May 14, 2021 • 48 mins
The spy was happy to be back home, but his mission wasn’t complete. The final act was still to take place in Uruguay. So in the Mossad apartment in the heart of Paris, the kill team started to plan the assassination. They were going ahead with the plan. The debate in the German Parliament was coming up in a few months. They all hoped a successful mission would influence it.
“Good Assassins: Hunting the Butcher" came out of Stephan Talty's work on a related book, The Good Assassin. Explore other parts of this story in the book: Buy The Good Assassin
There was a lot of work to do. The Mossad boss Yosef Yariv had collected all the documents the spy had sent from the field, including maps of Montevideo and São Paolo, information on hotels and renting cars. He’d written down what they'd to get through passport control and what problems the other team members might face. But they still didn’t have a place where the assassination could be carried out. They didn’t even know how it was going to be carried out.
Mossad wanted everyone to suspect that Israel had carried out the killing but it didn’t want any of its agents to get caught. What they were doing wasn’t legal. Cukurs wasn’t going to get a trial or have a lawyer, like Adolf Eichmann had got after Mossad kidnapped him. They didn’t want Mossad to be the story. They wanted Cukurs to be the story.
So the team members had to carry out the killing, gather their belongings, and head to the airport. They had to get on the plane and get safely back to Europe before Cukurs’ body was discovered. That influenced how the assassination would be carried out. It couldn’t be public. It couldn’t be loud. And the body had to be left out of sight, so that someone didn’t stumble on it and raise the alarm before the agents had left the country.
The team members were almost done with their training in Krav Maga, the Israeli fighting system. Imi Lichtenfeld was working them hard.
They were losing precious time. The clock was ticking and Germany’s vote on the amnesty statute was approaching fast. If the mission didn’t move forward soon, all would be lost.
This episode contains interviews with:
• Eyal Yanilov, co-founder and Chief Instructor of Krav Maga Global
• Fernando Butazzoni, award-winning journalist and author of the 2020 book on Mossad's Cukurs mission, Los Que Nunca Olvidarán (Those Who Will Never Forget)
• Avner Avraham, former Mossad agent and renowned expert on Mossad operations
• Gad Shimron, former Mossad agent, journalist, author of several books on intelligence and history
• Chris Costa, veteran of the Department of Defense. US Army counterintelligence, human intelligence, and Special Operations Forces, currently Executive Director of the International Spy Museum
GOOD ASSASSINS: HUNTING THE BUTCHER
• Written and Hosted by STEPHAN TALTY
• Produced and Directed by SCOTT WAXMAN and JACOB BRONSTEIN
• Executive Producers: SCOTT WAXMAN and MARK FRANCIS
• Story Editor: JACOB BRONSTEIN
• Editorial direction: SCOTT WAXMAN and MANGESH HATTIKUDUR
• Editing, mixing, and sound design: MARK FRANCIS
• With the voices of: NICK AFKA THOMAS, OMRI ANGHEL, ANDREW POLK, MINDY ESCOBAR-LEANSE, STEVE ROUTMAN, STEFAN RUDNICKI
• Theme Music by TYLER CASH
• Archival Researcher: ADAM SHAPIRO
• Thanks to OREN ROSENBAUM
Learn more about “Good Assassins: Hunting the Butcher” at DiversionPodcasts.com
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Diversion podcasts. Hey, this is Stephen Talty, the host of
this podcast, Good Assassin's Hunting the Butcher. This podcast project
came out of my work on a related book called
The Good Assassin. If you want to explore other parts
(00:27):
of this story, check it out. It's not just a
book version of the podcast. I spend time on different
aspects of the mission. There are chapters diving into World
War two history that we didn't cover in the podcast,
and the book works as a kind of a companion
to the listening experience. You can purchase a copy of
The Good Assassin on Amazon, Apple Books, and on bookshop
(00:50):
dot Org. Thanks a note, this episode contains descriptions of
graphic violence listeners describe and is advised. Mio was happy
(01:10):
to be back in Paris. His children had missed him.
His young son, in fact, had asked so many times
when his father was coming home that MEA's wife arranged
for a friend to call and pretend to be her husband.
But when the boy got on the line, he knew
the voice on the other end wasn't Meos and he'd
been crushed. So he was overjoyed that his father was
(01:32):
finally home. But me his mission wasn't completed. The final
act was still to take place in Uruguay and in
your's apartment in the heart of Paris. The team started
putting the pieces together. I'm Stephen Talty and this as
(02:04):
good assassin's hunting the butcher. The first pile was to
find and not bendling forward file. The second clock was
mine a Nazi and hearing we must thwart this shameful
pass the end of a trail of blood and horror,
(02:27):
the end of a man whose name will be written
in the end Episode eight, the ticking clock. There was
(02:52):
a lot of work to do. We've had collected all
the letters and telegrams that Meo had said from the field.
Neo had brought back maps of Montevideo and sal Polo,
lots of information on hotels and unning cars and the
vacation home market. He'd written down exactly what he needed
(03:13):
to go through passport control and what problems the other
team members might find. Nothing could be left to chance.
There was a file on Zookers, what he was like,
what he didn't like, what his habits were. But they
still didn't have a place with the assassination could be
carried out. They didn't even know how it was going
to be carried out. On the trip back to France,
(03:36):
knew I had given some thought to that. He was
very straightforward about it, he later wrote in his memoir.
I pointed out that the distant sniper shot was not,
in my opinion, at least a shootable option, most because
of the noise and because it would not allow us
(03:57):
to give him the clue. Degrass I also rejected the
use of poison. I gave detailed the count of the
so called drinking night I had set up the Japanese nightclub.
I mentioned his strange habit of sipping his drink in
an ever so slow, almost nerve wracking fashion. The sniper
(04:21):
shot would have been a possibility if they've been carrying
out the assassination on their home soil, but the team
had a factor in their need to escape. It was
always a temptation to devote more time to figuring out
how to eliminate a target than to figuring out how
to get away once you've done it. They couldn't fall
into that trap. Bessad wanted everyone to suspect that Israel
(04:44):
had carried out the killing, but it didn't want any
of its agents to actually get caught. That could lead
to interrogations and other things. What they were doing wasn't legal.
Secris wasn't going to get a trial or have a
lawyer like Adafikman had got after Massad kidnapped him. They
(05:05):
didn't want Massad to be the story. They wanted Suckers
to be the story. So the team members had to
carry out the killing, gather their belongings, and head to
the airport. They had to get on the plane and
get safely back to Europe before Sucker's body was discovered.
That influenced how the assassination would be carried out. It
(05:27):
couldn't be public, it couldn't be loud, and the body
had to be left out of sight so that someone
didn't stumble on it and raise the alarm before the
agents had time to leave the country. A hotel room,
for example, was out the maid would find the body
too quickly. Neo gave the finale a lot of thought.
(05:48):
It was his call. He had met Sukers. He had
a better sense of what would work than you, even
the others who've been busy training. But by the time
he met with the team, me had an idea. I
believe that's the best way is to lure him into
a house where an elimination unit will be waiting for him.
(06:12):
From my intense and intimate acquaintance with the late one,
and from the numerous hours we have spent together, which
have included many visits to various rental sights, I'm convinced
he will enter any house I do. He trusts me,
but get him. Ron, the former messodge and military historian,
(06:34):
learned later what Mia wasn't aware of at the time.
Suchers did not trust Anton Kunzla as much as he believed.
Still the last moment, was not fully sure that the
meal is kosher. He took a picture of meal, gave
it to his wife and told her, if something happens
(06:54):
to me, if I don't come back, this is the killer.
He killed me. It was a plan, but it wasn't
fool proof. Zukers had already shown that he was suspicious.
He seemed to trust MEO and some little thing would
send him off and they were almost back to zero again.
That was the first risk. The second was Zuker's physical strength.
(07:19):
Mio knew that you're reeve and the team members getting
tired of his warnings about how tough the butcher was,
but he didn't care. He was a lead agent. This
was his mission. You had to see the guy to understand.
He looked like a competitive weightlifter, so Mio kept at it.
He told your Reeve again about how Zukers was a
(07:39):
highly mistrustful man, acutely vigilant, armed with a gun, and
of great physical strength. You're reeve nodded, but he was
probably thinking Meo was getting a little paranoid himself. Massad
agents were war veterans. They killed before the butcher was
sixty four years old. They would take care of him
without any problem. You Reef told me, oh, he'd done
(08:02):
a good job. But for the killed team getting the
butcher inside the house, that was the tricky part. They
would take care of the rest. If four strong Israelis
couldn't handle a senior citizen, well, then Massad was in trouble.
