Talk:Contract killing

Attempted Murder?
"the acts of merely negotiating and paying for a contract killing (that is never actually carried out) are themselves punishable as attempted murder" Attempted murder requires an attempt to be made, not just spoken about. Contracting a hit-man would, however, in and of itself satisfy all the requirements for "Conspiracy to commit murder". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.162.176.118 (talk) 03:53, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

What is this crap?
"A hitman also carries a standard equipment. At first of all they have a expensive suit because they earn a lot of money. They also carry leather gloves and they have syrines. They usualy cary two types of syrines. Syrine sedative and syrine poisen. They also have a fibre wire (strangle wire)and a handgun or pistol with mostly a silencer and a common ammo like 45 ACP. Also some hitmans have a bald head, so that they wont leave hair on the crimescene just like their leather gloves for fingerprints. Proffesional hitman always carry this equipment because it's everything they need. They also carry a special suitcase, for their equipment or a sniper rifle like the W2000 sniper rifle. This will fit perfectly in the suitcase. And will only be used for the hits on long distant. The syrine sedative makes a grown up men unconsinous and the syrine poison usualy kills instantly. Proffesional Hitman have this equipment and they have a bankaccount under a false name for their earned money each hit. Or it is given cash."

This sounds like someone's being playing too many video games. I'm going to remove it. JaMiE P 10:14, 8 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Haha this person shouldn't be editing wikipedia! Pumanike, 2:31, 20 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Good call.--W.marsh 13:00, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Playing too many video games instead of attending their English class.128.248.162.80 (talk) 02:32, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

New comment, placed at top due to there being a sample article in the bottom The information below on hitman, and methods of killing people do not seem to be specific to the subject of contract killing, but are a signifigant ammount of information that may belong in other, or their own articles, links to such articles would be helpful as well. Xaosflux 18:02, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Would it be impossible to sue for specific performance if the government was the one hiring; let's say an assassin for the CIA.

I there any judicial system uin the world where one can sue a hitman for not performing the task, or a hit man can sue for his pay Franz-kafka 21:04, 14 May 2007 (UTC)


 * As far as I know, it is against the public policy of the U.S. government to sponsor assassinations, for the obvious reason that the government does not want to encourage responses in kind. So your question would be moot in U.S. courts (since no court would enforce a contract against public policy and no government lawyer would be that dumb to file that case).  I don't know enough about foreign legal systems to say how other countries' judges would respond if they were presented with that question in the context of their own security services. --Coolcaesar 04:40, 23 May 2005 (UTC)


 * That kind of action can never be enforced. Assasination by a state is never well received you know, states need to find some excuse to legitimize the use force (that means a concern for security) and assasination does not look like self defence :) States wouldn't be willing to admit to using dirtier means by taking the matter to court. So if the state wants someone killed but not by its forces, then an "enemy of my enemy" type of organization (terrorist or not) is used, under great secrecy of course.. Actually, i think this subject is in a way beyond the borders of law. It's about the state doing something it's not supposed to, and doing it secretly.. Ozkaplan 08:32, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

This page looks like a disambig page with the phrases "Hitman can refer to (blah)," but then it's got the crime box on the right. We should have it be a disambig page to a hitman (crime) page, and the crime box is only on the hitman (crime) page. Any disagreements? --zandperl 14:03, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

It says that "Hitman" is a third person console shooter about a retired assasin forced back into service. Actually, this is Hitman 2: Stealth Assasins. The first game, Hitman: Codename 47, commonly referred to as just "Hitman" had a different storyline, and was, to my knowledge, only on PCs. Aerothorn 15:10, Apr 27, 2004 (UTC)

Maybe the Terminator should be removed, because he was programmed, not hired, to kill.--U.U. 13:51, August 29, 2005 (UTC)

"Contract"?
Can it be called a "contract"? It might be an agreement but an illegal contract is an oxymoron. --Daniel C. Boyer 23:45, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
 * It is not an oxymoron, it is a contract that can't be enforced. The contract is between two parties and it exists if the contract is possible. Illegality means that the state won't be defending the rights of these parties. Usually people making illegal contracts have other ways to enforce the contract. Ozkaplan 08:39, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

