Hitman Page 6
Sometimes you can pretend to bargain with these obstinate martyrs, even though you fully intend to carry out your contract once you receive the desired information.
I had the opportunity to accompany a master of persuasion on an assignment a few years ago.
Although small in stature, this full-blooded Indian was ruthless in obtaining the information he came for.
The mark was a much larger man, outweighing the Indian by more than eighty pounds. With my help, we subdued the giant, stripped him to the waist and tied him into a wooden armchair.
"Talk," ordered the Indian.
Silence.
The Indian pulled an ice pick from his pocket.
The giant looked from the point of the pike to the Indian and then to me, as if begging for my intervention. I shrugged my shoulders in a helpless gesture.
The Indian circled the giant slowly. Suddenly he stopped and inserted the tip of the pick into the giant's upper arm about a quarter of an inch. When he withdrew his pick, there was a sickening little popping sound as blood spurted from the wound for a second, then stopped.
"Talk," repeated the Indian.
More silence.
Several stabs later, the giant was quivering like a jellyfish, his body like a pincushion, while the Indian was getting more and more into his work.
Suddenly he grew tired of the ice pick game. With a malicious grin, he pulled a pair of pliers from his other hip pocket and gave me a sly wink. Pointedly, methodically, he began with the giant's little finger on his left hand and crunched each knuckle slowly with the pliers. It seemed to no effort at all on his part as the soft bone gave way under the force of the simple tool. He ha only gotten to the third finger when the giant began to cry like a baby and spill his guts. The Indian listened, asked a few questions, then un-strapped the trembling giant and set him free. The big man raced for the door and into the night.
I'm not sure, but I think the Indian was a bit disappointed that it all ended so quickly. But the stain on the front of his pants showed that he had enjoyed himself tremendously!
There is no end to the various ways of torturing a mark until he would tell you what you want to know, and die just to get over it. Sometimes all it takes is putting a knife to his throat. Not from behind with the blade across the throat the way they do in the movies, but from the front where the tip of the blade creasing the soft hollow of the throat, where the victim can see the gleaming steel and realizes what damage it would do if it fully penetrated.
Most people would much prefer the compassionate quick release of a bullet to the slow torturous death of being cut and watching their own lifeblood seep from their body. And even facing death, they tend to want to leave the body behind to be whole and dignified instead of a mutilated, unrecognizable corpse.
You may threaten, bargain, torture or mutilate to get the information you want, and you must be prepared to use whatever method works.
HOW TO GET RID OF THE CORPUS DELICTI
If disposing of the body becomes part of your job assignment, you should charge a hefty additional sum. The risks you take in carrying out the request and the extra time you spend with the corpse are 37
Hit Man: A Technical Manual For Independent Contractors certainly deserving of higher compensation. There are many options, and the one you choose will depend on the circumstances of your particular job and location.
If you have a really strong stomach, you can always cut the body into sections and pack it into an ice chest for transportation and disposal at various spots across the countryside.
Or, you can simply cut off the head after burying the body. Take the head into some deserted location, place a stick of dynamite into the mouth, and blow the telltale dentition to smithereens! After this, authorities can't use the victims' dental records to identify his remains. As the body decomposes, fingerprints will disappear and no real evidence will be left from which to make positive identification. You can even clip off the fingertips and bury them separately.
Of course, there are many easier and less gruesome methods for disposing of the corpse. We all know the story of how the mob buries the body in the still of the night in some footer for a multistory building where cement is to be poured the next day.
Or the one about tying cement blocks to the body and dumping it into the river. But there's a lot more to it than that. If you choose to sink the corpse, you must first make several deep stabs into the body's lungs (from just under the rib cage) and belly. This is necessary because gases released during decomposition will bloat these organs, causing the body to rise to the surface of the water.
The corpse should be weighted with the standard concrete blocks, but it must be wrapped from head to toe with heavy chain as well, to keep the body from departing and floating in chunks to the surface.
After the fishes and natural elements have done their works, the chain will drag the bones into the muddy sentiment.
If you bury the body, again deep stab wounds should be made to allow gases to escape. A bloating corpse will push the earth up as it swells. Pour in lime to prevent the horrible odor of decomposition, and lye to make that decomposition more rapid.
Quicksand, the open sea, caves in isolated areas and abandoned wells are all potential places to get rid of the body.
Preplan your actions. Know what you're going to do with the corpse before you pull that trigger.
Be flexible enough to make sudden changes in your plan should some unexpected predicament arise.
DEALING WITH MAN'S BEST FRIEND
You've probably heard the saying, "There are many ways to kill a rabbit." A greater problem for the hit man is finding a way to silence a barking dog. An overzealous dog in the neighborhood, and more particularly, the mark's own canine, presents a problem that must be dealt with. If you can get to the dog without too much risk to yourself, you can feed it ground glass in raw hamburger a few days before the hit; the animal will die a slow and miserable death. Unfortunately, the ultimate demise of his best friend and protector may put the mark on guard for your impending arrival.
