0:04

Most secrets die with the people who

0:06

keep them. But

0:08

there are some that manage to live on, if

0:11

you look in the right place. Take

0:15

the Stasi files. They

0:17

contain four decades of meticulous

0:20

records, roughly 70 miles

0:22

of paper in peach-colored folders,

0:25

and 14 offices spread

0:27

around Germany. And

0:30

that's just what didn't get destroyed when

0:32

the Berlin Wall fell. The

0:35

Stasi, or East German secret

0:37

police, are famous for

0:39

their intense surveillance. Their

0:42

files document 40 years of

0:45

espionage, the activities of

0:47

a million spies, and

0:49

millions more targets, at the very

0:51

least. I say

0:53

at the very least because, as of 2024, not all

0:55

of the files have been recovered. When

1:02

East Germany dissolved in 1989,

1:05

Stasi officers went on a

1:07

paper-shredding spree to conceal their

1:09

operations. But before they

1:12

could fully destroy the scraps, the

1:14

modern German government arrested them and

1:17

inherited more than 16,000 bags of torn-up secrets.

1:22

Over the past 30 years, German

1:25

archivists have slowly reassembled the

1:27

files, pacing them

1:29

together like jigsaw puzzles, and

1:32

unveiling hidden history. In

1:36

2016, newly uncovered

1:38

records provided the evidence needed

1:40

to charge ex-Stasi officer Martin

1:43

Naumann with murder. Naumann

1:45

went to trial in March 2024. But

1:49

Naumann's not the only person whose

1:51

guilt may be hidden among scraps

1:53

of paper. As the

1:56

archivists work to reassemble the aging

1:58

files, new details are available. of

2:00

Stasi operations could resurface at

2:03

any time. So

2:05

today we're looking at two

2:07

suspicious deaths. Each

2:09

was assigned an innocuous explanation

2:12

but some people think they were Stasi

2:14

hit jobs and

2:17

the truth might be hiding in

2:20

the archives. Welcome

2:23

to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify

2:25

podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You

2:28

can find us here every Wednesday and

2:31

be sure to check us out on Instagram

2:33

at the conspiracy pod and we

2:35

would love to hear from you. So if

2:37

you're listening on the Spotify app swipe up

2:40

and give us your thoughts. Today

2:42

we're re-examining the deaths of

2:45

Benno Onazork and Uva Barshall.

2:48

Officially Onazork was the victim

2:50

of police brutality and Barshall

2:53

died by suicide but

2:55

many suspect they were victims of

2:58

a divided Germany. You

3:00

see both victims were citizens of

3:02

West Germany but some

3:04

people think their deaths were secret

3:07

East German operations done by the

3:09

Stasi. For those

3:11

unfamiliar with the Stasi, they're

3:13

basically the East German KGB.

3:16

They were literally started by the KGB

3:19

to control the area. The

3:21

Stasi operated from 1950 to 1990. If they had a

3:23

hand in the deaths

3:27

of Benno Onazork and Uva Barshall,

3:30

East Germany Stasi was pulling

3:32

political strings no one knew

3:34

existed. Before we get

3:36

into this story amongst the many

3:39

sources we used we found

3:41

the reporting of German newspaper

3:43

Der Spiegel and a visit

3:45

to Deutsch Espionage Museum in

3:47

Berlin extremely helpful to our

3:49

research. Stay with us. you

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apply see site. For details. The

6:01

shot that changed the Republic.

6:04

That's what Germans call the

6:07

bullet that killed Benno Onazork

6:09

on June 2, 1967.

6:12

Everyone agrees on who shot Onazork, where,

6:15

and even how it altered the

6:17

course of German history. The

6:20

mystery is why exactly

6:22

Karl Heinz Kuras fired

6:24

his gun. It

6:27

happened in Berlin. At the

6:29

time, the city is a

6:31

microcosm of the Cold War. The

6:34

Berlin Wall, a very literal

6:36

symbol for the ideological divide

6:38

of the Iron Curtain. On

6:40

one side, Capitalist West Berlin,

6:42

part of West Germany, occupied

6:45

by the US, UK, and the

6:48

other, Communist East Berlin,

6:50

part of East Germany, occupied

6:52

by the Soviets. And

6:55

in the middle of it all, the

6:57

Shah of Iran. He's

7:00

in Berlin on an official state

7:02

visit, here to forge ties

7:04

between Iran and West Germany. But

7:07

many West Germans don't want to forge

7:09

ties with Iran. Young people

7:12

especially see the Shah as a

7:14

fascist dictator known to

7:16

torture his opponents. So

7:19

they protest every stop of the

7:21

Shah's tour. On

7:25

the evening of June 2, 1967, the Shah visits the

7:29

Opera House to see the magic flute.

