The
Cult of the Female Assassin
Why
she’s deadlier than the male
The
archetype of the cold-blooded assassin has fascinated people through the ages.
The figure of a man or woman stealthily approaching an unsuspecting target
leaves the audience breathless with anticipation, stirring up feelings of dread
and excitement in equal measure.
Who
is an assassin?
The
Oxford Dictionary’s definition is ‘a person who murders an important person for
political or religious reasons’.
The
name is derived from the Latin assassinus, which is a variation of the Arabic
word hasisi or al-hashishiyun, meaning hashish-eater! The tradition dates back
to the Crusades (11th to 13th centuries AD) when a
certain sect would use hashish before proceeding on murder missions. No doubt
that helped dull the brutality of it all. But that’s just a name; hired killers
have been around from the time man decided to bump off his neighbour. Why, King
Darius of Persia used a hidden blade to finish off King Xerxes I in 5th
Century BC!
Some
famous assassins
Among
the notable ones are:
-John
Wilkes Booth: shot dead US President Abraham Lincoln at a theatre on April 14,
1865. Booth himself was gunned down by federal troops on April 26 the same
year.
-
Nathuram Godse: a divisive figure till date! He shot Mahatma Gandhi in New
Delhi on January 30, 1948.
-
Lee Harvey Oswald: shot dead US President John. F. Kennedy at Dallas on
November 22, 1963. Two days later, while being transferred from a jail cell,
Oswald was shot dead by a Dallas Night Club owner Jack Ruby. Tried and found
guilty of murder, Ruby was sentenced to death but died of cancer in jail in
1967.
-James
Earl Ray: shot Martin Luther King Jr in Memphis, Tennessee on April 23, 1968.
He was apprehended by London Police at Heathrow the same year while trying to
flee under an assumed name.
-
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos The Jackal, imprisoned since
1994. Planned some high-profile attacks on political figures in the 1970s and
80s.
-
One of the world’s most infamous assassins is Julio Santana of Brazil, who has
over 500 hits to his credits and has a book written about him called ‘The Name
of Death’ by Klester Cavalcanti.
What’s
the difference between an assassin and a murderer?
A
murderer commits the crime spontaneously or in a premeditated way. He’s usually
motivated by personal feelings of revenge or jealousy or greed over property
disputes.
An
assassin is a paid hitman who acts with careful forethought and planning. His
reasons may be political, religious or even personal. It’s considered
cold-blooded because of the premeditated nature of the crime and because the
assassin may not be acquainted with the target.
The
Female Assassin
She’s
more elusive, more effective and, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, the female
of the species is ‘more deadly than the male’.
Female
killers have been depicted in literature and cinema but they’re a rare breed.
They evoke a greater sense of dread because the trope goes against the grain of
women being nurturers, more refined, the gentler sex. Lady Macbeth, while
contemplating the murder of King Duncan, called upon the powers of darkness to
‘unsex her’.
Over
the years, the female assassin has been portrayed as
-smart
and self-assured
-
physically attractive, so she can lure men in
-
trained in unarmed combat and the use of weapons.
Hollywood
raised her profile through action flicks like Kill Bill, Colombiana, Proud Mary
and The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Interesting
Fact
In
1975, not one but two women tried to kill US President Gerald Ford!
Both
attempts were independent and unconnected.
The
first assassin was a 26 year-old called Lynnette Fromme, a devotee of Charles
Manson. On 5th September 1975 she pulled gun on Ford at a park but
didn’t fire.
17
days later, Sara Jane Moore, a woman with left-wing sympathies and severe mood
swings, fired a revolver at the President outside the St. Francis Hotel in San
Francisco but missed.
Both
women were arrested and found guilty of attempted murder but freed after Ford’s
death.
What
makes assassins so captivating?
People
have such an enduring fascination with assassins that the internet is filled
with queries about them including- believe it or not- ‘Where do I go to become
an assassin’?
One
of the replies is ‘go join a branch of the military.’ I guess they’re referring
to army snipers. Come think of it, James Bond can be considered a Government
assassin.
The
term assassin conjures up images of flashy cars and gadgets, adrenalin-soaked
chases and characters like Beatrix Kiddo (The Bride) from Kill Bill.
But
what if she’s not like that? What if she’s vulnerable and conflicted? What if
she lives an ordinary life? What if she’s one of us?
That’s
my character in Killer Kavita, The Girl With The Poison Touch, a novel just
released by Tara India Research Press under their imprint 4 Hour Books. She’s
an assassin with a heart of gold. Killer Kavita is the moniker she’s given by
the public on account of her propensity to send her targets a poetic warning
declaring the date and time of their death, before eliminating them! Hot on her
trail is a brilliant CBI detective Aarav Singh Rana, whose famed powers of
deduction make him a legend in the Police Force, despite his young age.
Check
out the awesome promo video for Killer Kavita!
https://www.amazon.in/Killer-Kavita-Sharon-Gupta/dp/818386192X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15IEHXUHB60PY&keywords=killer+kavita&qid=1641446438&s=books&sprefix=%2Cstripbooks%2C243&sr=1-1
Should be out in stores as soon as the restrictions due to Omicron are lifted.
Happy Reading!
