The Butterfly King - 8: The Rest is History

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Hell in Heaven: A Mysterious Death in Paradise
The Butterfly King - 8: The Rest is History
Host: Becky Milligan
Date: May 2, 2024
Podcast Network: Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

In the final episode of The Butterfly King, award-winning journalist Becky Milligan delves into the unresolved death of King Boris III of Bulgaria in 1943—a case shrouded in theories of poisoning, Soviet intrigue, and family trauma. The episode weaves the decades-long search for answers by Boris's children Simeon and Maria Luisa with historical context, scientific insight, and personal reflection. Milligan leads listeners through the forensics of mushroom poisoning, Cold War political machinations, and the emotional aftermath for Bulgaria's royal family.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Night King Boris Died – Was It Poison?

• Setting the Scene:
  • King Boris's final dinner in August 1943 was a private affair with his close friend and advisor, the architect Yordan Sevof. (04:00)
  • Maria Luisa, Boris’s daughter, voices her conviction that something was put in her father’s food that night:

    “I’m convinced that something was put into his soup. You know, he had dinner with somebody alone and felt ill after dinner suddenly.” – Maria Luisa (02:31)

  • The king fell ill after the meal and died soon after, displaying skin blotches consistent with poisoning.

2. Could It Have Been Mushroom Poisoning?

• Scientific Input:

  • Milligan visits the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens to consult mycologist Irina Drozhenina.
  • Irina details that “really deadly poisonous fungi that can kill ... maybe less than 100” (06:41), focusing on Amanita phalloides (the “Death Cap”) and the Webcap. (07:00)
  • These mushrooms are “pretty commonplace” and found in any forest, including those around Vrana Palace, as Boris’s son, Simeon, recalls:

    “It’s full of mushrooms in the garden now.” – Simeon (08:05)

• Accidental vs. Deliberate Poisoning:

  • Simeon affirms Boris was knowledgeable about mushrooms:

    “My father knew a lot about mushrooms.” – Simeon (09:02)

  • Irina is skeptical about accidental self-poisoning, given Boris's expertise:

    “If the person has an even superficial knowledge . . . this mistake is very unlikely.” – Irina Drozhenina (09:34)

3. Yordan Sevof: Suspect or Scapegoat?

• Background:

  • Sevof, the king’s architect and confidant, enjoyed major influence over Boris in his final years.
  • He was dubbed the “Bulgarian Rasputin” and was viewed with suspicion by other palace aides for his admiration of Nazi Germany. (11:00)

• Murder Opportunity and Motive:

  • Rumors proliferated that Sevof poisoned Boris on Hitler’s or the Nazis’ behalf, possibly to ease the accession of Boris’s more pliable brother, Kirill.
  • However, practical questions about how Sevof could ensure only Boris consumed the poison remain unresolved:

    “The problem is Sevoff would need to have eaten exactly the same dish as the King. Or the king would have become suspicious.” – Becky Milligan (17:05)

• Propaganda and Frame-up:

  • Simeon dismisses the Nazi plot rumors as Communist-era propaganda:

    “They tried to ... blame him for all sorts of things and said that there were ingots of Nazi gold...with the swastika. As though the Nazis, if they had poisoned my father, would be that idiotic as to give ingot with their signature on it.” – Simeon (19:12)

4. The Soviet Connection: Poison Labs and Political Motive

• State-Sanctioned Murder?

  • Milligan links Boris’s death to Soviet poison labs, established by Stalin to murder political enemies without leaving a trace. (35:00+)
  • Irina, the mushroom expert with Russian roots, confirms the existence and focus of these “laboratories with very bad intentions,” specifically working with mushroom toxins for undetectable killings.

    “They were laboratories so with very bad intentions.” – Irina Drozhenina (35:48)

• Historical Parallels:

  • The suspicious mushroom poisoning death of Russian scientist Vitaly Melnikov in 2023 is cited as evidence of a continuing tradition of covert poisoning. (33:30)
  • The Soviets would have had both the motive (to destabilize Bulgaria and remove a Western-leaning monarch) and the opportunity (their embassy was next to the palace).

• Conclusion:

  • Milligan concludes that Boris was probably murdered by the Soviets or Bulgarian Communist operatives using a synthetic mushroom-based toxin.

    “After months of investigation, I believe King Boris was murdered by the Soviets ... using synthetic mushroom based poisons from those dreadful chemical weapons labs.” – Becky Milligan (37:11)

• Maria Luisa echoes the theory:

  “Who had the greatest advantage to get rid of him? The Soviet Union.” – Maria Luisa (38:51)

5. Repercussions for the Royal Family

• Exile and Return

  • After Boris’s death, the Red Army invaded, the monarchy was abolished, and the family was sent into exile in Egypt and then Spain. (22:34–24:17)

  • Maria Luisa’s emotional return to Bulgaria post-1989 was met with crowds and moving scenes:

    “It was an unbelievable, you know, dream that came true.” – Maria Luisa (26:35)

  • Simeon’s homecoming in 1996 sparked national euphoria:

    “After all, 50 years in exile, finally to set foot back on the country when I was born in.” – Simeon (28:16)

• Simeon Becomes Prime Minister

  • In 2001, Simeon, the former boy king, became Bulgaria’s Prime Minister—a unique historical twist:

    “I no way want to sound derogatory, but I demoted myself by becoming prime minister.” – Simeon (30:45)

  • His tenure brought initial hope but ended amid disappointment over the slow pace of progress.