UK law [as reported by The Times 17/06/06] seemingly recognises a contract to kill as a legal agreement between two parties. It is worth noting Britain has a [| Common law] legal system. Goscuter1 (talk) 21:30, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Contract killing Underworld Mafia (talk) 06:37, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Lists
This page looks like just a big list of historical and fictional hitmen. Shouldn't those names be moved to separate pages, List of hitmen and List of fictitious hitmen? --zandperl 15:50, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

cleanup needed
This thing reads like a 7th grade book report. I'm not an expert, so I can't fix it, but hopefully someone will. --Uncle Bungle 20:13, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Couldnt Agree more, the article mixes Fiction and Reality, it should be separated. --Ratone 20:37, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

new version
is this better?

what's happening?
is there someone irritated by this article because it has been changed about ten times the last few days. first it was a short article, then a long one that literly explains how to kill, then again the short one, long one. short one,long one... what's the matter people? are there two authors fighting for possesion on this aricle? p.s. i think the long one is better. jumpy jack.

Owen X, read this
here is my article owen, i suggest you read it and place your comment.
 * Thanks. I posted a reply on your talk page. Owen&times; &#9742;  18:02, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

hit man
A hit man (or hit man is someone who murders for money. Someone who kills for the benefit of political or ideal reasons is called an assassin. A hit man will thus not sacrifice his own life for beliefs and will try to get away with the murder and use the money received.


 * It does get a little blurry. An assassin too might well only be in it for the money. If someone assassinates someone because they were paid to do so, they are both an assassin and a hit man.--RLent 22:03, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

origin
The word hit man originated during the peak years of mafia influence in America during the twenties and thirties. However, the idea existed long before that even though in the past most assassins did their killings for their own beliefs and not just for the money.

reasons for a contract killing
A hit man is different form other murders since they usually don’t have any associations with their targets. The idea behind the hit man is as follows: Instead of committing their own murders, one should hire a complete stranger for a short-term contract to kill some one the employer can benefit from his/her death. When the killer is unknown to any of the victims or anybody else it will be much harder to track him down. Police forces usually try to find some dilemma between the victim and his friends/family and will try to find the motive for the murder and find evidence that the suspect was there at the time. When a stranger performs the kill it is much harder to find out who did it and the employer will thus avoid the annoying questions by police forces and in some case won’t even fall under suspicion.

known methods
There are thousands of ways people can kill each other, however not every technique is satisfying or just not able for normal people. Most common used methods known by interviewing real-life hit men are these:
 * Short distance firearms.
 * Long distance firearms.
 * bombs
 * poison
 * accidents
 * melee weapons
 * faked suicide

Short distance firearms: one of the most simple and safe ways to kill a person, especially when a silencer is available. Public shootouts sometimes require that the gun will be used without a silencer to create chaos. The silencer is used for two reasons; -to prevent that the shot will be heard by people who are not close to the target and thus giving the gunman more time to escape before the body is discovered. -to prevent people to know where the shot came from (the silencer also suppresses the flash). And also giving the gunman more chance to safely escape.

Long distance firearms: these consist of sniper rifles or other carbine guns (such as the ak-47 or M4). These weapons allow the hit man to stay at a safe distance from the target and thus giving him more chance to escape. These weapons are very useful for eliminating well protected targets. Some sniper rifles can be used with a silencer too. Mostly to give the gunman a second chance if he misses when the missed shot had gone unnoticed. The silencer attached to the sniper rifle also has the other two functions as the one described at firearms. Sniper rifles or other rifles are harder to get and conceal for the usual person and thus are not often used. Also snipers require a lot of training and most people can’t get these training without either joining the army or join a club. Crossbows, blowpipes and other long distance firing projectiles can also be used (even though it’s very uncommon).

Bombs: bombs can be used to take out more then one person at the same time and allow the assassin to safely disappear in the urban area. Bombs can be either homemade or professionally acquired at a supplier. But the problem is the same with the sniper rifle. Without proper training and knowledge it can be very risky to use the bomb. Bombs can be designed to detonate when the target makes a certain movement. For example opening the car door or starting the engine. Bombs don’t have the seem satisfaction since the chances that the mark survives are higher.

