I saw a cobra up at the Liverpool School 212 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,160 Speaker 8: of Tropical Medicine quite a few years ago. It was 213 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,600 Speaker 8: quite a mankey specimen with an odd eye, which was 214 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 8: supposed to have been put into a hotel room to 215 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,120 Speaker 8: kill somebody. Oh my god, you you could stay in 216 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 8: that hotel room for a fortnight and never see the 217 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 8: snake is killed up behind the wastebasket. 218 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:29,760 Speaker 4: You know. 219 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 8: It's just if you got a snake in a room 220 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 8: and expected to kill somebody, you better have a lot 221 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,560 Speaker 8: of time to wait, because the chances of that happening 222 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:41,800 Speaker 8: the snake hides. 223 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: They could die of natural death and the snake could 224 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:45,080 Speaker 1: just continue living. 225 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:48,040 Speaker 8: There potentially, yes, or the maid comes in and turns 226 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 8: the bed and she gets bitten. So it's really it's 227 00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:55,760 Speaker 8: just it sounds great in theory, but killing people with 228 00:14:55,880 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 8: snakes is not it's not guaranteed, it's not efficient, and 229 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 8: it's fought with problems. 230 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: Okay, so you can't just put a snake in a 231 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 1: room and instruct it to kill someone. But then to 232 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:14,240 Speaker 1: kill someone with a snake, you don't need the actual serpent. 233 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: You just need its venom. 234 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 8: When you milk a snake, you get what looks like 235 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 8: where it's a liquid. It may be yellow, maybe slightly orange. 236 00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:27,160 Speaker 8: You may be a bit clear, and that is the 237 00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:30,320 Speaker 8: liquid venom. And generally that would be you have a 238 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,560 Speaker 8: freeze dried to get a dry weight. 239 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: Yes, Mark milks snakes. Just to be clear, he's not 240 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:41,320 Speaker 1: doing it with an eye to murdering anyone. He sends 241 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:45,080 Speaker 1: the extracted venoms to a lab which then produces anti 242 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:49,160 Speaker 1: venoms to help save those who've been bitten. But milking 243 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: a snake is not for the fainthearted. 244 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:55,560 Speaker 8: You hold the snake and you hold a receptacle and 245 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 8: a retort stand, and you encourage the snake to bite 246 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:01,400 Speaker 8: it through a latex membrane which folds back the fang 247 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 8: sheaths along the fangs, and then, if gently the squeeze 248 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 8: in the venom glands, the snake should produce venom into 249 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,479 Speaker 8: the receptacle underneath, and that's your liquid venom. 250 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:17,640 Speaker 1: Please don't try that at home. But if we're to 251 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 1: believe that entry in Gerbel's diary, someone did try it. 252 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: Someone milked a snake and extracted deadly venom. But once 253 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:29,480 Speaker 1: you've got that venom, how do you turn it into 254 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:30,320 Speaker 1: a murder weapon. 255 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 8: If you're going to administer venom, the only way you're 256 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 8: going to be able to do that is by injection. 257 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:41,680 Speaker 1: By injection, remember what professor Slatarski found out from reading 258 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 1: Gerbel's diary. 259 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:47,560 Speaker 7: Hitler said, it is quite sure that the king was poisoned. 260 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:52,520 Speaker 7: That is what he had heard from the doctors. 261 00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: Doctors have syringes, doctors perform injections, And we now know 262 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 1: one thing for certain. If you get the method right, 263 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:06,760 Speaker 1: it's perfectly possible to kill a king with snake venom. 264 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,600 Speaker 1: I think it's time to find out a bit more 265 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:16,680 Speaker 1: about the king's doctors. And remember they weren't Bulgarian doctors, 266 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,439 Speaker 1: so who were they and what were they doing in 267 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,200 Speaker 1: the King's sickroom? In August nineteen forty. 268 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:29,679 Speaker 7: Three, actually, first came Professor Rudolfzidz from Berlin, Professor Chust 269 00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:34,960 Speaker 7: Eppinger os Vienna, and they decided to call the Turtlan 270 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,919 Speaker 7: Professor Maximilian de Grinis neurologists. 271 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:44,600 Speaker 1: Okay, so three highly specialized doctors, all known to Hitler, 272 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: surround the King in his sick room. Let's start with 273 00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: the last one. Decrinis, was a celebrated shrink. He was 274 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 1: also a high ranking SS officer, but he only flew 275 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:03,159 Speaker 1: in at the very last minute, So even if he 276 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:05,640 Speaker 1: was in on some Nazi plot to kill the king, 277 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:08,919 Speaker 1: it couldn't have been to Crinis, who administered the venom. 