HOW TO KILL

Assassin, noun: a person who commits murder; especially; one who murders apolitically important person either for hire or from fanatical motives Fact: between 1950 and 2000, over 4,000 assassinations were carried out -including 40 on heads of state. Methods: exploding telephones, pipe-guns and bullets made of teeth,aspirin explosives, cobra-venom darts, a rifle that shoots around corners,a ‘piss bomb' (10 cups of boiled urine mixed with nitric acid),exploding clams, an ‘infernal machine' (a gun that fires 25 bulletsat once), samurai swords, karate chops, poisoned umbrellas and afuel-laden light aircraft. Sometimes even a regular gun. Targets: popes, politicians, presidents, prime ministers, pop-stars, spindoctors, judges, businessmen, writers, revolutionaries, actors, royals,generals and dictators. Secret case files: George Walker Bush, Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein,Ronald Reagan, Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, Martin LutherKing, Jimmy Carter, Medgar Evers, Georgi Markov, Woody Harrelson and theSerbian warlord Arkan. Coroner's verdict: The definitive book on assassination, How to Killshows that sometimes, one murder can change the world.