How Do You Find a Hitman? Well...

With blockbuster movies such as Léon: The Professional, John Wick, and No Country for Old Men, one would think the world would be crawling with predatory figures that lurk in the shadows, waiting to be called upon to do one’s evil bidding. However, a deeper dive into the dark world of contract killing shows such clandestine actors aren’t so common outside Hollywood tropes.

It turns out successful murder-for-hires by a stranger are incredibly rare (unless the conspirator is associated with a murderous criminal enterprise like the mafia, which has also been exaggerated on the big screen), and most contract killings are typically — and frighteningly — carried out by someone closer to home, as previously reported by Oxygen.com.

Here's the truth about hitmen.

How do you find a hitman?

As cryptocurrency rises in popularity, would-be contractors are taking to the web to solicit a hitman (or woman) to do their dirty work. Wendy Lynn Wein, the Michigan woman serving seven to 24 years behind bars for attempting to have her ex-husband killed, used the website “Rent A Hitman” to hire a killer in 2020. On September 6, 2024, Las Cruces man Leif Hayman was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for using the same website because he wanted his mother-in-law “gone off the earth,” according to the Department of Justice. He explored the possibility of his hitman using a rock or knives when he learned that having his mother-in-law shot to death would cost more.

The kicker, however, is that “Rent A Hitman,” still up and running online, is a parody website, if one reads closely.

“It’s common knowledge that the Dark & Deep webs are not safe marketplaces for carrying out nefarious deeds. These sites are often fraught with potential risks, including viruses, and fraud is rampant. There’s no guarantee of privacy, and your information could be leaked to less than reputable websites, including law enforcement agencies, and that’s no fun!” the website states. “The good news is that RENT-A-HITMAN is a safe and secure option that’s easily accessible on the World Wide Web.”

Its mission statement claims a person’s privacy is protected under HIPPA, “the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964,” and of course, no such thing exists.

male following female in the dark night. Photo: Getty Images

In early 2024, former FBI Agent and John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor David Shapiro told The New York Times that many of these websites are by design.

“You have all these wonderful honey traps and advertisements for people saying, ‘Oh, I can do this. No deed too immoral!’” said Shapiro. “And a lot of those are F.B.I. sponsored.”

Thanks to fake websites like these, such efforts to enlist a hitman are being halted by federal agencies. And, as previously reported by Oxygen.com, there are plenty of portals for murder-hires where scammers take the money and run, relying on the likelihood that contractors won’t go to law enforcement to make a complaint.  

Scam sites such as Slayers Hitmen and Azerbaijani Eagles live on the dark web but have never been affiliated with a known homicide, as reported by The New York Times.

Are hitmen real?

The most infamous hitmen to ever exist would not be known unless they were eventually caught, including Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, who was convicted of five murders but could have killed upward of 200 victims on the mafia's behalf. However, experts say men like him are incredibly rare.

Former C.I.A. officer and author of The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins Robert Baer told The New York Times that hitmen are hard to come by.

“I could not find you a hitman,” Baer said. “And I know a lot of murderers.”

In the same 2024 article by Jesse McKinley, Professor Dennis Kenney of John Jay College of Criminal Justice reinforced Baer’s statements by calling hitmen by trade “pretty much myth” and “nothing more than a thug who offers or agrees to a one-off payday… which is why they get caught.”

It doesn’t mean that contract killers don’t exist, even if they’re not seeking out murderous opportunities full-time. On May 16, 2023, Philadelphia contract killer Ernest Pressley was handed five consecutive life sentences in a federal prison for fatally shooting six, and trying to kill another, on behalf of a drug trafficker between 2016 and 2018, according to the Department of Justice.

Still, most murders-for-hire are one-offs, and the number one motive is domestic, as previously reported by Oxygen.com. Such was the case of Mohammed Chowdhury, who, in May 2024, was sentenced to eight years for targeting his ex-wife and her new boyfriend, according to the D.O.J.

The plot was eventually foiled by undercover federal agents, which has become common as paper trails have gone digital.

“As with the rest of the bureau’s work, our ultimate goal in murder-for-hire cases is prevention,” according to the FBI. “We maximize our resources by working many cases jointly with local and state authorities through our 35 Violent Crime Task Forces nationwide and by tapping into federal racketeering laws, our undercover and surveillance capabilities, and our staple of informants.”

There are all kinds of murder stories, though, about people who have carefully plotted killings through all kinds of means. A Plan to Kill, a new series coming to Oxygen True Crime, "examines the stories of disturbed killers who spend weeks, months or even years viciously scheming and plotting the demise of their victims. With first-hand accounts from investigators who worked the cases and the loved ones of those slain, the series delves into the nefarious plans behind the murders to reveal just how far some people will go to take the life of someone they believe has wronged them," according to a press release. 

Watch A Plan to Kill when it premieres Sunday, October 27 at 7/6c on Oxygen True Crime.