7:33

Outside the venue, German youths

7:35

raise signs and chant Murderer.

7:38

But they aren't the only group there. The

7:41

Iranians brought their own set

7:44

of pro-Shah counter-protesters, and

7:46

they're ready to fight. So

7:48

are the West Berlin police. They

7:51

come at the crowd from multiple angles,

7:54

squeezing them together with a threat

7:56

of wooden clubs and high-pressure water

7:58

guns. Some of the

8:01

protesters run from the square into a

8:03

parking lot. Officially, the

8:05

police have done their job. The

8:07

protest is breaking up. Unofficially,

8:10

a smaller squad of

8:13

officers chase the runners, hoping

8:15

to catch the movement's leaders. Among

8:18

them, police inspector

8:21

Carl Heinz-Kuras. He's

8:24

stocky, with round features of

8:26

average height, and usually

8:28

keeps his dark hair slicked back.

8:31

Today, he's on the job, wearing

8:34

his West Berlin police uniform.

8:37

Meanwhile, 26-year-old Benno Onizork strolls

8:40

down a nearby street with

8:42

his wife, Christa. Benno's

8:45

got a small mustache and wears

8:47

slacks and sandals. Very

8:49

European. Christa's blonde with

8:51

a big smile. But

8:53

she isn't smiling when she and her husband

8:56

hear the commotion and see

8:58

terrified people running into the parking

9:00

structure. Benno wants

9:03

to investigate. He's a

9:05

student himself, working on a

9:07

degree in humanities. Christa

9:09

declines. She's newly pregnant.

9:13

So Benno Onizork walks over

9:15

alone and gets caught in

9:17

the brawl. Amid the

9:19

chaos, police inspector Kuras

9:21

pulls his pistol trigger. The

9:24

bullet pierces Benno Onizork's skull.

9:29

According to Der Spiegel, another

9:31

officer yells at Kuras, and Kuras

9:33

replies something to the effect of,

9:36

the gun just went off. The

9:39

superior officer tells Kuras to get

9:41

out of there, and he does. Meanwhile,

9:46

other officers push away a doctor

9:48

trying to help Onizork. They

9:50

insist on calling paramedics, so

9:53

it takes an hour before Onizork can

9:55

receive medical attention. At

9:57

that point, he's already dead. According

10:00

to Der Spiegel, hospital doctors

10:03

note his cause of death as skull

10:06

injury by blunt force. Though

10:10

the protest is over, the

10:12

fight between the left-leaning youth and

10:14

the right-leaning government is

10:16

just beginning. Onazork's

10:20

death sparks a new wave

10:22

of unrest in his name.

10:25

The tragic loss of an innocent

10:27

young man and father-to-be becomes

10:30

the symbol of everything wrong with

10:32

the government. He didn't

10:34

even protest, and yet he

10:36

was killed with a government-issued weapon.

10:39

To the movement, it's proof

10:41

the West German government is overstepping

10:44

the bounds of democracy and must

10:46

be stopped. Fuel

10:48

piles onto this fire when

10:50

that same government bans protesting,

10:53

which of course doesn't stop it. Tensions

10:56

rise as police inspector Kuras

10:58

goes to trial charged with

11:00

manslaughter. Kuras claims

11:03

the protesters were attacking him.

11:05

Some of them had knives he didn't

11:07

intend to shoot. According

11:09

to Der Spiegel, Kuras gives

11:12

multiple accounts of the day's events,

11:15

and they don't all line up. But

11:18

the police union believes Kuras.

11:21

They say he shot in self-defense

11:24

and fund his legal case. Meanwhile,

11:27

the prosecution faces major

11:30

evidence gaps. The

11:32

day after the shooting, Kuras

11:34

took his police uniform to the

11:36

dry cleaners, and

11:38

he conveniently lost the gun's

11:40

bullet magazine. Also

11:43

missing? Parts of

11:45

Benno Onizork's skull. Doctors

11:48

removed the pieces damaged by the

11:50

bullet during the autopsy, and

11:53

the bones somehow got thrown away.

11:56

Moreover, the investigation didn't collect

11:58

testimony from the army. officers

12:00

at the scene, even

12:02

though witnesses reported that police officers

12:04

beat up Onazork before and

12:07

by some accounts even after

12:09

the gun went off. In

12:13

the end, the court acquits police

12:16

inspector Kuras. Too

12:18

little evidence. Young

12:21

Germans are outraged. This

12:23

is the very fascism they were

12:25

protesting against. The anger

12:28

sparks the flame of several terrorist groups.

12:31

First, the June 2nd movement,

12:33

named for the date of Onazork's murder.

