# Lead Characters Who Commit Murder **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548 "2011-06-15T11:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/21 "2011-06-15T13:45:35Z")
Elmore Leonard’s novel **Cat Chaser**. At the end of the book, the protagonist shoots the “bad guy” point blank. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/22 "2011-06-15T13:56:13Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Lawrence Block has written a series of novels where the protagonist is a hit man. > > [Link](http://www.lawrenceblock.com/index_frameset.htm). Click on BOOKS, then KELLER. Excellent series - but I’m not sure that Keller could be described as a “hero” in the sense the OP is looking for. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/23 "2011-06-15T14:11:39Z")
Spoilers are inevitable in this thread, right? In the first Lucas Davenport novel – and, at that, the final Poirot novel – our hero investigates a clever murderer who arranged everything to make a conviction impossible. The twist ending, of course, is that our hero then simply shoots the guy and makes it look like suicide or self-defense or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/24 "2011-06-15T14:29:19Z")
> [@Sir\_Rhosis](#): > > All good answers, but am really looking for other examples more like the Magnum ep, as opposed to hit men or James Bond types. The villain taunts Magnum along the lines of “You can’t do it. It’s not in your nature to shoot an unarmed man,” etc. And we believe it until the final frame where Magnum asks if he saw the sun rise, then raises his gun and fires, freeze-frame, end of episode. Alessan actually gave you a good example earlier, from Buffy Season 5; the primary evil character in the season, a powerful supernatural being, shared a body with a powerless human. Giles (one of the main characters, if not THE main character) murders her alter ego in cold blood when she has been forced to transform. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/25 "2011-06-15T15:58:15Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Killing someone who is holding you at gunpoint and threatening to kill you is hardly “cold blooded murder.” You obviously haven’t had your Lucas epiphany yet. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/26 "2011-06-15T16:09:36Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Spoilers are inevitable in this thread, right? > > In the first Lucas Davenport novel – and, at that, the final Poirot novel – our hero investigates a clever murderer who arranged everything to make a conviction impossible. The twist ending, of course, is that our hero then simply shoots the guy and makes it look like suicide or self-defense or whatever. Right- in _ **Curtain** _, the final Hercule Poirot mystery.. Poirot finds a real-life Iago, a catalyst for murder. This person plays no active role in any crime, but has manipulated numerous decent people into commiting murders. The elderly Poirot kills this person, because there’s no other way this person could be brought to justice. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/27 "2011-06-15T16:26:00Z")
Tony Soprano? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/28 "2011-06-15T17:29:26Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > OK, for a more straight example: James Bond does it all the time. But Matt Helm does it better. 🙂 For the OP, Charley Varrick at the end of _Charley Varrick, the Last of the Independents._ ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/29 "2011-06-15T17:34:22Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > For the OP, Charley Varrick at the end of _Charley Varrick, the Last of the Independents._ One the better movies and perhaps Matthau’s best. Joe Don is excellent, too. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/30 "2011-06-15T17:47:04Z")
Harry Callahan in the _Dirty Harry_ movie. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/31 "2011-06-15T17:56:09Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > One the better movies and perhaps Matthau’s best. Joe Don is excellent, too. Yeah. “Buddy, Buddy” has it’s moments. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/32 "2011-06-15T18:21:51Z")
In _L.A. Confidential_, incorruptible Exley (one of several candidates for “lead character,” I suppose) shoots the corrupt Capt. Smith in the back. I don’t remember if it was the very last scene or just one of the last. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/33 "2011-06-15T18:24:26Z")
It sure seemed like Data fired his phaser as Kivas Fajo. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/34 "2011-06-15T19:24:34Z")
She doesn’t do the deed herself, but at the end of _K is for Killer_, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone sets up a guy to be killed by the mob. I would argue Cugel the Clever committed mass murder a couple of times in Vance’s Overlord books. Ellery Queen forces a murderer to commit suicide in \*Ten Days’ Wonder \*(and did something very similar in _The Door Between_). You might want to check out the end of Poul Anderson’s _A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows_. Sir Captain Dominic Flandry does something that even some of his compatriots consider worse. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/35 "2011-06-15T19:37:22Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > SSir Captain Dominic Flandry does something that even some of his compatriots consider worse. Aycharaych or his son? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/36 "2011-06-15T19:41:58Z")
carnivorousplant: I actually was thinking of the destruction of Cherion, “the Greeks of the galaxy,” along with Aycharaych. That was not a happy novel for Sir Dominic. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/37 "2011-06-15T19:49:31Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > It sure seemed like Data fired his phaser as Kivas Fajo. Yes, but O’Brian kept it from happening. Besides, the point of that scene wasn’t that Data had tried to kill Fajo; that killing would have been justified as an escape from a kidnapper. The point was that he lied to Riker’s face about it. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/38 "2011-06-15T19:51:21Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Yeah. “Buddy, Buddy” has it’s moments. Wow! I’ve never seen [Buddy Buddy (1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082111/) and based on your say-so I will keep an eye out for it on cable. Netflix isn’t showing it as available at this time. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/39 "2011-06-15T19:51:52Z")
No one’s mentioned Leroy Jethro Gibbs yet? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/40 "2011-06-15T19:52:13Z")
_Titus Andronicus, Othello_ – but those are official executions. _Richard III_ and _Macbeth,_ if slaying a foe in a fair fight counts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548.md?page=3)