• Family Land and Legal Battles

  • Simeon and Maria Luisa sought to reclaim family properties lost during Communism, succeeding only in regaining Vrana Palace.

6. Personal Reflections and Legacy

• The Children’s Perspective

  • Maria Luisa asserts that the mechanics of her father’s death are less important than his legacy:

    “If it’s the mushrooms who killed him, that’s it. And, you know, that’s part of history, I guess.” – Maria Luisa (43:10)

  • Both siblings express profound love and loss for their father. Simeon, though convinced of “foul play,” resists singling out a culprit without definitive proof:

    “I’ve never let myself into thinking, aha ... because then where does objectivity go?” – Simeon (39:32) “Still, I think there must have been foul play...he died in a strange...pathology.” – Simeon (40:06)

• Historical Reputation

  • Historians remain divided on Boris’s character and decisions, especially regarding Bulgaria’s Jews during WWII.
  • Tessa Dunlop comments:

    “He is your model man in an era of intolerant nationalism.” (45:00)

  • Maria Luisa, on the King’s controversial reputation:

    “A saint is maybe too much, but a hero for sure.” – Maria Luisa (44:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Maria Luisa on returning to Bulgaria:
  “It was an unbelievable, you know, dream that came true.” (26:35)
• On King Boris’s historical role:
  “He kept Bulgaria out of the war. Saved the population, saved the Jewish population. What more do you want? ... A hero for sure.” – Maria Luisa (44:01)
• Simeon on 'foul play':
  “Still, I think that there must have been foul play in as much as it...he died in a strange...the pathology itself is a bit strange.” (40:06)
• Irina on Soviet poison expertise:
  “I believe crime related to mushrooms are connected.” (36:11)
• Becky Milligan's Final Analysis:
  "After months of investigation, I believe King Boris was murdered by the Soviets ... using synthetic mushroom based poisons..." (37:11)
• Maria Luisa, reflective:
  "But all that other stuff, you know, about who and when, you know, it doesn't change anything. You know, we lost him. So to dwell for eight years over that subject, I really don't. I pray for his soul. I feel him very close many times." (46:44)

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Segment Timestamps

• 01:40 – Opening recreation of Boris’s last dinner; suspicions about meal.
• 04:52–07:45 – Expert discussion of mushroom poisoning at Kew Gardens.
• 09:49–12:10 – Deep dive into Sevof’s rise and potential motives.
• 16:25–19:37 – Why mushroom poisoning would have gone undetected; propaganda against Sevof.
• 22:34–24:33 – The royal family's exile and journey abroad.
• 25:47–29:35 – Emotional returns to Bulgaria for Maria Luisa and then Simeon.
• 30:45 – Simeon’s tenure as prime minister.
• 35:09–37:11 – Emergence of Soviet poison lab theory and its modern echoes.
• 39:27–40:18 – Simeon’s personal feelings about the investigation.
• 43:02–44:14 – Maria Luisa and Becky discuss Boris’s historical legacy.

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Tone & Presentation

Milligan maintains a tone of investigative curiosity, alternating between analytical, humane, and reflective. The personal testimonies of Boris’s children add emotional weight, while expert interviews lend scientific credibility. The episode is respectful, nuanced, and consciously aware of the complexities of history and memory.

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Conclusion

The Butterfly King closes with the probable answer to an 80-year-old question: King Boris III was likely poisoned—by agents of the Soviet state—using a mushroom-derived toxin. While the full truth may remain elusive, the episode balances detective work with empathy, offering listeners a satisfying—if sobering—resolution and a powerful meditation on history, loss, and national memory.

Transcript

[Becky Milligan]

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[Becky Milligan]

The Royal Palace, Sofia, August 1943. And King Boris is dining with a friend. The friend's a tall man, about the same age as the king himself. From the way he sits straight backed in his chair, you can guess he's had a military past. And when he stands up briefly to reach for the serving dish, it's clear he has a stiff leg, a slight limp, probably a war injury. It's just the two of them at the table. A private dinner. The servants have been dismissed. So it's the friend who offers the king a second helping.

[Maria Luisa]

I'm convinced that something was put into his soup. You know, he had dinner with somebody alone and felt ill after dinner suddenly.

[Becky Milligan]

So who did he have dinner with?

[Maria Luisa]

I think some assistants who worked with him and fell ill after that.

