History Main / MurderInc

* A group literally called "Murder, Inc." appears in ''VideoGame/DeadToRights.'' Apparently they're based in New York.

Compare with PrivateMilitaryContractors, which has similar functions with employees acting as HiredGuns, but is often "legal" compared to the criminal MurderInc ([[CorruptCorporateExecutive not that they're above engaging in dodgy business practices either...]])

* A famous {{creepypasta}} involves an organization known as "Boothworld Industries", which is in the business of... "remodeling". Considering the content of their "courtesy calls", [[DeadlyEuphemism they are not a design firm]]. However, since they do not seem to ask for payment for their services, it is unclear whether they are a true MurderInc or something significantly more eldritch masquerading as a company, and whether "remodeling" is even simply murder/torture or [[FateWorseThanDeath something far worse still]].

* In Sherrilyn Kenyon's ''The League'' series they have "The League", who also offer education. The entire futuristic soceity runs around a very public assassination contract system. Things like "Spill-Kills" offer bonus payment for everyone killed trying to get to the target.

* In ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'' according to Helena, there's this thing called the Coven which is a modern-day evil league of super evil womyn. The Coven hides itself behind a number of companies such as Starcloud and the C-Section. They form the Feminist Mafia and controls the stock market by killing people for a profit to buy ruined companies with [[FictionalCurrency decimals on the Credit]]. There's also the United-Bank of all Nations, the UBN, money is all about profit at any cost.

* In ''Literature/LePereGoriot'', the Society of the Ten Thousand, led by Vautrin, is able to arrange for major crimes (a policeman explicitely said they didn't care for matter less than 10,000 francs), such as thefts and murders.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 members of the Assassin prestige class are typically supposed to be members of an assassin's guild. in supplemental campaign material, one of the most famous of such organisations is The Garrotte, a multi-planar guild of assassins with operatives virtually everywhere. They are also the only apparent epic level assassins guild. Notably, they don't just kill their targets, they can also use special rituals and weapons to render them DeaderThanDead in order to circumvent the fact that DeathIsCheap at epic level play. All of this may or may not hold true in a given campaign.

* TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 has the Officio Assassinorum supplying the Imperium of Man with four flavors of assassins (six if you count those found only in the background lore). There are also Death cult assassins, Eldar Striking Scorpions and Dark Eldar Mandrakes which have their own organisations.

* In ''Film/TheParallaxView'', the Parallax Corporation seems to be this, whether or not it was a secret government front.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Talislanta}}'' has the Arimite Revenant cult, who commit assassinations for money, and the Rajan Torqual assassins, who are motivated by religion.

These groups are typically composed of {{Professional Killer}}s, unless this trope is being played for laughs. More comedic examples often operate like a WeirdTradeUnion. May be either ALighterShadeOfGrey, or darker.

* The Red Dragon Syndicate in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' was always called that, but became much more...uh...[[MeaningfulName vicious]] as time passed. Eventually, their full-time job seemed to be killing people and antagonizing the main characters. The people that the organization was seized from were very opposed to this, and even said the organization wouldn't survive long like this.
* The various ninja villages in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' are partly this, but are primarily mercenaries who will perform any task for the right amount of money. None of the main characters actually perform assassinations, such tasks being reserved for high ranking individuals. None of the villages are explicitly 'evil' ([[spoiler:except Orochimaru's]]), but are mostly considered enemies of each other.
** Kakashi is a main character and he used to perform assassinations, and may stil do so if not as often. The rookies later own devise their own assassination attempt [[spoiler: against Sasuke]] and in the Grass Country arc the plot revolves around intercepting an Akastuki spy in the Sound village with the intent that his info. can be used to draw up plans to assassinate Orochimaru; this ran simultaneously with a secret plan to [[spoiler: kill Sasuke]] by new member Sai, on orders from ROOT, for whom he had already carried out numerous killing missions.

* The [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil Gung Ho Guns]] in ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' are the murderous minions specifically of the BigBad, selected for their power and willingness to slaughter people, up to and ultimately including ''[[KillAllHumans everybody]]''. In the manga, however, some slots in the Guns are explicitly filled from the ranks of [[ProfessionalKiller The Eye of Michael]], which is one of these that fronts as a Christian church and has its roots in a plant worshiping cult. They therefore tune in to the AncientConspiracy part of the trope. The arrangement is useful to [[BigBad Knives]], because it means if one of these minions dies off there's already a contract in place to bring in a replacement.

** The DCU also has the Council of Spiders, a [[{{Motif}} spider-themed]] group of elite assassins that decide to kill Ra's al Ghul as a ''game'' since he seems like challenging prey. Their membership includes poisoners, martial artists and a guy with [[MultiarmedAndDangerous six extra arms]]. He can ''[[GunsAkimbo oct]]-wield''.

* There was an organization named Murder Inc. in the MarvelUniverse (Partly based on the real life Murder Inc.) in the 1940s, that would take in homeless men, force them to sign life insurance policies, then collect on the policies after murdering them.

* The ''Franchise/JohnWick'' series features a elaborate world of Assassins that seems to effectively operate with impunity. They all function on a strict set of rules and obey a CosmopolitanCouncil of criminals called The High Table. The Assassinations themselves seem to work on a contract-based system, with open contracts being basically public bounties anyone can collect and closed contracts being essentially traditional hitman hiring.

