Are assassins real?

I'm watching Polar (film) right now. This movie has an organized assassin world similar to what exists in John Wick.

I'm curious what you guys think. Do professional, organized corporate-style assassins exist in the real world?

I'm also curious if professional, (meaning this is where their primary income comes from) individual, self-employed assassins exist in the real world.

Note I'm not talking about drone-strikes, teams of military special operations, or even the crazed politically-motivated lone-wolf.

Edit: I'm also curious more in reference to the 1st world. Not the 3rd world.

Oh yes, they exist.

There are hit squads that organized crime 'outsources' their killings to.

As for individuals, unlikely. At least in the west. There are probably some half-professional half-time killers out there, but I really doubt anyone can live by nothing but those.

Not from my experience. It's more of a side gig thing for the worst psychopaths in a gang.

Agree with the general consenus that the kind of assassin you're thinking, coatofarms, is pure fiction.

But persistently seductive a fiction.

I believe there is a female assassin operating internationally and she's targeted a number of influential people. She doesn't have a signature, but she certainly has style and I don't know who or what is behind her, but I don't think she's slowing down and just that interested me, I guess. But also apparently makes me a fantasist and a crackpot and completely on my own.
And, you know, frankly, I don't give a shit anymore. She is outsmarting the smartest of us, and for that, she deserves to do or kill whoever the hell she wants. I mean, if she's not killing me, then, frankly, it's not my job to care anymore.
— Eve Polastri



Richard Kuklinski might qualify as the best known candidate Professional Assassin. I picked up The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Hitman from a street library late last year. I was drawn into the world of Richard Kuklinski, riveted, really, by the story of his life. Carlo writes adequately, and it's great material. Sadly, I hit a wall a few chapters in as I realised that the writer had simply written down every story Kuklinski told to him while in prison, verbatim, accepting that it was true. The combination of gullibility and shill on the part of the writer killed the book for me. It was a missed opportunity to explore the mind and motives of Kuklinski by fact-checking and challenging the narrative. As it was, the book became intensely boring, and I left it unfinished on a thrift store shelf. I guess that's what you get when you send a journalist in rather than Will Graham.

No doubt Kuklinski was a psychopath who had links to the Mob, and who murdered people. But an assassin of the ilk we're talking about - no.

A place they would be is Blackwater (XE Services).

I did a safety in the workplace training day with a facilitator who had been in the SAS. The SAS training alone is infamous. The guy taught our group about personal safety at work. He was, frankly, intimidating. Personable, low-key, confident. At one point I asked what would happen if someone came at him with a gun. He said, "I would vaporise them". To know that he could, no problem, using any number of objects in the room, or his bare hands, that left an impression.

Someone like that could become an assassin, but why bother when you can go freelance and earn great money in a steady job marketing your skills to the corporate sector?

or the theatre.

"

erdelyii wrote:

Richard Kuklinski

Was coming here to say that. When I hear the phrase "stone cold killer" that's the first name that comes to mind.

Just to give a TL:DR:

• He made his first kill as a teenager (13 or 14), his first human victim was a bully that lived in his building.
• As he grew older Manhattan became his "killing field". He would just kill random people, in various ways. If you pissed him off, you were pretty much as good as dead. Three young men flipped him off during a road rage incident, he pulled over and the three men made the mistake of doing the same thing. He shot all three dead just for flipping him off.
• He became a contract killer and worked for 5 different mafia families. He's claimed to have killed 100 to 250 people. Some in extremely brutal ways. One of his trademarks was to tie his victims up naked with wet rawhide (so that it would cut into their flesh as it dried) and leave them in a cave he had found as a young man. He would setup a video camera and a light connected to a motion sensor and record the victim being eaten alive by hoards of rats.
• He would often use a cyanide spray that would pretty much instantly kill the person sprayed with it.
• He would never kill women or children, but was very violent with his wife (something he picked up from his father). After one violent episode with his wife he told his favorite daughter "You know if I killed your mother by accident I would have to kill all of you right?" His family had no idea that he was leading a second life.
• He killed all but one of the people he called "friend", and that's the one that tipped the police off and ended up getting him convicted.