12:36

Then, there's the Red Army

12:39

faction, also known as

12:41

the Bader-Meinhof gang, who you

12:43

might recognize if you are

12:45

currently experiencing the Bader-Meinhof phenomenon.

12:48

That's when you learn about something

12:50

new, then suddenly it's everywhere. As

12:53

for Germans in the 70s, it

12:56

felt like the Bader-Meinhof gang

12:58

was everywhere, behind kidnappings,

13:01

bombings, bank robberies, even

13:03

murders, all in

13:05

the name of fighting fascism. The

13:08

public outrage is so widespread,

13:10

Kuras is retried in 1970.

13:15

People want justice for Benno

13:17

Onazork, but they don't get it.

13:20

Kuras is acquitted a second

13:22

time, and

13:24

a few years later, he's back to

13:26

work as a West Berlin

13:29

police officer. Eventually,

13:32

the fervor dies down

13:34

and the social unrest stops. Germany

13:38

reunifies in 1989 under a new democratic government. The

13:43

violence fades, though the

13:46

fear of fascism remains. Even

13:48

today, Germans don't hang

13:50

flags or hold parades. In

13:53

their eyes, national pride markers

13:55

like this can be a slippery

13:58

slope to a dangerous dictation. leadership.

14:01

It's not worth it. 20 years

14:03

after reunification, Germany

14:06

has mostly moved forward. Until

14:09

an accidental discovery changes everything they

14:11

thought they knew about the past

14:14

40 years. It's

14:17

2009, and historians

14:20

Helmut Müller-Enbergs and Cornelia Yabs

14:22

are knee-deep in files at

14:24

the Stasi Records Agency. In

14:27

her research, Cornelia finds

14:29

a reference to an unusual

14:32

file, one that

14:34

apparently no one has reviewed yet. According

14:37

to Der Spiegel, the German name for

14:39

this document translates to, I kid

14:41

you not, Secret File 2

14:43

of 70. Naturally,

14:47

Cornelia reads the Secret File,

14:50

and a familiar name pops up.

14:53

Karl Heinz Kuras.

14:57

This file leads her to 16 more undiscovered

15:01

files, revealing that

15:03

Karl Heinz Kuras was

15:05

actually an East German

15:07

spy, an undercover

15:10

Stasi agent. At

15:12

some point, someone removed Kuras from

15:14

the Stasi Records Index. They

15:17

intentionally buried his activities under

15:19

mountains of paper. To

15:22

Cornelia and everyone else

15:24

in Germany, Karl Heinz

15:27

Kuras' name is infamous. The

15:30

discovery instantly sparks a

15:32

conspiracy theory. Was Benno

15:35

Onazork's murder part of a

15:37

Stasi plot? According

15:39

to Der Spiegel, the uncovered

15:41

records show that not long after

15:44

Kuras shot Onazork, he

15:46

sent the Stasi central office

15:48

a lengthy message. It

15:52

was redacted. or

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But detectives would soon discover inside the

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house there were the bodies of two

16:34

women. A story of betrayal you would

16:36

struggle to believe if it wasn't true.

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16:57

2009 newly uncovered Stasi

16:59

records reveal that Karl Heinz Kuras

17:01

was an East German spy at

17:03

the time he shot Bana Onizork.

17:06

When the news goes public Kuras

17:09

is still alive age

17:11

81. He

17:13

denies everything naturally. It's

17:15

only when confronted with the

17:17

records that he confirms his

17:19

espionage insisting he

17:21

was an unpaid Stasi volunteer

17:24

informant. Onizork's death

17:26

was an unrelated tragic

17:28

accident but the

17:30

Stasi archives reveal a

17:32

different story. It

17:35

starts in 1955

17:38

after the Allies occupied Germany but

17:41

before things have settled into a new

17:43

normal. On the east side

17:46

the newly formed Stasi exists as

17:48

an extension of the KGB. The

17:51

organization was established in 1950 but it'll be a

17:53

few years

17:55

before it spins off into

17:57

an autonomous organization. The

18:00

Berlin Wall isn't even built yet, so

18:03

when Karlheinz Küras decides to

18:05

cross the east-west border snaking

18:07

through Berlin, he doesn't have any trouble.

18:10

At the time, he's a

18:12

disillusioned 27-year-old who loves guns

18:14

and hates the direction the

18:16

west is going in. He

18:19

marches right into the Socialist Unity

18:21

Party's Central Committee office and

18:24

offers his services on a silver

18:26

platter. He's ready to

18:28

quit his job as a cop and

18:31

start working for East Germany. The

18:34

bold move gets him a meeting with

18:36

Stasi officers who tell him to

18:39

keep his day job because

18:41

they would love to have a

18:43

mole inside the West Berlin Police

18:45

Department. With that,

18:48

Küras becomes a spy.

