The Butterfly King - 4: A Snake is Still a Snake

Summary

Hell in Heaven: The Butterfly King – Episode 4: "A Snake is Still a Snake"

Podcast: Hell in Heaven: A Mysterious Death in Paradise / The Butterfly King
Host: Becky Milligan
Date: April 4, 2024
Summary by Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

In this gripping fourth chapter of The Butterfly King, Becky Milligan advances her investigation into the mysterious death of King Boris III of Bulgaria during WWII. The episode scrutinizes both the motive and means behind the King's demise, spotlighting British and Soviet wartime intrigues, personal vendettas, and the legend of assassination by snake venom. Milligan interviews royal family members, historians, and experts, inching closer to the truth while unraveling layers of propaganda, disinformation, and old grievances. Ultimately, the episode casts doubt on the popular theory of British-inflicted snake poison and opens the door to a possible Soviet hand in one of history’s strangest royal deaths.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dramatic Setting: Wartime Bulgaria under Siege

• [03:00] The episode opens with a detailed account of the Allied bombing of Sofia, focusing particularly on a 1944 raid targeting the royal family at Vrana Palace.
• Queen Giovanna and her children are sheltering underground, terrified as their home is besieged—Boris has been dead for nearly seven months.
• The bombings are framed as personal vengeance, with Winston Churchill, incensed by Boris's WWII alliances, highlighted as a principal antagonist.

“Vrana palace, home to the Bulgarian Royal family.” – Becky Milligan (04:02)

2. Background: Treacherous Alliances and Deep Distrust

• [11:20] The podcast explores Boris’s diplomatic balancing act and Britain’s suspicion of his Saxe-Coburg family, who previously double-crossed the Allies.
• Churchill and Boris’s personal WWII and WWI histories are dissected, suggesting long-standing animosity.
• Bulgarian royal family members recall their direct experiences of the siege, highlighting how the air raids became personal after Boris’s death.

“They think Boris is more Saxe Coburg treachery.” – Historian, quoted by Becky Milligan (14:51)

3. Motives for Murder: The British Connection

• [15:05–19:07] Through diplomatic correspondence, cited from archives and Lord George Lloyd’s private papers, the British government’s growing frustration, feelings of betrayal, and outright threats toward Bulgaria come to light.
• British embassy staff face harassment and violence in Sofia, further escalating hostilities.

“We must now write off King Boris as a dead loss.” – British Ambassador Sir George Rendell (32:37)

Notable Moment

• [23:55] Yavor (royal associate) reveals that a Bulgarian historian, Sylvia, claims to have discovered a British government document that allegedly details plans to assassinate Boris.

4. Means of Murder: The Snake Venom Theory

• [35:01–40:47] The most sensational theory is that King Boris was poisoned with Asian snake venom by the British. Two main sources: London archive materials and Joseph Goebbels’s Nazi diary.

Expert Analyses:

• Mark O’Shea, snake venom expert, methodically debunks the plausibility of venom as the means.
• Snake venom digested orally is ineffective; injected, it could take days to kill—but clinical symptoms and medical details don’t line up with reports of Boris’s illness.

“I’m absolutely positive that it wasn’t [snake venom]. It sounds great. It sounds so sensational and exciting, but no.” – Mark O’Shea (39:38)

5. Red Herrings and Propaganda

• [41:20] Princess Maria Louisa and King Simeon, Boris’s children, dismiss the British motive: Boris had opened secret communications with the Allies prior to his death, making British murder improbable.
• Nazi propaganda is acknowledged as the root of the snake venom rumor, and Goebbels’s personal “diaries” are unmasked as propaganda documents expected to be read publicly.

“This was one of the Nazi theories, part of the propaganda. … So, obviously trying to point to the British Intelligence for having done the job.” – King Simeon (42:20)

6. Archival Cliffhanger: A Japanese Telegram Surfaces

• [44:56] Milligan discovers a newly declassified telegram, intercepted by British intelligence, in which the Japanese ambassador in Berlin reports suspicions that Boris was killed by “a British or Soviet plot.”
• With the British theory looking thin, the Soviets—whose army would soon sweep into Bulgaria—emerge as plausible new suspects.