278 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:14,600 Speaker 1: The damage was done before he showed up. So let's 279 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,359 Speaker 1: have a look at Eppinger. He was a highly sought 280 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: after professor of internal medicine. His speciality was the liver. 281 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,480 Speaker 1: He treated quite a few celebrity patients in his time, 282 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 1: including the Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin and Queen Marie of Romania. 283 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 1: And it was Eppinger, who first raised the alarm after 284 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:37,640 Speaker 1: the doctors examined the. 285 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:41,400 Speaker 7: King because of what they see on the body. 286 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: Which was a very peculiar rash. 287 00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 7: They seen a brown kite of. 288 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: Spots, brown spots. We know this because Professor Eppinger spoke 289 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:58,399 Speaker 1: to the German Air Force attache in Sofia. Just like Goebels, 290 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: that attache kept diary, and in it he wrote that 291 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:05,760 Speaker 1: he'd met with Dr Eppinger, who told him the brown 292 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:11,960 Speaker 1: spots on Boris's skin indicated the absorption of poison. Eppinger 293 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: described it. 294 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 7: As a typical Balkan death. 295 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:20,560 Speaker 1: What do you mean by a typical Balkan death? 296 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 7: I mean in the Balkan there were more political murders 297 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 7: than in the rest of Europe for this period. 298 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,560 Speaker 1: Basically, the Balkans at the time went hand in hand 299 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:36,120 Speaker 1: with assassinations. And it's one of those other typical Balkan 300 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:40,639 Speaker 1: deaths that particularly interests me because it has a striking 301 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:46,199 Speaker 1: similarity to Boris's death. In January nineteen forty one, the 302 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:51,679 Speaker 1: Greek premier Johannas Matexas died very suddenly, and just a 303 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:55,639 Speaker 1: few weeks earlier, Matexas had refused to let Germany's ally 304 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:57,800 Speaker 1: Italy occupy his country. 305 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,720 Speaker 9: The news of the and death of Premier John Matexas 306 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,159 Speaker 9: of Greece has been received with deep regret, both at 307 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,400 Speaker 9: home and abroad. General Metaxis is said to have died 308 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:11,080 Speaker 9: of a streptocoggal throat infection which led to sepsis. Rumors 309 00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:14,160 Speaker 9: circulating in the Balkan press suggests the Greek general did 310 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 9: not meet a natural death, though we have been unable 311 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 9: to confirm such reports. 312 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:20,360 Speaker 10: Before he became a politic. 313 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:24,080 Speaker 1: Word had spread that Metaxas had also been poisoned. And 314 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 1: get this, his skin was covered with brown blotches. And 315 00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: we know that from a first hand witness, none other 316 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:40,080 Speaker 1: than Professor Hans Eppinger. It turns out that the same 317 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: doctor who tended King Boris on his deathbed also attended 318 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:51,360 Speaker 1: the autopsy of General Metaxas. Coincidence or is there something 319 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:52,919 Speaker 1: more sinister going on? 320 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 7: Here? 321 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,600 Speaker 1: Were the Austrian doctor and his German colleagues hired as 322 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,640 Speaker 1: Hitler's hit men, with a brief to kill off anyone 323 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:06,120 Speaker 1: who crossed him. But on the other hand, if Eppinger 324 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,480 Speaker 1: had poisoned both King Boris and the Greek general, why 325 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: would he draw attention to those telltale brown blotches. Let's 326 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 1: put Eppinger to one side for a moment and examine 327 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,960 Speaker 1: the last of this trio who flew in to be 328 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,720 Speaker 1: at the King's bedside, Doctor Sites. He's the medic who 329 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 1: Boris's sister, Princess Eudoxia didn't trust see me in recall, 330 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: she wrote to him that. 331 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:39,679 Speaker 2: This doctor Zeits Dzeites who came from Berlin, was I 332 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:43,120 Speaker 2: mean there was something suspicious about him. 333 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: Now, Doctor Sites knew the royal family literally inside out. 334 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,480 Speaker 1: He was their go to medic because he'd help the 335 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:54,280 Speaker 1: King and his wife on the most intimate and important 336 00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: of their royal duties, providing an heir. 337 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:01,760 Speaker 2: Zeits was the head of a clinic where my mother 338 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,639 Speaker 2: had gone because she had problems in being able to 339 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 2: have a second child yours truly, So she was there 340 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,439 Speaker 2: and she knew Professor Sides, and he came obviously because 341 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:17,879 Speaker 2: she was almost like a sort of private physician. 