18:51

Codename, Otto Böhl.

18:54

He joins the cadre of secret

18:57

agents crawling through Berlin. Germans

18:59

working for the USA. Germans working

19:01

for the Soviets. Germans working for

19:03

the British. Germans working for the

19:06

French, who all believe

19:08

they're working for the Germans. According

19:11

to Der Spiegel, the Stasi

19:13

pay Küras handsomely, in

19:16

direct contradiction to Küras' own

19:18

account. And he isn't

19:20

just getting cash. The Stasi

19:22

supplies him with unusual and

19:25

hard-to-get weapons. For

19:27

a gun enthusiast like Küras, it

19:30

couldn't be better. Eventually, the

19:32

West Berlin Police suspect a

19:34

mole. They form a

19:36

task force to sniff out double agents.

19:39

But in a twist of fate, they

19:42

put Küras in charge of the

19:44

task force. The

19:46

West Berlin Police see him as

19:48

extremely loyal. Even

19:50

while he's feeding their secrets to the

19:53

Stasi, Küras has a

19:55

perfect cover. And isn't

19:57

afraid to sell out his fellow Stasi

19:59

informants. to maintain it. For

20:02

the next 12 years, Kuras's

20:04

dedication grows. He even completes

20:07

Stasi missions when he's on

20:09

vacation. He's described as

20:11

a spy the Stasi could ask anything

20:13

from. Well, except

20:16

one thing. Kuras allegedly

20:18

hates being a honey

20:20

trap, one of the most

20:23

common jobs for East German agents. Honey

20:25

traps, also called Romeos,

20:28

work to seduce a target, or

20:31

Juliet. Once the

20:33

target is compromised, they coerce

20:36

or blackmail them into helping the

20:38

Stasi. Kuras would rather

20:40

spend his time at the gun range.

20:43

The last currently known Stasi records

20:46

on Kuras are from 1976, nine

20:50

years after Onazork's death. At

20:52

the time, Kuras is back

20:55

inside the West Berlin police

20:57

and seeking more assignments. Records

21:00

don't show him getting one, but

21:02

they also don't account for his

21:05

activities during that nine-year span. But

21:08

even when you put the pieces we do

21:10

have together, Carl Heinz

21:12

Kuras sounds like the perfect

21:14

man for a Stasi mission

21:16

to incite chaos. The

21:19

plan could have been this simple. Enter

21:22

a moment of pandemonium, pick

21:24

an innocent bystander, shoot,

21:27

and watch the masses lose trust

21:29

in their government. He

21:31

didn't have to shoot Bena Onazork. Kuras

21:34

could have shot any West German

21:36

civilian. Onazork was simply

21:39

in the wrong place at the

21:41

wrong time. That

21:43

is, if the Stasi

21:45

really engineered a police brutality death

21:48

to incite chaos in the West,

21:51

which feels like something out of a

21:53

spy novel, then again,

21:55

this kind of operation was

21:58

exactly the Stasi style. Their

22:01

brand of psychological manipulation

22:03

was so specific there's

22:05

a German word for it. Sär

22:07

zet zung. Sär

22:09

zet zung roughly translates

22:12

to chemical decomposition, but

22:14

the idea was to slowly rot

22:16

away the target's sense of trust

22:19

with actions they could plausibly deny.

22:22

Using info acquired from constant

22:24

surveillance, the Stasi hit

22:26

where it hurt most. Family.

22:29

Career. Home. Tactics

22:31

range from spreading malicious rumors to

22:33

breaking into a target's house and

22:37

moving their furniture just a few inches

22:39

to the left. They'd

22:41

also block job applications and

22:43

promotions, flatten tires, and

22:46

even send child welfare officers in

22:49

on surprise calls. The

22:52

Stasi notoriously used Sär zet zung

22:54

on East German citizens to prevent

22:56

rebellion and descent, because

22:59

no one's going to lead a protest if

23:01

they're worried about losing their kids. It'd

23:05

be a logical next step to use the tactic

23:07

on the other side of the Berlin Wall. By

23:10

inciting terrorists from the inside,

23:12

they take the West's attention off the

23:14

East, weaken the already

23:17

fragile Republic, and maybe

23:19

even push the capitalist state towards

23:22

socialism. All of

23:24

which happened after the

23:26

murder of Benno Onizork. Whether

23:31

Kuras shot in an act of Zr zet

23:33

zung or not, the revelations

23:35

spurred a reexamination of the case

23:37

evidence, especially the

23:39

footage and pictures from June

23:42

2nd. In 2012, a

23:45

joint review by federal prosecutors and

23:47

Der Spiegel concludes that, at the

23:50

very least, Kuras was

23:52

not acting in self-defense.

