STRIKE THE TRUTH

After looking at several poisonings of Russian dissidents, we now have a clear idea of what the Russian secret services are capable of. But, have you ever stopped to wonder where they get these highly toxic, illegal poisons? The notorious ''Kamera'', or ''The Cell'', was said to be the one-stop shop for Soviet Russia's poisonous needs. Where is it located? And is it actually closed down, or is it still operating in the shadows?   ''Kamera'' or LAB X?  In 1921, a secret laboratory was set up under the watchful eye of Professor Igantii Kazakov. Five years later, it was taken over by Genrikh Yagoda, who became the chief of NKVD in 1934. This was the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, tasked with overseeing the country internal public order affairs, as well as the secret police. It was also the same organisation that was responsible for the '' Great Purge '' under Stalin, in which Yagoda was one of the main pl...

  When police started to find mass graves all over Colombia, they had to stand up and take notice of the rising body count!  How could they trace the perpetrators when the victims had no missing person reports, no families looking for them, and no identifiable dental or fingerprint records?  Some revolutionary investigation techniques were introduced in the Garavito case, let's see what they were! Part 1 is here! POLICE INVESTIGATION In 1997, police found a mass grave containing the bodies of 41 children, just outside a town called Pereira. Up to now, children went missing and clusters of bodies were discovered all over Colombia, but the police didn't give them much notice. Most of the victims were not reported as missing, and cartel activity was rife due to the continuing civil war and unstable political climate.  The bones found at various mass graves from Garavito's victims  The bodies were badly decomposed, so there was only two avenues of identification lef...

This monster is one of the worst serial killers in the world. His body  count is a confirmed 138 victims, with an estimate of up to 400! All of them were young children! But, this killer is not as famous or  well-known as Richard Ramirez or Ted Bundy. Who is he?  Luis Alfredo Garavito will run chills down your spine. And, with a nickname like "The Beast", one can only imagine what atrocities this man di d! A CHILDHOOD THAT SHAPED A MONSTER Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was born on 25th January 1957, to parents Manuel and Rosa Garavito. His hometown was Genova, Colombia. Young Luis was not lucky when it came to his parents.  Father, Manuel, was a womanizing drunk with a penchant for emotional and physical abuse directed towards his whole family. A lot of this was aimed at young Luis, as he was the eldest of the family's seven children. He had six younger brothers and sisters. Name-calling was a common occurrence, with derogatory remarks such as imbecile, bastard and ...

What happens when a highly regarded botanist finds traces of poison in the victims s ystem, but the official toxicology reports come up with nothing? How can we know the exact cause of death of Mr Perepilichnyy when the experts themselves are fighting with the evidence? And the final question is how is it possible that there is confusion with evidence if the investigation is processed properly in the first place? Lets see how the police botched the case in this final installation in our Perepilichnyy series. POLICE INVESTIGATION  There has been a lot of controversy and confusion in this case, and how the police handled it. The insurance company, Legal & General, that was providing life insurance for Perepilichnyy launched an investigation into his case as they suspected he died of murder. They signed on a botanist called Monique Simmonds to test whether there was poison presented in his system. She worked at Kew Gardens and had a reputation for helping in these matters. Botanis...

Alexander Perepilichnyy had a strong conscience, and wanted to do something fair and just. Or, maybe he saw an opportunity to clear his name and return back to Russia with his family. Was that the thing that got him killed? Magnitsky also wanted to do the right thing, and report a crime to the authorities, and he was the one that ended up in jail instead, and died in a very painful way. In this installation, we explore why these two Russian nationals were punished by the state for trying to fight crime.  Magnitsky's funeral  Picking up from Part 2 , we left off that Magnitsky died in jail from poor health and ill-treatment. Browder, angry and hurt, wanted to get revenge on his associate's death. So, he took to the media and YouTube. He published a long expose in a major Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta , and there they included handwritten letters from Sergei Magnitsky professing his innocence.  Handwritten letter from Sergey Magnistky  The newspap...

As we discussed in Part 1 , Alexander Perepilichnyy died in mysterious circumstances when he collapsed a few hundred meters from his house. He was a healthy, mid-40s average man with no discernible health issues. The coroner ruled his death as natural and said it was probably an exercise-induced heart attack. However, friends and family close to Alexander believe that the police dropped the ball in this investigation and that Mr Perepilichnyy died from poisoning by the Russian government. In Part 2, we will have further in this mysterious case.  Alexander Perepilichnyy To look at the events that may have led to Alexander's death, we first have to dive into his entrepreneurial past. In our first post, we covered that Mr Perepilichnyy made his money from lucrative business deals in various industries, even though his education was in science. Alexander always wanted to make money, how he made it was the thing that changed.  TURNING POINT AT UNIVERSITY   He attended studies ...

A Russian whistle-blower who revealed fraud of over $220 million dollars by Russian senior officials, collapses and dies while jogging. He was 44-years-old, and by all accounts healthy. The official coroner report states that he died of a heart attack, but others close to the millionaire say he was on a Russian hit list and poisoned. So, the question that remains is what killed Alexander Perepilichnyy? Alexander Perepilichnyy EARLY AND PERSONAL LIFE  Alexander Yurevich Perepilichnyy was originally from West Ukraine. His father was a surgeon who died in relation to the Chernobyl disaster. He developed leukaemia and died soon after volunteering to help.  Perepilichnyy was a scientist by education, having studied technical science and physics at well-known Russian university, PhysTech. His passion was to study DNA. While he was a student in Moscow, in the 1980s, he met his wife Tatiana, and they had two children together after they finished their studies. While he w...