# 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:** 5
**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 17, 2011, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/81 "2011-06-17T07:33:56Z")
> [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](#): > > Lead characters who kill in utterly cold blood and yet remain loved/respected: > > Maxim De Winter /Thread win ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/82 "2011-06-17T11:02:20Z")
From Homicide: Life on the Streets: Bayliss, Kellerman and possibly Munch. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/83 "2011-06-17T11:21:46Z")
There was no “lead star” on the TV series, _ **Third Watch** _, since it was an an ensemble show. But one of the primary characters was Officer Faith Yokas (not sure of the spelling), played by Molly Price. She was usually portrayed as an excellent and idealistic cop. And she committed a murder of sorts. There was a Latino gang leader who’d committed a murder and gotten away scot-free. Yokas and her partner picked him up on the street later, cuffed him, drove him to a section of town controlled by a rival gang, then dumped him on the street and drove off, knowing the rival gang would kill him. ---
**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 17, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/84 "2011-06-17T14:36:15Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > There was no “lead star” on the TV series, _ **Third Watch** _, since it was an an ensemble show. But one of the primary characters was Officer Faith Yokas (not sure of the spelling), played by Molly Price. She was usually portrayed as an excellent and idealistic cop. And she committed a murder of sorts. > > There was a Latino gang leader who’d committed a murder and gotten away scot-free. Yokas and her partner picked him up on the street later, cuffed him, drove him to a section of town controlled by a rival gang, then dumped him on the street and drove off, knowing the rival gang would kill him. If that counts, then Brenda Lee (Leigh?) Johnson of _The Closer_ certainly counts. And it looks like the chickens will come home to roost in the upcoming (and, I believe, final) season. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/85 "2011-06-17T14:40:19Z")
In the series Sharpe - One episode he discovers the true nature of Officer Brand - who it turns out is a self serving mercenary - Once unmasked, Brand mocks Sharpe because he knows that he will go to a military tribuanl that will clear him, due to the corrupt way the class system works. Noting that Brand is sitting on the edge of a well, whilst mocking him, Sharpe suanters past and shoulder barges Brand down - obviously leading to the latters demise. [http://sharpecompendium.net/cast.html](http://sharpecompendium.net/cast.html) ---
**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 17, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/86 "2011-06-17T14:47:57Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > In the series Sharpe - Sharpe frags Sergeant Asshole when Asshole attacks Sharpe’s lady friend in the novels. Not sure about TV movies, though. And it was about time, too! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/87 "2011-06-17T15:09:39Z")
In the film _War of the Worlds_, Tom Cruise murders Tim Robbins, with his (Cruise’s) 12 year-old daughter in the next room, aware of what Daddy was doing. However, it’s not the final scene in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/88 "2011-06-17T16:01:10Z")
\*[Cold Squad\*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138959/), (a Canadian series of which the CBS series _Cold Case_ is a poor imitation) ended its run with……the lead character killing a suspect in cold blood. The victim is a serial pedophile rapist and murderer who is free because of a failure of the justice system. The build-up of the finale had been centered on the dilemma of her needing to protect him from a vigilante bent on dispatching him, which she does - rushing into a warehouse just in time to find the rapist bound in a chair with the killer ready to do the Dexter routine (pre-_Dexter_) on him. A crack shot takes out the killer, and then when the rapist is tearfully thanking her for saving his life, she puts one in him point-blanc. Roll credits, end of series.I was dumbfounded. “How the hell are they going to resolve _that_ next season?” Naw, it was intended to end that way. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/89 "2011-06-18T20:28:33Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Excellent series - but I’m not sure that Keller could be described as a “hero” in the sense the OP is looking for. What kind of hero is he looking for? ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/90 "2011-06-18T22:45:32Z")
First one I thought of was “Unforgiven.” I guess “The Princess Bride,” too. Usually the hero accepts the villian’s surrender. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/91 "2011-06-19T03:23:14Z")
Right away I thought of Mal Reynolds in FIREFLY. This [scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPRlHwwVIug), in which he deals with the henchmen of a ruthless crime boss, sucked me into giving the show another chance. No pun intended. ---