[Becky Milligan]

The friend's name is Yordan Sevof. He's an architect by trade, but in the last year or so, he's somehow become the king's closest advisor. Other, more experienced assistants have been Pushed out. Sevof's very comfortable in the royal presence, and we can make an educated guess about what was in that serving dish.

[Simeon]

Not really even remembered what the menu was, but my father loved mushrooms. There's no doubt.

[Becky Milligan]

So, mushrooms, the King's favorite dish, was it mushrooms that made Boris ill? Because that meal, it turned out to be the King's last supper. The next morning, Boris collapsed, and as he lay on his sickbed, doctors noticed his skin was covered in those brown blotches we've heard about, as if he'd.

[Maria Luisa]

Been poisoned and never really recovered. That's all I know.

[Becky Milligan]

It's a shocking possibility. Was the King betrayed by his closest confidant from Blanchard House? And exactly right. Media. This is the Butterfly King. I'm Becky Milligan. Sam, chapter eight. The rest is history. We're in Kew, in West London, not far from the National Archives, actually, where we began our search for evidence about who killed Boris. But today, we're not looking for dusty old documents. We're looking for plants. Poisonous plants, or to be more precise, poisonous mushrooms. Which is why we're at Kew's Royal Botanic Gardens, because it happens to have the largest and most comprehensive fungi collection in the world. I work with mold. That's Kew's senior researcher, Irina Drozhenina. And if you didn't catch that, because I sure didn't. She said mold?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes.

[Maria Luisa]

I'm a mould person.

[Becky Milligan]

Do you know, for a moment I thought you said molds, and then I thought you meant spies and that you. I thought, suddenly we're talking to someone in the spy world. Anyway, all right, so molds. Molds. Oh, interesting.

[Irina Drozhenina]

And, of course, also mushrooms.

[Becky Milligan]

Irina works with all kinds of mushrooms. The good, the bad and the very bad.

[Irina Drozhenina]

They are those that produce antibiotics and they also produce a lot of toxins as well.

[Becky Milligan]

Guess which mushrooms Irene is most keen on?

[Irina Drozhenina]

The really deadly ones. The thing is that mushrooms, they usually have not a single toxin, but they have a cocktail of toxins.

[Becky Milligan]

In other words, if they get into the wrong hands and the right mouth, poisonous mushrooms are pretty effective killers, but there aren't as many lethal varieties as you might think.

[Irina Drozhenina]

If we talk about all really deadly poisonous fungi that can kill, there are maybe less than 100.

[Becky Milligan]

So if King Boris was poisoned by mushrooms, are there any obvious suspects? In that top 100, there is a.

[Irina Drozhenina]

Particular poisonous one that is called Amanita phalloides.

[Becky Milligan]

In plain English, it goes by the name of Death cap. Basically, the death cap does exactly what it says on the tin. It Kills you. Then there's another prime suspect.

[Irina Drozhenina]

We can also talk about a very interesting and very dangerous fungus that is called web cap.

[Becky Milligan]

So we have the web cap and the death cap. Twin toxins with a single murderous aim. And they're pretty commonplace. Where do I find them?

[Irina Drozhenina]

In the forest.

[Becky Milligan]

Really? Any forest.

[Irina Drozhenina]

Any forest, yeah.

[Becky Milligan]

Why not in Bulgaria as well?

[Irina Drozhenina]

Of course.

[Becky Milligan]

So somebody wanting to kill Boris, somebody like his architect friend Sevo, for example, would have had easy access to deadly mushrooms. I mean, Vrana palace has its own mini forest. We went walking in it with the King's aide, Yarvor, and guess what he pointed out?

[Simeon]

It's full of mushrooms in the garden now.

[Becky Milligan]

But are these lethal mushrooms easy to spot? What does a death cap look like?

[Irina Drozhenina]

It's usually pale in color, slightly greenish whitish and looking similar to classical mushroom.

[Becky Milligan]

Really an ordinary mushroom that you'd chop up and put in an omelet.

[Irina Drozhenina]

So there is this possibility to confuse them.

[Becky Milligan]

Ah, now that's interesting. And it makes me think I need to consider a much less dramatic scenario. What if Boris accidentally poisoned himself? We already know that Boris loved to spend time in the forests, among the flora and fauna, looking for rare plants. Perhaps he also did a bit of foraging. Now, Simeon told us that Boris was knowledgeable about fungi.

[Simeon]

My father knew a lot about mushrooms.

[Becky Milligan]

But Boris had a lot on his mind. The war, the unhappy alliance with Hitler, how to protect Bulgaria's Jews. Is it possible he just got distracted and picked a poisonous mushroom by mistake, then unwittingly just handed it to the royal cook? It's certainly possible, but Irina doesn't believe that a botanist like Boris would make such a basic error if the person.

[Irina Drozhenina]

Has an even superficial knowledge. I believe that this mistake is very unlikely because usually people that like to collect or pick mushrooms in the forest, they should know them. So I don't think the King do this mistake.

