Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes - 9780312378998

“A history of the twentieth century punctuated by gunshots. . . . An exciting account.” --Sunday Telegraph (UK)

Exploding telephones, pipe-guns, bullets made of teeth, aspirin explosives, cobra-venom darts, a rifle that shoots around corners, exploding clams, samurai swords, karate chops, poisoned umbrellas, and a fuel-laden light aircraft. Sometimes even a regular gun. These are just some of the methods that have been used over the last ?fty years to speed four thousand VIPs to a premature end.

Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes is not an encyclopedia of assassination but rather a gripping history that charts the development of the modern world through the eyes of the assassins that tried to alter it. An experienced investigative reporter, Kris Hollington exposes shocking unknown stories of assassination. Surprising conspiracies and remarkable connections are uncovered throughout.

Hollington relates the story of the man who shot Uday Hussein seventeen times, the remarkable career of the CIA's “black sorcerer,” reveals how an East German Stasi agent, an American B-movie actress, and a Saudi prince conspired to commit one of the most important assassinations of the twentieth century, uncovers the terrible history of South Africa's brutal assassination squad and exposes for the ?rst time the secret society that ensured racist assassins in the South never paid for their crimes. It also features previously classi?ed information from the Secret Service, including the story of how President Jimmy Carter was saved from a sniper's bullet by a rabid swamp rabbit.

This book is the first to study in detail not only the causes and surprising consequences of assassination, but also the crucial seconds of the act itself and the psychology of the killer in an effort to understand why some assassinations succeed where others fail---and what might be done to prevent them. It is also the ?rst book to examine the fascinating facts and ?gures of assassination, revealing everything from the success rate by type of weapon and the escape and survival rates of assassins to the most popular time of year and location for an attack.

The definitive book on assassination, Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes shows that sometimes, one murder can change the world.