Humans have been engaged in a conflict for peace for many years, decades, and even centuries. But we must remember that occasionally the pursuit of peace degenerates into actual war. Peace has evolved into a luxury good that not everyone can afford. Humans occasionally turn to their dark side when things don’t go their way. These greatest assassins emerged as a result.
History has come up with some dreadful names for assassins. The greatest assassins have contributed to shaping history and resolving certain wrongs. They might be murderers who act of their own volition. Like some of the most sought criminals, they might have committed crimes of passion. However, some of them are being paid to do so. These most lethal hit guys killed other people through contract killing. If you’re looking for some historical perspective on the assassins that made their mark, here are 7 of the greatest assassins of all time.
7. Charlotte Corday.
She was the poor aristocrat’s daughter who conspired to kill one of the most renowned figures in the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat since she saw him as the evil enemy of France. On July 14, 1793, during the Bastille Day celebration, she intended to murder Marat.
But when the party was called off, she had to go find him in his house. Corday retrieved a knife from her clothing and stabbed Marat in the chest as he was taking a bath. Corday waited quietly for the cops to arrive and take her into custody as he passed away practically immediately. The “angel of assassination” is the name she has given him.
6. James Earl Ray.
In Memphis, Ray assassinated Martin Luther King in 1968. Under the alias Eric Starvo Galt, Ray was reserving a room at a motel. King was shot and killed by Ray while he was standing on the balcony of his hotel room while he was standing in the bathtub with his weapon pointed out the window. In the FBI’s most prominent and costliest manhunt in history, they pursued him for two months across five nations.
Ray was apprehended in England and given a 99-year prison term. For years, Ray insisted that he didn’t act alone and wasn’t even the one who shot Martin Luther King—a claim that is contradicted by the fact that he admitted guilt—but a congressional committee determined that it’s probable he didn’t.
5. Lee Harvey Oswald.
On November 22, 1963, around 12:30 pm, Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy. When this occurred, Kennedy was driving in front of large groups of people. It is still the most recent killing of a U.S. president, having happened 53 years ago. The American House Select Committee on Assassinations came to the conclusion that a conspiracy was most likely to blame.
They also acknowledged that there was a good chance that two shooters opened fire on the president. Oswald carried out the murder with a sniper gun. He was skilled at carrying out assassinations because he was a former U.S. Marine. He moved to Minsk in 1962 after making his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959.
4. Kim Hyon-Hui.
A citizen of North Korea who was chosen to join the spy program. She was instructed to bomb a South Korean plane during her most recent assignment in 1987, which she was able to do by placing explosives inside the plane before boarding.
After she and her accomplice were linked to the bombing, the jet was destroyed, killing all 115 persons on board. Her accomplice attempted suicide by consuming cyanide concealed in his cigarette, but she prevented him. She received a death sentence but was eventually spared.
3. Nathuram Godse.
Gandhi received a bow from Nathuram Godse and a goodbye before being assassinated on January 30, 1948. Gandhi was trying to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims in India, a difficult task that inevitably failed as a result of the killing.
Gandhi was killed by Godse and the man he worked with, Narayan Apte, who were both hanged for their crimes. Gandhi was teaching the Koran in Hindu temples but refusing to teach the Bhagavad Gita in mosques, according to Godse, a hardline Hindu who believed Gandhi was treating Muslims with greater respect than Hindus.
2. Gavrillo Princip.
The murder of Franz Ferdinand by seven Bosnian Serbs sparked a series of events that eventually brought about the First World War. Ferdinand narrowly avoids being hurt when a bomb is thrown at his automobile by one of the seven attackers. Ferdinand made the decision to attempt to depart by a different route than what was originally intended, but he forgot to tell his driver about the change of plans. This meant that they continued along their customary path. When they realized their error, they tried to turn around by stopping the car, but it was too late. One of the assassins who had come to kill him had seen them and halted right in front of him. Gavrilo Princip, the assassin, drew out his gun and shot the target in the neck on June 28, 1914. He cemented his status as one of history’s most infamous assassins.
1. John Wilkes Booth.
He became one of history’s most infamous assassins by killing Abraham Lincoln on the evening of April 14, 1865. Not long after President Lincoln had won the American Civil War, John Wilkes Booth became infamous for killing him. Booth, a supporter of the Confederacy, intended to kidnap Lincoln and hold him hostage until all the Confederate captives were freed.
Famous actor Booth had even entertained Lincoln on stage two years before his assassination. Booth sneaked up behind Lincoln as he and his wife were attending a performance at the theater and shot him at close range. After leaving the area, Booth eluded capture for 12 days.
We understand that an assassin is always hated, reviled, and condemned in their time! In the long history of humanity, assassins have played a truly terrible, yet perhaps necessary role. Their world was governed by violence and no mercy was shown or expected. Yet the names and deeds of a few stand out, not just as those of villains or monsters, but as those of men and women whose stories we can look upon with awe and inspiration.
I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the greatest assassins in history and found this article a good read. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to post them below and we will surely reply.
