| The "Umbrella Murder" is the most famous incident | | | | highly toxic to man and has no known antidote. |
| involving the misuse of a brolly, and took place on the | | | | Markov wasn't the last person to suffer death by |
| streets of London in 1978. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian | | | | umbrella; in 2003, an 11 year old was beaten to death |
| novelist and playwright who defected from the | | | | with an umbrella by her parents after trying to run |
| communist state to work for the BBC World Service, | | | | away from home in Atlanta, Georgia. She had been |
| met The Reaper after being stabbed with an umbrella | | | | locked in a room and starved before being beaten, |
| containing a poison pellet whilst he was waiting at a | | | | and the cause of death was recorded as 'blunt force |
| bus stop on Waterloo Bridge. It's reported that a man | | | | trauma'. |
| holding an umbrella apologised in a foreign accent and | | | | More recently, a court in Rome has convicted a |
| then walked off. Later that day Markov developed a | | | | Romanian woman of fatally stabbing another |
| high fever and was admitted to hospital; he died three | | | | passenger with an umbrella whilst on Rome's subway. |
| days later. | | | | The 21 year-old female victim, Vanessa Russo, was |
| Due to the suspicious nature of his death, Scotland | | | | jabbed in the eye with the umbrella tip, and died two |
| Yard ordered a thorough investigation including an | | | | days later in hospital. The Romanian was caught on |
| autopsy, where they discovered a pin sized spherical | | | | the metro station's CCTV camera and has been |
| metal pellet in Markov's calf muscle. The pellet was | | | | sentenced to 16 years imprisonment. The news has |
| made up of 90% platinum and 10% iridium and had | | | | sparked calls for stricter laws on immigrants in Italy, |
| drilled holes in which traces of a poison known as ricin | | | | though the incident doesn't appear to have made a |
| were found. The ricin was held in place by a special | | | | dent in the number of travellers taking a short break in |
| sugar substance which was designed to melt at body | | | | Rome. |
| temperature, releasing the poison into the blood stream | | | | For the vast majority of us though umbrellas continue |
| once the pellet had hit its mark. Ricin is a protein | | | | to serve as a useful tool for keeping us dry when the |
| produced by the castor bean plant, found in the leaves | | | | heavens open, but in the wrong hands, this humble |
| and stem, but is most concentrated in the seeds. It is | | | | household item can become a deadly weapon. |