Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, especially of a political figure, through a surprise attack. The crime is distinguished from murder by the prominence of its victim and by the political/social motivation of its perpetrator. A murder of a head of state, due to the degree of its impact upon society, is generally referred to as an assassination, regardless of the motivation of the perpetrator. (The 1981 attack upon U.S. President Ronald Reagan by gunman John Hinckley Jr. is referred to as an assassination attempt despite Hinckley's apparent lack of any social or political agenda.) The term also is applied to instances in which a representative of government is killed to prevent the performance of his or her assigned duty, as when a senior member of law enforcement is murdered by a criminal organization. (Thus, New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy was assassinated in 1890, and Italian Magistrates Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone were assassinated in 1992.)

The unsolved murder of 22-year-old fashion model Elizabeth Short .

James Bulger was two years old when he was abducted from a Liverpool shopping centre, tortured and murdered on Febuary 12 1993. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged only 10 at the time, were convicted of his murder. Both boys were released on licence aged 18, and given new identities.

The crime that inspired Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood. On a November night in 1959, Holcomb, Kansas wheat farmer Herb Clutter, his wife and two teenage children were bound and gagged, then shot in the head. Convicted and sentenced to death for the crime in 1960, Richard Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were hanged at the Lansing State Penitentiary in April 1965.

Sites about the murder of Anita Cobby in Blacktown, a suburb in Sydney Australia. In 1986 the victim was abducted, tortured and murdered.

Kitty Genovese was murdered in March of 1964, in Kew Gardens, Brooklyn, New York. As reported by the New York Times, 38 witnesses did nothing while she was stabbed three times over a half-hour period, screaming for help. The reports of witnesses saying "I didn't want to get involved," shocked the nation into examining its conscience, and changing the way crime reports are handled. Forty years later, the case is still used as an example of the failure of social responsibility.

The unsolved murder of Fred and Edwina Rogers.

Sites featuring memorial pages for murder victims.

Sites related to the assassination of John Lennon.

Sites relating to the murder of Sofia Silva, and Kristin and Kati Lisk in Spotsylvania, Virginia.

A lynching is a murder or execution by a mob, without the force, sanction, or process of the law.

A mass murder (massacre) involves the murder of large numbers of people either by a state or an individual. This should not be confused with serial killers, who usually kill one person (or perhaps two) at a time.

21 year old male who was murdered in Tampa, Florida on February 13th 1998.

Sites related to the murder of Martha Moxley.

Six year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in her parents' Boulder, Colorado home on Christmas Day in 1996. The wealth and prominence of her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey; the fact that the young girl was a child actress and model; and the announcement of her brutal demise on Christmas Day ensured intense media coverage. As of 2003 the crime was still unsolved. A lengthy and often criticized investigation had focused attention on her parents, then on various friends and community members but without success in pinpointing the killer.

This area is about the crime of serial murder.

Holly and Jessica, best friends aged 10, were abducted from Soham, England, and murdered in August 2002. At the time of writing (23rd August 2002) the caretaker of their local college is awaiting trial for their murder.