As I stated before, dogs can take much larger amounts of poison than a man's fragile system can handle. You will have to experiment to come up with the best available poison and the proper dosage, which may mean a definite decrease in the canine population of your own neighborhood.
Poison placed inside a capsule and buried in a ball of meat is one method to use. However, this means waiting whatever time it takes for the poison to get into the dog's system to do its work. I have found that if the dog gets a taste of the poison, he may spit the meat out or that some poisons will cause him to throw up his stomach contents in a very short time. And some pets are so finicky that they will eat carefully around any pill or capsule, leaving it as evidence in the bottom of the dog dish.
Shooting a dog will create a loud and continuous string of yelps and howls that may alert the countryside, unless you are an expert marksman and can shoot to kill with one shot. The best spot to go for is right behind and under the ear where the brain is located. Even then, be prepared for that one long yelp before death occurs. In fact, almost anything you do to a dog will bring out that resounding, attention drawing yelp.
A housedog and family pet will normally keep a distance between you and him while he barks his head off to alert his family that danger is present. An attack dog, on the other hand, should charge ferociously. The only advantage of coming face to face with an attack dog is that once he sinks his teeth into something, the barking will stop. If you know an attack dog is on the scene, bring material to wrap your arm to prevent his breaking the skin when he makes his attack. As he charges, offer the wrapped arm and let him sink his teeth into the material. Once he has a good, tight hold, place your free forearm on the 38
Hit Man: A Technical Manual For Independent Contractors back of his neck as a brace. Then jerk the arm he is biting up and back quickly to break his neck. Or, you can just as easily cut his throat while you have him in that position.<
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A hypodermic needle filled with poison or a poison tipped dart shot through a blowgun seems to give the best results.
5.
Homework and Surveillance
THE ABSOLUTELY MOST ESSENTIAL part of any successful operation is accurate information. Even with the finest weapon and the most sophisticated equipment available, without accurate information you'll be all dressed up with nowhere to go. Or, worse yet, you may crash the wrong party.
HOMEWORK
Only a fool will rush right into a job without doing his homework. You have to know your target, whether it's a job for hire or a personal endeavor. Every scrap of up-to-date information you can gather inconspicuously should be assembled and studied to guarantee the success of you operation. Information requirements will vary, depending on the type and difficulty of the job. Even the most minute, seemingly unimportant detail can be just the very item you need. Everything your employer knows, you should know.
The best way to gather the necessary facts to plan your job is to use an information sheet as a guideline so nothing will be left out. You can have your employer fill it out himself, but you will get better information (once you have a bond of mutual trust and price has been agreed upon) if you ask the questions and fill it our as he supplies the information.
Until you actually do the job, the information sheet is just harmless data. However, if it falls into the wrong hands and you go ahead with the job, it could very well prove conspiracy. So keep it in a safe place away from prying eyes and nosy snoopers. After you do the job, the information sheet, along with any photos, maps, diagrams, house keys and other paraphernalia will become incriminating evidence linking you to the crime. So memorize and get rid of all your information before you leave to do the job.
The best way to rid yourself of this evidence is to burn it all, crumble the cooled residue, and scatter it in the wind. If you burn it indoors, flush it down the toilet. But make sure you are not near any smoke detectors or you may have company at the most inopportune time. Just see that all this information is done away with in some manner that will inhibit its reconstruction.
On the following pages is a sample information sheet to show the depth of the information required to plan an efficient, successful job. Each job will be different, so the categories will carry in their importance. For instance, if a man lives alone, it may become important to know is he has a dog that will bark, warning the owner of your impending intrusion or alerting the neighborhood that something is amiss.
If a man lives with several other people, however, it may become important to know his regular routine and where he hands out when he is not at work or at home.
Your thinking, pattern and technique should be flexible and imaginative. You may want to develop your own information-gathering system based on your personal needs and preferences.
Using this information complete on the sample form; we come to the following conclusions: Items 1,2,3,5 and 24 supply physical information to enable positive identification of the mark.
Edward Nathan Jones (AKA Eddie or Fat Boy) can be mentally pictures as a middle-aged, overweight man who is more than likely too out of shape to make any positive effort to defend himself against our onslaught. The photograph supplied will help greatly in making a positive identification. However, if the photo were not available, the indicated mole, scar and habitual cigar would be of great benefit, along with the detailed physical description.
