# Please ID this short story
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-this-short-story/666422
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 16, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-this-short-story/666422 "2013-08-16T16:20:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-this-short-story/666422/1 "2013-08-16T16:20:42Z")
From (faulty) memory: a man has telekinetic powers of some kind. He goes into the President’s office in order to blackmail him. As he’s leaving the office, another man kills him with a hammer.
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-this-short-story/666422/2 "2013-08-16T17:14:43Z")
Sure you’re not misremembering [Trotsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_on_the_Death_of_Trotsky)?
Otherwise, I’ve got nothing.
ETA - confusion on the “him” there - who is getting killed? I thought you meant the President, but you might mean the telepath, in which case I’m most likely totally offbase.
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-this-short-story/666422/3 "2013-08-16T17:27:48Z")
> [@Lasciel](#):
>
> Sure you’re not misremembering [Trotsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_on_the_Death_of_Trotsky)?
>
> Otherwise, I’ve got nothing.
>
> ETA - confusion on the “him” there - who is getting killed? I thought you meant the President, but you might mean the telepath, in which case I’m most likely totally offbase.
The guy with the power goes to leave and somebody outside the office summarily executes him. I was thinking it was an HG Wells story, but Google disagrees. It’s an old story at any rate.
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-this-short-story/666422/4 "2013-08-16T20:14:47Z")
Hmm.
Edgar Rice Burroughs? He did a lot of stuff with telepathy in his other stories.
Saki? Not a lot of fantastic stuff in his writings, but he did one that I know of for sure about a boy who is actually a tiger, so it’s not totally out of character to have telepathy.