[Becky Milligan]

Ok, I think we can rule out Boris accidentally poisoning himself. But that puts Boris, architect friend, back in the frame. I want to tell you a bit more about Jordan Sevoff, because there's definitely something fishy about him. In the last three years of Boris life, it was Sevof who had the King's ear and he'd infiltrated the palace in the most extraordinary way. Here's how it happened. When Boris married Queen Giovanna and she moved into Vrana palace, the King's sister Eudoxia felt, well, a bit of a spare part. So she decided to move out and it was the well known Bulgarian architect, Yordan Sevof. Who was commissioned to build a villa for Eudoxia. Suddenly, Sevo found himself at the heart of the royal circle. And once the war started, Sevo frequently began showing up at the palace unannounced for private audiences with King Boris. And Boris really took to him. He was impressed by Sevov's intelligence. He started to ask Sevov's opinion on the political dilemmas of the day. And it wasn't long before he began asking Sevov for his advice. The king's other aides and advisors felt squeezed out, and they started to become seriously worried. In fact, Sevof had such power over King Boris that behind his back, people called him the Bulgarian Rasputin. He came to the palace whenever he chose to. He practically had his own key. But here's the thing. It turns out that Sevof was a staunch admirer of Germany and of Hitler. Now, the royal children grew up in difficult times, murderous times, when trust was hard to come by. So they'd been schooled in keeping stum whenever there were any visitors at home.

[Simeon]

What I remember is that my mother would tell us that, well, we just should know how to keep our mouth shut. But I think it was more for. Is anybody eavesdropping or. I don't know.

[Becky Milligan]

Did the queen suspect that Sevoff was not entirely trustworthy? Was Sevoff being paid to infiltrate royal circles? Boris had fallen out with Hitler, remember? So is it possible that Sevoff bumped off Boris, maybe to hand power to his brother Kirill, who might be more sympathetic? The reason I say that is because just a few weeks after Boris died, Kirill went to meet Hitler. It's really eerie watching the newsreels. Boris, little brother, downcast, walking in his big brother's footsteps, saluting the Fuhrer. It's particularly chilling because Kirill and Boris. Boris look incredibly alike. You can only really tell them apart because Kiril's wearing a black armband. You almost feel like you're watching a ghost. So did the Nazis hope Kirill would be more pliant to their demands? Did they think the little brother would be easier to manipulate once the big brother was. Was out of the way? It sounds plausible. So let's return to the night in question. That supper. One thing is nagging me about it. I mean, kings have food tasters, don't they?

[Simeon]

No. No, never. Never. This was sort of, I don't know, Roman days.

[Becky Milligan]

I think he means Julius Caesar might have had a food taster, but the King of Bulgaria, not so much. Turns out Boris was pretty lax about his personal security.

[Simeon]

And also, he liked to move around, I mean, without any fuss or bodyguards or what have you, which is so necessary nowadays. The only rule he had, he would never return on the same route that he had gone to a place, because he had had attempts on his life.

[Becky Milligan]

But if Boris was poisoned, wouldn't it have been pretty obvious to him? I mean, doesn't a toxic toadstool taste pretty foul? Irina Drozenina is our mycologist, or mushroom expert.

[Irina Drozhenina]

Some poisonous fungi, they are known to have bitter taste, but these ones that are really poisonous, they are tasteless.

[Becky Milligan]

They're tasteless. They don't even taste nice. You can't die having had a beautiful mushroom pie or something. It would just be a tasteless mess. God, how awful. I know, I'm getting carried away again. But of course, what Irina really means is that the deathly mushrooms would have been undetectable. The king just wouldn't have noticed them mixed into a sauce or a pie. He'd have tucked in as usual, with gusto. So, time to ask Irina the crucial question. Is mushroom poisoning, though, a reliable way to kill someone? To carry out a murder?

[Irina Drozhenina]

Yes, it is reliable. They could increase the concentration and make a powder, of course, because for the dead cup, you need only a quarter of a cup to kill a person.

[Becky Milligan]

So Sevoff could have even sprinkled a toxic mushroom powder onto the food. And what's more, those killer mushrooms cover their tracks like nothing else, because you can eat one, feel a bit dodgy for about 24 hours and then feel fine again until it's way, way too late.

[Irina Drozhenina]

They are very dangerous because the poisoning appears sometimes two weeks or three weeks after the poisoning.

[Becky Milligan]

So Sevov could have slipped Boris that poison weeks before the Last Supper. He was a regular at the Royal dinner table. But how come the doctors didn't clock that Boris had food poisoning? I mean, that's pretty basic first aid, isn't it? Asking someone what they've eaten? And the symptoms of mushroom poisoning include nausea, headache, flushing and heart palpitations.

[Irina Drozhenina]

It's really difficult to prove because, you know, you feel sick, you see the doctor and doctor ask, what did you eat yesterday? What did you eat the day before? But nobody asks you, what did you eat two weeks ago or three weeks ago or months ago?

