I’m not a murder scholar but I do know or have certainly read that professional assassins like to “do the job” in a way that suggests it was some kind of heart attack or stroke or possible suicide. The idea is to throw the cops off the scent, and the quieter and more discreet the better.
Which is why I love the Michael Clayton scene in in which the two hit men-slash-surveillance guys (Robert Prescott, Terry Serpico) kill Tom Wilkinson‘s “Arthur” in a way that doesn’t look like murder. (I wish I could’ve found an HD capture of this scene with the proper aspect ratio — sorry,)
I also adore that earlier scene in which Tilda Swinton‘s Karen Crowder, an executive with U-North, suggests to Prescott that he needs to “contain” this problem (the problem being Arthur) and that one possible solution is one that she’s not thinking about, etc. I love this scene. Nobody ever wants to say it — they just want it implied, and the active agent to understand, and for the deed to be done.
The other rule of murder is that when an emotional killing happens (usually involving friends, family members or acquaintances from the same small town or social circle) there’s often an element of rage and suddenness. As in “yeah, I know that was the plan, I meant to to do it deliberately but…uhm, I couldn’t stop myself.”
How odd and striking that three of my all-time favorite murder scenes involve the great Tom Wilkinson — two actively, and one indirectly. Wilkinson is a measured, mild-mannered actor who never fails to dig in and deliver, but he’s not exactly known for playing characters who have a rendezvous with death (theirs or someone else’s).