Eric Beetner has been described as ‘the hardest
working man in crime fiction.’ As well as numerous noirish thrillers and
award-winning short fiction he’s ventured into western territory with the
Lawyer series.
Eric tells me his favourite of his own books is THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME. This is the
first in a series of Lars-and-Shaine novels. ‘I think it’s the right blend of
an antihero you root for, mayhem and violence, but with a real heart.’
Lars, a professional
hit man, has been hunting Mitch the Snitch for 17 years. But then the aging gun for
hire switches sides and ends up with Mitch’s teenage daughter Shaine, on the
run from New Mexico to California. Angry mobsters and the FBI pursue.
Here’s some information about hit men, or contract
killers, which I got via Wikipedia. (I didn’t want to delve any deeper in case
I put my life at risk, which seems a high price to pay for writing a blog!)
Contract killing is where one party hires a killer (often
called a hit man) or killers to murder a target individual or group
of people. It does exist in the real world outside fiction. For example, in the
United States, the gang MURDER, INC committed hundreds of murders on
behalf of the NATIONAL CRIME SYNDICATE during the 1930s and 1940s.
A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology,
looking at 162 attempted or actual contract murders in Australia between 1989
and 2002, indicated that the most common reason for murder-for-hire was
insurance policies payouts. The study also found that the average payment for a 'hit' was $15,000 with variation from $5,000 up to $30,000. Contract
killings accounted for 2% of murders in Australia during that time period. Contract
killings also make up a relatively similar percentage of all killings
elsewhere. For example, they made up about 5% of all murders in Scotland from
1993 to 2002.
Notable hit men include:
GLENNON ENGLEMAN, an American dentist who
moonlighted as a hit man.
RICHARD KUKLINSKI, an American contract killer who
claimed to have murdered over 200 men.
FRANK ‘THE IRISHMAN’ SHEERAN, a union official and
mob hit man, who claimed he murdered former Teamsters president JIMMY
HOFFA.
BENJAMIN ‘BUGSY’ SIEGEL, who headed the BUGS and
MEYER MOB and was a hit man for MURDER, INC. Siegel was also the ITALIAN
MOB’S main hit man during Prohibition. Ironically, he was himself the
victim of a contract killing by unknown assailants in 1947. His murderers
were hired by the American Mafia ruling body THE COMMISSION.
ILICH RAMÍREZ SÁNCHEZ, also known as CARLOS THE JACKAL, is more
accurately a political assassin and terrorist than a crime-based hit man
working solely for money. He’s a committed Marxist-Leninist who joined the
POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE (PFLP) in 1970. He was given
the code name 'Carlos' because of his South American roots (he was
born in Venezuela.) In a case of life imitating art, Carlos was dubbed ‘The
Jackal’ by UK newspaper ‘The Guardian’ after one of its correspondents
reportedly spotted FREDERICK FORSYTH’s novel ‘The Day of the Jackal’ (about a contract killer) near some of his belongings.
He is currently serving a life sentence in
France for the 1975 murder of an informant for the French government and
two French counter-intelligence agents. During his trial in 1997, he said,
"We never killed anyone for money, but for a cause—the liberation of
Palestine.” In 2017 he claimed responsibility for a total of 80 deaths.
The Brazilian television presenter WALLACE SOUZA was accused of hiring
hit men to murder at least five people in 2009 to increase his
show’s ratings!
Contract killers have proved
endlessly fascinating to novelists and film makers. Ernest Hemingway’s short
story ‘The Killers’ inspired two
films of the same name:
In 1946, with the hit men played by
Charles McGraw and William Conrad.
And in 1964 with Clu Gulager and Lee Marvin in the same roles.
FREDERICK FORSYTH’s aforementioned novel ‘The Day of the Jackal’ was made into a movie in 1973 with Edward Fox
as the paid killer.
Other films about hit men include PULP
FICTION (a very over-praised movie in my opinion) with Samuel L. Jackson and
John Travolta
and MR AND MRS SMITH with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as
a married couple unaware that their partner is a hired killer – and that they've been hired to kill each other!
And ROAD TO PERDITION (2002) with Jude Law as the
assassin.
Reviews of
THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME:
‘Beetner is a maestro with his action
scenes.’
‘Sizzling cinematic prose… crime
fiction at its most entertaining… marks the arrival of a bold new talent.’
‘Has more depth than
your typical hitman/mob shoot-em-up.’
‘Laced with dark humour.’
‘A true noir masterpiece.’