(08:22):
You Reef went over MEO's plan and quickly approved it,
and he confirmed one important detail before the sentence was
carried out. The team would read out a verdict in
the name of the thirty thousand men, women and children
that Sukers had helped kill. Would be like a judge's
sentence would show the world the Israelis had given serious
thought to why Sukers had to die. In no way
(08:45):
could the execution be equated with the death of his victims.
They had to show that they had carefully considered his crimes.
This was justice, not vengeance. This raised an intriguing possibility.
If they were going to take the time to read
the charges, maybe Sucres would respond. Maybe he'd even defend himself.
(09:07):
Maybe I thought he'd tell the Israelis why he'd done
what he'd done. In my quest to know the motives
behind his actions, this would be a perfect time for
Suckers himself to tell his story. Or if he was
truly an anti Semite at heart, maybe facing five Jewish
assassins would reveal that. Maybe he'd shout some abuse at
(09:31):
the team. They would at least be a clue. But
one thing was for sure. With this plan, there would
be a chance for Zukers to finally tell the truth.
Mia was satisfied all the work he'd put in had
been vindicated. They were going ahead with his plan. The
debate in the German Parliament was coming up in a
(09:53):
few months. They all hoped a successful mission would influence
it On the ninth of November, a letter arrived the
Rotterdam po box that MEO had set up months earlier.
It was from Zuker's. Following your request, I hereby enclosed
(10:15):
my flight ticket from sal Follow to Monte Video went back,
as well as a few other receipts for personal expenses.
I hope you arrival in Rotterdam and said to all
these films this you hoping to see you soon. This friendship.
(10:36):
Heppert so cares. The team was pleased. The butcher was
taking the bait, but me A waited over a month,
said a reply. He wanted it to seem like he
was a busy man putting deals together. He couldn't appear
to be too eager. Dear Abert, I thank you for
(10:57):
your letter and forms of receipts you sent. Everything here
is running as it should, and as far as business
is concerned, I have nothing to complain about. My associates
are very pleased with the outcome of the trip to
South America to Grasil and Uruguay. I intend to return
to South America in the coming weeks in order to
(11:18):
realize and implement various investment plans. I should therefore be
grateful to you if you could manage soon after receiving
this letter to make the necessary arrangements to Chile and Uruguay.
I'm enclosing a banker's check for one hundred dollars to
cover your expenses. Please inform me by telegram when all
(11:39):
the necessary papers are in your hands and you are
ready for the trip. A happy New Year to you
and your family. Hope to see you soon. Your friend
and Tom Kumslay your rearranged with MASSAD headquarters to provide
(12:00):
new identities for the other team members, fake names, passports
and backstories that would give them a reason for being
in Uruguay. The men spent hours memorizing the details. They
learned a few key phrases in Spanish and Portuguese in
case they were stopped by the police or had some
other problem. The four team members were almost done with
(12:21):
their training, and Crabmagaw, the Israeli fighting system Emmi Lichtenfeld
was working them hard. Neil wasn't part of the training.
His job was to get the butcher into the room.
That was it. They practiced the same maneuvers over and
over again. Watching the sessions, Neil later wrote he thought
(12:41):
the instructor had the graceful movements with dancer Lichtenfeld's feet
slid across the floor soundlessly as he avoided knight thrust
and club swinging at his head. But according to Emi
Lichtenfeld student a yl Yanilov, his graceful nature would never
have been mistake in for weakness. So Emi was differently
(13:05):
with very high level of refined movements. So like Muhammad
Ali said, he say that's like about the fly sing,
Then the Krapma God teacher could look a little scary.
In his white karate tunic, he had a glass of
eye and half his face was frozen from an injury
he had sustained on his journey to Palestine. He's spoke
(13:27):
in a deep, bare tone with a slight lisp caused
by an injury to the left side of his mouth.
Krama God did require slight adjustments for the mission, having
been invented to save Jewish lives, was defensive in nature.
It's core philosophy was do whatever is needed to cause
as much damage as possible to your attacker and get
away safely. But in Uruguay the massadman would be the aggressors.
(13:53):
All knows how Emi would have instructed the team to
locate the target's weak spot. He will tell them the
slight to the most sensitive points to be very efficient
in their striking with open hand or with closed fist.
So he's very strongly to the knee, to the sole,
reflexes to the floating griegs, liver and sleep. Go up
(14:16):
at this line of the neck. Front of the neck.
Back of the neck is extremely efficient. Go to the
line of the drop to coast one cushion. Go to
the line of the eyes, especially the temples. So these
are strikes that will coastal cushion and we make the
person who groogi full down. They practiced disarming a target
as Mill had told them. Sekers carried a gun everywhere,
(14:39):
and Cromaga, if there was a gun involved in a fight,
who always assumed it would be fired. But the massad
agents wanted to immobilize Seekers before he could drive, so
they practiced a blow from the back they hoped would
bring the butcher down. A l can imagine what the
team was going through. He vividly remembers how hard Amy
(15:01):
pushed him in his own training. He said, do again,
not good, do do again, not go, do again twenty times,
No good. Do again. I didn't even know what you
wanted from me. What should I do? In that sense?
I think I just too eventually, So when you think
about it, it's just the agile. You have to do
(15:23):
something you know doing, go did do better? That's it.
You read could fear a meat and Sudie practice. Kick
after kick they paired off and rain blows down on
the head of their opponents. Lintenbell believed the knuckles were
too delicate for a good smash to the face. He
(15:44):
preferred the meaty base of the hand, or even better,
the elbow balance was key. Kick returned to position, Kick
returned to position. Kick, They drilled and drilled. We made
the experience that much more exhausting for the men was
that Mio wasn't even doing theneath for us, and the
(16:06):
rest of it kept reminding them they were about to
face a raging animal. Remember the late one is a
strong man, and he's always armed. Even your Reeve grew
impatient with him. Meo exaggerates a bit will overcome, so
cooes without any problem. It was MEO's turn to be annoyed.
(16:31):
These Raeli Is always believed they could solve any problem.
Typical saber bullshit. He was worried they were going to
mess up his operation. Are you curious about something you've
heard on Hunting the Butcher and want to know more?
Is there something I haven't covered that you wish I would?
(16:53):
I want to hear from you. We've set up an
email address for listeners to send us questions about the show.
We've received some amazing, thoughtful questions so far, and we'd
love to hear more. Record yourself asking your question, include
your name and where you're from, and we'll try to
answer your question on a future episode. The email address
(17:15):
is Hunting the Butcher at Diversion Podcasts dot com. Record
yourself asking a question and email it to me. The
voice memos app on iPhone works well for recording yourself again.
The email address is Hunting the Butcher at Diversion Podcasts
dot com. That's podcasts plural. I'm looking forward to hearing
(17:38):
your questions. Thanks, you're even The others took all of
(18:04):
MEO's notes, the telegrams and letters, his thoughts on the
kill method and honed them into a working paper. It
included maps, even timetables to and from different landmarks in Montevideo.
They looked at the maps searching for the right neighborhood
to rent a house. They bought summer clothes that would
be right for Uruguay, and they went to various banks
(18:26):
and changed money for Uruguay and pesos. Then they began
to look for a staging ground for the operation, a
place where they could fly into, getting organized and prepare
for D Day. They didn't want to be hanging around
Uruguay for weeks attracting attention. They chose Buenos Aires. Meo
(18:48):
never revealed the reason why they chose it, but my
theory is that it was a big city, cosmopolitan. He
got visitors from all over the world. They wouldn't stick
out there, so it was a good place to lay low.
All of this work and planning took about two months.
The world took no notice of their mission. The Beatles
(19:10):
released a new album, Beatles for Sale, and college students
in America were staging protests against the Vietnam War. As
for France, he was preparing for Winter Olympics. No one
paid any mind to the men entering and leaving the
little apartment on the avenue they were side jan Another
(19:36):
letter arrived in the Rotterdam po box her col I
completed all the arrangements as you asked, I have to passport,
including the visas for Uruguaya and Chile, waiting for your
arrival and for for the details concerning our joint business trip.
(19:58):
This friendship ever took us. In the note, Zuker seemed
a little more nervous than in the previous one. Did
the line about waiting for further details mean that he
was having doubts? If the details weren't what he expected,
would he refuse to leave Brazil? Nobody knew. The agents
(20:28):
booked their airline tickets. Each member would be traveling separately.