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Hit Man: A Technical Manual For Independent Contractors Items 9 through 20 and 23 give clues to his emotional makeup. Our mark is basically a loner. He lives alone, has few friends or outside interests, preferring to remain within the confines of his apartment watching TV during his free time. He is a heavy drinker, although he does not abuse any type of drug. That he is a homosexual will preclude the sudden appearance of a girlfriend. It was stated in item 23 that he is afraid of sexual contact of any kind since his brush with the law eight years ago. He may be jut a bit 45
Hit Man: A Technical Manual For Independent Contractors paranoid, since he does keep a loaded weapon close at hand in the apartment. His previous fighting ability will more than likely pose no threat, since his excess weight will slow him down considerably and make him short-winded.
Items 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 21, 22, 25, and 26 indicate again that his lifestyle precludes heavy traffic flow at the place where he lives. Although his job is an unimportant one and he drives to and from work alone, a study of the drawings in items 25 and 26 as well as the photos provided make the apartment the initial choice for making the hit. The fact that he does not deal or partake of illegal drugs and that he has no known sexual pastimes shows that he will usually be found alone. The absence of burglar alarms or watchdogs would indicate that he feels relatively safe within the confines of his apartment, relying only on his own abilities and the loaded .38 for self-protection. Since his own car is the only one usually present in the reserved parking area, a quick check of the tag numbers should be enough to verify he is alone before you make your move.
Items 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 20 offer potential methods for making the hit.
Item 7 shows that he travels to and from work alone. A well planned "traffic accident" or "hit and run" might be in order. Or even a well-placed rifle shot from a distance.
Item 11 might inspire some other type of accident in the home while the mark is under the influence of the alcohol he is known to drink heavily. Or, some really good poison, like cyanide, might be added to a bottle of wine he has chilling in the refrigerator.
The negative responses to items 12, 13, 14 and 15 rule out "Accidental" death due to drug overdose. IF he were a drug dealer, a fake rip-off might have been used as the cover. Or perhaps he would have indulged in a bad bag of dope.
Since he has no dealings with women, item 16 is of little help. A woman would be no use in keeping him occupied or luring him to the spot of your choice.
Item 20 might be a good alternative. If the mark has a bad heart, the mere presence of a venomous snake in his bed or mailbox might bring about an immediate heart attack.
Based on the overall picture, however, quick, silent entry and the muffled blast of your .22 is the preferred route. The mark's physical attributes, his emotional makeup and his lifestyle would indicate that it might be days before any foul play is detected. The layout of the apartment complex and the position of his apartment make it an ideal place to make a hit.
The decision has been made.
You may have noticed no personal information was requested from the employer as to why he wanted the hit performed. Neither was their any reference to the employer, his name or location. It is not necessary for you to know why the employer wants the mark taken out. If he tells you, fine. Otherwise, don't ask. The employer is the judge. You are merely the executioner. Your job, once the information is provided, is to study it to arrive at your own conclusions as to how the job will be accomplished or whether additional information will have to be obtained on your own.
Give the employer what he has paid for: the cleanest, most efficient and professional services possible.
SURVEILLANCE
Surveillance can be a tedious and sometimes boring part of your job. It can mean sitting in sweltering heat or freezing cold for hours on end while you try not to look conspicuously out of place or draw attention to yourself. It means hoping to gather enough information to put together some ideas of how the mark thinks and acts so you can plan when and how to make your move.
When a complete packet of information is supplied by the employer at the time you make the contract, surveillance can be cut down to a few
routine checks of places the mark is known to frequent and a couple of runs to establish positive identification and correct addresses. If for some reason the employer cannot provide the information required for advance planning, of course the fee he pays and the expense money advanced will Ben higher to cover the extra risks and time involved in assuring success of the job.
The key here, as always, is discretion. The use of disguises will enable you to move about more freely. It is much to your advantage that no one recognizes your true identity or remembers your actual description.
Surveillance techniques vary from job to job, depending on the area where the mark lives and his personal and social habits. A man in a large city will be much easier to watch or tag that a man in a small 46
Hit Man: A Technical Manual For Independent Contractors town or rural community. In the city, you blend with the crowd and the crowd tends to mind its own business. In a small area, an outsider will immediately inspire curiosity.
In some places, an unusual car parked on the roadside with a lone man seated behind the wheel for an extended period of time may have terrified mothers reporting its presence to the authorities. In other places, the same man could sit in the same car all day and no one would give him a second glance.
The object is to check the conditions that exist on each particular job before you formulate your plan. No matter how high your IQW, or how sharp your weapon skills; if you lack basic common sense, you won't make it as a professional in this field.
One fellow I know accepted a contract on an old country boy who has known to be a big drug dealer. The mark was always on the go and never in one place at the same time twice. And traffic at the mark's home was heavy, moving in and out in a steady stream. The hit man followed the mark for several days and never could establish the proper time or place to make a quiet hit. Finally, in frustration, he got into his "good OLE country boy" outfit and knocked on the mark's front door.