“I don't know if I found Sylvia's missing document, but I think I might have found something even better … It says the Communists are lying low for the time being. Their time is not yet ripe for action. Not yet. But within a year of Boris’s death, the Red army will have marched into Sofia and occupied Bulgaria.” – Becky Milligan (45:35)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Boris’s death:

“Of course, the official reason for Boris’s death is that he died of a heart attack. But as we’ve established, his strange symptoms suggest he was poisoned. That’s what his daughter Maria Louisa has believed all these years.” – Becky Milligan (07:34)

• On historical grudges:

“Both men had fought in the First World War on opposite sides, of course … and Churchill still held that grudge. He just couldn’t let it go.” – Becky Milligan (14:17)

• On British involvement:

“I'm under no illusions as to the treachery and perfidy of King Boris.” – British Diplomat via archival reading (18:49)

• On Nazi propaganda:

“Turns out Goebbels was counting on his diaries being published. They were not his private thoughts at all.” – Becky Milligan (42:52)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment Description | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:00 | Allied bombing raid on Sofia; targeting of royal family | | 11:20 | Historian and analysts discuss Boris’s wartime diplomacy and British anger | | 17:27 | Lord Lloyd’s charm and later suspicion toward King Boris | | 19:02 | Notes from British archives on threats and diplomacy breakdown | | 23:55 | Yavor mentions the alleged assassination document found by Sylvia | | 32:19 | British Embassy staff under threat and evacuation of diplomats | | 35:01 | Examination of the snake venom murder theory | | 39:38 | Expert Mark O’Shea: “It wasn’t snake venom.” | | 41:20 | Conversation with King Boris's children, dismissing the British theory | | 44:56 | Discovery of Japanese telegram re: British and Soviet plot suggestions | | 45:35 | Soviet motive for the King’s death considered |

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Conclusion

This episode artfully dismantles the theory that King Boris was murdered by British-planted snake venom, revealing it as Nazi propaganda. With new evidence pointing to the Soviets as possible instigators, and with the royal heirs themselves unconvinced of British involvement, Milligan leaves listeners on a tantalizing cliffhanger—was Boris’s death political murder after all, and if so, were the Soviets the true “snakes in the grass”?
Stay tuned for the next episode as the investigation turns to Soviet ambitions and communist infiltration in the Balkans.

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For listeners hungry for history, conspiracy, and Cold War–era drama, this episode weaves archival intrigue with living memory, painting an atmospheric and suspenseful portrait of one of WWII’s most peculiar royal mysteries.

Transcript

[Historian or Analyst]

This is exactly right.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

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[Archivist or Historian]

By the looks of it, they're younger men.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

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[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

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[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

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[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

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[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

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[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Nighttime, March 24, 1944, and a British Royal Air Force pilot circles his Wellington bomber over sleeping Sofia tonight. He's been chosen to hit a very special target. He's waiting for his cue.

[Archivist or Historian]

Steady.

[Ryan Seacrest (Advertiser/Announcer)]

Christ.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

The pilot jabs the rudder hard right and the wing bucks upwards. He's not alone in the pitch dark sky. It's crowded up here. 40 other British bombers swoop over the Bulgarian capital. And in this thick cloud, concentration's everything. Nicely done. Keep on course. Sofia is under attack again. In his drafty cockpit, the pilot is blinded by flashes of exploding bombs hitting their targets. Strings of bombs rain down on the city. They're hitting industrial, government and residential areas. But this pilot hasn't opened his bomb doors. His shells have an altogether different destination. He's not there yet. Just a couple more miles. All through the win. And now into the spring. Hundreds of British and American bomber planes have attacked Bulgaria from the air. The city's in ruins. Bulgaria has no soldiers in Active combat. But she's signed a symbolic declaration of war on Britain and America. And in the eyes of the Allies, she deserves this beating. Get below cloud. The Wellingtons bomb bay is crammed with heavy blockbuster and incendiary bombs just waiting to be dropped. But the pilot's navigator directs him southeast, away from the city, away from the other bombers. They're very close now. It's time. The pilot closes the throttle and the plane begins to dive. Because tonight there's a new target. A very deliberate target. Vrana palace, home to the Bulgarian Royal family.

[Archivist or Historian]

