Over-Done Crime Fiction Tropes: Hitmen

 

Crime fiction works best when it is visceral, not standardized. One of the most standardized crime tropes is the hitman. If you’ve read mysteries, thrillers, and crime or watched movies in those genres you’ve seen the trope. The hitman fighting to escape the life, or for redemption, or for a zillion-dollar (in gold bullion) payday.  

All of which has as much basis in reality as flying monkeys. 

Every year there is at least one news story of some moron hiring a “hitman” in a bar, from a gym, or (truly, not big thinkers, here) a jail cell. Every single time that “hitman” turns out to be a cop or informant. Decades ago a guy answered an ad in Soldier of Fortune for a hitman to kill his wife. I leave you to do the math for how that turned out. Don’t forget, in murder math: it’s motive, plus opportunity, carry the idiot.  

I know what you’re thinking. So, are there hit men or not? The answer is a definitive "sorta."

Well, do they at least drive exotic cars, live in mansions, and have a Batcave full of tech and super-cool guns? 

Um, no. 

Which leads to the next obvious question. Then what’s the point?  

Exactly! 

Motivation, whatever it is, is the conflict spark that is missing from most hit men, contract killers, HMO doctors, (kidding) that populate most crime/thriller fiction. Why would a person decide to do someone else’ dirty work if there isn’t a pile of cash and six-pack abs waiting at the other end?

So, who’s a real hitman?

Kuklinski's booking photo.

Richard Kuklinski, made famous by HBO’s “The Iceman” was part of mobster Roy DeMeo’s Gambino crew. For those keeping score at home, Kuklinski is estimated to have killed between 70 and 200 people. No one knows for sure as he was a psychopath and a pathological liar. 

What is known is that he was more likely to bludgeon victims to death with a tire iron than shoot them with a black automatic. It has also been established that Kuklinski was paid nothing for the contract killings he did for DeMeo. It was considered “other duties as assigned.” He made his money on car-theft, drugs, and pirating porn. His motivation—psychopathy—is likely a result of profound abuse suffered as a child.

That tux alone screams, "killer."

Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero claimed 26 kills as a soldier in the Bonanno Crime family. He was still making “hits” in his 50s. For free. What little money he made, (undercover FBI agent, Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, said Lefty was always broke) came from loansharking and bookmaking. The hits were “favors,” that a loser, like Lefty, didn’t dare refuse.

But it’s different for government agents, right? 

Last photo of Guerara. Félix Rodríguez is on the right.

CIA asset Félix Rodríguez gave the order to execute revolutionary-insurgent Che Guevara but a drunken Bolivian soldier did the deed. As directed Guevara was shot in a manner to appear consistent with combat and not execution. 

Rodríguez got US citizenship, CIA “business” connections, and El Che’s Rolex. The soldier got to flee the country and live the rest of his life in fear. The last record of the "hitman" is cataract removal, ironically enough, done by a Cuban medical outreach in Paraguay.  

Doesn't look like much? Exactly the point.

Many of these CIA assets became mercenaries for the burgeoning cartels. While not (known to be) a CIA asset, Jorge "Ravi" Ayala was Griselda Blanco's enforcer and one of the most feared assassins during the Miami Drug War. Ayala is the exception to the rule, once claiming that Blanco paid him $50,000 to kill a man but that story has never been varified as Ravi wouldn't name the man. Further, Blanco notoriously killed men herself with little or no thought. 

Meanwhile, Ravi continued to operate chop shops and graduated to running cocaine to his old stomping grounds in Chicago. All of which suggests the killings were futher examples of, "other duties as assigned."

The coat does lend credibility.

Francesco Gullino, the prime suspect in the infamous 1978 Bulgarian Umbrella Assassination of Georgi Markov in London, allegedly did the deed to stay out of Bulgarian prison for smuggling. He was paid nothing for the killing. See a trend? 

In his excellent book on agency involvement in multiple African intrigues, former CIA agent and section chief, John Stockwell noted that rarely does anyone official “know” what happened.  A field officer gets a medal, the asset gets citizenship, a scholarship, or a research grant, and a local patsy takes the credit—or the fall.

 

Please understand, I’m not saying that your book can’t (or even shouldn’t) include a whiz-bang assassin with a suitcase full of guns. Just remember the details that inform the drama. The closer you stick to bedrock truth, the more impactful your fictional elements.

The photo at the top belongs to Lions Gate, et al. I own none of the other photos. All are used here for educational and instructional purposes as covered by the Fair Use Doctrine.