Hit Man!
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Juan-Carlos Cruz, former host of “Calorie Commando,” was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder, Sgt. Jay Trisler. told The Times.
Police said Cruz allegedly approached people on the streets a week earlier and asked them to kill someone for him. At least one of the homeless individuals contacted police and, with that assistance, investigators were able to learn details of the alleged solicitation, including how, where and when the target was to be killed, authorities said.
Santa Monica police told KTLA News that the investigation involved the use of undercover officers and ended at a Cheviot Hills dog park, where Cruz was taken into custody.
"We are very fortunate we have a relationship ... with the homeless and that they were able to give us information," Trisler told the station.
Trisler said the intended target, who is not being identified, was notified of the alleged plot. Police said Cruz knew the victim, but it's unclear what their relationship was and what the motive might be.
Cruz specializes in low-calorie creations, with recipes such as "Air Fries With Nacho Cheese" that are found on the Food Network’s website.
Cruz, 48, is being held at Los Angeles County Jail on $5-million bail.
-- Catherine Saillant Two old friends were just about to tee off at the first hole of their local golf course when a guy carrying a golf bag called out to them, "Do you mind if I join you? My partner didn't turn up." "Sure," they said, "You're welcome."
So they started playing and enjoyed the game and the company of the newcomer.
Part way around the course, one of the friends asked the newcomer, "What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a hit man," was the reply.
"You're joking!" was the response.
"No, I'm not," he said, reaching into his golf bag, and pulling out a beautiful sniper's rifle with a large telescopic sight. "Here are my tools."
"That's a beautiful telescopic sight," said the other friend, "Can I take a look? I think I might be able to see my house from here." So he picked up the rifle and looked through the sight in the direction of his house. "Yeah, I can see my house all right. This sight is fantastic. I can see right in the window. I can see my wife in the bedroom! Wow I can see she's naked!! Wait a minute, that's my neighbor in there with her... He's naked, too!!! The b*tch!"
He turned to the hit man, "How much do you charge for a hit?"
"I'll do a flat rate, for you, one thousand dollars every time I pull the trigger." "Can you do two for me now?"
"Sure, what do you want?"
"First, shoot my wife, she's always been mouthy, so shoot her in the mouth." "Then the neighbor, just shoot his d*ck off to teach him a lesson." The hit man took the rifle and took aim, standing perfectly still for a few minutes.
"Are you going to do it or not?" he asked impatiently.
"Just be patient," said the hit man calmly, "I think I can save you a thousand dollars here....."
A study of contract killings in Australia has found most are not ordered by criminals, but by angry spouses and jilted lovers.
But professional criminals order the most successful "hits."
The Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australia's major crime investigation branch studied 163 attempted and actual killings between 1989 and 2002.
"The most common motive or reason for hiring the services of a hit man was in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship," Toni Makkai, acting director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said in a statement received on Wednesday.
Makkai said the most common motives ranged from preventing a person from pursing another relationship, revenge for having an affair, eliminating a partner in order to be with a lover or to gain custody of children.
Other motives were money, silencing a witness, general revenge, drugs and organized crime rivalry.
The average payment received by a "hitman" for a contract was $12,700, the lowest $380 and the highest $76,000.
The most common weapon used in "hits" was a gun. In fact Guns were five times more likely to be used in contract killings than in general murders.
"If you want the job done you are going to use the most deadly weapon available," Makkai said.
Contract killings in Australia make up only a small percentage of all murders. During the four-year study period "hits" accounted for only two percent of murders.
A contract killing (also contract murder or murder-for-hire) is a murder in which a killer is hired by another person to murder for material reward, usually money. A person who carries out a contract killing is sometimes known as a contract killer, hit man (sometimes hitman), or assassin.
In most countries with judicial systems, a contract to kill a person is unenforceable by law (in the sense that the customer cannot sue for specific performance and the contract killer cannot sue for his pay). However, contract killings sometimes take place even where they are illegal.
Both the actual killer or hitman and his customer can be found guilty of homicide. In some jurisdictions with capital punishment, a contract killing may be a special circumstance that allows for a murder to be tried as a capital crime.
Contract killing appeals to some criminals partially because it can be used to establish an "airtight" alibi for the person who takes out the contract--at the time of the killing, this person can plan to be far away and in a place where many people will see him. At the same time, the person who actually commits the murder may have little or no direct connection to the victim, making it much more difficult for investigators to establish what has happened. By contracting out a murder, a criminal can also avoid personally committing murder, which some may be unwilling or incapable of doing, especially if they had a close relationship with the victim.
