August Bonus Review: The Salisbury Poisonings
It's good, but it's also close enough to COVID home that it's kind of surprising it aired at all.
the true crime that's worth your time
…You know that running gag in Splash with Eugene Levy’s character, like, in traction or at the bottom of a manhole, wailing, “What a WEEK I’m having”? That was me last week. Apologies for the delay in any case and let’s get to it.
The crime
In early March 2018, a man and his daughter are found unconscious in a park in the city center of Salisbury. The man’s later found to be Sergei Skripal, formerly Russian intelligence and a double agent for UK intelligence services; Sergei and Yulia have been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, which a person or persons applied to the front door of their house. A responding Salisbury police officer, Nick Davies, is also infected. Months later, after the crisis seemed to have subsided, an unrelated dude finds the perfume bottle used to apply the Novichok, and gives it to his girlfriend as a gift; they too are infected, and the girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, dies.
The perpetrators, apparently acting on Vladimir Putin’s orders or at least with his knowledge, have been identified, and charged in absentia, which is deeply unsatisfying.