342 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:23,040 Speaker 1: So if Sites was responsible for the King's murder, that 343 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:30,240 Speaker 1: would be an incredible act of treachery. After all, you 344 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,879 Speaker 1: can imagine how grateful the King and Queen were to 345 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,920 Speaker 1: doctor Sights. When Simeon was born on June sixteenth, nineteen 346 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:43,200 Speaker 1: thirty seven, there was a national celebration. Four thousand prisoners 347 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:47,639 Speaker 1: were released, fines were pardoned, and every school child and 348 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: students in the country had their exam papers increased by 349 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:57,840 Speaker 1: one grade. Thanks to doctor Sites, the Bulgarian throne was secure. 350 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,360 Speaker 1: He was a hero in the royal family. So when 351 00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:03,879 Speaker 1: the Queen heard that doctor Sykes was flying in to 352 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,879 Speaker 1: help her ailing husband, I imagine she must have felt relieved. 353 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,680 Speaker 1: She would have felt her husband was in safe hands. 354 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 4: Or was he? 355 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:20,000 Speaker 1: What could have made aren't you doxy a doubt? Doctor sits. 356 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,879 Speaker 1: After the war he moved to Spain, where the Queen, 357 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:27,960 Speaker 1: Simeon and Maria Louisa were living in exile, and there 358 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,320 Speaker 1: he soon won the trust of the family all over again. 359 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:35,800 Speaker 1: He became the family doctor and even attended the birth 360 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: of Simeon's eldest son. 361 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 2: He was always so attached to us that this man 362 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 2: should have been the I mean, archvillain is something that 363 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:53,439 Speaker 2: I just can't It doesn't sort of fit in my mind. 364 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense. No, but something must have worried 365 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:02,919 Speaker 1: Maria Louisa, because many years later she confronted Doctor Sites 366 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,200 Speaker 1: what went on in her father's sick room. 367 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,680 Speaker 3: One day, I asked him, you know, the professor sides, 368 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 3: what do you know and he said that, you know, 369 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:13,760 Speaker 3: Papa just died. 370 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:16,199 Speaker 1: That seems a bit of a cop out to me. 371 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,280 Speaker 3: Well, he said, you know, he had given his word 372 00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,720 Speaker 3: and he didn't. He wasn't alone, you know, there were 373 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,120 Speaker 3: three of them, so he didn't blame anybody else. 374 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:28,720 Speaker 7: But he just was evasive. 375 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 3: I mean, you know, but he was an old man 376 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,320 Speaker 3: and I was very young, and said he didn't want 377 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:34,840 Speaker 3: to talk about it, but that's what it is. 378 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:36,600 Speaker 1: Did it make you suspicious? 379 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,119 Speaker 3: No, no, no, because he used to be Papa's doctor 380 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,800 Speaker 3: in Berlin too. Papa used to go to him and 381 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,400 Speaker 3: he was a friend. But you know, he didn't just. 382 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:47,920 Speaker 5: He didn't want to reveal anything. 383 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 4: This is what he meant that he had given his 384 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:50,760 Speaker 4: word to. 385 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,520 Speaker 3: But no, I don't see it there and I'll never 386 00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,640 Speaker 3: see it there. So we're all dealing with here's see, 387 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 3: that's the word. 388 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: There's a strange PostScript to the tale of the three doctors. 389 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,320 Speaker 1: We know that doctor Sites went to live in Spain 390 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:13,120 Speaker 1: after nineteen forty five, but the others. 391 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 7: From this trio two people have committed suicides at the 392 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:24,880 Speaker 7: end of the war. So Professor Zeitz, he's the only 393 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,720 Speaker 7: person that they a lived after the war. 394 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 1: Actually, make of that what you will. But Simeon and 395 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: Maria Louisa are adamant that doctor Sites would never have 396 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: harmed their father. He certainly seemed incredibly loyal to the 397 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:45,200 Speaker 1: royal family. Apparently he even arrived at the king's bedside 398 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,320 Speaker 1: covered in plaster dust. That morning his Berlin clinic had 399 00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:53,159 Speaker 1: been flattened by an Allied air raid attack. Yet he 400 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,800 Speaker 1: leapt on a plane to Bulgaria the minute he heard 401 00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:59,000 Speaker 1: the king was sick. Not really the actions of a 402 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:03,760 Speaker 1: callous killer. And there's something else that's the timing of 403 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,800 Speaker 1: all of this. The king was already very sick when 404 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:11,720 Speaker 1: the three doctors arrived, So if Boris was injected with 405 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 1: snake venom, then it couldn't have been one of them 406 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 1: wielding that needle. That must have been done by someone 407 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:23,240 Speaker 1: who was already there. Plus, Hitler didn't force his doctors 408 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:27,439 Speaker 1: on the palace. The Bulgarians actually asked Germany to send help. 409 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: And there's something, professors Lutarski said, I can't get out 410 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,560 Speaker 1: of my head, something that the doctors told Hitler when 411 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:39,280 Speaker 1: he summoned them to a meeting after King Boris's death, it. 412 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,560 Speaker 7: Is quite sure that the king was poisoned. 