Ricin poisoning assassination

Ricin had been one of a series of poisons which the British had considered for use in assassinations during the Second World War. Indeed, even in the 1960s research was still being conducted into the effects of the poison under a contract with Exeter University. But the public evidence of British interest in Ricin was small in comparison with the work which had been carried out in eastern Europe. Even a superficial scan of the published research papers on Ricin revealed a surprisingly high proportion of the work to have been carried out in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.1... 

TOXIN. A poisonous substance that occurs naturally in animals, bacteria, or plants. Examples include botulinum toxin, ricin, and tbe tri-chothecene mycotoxins. Some toxins can be produced artificially through chemical synthesis. The military relevance of toxins was recognized during World War I, when the U. S. Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) conducted research and production of selected toxins at the Catholic University of America. Weapons having toxins as their primary payload are controlled as both chemical weapons (CW) (under the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC]) and biological weapons (BW) (under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention [BTWC]). Toxins have also seen use as assassination weapons. See also JUGLONE SAXITOXIN. 

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