November 6, 2008

Radiation Assassination
Apoldu de Sus, Romania

There's an interesting blurb in the Lonely Planet Romania that Stephan's got here about a method the country's nationally-despised dictator Nicolae Cerauşescu would use to do murder in the 1980s:

His opponents were at best harassed, at worst killed by experimental methods of torture. One such method, known as radu, was used by Cerauşescu on his political opponents, especially Hungarian nationalists, whom he despised. It consisted of bombarding the body with low-level radiation and allowing cancer to settle. Many of those he had arrested eventually died of strange forms of cancer.

Communist-era Romania was certainly no joke.

This guy and his wife were eventually arrested and executed by firing squad shortly after the December 1989 revolution.

Recently in this country...

Note: Comments are open to everyone. To reduce spam and reward regular contributors, only submissions from first-time commenters and/or those containing hyperlinks are moderated, and will appear after approval. Hateful or off-topic remarks are subject to pruning. Your e-mail address will never be publicly disclosed or abused.