[Becky Milligan]

Right, yeah. They would just say, oh, heart attack. They wouldn't have detected the mushroom toxins.

[Irina Drozhenina]

Exactly.

[Becky Milligan]

That's very interesting, because they could get away with murder, whoever it was. Have I just solved this murder? Was it the architect Sevoff on behalf of the Nazis in the dining room with toxic mushrooms. In theory, that seems perfectly possible. But did he really have the opportunity to orchestrate his murderous plan? Obviously, you have to administer it. Well, yes, because they could just push that little bit of the nice pasta with that lovely mushroom sauce to one side and stick to the potatoes. And then what do you do? Comedy of errors. Then how do you get rid of it? Then? The problem is Sevoff would need to have eaten exactly the same dish as the King. Or the king would have become suspicious. So if Sevof ate the same thing as the King, how come he didn't die too? I guess it's possible he took an antidote. Except Irina tells me there are no reliable antidotes for death cap or webcap mushrooms. Even today, I'm starting to feel less convinced. And isn't it all a bit too convenient? Because there's a very real possibility that Sevof was framed. The other Palisades were jealous of him and they hated his influence, his bad influence, as they saw it, over their beloved King. So when Boris died, a rumor began to spread. A rumor that Sevoff had been found at home counting out gold bars. Nazi blood money for bumping off Boris. Simeon thinks that's all bunkum Buncombe put out by the communists.

[Simeon]

Afterwards, the propaganda tried to, of course, blame him for all sorts of things and said that there were ingots of Nazi gold with the. What you call it?

[Becky Milligan]

Swastika.

[Simeon]

The swastika. As though the Nazis, if they had poisoned my father, would be that idiotic as to give ingot with their signature on it.

[Becky Milligan]

Well, come to think of it, I suppose it does sound a bit like a bad movie. A tad obvious, but, you know, that's.

[Simeon]

All part of propaganda, which people who are in this propaganda thing sometimes think that the rest of human beings are idiots because they try and sell such absurdities. But they drum it in, drum it in, drum it in, and finally it sort of becomes half truth.

[Becky Milligan]

Point taken. I'm ruling out Sevoff and the Nazis. But the mushrooms. I have to say I'm now certain that was how Boris was killed. As for who did it, well, I now have a very clear idea, and we'll come back to that very soon. What kind of man would let this happen to his family? Inspired by shocking actual events, I'm working on a story about the Murdochs.

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[Becky Milligan]

I want to pause our murder investigation for a moment because I need to tie up some other loose ends. We've been focused on Boris murder, but Simeon and Maria Luisa have lived whole lifetimes since then. Long and extraordinary lifetimes, despite being haunted by their father's death. So you'll remember that a year after Boris died in 1943, the Red army marched into Bulgaria. Simeon and Maria Luisa were 7 and 11 years old. The Soviets promptly shot most of Boris, old government and the royal household, including Kirill and Sevof. Actually, poor Queen Giovanna and her children were pretty much kept under house arrest. And then in September 1946, a referendum, albeit heavily rigged, abolished the monarchy. Bulgaria was declared a republic and the Queen and her children were asked to leave the country. Asked to leave is a bit of A euphemism, let's face it. They didn't really have a choice. At first, the royal trio went to Alexandria in Egypt, where the Queen's own father was also in exile. Later, General Franco, the nationalist dictator of Spain, granted them asylum. So the family settled there. Simeon stayed and Maria Luisa eventually married and moved to New York. But their heart stayed firmly in Bulgaria. They wondered if they would ever be able to go home.

[Maria Luisa]

Always hoped one day, but against hope. And then one day, the Berlin Wall fell in 89, and shortly thereafter, the Bulgarians got rid of of that regime. And the possibility was there.

[Becky Milligan]

After the war came down, communist regimes across Eastern Europe collapsed. Simeon was desperate to return to his homeland, to his kingdom, Bulgaria. But Simeon knew he had to be cautious. He'd no idea how he'd be received so many years after he'd left. Would he be welcomed or met with hostility? During Maria Louisa and Simeon's exile, the communists had painted a dark picture of the royal family. The Bulgarians were told they were thieves who didn't care a jot about Bulgaria. Simeon was made out to be an arch villain.

[Simeon]

People were told all kinds of derogatory or hostile things or silence.

[Becky Milligan]

When Simeon thought about returning home after half a century of absence, he wondered if anyone would even show up. So in 1991, he sent a special envoy to test the water to see how the Bulgarian people, newly emerged from the Iron Curtain, would react to blue blood in the country. And Simeon knew just the right person for the job.

[Maria Luisa]

So my brother called me and said to me, how would you like to go? And I said, oh, my God. And then it came true.

[Becky Milligan]

Maria Luisa arrived at night. The remnants of the old Communist regime were not happy. The old party loyalists turned off all the street lamps from the airport to Sofia to make make her journey as difficult as possible. Not a good omen, perhaps, but the Bulgarian people felt very differently. They lined the streets waving torches and lighting her path with bonfires. Remember the last time Maria Louisa had seen her homeland? She was just 13 years old.