Family, Here we go on.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Doors open and in the palace, cowering in a bunker, are Queen Giovanna and her children, 11 year old Maria Louisa and the boy King Simeon. They're absolutely petrified. Their father, King Boris, has been dead for nearly seven months. A suspected victim of murder. He signed a pact with Hitler and now his family is paying the price and bonds away. The furious formation of Wellingtons pummel Vrana from the sky again and again. This is a made to measure revenge raid. And it's been personally ordered by one man who just cannot forgive. Boris. Treachery. Sir Winston Churchill. The British Prime Minister has no mercy for the young royals. Did he also sign the order to kill their father? From Blanchard House and exactly right. Media this is the butterfly King. I'm Becky Milligan. Chapter 4 A snake is still a snake I'm back in Bulgaria in the grounds of Rana palace with my producer EJ to pay another visit to King Simeon and his sister, Princess Maria Louisa. And as usual, our taxis dumped us miles away from the palace door. It's a long old walk, I know, but there's no way in there. Just gates everywhere and guards who won't let us in. It was nice when he realized we were coming for the King. I think he thought we were a bit, you know, sort of groupies. I mean, if you banged on a gate like that at Buckingham Powers. I was telling you where to go. Hello. Yes, I liked your foreign. Very good Bulgarian. I think you'll remember that Vrana palace was King Boris's go to place. His countryside getaway. He felt safe here, catching his butterflies and playing with his children. Now you know what Vrana means, don't you? No crowd really. And you know what the collective noun for a group of crows is? A murder of crows. How fitting is that? Of course, the official reason for Boris death is that he died of a heart attack. But as we've established, his strange symptoms suggest he was poisoned. That's what his daughter Maria Luisa has Believed all these years. She was just 10 when her father died. She's now 89. And we're actually visiting her on a rather special occasion, the Princess's birthday. And we have brought a couple of. We've got rather nice little present for her. Biscuits. Yeah, everybody likes a biscuit, it's not a diamond. But yes, Maria Louisa is turning 90. I am a bit worried about the flavors, rose and violet. Rose is a little bit coals to Newcastle actually, because Bulgaria is famous for roses. I did think about that afterwards. Do you like violet flavored biscuits? I don't think I've ever had them. They're actually quite disgusting. They really. I hope she doesn't offer us one. Well, I'm not going to have one. Maria Louisa has flown into Sofia from New York to celebrate with her brother, King Simeon. She must be jetblad because I actually got here yesterday or the day before. I don't know if you have jet lag when you're older. Just worn out all the time, aren't you? We're worn out all the time. The thing is, we're both feeling a bit nervy because today we have to broach a rather tricky subject. The possibility that Winston Churchill and Britten may have been responsible for their father's death. So I'm slightly fearful about the kind of welcome we're going to get. Look, here comes a big posh looking car. Look. Yes, them come to get us. Talking of distrust, that looks like a sort of armor plated car, doesn't it? Oh my God. It's just stopping. It might be the King is. The palace is this way. Which way? Up here. Oh my God. Is he gonna run us? And we're gonna hear the exception. Accelerator though. They don't want us to do the story anymore. Don't look. Oh, look, here we are. He's following us. Oh my God. I'm quite. Should we walk faster? Quickly. The thing is, we now think we know how Boris was killed. We found evidence in two sources, the London archives and the diary of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. They both tell us it was an Asiatic or Indian poison which did for the King. Probably snake poison. And guess who has ready access to Asia? During the war in 1943, Britain was an imperial power with colonies across south and Southeast Asia. The British and their Commonwealth allies were fighting a savage war against the Japanese in the jungles of Indonesia and Malaysia. Conditions for the troops were pretty terrible. For every soldier wounded in battle, another 120 fell sick due to tropical illnesses. They were bitten by mosquitoes, bugs and, of course, snakes. In fact, before they went to bed at night, soldiers were warned to check their beds to make sure they didn't get any nasty surprises. But it wasn't just those snakes that concerned the British. This Royal Air force film from 1941 clearly identifies another treacherous snake, at least in the eyes of the Brits. A snake hiding in the Royal palace in Sofia. King Boris.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Bulgaria lies between Greece and Romania.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Remember, Bulgaria had started the war insisting on her neutrality. King Boris wanted to stay out of it all, but he broke his word.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

King Boris agreed to keep out of the war if we restricted Bulgaria's neutrality. We kept our promise. But already Boris was flirting with Hitler.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And when Boris signed that pact with Hitler, Churchill was livid. To Churchill, honour was everything, and his anger went deep. The previous winter, Britain had signed the largest surrender in British history. When Singapore fell to Japan, it was a humiliating defeat for the Empire, a loss of face that Churchill found very hard to swallow. The Allies were losing thousands of men every week, yet Boris had managed to avoid sending a single Bulgarian soldier to the front. Not one was engaged in active combat. Historian Tessa Dunlop reckons Churchill despised Boris for that.

[Historian or Analyst]

What's interesting is, unlike, for example, the Romanians, who are holus bolas in bed with the Germans, Boris walks this enigmatic line, and I think that's almost infuriating. Like, you can hate the Romanians, but by God, they got their comeuppance in Russia. They were murdered like flies, you know, whereas Bulgaria, it seems like they've had a pretty easy ride of the war, to be honest with you. A little bit of light occupation.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And let's not forget that symbolic declaration of war that Bulgaria made on Britain and America.

