10 Deadliest Assassin Organizations in History

10 Deadliest Assassin Organizations in History

Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be looking at the 10 Deadliest Assassin Organizations in History.

For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the most notorious organizations of killers throughout history.

Which of these do you find the most intimidating? Let us know in the comments.

Werwolf

In the later part of World War II, the Nazis recruited a force of commandos known as Werwolf or Operation Werwolf. Although widely believed to be a guerrilla force meant to operate in Germany itself, Werwolf’s original purpose was to operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced on Germany to create confusion. However, Werwolf was later rebranded to use guerrilla tactics at home, despite being under-equipped and scattered. While pinning down exact actions committed by them is difficult, because fact and propaganda are often intertwined, many deaths of both Allied forces and collaborators within Germany have been attributed to Werwolf. However, the propaganda worked too well, leading to Allied reprisals against supposed Werwolf agents.

Visha Kanya

India took its concept of femme fatales quite literally. The Visha Kanya, or “poison girls,” were a semi-mythical order of female assassins from ancient India. First mentioned in the “Arthashastra,” a treatise on statecraft from the 3rd century BCE, the Visha Kanya were reportedly young women who were raised on a steady diet of poisons, thereby rendering them immune to them and making their bodies poisonous to touch or through their own bodily fluids. Given that the archetype became a fixture of Indian literature, finding facts among the fictions can be tricky. However, it’s clear that at some point in history, the Visha Kanya were employed to kill powerful figures in India’s distant past.

Sacred Band of Thebes

Ancient Greece had many legendary military units. But one group whose aim was arguably assassination was the Sacred Band of Thebes. Composed entirely of pairs of male lovers, the Sacred Band of Thebes’ main goals during battle were to seek out and kill the strongest enemy units, as well as their leadership. Their deadly modus operandi was enough to turn the tide of battle when the Thebans faced overwhelming odds against the Spartans - multiple times, at the Battles of Leuctra and Tegyra. However, the Sacred Band met its end in battle against Philip II of Macedon, as well as his “great” son Alexander - fighting to the last man.

Nakam

Following the Holocaust, many survivors were understandably eager for revenge. A group of Jewish partisans, led by Abba Kovner, aimed to get an eye for an eye for what their people suffered. Although Nakam, or “revenge,” is known to have executed many vengeful killings, the exact figures range anywhere from 300 to 3,000. However, two of their more ambitious plots failed. One plot, known as Plan A, was to poison millions of Germans, beginning at Nuremberg, by poisoning the water supply. However, after Kovner was arrested for unrelated charges, this fell through. Plan B, the killing of SS prisoners of war, was attempted too. But, while thousands became ill, Plan B seemingly claimed no lives either.

Shinobi [aka Ninja]

Perhaps the most romanticized assassins on this list, shinobi, better known as “ninja” in the west, have taken on a mythological mystique. While covert agents have been used throughout the history of Japan, ninja were most active between the 15th and 17th centuries. Although generally employed as mercenaries to carry out surveillance, assassinations, and sabotage, several ninja organizations existed, mostly families or clans of trained shinobi. While the exact record of how many ninja victims there have been is tough to determine, their attempts on the lives of major leaders, like Oda Nobunaga, and their employment during the Christian Shimabara Rebellion are well-documented. It’s believed that ninja were eventually recruited into Japan’s modern clandestine organizations. Or maybe that’s what they want us to think!

Sicarii

One of the earliest-known organized assassination groups, the Sicarii were a splinter group of Jewish Zealots from the 1st century CE. In response to the Roman occupation of Judea, the Sicarii would carry out organized, clandestine attacks on Romans and their sympathizers among the local populace. Their name is derived from their choice of weapons - sicae, or small daggers. The Sicarii used their signature weapons to blend into crowds more easily after killing their targets in broad daylight. They also participated in more open acts of rebellion in cities like Masada and Jerusalem, and committed several atrocities against people of all religions. Although it inspired copycats and the Spanish term for hitman, “sicario,” the original organization met its end during this rebellion.

Murder, Inc.

The American mafia has no shortage of wild stories, and one of them includes Murder, Inc. A contract killing organization established by the mafia alliance known as the National Crime Syndicate out of New York, Murder, Inc. employed assassins on retainer as enforcers, though they received large payouts for specific hits. Active from 1929 to 1941, Murder, Inc. executed somewhere between 400 and 1,000 contract killings. The organization eventually met its end though, after one of its members, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, became a witness to avoid prosecution. Although Reles perished in an unfortunate “accident” falling out of a window, silencing him did nothing to prevent Murder, Inc.’s collapse.

47 Rōnin

Most of these organizations have broad targets, but the 47 Rōnin had just one. Former retainers of Asano Naganori, these masterless samurai sought to avenge their master after he was forced to commit seppuku after assaulting Kira Yoshinaka, a court official who provoked him. After supposedly disbanding and taking up other professions, the 47 Rōnin gathered and assaulted Yoshinaka’s residence, killing over a dozen guards and wounding more. They ultimately killed Yoshinaka after he refused to commit seppuku himself. All but one of the Rōnin chose to undergo the ritual death themselves after avenging their lord. Tales of the 47 Rōnin have remained popular in Japan, to the point where they even have their own subgenre, called Chūshingura.

Black Hand [aka Unification or Death]

Arguably the most famous organization of assassins in the 20th century, the Black Hand, also known as Unification or Death, was a Serbian not-so-secret society. Their primary goal was the unification of all ethnic Serb territories, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were annexed by Austria-Hungary. While the group’s members directly carried out the assassination of Serbia’s royal couple in 1903 in the May Coup, they’re perhaps most known for providing supplies and facilitating the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Given that this sparked WWI, the Black Hand could be indirectly considered the most deadly assassin group in history.

Order of Assassins

The word “assassin” comes from somewhere - and it’s here. The Order of Assassins, or just the Assassins, were a state of Nizari Ismaili, a sect of Shīʿa Islam, from the 11th to 13th centuries CE. Spread throughout the mountains of Persia and later Syria, the Assassins fought mostly to protect themselves. However, due to their lack of manpower, they mostly targeted the leaders of their enemies instead of waging open warfare, though they also sometimes took on contract killings. In this way, over their centuries of existence, the Assassins killed hundreds with religious leaders of various faiths being their biggest targets. Although the Mongols ultimately put an end to the Assassins as a group, their name lives on in infamy.