**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 19, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/92 "2011-06-19T03:53:45Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > Right away I thought of Mal Reynolds in FIREFLY. This [scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPRlHwwVIug), in which he deals with the henchmen of a ruthless crime boss, sucked me into giving the show another chance. No pun intended. I’ve been guilty, too, but see post #9. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/93 "2011-06-21T01:32:45Z")
When I first saw this thread I thought of a scene in Terry Prachett’s Men At Arms. It took me a while to find it, because it is right at the end and I started looking on Page One, and when I did it turned out to be not 100% a match for the thread, but what the hell. Vimes is held at Gonnepoint at one point in the book. > [@](#): > > Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat. > > They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. > > So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word. Later, of course, Corporal Carrot, Pterry’s (maybe) prototypical Good Man, gets the drop on the villain and kills him, of course, with hardly a word. It does not really fit the thread because the villain still has a weapon in his hand, and so it is more self-defense than murder, but I still wanted to share. It is a wonderful story. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/94 "2011-06-21T04:59:38Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > There’s an early Spenser novel where Spenser feels like he’s out of options and sets up some bad guys with an ambush, where he takes them down from, IIRC, a sniper position. I don’t know if it’s the same one, and I read it long enough ago that my memory may be wrong, but I seem to recall the bad guy (maybe with sidekicks) going off to his house up in the mountains, and Spenser taking a little vacation - with a sniper rifle wrapped up in his sleeping bag. I don’t think we got any more details than that. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/95 "2011-06-21T06:24:29Z")
nd I guess I should finish reading the thread before I reply. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/96 "2011-06-21T06:59:27Z")
Well, if we’re going to count arranging for some bad guys to kill other bad guys, then we need to count almost every episode of the old _Mission:Impossible_ series. Every week they saved someone from a crime lord or banana republic dictator, or retrieved secret data or whatever, and they always set the guy up to be in deep shit with his “friends”. I don’t recall whether the audience ever actually saw the retribution, but their deaths were certainly implied. Also, I don’t ever remember one of the team members directly killing anyone, but it’s been many years since I’ve seen it and my memories of it are patchy. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/97 "2011-06-21T08:00:32Z")
Boondock Saints has been mentioned already, but I think it fits the OP description more than most of the other replies. The brothers storm a courthouse, force an unarmed man to his knees, and shoot him in the head while he’s begging for his life. Then the credits roll. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/98 "2011-06-21T08:17:41Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Would have been dandy if you put a “book, not the tv series (yet)” in there somewhere. Since it’s not a spoiler for Game of Thrones, the book (but a later book in the series) that wouldn’t have helped, either… ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/99 "2011-06-21T10:13:48Z")
Not the main character, but definitely a good guy, at the very end of the Honor Harrington novel Ashes of Victory: Citizen Admiral Thomas Theisman, after deciding that the Peoples Republic of Haven has seen enough show trials: “Good bye, Citizen Chairman.” Also, the same book a few chapters earlier featured one of the most mild-mannered characters in the series kill off several thousand bad guys on her own initiative, with just a few quick keystrokes on her keyboard. Her explanation to her stunned commander? “Oops.” 😃 ---
**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 21, 2011, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548/100 "2011-06-21T10:31:11Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Well, if we’re going to count arranging for some bad guys to kill other bad guys, then we need to count almost every episode of the old _Mission:Impossible_ series. Every week they saved someone from a crime lord or banana republic dictator, or retrieved secret data or whatever, and they always set the guy up to be in deep shit with his “friends”. I don’t recall whether the audience ever actually saw the retribution, but their deaths were certainly implied. For bonus vagueness points, consider the first episode where Leonard Nimoy is brought in to replace Martin Landau: our heroes manage to get the inside information needed to foil an impending sneak attack, and then keep listening in on the bugged office where the two high-ranking men who could’ve leaked the information start accusing each other until a gunshot rings out; cut back to Jim and Barney in the van, and cue the last lines: “The alliance is broken.” “Who fired?” “What difference does it make?” > [@](#): > > Also, I don’t ever remember one of the team members directly killing anyone, but it’s been many years since I’ve seen it and my memories of it are patchy. IIRC, it was never the point of a mission – but if things went wrong, they were perfectly willing to break out a gun and start shooting in self-defense (at which point folks would of course fall down and stop moving). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-characters-who-commit-murder/585548.md?page=6)