413 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,000 Speaker 1: Were they informing the furor that they'd accomplished their mission, 414 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,480 Speaker 1: that they'd somehow poisoned King Boris as they'd been ordered 415 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: to do, or were they simply reporting their suspicions that 416 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:58,160 Speaker 1: someone else must have poisoned the king. And unless it's 417 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,640 Speaker 1: typed in code or invisible, Maria Louisa can find no 418 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: proof the Germans killed King Boris. 419 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:10,040 Speaker 3: Nothing was ever found in the German archives, and Germans 420 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 3: were very precise, you know, everything was sealed and stamped 421 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,280 Speaker 3: and signed ten times. Whatever they did, you know, nothing 422 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 3: was ever found in Nurnberg about it. So I'm convinced 423 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,120 Speaker 3: it wasn't It wasn't the Germans. 424 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:28,359 Speaker 1: The Nuremberg Trials took place after the war. High ranking 425 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,879 Speaker 1: Nazis were put on trial for crimes against humanity, and 426 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:38,480 Speaker 1: after scouring the German archives himself, Professor Latarski agrees with 427 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:40,040 Speaker 1: Maria Louisa. 428 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 7: There are no logical signs that Kitler wanted to make revenge. Actually, 429 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,440 Speaker 7: they have a good connection until very last moments. 430 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,159 Speaker 1: So the jury is out on whether Hitler and the 431 00:27:56,280 --> 00:28:00,879 Speaker 1: Nazis were behind Boris's untimely death. Not because it looks 432 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:04,720 Speaker 1: like Hitler was genuinely concerned for the alien king, but 433 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:10,040 Speaker 1: also because, Okay, there's something I haven't told you about 434 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:16,879 Speaker 1: King Boris something really important to many Bulgarians. Boris is 435 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:22,640 Speaker 1: revered as the savior of Bulgaria's Jews, but to others, 436 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: he's reviled as just the opposite. And in terms of 437 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: his murder. This is extremely significant because it points us 438 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: away from the theory that Hitler signed Boris's death warrant. 439 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:47,920 Speaker 1: Let's go back to September nineteen forty three. After the 440 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:52,200 Speaker 1: memorial service at the cathedral, Boris's coffin was taken through 441 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 1: the streets of Sofia to the railway station, where it 442 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:01,480 Speaker 1: was transported by train to the mountains for burials. The 443 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,360 Speaker 1: crowds wept to see their hero go. They called him 444 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 1: the Unifier King, not because he brought the Bulgarian people 445 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: closer together. It was because he'd won back the land 446 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 1: Bulgaria had lost after the First World War. Remember, as 447 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: part of the peace treaty signed by Boris's father, Foxy Ferdinand, 448 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:28,000 Speaker 1: Bulgaria lost lots of territory Thrace, which became part of Greece, 449 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: and Macedonia, which became part of Yugoslavia. But in nineteen 450 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,280 Speaker 1: forty one, a month after Boris allied with Nazi Germany, 451 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:42,000 Speaker 1: Hitler's army overran those countries, and as a reward for 452 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:48,400 Speaker 1: Bulgaria's corporation, Hitler allowed Bulgaria to occupy Thrace and Macedonia again, 453 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,440 Speaker 1: and that was a moment of huge national pride. Basically, 454 00:29:53,520 --> 00:30:00,280 Speaker 1: Boris had restored Bulgaria's dignity, her international standing, but at 455 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:07,360 Speaker 1: what price. Because everything comes at a price, someone always 456 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:12,080 Speaker 1: has to pay, and in some people's eyes, that achievement 457 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:16,240 Speaker 1: was paid for by the deaths of thousands of Jews. 458 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:21,640 Speaker 5: We are doomed and we knew it. All our relatives 459 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 5: from macedon Or were killed. 460 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,760 Speaker 1: Aaron Solomon Balley was only three when King Boris signed 461 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,960 Speaker 1: an alliance with Nazi Germany. He's Jewish and he's lived 462 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 1: all his life in mainland Bulgaria, and he doesn't buy 463 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,360 Speaker 1: the stories about King Boris being the savior of the Jews. 464 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,880 Speaker 1: He thinks King Boris made a very simple pact with 465 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:48,800 Speaker 1: the devil that land in exchange for these Jews. 466 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 5: Oh, definitely. I have a very negative attitude, told Sir 467 00:30:53,600 --> 00:31:01,120 Speaker 5: King Boris. People need fairy tales, people like to hear stories. 468 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 1: And Aaron believes Boris's story is not a nice one 469 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:15,280 Speaker 1: at all. In March nineteen forty three, eleven thousand Jews 470 00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: from Thrace and Macedonia, which Bulgaria had just got back, 471 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:23,000 Speaker 1: were rounded up and force to board trains. They were 472 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,320 Speaker 1: taken through Bulgaria and onto the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland. 473 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:37,480 Speaker 1: Only a handful that those eleven thousand people survived. Many 474 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:41,880 Speaker 1: of Aaron's family were on those trains. He lost thirty 475 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,680 Speaker 1: four relatives. It's still hard for him to talk about 476 00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:49,160 Speaker 1: what happened. He calls it a deep wound. 