[Historian or Analyst]

How can you symbolically be at war with someone? Talk about wanting to have it both ways. Well, if you're Churchill, what are you gonna make of that? You're not gonna think, oh, Boris is my new best friend.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And what's more, Boris has done it all in the shadows.

[Historian or Analyst]

By playing the system, he's managed to get his way. And that probably sticks in the crawl, don't you think, of Churchill? I mean, this man at Churchill stakes his identity on taking the fight to.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

The enemy, you know, on the landing.

[Historian or Analyst]

Stages, even though he's never gonna bloody have to, and all that kind of jazz. And Boris does the exact opposite, which work as many people as you can play them off against each other. Don't play your hand until you absolutely have to. And he's done it really rather well. That's infuriating.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Even more so because Britain had been double crossed by Boris's family, the Saxe Coburgs, before. And Boris soon followed his minister being.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Met at the station by the Fuhrer himself. And like his father in the last war, he betrays his people.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Like his father, Boris's dad, Foxy, Ferdinand had been courted by the British and French in World War I. They hoped he'd be their ally. But Foxy was also secretly being wooed by the Germans. And in the end he decided he'd be better off with them. And for Churchill and Boris, this is where it all gets personal. Both men had fought in the First World War on opposite sides, of course. Boris with the Triple Alliance. That's Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy. And Churchill with the Triple Entente, that's Britain, France and Russia. And Churchill still held that grudge. He just couldn't let it go.

[Historian or Analyst]

They think Boris is more Saxe Coburg treachery. Don't forget Boris is the son of Ferdinand. Ferdinand, the only king in the Balkans to not fight alongside the Entente in the First World War.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Did Churchill expect Boris to pay for the sins of his father? Boris's decision to ally with Hitler sent shockwaves through the British Establishment. And that broken promise left more than one British diplomat feeling like a fool. Diplomats like Lord George Lloyd. And how do I know? Because on one of my trips to the archives, I came across his private papers. So we get the real sort of gossipy, gossipy side of this, you know, don't forget all this he was feeding back to London. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's what his job was, wasn't it? I expect they all sort of, when they heard something interesting, they're on the blower, as they would say then. Yeah, on the blow. So intriguing, isn't it, to have access now to, you know, all of that correspondence and his thoughts and, you know, all those little bitchy comments. It's interesting. Lord Lloyd was the Chairman of the British Council. It's the sort of cultural arm of the Foreign Office designed to create good relations overseas. In the winter of 1939, he was sent on a tour of the Balkans to try and shore up support for the war. Now, Lord Lloyd was no fool. He was also a spy and his personal letters show he had a waspish tongue.

[Archivist or Historian]

I dined that night with Colonel Ross, our military attache. A dinner that would have been pleasant had it not been for the volubility of Monsieur Chazon, the League of nations representative, who may conceivably be interesting on politics. But who on military affairs is as ignorant as. As he is assertive. The remaining guests were not of great interest. My impression of him was that he was a rather tiresome windbag. The next day at 7:30, we left for Sofia, only to be told the ferry would not leave for some three quarters of an hour. So we went into a cottage on the quay, drank some coffee with bad brandy, and came to an overheated and reasonably unspeakable restaurant to have breakfast.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Lord Lloyd first met king Boris in 1939. That was long before Boris teamed up with Hitler. And, well, Lloyd was charmed by him, particularly by the King's affection for his royal British cousins, the Windsors.

[Archivist or Historian]

King Boris alluded to the invariable happiness of his visits to England. He had especially enjoyed his visits to Balmoral. He showed me a small photograph of his late Majesty King George V, which he always kept on his writing table in front of him.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

He was so impressed that after his visit, he even wrote to King Boris.

[Archivist or Historian]

I have since my audience with your Majesty, done my best to convince everyone I meet of the strength and sincerity of Bulgaria's neutrality.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

But a week or so later, Lord Lloyd popped over the border to Yugoslavia, where he met their ruler, Prince Paul. He told the Prince about his wonderful audience with the trustworthy King Boris. The Prince gave him a very different view.

[Archivist or Historian]

Prince Paul laughed, merely replied that I was yet another simple and guileless victim of King Boris. Well known tactics.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Prince Paul basically told Lord Lloyd he'd been had. And that picture of King George V that Boris had on his writing table.