They didn't want to look like a team. Before their departures,
the five men met for a final time in the
Paris apartment. They went over the plan. They double checked
and triple checked everything. There was nothing left to do
in Paris. It was a solemn moment. We were all
(20:50):
aware that we were going to take the life of
a man, but none of us had any doubt this
was the just punishment for his statistic criminal Mio sat
down and wrote out a telegram for Suckers, including all
his travel plants. Then the members poured some drinks and
(21:13):
made a toast best of luck. Your reef told them
he wasn't much of a speech giver. The men kept
their private thoughts to themselves. They were eager to get going.
(21:33):
Three days later, Mio boarded his flight to sal Paolo.
He was going to Brazil first to reconnect with Suckers.
The other members would fly out later. Neo planned on
meeting Suckers in the airport transit lounge before flying on
to Buonos areas. He had to make sure the butcher
was all in. After twelve hours in the air, the
(21:55):
plane landed. Maa waited until after the other passengers got out,
then walked toward the airplane door. At the top of
the jetway. He was heading down the stairs, lost in
his own thoughts. I heard Ruko's familiar voice. Hello, he Anton,
I am here. I looked down to the bottom of
the stairs, and what did I see? Herbert Chukos wearing
(22:18):
a colorful tie, holding something black in one hand and
waving happily with the other. That black thing in the
butcher's hand, that was a camera. He was filming me.
Oh as he arrived, How on earth did he manage
to get in here? I wondered? This was a restricted area,
(22:40):
and we were supposed to meet in the transit lounge.
When Meo realized what the black object was, he was shocked.
This meant that Drukos was actually filming me, immortalizing my
image on film. Instinctively, I raised my hand as if
in greeting, but the motion was actually tended to hide
(23:00):
from the camera lens some of my mold distinguishing features.
It was a disaster. Suckers had sprung a trap. When
you're undercover, you want there to be no record of
your actual self in the mission. The documents all have
your cover name, not your real one. If you're photographed,
(23:22):
who want to be wearing your disguise. This was a
time before the widespread use of surveillance cameras. Neo thought
he was safe, but now the butcher he had him
down on film. It was bad. That was only half
of it. The other half was why was Zuker's filming
him in the first place. As the two men had
(23:44):
been old friends. Meal might have passed it off as
his body wanting a memento of their trip, but that
wasn't it. This was Zukers being paranoid again. He wanted
to film as evidence, just in case, Kunzla was up
to no good. Sucker said he was ready to become partners,
but clearly he still had his doubts. He'll never be
(24:06):
rid of his suspicions. I thought this concern. I was
fully convinced that this was yet another one of UCO's
security exercises. One false move the team might interpret as
my attempt to hide from the camera, and all my
months long efforts to win his trusts would come to nothing.
(24:29):
And in fact me it was right. The butcher didn't
trust him fully. Later, his wife nodded all police what happened.
When Sucers returned home, my husband told me that he
had filmed Kunzla coming off the plane. He emphasized that
if anything bad were to happen to him in the
near future, then it was this man seen on the
(24:53):
film waving at Harvard who would bear directed soul responsibility
for it. The film and the stills taken from it
would haunt the massad agent for years. When I discussed
this with Gad Shimron, he mentioned how significant this became.
This photo. For many years, uh Nio told me that
(25:14):
every time he crossed the border, somewhere on the road
there was a big interval coaster wanted for murder with
his picture as complet taken by a suspicious to much
so Mea was coming down the steps of the jetway
at the airport in Sal Paulo. He's holding up his
hands like he's waving it at Sukers a friendly greeting,
(25:38):
but in reality he's trying to block the view of
his face from the camera. He's trying to look smooth, natural,
but it isn't working. He looks awkward and nervous. He's
realized that Suckers has outsmarted him. Neo finally made it
down to the bottom of the chet way and Suckers
dropped the camera to his side. He greeted the agent.
(25:59):
It went into the transit lounge to talk Neis flight
to Buenos Aires was leaving soon, so they only had
a few minutes. They ordered drinks and Mio tried to
get back on track. He told Suckers he has some
good news. His partners had decided to invest heavily in
South America, hundreds of thousands of dollars at the very least,
(26:21):
and they'd agreed to bring Suekers on board. If he
played his cards right, he would soon be a rich man.
Zukers didn't react the way Meo had hoped. He said
he had a problem. It turned out that he hadn't
been telling the truth in his telegram, his visa and
other documents, they weren't ready yet. He couldn't fly to Uruguay.
(26:43):
It was getting worse. And worse was Zuker's backing out.
Had he realized he was being trapped or was he
just being lazy? Meo had no idea what was going on,
but he stayed in character, the character of the hard
charging businessman. He got angry and loud. How could you
do this? Did you say you want to be a businessman.
(27:05):
I am a businessman and I stick to my vote.
You want me said all your papers weren't older. I
want you to know that I am very, very disappointed.
He really was furious. If Sukers couldn't get out of Brazil,
the mission was off. There might not be a chance
to organize a second operation before the vote in the
(27:27):
German Parliament. The butcher had messed up everything. Zukers hung
his head. He was embarrassed, or he appeared to be embarrassed.
I promised it would never happen again to Mio. He
appeared to be sincere. After a few tense moments, Neo
calmed down. He told Seekers that Brazil was out. The
(27:48):
partners wanted to do their business in Uruguay and Chile,
so he wanted Seekers with him when he traveled to
the two countries. Neo took a lot of cash out
of his pocket handed it to the butcher traveling expenses.
He told the butcher to get his papers straightened down.
Once that was done, he would pay for his flight
to Uruguay, but he had to get moving. Suckers cheered up.
(28:12):
He agreed to get the visa a sap. He was
even a little cheeky. He asked if Meo had the
addresses of the hotels they'd be staying at in Montefdello.
Neo thought to himself, the best, that is forever cautious,
but he memorized the names of the hotel's just in case.
He recited them to Suckers, who wrote them down. It
(28:34):
was another test. At least Mio had passed this one.
A boarding announcement was made from MEO's flight to Buenos Aires.
The two men parted. Neo slapped Suckers on the shoulder,
told him not to let him down again. Then he
headed towards his departure. Game Neo landed in Buenos Aires,
(28:57):
took a taxi to his hotel. The most of the
team was still back in Paris. He needed to get
in touch with them to tell them the mission was
a go. But things started to go wrong. It turned
out that the telephone and post office workers had gone
on strike. It was one of those things you just
couldn't predict. But it didn't matter. Mio was screwed. He
(29:19):
couldn't communicate with your read. The team was waiting for
word from him that Seekers was still in play, but
Mio couldn't make a call or send a telegram. He
was stranded. Even worse, if the butcher was trying to
contact him, he had no way of knowing it. Maybe
Seekers was having trouble getting the right papers, Maybe he
(29:40):
had questions he needed answers to Mea was annoyed and worried.
Day after day, he checked with the front desk and
asked if any telegrams had come through. The answer was
always known. The city was in the communications lockdown. Nothing
was getting in or out, so Mia was going stir crazy.
(30:02):
He had nothing to do. And he hated that. To
get his mind off sukers, he took a trip to
a holiday resort called my adult Plata, but it was
off season. The place was half empty. Kind of depressing. Actually,
Lea went back to Bueness Areas, tried to pass the
time by taking long walks through the city. There were
(30:23):
no letters. When he got back to the hotel. He
was losing precious time. The clock was ticking and Germany's
vote on the amnesty statute was approaching fast. If the
mission didn't move forward soon, all would be lost. Hi,
(30:52):
this is Stephen Talty, host of Good Assassins Hunting the Butcher.
The folks that helped me bring you this show, Diversion
podcast Us have just launched another podcast that I think
you'll like. It's called Backstaged The Devil in Metal, a
deep dive into the history of metal music, filled with
never before heard interviews and stories from some of the
(31:14):
biggest names of music, including Black Sabbath, Judas, Priest Van Helen,
and many others. It's outrageous, raw and surprising at times.
Backstage The Devil in Metal is out now. Follow the
show on Apple Podcasts, I Hired Radio app or wherever
you listen to your podcasts. Finally, on February five, the
(31:47):
strike ended and the telegram arrived. It was from Zookers
Glato informula that all the preparations are complete. I have
the documents, I Theresa. They thing to hear from you
as to there, and then I joined you. Mea was overjoyed.
(32:08):
He wrote out a telegram to the Massad team in Paris.
Negotiations have finished and the transaction is about to take place.
Request you sent urgently the team of experts in order
to complete the transactions successfully Anton, it was time for
the team to come to Argentina. The Paris team started
(32:35):
arriving in Buenos Aires one by one and taking the
rooms in hotels downtown. Once they all made it in,
your reefs sent out the word that they should meet
one of the many cafes in the city. It would
get the latest details from Meo and prepare for Uruguay.