Poison: poisons can be used in either drinks or food. Sometimes it can be inhaled trough the mouth/nose or injected in the target’s veins. Poison farts can also be deposited through the mouth. Richard Kuklinksi A.K.A. the iceman used cyanide to kill most of his victims. Most poisons are hard to get unless the person has the proper papers. Or the proper beans. Even then most people don’t know how to make or use poison so poison is also not very common used. Poison can also be made out of ingredients of for example weed killer by letting the water evaporate and thus leaving only pure poison behind. But unless the hit man has proper knowledge of these poison he will most likely not use them. But he could explode if he does not fart at all. However, poisons can kill someone while the killer is at a safe distance or already returning home. Using a new kind of sniper butt where the silencer is place between the cheeks and the fart is ejected from the butt into the victim's mouth.

Accidents: accidents can be faked to avoid suspicion on the employer or the hit man. Events such as a burglary that went wrong or a carjacking, hit and run by cars and pushing in front of trains can all be used to avoid suspicion on the employer and will make the killing seem like a “random unfortunate event”. Another example of an accident that could occur is strangling the victim as he is sitting on the toilet to make it appear he had severe constipation.

Melee weapons: melee weapons include garrotes (piano wires), blunt weapons, knives and bare hands (very uncommon), scissors (arts and crafts!), computer monitors, umm, also stuff you could find lying around.. I guess... They can be dived in several categories.

-Blunt weapons- Hard rocks, baseball bats and everything else that is fairly heavy. By hitting the head several times the victim will most likely die. My ass is blunty.

-Strangling- (Kinky!) Strangling a person by preventing air and blood to reach the lungs and hart is a very common tactic. There are different strangling devices such as a piano wire, two sticks and a rope between them to choke the target. The garrote, a well known exaction device used intensively for official and unofficial executions around the world. For example in Spain during General Franco’s regime opposing people were killed by the garrote. The garrote usually consist of a strong piece of rope or iron wire. It is similar to the well know ty-rep or cable tie (the one used to for tying, bundling and fastening Home, Electrical and Automotive applications). The garrote is slung over the head from above and then pulled tight from behind. The advantage is that applying pressure continuously to the garrote is not needed as in the piano wire. The assassin will just have to pull hard once and then wait until the target suffocates and dies. The strangling methods are widely available and when used right can be extremely silent.

-Sharp objects- Such as knives. The knife can be used to cut the victim’s throat or stomach. Even though the notorious knife is one of the oldest and bloodiest weapons ever it is widely used because of its wide availability. Other sharp objects can also be used to cut the victim. Another sharp weapon is my Uncle Rico, the ladies say he's "shaaaarp!".

-Bare hands- No doubt the oldest way to kill a person. Or the youngest way to kill an old person. The ending of a bare hand fight can be quite unpredictable and energy consuming. The person can be beaten to death, choked or paralyzed by the breaking the neck. Bare hand fights are not commonly used for different reasons; -The ending can be very unpredictable (the attacker can be killed if the victim knows enough about fighting) -By touching the body fingerprints, hair, spit, blood and other unique clues of the killer can be easily found on the victim’s body later on by the police. -not everyone can fight well barehanded.

Melee weapons are all the killing devices where the attacker will have physical contact with his victim. Even though it can be silent it takes a long time for people to die of these attacks (compared to well placed gunshots), The attack will also have to take place in a total isolated place because witnesses might attack the hit man. Faked suicide: a fake suicide can be used to avoid suspicion on the employer. However, faking a suicide will take a lot of planning and the possibility that the police will not fall for the trick is big. Unless the victim is mentally instable it will arouse suspicion when someone commits suicide and foul play can be discovered. A person can also be force to commit suicide to avoid actions against something or someone he/she adores. For example, when there was evidence that the German general Erwin van Rommel was involved in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, he was forced to commit suicide to prevent his family from being killed.

