This article contains a list of contract killers, both living and deceased, sorted by the country in which they engaged in said crimes.
The practice of contract killing involves an person (the contract killer) who is paid to kill one or more individuals. [1] As implied by the name, the contract killer typically does such solely for the purpose of profit and often lacks any personal connection to their intended target. A hitman, on the other hand, is a term that is often synonymous with contract killer although it can also be used to denote a criminal who frequently carries out a targeted killing (referred to as a "hit") on behalf of an organized crime syndicate to which they are affiliated with. [2] [3] Furthermore, the title of enforcer can also be interchangeable with the latter of the two as it is generally associated with gangsters even though not all gang enforcers necessarily resort to homicide on a regular basis or even at all. [4] [5]
Persons who have only carried out an assassination-style murder at the behest of their own motivation, without having either a criminal background, or links to the criminal underworld or other such groups, do not qualify as hitmen. They are not to be included in this list, nor are assassins who perform killings under the discretion of an official government unless they are purposely done in extrajudicial manner.
Murder, Inc. was an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate – a closely connected criminal organization that included and was started by the Irish Mob, and included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other criminal organizations in New York City and elsewhere. Murder, Inc. was composed of Irish, Jewish, and Italian-American gangsters, and members were mainly recruited from poor and working-class Irish, Jewish, and Italian neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a 2002 stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The game was re-released for Windows through the Steam online distribution service, and a DRM-free version was later made available through GOG.com. It is the second installment in the Hitman video game series and the sequel to Hitman: Codename 47. The single-player story once again follows Agent 47, a genetically enhanced human clone who worked for the International Contract Agency (ICA) as an assassin. Following the events of Codename 47, the former contract killer has retired and started a peaceful life at a church, but after his only friend, Reverend Emilio Vittorio, is kidnapped by unknown assailants, 47 resumes work for the ICA in hopes of tracking him down.
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an agreement which includes some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise. It is an illegal agreement. Either party may be a person, group, or organization. Contract killing has been associated with organized crime, government conspiracies, dictatorships, and vendettas. For example, in the United States, the Italian- and Jewish-American organized crime gang Murder, Inc. committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during the 1930s and '40s.
Hitman is a stealth game franchise created by Danish developer IO Interactive. The player controls the contract killer Agent 47, who travels the world to assassinate various targets who are assigned to him.
Hitman: Contracts is a 2004 stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is the third installment in the Hitman video game series, and serves as both a remake of Hitman: Codename 47 and sequel to Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, incorporating gameplay elements introduced in the latter into missions from the first game, which have been remastered with enhanced graphics. The game also includes several new missions, which serve as flashbacks experienced by the player character, the cloned assassin Agent 47, after being almost killed on a botched job.
Hitman: Blood Money is a 2006 stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released in May 2006 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360. It is the fourth installment in the Hitman video game series, and the sequel to 2004's Hitman: Contracts. The story follows cloned assassin Agent 47's efforts to bring down the Franchise, a rival contract killing organization that is threatening his employers, the International Contract Agency (ICA), and seeking to obtain the same cloning technology that created 47. Meanwhile, a frame story presents 47's life and various contracts he carried out, as narrated by a former FBI director to a journalist.
Agent 47 is a fictional character, the protagonist and the player character of the Hitman video game franchise, developed by IO Interactive. He has been featured in all games of the series, as well as various spin-off media, including two theatrically released films, a series of comics, and two novels. He has been voiced by actor David Bateson in every main entry in the series since its inception in 2000.
Nothing Personal was a television documentary series that presents stories of contract killings. Hosted by actor Steve Schirripa, it aired airs on Investigation Discovery in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The show is a crime docudrama series that recounts true stories of contract killings. Each episode features a real-life story of a "contract" murder. It explains who was involved, how the crime was committed and the background of the killing.
The Tiny Rascal Gang, is a primarily Cambodian-American gang based in Long Beach, California. During the 1990s, Mexican Mafia "green light" hit lists began including the TRG during the 1990s, and Sureños were soon at war with them. The Mexican Mafia ordered the West Side Longo gang to put aside its rivalry with the East Side Longo and support their former rivals against the TRG.
Gerard Davison was a commander of the Provisional IRA. He was shot and killed on 5 May 2015. One of the first operations he was involved in was shooting dead of IPLO Belfast Brigade commander Sammy Ward during the same Night of the Long Knives in Belfast.
All Things Vice is a blog that was started in 2012 by Australian author and journalist Eileen Ormsby about news in the dark web. Since her investigations into the Silk Road in 2012, the darknet market led her to blog about various happenings in the dark web and two books, Silk Road (2014) and The Darkest Web (2018).
Gérald Gallant is a Canadian contract killer who admitted to committing 28 murders and 12 attempted murders between 1978 and 2003. Gallant typically killed in public by gunshots to the head, neck or chest, which became his trademark. His victims were mostly members of Quebec-based criminal gangs. Gallant was reportedly one of Canada's most prolific known killers.
José Manuel Martínez, dubbed El Mano Negra is a Mexican-American former self-described drug cartel hitman. Martínez confessed to an estimated 36 murders and was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder in multiple states. He is incarcerated at USP Victorville in California.
Fotios "Freddy" Geas is an American criminal and an associate of the Genovese crime family, based in New York City. He is a former Mafia hitman operating out of Springfield, Massachusetts and often worked with his brother Ty Geas.
Jorge Ayala-Rivera, also known as "Rivi" is a Colombian criminal who is best known for his work as a hitman for Medellín Cartel leader Griselda Blanco. In 1993, Ayala was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
The Killer is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker. It is based on the French graphic novel series The Killer written by Alexis "Matz" Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon. The film stars Michael Fassbender alongside Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton in supporting roles. Fassbender plays an assassin who embarks on an international vendetta after a hit goes wrong.
RentAHitman.com is a satirical website purporting to offer contract killers for hire. The site's domain was bought by Bob Innes in 2005 as a potential site for an information technology company to be set up with his friends. The company was never started but Innes retained the site. Upon checking the site's email inbox in 2008, he found hundreds of messages requesting contract killing services, but he considered none to be serious. When checking again in 2010, however, he found a serious request from a woman in Canada. He passed her details to the police, and she was convicted for soliciting murder.
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