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The Strange Tale of Israel's Singing Hitman
The Strange Tale of
Israel's Singing Hitman
longform
Oct 5, 2025 8:03 PM CDT

The Strange Tale of Israel's Singing Hitman

Mafia figure Avner Harari, imprisoned at 70, is still trying to make it as a crooner

(Newser) - It's age-old advice for aspiring singers: Because the odds of success are long, it's wise to have a fallback career. Teaching, maybe. Or accounting. Or, in the case of Avner Harari, mafia hitman. The Financial Times tells the incredible tale of Harari, who earned the nickname of "...

How a Florida Mom Became the Author of a Hit-Man Manual

Gayle McCool's how-to book on murder, penned as 'Rex Feral,' changed lives, according to Vanity Fair

(Newser) - Gayle McCool spent decades haunted by a recurring dream, and even longer by the fallout from Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, a book she wrote as "Rex Feral." It was a how-to guide on contract killing, written in the early 1980s after her boyfriend,...

Dentist Charged With Poisoning Wife Is in Even More Trouble

Prosecutors say James Craig attempted to hire a hitman against the lead investigator in his case

(Newser) - A dentist charged with killing his wife by poisoning her protein shakes offered a fellow jail inmate $20,000 to kill the case's lead investigator, calling her "the worst, dirtiest detective," a prosecutor said Friday. The AP reports Senior Chief Deputy Michael Mauro said during an evidentiary...

Colombia Busts Alleged Hitwoman 'the Doll'

Social media users pounce on the fact that she's an Aubrey Plaza doppelganger

(Newser) - An alleged Colombian hitwoman is off the streets after she was arrested last week and accused in a string of gang killings, per the Independent . Authorities say 23-year-old Karen Julieth Ojeda Rodriguez, known by the alias "la Muñeca," or "the Doll," is second-in-command of the...

Filipino VP to Prez: Anything Happens to Me, You're Toast

Sara Duterte says she's hired an assassin to kill Ferdinand Marcos Jr., wife if she's killed herself

(Newser) - Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife, and the country's House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed, in a brazen public threat that she warned wasn't a joke. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the "...

'Unfailingly Polite' Dad of 16 Tried to Hire a Hit Man
Evangelical Father of 16
Busted in Hit Man Hire
longform
Jun 30, 2024 9:03 AM CDT

Evangelical Father of 16 Busted in Hit Man Hire

New York magazine digs into the unexpected charges against Christopher Pence of Utah

(Newser) - Earlier this year, federal authorities announced that a 43-year-old Utah man had been sentenced to seven years in prison for attempting to hire a hit man online. What makes the case especially unusual are the particulars about Christopher Pence and his motives, as laid out in detail in New York ...

Dad Executed in Front of Wife, Son Turns Out to Be a Hitman Wanted by Interpol
Dad Executed
After Bike Ride
Turns Out to
Be a Hitman
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jan 20, 2024 6:00 AM CST

Dad Executed After Bike Ride Turns Out to Be a Hitman

Darko Geisler had been on the run since 2014 and was wanted by Interpol

(Newser) - A Serbian man was executed in front of his wife and toddler son as they returned home from a bike ride last week in Brazil—and in a strange twist, it's now been revealed the victim, described initially as a "family man," was a hitman wanted by...

Feds: He Hired a Hit Man, Then the Hit Man Turned on Him

Fereidoun Khalilian, who claimed to be a prince, believed he had a filmmaker killed: indictment

(Newser) - A Florida man who claimed to be a prince and rubbed elbows with celebrities from Paris Hilton to Drake allegedly hired a hit man to kill a documentary filmmaker who planned to expose him as a fraudster. Fereidoun "Fred" Khalilian allegedly left several threatening voicemails for the filmmaker, Juan...

US: 'Defendant Conspired From India' to Have This Man Killed

American prosecutors have charged an Indian man who they say tried to hire a hit man

(Newser) - US prosecutors have charged an Indian man with trying to take out a hit on a US citizen living in New York City. In an indictment unsealed Wednesday, prosecutors allege Nikhil Gupta, 52, paid someone he believed to be a hit man $100,000 to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The...

