Francesco Gullino Francesco Gullino Francesco Gullino (or Giullino) (born 1946) is a Dane of Italian origin who was named in June 2005 by "The Times" as the prime suspect in the 1978 "Bulgarian umbrella" murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov. He was born in Bra, Italy and was known by the code name "Piccadilly". According to Bulgarian journalist Hristo Hristov, Gullino was an occasional smuggler arrested twice in Bulgaria and given the choice of going to prison or becoming a secret agent in the West. Based in Copenhagen with a cover as an art dealer, Gullino was supposedly active until 1990 and
Bulgarian umbrella Vladimir Kostov the same year in the Paris "Métro". The poison used in both cases was ricin. Both assassination attempts are believed to have been organized by the Bulgarian Secret Service of the time of the Cold War with the assistance of the KGB. Such an umbrella was intended to be used in the assassination of Pallo Jordan and Ronnie Kasrils by the South African Civil Cooperation Bureau death squad. These two cases inspired the 1980 French film "Le Coup du parapluie" ("The Umbrella Coup") directed by Gérard Oury and starring Pierre Richard, and Bulgarian writer Stefan Kisyov's novel "The