23:55

The review uses film enhancement

23:57

technology to get clearer images.

23:59

images of the day. They

24:02

reveal a man who looked

24:04

like Kuras approaching Onazork, quote,

24:06

calmly, while carrying something

24:09

that looks like a gun. Another

24:11

image shows Kuras aiming his gun.

24:15

Kuras' hand rests on

24:17

another officer's shoulder, as

24:20

if he's trying to stabilize his shot. According

24:23

to Der Spiegel, that

24:25

officer is unknown and

24:28

was possibly never questioned. Still,

24:32

there isn't enough evidence to reopen

24:34

the case. The

24:36

newly recovered files don't explicitly

24:39

discuss Onazork, and

24:41

Kuras' Stasi supervisor is

24:43

long dead. In

24:46

many people's perspectives, Karl

24:48

Heinz Kuras killed a man, lied

24:50

about it, and got away

24:53

scot-free. Even worse, Kuras

24:55

tells a reporter for Der

24:58

Tagashbeagle that he shot Onazork,

25:00

quote, for fun. It

25:04

sounds like even if Kuras wasn't

25:06

acting on Stasi orders, he

25:09

was acting on their ideology. Either

25:12

way, it brings up a

25:14

chilling question. Did all

25:17

of West Germany get played? Was

25:20

a decade of protest and terrorism an

25:23

inevitable step toward a brighter future,

25:26

or was it the intended consequence

25:28

of a nationwide PSYOP? Kuras

25:31

died in 2014, taking the full truth to the grave. Unless

25:37

the truth is in shredded Stasi

25:40

files, waiting to be put

25:42

back together. If

25:45

another revelation ever comes, Germany

25:47

will face a new reckoning, that

25:50

their history is not what they thought,

25:53

that the Stasi exerted their

25:55

terrifying power far outside of

25:57

East Germany, and the

25:59

German people will have to wonder what

26:01

other moments in their history might

26:04

have been manipulated by the

26:06

Stasi, including

26:08

another mysterious death 20 years

26:12

after Beno-Onazorx. It

26:15

starts with Uwe Barshall, the

26:18

former Minister-President of Schleswig-Hochstein.

26:21

Schleswig-Hochstein is one of Germany's 16

26:24

states. It

26:26

borders Denmark and the north and is

26:28

known for its beaches and cattle. The

26:31

position of Minister-President is

26:33

like if an American governor and senator had

26:35

a baby. Barshall is

26:38

among the youngest people to ever hold the

26:40

job. He's only 43

26:42

when things turn suspicious. It's

26:46

October 11, 1987. Barshall

26:50

is scheduled for an interview

26:52

with Stern Magazine at the

26:54

Beaurevage Hotel in Geneva. He's

26:57

just visiting, making a brief

26:59

stop on the way home from a

27:01

vacation in Spain's Canary Islands. The

27:04

Beaurevage is a five-star luxury

27:06

hotel, a family

27:08

business tracing back more than a

27:10

century. It boasts

27:12

lakefront views and

27:14

a history including an Austrian

27:17

Empress's brutal stabbing. It's

27:19

the perfect meeting place for a politician

27:21

with a story to tell. Though

27:24

when the Stern reporter enters the hotel,

27:26

he gets a different

27:28

story than he's expecting. Barshall

27:31

doesn't come downstairs for the lunchtime

27:33

meeting. According to the

27:35

hotel staff, Barshall's brother has called

27:37

the front desk a few times in the

27:40

past hour. Barshall didn't

27:42

pick up his room's phone and

27:44

he missed their breakfast plans. The

27:47

reporter and hotel staff head upstairs.

27:50

They brush aside the do not disturb

27:52

sign and enter Barshall's

27:54

room. Moments

27:56

later, the reporter finds Barshall

27:59

in the room. bathtub, head

28:01

above the water, fully

28:04

clothed and unconscious.

28:08

Marshall doesn't appear injured. He

28:10

actually looks great in a suit, except

28:13

for the fact that he's

28:15

dead. The

28:18

Swiss police arrived to confirm his

28:20

passing. They initially suspect

28:22

heart trouble, which is odd

28:24

for a 43-year-old but not unheard of. The

28:28

officers stay in the room for some time, moving

28:31

things around, eating, just hanging

28:33

out. Now in their

28:35

defense, they don't think it's a crime scene. It

28:38

really seems like he died from heart problems,

28:41

so no one bothers to make sure

28:43

the photos aren't overexposed to

28:45

test the bathwater or to take

28:48

quality fingerprints. The

28:50

autopsy proves them very,

28:52

very wrong. So

28:55

a Marshall system is full of

28:57

prescription drugs. His

29:00

cause of death is ruled as

29:02

suicide. But

29:04

not everyone believes that. Remember,

29:08

Marshall was a politician,

29:11

so his premature death was going to make

29:13

news no matter how it happened. In

29:16

fact, Marshall had already been

29:18

in the news the weeks before his

29:20

death. Remember how I said

29:22

he was the former minister president

29:25

of Schleswig-Hochstein? He

29:27

just lost his race due

29:29

to a major scandal. Two

29:33

weeks before election day, news

29:36

broke over charges that Marshall

29:38

made highly illegal efforts to

29:41

discredit his opponent, Bjorn Aengholm.

