Assassinee

In some ways I regret the failure to arrive at a definite conclusion, but it has provided me with an extremely interesting list of suicides and assassinees that includes such great names as Hannibal, [Julius] Cæsar, [Thomas] More, [Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of] Strafford, [Robert] Clive, [Maximilien] Robespierre and [Robert Stewart, Viscount] Castlereagh.

The general rule, I suppose, is that if the assassinee is deep enough sunk in turpitude the assassin may secure an honourable place in history.

On entering the city room, I was met by the managing editor, who asked me if I knew that the assassinee’s brother-in-law owned the money behind the paper. The family had had the story jerked, and had managed to keep it out of every other paper in the city.

"Who was it?" / "They haven't caught him yet." / "I mean the—the assassinee." / "Nobody important. But he looked like the Minister. Where did you have supper?"

On the even brighter side, if the rubbed-out would-be reader were a person of some note, the assassination might merit some free widespread publicity resulting in a rush to buy and read what was so thoughtfully tucked under the armpit of the assassinee at the moment the fatal bullet struck home.