Mysticism & Murder

For Bulgarian listeners Radio Sofia broadcast a more sensational side of the trials (see above). One of the defendants was a former Regent, Prince Cyril, brother of the late Tsar Boris III, who died mysteriously after a command visit with Adolf Hitler a year and a half ago.

Said Radio Sofia of Prince Cyril: "At last he took the only place he deserved to have in our country--he faced a national court. He is Cyril Coburg-Gotha,* a driver, motorcyclist, adventurer, spy and son of Ferdinand [Bulgaria's World War I Tsar] ... a man who . . . calls himself a 'Bulgarian,' and the Bulgarians answer with sarcastic laughter."

In court, said the broadcast, Prince Cyril claimed that "in his own opinion he was absolutely democratic," that he was "interested only in technology."

The late Tsar Boris had also been interested in technology--he had a passion for driving locomotives (see cut). The People's Court learned that he had also been a mystic. Yordan Lutcheff, a royal councilor who was also on trial, reported that Boris had been a member of the secret sun-worshipping sect of Dunovists. Founded 25 years ago by a Professor Dunov, who died in Sofia last week, the sect numbers some 700 men & women. Each summer the Dunovists climb Mount Musala, Bulgaria's highest mountain, in order to be nearer the sun. They also chant hymns to the sun every morning, preach human regeneration by living close to nature.

Mystic Tsar Boris may have died by Mystic Adolf Hitler's orders. Prince Cyril declared on the witness stand that he was "convinced" that the Nazis had murdered his brother. On the return flight from Germany, said Cyril, Tsar Boris was given an oxygen mask impregnated with "a strong solution" which caused embolism and death. The Germans claimed that he died of a heart attack and a lung ailment.

* Cyril's father, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, elected Prince of Bulgaria in 1887, became Tsar of Bulgaria in 1909 when the country declared its independence of Turkish rule.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.