29:44

Allegedly Marshall hired a PI to

29:47

spy on Aengholm and wiretapped his

29:49

phones. In Marshall's office

29:51

called Aengholm's, posing as a doctor

29:53

who wanted to let Aengholm known

29:56

he might have AIDS. And

29:58

they topped it all off by... spreading rumors

30:00

about tax evasion and sex

30:03

parties. When

30:05

this smear campaign came out, the

30:08

tides of the election turned. Varshal

30:11

repeatedly claimed innocence. He

30:13

said he never discredited Aengholm. He was

30:16

set up. But

30:18

with one man's word against many,

30:20

the incumbent lost his seat. Germans

30:24

named the scandal Watterkont Gate, and

30:27

not just for the wiretapping element, in

30:30

German Watterkont means waterfront,

30:33

and Schleswig-Holstein is on Germany's

30:35

coast. This

30:37

is all extremely relevant to Uwe

30:40

Barshall's death because he was supposed

30:42

to testify at a parliamentary inquiry

30:44

about the scandal the

30:47

day after he died. Almost

30:50

immediately, Uwe Barshall's family

30:52

comes out and says, it's

30:54

not suicide, it's

30:57

murder. Mrs.

30:59

Barshall talks to the New York Times,

31:02

saying that on their last phone call,

31:04

Uwe told her, for the first

31:06

time in my life, I am

31:09

afraid. While

31:11

the Swiss authorities think the case has wrapped

31:13

up, the Barshalls take matters

31:15

into their own hands, which

31:18

is hard to do. It

31:20

takes six years of back and forth

31:22

with the Geneva courts for the family

31:24

to get Uwe's complete remains and

31:26

the Swiss authorities' lab reports. Once

31:30

they have everything, the Barshalls

31:32

hire renowned toxicologist Dr. Hans

31:34

Brandenberger to do an independent

31:36

analysis of the remains. Notably,

31:40

Brandenberger is Swiss and

31:42

American, so they believe

31:44

he's more likely to approach the case

31:46

with a sense of political neutrality, at

31:49

least compared to a German. It

31:52

doesn't take him long to form an opinion.

31:56

Suicide was unlikely. Brandenburger

32:01

notes for different drugs in

32:03

bar Souls system. One

32:06

of the drugs cyclo Bar,

32:08

but tall was ingested significantly

32:10

later than the others. So.

32:13

Late. There's. No way Partial

32:15

could have taken that drug at that

32:17

time by himself. He'd. Have already

32:19

been incapacitated from the three other drugs

32:21

in his system. Brandenburger

32:24

acknowledges the theory of a

32:26

quote assisted suicide. By.

32:29

Doubts that to. He

32:31

notes that one of the drugs

32:33

was administered rec deletes, which is

32:36

not in line with humane euthanasia

32:38

standards. And. Most crucially,

32:41

Brandenburger. Notes: a chemical found

32:43

on the hotel bath mat that

32:46

causes human skin to absorb

32:48

drugs more easily. Brandenburger.

32:50

Publicized as his findings and opinions

32:53

over the next two decades including

32:55

penning a lengthy peace in the

32:57

German Keeper de Velde in two

32:59

thousand and Ten. And

33:02

this all gets even more

33:04

suspicious when paired with a

33:06

revelation from Nineteen Ninety Three.

33:09

Move. A bar so wasn't

33:11

the mastermind behind about our

33:13

current gate. He

33:15

was. Framed. This.