hit man’s profile
Not much is known about real life hit man and the ones caught and interviewed are often caught because they are do not work professionally. The ones caught are often complete psychopaths who also kill for money Hollywood belief is that hit men live a life of isolation and loneliness. Most books and other recourses about hit man state that most hit men receive between $30.000 up to $250.000 per killing. It is said that they do a four jobs a year ( up to four) and the rest of the year they live a peaceful life, holding barbeques for their neighbors, shopping and doing other everyday things. Of course, there are different kinds of hit men’s. The ones that work for one person or organization and kill other criminals in their own city. Such as mafia related hit man. These hit man on an average get less then independent contractors and are often known to both their employers, victims and the police. There are independent hit man, not part of any crime organization or any particular boss. They work both national and international and usually get more money and are much harder to trace since they are supposed to keep a low profile and thus avoiding any police attention. It is said that they receive more money then the mob hit man for their ‘more professional services’. Of course, it is believed that both kinds are selfish people. In both fiction and non-fiction media the difference between the two of them can be easily spotted. The gentleman hit man, as described in The Day of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth or Tom Ripley by Patricia Highsmith are to examples of the independent hit man (even though Ripley is not a hit man, his life style is an example). People without any mental problems or horrible things that happened to them in their life such as family killing and abuses. The other, lonely hit man is described in several books such as the Jason Bourne series who has lost his entire family and turned to killing later on. The Robert Ludlum often introduce the killer as a person who has a good reason to kill and usually his family had also died a while ago. Other examples are Leon in the movie the professional or the female assassins in naked weapon. Criminals or psychotic people who also kill for money are not referred to as hit men, since it is not their full time profession.

hit men in pop culture
Hit men are a well known stereo type in a lot of movies. In 1993, a book called ‘Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors’ by Rex Feral was banned because it was claimed that it had been used during an assassination. Since most hit men are supposed to be unknown, not much is known about them and the saying: “if you do something right, people won’t even know it happened at all” can be used said here.

Some books about hit men are: Eric van Lustbader
 * The Day of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
 * The Bourne Identity and the other three books by Robert Ludlum and
 * Ripley’s game by Patricia Highsmith
 * Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors by Rex Feral

Some movies about hit men are:
 * The Day of The Jackal, featuring Edward Fox as The Jackal
 * The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne
 * Love and a bullet featuring Treach
 * Collateral starring Tom Cruise and Jamie fox
 * The professional directed by Luc Besón.
 * The Jackal featuring Bruce Willis as a reckless, cold-blooded hit man rather then the gentle one in the original story

Some real life hit men are:
 * Carlos The Jackal, a Venezuelan terrorist who also worked both for his own beliefs and money
 * Richard Kuklinski a polish Hitman during the seventies and eighties for the mob
 * Rex Feral, writer of the controversial book ‘Hit man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors’. Even though the author is unknown by most people since Rex Feral is a pseudonym, some belief that he/she is a real hit man and some don’t.

Statistics
"Contract killings make up a relatively similar percentage of all killings elsewhere. For example, they made up about 5% of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002."

Is "relatively similar" a valid phrase? 81.178.57.22 16:38, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Sting operations
I've added a source, giving details of an undercover police operation. There are countless other examples, as it's something that happens all the time. If anyone wants to use a different source (possibly an American one) feel free. One Night In Hackney 13:19, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Hitman, redirections
If someone is going to make a redirect from Hitman to Contract killing, they ought to mention and make due references to the word hitman. It does not appear once in the entire article. ~ Rollo44 23:05, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * As there are several mentions of hit man on the page, I've added hitman as an alternative spelling. &mdash; AnemoneProjectors (zomg!) 23:40, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Whoops, my apologies. I did a cursory Find search and didn't notice the various hit man 's throughout the article. ~ Rollo44 03:58, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Similarly, wetboy redirects here, but no mention or explanation of the word can be found in the article.90.190.225.121 (talk) 20:20, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Neutrality of the article
The second parapgraph makes a distinguishment between lawful execution and "spite/hate, criminal" killings. Criminal motivation has no standing, the article should reflect only the illegal vs illegal status, if even that.