[Archivist or Historian]

He said, as for the photograph, he kept many of them of different kings and rulers, and pulled out the proper one for each listener.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Crafty. Now, don't forget, all this was being fed back to the government, to Churchill. And while Lord Lloyd might have been charming to the King, privately he became deeply suspicious of him.

[Archivist or Historian]

I'm under no illusions as to the treachery and perfidy of King Boris.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And when Bulgaria signed a pact with Hitler, tempers boiled over. One of the papers I found in the archives has an angry comment scrawled.

[Archivist or Historian]

Into the margin, Bulgaria will live to regret her decision.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Is that a veiled threat from the British? Was Lord Lloyd preparing the way for his spy network to assassinate Boris? I mean, I don't really need to spell out what secret services get up to.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Secret services? You know, there's a bit of a hint on the name of the tin. They do operations in secret, which others cannot do.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

That's Colonel Hamish de Breton Gordon, our weapons expert. Remember, he's ex military, and let's just say he's not unfamiliar with covert operations in wartime. In the defence of the homeland, they're.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Prepared to do whatever it takes, he says.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Bumping off Boris doesn't sound like the sort of thing British intelligence would do today, but I would never completely rule.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Out that perhaps these sort of things have happened in the past.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

What kind of man would let this happen to his family?

[Archivist or Historian]

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On a story about the Murdochs.

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[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Oh, okay. Oh my God. Oh look, two doggies. Booby Bobby at Rana palace. We're under threat when someone sets the dogs on us Hello, Booby. All the King's dogs are called Booby, or at least Boris's work. Just call Booby. Look, it's working all right. Luckily, EJ subdues the royal guard dogs with her special doggy voice. You're a rubbish guard dog. Morning. How nice to see you again. To see you. Should we go straight in?

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Yes, inside.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Okay. Perfect. Then Yavor, the King's suave and charming aid, comes to our aid. But on our way into the palace, there's a difficult moment. Yavor casually points out the underground bunker the royal family had built to protect themselves from Allied bombing.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

So after the start of the Second World War, they decide to build a modern bunker. It's right here underneath it. Yes, this is the entrance. This bunker saved the royal family when this tower collapsed.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Right.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

It collapsed during the night. King Simeon go out with the family.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And they all were under here.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Yes. They see the burning of the house because the planes came from there. Put the bombs here and continue. But it was there, few meters of the palace.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And just when I'm thinking this visit can't get any more awkward, Yavord drops his own bombshell. His friend Sylvia, a Bulgarian historian, has apparently found some damning evidence about who murdered King Boris.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

When they were in uk, they found a document that showed that the British wants to give weapons to someone to assassin King Boris in Bulgaria. So this is what the British discussed.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Hang on a moment, hang on. So it's the British?

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Yes. This is what she found?

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

I think so. Yaval's claiming that a Bulgarian historian has proof the British wanted King Boris dead and that they were trying to arm someone to do the job for them. I can hear Princess Maria Louisa and His Majesty King Simeon coming down the corridor. We quickly try and get the details from Yavor, the historian. Sylvia has found it in the uk. Yes. I think, though, that's what we need. We do need to speak to her. Really.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Yeah.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

I will send a second message now to see if she will answer me.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, you, Royal Highness. Good afternoon, you, Majesty.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Nice to see you again. Back to Sofia. Wonderful.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

I feel like you haven't left. So how are you doing with the jet laggy, is it?

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

You have to ignore the jet lag.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Oh, very good. Yes, absolutely. Perhaps our birthday biscuits might soften the mood. Her birthday this year falls on an unfortunate day.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Friday the 13th.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Oh, no.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

And it was Friday the 13th when I was born.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Oh, my God.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

So it doesn't work for me, the bad luck and all that rubbish.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Oh, yes. Throw that out the window. Anyway, this is for you from us, just because we wanted to mark it and.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Oh, my goodness, heaven's sakes, what is it?

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

You can have a little. We hope that is it booze. It's not booze, no. Oh, God. We did think of booze, but then we thought maybe it's biscuits.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Oh, delightful.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

I told EJ we should have got booze.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Great. Delighted.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

But then we have to get down to business. And the thorny subject of who killed Maria Luisa and Simeon's father. I hold off mentioning what Yavos just told us about that document his friend found accusing the Brits of murder, because I first want to explore whether the British had a motive. The Allied air raids began in April 1941, when Boris joined sides with Hitler. And they picked up again in December of that year in response to the King's symbolic declaration of war. The British Prime Minister had persuaded President Roosevelt that Bulgaria needed a sharp lesson. But what's strange is the raids intensified after the King's death in 1944.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

There were huge air raids over Sofia. Many, many times, many days. Sofia almost burned. It was ghastly times and it was absolutely terrible. We were carpet bombed several times. Absolutely horrible. And five minutes after the all clear, my mother would drive in and visit people in the hospitals and, you know, there was no water, no electricity.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And then, as we've heard, the raids became personal, directly targeting Verona palace, where the boy King Simeon was hiding in that underground bunker with a little flashlight. He still doesn't like talking about it. He once wrote that he was sure they were all going to die. His sister remembers watching her home go up in smoke.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Sure. Vrana burns.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Do you remember seeing the flames?