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34:11

A Bar Souls mysterious death came

34:13

in the midst of a major

34:15

political scandal in September. Nineteen Eighty

34:17

Seventh Partial was accused of using

34:20

illegal campaign tactics to smear Bjorn

34:22

Ng Holmes, who was running against

34:24

him to be the next Minister

34:26

President of Slice Big Holsteins in

34:28

the court of Public Opinion. Parcel

34:31

was guilty and he lost his

34:33

reelection campaign. Marshals. Party

34:35

was the Cd You or

34:37

Christian Democratic Union and Ng

34:39

home was part of the

34:41

S P D or Social

34:43

Democratic Party. But. In Nineteen

34:45

Ninety three, six years after

34:48

Bar so sudden death, he

34:50

came to light that Ng

34:52

Home and the Spd had

34:54

fired Barstools media office consultant

34:56

Reiner Pfeiffer to discredit Ng

34:59

Home in a way that

35:01

actually discredited Bar. So yes,

35:03

Ng Homes party was behind

35:05

his own smear campaign. On

35:08

this new scandal was sometimes called

35:10

the Drawer Of because it began

35:12

when tens of thousands of German

35:14

marks were found in one of

35:16

five for drawers. It

35:18

was his payments. From. The S

35:20

P D It turned out he

35:22

was five for who filed the

35:25

anonymous tax evasion complaint by for

35:27

who made the phone call spreading

35:29

unfounded Aids rumors and Pfeiffer who

35:31

fired the P I N planted

35:33

a listening device in parcels phone

35:35

when the truth came out. And

35:38

home resigned from his position as

35:40

Minister Presidents. And all

35:43

lined up with what hoover parcel

35:45

said before he died. He

35:47

didn't do it in. The story

35:49

gets even wilder when you consider

35:52

something else. Parcel told his family.

35:54

He traveled to Geneva to meet

35:56

a man who could prove his

35:59

innocence. Marshall said

36:01

the man was named Rudolph

36:03

Roelof. For years people thought

36:05

roll off was an invention.

36:08

But. When it came out that bar

36:10

so was telling the truth about the

36:13

frame jobs, well Roll off sounded a

36:15

hell of a lot more real according

36:17

to Barr show. Roll Off offered Humes

36:20

photo evidence that bar so was innocent.

36:23

Parcel. Hope to bring back to his

36:25

testimony the following week. It's

36:27

unknown if partial and roll off

36:29

ever actually met up. There wasn't

36:31

anything pointing to at at the

36:34

crime scene. He. A partial

36:36

got the photos. Someone. Stole

36:38

them before his body was found.

36:41

The. Revelation points to a rumored

36:43

suspect in Marshals murder. The.

36:46

Spd. Perhaps.

36:49

They killed partial to keep the

36:51

truth of the scandal hidden and

36:53

keep their party in power. But

36:56

for my money, this kind

36:59

of career sabotage sounds exactly

37:01

like there's It songs. The

37:04

Stasi is oddly specific brand

37:06

of psychological warfare. Some.

37:08

Theorists go as far as saying

37:11

rudolph roll off was a Staci

37:13

agents. They say the Stasi

37:15

engineered bar souls sudden downfalls than

37:17

lured him to Geneva to hit

37:19

him while he was down. At

37:22

their clandestine meeting. Roll.

37:24

Off poisoned partial. If.

37:27

You're thinking, why with the stasi target move

37:29

a bar So. The. Answer

37:32

lies in illegal arms

37:34

deals. This

37:36

next part diverges from the conspiracy

37:38

theory in that. Is.

37:41

True. Because. If

37:43

it's position on the coast,

37:45

Slice Big Hallstein has always

37:47

been ideally situated for trade

37:50

including be illegal arms trade

37:52

during the Cold War like

37:54

Iran Contra which you may

37:56

recall from our past episodes.

37:59

as me minister president, Barshall

38:01

didn't stop the shady deals.

38:04

He actively participated. This

38:08

included brokering weapons trades

38:10

with Alexander Schalke-Golodkovsky, the

38:12

head of East Germany's

38:14

Kommers-Ele Kordnierung, which

38:16

even the Germans shortened to Coco. His

38:19

job was to bring foreign cash and

38:21

goods into East Germany by

38:24

any means necessary. But

38:27

Stasi documents later revealed that Coco

38:29

was actually controlled by the Stasi.

38:32

According to reporting by Wired, Schalke-Golodkovsky

38:35

received his orders directly

38:37

from the Stasi's head

38:39

officer. And during

38:41

his term as minister president, Barshall

38:44

made routine trips to East Germany,

38:47

often staying in the luxurious

38:49

Hotel Neptune, known to

38:51

be crawling with Stasi spies. It's

38:54

possible that two things could have happened here. One,

38:57

Barshall met Stasi agents like

39:00

Schalke-Golodkovsky to cut secret deals.

39:03

And two, Barshall was targeted by a

39:05

honey trap. As I

39:07

mentioned earlier, those are the

39:09

spies who used the art of

39:11

seduction to lure someone into switching

39:13

sides, glean information, or

39:16

collect material for blackmail. We

39:19

can't fully confirm either, but we do

39:21

know. Barshall was involved

39:23

with an official working for the Stasi.