[Maria Luisa]

The crowds were unhappy. Unbelievable. I never expected anybody to sort of, you know, remember anything because it's almost two generations, 50 years, it's two generations. And I went out on, not on the balcony like the Queen, but on a terrace, and said to them, you know, you're not here for me because I was a child, but you remember my parents, and it's the love for my parents that you are here. APPLAUDING Very moving. Very, very moving. It was an unbelievable, you know, dream that came true.

[Becky Milligan]

And then in 1996, it was her brother's turn. When the people learned Simeon had touched down, the bells of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral rang out in his honor. The last time Simeon had heard those Browns, he was six years old, a little boy in shorts and white knee socks trying not to cry at his father's funeral.

[Simeon]

Actually, it's. I mean, paradoxical, such a joy. But the sound of those bells was when my father died. So there was a sudden return to precisely that very sad moment. I realized that it brought me back all of a sudden, with half a century. For a few minutes, the boy king.

[Becky Milligan]

Finally returned home, aged 59. Even now, Simeon stares at the ground. When I ask him about that moment, he's still humbled by the welcome he received.

[Simeon]

To me, it was a very personal moment. It was unbelievably or indescribably moving because after all, 50 years in exile, finally to set foot back on the country when I was born in.

[Becky Milligan]

Watching the news footage is incredible. Crowds literally weep for joy. Women run alongside Simeon's train, pressing flowers into his hands. It's as if they're welcoming the Messiah or King Boris himself.

[Simeon]

One of the major factors was that it was Boris's son, the little king, who's coming back, you see. It was a tremendous reception. Nobody had expected this, and it was really quite extraordinary.

[Becky Milligan]

Sounds like a fairy tale ending, doesn't it? A happily ever after. Except this was only the beginning. Simeon's homecoming wasn't plain sailing. After 50 years behind the Iron Curtain, he knew Bulgaria certainly didn't have the stomach for another monarchy. He knew he couldn't claim the throne again.

[Simeon]

And I thought, that's not fair. These people have been 50 years under a totalitarian system. So, 50 years of such a system, who am I to tell them, look, guys, my system is better. Let's have a go?

[Becky Milligan]

But people really believed the little king, as he was still known, could help them. Simeon had spent his exile largely in Spain. He was a Westerner. He'd done military training in Pennsylvania. He'd worked in finance in Europe. The Bulgarians felt sure he'd be able to turn their fortunes around. And Simeon. Well, Simeon wanted to help. He wanted to continue his father's legacy. It's what he felt he was born for.

[Simeon]

The sense of duty is something which is hammered into us, but one can or should help one's country. It's part of the monarchs thinking. It might sound old fashioned, but that's what it is.

[Becky Milligan]

Okay, there's something I've kept back from you. But I'll let Simeon tell you himself.

[Simeon]

I no way want to sound derogatory, but I demoted myself by becoming prime minister.

[Becky Milligan]

Yep, you heard that correctly. In the summer of 2001, King Simeon, on a landslide victory, became Bulgaria's Prime Minister. His party was called the National Movement for Stability and Progress. He helped Bulgaria become a member of NATO and paved the way for Bulgaria to join the European Union. So at first, things went well, and then they didn't. The Bulgarians wanted much more progress than they got. They wanted a big boost to their living standards. But that didn't happen. So in 2005, Simeon was ousted as prime minister, and his party became a junior partner in a coalition government. Four years later, his party failed to win any seats at all, and Simeon resigned from politics.

[Simeon]

The fact that we are a democracy is essential, and the fact that we're in the EU is just as important.

[Becky Milligan]

But there was another problem. You'll remember that when the royal siblings went into exile, the Communist Party nationalized all their palaces and properties. Simeon and Maria Luisa wanted them back. So they went to the European Court of Human Rights. And that infuriated many Bulgarians. They argued Simeon was only interested in enriching himself, not his people. Simeon's hurt by that.

[Simeon]

We serve. We don't use the system for ourselves.

[Becky Milligan]

The royal siblings lost their court case. They didn't get all their palaces back, but they got the one they really wanted. Vrana Palace, King Boris Sanctuary, the place where he loved to spend time with his two little children, Maria Luisa and Simeon. Right back to who killed King Boris? The question that Maria Luisa and Simeon have never stopped asking. Well, there's been a development because something rather extraordinary's happened. Back in the summer of 2023, Russia launched her first lunar mission in nearly 50 years. It was a pretty big deal in terms of national pride. The unmanned spacecraft was due to land on the south side of the moon, but the rocket crashed. The mission ended in complete failure. It was a massive blow for Russia's prestige. Fast forward a few weeks, and the man responsible for that embarrassment suddenly finds himself gravely ill. In hospital for two weeks, leading space scientist Vitaly Melnikov battled a very strange illness, and then he died. And Russian state media reported he died of mushroom poisoning. Sounds very suspicious to me and very familiar. In recent years, there's been a huge spate of mysterious deaths in Russia. But Irina Drozhenina, our mushroom expert, believes she knows where the inspiration came from.