The men arrived at the cafe and shook hands. Then
they sat down and Mio gave them an update, recounting
(32:58):
the story of the movie Camera and Super Continuing fear
of being trapped, he warned them for the obtain time
about the butcher He's like a violent animal. The minute
the census that he has trapped, he muster all his strength. This,
it turned out, was actually true. Zucris was preparing for
(33:20):
his own flight to Uruguay, but before he left, he
told his family, if someone comes after me, I have
a fight until the death. Meo didn't know this. He
didn't know that Sucris had passed the film of Kunsla
arriving in Brazil to his wife. He knew Zucris was paranoid,
(33:41):
but he didn't know how deep it went. On February ten,
Meo flew into Manto. The Dao Uruguay and the others
soon followed. The debate over the statute of Limitations was
only a month away now in March, and then the
vote would follow in May. The clock continued to tick,
(34:02):
and the team still didn't have a house to carry
out the execution. That was the first subjective as they
did their final preparations, But once they settled into their hotels,
the team realized there was a problem. The city didn't
have that many houses for rent. Montefideo was a small place,
not a lot of tourists, and the houses that were
(34:24):
available were often run down. Laser Sudet, the agent who
tried to kill the German chancellor ten years before, was
given the job of finding a place. He had three requirements.
It had to look like it could be the headquarters
for a rich European company. It had to have some
sort of privacy so the noise of the assassination wasn't overheard.
(34:47):
And it had to be close to a major highway
so that the team could escape without getting lost in
a tangle of side streets. So Det contacted some real
estate agents. Every day he went looking at the houses
with them, and he slowly realized there was nothing that
fit his three requirements. Either the houses looked terrible, or
they had no privacy, or they weren't a part of
(35:09):
the city that was hard to get out of. The
team thought they'd planned for everything, but it was Murphy's law.
If something could go wrong, it would days passed. Finally,
a real estate agent called Sude. He was in a
good mood. He told Sude he found the perfect place.
The two of them drove out to see it. When
(35:30):
they pulled up to the house, Sude was happy. From
the street, the place looked good, It had a garden,
and it was in good shape. They walked up to
the front door and the agent rang the bell. As
soon as the door opened, Sedet's heart dropped. The guy
standing in the doorway had side curls, he was wearing
a yamaka. Sadet realized he was an Orthodox Jew. Sade
(35:54):
cursed under his breath. The homeowner smiled and invited the
two men in, but sud He just turned, walked down
the path and got into the car. If they rented
the house from this guy and Zucris was killed inside,
who knew what would happen. Some neo Nazis might fire
bomb the place, or the homeowner and his family could
(36:15):
become targets for nut jobs in the city. So it
was a no. Sudi couldn't risk. It was the right house,
but the wrong owner. The real estate agent got back
into the car. He was mortified, probably angry too. He
asked sud what was wrong. Sudet said, I don't like Jews.
(36:39):
His son told me the story when I visited him
in Israel. He says it reflects his father's very dark
sense of humor. He was always doing things like that.
It was just part of his personality. But despite Sudet's joke,
it was a bad day. The team still had no
place to carry out the final act and they were
(36:59):
running out of time. They were hitting a wall. They
looked all over Carrasco, a desirable part of monte Video
with nice vacation homes near the ocean that would look good,
but it was the middle of summer and there was
(37:20):
nothing available. Things were getting desperate. Then finally a stroke
of luck, the realtor found a place. In all the
massade reports I've seen, it has always been described as
a house in Carrasco in Montevideo, but the Uruguayan writer
Fernando Gudizoni told me that massade reports aren't exactly correct.
(37:44):
The house they ended up with was actually located somewhere else,
in another nearby town called Shangri La, which was not
the original plan. They have not They wishes to rent
a house in the city, but they can't. And Carrasco
(38:05):
was and Ea is now high level neighborhood. Sanglia was
a poor town and Shanglia is outside the city. Outside
it's not in Montevideo, and Carrasco is a part of
monte Video. There are two different realities, and you cross
(38:26):
pine forests two or three miles and after that you
go to Shanglia is also in a in a isolated
area in in a blog you have two or three
houses in summer. In winter is absolutely empty. The house
(38:49):
was small and humble, a little house, not a luxury house.
This was the only house have I about, so he
thought it had potential. The house wasn't in the best shape,
but it might work. One thing that bothered him, though,
(39:10):
was that there was some construction workers fixing the house
next door. If they heard a disturbance on the day
of the assassination, they might come looking for the cause,
or they might call the police. But said he was
running out of options. He brought me about to get
his opinion, and after a few minutes of looking the
place over, ne agreed there was nothing better. It would
(39:33):
have to do. There's another curious detail that I only
uncovered in my most recent research. In Massade reports, they
always referred to the house as Casa Kubertini. But when
I spoke to Buddhisoni, who knows the country like the
back of his hand and actually grew up in Shangri La,
he told me there's no record of the house ever
(39:55):
being called at in Uruguay. They Gotini that is named
the statement of Massad do not exist, never exists, that
name never existed. When I asked but his zone to
speculate about where Massad got the name from, he was
at a loss. I don't know, maybe a confusion. I
(40:19):
don't know. My microchurch was very intensive and difficult, and
a looking in archives and in libraries, coart don't existed.
You're white. So it remains a bit of a mystery.
But for whatever reason, maybe it was a code name.
(40:41):
The killed team called the final location. They decided on
Casa Kubertine, and then the team was suddenly very busy.
Now that they had a location, they had to prepare.
(41:01):
The five men drove from one end of the city
to the other, memorizing its layout. They drove the streets
around Casta Kubertini, finding the best ways in and out.
They studied how polite and patient Uruguayans were when they drove,
and anyone who spent time in Israel knows how foreign
the style of driving would be to an Israeli. Former
(41:24):
Massad agent Abner Abraham put it like this, Well, it's real.
You know. People are very nervous, they are very nervous
and they don't want to wait. Well, it's like, who'll
teach you to drive like this? You don't know how
to drive? Okay, you need to learn again. But you know,
sometimes it's not only to say something against the other drivers.
(41:47):
Sometimes you stand near his car and you open your
window and you need to educate him why you don't this,
and why do you don't this? And you have to
keep the right and why you keep the left? And okay,
you need to edit the team. And it might seem small,
but the team needed to learn to keep their Israeli
(42:07):
habits in check. This meant no aggressive driving, no road rage.
They didn't want to stand out. Your reef had warned
them that they had to avoid police attention at all costs,
so they always kept the speed limit. You're even brought
in someone from the Foreign Service already stationed in South
(42:28):
America to serve as an advisor. He wasn't trained with
the team, but he knew the language and could also
function as a lookout. On the big day, Mio sent
a telegram to Zukers, Dear Herbert, business running well, your
(42:50):
help needed. I would be glad if you could join
me in Monte Video. On the morning of February. That
was the date that Yerev had chosen. Three was his birthday,
and he considered it his lucky number. He didn't want
any more bad luck. Maybe this would help. The next
(43:11):
day there was a reply from Zuker's dear Anton, arriving
by Varic flight on a few hours later, another telegram arrived,
changing the airline from verig to Air France. But the
butcher was coming. The men made their final plans. Meo
(43:33):
rented Zukers a room at his hotel, even though if
all one according to plan, he would never sleep in it.
He read the newspapers each and every morning, looking for
anything that would interfere with the mission, a road closing,
a parade, anything, And after a few days he found
one one of the streets they were going to use
for the escape would be closed for repairs. The men
(43:56):
jumped in their cars and found an alternate route. Sod
went shopping. He visited the local luggage stores looking for
something to put Seeker's body. They didn't want to leave
the corpse just lying on the floor of the Cossa
Kober teeny, but the butcher was so big. Nothing that
Sudied saw would fit. Finally, he found his store selling
(44:18):
those huge traveling trunks that people back in the day
used when they sailed to the other side of the world.
He pulled a tape measure out of his pocket, got
the dimensions, yes, if there was anything bigger, salesman said no,
so the Sudeep bought it. According to former intelligence officer
Chris Costa, lining up every detail of the escape is
(44:42):
just as important as executing the mission itself. It's easy
to plan, and everybody likes tactics. Everybody likes talking about tradecraft.
The harder partners to talk about what comes after. So
you have to think about the end state of what
you want and then work it backwards. That's part of
(45:04):
planning an operation. Meal paid the hotel and rental car
bills in advance. He didn't want any last minute complications there.
Even bought two tickets for a flight to Chili, which
he and Sukers would never take. It was like method acting.
