The spy had gotten a step closer to the Butcher. Comparing Israel's mission to assassinate Herbert Cukurs to the US mission to assassinate Osama Bin Laden, the latter was revenge. But when Israel and Mossad decided to kill The Butcher of Latvia, it was to prevent more killing of Jews. Things were starting to heat up with the Statute of Limitations, which was the whole reason for the mission: to stop Germany from giving Nazi killers a free pass for their atrocities. Importantly, a famous Nazi hunter joined the cause: Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal was a master publicist and self-promoter and was obsessed with finding the men and women responsible for the Holocaust and bringing Nazis to justice.




“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 also the question of the assassination method. Mossad had many ways to take someone out, what they called “targeted killings.”




Yosef Yariv's job was to recruit the rest of the team that would fly to South America to join Mio and carry out the sentence on the Butcher. The team would need to train in how to bring down a strong, desperate man who has just realized he’s fighting for his life. 




Yariv found a guy. His name was Imi Lichtenfeld. Lichtenfeld had created a street-­fighting technique called Krav Maga (“close combat” in Hebrew), which allowed practitioners to inflict the most damage in the shortest possible time. In 1948, the Israel Defense Forces had adopted Krav Maga for training its recruits and named Imi Lichtenfeld Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness. In 1964, Lichtenfeld began to lead secret training sessions with the kill team. 




This episode contains interviews with H. Keith Melton, intelligence historian and expert on espionage tradecraft and Eyal Yanilov, co-founder and Chief Instructor of Krav Maga Global.
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

The spy had gotten a step closer to the Butcher. Comparing Israel's mission to assassinate Herbert Cukurs to the US mission to assassinate Osama Bin Laden, the latter was revenge. But when Israel and Mossad decided to kill The Butcher of Latvia, it was to prevent more killing of Jews. Things were starting to heat up with the Statute of Limitations, which was the whole reason for the mission: to stop Germany from giving Nazi killers a free pass for their atrocities. Importantly, a famous Nazi hunter joined the cause: Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal was a master publicist and self-promoter and was obsessed with finding the men and women responsible for the Holocaust and bringing Nazis to justice. “Good Assassins: Hunting the Butcher" came out of Stephan Talty's work on a related book, <a href="https://geni.us/TheGoodAssassinBook">The Good Assassin</a>. Explore other parts of this story in the book: <a href="https://geni.us/TheGoodAssassinBook">Buy The Good Assassin</a> There was also the question of the assassination method. Mossad had many ways to take someone out, what they called “targeted killings.” Yosef Yariv's job was to recruit the rest of the team that would fly to South America to join Mio and carry out the sentence on the Butcher. The team would need to train in how to bring down a strong, desperate man who has just realized he’s fighting for his life.  Yariv found a guy. His name was Imi Lichtenfeld. Lichtenfeld had created a street-­fighting technique called Krav Maga (“close combat” in Hebrew), which allowed practitioners to inflict the most damage in the shortest possible time. In 1948, the Israel Defense Forces had adopted Krav Maga for training its recruits and named Imi Lichtenfeld Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness. In 1964, Lichtenfeld began to lead secret training sessions with the kill team.  This episode contains interviews with H. Keith Melton, intelligence historian and expert on espionage tradecraft and Eyal Yanilov, co-founder and Chief Instructor of Krav Maga Global.<ul>
<li>Written and Hosted by STEPHAN TALTY</li>
<li>Produced and Directed by SCOTT WAXMAN and JACOB BRONSTEIN</li>
<li>Executive Producers: SCOTT WAXMAN and MARK FRANCIS</li>
<li>Story Editor: JACOB BRONSTEIN</li>
<li>Editorial direction: SCOTT WAXMAN and MANGESH HATTIKUDUR</li>
<li>Editing, mixing, and sound design: MARK FRANCIS</li>
<li>With the voices of: NICK AFKA THOMAS, OMRI ANGHEL, ANDREW POLK, MINDY ESCOBAR-LEANSE, STEVE ROUTMAN, STEFAN RUDNICKI</li>
<li>Theme Music by TYLER CASH</li>
<li>Archival Researcher: ADAM SHAPIRO</li>
<li>Thanks to OREN ROSENBAUM</li>
</ul> Learn more about “Good Assassins: Hunting the Butcher” at <a href="https://geni.us/HuntingTheButcher">DiversionPodcasts.com</a> Learn more about your ad-choices at <a href="https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com">https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com</a>

