Films like The Professional, The Replacement Killers and Grosse Pointe Blank had me convinced there is a secret American underworld of contract killers, mercenary killers and honor-coded hitmen of deadly acumen – but how much of that is really true?
I’ll resist the urge to ask for a business card.
Well, according to the detective in charge of the case, there is a good chance my sister was killed by one.
Does this have anything to do with your “friend” who ruined your credit with the collect phone calls?
LOL! No, but mmy train of thought was running to things I’d learned from watching movies about prison/felons and how things really work. For example, except for Goodfellas and early episodes of HBO’s Oz, I can’t think of a single crime movie that shows the long lines and degrading process (most) people have to go through just to visit loved ones in jail.
I don’t know about the codes of honour, but hitmen certainly exist. I just ran a search on the BBC News website and ended up with 80 hits for the term, most of them relevant news stories.
Yep - there are hitmen here. There’ve been a couple of high profile cases where spouses were successfully prosecuted after they had their partners murdered.
What you may be thinking of is organisations such as Murder Incorporated. If my son gets home tonight I’ll try to find a book we have which outlines their history - or I guess I could google it.
Yes, professional hitmen are a reality, although I suspect there are few who make it their sole occupation with most working for organized crime as an enforcer or bodyguard and hitting on the side.
On the other hand, mercenary work is a very lively business and there are plenty of mercenaries around the world plying their trade for a living.
I should also point out that there are plenty of unprofessional hitmen, and they far outnumber professional hitmen. If you get word out that you need somebody killed you are likely to get hooked up with some thug willing to bust heads for a buck.
There’s even a legitimate company called Sandline, who were the centre of a huge controversy that brought down the Government of Papua New Guineau a couple of years ago.
I’m proud to be a genuine hired killer! 
Proud Member of Pittsburg’s Local 438 Professional Hitman Union.
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In the US, hitmen either work for organized crime or are State Police. I’ve never heard news reports of an actual case of freelance assassination.
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I remember a case in the 1980’s of a highly proffessional assasination.
It took place in London.The victim was a man who had defected from the communists.He was struck in the thigh by an umbrella which had been fitted with an air rifle.A tiny poison pellet lodged in his hamstring muscle,and he had a fatal heart attack shortly thereafter.It was an extremely well orchestrated hit,which probably included numerous people to aid the guy with the weapon,and assure his vanishing into the crowd(but you and I will never know).
The weapon was not long range.The assasin struck the victim with the point of the umbrella,and at the same time fired the pellet into his leg.The victim simply felt pain in his leg,and attributed the lingering pain to the direct blow from the umbrella.The whole scene took place on a bus or train or something,so the killer seemed to be nothing more than a klutz or a jerk in a crowd.
That was the case of a possible KGB agent whacking Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov in 1978. Dunno if that fits the bill of professional hitman for hire.
When my sister was in high school, she wrapped some gangbanger’s ankle. In gratitude for her services, he offered her a free killing. Don’t recall if my sister ever took him up on it …
When I did a Google search on the topic I noticed immediately that there seemed to be more foreign reportsof hired killers and professional hits than in this country.
But my concern, if you look at my original question again, was the Hollywood imageof hitmen as seen in the hired killer movie genre. They are always depicted as loners and ruthless killers of incredible skill – this was what I was hoping to get debunked.
The ‘my sister was offered a free hit’ and the ‘you can always find an unprofessional willing hired thug’ are interesting – I wish you had more to offer about those.
I was hoping for more discussion about TV and movie images of these killers and the reality of men who do this and how this is a case of life imitating art, or if its avctually the other way around.
If you want information about the ‘hollywood’ style hitmen, I suggest going to this site.
Murder, Inc. was set up in the 1930s by Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. They were responsible for somewhere between 500 and 700 hits in the decade or so they were in operation. Interestingly, many of the members were Jewish, not Italian.
You are far more likely to be busted as being part of a conspiracy to commit murder—the usual “thug” will trade you off to the cops as part of a bargaining process.
Hollywood hitmen are a most enviable lot. They tend to be
sophisticated, intellectual, cultured sorts, who live in
palatial mansions in Europe. They spend their time buying
art and dining at fancy restaurants. Every now and then,
someone will wire ten million dollars to their Swiss bank
accounts, and they’ll go to work. They’ll use elaborate,
high-tech equipment to locate their victims, then adopt a
series of elaborate disguises, and kill the victim with
an untraceable poison, or with an intricate explosive device.
Needless to say, THAT kind of hit man is a myth. Think about it- if John Gotti wants a key federal witness killed, you think he’s going to pay a fortune to someone like Max von Sydow in “Three Days of the Condor,” or Bruce Willis in “The Jackal”? I suspect he’d find it easier and cheaper to bribe a cop or two to find out where the victim is, then send out a few standard, garden-variety thugs (they’d prefer to be called “foot soldiers,” I suppose), and have them beat the guy to death with baseball bats!
There are plenty of Mafia goons whose duties involve killing- but there are no feared, respected, highly paid murder specialists.
my former neighbor Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano was a hitman, killed 19 people and was a Gambino family Underboss. You might remember him as the guy who ratted on Gotti.
He’s staying on Madison St. now…
I was going to mention Sammy, but I believe he claims he actually pulled the trigger in only one of those killings (although he admits to taking part in all of them).