That barely scratches the surface. He was a professional killer, and traveled the country (and sometimes overseas) to do what he was good at. If you like true crime stories, he's the perfect person to look into. The things he did are the stuff nightmares are made from.

@erdelyii: I read that book you linked, ended up reading it in 2 days, I couldn't put it down. Carlo did manage to confirm many of Kuklinski's stories via his connections in law enforcement and mafia members. If I'm not mistaken the newer editions of the book were revised with information his connections provided. One thing about the book, as well as it was written his writing style could get very repetitive at times.

Still, a good book. As you said, not the type of assassin the OP is asking about but he fits the bill pretty well. Some of the interviews Kuklinski did for HBO are on youtube. Check them out if you haven't seen them before. :)

Thankfully nobody believes I kill people that would be an issue :3

I am pretty sure private military firms (security firms) would qualify. If they aren't doing assassinations now, I am betting they will be in the coming decade.

"

coatofarms wrote:

I'm watching Polar (film) right now. This movie has an organized assassin world similar to what exists in John Wick.

I'm curious what you guys think. Do professional, organized corporate-style assassins exist in the real world?

I'm also curious if professional, (meaning this is where their primary income comes from) individual, self-employed assassins exist in the real world.

Note I'm not talking about drone-strikes, teams of military special operations, or even the crazed politically-motivated lone-wolf.

Edit: I'm also curious more in reference to the 1st world. Not the 3rd world.

If you can read french, this is literally a story about a hitman

https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2019/02/10/la-mission-ratee-dun-jeune-tueur-a-gages

That's a depressing story, faerwyn. Apt, for what in reality is messed up stuff.

"

Shovelcut wrote:

"

erdelyii wrote:

Richard Kuklinski

Was coming here to say that. When I hear the phrase "stone cold killer" that's the first name that comes to mind.

Just to give a TL:DR:

• He made his first kill as a teenager (13 or 14), his first human victim was a bully that lived in his building.
• As he grew older Manhattan became his "killing field". He would just kill random people, in various ways. If you pissed him off, you were pretty much as good as dead. Three young men flipped him off during a road rage incident, he pulled over and the three men made the mistake of doing the same thing. He shot all three dead just for flipping him off.
• He became a contract killer and worked for 5 different mafia families. He's claimed to have killed 100 to 250 people. Some in extremely brutal ways. One of his trademarks was to tie his victims up naked with wet rawhide (so that it would cut into their flesh as it dried) and leave them in a cave he had found as a young man. He would setup a video camera and a light connected to a motion sensor and record the victim being eaten alive by hoards of rats.
• He would often use a cyanide spray that would pretty much instantly kill the person sprayed with it.
• He would never kill women or children, but was very violent with his wife (something he picked up from his father). After one violent episode with his wife he told his favorite daughter "You know if I killed your mother by accident I would have to kill all of you right?" His family had no idea that he was leading a second life.
• He killed all but one of the people he called "friend", and that's the one that tipped the police off and ended up getting him convicted.

That barely scratches the surface. He was a professional killer, and traveled the country (and sometimes overseas) to do what he was good at. If you like true crime stories, he's the perfect person to look into. The things he did are the stuff nightmares are made from.

@erdelyii: I read that book you linked, ended up reading it in 2 days, I couldn't put it down. Carlo did manage to confirm many of Kuklinski's stories via his connections in law enforcement and mafia members. If I'm not mistaken the newer editions of the book were revised with information his connections provided. One thing about the book, as well as it was written his writing style could get very repetitive at times.

Still, a good book. As you said, not the type of assassin the OP is asking about but he fits the bill pretty well. Some of the interviews Kuklinski did for HBO are on youtube. Check them out if you haven't seen them before. :)

Possibly I read the first edition, Shovelcut.

I think the truth might lie somewhere between the book and a more skeptical view such as this -

Cracks in “The Iceman”: Richard Kuklinski, Serial Killer and Real-Life Mafia Hit Man.

Regardless, not someone I'd want to meet in a dark alleyway.

"

Altnaharra wrote:

Must be a grand master tactician with over 200iq.
Awesome picture as well.

Yes, she is. Killing Eve is worth a watch, it's a good show.