477 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:53,960 Speaker 5: I don't like this subject. I don't like it because 478 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:58,640 Speaker 5: you see that I have a wound here. Don't touch it. 479 00:31:58,640 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 5: It's a pain. 480 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:05,880 Speaker 1: Why didn't King Boris stop those trains? We know he 481 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:10,560 Speaker 1: managed to cancel two other deportations of Jews from mainland Bulgaria, 482 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,960 Speaker 1: and we know the king always had the final say 483 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:19,920 Speaker 1: on any political decision. Aaron Solomon Barley doesn't accuse Boris 484 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: of being a fully paid up member of the Nazi Party. 485 00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:27,920 Speaker 1: But neither can he absolve him from blame. Had Boris lived, 486 00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: he says, he'd have found himself on trial for war crimes. 487 00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:37,960 Speaker 5: If he had survived, he would be in the Neuremberg process. 488 00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:43,280 Speaker 5: Really well, it's quite a lot of blood for me. 489 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:44,440 Speaker 5: He is a criminal. 490 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 1: This is an ugly chapter in the Reign of Boris 491 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:54,200 Speaker 1: the Third, but it's also a contested chapter. It's true 492 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:58,440 Speaker 1: eleven thousand Jews from Thrace and Macedonia were sent to 493 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:04,280 Speaker 1: concentration camps. Bulgarian soldiers did help load the trains, but 494 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,160 Speaker 1: what we don't know is whether the king could have 495 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:11,240 Speaker 1: stopped it. How much power did he really have over 496 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:16,800 Speaker 1: those territories. Hitler allowed Bulgaria to occupy Thrace and Macedonia, 497 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:23,520 Speaker 1: he didn't actually hand them back. Bulgaria's leading historian, George Bosdeganov, 498 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,960 Speaker 1: says the whole question of ownership was supposed to be 499 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:29,600 Speaker 1: discussed later after the war. 500 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 7: MASSI didn't give these territories to Bulgaria. 501 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: They didn't didn't, but they occupied. 502 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:39,280 Speaker 5: That lack that. 503 00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 3: Occupied occupation is a military action is another matter. 504 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: But he could have stepped in and said, hang on 505 00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:49,560 Speaker 1: a moment, I, as king, say that deportation mustn't happen. 506 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,680 Speaker 1: He could have done he could have saved them. 507 00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:59,000 Speaker 3: No, no, because he has not power, the real power 508 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 3: over this territories. 509 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,560 Speaker 1: But did King Boris have enough power to try to 510 00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:09,680 Speaker 1: stop the deportation? Simeon believes his father's hands were. 511 00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:15,200 Speaker 2: Tied command and everything else was in the Nazis. This 512 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:20,480 Speaker 2: wasn't directly under us. With that, you can see how 513 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:24,920 Speaker 2: much she can blame King Boris for those eleven thousand 514 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:44,080 Speaker 2: people made they really rest in peace. It's something so. 515 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:41,400 Speaker 1: Simeon can't finish his sentence. He just stares at the 516 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:48,200 Speaker 1: floor and shakes his head. But if you subscribe to 517 00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:52,719 Speaker 1: Aaron Solomon Barli's theory that King Boris really didn't care 518 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,200 Speaker 1: about the fate of those eleven thousand Jews from Thrace 519 00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:01,040 Speaker 1: in Macedonia, then why would the Nazis murder him. I'm 520 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: beginning to feel less and less convinced about the theory 521 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:08,640 Speaker 1: that Hitler killed the king because the king seemed to 522 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:20,480 Speaker 1: be towing Nazi Germany's line in other ways too. I 523 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,160 Speaker 1: warned you at the start of this investigation that we'd 524 00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,879 Speaker 1: be delving into the darkest depths of the Second World War. 525 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:32,759 Speaker 1: Where the truth is often questionable and murky or very 526 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,600 Speaker 1: hard to come by at all. I also promised you 527 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:40,560 Speaker 1: that you can always trust me, and that's why I'm 528 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: giving you all the facts I have. I'm not holding 529 00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,840 Speaker 1: anything back, but I think in this part of the story, 530 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,960 Speaker 1: I really have to leave it to you to decide 531 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:57,400 Speaker 1: where the truth lies. Boris's government was distinctly pro German, 532 00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:02,440 Speaker 1: and in nineteen forty one, a few months before Bulgaria 533 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:07,120 Speaker 1: officially became a partner of Nazi Germany, anti Jewish laws 534 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:13,000 Speaker 1: were passed in the country which seriously restricted Jewish citizens civil. 535 00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:17,280 Speaker 11: Rights, and one of his friends all of a sudden 536 00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:19,080 Speaker 11: just slapped him in the face and call him a 537 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:20,600 Speaker 11: dirty Jew out of nowhere. 