Hitman

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For other uses of this term, see Hitman (disambiguation)

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A hitman usually is an assassin who is hired to assassinate a target via contract killing.

Contents 1 Hitmen in organized crime 2 Other cases involving hitmen 2.1 Hitmen 2.2 Notable victims of hitmen 2.3 Notable cases of hiring a hitman 3 Hitmen in fiction 3.1 Film 3.2 Video games 3.3 Internet 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Hitmen in organized crime

Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people, usually males who kill people for money. For notable examples see Murder, Inc. and Mafia hitmen.

[edit] Other cases involving hitmen

These are non-mafia killings, or attempted killings, that involved a hitman. In some of these cases the "hitman" was not necessarily a "professional" hitman, but a paid amateur.

[edit] Hitmen

• Christopher Dale Flannery: Reputed Australian hitman.
• Paul Glen: British hitman who killed a Robert Bogle by mistake as he was paid to kill a Vincent Smart.
• Charles Harrelson: He had connections to organized crime, but was also freelance. He was the father of actor Woody Harrelson.
• Glennon Engleman: American dentist who moonlighted as a hitman on the side

[edit] Notable victims of hitmen

• Shiori Ino: She was a 21-year-old University student killed by hitman Yoshifumi Kubota. Kubota served 18 years in prison for the killing. He was paid by her ex-boyfriend and his brother. The case gained some notoriety in Japan.

• Grady Stiles: Freak show performer. His family hired a hitman to kill him because of his abusiveness.

[edit] Notable cases of hiring a hitman

• Mike Danton: Former NHL player, hired an undercover police officer to kill his agent.
• Pamela Smart: Derry, New Hampshire woman made national headlines in 1991 for hiring teenage lover Billy Flynn and his friends to murder her husband Gregory Smart.
• Wanda Holloway: The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom is based on her hiring a hitman to kill the mother of a girl competing with her daughter at cheerleading.
• Lawrence Horn: Record producer whose hiring of a hitman led to the case Rice v Paladin Press.
• Charlotte Karin Lindström: Australian waitress/model who attempted to hire a hitman to kill persons testifying against her boyfriend in a drug trial.

[edit] Hitmen in fiction

[edit] Film

This section requires expansion.

Hitmen have been at times been a notable part of crime film. A rise in such characters began in 1970s due to "mafia films" like The Godfather. A notable example from the 1980s is the final scene of Scarface, in which an assassination squad is sent to kill the protagonist, Tony Montana. In the early 1990s Jean Reno gained some attention as a hitman in Léon: The Professional.

In the mid-1990s to the 20s several "offbeat" portrayals of hitmen arose. John Cusack plays a hitman named Martin Blank who attends his high school reunion in the comedy film Grosse Pointe Blank. Forest Whitaker portrayed an African American hitman influenced by Bushidō in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. In addition Jude Law, in Road to Perdition, played a hit man with a strong interest in photography.

Loosely based on actual events, Edward Fox methodically plans a hit on Charles de Gaulle, President of France, in the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal. In a similarly named 1997 film, Bruce Willis also portrays an assassin using the codename The Jackal.

A few portrayals of hit man have earned nominations or awards. In 1985 Jack Nicholson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing a hitman named Charley Partanna in Prizzi's Honor. Javier Bardem played a ruthless assassin in search of a lost cache of money in the Coen Brothers' 2008 Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men.

In the film Collateral, actor Tom Cruise takes his turn as a hitman named Vincent takes a cabbie (Jamie Foxx) hostage and taken five stops to assassinate five witnesses going to trial for a man who hired Vincent.

In The Spongebob Squarepants Movie Sheldon J. Plankton hires a Hitman named Dennis to kill Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star to stop them from retrieving the crown of King Neptune.

In Reborn the anime there is an organization of hitmen

[edit] Video games

The main character of the video game series Hitman was genetically engineered by a man called Dr. Ort-Meyer in an insane asylum in Romania. He is known only as Agent 47. 47 is highly regarded in the criminal underworld, so much that many consider him to be a myth. The gameplay revolves around infiltrating an area, executing a target (or targets), and escaping without apprehension. Although not compulsory, the Hitman games encourage the player to use stealth and cunning maneuvers to eliminate targets, as opposed to firepower. A film adaption was released in 2007, which deviated widely from its source material, and as such, was negatively received by fans. It was also confirmed that a fifth game would be in production.

In the video game series Grand Theft Auto, the main character is often assigned missions in which he must take a hit out on someone or protect someone from a hitman.

[edit] Internet

As part of a thesis, a website was built for kill.inc, a fictional hitmen firm. The website allow the visitor to plan a hit using an interactive kill builder form.

[edit] See also

• Ambush
• Assassination
• Concealment
• Espionage
• Hit and run tactics
• Organized crime
• Private Military Company
• Mercenary
• Contract killing
• Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors
• Murder Inc
• Sniper
• Sniper Rifle
• Suppressor
• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
• Hitman (series)

[edit] References