ABSTRACT
History books have long been intrigued with assassins and with all those questions Francois Ravaillac's deed engenders. Like any spectacular and violent novelty, the assassin has attracted considerable attention and perhaps at no time greater than during the dread epidemic of American murders. These include the two Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and George Lincoln Rockwell —and the maiming of George Wallace. The threats still exist. The vulnerability of the powerful and prominent, in America, continues. Despite the continuing prevalence of political murder and a concomitant popular and academic concern, there is little agreement even on a general definition of "assassination". Presently, there are a variety of factors arising from the problem of defining assassination. Although the word is sometimes used to mean simply killing, in most cases the victim is a public figure, a prominent man possessed of political power.