538 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:26,040 Speaker 1: You remember meeting Elaine Asa in our last episode. Her 539 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,759 Speaker 1: late husband, Rabbi Hayen, grew up in Bulgaria. He was 540 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,400 Speaker 1: ten when those laws were passed. As an adult, he 541 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,839 Speaker 1: campaigned to get King Boris recognition, recognition for his role 542 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:43,879 Speaker 1: in saving mainland Bulgaria's fifty thousand Jews. And yet when 543 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,360 Speaker 1: he was a child in Bulgaria, the anti Semitic laws 544 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: got tougher and tougher. Jews lost the right to vote 545 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:56,400 Speaker 1: and had taxes imposed on their property and possessions, and then. 546 00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:01,120 Speaker 11: They had to wear the yellow star. Really yeah, his 547 00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:05,520 Speaker 11: father had to have a non jewel run his business. 548 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:07,880 Speaker 1: Like all the Jews who lived in the big cities. 549 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: Him's family were forced to move out of their home 550 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:13,760 Speaker 1: to a much smaller place out of town. 551 00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:17,680 Speaker 11: And one day there was a bunch of I guess 552 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:20,240 Speaker 11: Nazis that came and took his father. 553 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:27,839 Speaker 1: And the people who took Him's father were Bulgarians, Bulgarian Nazis. 554 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,800 Speaker 11: So they brought him back with oliver his bones broken 555 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:35,080 Speaker 11: in his body, and then took him about nine months 556 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,799 Speaker 11: to recover. And at that point he says, I'm out 557 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 11: of here. 558 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:45,080 Speaker 1: But most Bulgarians met these changes with anger. Jewish writer 559 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:49,040 Speaker 1: Michael bar Zoha also grew up in Bulgaria. 560 00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:53,400 Speaker 10: There was a kind of civil revolt against these laws. 561 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,000 Speaker 1: He says. There were petitions to Parliament and the Prime 562 00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:03,480 Speaker 1: Minister's office signed by Bulgarians from all walks of life, starting. 563 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:07,640 Speaker 10: With doctors and engineers and lawyers, and going down to 564 00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:13,680 Speaker 10: restaurant waits, to cobblers, to even the peasants who didn't 565 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:17,800 Speaker 10: know to like who signed the petitions with their fingers. 566 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:26,319 Speaker 1: Michael's father was one of the thousands of Jews sent 567 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,879 Speaker 1: to work in Bulgaria's so called road building camps. You'll 568 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:34,680 Speaker 1: remember that was the king's ruse to keep Bulgaria's fifty 569 00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:40,000 Speaker 1: thousand Jews safe from the threat of deportation. Michael says 570 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:43,520 Speaker 1: his father had an easy life in the camp and 571 00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: that they were given back their property after the war. 572 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:52,200 Speaker 1: For Aaron, Solomon Barley's father had a very different experience. 573 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:56,719 Speaker 1: Aaron believes those camps have been misrepresented. 574 00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:02,759 Speaker 5: It's a story, it's a false, fine history. The reality 575 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,080 Speaker 5: was that they were suffering, that they were not paid 576 00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,440 Speaker 5: at all. My mother, grandmother and so on had to 577 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:13,200 Speaker 5: collect some money, buy some food and send it to 578 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:18,719 Speaker 5: my father because they didn't have enough food, for example. 579 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,160 Speaker 5: And it was a problem how to maintain the family 580 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:30,120 Speaker 5: because there were many people depending on his income so 581 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:31,600 Speaker 5: that they can survive. 582 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:37,400 Speaker 1: Really, and remember this was all happening in Bulgaria itself, 583 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: where King Boris did hold power, and things got even 584 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,719 Speaker 1: worse for Aaron's family when they were eventually allowed to 585 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:52,239 Speaker 1: return home, they found little comfort there. Every possession they 586 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,320 Speaker 1: owned had been stolen. 587 00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:59,920 Speaker 5: We were poor enough, but well they had some proper 588 00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:08,040 Speaker 5: when they came back from the countryside, they didn't have anything. 589 00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:12,520 Speaker 5: What did the King do? Nothing? Nothing. 590 00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:17,320 Speaker 1: Now that's very hard to hear. For her Royal Highness 591 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:22,319 Speaker 1: Maria Louisa, she's met hundreds of Jewish people who say 592 00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 1: her parents helped them. 593 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:26,319 Speaker 4: To excuse my father inventedly. 594 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,520 Speaker 3: You know that they had to work in construction and 595 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:34,680 Speaker 3: the country needed them. They were not concentration camps. And 596 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,160 Speaker 3: after that, you know, a lot of them managed to leave. 597 00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:43,440 Speaker 3: My mother helped Pike getting Italian passports and arranging with 598 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,760 Speaker 3: the Catholic Church, and she was a team with my father. 599 00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:49,120 Speaker 3: You know, it's a matter of saving lives. 600 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:54,160 Speaker 1: But even Maria Louisa says that King Boris wasn't acting alone. 