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Sure. Incendiary bombs on the roof. The roof was burning. There were, of course, wounded people. Other people panicked and were screaming.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

And it didn't end there.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

A huge bomb fell in the garden and one of these enormous bombs made a huge crater and our chief gardener decided it was much too complicated to fill the hole, so put a little pond and we used to call it Churchill's Lake. It's no longer there?

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

No, but it was over there. How. How terrifying. Just missing by an inch. So was Churchill just trying to frighten Bulgaria into changing sides once Boris was dead? Or was he determined to wipe out the entire royal family, a family he felt was rotten to the core? Why did he do it? Do you think.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

That you have to ask him?

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Up there, Maria Luisa is pointing her finger up, upwards towards heaven. She's not smiling. So Churchill certainly had A motive for killing King Boris. And remember what Yarvor told us about that document his friend Sylvia found? It sounds like the British were creating their own opportunity. But that's where we've got another mystery on our hands. Because Yavo's friend Sylvia won't pick up our calls. But it so happens we know another friend of hers. Her colleague, in fact. The very distinguished historian George Bozdoganov. You might remember him, he gets ever so slightly frustrated with me from time to time. So if you look at this right, I think that's 1943 and it's more a look at this document. You want me to shut up, don't you? Yeah. Okay. Excuse me.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Yes.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

So I get my producer EJ to call him to ask him if he's familiar with Sylvia's discovery.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

I'm absolutely sure I haven't seen such a document that British have an agreement for killing Tsar Boris. I, I, I'm hearing about this document for the first time in my life from you now, just now.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Yes. I found it rather surprising. And I thought if anybody has found something like that, it would be the great detective historian, Mr. Bozduganov himself I'm listening to.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Thank you. But I haven't found such a document at all.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Thank you so much.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

My regards to your colleague Betty Mulligan.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Also, thank you very much. I'm here and thank. Thank you. It was lovely to speak to you.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Okay, bye.

[Archivist or Historian]

Bye.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

He's missing me already. At least he's promised to try to reach Sylvia for us. Well, so? No. So he thinks it's a mistake. A mistake? Unless Sylvia squirreled away a document without telling him. He's quite indignant, isn't he? That, you know, if it's true there's a document, he will be really cross. Well, let's see what he can find. Back to 1941, Sofia and our list of British motives for murdering Boris. Boris has allied with the Nazis. And the situation in the city is getting worse. At the British Embassy staff are terrified. With good reason. Under Nazi orders, the Bulgarian police start arresting British Embassy staff. A British official is kidnapped. The ambassador's butler disappears. And we know this because in the archives I came across another set of private papers that shed light on our investigation. The papers of the British Ambassador to Bulgaria, Sir George Rendell, the man at the heart of the action. He telegrams London in a fury.

[Archivist or Historian]

Methods adopted by Bulgarian authorities have been intolerable. Arrest of the Bulgarian employees of the press office was entirely unjustifiable. And removal of the legation butler without Notice was an affront in which I cannot acquiesce with any dignity. We must now write off King Boris as a dead loss.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Rendell's 21 year old daughter lives with him and he fears for her safety and for the safety of his 60 embassy staff. He's right to. Under Rendell's direction, the British mission packs up and decamps to Turkey. On 11 March 1941, the Ambassador and his diplomatic party arrive at the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul.

[Archivist or Historian]

Hello. May I just have the keys to my room please, Sir George Randall. Don't worry about our bags for now. You can get the boy to bring them up by and by.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Rendell and his daughter are given rooms on an upper floor. That twist of fate saves both their lives because a few minutes after they check in, someone has planted a bomb in their luggage. Six people are killed, including two members of Rendell's staff, both young women. Several other people are badly injured. Who could have planted the explosives? Well, the train which had taken them from Sofia to Istanbul was a private train. And it turns out that this was the private train of King Boris III of Bulgaria. So for the Brits, there were only two options. The Bulgarians had planted the bomb themselves or were at the very least complicit. Either way, it wasn't a good look. The hostility between Bulgaria and Britain had just reached another level altogether. Rendell and the King had enjoyed cordial relations over the years. They'd even bonded over their butterfly collections. But in his end of mission statement, Rendell writes.