Everything had to appear to be real, so we did
everything as if it was real. For their final meeting
(45:36):
before the butcher arrived, the men chose a restaurant that
me had been to before on one of his trips
with Zukers. They sat at the table and began talking
in low voices. They didn't want to attract attention. It
didn't look like a band of assassins. If you spotted
them having their drinks and chatting, you might think they
(45:56):
were middle managers or insurance agents. As they were talking,
the waiter walked up. Shloum, he said in Hebrew. He
told the five men that he was originally from Hungary
but had served in the Israeli Defense Forces. He heard
them speaking Hebrew and he'd come over to greet his
fellow Jews. The men looked at each other and broke
(46:17):
out laughing. They thought they were being discreet, but here
they've been outed by a Hungarian waiter. They lowered their
voices even further and talked about On the night of
the Neo went to bed early. He said he wanted
(46:37):
to recharge his batteries for what was coming, the crucial
day judgment Today, Ye good assassins. Hunting the Butcher is
(46:58):
a production of Diversion Podcast in association with I Heart Radio.
This season is written and hosted by Stephen Tlalti, produced
and directed by Scott Waxman and Jacob Bronstein. Executive producers
Scott Waxman and Mark frances Story editing by Jacob Bronstein
with editorial direction from Scott Waxman and mangesh At Ticket editing,
(47:20):
mixing and sound designed by Mark Francis, with the voices
of Nick Afka, Thomas Amrie, Angele, Andrew Polk, Mindy Escobar Leants,
Steve Routman and Stefan Brudnitsky. Theme music by Tyler Cash.
Archival research by Adam Shapiro, thanks to Oran Rosenbaum at
(47:40):
ut A Diversion Podcasts
Diversion podcasts. Hey, this is Stephen Talty, the host of
this podcast, Good Assassin's Hunting the Butcher. This podcast project
came out of my work on a related book called
The Good Assassin. If you want to explore other parts
(00:27):
of this story, check it out. It's not just a
book version of the podcast. I spend time on different
aspects of the mission. There are chapters diving into World
War two history that we didn't cover in the podcast,
and the book works as a kind of a companion
to the listening experience. You can purchase a copy of
The Good Assassin on Amazon, Apple Books, and on bookshop
(00:50):
dot Org. Thanks a note, this episode contains descriptions of
graphic violence listeners describe and is advised. Mio was happy
(01:10):
to be back in Paris. His children had missed him.
His young son, in fact, had asked so many times
when his father was coming home that MEA's wife arranged
for a friend to call and pretend to be her husband.
But when the boy got on the line, he knew
the voice on the other end wasn't Meos and he'd
been crushed. So he was overjoyed that his father was
(01:32):
finally home. But me his mission wasn't completed. The final
act was still to take place in Uruguay and in
your's apartment in the heart of Paris. The team started
putting the pieces together. I'm Stephen Talty and this as
(02:04):
good assassin's hunting the butcher. The first pile was to
find and not bendling forward file. The second clock was
mine a Nazi and hearing we must thwart this shameful
pass the end of a trail of blood and horror,
(02:27):
the end of a man whose name will be written
in the end Episode eight, the ticking clock. There was
(02:52):
a lot of work to do. We've had collected all
the letters and telegrams that Meo had said from the field.
Neo had brought back maps of Montevideo and sal Polo,
lots of information on hotels and unning cars and the
vacation home market. He'd written down exactly what he needed
(03:13):
to go through passport control and what problems the other
team members might find. Nothing could be left to chance.
There was a file on Zookers, what he was like,
what he didn't like, what his habits were. But they
still didn't have a place with the assassination could be
carried out. They didn't even know how it was going
to be carried out. On the trip back to France,
(03:36):
knew I had given some thought to that. He was
very straightforward about it, he later wrote in his memoir.
I pointed out that the distant sniper shot was not,
in my opinion, at least a shootable option, most because
of the noise and because it would not allow us
(03:57):
to give him the clue. Degrass I also rejected the
use of poison. I gave detailed the count of the
so called drinking night I had set up the Japanese nightclub.
I mentioned his strange habit of sipping his drink in
an ever so slow, almost nerve wracking fashion. The sniper
(04:21):
shot would have been a possibility if they've been carrying
out the assassination on their home soil, but the team
had a factor in their need to escape. It was
always a temptation to devote more time to figuring out
how to eliminate a target than to figuring out how
to get away once you've done it. They couldn't fall
into that trap. Bessad wanted everyone to suspect that Israel
(04:44):
had carried out the killing, but it didn't want any
of its agents to actually get caught. That could lead
to interrogations and other things. What they were doing wasn't legal.
Secris wasn't going to get a trial or have a
lawyer like Adafikman had got after Massad kidnapped him. They
(05:05):
didn't want Massad to be the story. They wanted Suckers
to be the story. So the team members had to
carry out the killing, gather their belongings, and head to
the airport. They had to get on the plane and
get safely back to Europe before Sucker's body was discovered.
That influenced how the assassination would be carried out. It
(05:27):
couldn't be public, it couldn't be loud, and the body
had to be left out of sight so that someone
didn't stumble on it and raise the alarm before the
agents had time to leave the country. A hotel room,
for example, was out the maid would find the body
too quickly. Neo gave the finale a lot of thought.
(05:48):
It was his call. He had met Sukers. He had
a better sense of what would work than you, even
the others who've been busy training. But by the time
he met with the team, me had an idea. I
believe that's the best way is to lure him into
a house where an elimination unit will be waiting for him.
(06:12):
From my intense and intimate acquaintance with the late one,
and from the numerous hours we have spent together, which
have included many visits to various rental sights, I'm convinced
he will enter any house I do. He trusts me,
but get him. Ron, the former messodge and military historian,
(06:34):
learned later what Mia wasn't aware of at the time.
Suchers did not trust Anton Kunzla as much as he believed.
Still the last moment, was not fully sure that the
meal is kosher. He took a picture of meal, gave
it to his wife and told her, if something happens
(06:54):
to me, if I don't come back, this is the killer.
He killed me. It was a plan, but it wasn't
fool proof. Zukers had already shown that he was suspicious.
He seemed to trust MEO and some little thing would
send him off and they were almost back to zero again.
That was the first risk. The second was Zuker's physical strength.
(07:19):
Mio knew that you're reeve and the team members getting
tired of his warnings about how tough the butcher was,
but he didn't care. He was a lead agent. This
was his mission. You had to see the guy to understand.
He looked like a competitive weightlifter, so Mio kept at it.
He told your Reeve again about how Zukers was a
(07:39):
highly mistrustful man, acutely vigilant, armed with a gun, and
of great physical strength. You're reeve nodded, but he was
probably thinking Meo was getting a little paranoid himself. Massad
agents were war veterans. They killed before the butcher was
sixty four years old. They would take care of him
without any problem. You Reef told me, oh, he'd done
(08:02):
a good job. But for the killed team getting the
butcher inside the house, that was the tricky part. They
would take care of the rest. If four strong Israelis
couldn't handle a senior citizen, well, then Massad was in trouble.
(08:22):
You Reef went over MEO's plan and quickly approved it,
and he confirmed one important detail before the sentence was
carried out. The team would read out a verdict in
the name of the thirty thousand men, women and children
that Sukers had helped kill. Would be like a judge's
sentence would show the world the Israelis had given serious
thought to why Sukers had to die. In no way
(08:45):
could the execution be equated with the death of his victims.
They had to show that they had carefully considered his crimes.
This was justice, not vengeance. This raised an intriguing possibility.
If they were going to take the time to read
the charges, maybe Sucres would respond. Maybe he'd even defend himself.
(09:07):
Maybe I thought he'd tell the Israelis why he'd done
what he'd done. In my quest to know the motives
behind his actions, this would be a perfect time for
Suckers himself to tell his story. Or if he was
truly an anti Semite at heart, maybe facing five Jewish
assassins would reveal that. Maybe he'd shout some abuse at
(09:31):
the team. They would at least be a clue. But
one thing was for sure. With this plan, there would
be a chance for Zukers to finally tell the truth.
Mia was satisfied all the work he'd put in had
been vindicated. They were going ahead with his plan. The
debate in the German Parliament was coming up in a
(09:53):
few months. They all hoped a successful mission would influence
it On the ninth of November, a letter arrived the
Rotterdam po box that MEO had set up months earlier.
It was from Zuker's. Following your request, I hereby enclosed
(10:15):
my flight ticket from sal Follow to Monte Video went back,
as well as a few other receipts for personal expenses.
I hope you arrival in Rotterdam and said to all
these films this you hoping to see you soon. This friendship.
