"Ice-Pick That Killed Trotsky Found in Mexico"

Jo Tuckman, London Guardian

Mexico City — One of the most notorious murder weapons in modern history, the
ice-pick that killed Leon Trotsky, appears to have been found, 65
years after it was apparently stolen from the Mexican police.

The daughter of a former secret service agent claims she has the
steel mountaineering instrument, which is stained with the blood
of the Russian revolutionary.

Exiled by Joseph Stalin, Trotsky lived a relatively settled life
in a suburb of Mexico City until his death in 1940.

Trotsky was always fearful of assassination attempts organised by
Stalin. He was finally caught off guard by Ramon Mercader, who on
August 20, 1940 gained access to him on the pretext of needing
help.

Once in the study, Mercader struck the creator of the Red Army in
the head from behind with the shortened pick he had hidden under
his clothes.

Murderer and ice-pick were taken into custody but the weapon
later disappeared.

Now Ana Alicia Salas says her father, Commander Alfredo Salas,
stole the pick because he wanted to preserve it for posterity.

Trotsky's grandson Seva Volkov, who lived with his grandfather at
the time and still lives in Mexico, is willing to provide samples
for a DNA test against the blood on the handle only if Ms Salas
donates the pick to the museum in the house where the murder took
place.

But she said: "I am looking for some financial benefit. I think
something as historically important at this should be worth
something, no?"