[Archivist or Historian]

As for the future of the country, it is dark indeed. If Bulgaria meets with heavy punishment, she'll have nobody but herself and her present rulers to blame.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

All the evidence points in the same direction. The British had every reason to kill the King, but how did they do it? Back to the jungle and that snake venom. And keep in mind that the claim Boris was killed with snake venom comes from the private diary of Joseph Goebbels, head of Nazi propaganda. Not really what you'd call a trustworthy source. But why would he lie in his own diary? So we know British troops were fighting in the jungles of Asia. We also know there's a huge population of deadly snakes in those jungles and that their venom can be milked, freeze dried and then injected into someone. Our favorite snake expert, Mark o' Shea told us so. But remember that King Boris took six days to die. If you're injected with deadly snake venom, wouldn't you keel over immediately?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Not like you see in the movies where somebody gets bitten and they fall over dead. That doesn't happen.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

In fact, it all depends where precisely the venom's injected.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

There are so many different ways of doing injections. Intramuscular, intravenous, subcutaneously, intraperitoneally. Ooh, not that one. Thank you very much then. Obviously, the venom's got to spread from there up the lymphatics, through the tissues, through the blood.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

So a person injected with snake venom could take a while to die, especially if the venom isn't too potent and we know the poor king lingered on his deathbed.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

The same species could have a considerable amount of variation in venom. When you milk the venom, you don't know what concentration of venom is there, because it all depends when the snake last used it.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Ok, it's clearly not a precise science, but what if the freeze dried venom wasn't injected, but was slipped into his food?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

The point with venom is that snake venom's a protein, so therefore your saliva will start the process of digestion and your gut will finish it. The venom's probably not going to be around long enough to actually do anything.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

So Boris couldn't have been killed by swallowing snake venom. Mark's actually tried it by accident, that is.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

I've caught a lot of spitting cobras and they spit their venom at your face and some of that venom has gone into, into my mouth, hit the back of my throat. It's quite acrid. Generally. I'll just have a swig of water or coffee to take the taste away.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Remind me never to accept a dinner invitation at Mark's. So, let's just recap Boris symptoms for a minute. He had a fever, he was vomiting, his skin was covered in blotches, his red blood cells exploded. Then he lost consciousness, his liver packed up and finally he had a fatal heart attack. Does snake venom cause such a reaction?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Well, there isn't one answer to that. For the simple fact that snake venoms are complicated cocktails of different toxins.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

This next bit's very technical.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

You've got neurotoxins which affect the nervous system, hemotoxins that affect the circulatory system, cytotoxins that.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

To be honest, all this is going a bit over my head. I'm still feeling a bit sick thinking of Mark swallowing snake venom. And then suddenly.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Then you've got cardiotoxins that directly target the heart.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Cardiotoxins. A snake venom which directly attacks the heart. Have I finally found what killed me, Boris? Okay, but.

[Ryan Seacrest (Advertiser/Announcer)]

But.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Why does there always have to be a but?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

If there's damage to the blood vessels. I would expect there to be signs of that in the kidneys. And I would expect the urine to contain blood. Urine as. As black as Coca Cola, Right? Probably a sizable amount of it. And that's not been mentioned?

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Well, no. He's a king, for goodness sake. I can't exactly ask about a phial of royal pee. Never mind. But now he's reviewed the symptoms. Does Mark agree it could have been snake venom that killed King Boris?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

I'm absolutely positive that it wasn't. It sounds great. It sounds so sensational and exciting, but no.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Oh, come on. We've got deadly Asian snakes whose venom causes heart attacks. What more do you want?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

People can survive snake bites sometimes without any antivenom. It's estimated that up to 50% of bites might not be fatal, even without treatment.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Well, he could have been one of the unlucky few.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

I just don't go for that. If you really, absolutely must bump somebody off, then don't use snake venom. Use something that is guaranteed to do the job.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

But maybe. I know there's that sort of sense of, you know, the sort of fog of war and the mystery and all the spies and let's do something a little bit, you know, different.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

Why?

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

I can't persuade you, can I?