(10:36):
Heppert so cares. The team was pleased. The butcher was
taking the bait, but me A waited over a month,
said a reply. He wanted it to seem like he
was a busy man putting deals together. He couldn't appear
to be too eager. Dear Abert, I thank you for
(10:57):
your letter and forms of receipts you sent. Everything here
is running as it should, and as far as business
is concerned, I have nothing to complain about. My associates
are very pleased with the outcome of the trip to
South America to Grasil and Uruguay. I intend to return
to South America in the coming weeks in order to
(11:18):
realize and implement various investment plans. I should therefore be
grateful to you if you could manage soon after receiving
this letter to make the necessary arrangements to Chile and Uruguay.
I'm enclosing a banker's check for one hundred dollars to
cover your expenses. Please inform me by telegram when all
(11:39):
the necessary papers are in your hands and you are
ready for the trip. A happy New Year to you
and your family. Hope to see you soon. Your friend
and Tom Kumslay your rearranged with MASSAD headquarters to provide
(12:00):
new identities for the other team members, fake names, passports
and backstories that would give them a reason for being
in Uruguay. The men spent hours memorizing the details. They
learned a few key phrases in Spanish and Portuguese in
case they were stopped by the police or had some
other problem. The four team members were almost done with
(12:21):
their training, and Crabmagaw, the Israeli fighting system Emmi Lichtenfeld
was working them hard. Neil wasn't part of the training.
His job was to get the butcher into the room.
That was it. They practiced the same maneuvers over and
over again. Watching the sessions, Neil later wrote he thought
(12:41):
the instructor had the graceful movements with dancer Lichtenfeld's feet
slid across the floor soundlessly as he avoided knight thrust
and club swinging at his head. But according to Emi
Lichtenfeld student a yl Yanilov, his graceful nature would never
have been mistake in for weakness. So Emi was differently
(13:05):
with very high level of refined movements. So like Muhammad
Ali said, he say that's like about the fly sing,
Then the Krapma God teacher could look a little scary.
In his white karate tunic, he had a glass of
eye and half his face was frozen from an injury
he had sustained on his journey to Palestine. He's spoke
(13:27):
in a deep, bare tone with a slight lisp caused
by an injury to the left side of his mouth.
Krama God did require slight adjustments for the mission, having
been invented to save Jewish lives, was defensive in nature.
It's core philosophy was do whatever is needed to cause
as much damage as possible to your attacker and get
away safely. But in Uruguay the massadman would be the aggressors.
(13:53):
All knows how Emi would have instructed the team to
locate the target's weak spot. He will tell them the
slight to the most sensitive points to be very efficient
in their striking with open hand or with closed fist.
So he's very strongly to the knee, to the sole,
reflexes to the floating griegs, liver and sleep. Go up
(14:16):
at this line of the neck. Front of the neck.
Back of the neck is extremely efficient. Go to the
line of the drop to coast one cushion. Go to
the line of the eyes, especially the temples. So these
are strikes that will coastal cushion and we make the
person who groogi full down. They practiced disarming a target
as Mill had told them. Sekers carried a gun everywhere,
(14:39):
and Cromaga, if there was a gun involved in a fight,
who always assumed it would be fired. But the massad
agents wanted to immobilize Seekers before he could drive, so
they practiced a blow from the back they hoped would
bring the butcher down. A l can imagine what the
team was going through. He vividly remembers how hard Amy
(15:01):
pushed him in his own training. He said, do again,
not good, do do again, not go, do again twenty times,
No good. Do again. I didn't even know what you
wanted from me. What should I do? In that sense?
I think I just too eventually, So when you think
about it, it's just the agile. You have to do
(15:23):
something you know doing, go did do better? That's it.
You read could fear a meat and Sudie practice. Kick
after kick they paired off and rain blows down on
the head of their opponents. Lintenbell believed the knuckles were
too delicate for a good smash to the face. He
(15:44):
preferred the meaty base of the hand, or even better,
the elbow balance was key. Kick returned to position, Kick
returned to position. Kick, They drilled and drilled. We made
the experience that much more exhausting for the men was
that Mio wasn't even doing theneath for us, and the
(16:06):
rest of it kept reminding them they were about to
face a raging animal. Remember the late one is a
strong man, and he's always armed. Even your Reeve grew
impatient with him. Meo exaggerates a bit will overcome, so
cooes without any problem. It was MEO's turn to be annoyed.
(16:31):
These Raeli Is always believed they could solve any problem.
Typical saber bullshit. He was worried they were going to
mess up his operation. Are you curious about something you've
heard on Hunting the Butcher and want to know more?
Is there something I haven't covered that you wish I would?
(16:53):
I want to hear from you. We've set up an
email address for listeners to send us questions about the show.
We've received some amazing, thoughtful questions so far, and we'd
love to hear more. Record yourself asking your question, include
your name and where you're from, and we'll try to
answer your question on a future episode. The email address
(17:15):
is Hunting the Butcher at Diversion Podcasts dot com. Record
yourself asking a question and email it to me. The
voice memos app on iPhone works well for recording yourself again.
The email address is Hunting the Butcher at Diversion Podcasts
dot com. That's podcasts plural. I'm looking forward to hearing
(17:38):
your questions. Thanks, you're even The others took all of
(18:04):
MEO's notes, the telegrams and letters, his thoughts on the
kill method and honed them into a working paper. It
included maps, even timetables to and from different landmarks in Montevideo.
They looked at the maps searching for the right neighborhood
to rent a house. They bought summer clothes that would
be right for Uruguay, and they went to various banks
(18:26):
and changed money for Uruguay and pesos. Then they began
to look for a staging ground for the operation, a
place where they could fly into, getting organized and prepare
for D Day. They didn't want to be hanging around
Uruguay for weeks attracting attention. They chose Buenos Aires. Meo
(18:48):
never revealed the reason why they chose it, but my
theory is that it was a big city, cosmopolitan. He
got visitors from all over the world. They wouldn't stick
out there, so it was a good place to lay low.
All of this work and planning took about two months.
The world took no notice of their mission. The Beatles
(19:10):
released a new album, Beatles for Sale, and college students
in America were staging protests against the Vietnam War. As
for France, he was preparing for Winter Olympics. No one
paid any mind to the men entering and leaving the
little apartment on the avenue they were side jan Another
(19:36):
letter arrived in the Rotterdam po box her col I
completed all the arrangements as you asked, I have to passport,
including the visas for Uruguaya and Chile, waiting for your
arrival and for for the details concerning our joint business trip.
(19:58):
This friendship ever took us. In the note, Zuker seemed
a little more nervous than in the previous one. Did
the line about waiting for further details mean that he
was having doubts? If the details weren't what he expected,
would he refuse to leave Brazil? Nobody knew. The agents
(20:28):
booked their airline tickets. Each member would be traveling separately.
They didn't want to look like a team. Before their departures,
the five men met for a final time in the
Paris apartment. They went over the plan. They double checked
and triple checked everything. There was nothing left to do
in Paris. It was a solemn moment. We were all
(20:50):
aware that we were going to take the life of
a man, but none of us had any doubt this
was the just punishment for his statistic criminal Mio sat
down and wrote out a telegram for Suckers, including all
his travel plants. Then the members poured some drinks and
(21:13):
made a toast best of luck. Your reef told them
he wasn't much of a speech giver. The men kept
their private thoughts to themselves. They were eager to get going.
(21:33):
Three days later, Mio boarded his flight to sal Paolo.
He was going to Brazil first to reconnect with Suckers.
The other members would fly out later. Neo planned on
meeting Suckers in the airport transit lounge before flying on
to Buonos areas. He had to make sure the butcher
was all in. After twelve hours in the air, the
(21:55):
plane landed. Maa waited until after the other passengers got out,
then walked toward the airplane door. At the top of
the jetway. He was heading down the stairs, lost in
his own thoughts. I heard Ruko's familiar voice. Hello, he Anton,
I am here. I looked down to the bottom of
the stairs, and what did I see? Herbert Chukos wearing
(22:18):
a colorful tie, holding something black in one hand and
waving happily with the other. That black thing in the
butcher's hand, that was a camera. He was filming me.
Oh as he arrived, How on earth did he manage
to get in here? I wondered? This was a restricted area,
(22:40):
and we were supposed to meet in the transit lounge.
When Meo realized what the black object was, he was shocked.
This meant that Drukos was actually filming me, immortalizing my
image on film. Instinctively, I raised my hand as if
in greeting, but the motion was actually tended to hide
(23:00):
from the camera lens some of my mold distinguishing features.
