Poison Perfume and Dead Presidents

Megalomaniac dictators ordering their pet evil scientist to come up with untraceable poisons: It's the stuff of bad movies. And, it seems, real life, too.

"A court forensics expert said Wednesday that former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva was assassinated in January 1982," according to McClatchyDC.com. Medical officials had long asserted that infection after a simple hernia operation was the cause of death. Turns out "that a combination of toxins, including mustard gas, gradually administered to the former president ultimately killed him."

This case has seen a lot of twists – just a year ago it was claimed that a report showing the presence of mustard gas on the Frei case did not exist. The finger points to Eugenio Berrios, described as Chilean dictator "Augosoto Pinochet's Mad Scientist," and the regime's resident expert on lethal chemicals:

One of Berrios' assignments was the development of sarin gas that could be packaged in spray cans for use in assassinations. DINA officials thought the nerve gas could create lethal symptoms that might be confused with natural causes while giving time for the assailants to escape.

During another assassination plot -- an attempt to off Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier -- Berrios looked to "use a female operative to seduce the debonair former diplomat and then administer a liquid form of sarin concealed in a Chanel perfume bottle. But Berrios also stocked the operation with explosive devices in case the nerve gas proved unworkable."

Berrios is also credited with producing "black cocaine" for the Pinochet regime, with the profits finding their way into Pinochet's overseas bank accounts. When the dictator finally fell, Berrios evidently decided he knew too much and fled for his life, disappearing for a while.

The Berrios case resurfaced, quite literally, in April 1995 when two fishermen found a man's decomposed body partially buried at a beach in El Pinar, another resort town about 25 kilometers from Montevideo. The body had broken bones suggesting torture, was wrapped in wire, and had two .45-calibre bullet holes in the back of the neck and head.

The body was identified as Berrios by dental records and DNA profiling. But, in yet another twist, Manuel Contreras, former head of the Chilean secret police, claimed that Berrios' death had been faked.

Contreras is now serving a 25-year sentence. But if his claim is correct, then Berrios is alive and well -- and has cut a deal to work for the US Drug Enforcement Agency. In this sort of story, how surprising would that be? At least he's on our side, rather than with terrorists...