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

No, you can't. I just don't see this as an efficient means of getting rid of somebody. Nice though it sounds in a novel or something like that.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Okay, I know when I'm beaten. Looks like Goebbels sent me down a blind alley. So, reluctantly, I'm scratching out snake venom as the means that killed the King. But at least I've still got the British and Churchill in the frame for the motive. All I have to do now is pluck up the courage to confront Simeon and Maria Luisa, to admit to them that I think my own countrymen killed their father. But our interview doesn't go the way I'd imagined at all.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

That's just nonsense. We were too small and unimportant for Britain to send somebody and put poison in his soup. I don't believe.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Turns out the Royal siblings have already researched Britain's potential motives for killing the King, and they've crossed the British off the list of suspects. There's a very good reason why. Turns out that by 1943, King Boris was in secret talks with the Allies to try to change sides.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

The British had no advantage of it because my father already were all trying desperately to ask for Western help.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Yes, because Churchill was pretty vociferous about Bulgaria? Oh, yes, and your father.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

Yeah, but not to the point of poisoning him.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

They know all about the Asian snake venom theory, too, and, like me, they've dismissed it.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

This was one of the Nazi theories, part of the propaganda? They said that it was a snake poison, but it was only found in British Guiana. So, obviously trying to point to the British Intelligence for having done the job.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

But why would they have wanted to do that?

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

We're on the wrong side in the war so that you could think that there's a reason that they should eliminate the King.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

So the Nazi propaganda minister's diaries were just another piece of propaganda? Turns out Goebbels was counting on his diaries being published. They were not his private thoughts at all. And of course, we're in the middle of the war where everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else and passing the buck. It seems we're only chasing red herrings here. And remember Sylvia Yavor's friend who found that document blaming the British? She discovered it in the British archives, apparently. Well, even Bulgaria's leading historian, George Bozdoganov, can't find her. She's gone totally awol. Okay.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

I tried to call on Sylvia, but she doesn't answer the phone. But I doubt that such kind of document existed at all.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

I'm beginning to doubt it, too. To be honest, I'm beginning to doubt everything. In one fell swoop, I've managed to lose the means, motive, and the opportunity for the King's murder. And I just don't think Churchill had enough to gain from murdering Boris, especially if he'd already started secret talks with the Allies. So who did have something to gain? And if it wasn't snake poison, how did they do it? I've come back home to the uk, to the archives, because I've absolutely got to check something out. I know it's a long shot, but what if Sylvia really did find something? Something that I've somehow missed? So, along with my producer, ej, I'm turning the files inside out one last time until. Oh, my God. That was just incredible. I can't believe it. What did you think? I mean. Okay. All right. Sorry. I know. It's the screen. It's amazing.

[Advertiser or Narrator for Ads]

I know, I know. Sit down.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

Okay. Sit down here. Now, I don't know if I found Sylvia's missing document, but I think I might have found something even better. So, right at the top of it, it's so secret, it says to be held under lock and key and written by the Japanese ambassador in Berlin. It's a telegram destined for Tokyo announcing the strange death of King Boris iii. And marked most secret to be handled with discretion. It's been intercepted and decoded by the British. Halfway down it says that, you know, there's suspicions that the king was poisoned. And then in black and white here, it says by a British or Soviet plot. Well, we've discounted the Brits, but what about the Russians? Because the telegram says something else. It says the Communists are lying low for the time being. Their time is not yet ripe for action. Not yet. But within a year of Boris's death, the Red army will have marched into Sofia and occupied Bulgaria. So was it the Soviets who wanted Boris out of the way? Soviet plot. I mean, that's. There we are. I mean, it's in black and white. For me, that. That adds a whole new dimension to this. Next time on the Butterfly King. Bulgaria's fortunes run red. A lot of people afterwards were called and accused, and a lot of people just disappeared. And a ghastly exhumation for the royal children.

[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

So they brought the coffin. And the coffin was, of course, with a little glass window. And so we children saw our papa three years after he had died.

[Becky Milligan (Host/Narrator)]

The Butterfly King is a production of Blanchard House and Exactly Right Media, hosted by me, Becky Milligan. It's written and produced by Emma Jane Kirby. Original music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanel and Toby Matamol. Sound design and engineering by Toby Matamong and Daniel Lloyd Evans. Artwork by Vanessa Lilac. The managing producer is Amica Shortino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grizzell for Exactly Right Media. The executive producers are Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer, with consulting producer Kyle Ryan. The Butterfly King is inspired by the book Hitler and the King by John Hall Spencer.

[Ryan Seacrest (Advertiser/Announcer)]

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[Yavor or Bulgarian Royal Family Member/Associate]

This is Alec Murdock.

[Expert (e.g., Weapons or Medical Expert)]

I need police and an ambulance immediately.

[Advertiser or Narrator for Ads]

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