It was a disaster. Suckers had sprung a trap. When
you're undercover, you want there to be no record of
your actual self in the mission. The documents all have
your cover name, not your real one. If you're photographed,
(23:22):
who want to be wearing your disguise. This was a
time before the widespread use of surveillance cameras. Neo thought
he was safe, but now the butcher he had him
down on film. It was bad. That was only half
of it. The other half was why was Zuker's filming
him in the first place. As the two men had
(23:44):
been old friends. Meal might have passed it off as
his body wanting a memento of their trip, but that
wasn't it. This was Zukers being paranoid again. He wanted
to film as evidence, just in case, Kunzla was up
to no good. Sucker said he was ready to become partners,
but clearly he still had his doubts. He'll never be
(24:06):
rid of his suspicions. I thought this concern. I was
fully convinced that this was yet another one of UCO's
security exercises. One false move the team might interpret as
my attempt to hide from the camera, and all my
months long efforts to win his trusts would come to nothing.
(24:29):
And in fact me it was right. The butcher didn't
trust him fully. Later, his wife nodded all police what happened.
When Sucers returned home, my husband told me that he
had filmed Kunzla coming off the plane. He emphasized that
if anything bad were to happen to him in the
near future, then it was this man seen on the
(24:53):
film waving at Harvard who would bear directed soul responsibility
for it. The film and the stills taken from it
would haunt the massad agent for years. When I discussed
this with Gad Shimron, he mentioned how significant this became.
This photo. For many years, uh Nio told me that
(25:14):
every time he crossed the border, somewhere on the road
there was a big interval coaster wanted for murder with
his picture as complet taken by a suspicious to much
so Mea was coming down the steps of the jetway
at the airport in Sal Paulo. He's holding up his
hands like he's waving it at Sukers a friendly greeting,
(25:38):
but in reality he's trying to block the view of
his face from the camera. He's trying to look smooth, natural,
but it isn't working. He looks awkward and nervous. He's
realized that Suckers has outsmarted him. Neo finally made it
down to the bottom of the chet way and Suckers
dropped the camera to his side. He greeted the agent.
(25:59):
It went into the transit lounge to talk Neis flight
to Buenos Aires was leaving soon, so they only had
a few minutes. They ordered drinks and Mio tried to
get back on track. He told Suckers he has some
good news. His partners had decided to invest heavily in
South America, hundreds of thousands of dollars at the very least,
(26:21):
and they'd agreed to bring Suekers on board. If he
played his cards right, he would soon be a rich man.
Zukers didn't react the way Meo had hoped. He said
he had a problem. It turned out that he hadn't
been telling the truth in his telegram, his visa and
other documents, they weren't ready yet. He couldn't fly to Uruguay.
(26:43):
It was getting worse. And worse was Zuker's backing out.
Had he realized he was being trapped or was he
just being lazy? Meo had no idea what was going on,
but he stayed in character, the character of the hard
charging businessman. He got angry and loud. How could you
do this? Did you say you want to be a businessman.
(27:05):
I am a businessman and I stick to my vote.
You want me said all your papers weren't older. I
want you to know that I am very, very disappointed.
He really was furious. If Sukers couldn't get out of Brazil,
the mission was off. There might not be a chance
to organize a second operation before the vote in the
(27:27):
German Parliament. The butcher had messed up everything. Zukers hung
his head. He was embarrassed, or he appeared to be embarrassed.
I promised it would never happen again to Mio. He
appeared to be sincere. After a few tense moments, Neo
calmed down. He told Seekers that Brazil was out. The
(27:48):
partners wanted to do their business in Uruguay and Chile,
so he wanted Seekers with him when he traveled to
the two countries. Neo took a lot of cash out
of his pocket handed it to the butcher traveling expenses.
He told the butcher to get his papers straightened down.
Once that was done, he would pay for his flight
to Uruguay, but he had to get moving. Suckers cheered up.
(28:12):
He agreed to get the visa a sap. He was
even a little cheeky. He asked if Meo had the
addresses of the hotels they'd be staying at in Montefdello.
Neo thought to himself, the best, that is forever cautious,
but he memorized the names of the hotel's just in case.
He recited them to Suckers, who wrote them down. It
(28:34):
was another test. At least Mio had passed this one.
A boarding announcement was made from MEO's flight to Buenos Aires.
The two men parted. Neo slapped Suckers on the shoulder,
told him not to let him down again. Then he
headed towards his departure. Game Neo landed in Buenos Aires,
(28:57):
took a taxi to his hotel. The most of the
team was still back in Paris. He needed to get
in touch with them to tell them the mission was
a go. But things started to go wrong. It turned
out that the telephone and post office workers had gone
on strike. It was one of those things you just
couldn't predict. But it didn't matter. Mio was screwed. He
(29:19):
couldn't communicate with your read. The team was waiting for
word from him that Seekers was still in play, but
Mio couldn't make a call or send a telegram. He
was stranded. Even worse, if the butcher was trying to
contact him, he had no way of knowing it. Maybe
Seekers was having trouble getting the right papers, Maybe he
(29:40):
had questions he needed answers to Mea was annoyed and worried.
Day after day, he checked with the front desk and
asked if any telegrams had come through. The answer was
always known. The city was in the communications lockdown. Nothing
was getting in or out, so Mia was going stir crazy.
(30:02):
He had nothing to do. And he hated that. To
get his mind off sukers, he took a trip to
a holiday resort called my adult Plata, but it was
off season. The place was half empty. Kind of depressing. Actually,
Lea went back to Bueness Areas, tried to pass the
time by taking long walks through the city. There were
(30:23):
no letters. When he got back to the hotel. He
was losing precious time. The clock was ticking and Germany's
vote on the amnesty statute was approaching fast. If the
mission didn't move forward soon, all would be lost. Hi,
(30:52):
this is Stephen Talty, host of Good Assassins Hunting the Butcher.
The folks that helped me bring you this show, Diversion
podcast Us have just launched another podcast that I think
you'll like. It's called Backstaged The Devil in Metal, a
deep dive into the history of metal music, filled with
never before heard interviews and stories from some of the
(31:14):
biggest names of music, including Black Sabbath, Judas, Priest Van Helen,
and many others. It's outrageous, raw and surprising at times.
Backstage The Devil in Metal is out now. Follow the
show on Apple Podcasts, I Hired Radio app or wherever
you listen to your podcasts. Finally, on February five, the
(31:47):
strike ended and the telegram arrived. It was from Zookers
Glato informula that all the preparations are complete. I have
the documents, I Theresa. They thing to hear from you
as to there, and then I joined you. Mea was overjoyed.
(32:08):
He wrote out a telegram to the Massad team in Paris.
Negotiations have finished and the transaction is about to take place.
Request you sent urgently the team of experts in order
to complete the transactions successfully Anton, it was time for
the team to come to Argentina. The Paris team started
(32:35):
arriving in Buenos Aires one by one and taking the
rooms in hotels downtown. Once they all made it in,
your reefs sent out the word that they should meet
one of the many cafes in the city. It would
get the latest details from Meo and prepare for Uruguay.
The men arrived at the cafe and shook hands. Then
they sat down and Mio gave them an update, recounting
(32:58):
the story of the movie Camera and Super Continuing fear
of being trapped, he warned them for the obtain time
about the butcher He's like a violent animal. The minute
the census that he has trapped, he muster all his strength. This,
it turned out, was actually true. Zucris was preparing for
(33:20):
his own flight to Uruguay, but before he left, he
told his family, if someone comes after me, I have
a fight until the death. Meo didn't know this. He
didn't know that Sucris had passed the film of Kunsla
arriving in Brazil to his wife. He knew Zucris was paranoid,
(33:41):
but he didn't know how deep it went. On February ten,
Meo flew into Manto. The Dao Uruguay and the others
soon followed. The debate over the statute of Limitations was
only a month away now in March, and then the
vote would follow in May. The clock continued to tick,
(34:02):
and the team still didn't have a house to carry
out the execution. That was the first subjective as they
did their final preparations, But once they settled into their hotels,
the team realized there was a problem. The city didn't
have that many houses for rent. Montefideo was a small place,
not a lot of tourists, and the houses that were
(34:24):
available were often run down. Laser Sudet, the agent who
tried to kill the German chancellor ten years before, was
given the job of finding a place. He had three requirements.
It had to look like it could be the headquarters
for a rich European company. It had to have some
sort of privacy so the noise of the assassination wasn't overheard.
(34:47):
And it had to be close to a major highway
so that the team could escape without getting lost in
a tangle of side streets. So Det contacted some real
estate agents. Every day he went looking at the houses
with them, and he slowly realized there was nothing that
fit his three requirements. Either the houses looked terrible, or
they had no privacy, or they weren't a part of
(35:09):
the city that was hard to get out of. The
team thought they'd planned for everything, but it was Murphy's law.