[Irina Drozhenina]

These attempts to poison there all come from the Cold War kgb. And I think that all Started before the World War II. I think that all started in late 30s for sure.

[Becky Milligan]

Why does she think that? Well, remember what our Bulgarian historian George Bozdoganov told us?

[Maria Luisa]

From 1938 to in 1953, the Encod.

[Simeon]

That'S Russian special service, maintained two laboratories for the production of deadly poisons, toxicological one and bacteriological one.

[Becky Milligan]

And remember, those laboratories had a specific brief, not just to silence Stalin's enemies, but to do it without leaving any traces. In other words, they fatally poisoned people and made it look like their victims had died of a heart attack. Which is of course what's written on King Boris death certificate. And it turns out our mushroom expert Irina, who's based at the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, knows quite a lot about those poison laboratories.

[Irina Drozhenina]

They were laboratory. So with very bad intentions.

[Becky Milligan]

Very bad intentions indeed. And Irina should know, she's Russian, she knew people, not friends of hers who worked in those labs. That's how she knows they were specifically working on mushrooms. Yes, mushrooms.

[Irina Drozhenina]

I believe crime related to mushrooms are connected.

[Becky Milligan]

Irina thinks that in their secret pre war laboratories, the Soviets were tinkering with fungi toxins, making them more concentrated, trying to mimic them, basically creating a chemical weapon based on mushrooms, perhaps one that was fit to kill a king.

[Irina Drozhenina]

I think the Russians, they maybe learned from nature but about these toxins and try to optimize them and synthesize something similar.

[Becky Milligan]

Okay, deep breath. I'm going to ask Irina outright. So, knowing what you know about the kgb, the laboratories and so on, and what we've told you about Boris and how he died, all those symptoms, do you think he was murdered?

[Irina Drozhenina]

I cannot exclude. This could be. It could be.

[Becky Milligan]

I cannot, I cannot exclude this, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to call it. After months of investigation, I believe King Boris was murdered by the Soviets. Boris murder has the Soviet hallmark stamped all over it. They had the meat. And with their embassy next to the palace, the Soviets had plenty of opportunity to slip the synthetic mushroom poison into the King's food or drink. As for their motive, remember Stalin dreamed of spreading communism across Eastern Europe. And Bulgaria was a vital foothold for anyone trying to consolidate their power in the region. The only problem was that there was a king in the way. A very popular king. And if it was the Soviets, the plan worked. Just one year after the King's death, the Red army marched into Sofia and the Iron Curtain swallowed up Bulgaria. So I believe King Boris was murdered by the Soviets or by the Bulgarian communists with help from the Soviets using synthetic mushroom based poisons. From those dreadful chemical weapons labs. That certainly coincides with Maria Louise's suspicions. When I spoke to her a few months ago, when she said that she was convinced something had been put in the King's soup and about who she.

[Maria Luisa]

Thought did it, who had the greatest advantage to get rid of him? The Soviet Union.

[Becky Milligan]

But although Simeon admits he has questions over his father's death, he wouldn't point the finger at anyone. He wouldn't even allow himself to say the word murder, however hard I tried to catch him out. I know you might want to keep it private, but just for us. But in your guts, who do you suspect may have. If your father was murdered, who could have murdered him?

[Simeon]

I'm sorry, I cannot, even to myself, because it would be cheating.

[Becky Milligan]

Really?

[Simeon]

Yes. Because again, I say, I like to have things documented, proven, tested, what have you. I. I've never let myself into thinking, aha.

[Becky Milligan]

Really?

[Simeon]

Because then where does objectivity go? I'm sorry. Very disappointing.

[Becky Milligan]

But then I listened to the tape again and I realized I'd missed something.

[Simeon]

But still, I think that there must have been foul play in as much as it. He died in a strange. I mean, the pathology itself is a bit strange. So.

[Becky Milligan]

So there you have it. There must have been foul play. How can foul play mean anything other than murder? And as we were packing up, the royal siblings were chatting. Maria Luisa suggested to her brother they may never find out the truth until they die themselves and find themselves in heaven or the other place.

[Maria Luisa]

And we'll never know until we go up there. If we go and find out really.

[Simeon]

What it was to find it down better.

[Maria Luisa]

I have no intention of going down.

[Simeon]

That's where we might find the really ugly side of everything.

[Maria Luisa]

Oh, some of the people who are down there. Yes. They know what it is.

[Becky Milligan]

Six months on from that original interview, I want to tell Maria Luisa what I've discovered. So I discuss the idea of telling her with my producer, ej. She must want to know where we've got to with this investigation. So it'll be really interesting just to say this is where we've got to. So, you know, she called me. Oh, really? Her Royal Highness called me. What? On the phone. On the phone. There's the number came up that I didn't know and all of a sudden. And it was Her Royal Highness. Is there a reason why she didn't call me?