Assassination
Should this not be a section of the article, Assassination? ask123 (talk) 06:21, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * No, these are different concepts. Assassination is targeted killing of a public figure for a large motive which benefits from the death of said individual, such as political upheaval/crippling a government, inciting a panic, eliminating a dictator that isn't cooperating with your nation like all the other dictators, etc. Bob could decide to assassinate JFK and do it himself and it's an assassination and not a contract killing. Then maybe he hires his maid to kill his wife just cuz he doesn't like his wife any more, that's a contract killing but not an assassination because his wife isn't a figurehead and he doesn't accomplish broad change. It's a simplified example but hopefully straightforward enough. 69.105.172.180 (talk) 17:15, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Since assassination always includes the killing of a public figure isn't, the statement that contract killing is a form of assassination just wrong? As far as I understand it's a totally different aspect. An assassination may or may not be a contract killing - a contract killing may or may not be an assassination - is this correct? If this is right, the beginning of the article is just wrong. I think it should say "contract killing is a form of murder" and not "assassination". --F4LL0UT (talk) 01:52, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
 * From the lede of assassination: "Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, often a political leader or ruler, usually for political reasons or payment. " How are we on most contract killings being for payment?  Has anyone an example of this sort of contract that didn't involve payment?  It doesn't seem wise to document all this if there isn't a form of pecuniary gain involved (obviously, at the very least maybe, not even then).  Incidentally using "Black's" as a reference would seem like it could be really chincy every version says something completely different, especially between written (academic database, pdf of photo of page, was it?) and online, although saying all assassinations are murder seems reasonable.  The point is, wouldnt an assassination for pay be a contract killing?  Even when its a government (not necessarily the same) employee on payroll that does it.  I thought the lede should say 'murder or assassination' but now Im not sure. Isnt the lede all wrong no one has to hire anybody there just has to be a contract? When they say 'hire,' theyre making it sound like workplace safety, pensions, health care and all this apply. 55378008a (talk) 09:13, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

"How Contract Killing Works"
Why are the links to news articles about drone strikes present on this page, both under "How Contract Killing Works" and under "News/Notes"?

I can understand why someone would disapprove of the use of drones to assassinate suspected terrorists, but this is really not the place for it. It's not related to the article, and is obviously not neutral.

76.120.192.79 (talk) 05:38, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

personoclast: the one who deconstructs persons and/or the cosmic centrality of personhood

 * 1) killer
 * 2) philosopher against the metaphysical personocracy (belief that one or more persons and personhood itself are the most fundamental components of everything, and the definers of omnicosmic purpose) (omnicosmic: in any possible world; physical, or hypothesized)
 * 3) political scientist against the political personocracy (why the system of anarchic microcommunities doesn't work especially in the modern world)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:2149:840B:1000:F06C:9340:835E:3854 (talk) 18:37, 13 September 2020 (UTC)

RentAHitman.com
This seems like something that should be discussed; an IP editor has repeatedly removed information about RentAHitman.com from the 'In popular culture' section despite being sourced, citing WP:PROMO. Pinging relevant parties:, Waxworker (talk) 07:42, 9 January 2022 (UTC)


 * IP has removed it again. And I see a proposal to delete RentAHitman.com. Nick Levine (talk) 07:54, 9 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Pinging Staberedu who is newly registered (presumably for the purpose of nominating the RenAHitman.com for deletion) and I guess may be the IP who removed the link. I have opposed deletion as no valid policy reason has been given.  The user and/or IP seem to be under the mistaken impression that (in their words) the site provides "promotion of crime", "There's criminal and incentive about the site itself" and "Promotion of criminal services in a provocative manner".  This is not the case.  The site itself is clearly a jokey nature and the reliable sources in the article clearly state that this is the case and no criminal services are provided.  I think a link to it from here is reasonable as a significant example of the subject of this article (contract killing) in popular culture - Dumelow (talk) 08:57, 9 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I am undecided and listening to the arguments. Nick Levine (talk) 9 January 2022
 * Not many arguments to listen to, so far. But I’m thinking Keep. Nick Levine (talk) 08:06, 11 January 2022 (UTC)


 * The AfD closed as keep, with unanimous support bar the nominator. As such, I have re-added the mention of RentAHitman.com to the popular culture section as a clear example of the subject covered - Dumelow (talk) 11:09, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Less than 24 hours later we are back at AfD with a renomination. Let's see how that goes - Dumelow (talk) 07:18, 14 January 2022 (UTC)
 * It has been closed as a speedy keep, so I have again reverted the removal from this page - Dumelow (talk) 07:56, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

Perpetrators section
I’m puzzled as to why Joe Valachi isn’t listed in that section. By his own admission, and as described in The Valachi Papers, he carried out more than 30 successful hits as a soldier of the Genovese crime family.


 * 216.152.18.132 (talk) 07:53, 3 November 2023 (UTC)