If something could go wrong, it would days passed. Finally,
a real estate agent called Sude. He was in a
good mood. He told Sude he found the perfect place.
The two of them drove out to see it. When
(35:30):
they pulled up to the house, Sude was happy. From
the street, the place looked good, It had a garden,
and it was in good shape. They walked up to
the front door and the agent rang the bell. As
soon as the door opened, Sedet's heart dropped. The guy
standing in the doorway had side curls, he was wearing
a yamaka. Sadet realized he was an Orthodox Jew. Sade
(35:54):
cursed under his breath. The homeowner smiled and invited the
two men in, but sud He just turned, walked down
the path and got into the car. If they rented
the house from this guy and Zucris was killed inside,
who knew what would happen. Some neo Nazis might fire
bomb the place, or the homeowner and his family could
(36:15):
become targets for nut jobs in the city. So it
was a no. Sudi couldn't risk. It was the right house,
but the wrong owner. The real estate agent got back
into the car. He was mortified, probably angry too. He
asked sud what was wrong. Sudet said, I don't like Jews.
(36:39):
His son told me the story when I visited him
in Israel. He says it reflects his father's very dark
sense of humor. He was always doing things like that.
It was just part of his personality. But despite Sudet's joke,
it was a bad day. The team still had no
place to carry out the final act and they were
(36:59):
running out of time. They were hitting a wall. They
looked all over Carrasco, a desirable part of monte Video
with nice vacation homes near the ocean that would look good,
but it was the middle of summer and there was
(37:20):
nothing available. Things were getting desperate. Then finally a stroke
of luck, the realtor found a place. In all the
massade reports I've seen, it has always been described as
a house in Carrasco in Montevideo, but the Uruguayan writer
Fernando Gudizoni told me that massade reports aren't exactly correct.
(37:44):
The house they ended up with was actually located somewhere else,
in another nearby town called Shangri La, which was not
the original plan. They have not They wishes to rent
a house in the city, but they can't. And Carrasco
(38:05):
was and Ea is now high level neighborhood. Sanglia was
a poor town and Shanglia is outside the city. Outside
it's not in Montevideo, and Carrasco is a part of
monte Video. There are two different realities, and you cross
(38:26):
pine forests two or three miles and after that you
go to Shanglia is also in a in a isolated
area in in a blog you have two or three
houses in summer. In winter is absolutely empty. The house
(38:49):
was small and humble, a little house, not a luxury house.
This was the only house have I about, so he
thought it had potential. The house wasn't in the best shape,
but it might work. One thing that bothered him, though,
(39:10):
was that there was some construction workers fixing the house
next door. If they heard a disturbance on the day
of the assassination, they might come looking for the cause,
or they might call the police. But said he was
running out of options. He brought me about to get
his opinion, and after a few minutes of looking the
place over, ne agreed there was nothing better. It would
(39:33):
have to do. There's another curious detail that I only
uncovered in my most recent research. In Massade reports, they
always referred to the house as Casa Kubertini. But when
I spoke to Buddhisoni, who knows the country like the
back of his hand and actually grew up in Shangri La,
he told me there's no record of the house ever
(39:55):
being called at in Uruguay. They Gotini that is named
the statement of Massad do not exist, never exists, that
name never existed. When I asked but his zone to
speculate about where Massad got the name from, he was
at a loss. I don't know, maybe a confusion. I
(40:19):
don't know. My microchurch was very intensive and difficult, and
a looking in archives and in libraries, coart don't existed.
You're white. So it remains a bit of a mystery.
But for whatever reason, maybe it was a code name.
(40:41):
The killed team called the final location. They decided on
Casa Kubertine, and then the team was suddenly very busy.
Now that they had a location, they had to prepare.
(41:01):
The five men drove from one end of the city
to the other, memorizing its layout. They drove the streets
around Casta Kubertini, finding the best ways in and out.
They studied how polite and patient Uruguayans were when they drove,
and anyone who spent time in Israel knows how foreign
the style of driving would be to an Israeli. Former
(41:24):
Massad agent Abner Abraham put it like this, Well, it's real.
You know. People are very nervous, they are very nervous
and they don't want to wait. Well, it's like, who'll
teach you to drive like this? You don't know how
to drive? Okay, you need to learn again. But you know,
sometimes it's not only to say something against the other drivers.
(41:47):
Sometimes you stand near his car and you open your
window and you need to educate him why you don't this,
and why do you don't this? And you have to
keep the right and why you keep the left? And okay,
you need to edit the team. And it might seem small,
but the team needed to learn to keep their Israeli
(42:07):
habits in check. This meant no aggressive driving, no road rage.
They didn't want to stand out. Your reef had warned
them that they had to avoid police attention at all costs,
so they always kept the speed limit. You're even brought
in someone from the Foreign Service already stationed in South
(42:28):
America to serve as an advisor. He wasn't trained with
the team, but he knew the language and could also
function as a lookout. On the big day, Mio sent
a telegram to Zukers, Dear Herbert, business running well, your
(42:50):
help needed. I would be glad if you could join
me in Monte Video. On the morning of February. That
was the date that Yerev had chosen. Three was his birthday,
and he considered it his lucky number. He didn't want
any more bad luck. Maybe this would help. The next
(43:11):
day there was a reply from Zuker's dear Anton, arriving
by Varic flight on a few hours later, another telegram arrived,
changing the airline from verig to Air France. But the
butcher was coming. The men made their final plans. Meo
(43:33):
rented Zukers a room at his hotel, even though if
all one according to plan, he would never sleep in it.
He read the newspapers each and every morning, looking for
anything that would interfere with the mission, a road closing,
a parade, anything, And after a few days he found
one one of the streets they were going to use
for the escape would be closed for repairs. The men
(43:56):
jumped in their cars and found an alternate route. Sod
went shopping. He visited the local luggage stores looking for
something to put Seeker's body. They didn't want to leave
the corpse just lying on the floor of the Cossa
Kober teeny, but the butcher was so big. Nothing that
Sudied saw would fit. Finally, he found his store selling
(44:18):
those huge traveling trunks that people back in the day
used when they sailed to the other side of the world.
He pulled a tape measure out of his pocket, got
the dimensions, yes, if there was anything bigger, salesman said no,
so the Sudeep bought it. According to former intelligence officer
Chris Costa, lining up every detail of the escape is
(44:42):
just as important as executing the mission itself. It's easy
to plan, and everybody likes tactics. Everybody likes talking about tradecraft.
The harder partners to talk about what comes after. So
you have to think about the end state of what
you want and then work it backwards. That's part of
(45:04):
planning an operation. Meal paid the hotel and rental car
bills in advance. He didn't want any last minute complications there.
Even bought two tickets for a flight to Chili, which
he and Sukers would never take. It was like method acting.
Everything had to appear to be real, so we did
everything as if it was real. For their final meeting
(45:36):
before the butcher arrived, the men chose a restaurant that
me had been to before on one of his trips
with Zukers. They sat at the table and began talking
in low voices. They didn't want to attract attention. It
didn't look like a band of assassins. If you spotted
them having their drinks and chatting, you might think they
(45:56):
were middle managers or insurance agents. As they were talking,
the waiter walked up. Shloum, he said in Hebrew. He
told the five men that he was originally from Hungary
but had served in the Israeli Defense Forces. He heard
them speaking Hebrew and he'd come over to greet his
fellow Jews. The men looked at each other and broke
(46:17):
out laughing. They thought they were being discreet, but here
they've been outed by a Hungarian waiter. They lowered their
voices even further and talked about On the night of
the Neo went to bed early. He said he wanted
(46:37):
to recharge his batteries for what was coming, the crucial
day judgment Today, Ye good assassins. Hunting the Butcher is
(46:58):
a production of Diversion Podcast in association with I Heart Radio.
This season is written and hosted by Stephen Tlalti, produced
and directed by Scott Waxman and Jacob Bronstein. Executive producers
Scott Waxman and Mark frances Story editing by Jacob Bronstein
with editorial direction from Scott Waxman and mangesh At Ticket editing,
(47:20):
mixing and sound designed by Mark Francis, with the voices
of Nick Afka, Thomas Amrie, Angele, Andrew Polk, Mindy Escobar Leants,
Steve Routman and Stefan Brudnitsky. Theme music by Tyler Cash.
Archival research by Adam Shapiro, thanks to Oran Rosenbaum at
(47:40):
ut A Diversion Podcasts
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