601 00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:57,920 Speaker 1: The Orthodox Church put huge pressure on King Boris to 602 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:03,600 Speaker 1: protect Bulgaria's Jews. One of the Orthodox bishops, Archbishop Kirol, 603 00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:08,000 Speaker 1: actually threatened to lie across the railway tracks to make 604 00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:12,680 Speaker 1: sure those deportation trains could never depart, and the vice 605 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:17,640 Speaker 1: President of the Parliament, Dmitri Peshev, constantly petitioned the King, 606 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:22,120 Speaker 1: begging him to give the Jews protection, and the King 607 00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:26,399 Speaker 1: clearly listened to these individuals. In fact, Before he got 608 00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:32,000 Speaker 1: into politics, Peshev had been the King's advisor. Aaron Solomon 609 00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:37,200 Speaker 1: Barley believes Bulgaria's Jews definitely oh thanks to Peshev and 610 00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:40,880 Speaker 1: to certain individuals in the church and community, but he 611 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:45,200 Speaker 1: feels no gratitude to the King or the Bulgarian people 612 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:46,000 Speaker 1: more widely. 613 00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,440 Speaker 5: I feel offended that I have to say thank you 614 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 5: to the Bulgarian nation as a whole. No, no, it 615 00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:00,239 Speaker 5: was personal act and there are too few people who 616 00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:04,319 Speaker 5: did it. But I cannot honor the people who were 617 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:09,160 Speaker 5: guarding our fathers in the camps, and who took our 618 00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:14,279 Speaker 5: property and who put us these yellow badges. No, I 619 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:18,319 Speaker 5: cannot think took them. And they were fascists here, they 620 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,680 Speaker 5: were anti symmates, and they were in power. 621 00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,960 Speaker 1: The anti Jewish law that passed in nineteen forty one 622 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,920 Speaker 1: was signed off by King Boris. It was called the 623 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:34,680 Speaker 1: Law for the Protection of the Nation, as if Jews 624 00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:40,240 Speaker 1: somehow threatened Bulgaria's future, and King Boris did make antisemitic 625 00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:45,279 Speaker 1: comments about Bulgaria's Jews and their financial interests, but the 626 00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:50,800 Speaker 1: reports are conflicting. He also expressed concern for their safety 627 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:55,360 Speaker 1: and well being under the new law. Aaron Solomon Balley 628 00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:59,520 Speaker 1: doesn't think Boris deserves any thanks, but he doesn't think 629 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:01,480 Speaker 1: the king was a Nazi either. 630 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:07,760 Speaker 5: He was not a fascist, but his hands are not clean. 631 00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:12,000 Speaker 1: But did Boris make the best of the hand he 632 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:17,399 Speaker 1: had been dealt? Across Europe, the Jewish population was decimated 633 00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:23,000 Speaker 1: during the war, around six million were killed, but Bulgaria's 634 00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:28,840 Speaker 1: Jewish population actually increased during the Second World War. Elaine's husband, 635 00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:32,320 Speaker 1: Rabbi Haim, was convinced that they would have been wiped 636 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:37,160 Speaker 1: out had it not been for King Boris. Haim recognized 637 00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:41,640 Speaker 1: that protecting Bulgaria's Jews was very much a collective effort, 638 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:47,240 Speaker 1: but he also insisted that King Boris played a significant role. 639 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:53,440 Speaker 11: He was part, not the only one, but part of 640 00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:57,799 Speaker 11: the story that was responsible for saving the Jews of Bulgaria. 641 00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:00,360 Speaker 11: He played an important part. 642 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:04,680 Speaker 1: The thing is, it might be far easier to exonerate 643 00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:07,880 Speaker 1: Boris if only he'd been a little more overt in 644 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:11,160 Speaker 1: his efforts to save the Jews, or even a little 645 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:16,759 Speaker 1: more consistent. But historian Tessa Dunlop thinks that's naive. The 646 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:20,320 Speaker 1: king was flitting and darting in and out of allegiances 647 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:24,240 Speaker 1: like a butterfly, and that's a life saving skill. 648 00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:31,319 Speaker 12: He is a moderate man in an immoderate world which 649 00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:35,560 Speaker 12: is either fascist or communist, and he walks the tightrope, 650 00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:37,680 Speaker 12: and I think we have to commend him for that. 651 00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:41,640 Speaker 12: If he had actually said, you know, treat Jews as 652 00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:44,400 Speaker 12: he called Bulgarian citizens, we wouldn't be talking about him 653 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,000 Speaker 12: now because he had been snuffed out much earlier. He 654 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:48,920 Speaker 12: knew that he had to do some dirty staff. He 655 00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:49,880 Speaker 12: lived in a dirty world. 656 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:56,000 Speaker 1: But for Aaron Solomon Bali, Boris was too much a 657 00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:58,160 Speaker 1: part of that dirty world. 658 00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,719 Speaker 5: He was a very sneaky person, very very sneak, and 659 00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:07,920 Speaker 5: it's right to call him the fox of the Balkans. 660 00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:13,759 Speaker 5: He was a fox. But foxes are sometimes killed. 661 00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:21,759 Speaker 1: And this fox certainly was killed. But by whom I think. 