39:26

The Stasi organization routinely psyched

39:28

people, and they weren't

39:30

afraid to commit murder. Okay,

39:33

back to the conspiracy theory. It's

39:36

possible Barshall had information the

39:38

Stasi wanted kept quiet, and

39:41

they'd tried and failed to kill

39:43

him already. Less

39:45

than six months before Barshall's death, he

39:48

took a private jet from Bonn,

39:50

the capital of West Germany at

39:52

that time, back home to Schleisweig-Hölstein.

39:55

According to the official report, Bad

39:58

weather and low visibility. On

40:00

the plane to hit an

40:02

antenna while trying to land,

40:04

the plane crashed killing three

40:07

of it's for passengers. Marshall

40:09

was the sole survivor. a

40:11

tragedy but one made weirder

40:13

by the fact that this

40:15

wasn't the pilots first plane

40:18

crash. She moved into the

40:20

private jet industry after a

40:22

commercial planes you his copilot

40:24

and crashed June twenty two

40:26

people in nineteen Seventy one.

40:29

Was. It a coincidence partial was

40:32

on her flight. Or

40:34

did someone pull strings to put him

40:36

in an unsafe situation? There.

40:40

Are also series that it was

40:42

someone outside of the Stasi targeting

40:44

parcel. Remember, he was

40:47

part of a vast multinational

40:49

illegal weapons networks in Geneva

40:51

has a reputation as an

40:54

international city filled with agents

40:56

from the Cia kg be

40:59

massaged and Iran. All

41:01

of whom conceivably had

41:03

means, motives and opportunity

41:05

to quiet parcel. Some.

41:08

Theorists suggest that one spy agency

41:10

killed bar So and then framed

41:12

another. Here's

41:14

why I think this is important though.

41:17

Even if the Stasi didn't kill move

41:19

a bar so. They may

41:21

still have covered it up. As

41:24

The Independent reported all the way

41:26

back in Nineteen Ninety Five quote.

41:29

The key staci fire was that might

41:31

shed light on the affair have not

41:33

yet been found. Even if

41:36

the Stasi was not directly involved

41:38

in parcels death The Stars his

41:40

knowledge may still hold the key.

41:45

It's. Worth digging into those records.

41:47

First. For the bar so family

41:50

to gain closure and see justice. Also

41:52

for the German people, being able to

41:54

trust their history books are not saying

41:56

we have it any better in America

41:59

as much. Hey, assassinations,

42:02

But. Imagine how you would feel if

42:04

there were archives full of ripped

42:06

up paper that might have answers

42:08

about J F K. And

42:10

that's what Germany's working through. Until.

42:13

All the ripped up Staci files

42:16

are pleased back together. The organization

42:18

can't be ruled out as a

42:20

suspect in Move A Bar Souls

42:22

or Banner Owners Orcs Deaths. No.

42:25

One can. And as long

42:27

as those files remain in pieces. The

42:31

Stasi legacy continues. Trust.

42:34

No One. In on

42:36

everyone! So

42:38

often on the show we

42:41

highlight reasons to distrust people

42:43

and institutions, but today we

42:45

want to remind everyone there's

42:47

a level of trust necessary

42:49

to a functional society and

42:51

whether the Stasi killed ben,

42:53

own his work and of

42:55

a bar. so or not

42:58

their stories show that a

43:00

distrustful world is a dangerous

43:02

one. Is you can't

43:04

trust anyone? Pretty. Soon all

43:06

that's left is a ripped up

43:09

pile of paper. And.

43:11

It may be decades before anyone.

43:15

Can reassemble the scraps. Thank

43:23

you for listening to Conspiracy Theories

43:25

a Spotify podcast. We're here with

43:27

a new episode every Wednesday and

43:29

be sure to check us out

43:32

on Instagram at the Conspiracy Pod

43:34

and we would love to hear

43:36

from you. So if you're listening

43:38

on a Spotify app, swipe up

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and your thoughts to have a

43:43

relationship to the stories we tell.

43:45

Send a short audio recording telling

43:47

your story to Conspiracy Stories at

43:49

Spot fight.com Until next time, Remember

43:52

the truth. Isn't always the

43:54

best story and the official

43:56

story? There's

44:00

a Series Is A Spot

44:02

of I podcast. This episode

44:04

was written and researched by

44:06

Maggie Admire Fact checking by

44:09

Lorrie Siegel. Sound designed by

44:11

Alex Button. special thanks to

44:13

Connor Samson, Mickey Taylor and

44:15

Chelsea Would or head of

44:17

programming is Julian while row

44:19

or head of production is

44:21

Nick Johnson and Spencer Howard

44:24

is our post production supervisor

44:26

on your host Quarter.