Cops Say Mom Went to Awful Lengths to Please Her Beau

Jazmin Paez allegedly thought she was hiring a hitman to kill her 3-year-old son, per authorities

(Newser) - Rent-a-Hitman is a parody website , but its fake customer-service awards and customer testimonials have convinced more than a few people to submit legitimate requests for an assassin, leading to at least 30 arrests, per People . The latest to fall for the ruse is apparently Jazmin Paez, an 18-year-old Florida woman...

He Got Engaged. Cops Say She Went to 'Online Killers Market'

Tennessee woman accused of hiring hit man to take out wife of man she'd met on Match.com

(Newser) - A Tennessee woman has been arrested after cops say she tried to hire a hit man to take out the wife of a guy she'd met through a dating site. ABC News reports that 47-year-old Melody Sasser allegedly sent about $10,000 in bitcoin to a dark web site...

Man Who Had Podiatrist Killed Gets Life Sentence

Robert Elmo Lee blamed Thomas Shock for wife's death

(Newser) - An 83-year-old California man who orchestrated the murder of his wife's podiatrist has been sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole, CBS reports. Robert Elmo Lee was found guilty last year of hiring three men to kill Dr. Thomas Shock at his home in Lodi in...

With One Year Left in Custody, a Hit Man's Puzzling Escape

Dominic Taddeo, contract killer for Rochester crime families, is back in custody

(Newser) - Update: The mob hit man who escaped federal custody has been captured, one week later. Dominic Taddeo was taken back into custody in Florida's Miami-Dade County without incident Monday around 11am, CNN reports. That's about 273 miles south of the halfway house he was assigned to in the...

3 Arrested After TSA Agent Gunned Down in Front of Child

Jasmine Martinez allegedly used PPP loan to hire hitman to kill Le'Shonte Jones

(Newser) - A hitman who fatally shot a young mother in front of her 3-year-old daughter was paid with a federal loan meant to help small businesses during the pandemic, according to police in Florida. Jasmine Martinez had requested the Paycheck Protection Program loan to keep her beauty salon operating, though it'...

4 Charged in $750K Murder-for-Hire Plot

Police say Texas' Erik Charles Maund paid to have Tenn. couple killed to avoid exposing affair

(Newser) - A Texas auto dealer hired former US Marines and a purported former member of the Israeli Defense Forces to kill a Nashville, Tenn., couple found shot to death last year, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday. It describes an elaborate murder-for-hire plot that began after 46-year-old Erik Charles Maund...

Fake Hitman Website Fools Woman, Who Is Headed to Jail

Site's owner contacted Michigan police

(Newser) - A real woman tried to hire a hitman on a fake website. Wendy Lynn Wein, 52, found Rent-A-Hitman online and filled out a form asking for help killing her ex-husband. Unfortunately for Wein and perhaps fortunately for her ex, that site is owned not by a hitman but computer professional...

Dad to Son: I Don't Know 'Who Whacked Jack Kennedy'

Author tries to understand his hitman father

(Newser) - It's a story about a man reconnecting with the father he barely knew as a child. But in this case, the father is someone who ends phone conversations with statements like, "I don't know anything about who whacked Jack Kennedy." James Dolan writes the account, headlined,...

Doctor Accused of Fraud Has Bigger Problems Now

FBI says Anatoly Braylovsky tried to hire a hitman to take out a witness

(Newser) - Connecticut doctor Anatoly Braylovsky got burned in a sting operation last year and was charged with making bogus opioid prescriptions. This year, the FBI says he got burned in yet another sting and is charged with trying to hire a hitman to help him beat the first charges. As the...

Feds: Self-Proclaimed 'Good Dude' Tried to Off His Ex

Derrick Jackson accused of hiring a hit man who was actually an undercover ATF agent

(Newser) - Derrick Jackson recently got out of prison after serving a lengthy sentence for murder and a weapons charge, but his freedom may be short-lived: The Detroit 45-year-old is now being accused of trying to commission a hit on his ex-girlfriend, not realizing that the supposed hit man was actually an...

Woman Sues Over Podcast on Woody Harrelson's Dad

Dr. Chrysanthe Parker: 'Son of a Hitman' unfairly paints me as 'very unusual witness' in murder trial

(Newser) - A Texas attorney and health care professional who was an eyewitness to the murder that put actor Woody Harrelson's father behind bars is now suing Spotify and others on the use of her interview for a podcast about the crime. Per Courthouse News , Dr. Chrysanthe Parker was a witness...

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