662 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,600 Speaker 1: I am going to take Hitler out of the frame 663 00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:28,200 Speaker 1: at this point, not just because we've seen that King 664 00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:32,640 Speaker 1: Boris wasn't a completely disloyal ally of the Nazis, but 665 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,040 Speaker 1: also because we have to remember none of this is 666 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,680 Speaker 1: happening in isolation. We're in the middle of a war here, 667 00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:43,560 Speaker 1: the biggest war in history, and in the summer of 668 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:47,520 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, Germany really needed all the friends she 669 00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:54,040 Speaker 1: could get abroad, She'd lost major battles on the Eastern Front, 670 00:45:56,080 --> 00:45:59,759 Speaker 1: and at home cities were being pummeled by Allied are 671 00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:03,920 Speaker 1: The Germans had other things to think about than Boris. 672 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,839 Speaker 1: So I have to widen the search for my suspects. 673 00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:12,600 Speaker 1: We think we know the means now, a poison of 674 00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:20,960 Speaker 1: Asiatic origin, probably snake poison. But who else had a motive? Well, 675 00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,680 Speaker 1: I think I can tell you who. We might not 676 00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:29,359 Speaker 1: want to go there, but maybe we have to. I mean, 677 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:34,800 Speaker 1: the Allies hated Boris. Remember this is a man who's 678 00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:38,960 Speaker 1: not only in league with Hitler, he's signed a symbolic 679 00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:45,919 Speaker 1: declaration of war against America and Britain. And one man 680 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:52,520 Speaker 1: hated him more than anyone, Winston Churchill. 681 00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:55,320 Speaker 7: And we will finish the job. 682 00:46:55,719 --> 00:47:00,800 Speaker 1: Yes, I'm serious. Could the cigar chomping British Prime minister 683 00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:05,719 Speaker 1: have signed the order to assassinate Boris when he was murdered? 684 00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,560 Speaker 12: Churchill apparently said, oh see what happens if you support Hitler? 685 00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,840 Speaker 12: In other words, nothing good comes as getting into Bedwick, Germany. 686 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:18,719 Speaker 1: Churchill, the irascible British bulldog hero of the Allies, certainly 687 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:22,959 Speaker 1: had beef with Boris. And Simeon thinks so too. 688 00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:24,600 Speaker 4: You can see it. 689 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,880 Speaker 2: In the different writings and things of Churchill that he 690 00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:28,880 Speaker 2: was no fan. 691 00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:29,440 Speaker 4: Of my father's. 692 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:30,920 Speaker 1: What do you think of that? 693 00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:36,600 Speaker 4: Well, I think of it as I said, So Whenston's pilrivilege, 694 00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:37,720 Speaker 4: you may he rest in peace. 695 00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:41,919 Speaker 1: So the British do have a motive to them. King 696 00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:45,680 Speaker 1: Boris was a snake in the grass, and with thousands 697 00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:49,520 Speaker 1: of British and Commonwealth troops deployed in Asia and in 698 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:53,680 Speaker 1: the Asian Jungles, the British had ready access to a 699 00:47:53,880 --> 00:48:01,319 Speaker 1: means snake venom. Now this puts me being British, in 700 00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:04,120 Speaker 1: a bit of an awkward position with King Simeon and 701 00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:09,880 Speaker 1: Princess Maria Louisa. But I have to ask the question 702 00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:22,719 Speaker 1: did the British kill King Boris? Next time on the 703 00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:29,680 Speaker 1: Butterfly King, the British target the Bulgarian royals. 704 00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:33,320 Speaker 3: A huge bomb fell in the garden, the roof was burning, 705 00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:37,160 Speaker 3: there was wounded people, other people panicked and were screaming. 706 00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:42,000 Speaker 1: And a disturbing discovery in the archives. Casts are investigative 707 00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:45,799 Speaker 1: net far wider. It's really quite dramatic, isn't it. 708 00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:48,920 Speaker 6: No wonder it's marked must never be taken from the 709 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:51,440 Speaker 6: office to be kept always under lock and key, and 710 00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:54,839 Speaker 6: yet it was intercepted, decoded. 711 00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:58,560 Speaker 1: Decoded, And here it is for me that that adds 712 00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:19,040 Speaker 1: a whole new dime mention to this. The Butterfly King 713 00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:23,360 Speaker 1: is a production of Blanchard House and Exactly Right Media, 714 00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:28,879 Speaker 1: hosted by me Becky Milligan. It's written and produced by 715 00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:33,800 Speaker 1: Emma Jane Kirby. Original music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, 716 00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:39,600 Speaker 1: Louis nank Manell and Toby Mattamoon. Sound design and engineering 717 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:45,880 Speaker 1: by Toby Mattamoon and Daniel Lloyd Evans, artwork by Vanessa Lilac. 718 00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:51,600 Speaker 1: The managing producer is Amka Schortino Nolan. The creative director 719 00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:56,279 Speaker 1: of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and 720 00:49:56,440 --> 00:50:00,840 Speaker 1: head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grizsell. For 721 00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:07,359 Speaker 1: Exactly Right Media, the executive producers are Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark, 722 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:14,400 Speaker 1: and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly 723 00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:18,520 Speaker 1: King is inspired by the book Hitler and the King 724 00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:20,880 Speaker 1: by John hal Spencer.