The unbelievable but true story of the greatest spy of World War II. The Nazis don't know her name, but they want this woman dead. A mysterious agent is strategically dismantling their violent grasp on France and not only leading her own resistance factions but inspiring others. The Gestapo sends their devious double-agent, the priest Robert Alesh, to hunt down The Limping Lady before she threatens their entire push for Western Europe. But Virginia Hall was tougher and more resilient than they ever expected. Bestselling author and journalist Stephan Talty returns with Season 2 of Good Assassins: the dramatic story of a different kind of spy. Written by CD Carpenter (“American Hostage”) and produced by the award-winning team at Diversion Audio.

Season 1 was a Top 10 hit with millions of listeners, making it one of the Top 20 new podcasts of 2021. Season 1 is part spy thriller, part detective case, part Holocaust history. The untold story of the epic spy mission to hunt down a savage, escaped Nazi murderer. Led by a brilliant undercover agent who lost his entire family in the Holocaust, the hunt for the infamous Butcher of Latvia was a secretive espionage operation that forever altered the fates of all ex-Nazis. Including chilling interviews with the Butcher’s victims and illuminating accounts of the Mossad spies themselves, Good Assassins Season 1 reveals for the first time this little-known chapter of history and the pulse-pounding undercover operation that brought The Butcher to justice.

Learn more at diversionaudio.com/good-assassins

The unbelievable but true story of the greatest spy of World War II. The Nazis don't know her name, but they want this woman dead. A mysterious agent is strategically dismantling their violent grasp on France and not only leading her own resistance factions but inspiring others. The Gestapo sends their devious double-agent, the priest Robert Alesh, to hunt down The Limping Lady before she threatens their entire push for Western Europe. But Virginia Hall was tougher and more resilient than they ever expected. Bestselling author and journalist Stephan Talty returns with Season 2 of Good Assassins: the dramatic story of a different kind of spy. Written by CD Carpenter (“American Hostage”) and produced by the award-winning team at Diversion Audio. Season 1 was a Top 10 hit with millions of listeners, making it one of the Top 20 new podcasts of 2021. Season 1 is part spy thriller, part detective case, part Holocaust history. The untold story of the epic spy mission to hunt down a savage, escaped Nazi murderer. Led by a brilliant undercover agent who lost his entire family in the Holocaust, the hunt for the infamous Butcher of Latvia was a secretive espionage operation that forever altered the fates of all ex-Nazis. Including chilling interviews with the Butcher’s victims and illuminating accounts of the Mossad spies themselves, Good Assassins Season 1 reveals for the first time this little-known chapter of history and the pulse-pounding undercover operation that brought The Butcher to justice.
Learn more at <a href="https://bit.ly/goodassassins">diversionaudio.com/good-assassins</a><a href="https://bit.ly/goodassassins"></a>

Good Assassins

The spy had gotten a step closer to the Butcher. Comparing Israel's mission to assassinate Herbert Cukurs to the US mission to assassinate Osama Bin Laden, the latter was revenge. But when Israel and Mossad decided to kill The Butcher of Latvia, it was to prevent more killing of Jews. Things were starting to heat up with the Statute of Limitations, which was the whole reason for the mission: to stop Germany from giving Nazi killers a free pass for their atrocities. Importantly, a famous Nazi hunter joined the cause: Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal was a master publicist and self-promoter and was obsessed with finding the men and women responsible for the Holocaust and bringing Nazis to justice.

S1-E06: The Kill Team

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/9b54f420-dc00-4990-be22-ae320083f31c/transcript