Todor Zhivkov to 1988, Bulgaria won an unprecedented 153 Olympic medals and numerous European and world competitions in sports as diverse as volleyball, rhythmic gymnastics and wrestling. Dissent was punished under Zhivkov's rule. The CSS was a feared tool of control, and overt opposition largely stayed underground until the late 1980s. In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated in London by an agent who stabbed him with an umbrella tip which implanted a very small ricin ball. According to former KGB general Oleg Kalugin, this was requested by Zhivkov and either performed by the KGB or it assisted the CSS;
Poisoned Dreams though he did good research." The review stated that the author "resorts to speculation and outright (if admitted) invention" and that "the evidence in the case, confounding and contradictory, is hardly clarified by Gray's often melodramatic treatment." Poisoned Dreams Poisoned Dreams: A True Story of Murder, Money and Family Secrets is a 1993 true crime book about the murder of Nancy Lyon, written by A. W. Gray and published by Dutton. This was the first true crime book written by Gray, who previously wrote mystery novels. Lyon died of poisoning. Her ex-husband, Richard Lyon, was convicted of killing her and