Contract killings are often, though not always, associated with organized crime, primarily because career criminals are likely to know contract killers, and believe contracting a murder will lessen the likelihood of being caught. Depending on the region and era, contract killers have frequently been used to silence witnesses testifying against criminals or to eliminate rival criminals or politicians who refuse to take a bribe (plata o plomo - a Spanish phrase meaning literally "silver or lead" which usually translates into "money or bullet" / "accept a bribe or face assassination").
Others contract a murder in an attempt to reap some kind of financial windfall--usually as a beneficiary of the victim's insurance policies, or as heir to their estate. However, the most common motive usually involves simply ending an intimate relationship, albeit for an array of reasons.
Contract killers may make their crime an obvious murder, but may also try to make the death appear to be a suicide or even an accident, or may hide or destroy the body so that it is not clear to authorities that the victim is dead, only that they have disappeared.
Payment for the actual killing (usually referred to as a "hit"), is usually divided by paying part of the total price to the contract killer beforehand, and the remainder after the successful completion of the hit. This is usually done like a "security bond" or deposit, ensuring for the hit man, that they will receive some portion of the pay should the client refuse to pay him or other issues arise and client cannot pay the full amount; after the killing has been completed, and also to establish a binding relationship between the client and the hit man.
The actual amount for a particular hit will obviously vary considerably based on things such as: the hit man in particular and his standards and usual fee, the difficulty and danger in accomplishing the actual "hit" based upon who the person to be killed is, where they are and any likely police, security and media attention, and also specifically if the client wants the target to be killed in a specific manner (to appear as an accident for example). Though commonly stated figures in the media, and from criminology studies would suggest the usual fee would be in the tens of thousands of dollars, for example in American Dollars; it is difficult to ascertain an average price due to the obviously clandestine nature of hit men and the world of contract killing.
In some countries law enforcement agents will sometimes pose as contract killers to arrest the people trying to hire them.
Hit Man Statistics
A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology of 162 attempted or actual contract murders in Australia from 1989 to 2002 showed that the most common reason for murder for hire was "in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship". The study also found that the average payment for a "hit" was A$12,700 and the most commonly used weapons were firearms. Contract killings accounted for 2% of murder in Australia during that time period.Contract killings make up a relatively similar percentage of all killings elsewhere. For example, they made up about 5% of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002.
Hit Man Murder
Murder is the unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another. The maximum penalty for murder is usually life imprisonment, and in jurisdictions with capital punishment, the death penalty may be imposed. As with most legal terms, the precise definition varies between jurisdictions. For example, in some parts of the United States anyone who commits a serious crime during which any person dies may be prosecuted for murder (see felony murder). Many jurisdictions recognize a distinction between murder which is premeditated, and manslaughter.Hit Man Historic rates
During the Medieval period in Europe, the murder rate was significantly higher than modern rates in the United States and Europe. murder rates for the Medieval period were approximately 20 per 100,000.Hit Man Demographics
murder rate per 100 000 inhabitant smurder rates vary greatly among countries and societies around the world. In the Western world, murder rates in most countries have declined significantly during the 20th century and are now between 1-4 cases per 100,000 people per year. Murder rates in Japan and Iceland are among the lowest in the world, around 0.5; the rate of the United States is among the highest among all developed countries, around 5.5 (2004, with rates in major cities sometimes over 50 per 100,000.Many researchers have observed significant correlation between murder rates and wealth distribution inequality, as measured by Gini coefficient.
Within the Western world, nearly 90% of all murders are committed by males, with males also being the victims of 74.6% of murders (according the US Department of Justice). There is a sharp peak in the age distribution of murderers between the ages of 17 and 30. People become increasingly unlikely to commit a murder as they age. Incidents of children and adolescents committing murders are also extremely rare, notwithstanding the strong media coverage such cases receive.
Murder demographics are affected by the improvement of trauma care, leading to reduced lethality of violent assaults - thus the murder rate may not necessarily indicate the overall level of societal violence.
Development of murder rates over time in different countries is often used by both supporters and opponents of capital punishment and gun control. Using properly filtered data, it is possible to make the case for or against either of these issues. For example, one could look at murder rates in the United States from 1950 to 2000 and notice that those rates went up sharply shortly after a moratorium on death sentences was effectively imposed in the late 1960s. This fact has been used to argue that capital punishment serves as a deterrent and, as such, it is morally justified. Capital punishment opponents frequently counter that the United States has much higher murder rates than Canada and European Union countries, although all those countries have abolished the death penalty. A difficulty with this argument is that there may be many factors other than capital punishment causing the differences in Murder rates between different countries. Gun control advocates further point out that, unlike the United States, many European countries disallow gun ownership by private citizens. Overall, the global pattern is too complex and, on average, the influence of both these factors may not be significant.