[Simeon]

Yeah.

[Becky Milligan]

I mean, no, really. Was it just. She liked you better. She heard about you using the King's comb. Becky. Oh, no.

[Irina Drozhenina]

Yeah.

[Becky Milligan]

And almost, you know. That was you, wasn't it? No, I didn't do that. I didn't. It was you. Well, I told. I told her it you. It's you. So she's only been calling me. Oh, my God. It was you, wasn't it? No, it was you. For the record, it wasn't me. Anyway, here goes. I make the call. And what we also found out, it could be more specifically mushroom poisoning.

[Maria Luisa]

Oh, it's. It's fascinating. We've never heard the mushroom version that you are bringing up, so that's something totally new and I'd love to hear more about it.

[Becky Milligan]

I tell Maria Luisa, too, about the recent death of the Russian rocket scientist Vitaly Melnikov, who displeased Moscow and who mysteriously died of suspected mushroom poisoning 80 years after Boris's death. She's not surprised.

[Maria Luisa]

Yeah, yeah, sure. That the Russians are experts. Well, we've seen it in the last years, how many people they managed to poison, or half poison, et cetera. I mean, that's their specialty. That some mushroom powder might have been put in his food that evening and he fell ill after that and never, you know, came back.

[Becky Milligan]

That, I believe precisely how they did it isn't really important for Maria Luisa.

[Maria Luisa]

They achieved what they wanted. If it's the mushrooms who killed him, that's it. And, you know, that's part of history, I guess.

[Becky Milligan]

Part of history, but a part of history that's perhaps been overlooked, forgotten. And I think King Boris story's an important one. Yes, There's a stain on his legacy. There'll always be a question mark in some people's minds over whether he could have done something to save the 11,000 Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, over whether he should have been more outspoken about the plight of the Jews in Bulgaria itself. But no one can dispute one fact, that under Boris watch, not a single Bulgarian Jew was deported to the death.

[Maria Luisa]

Camps for the country. He kept the Bulgaria out of the war. Save the population, save the Jewish population, What more do you want? A saint is maybe too much, but a hero for sure.

[Becky Milligan]

There's no doubt Boris's children loved him. And both Maria Louisa and Simeon have been deeply marked by their father's sudden death. But how should history remember King Boris III of Bulgaria? People have really strong opinions about the King. He reigns in such difficult times. During the deadliest conflict in human history, he was forced to make impossible choices which were applauded by some and abhorred by others. Perhaps that's why it's so hard to uncover the truth about Boris death. Because even after 80 years. Everyone, every witness has an agenda. And everyone can vilify or exalt Boris story to match their own chosen narrative. There are historians who admire King Boris courage, his diplomacy, his kindness, while others deplore his cowardice, his underhandedness, his indifference. Our historian Tessa Dunlop has often been critical of Boris, but she believes he has something important to teach us, particularly today. The headlines never really went big on Boris because he was what we might call in today's terms as a bit of a sort of technocrat monarch. A little bit dull. She means he was really into the nitty gritty, a guy who liked detail. When we talk about today's world of nationalism, you know, of populism. And if we want to understand how to manage that nationalism, we need to not look at the flamboyant figures, but actually at the technocrat monarchs like Boris, who managed to hold down the excesses on both the left and the right. He is your model man in an era of intolerant nationalism. And that's what's most important to Maria Luisa and Simeon, that history will remember their father in context. Generously, I think we've come close to solving the mysterious death of Tsar Boris iii, as close as history will allow us to come. To us, he's King Boris to Maria Luisa, he's her much missed papa as.

[Maria Luisa]

A loving father and very patient father. But all that other stuff, you know, about who and when, you know, it doesn't change anything. You know, we lost him. So to dwell for eight years over that subject, I really don't. I pray for his soul. I feel him very close many times.

[Narrator/Announcer]

But.

[Maria Luisa]

The rest is unfortunate history.

[Becky Milligan]

Let's leave King Boris where he was happiest, at Vrana Palace. Strolling in the grounds in his old floppy hat, waving his butterfly net behind him, two little children run barefoot through the tree lines, chasing their father's shadow. 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, 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. Voice acting by Mark Umbers. Special thanks to Jana Payowska and Veso Vlav. The managing producer is Amica Shortening, Martino Nolan. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grisel. For Exactly Right Media. The executive producers are Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstock 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]

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[Maria Luisa]

This is Alec Murdoch.

[Becky Milligan]

I need police and an ambulance immediately.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Murdoch Death in the Family Official podcast is here. I'm joining Patricia Architect head Jason Clark and the cast to uncover all things Murdoch family first. To unravel the story piece by piece was really surprising because you don't want to believe it. Murdoch Death in the Family Official podcast Wednesdays and stream Murdoch Death in the Family on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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