** There is a Klatchian ([[FantasyCounterpartCulture read Arabic]]) assassination group, the drug-using Hashashin, resembling accounts of the original Assassins (Hashishim). However, descriptions of the Hashashin are sometimes parodic; apparently, they kept [[TheStoner giggling at the way light reflected of their knives, swaying to music, and falling over]]. In ''Jingo'', as Ankh-Morpork goes to war with the Klatch, Vetinari notes acidly that the Guild's boast of being so good that the Klatchians send their children there really means that Klatch's assassins know Ankh-Morpork's methods, have refined their ancestral skills, and have a working knowledge of the city's layout.

** The Faceless Men of Braavos are {{Warrior Monk}}s who worship death as a universal force, with the "Many-Faced God" as its personification. They are the world's most capable assassins, but do not consider themselves to be killers for hire. Instead, the customer is expected to make a "donation" to their temple for the privilege of selecting an individual to receive the blessing of death, the cost being deliberately so high that you really have to ''want'' someone dead. Unless it's yourself you want dead, that you can have for free with no questions asked and corpse disposal included.

* The Silent Guild of ''[[Literature/AssassinFantastic History and Economics]]'' operates openly, with several of its laws not only common knowledge, but featured as obligatory reading in Introduction to Law, along with the court case "Romanez vs. the Silent Guild".
* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''{{Literature/Foreigner}}'' series, the alien atevi have a strange form of government approved Guild: someone contracts with the Guild to assassinate a target, the Guild informs the government, and the government informs the target. If the target is still killed in spite of the warning, the killing is legal. If an amateur kills someone themselves, it's illegal. If a Guild member kills someone without a Guild sanctioned contract, it's illegal ''and'' ticks off the Guild.

* ''Radio/{{The Shadow}}'' once fought an organization that offered death insurance. People would buy insurance on a person and would be payed if they did not die by a certain time. Of course, this was really a paper thin disguise for a murder for hire business, though when the organization failed to carry out a hit they did pay up.

* In ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'' according to Helena, there this thing called the Coven which is a modern day evil league of super evil womyn. The Coven hide itself behind a number of companies such as Starcloud and the C-Section. They form the Feminist Mafia and controls the stock market by killing people for a profit to buy ruined companies with [[FictionalCurrency decimals on the Credit]]. There's also the United-Bank of all Nations, the UBN, money is all about profit at any cost.

** The Talon was the precursor of the Claw, but with less emphasis on the police and more on the secret parts. It was allegedly wiped out by the Claw to secure Empress Laseen's hold on the empire, yet rumors of a few agents still existing and operating tend to have even the Claw scamper in near panic.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' includes a number of organizations which may qualify, but two are most prominent: the Morag Tong and the Dark Brotherhood.
** The Morag Tong is a guild of assassins officially sanctioned by the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Dunmer (Dark Elf)]] government. To put it lightly, the Dunmer [[TheClan Great Houses]] don't get along very well, and since open warring between the Great Houses would weaken the Dunmer overall, the Morag Tong was sanctioned as the solution. Whenever someone with a enough wealth to hire the Morag Tong wants someone dead, an "Honorable Writ of Execution" will be created for that person and a Tong assassin will be dispatched to kill them. They [[EvenEvilHasStandards follow a strict code of honor]] and are [[ProfessionalKillers highly professional]] in regards to their work. (Even if one of their agents could get away without getting caught following an assassination, they are still encouraged to turn themselves in and present their Honorable Writ of Execution to ensure that everything remains above board.) After aiding in [[TheKingslayer the assassination of Emperor Reman Cyrodiil III]] at the end of the 1st Era, they were outlawed everywhere in Tamriel except for Morrowind. Amusingly, their and the Dark Brotherhood's modern lore characterization is almost an exact flip of what they were when the Morag Tong was introduced[[note]]''Redguard'' introduced the Tong as the creepy cultist assassins with odd possibly Sithis-connected beliefs, while the Dark Brotherhood were presented as professional and business-focused with little religious influence between ''Daggerfall'' and ''Morrowind'' (the Dark Brotherhood ''was'' a secretive cult up to nefarious deeds in ''Arena''... but they [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness weren't assassins yet]])[[/note]].
** The Dark Brotherhood is a fully criminal offshoot of the Morag Tong who operates throughout the rest of Tamriel. They are a much more PsychoForHire group, doubling as a [[ReligionOfEvil cult of Sithis]]. Despite this, they do still have rules, such as losing part of your paycheck for anybody else aside from the intended target dying in the mission area. They appear to very much dislike the wholesale slaughter of innocent people, but one unnoticed target or another they do seem to encourage as that is how you gain entry into the guild, just no mass murdering people for the hell of it. Also, the lower level leaders are very much sane in a professional way, and generally only care if you are doing your job right. By the time of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', the Dark Brotherhood is now down to a single chapter in Falkreath. As such, the current leader Astrid has taken a less religious approach to things. She later proves to be quite the ControlFreak when the player is recognized as the Listener of the Night Mother fairly early on in the story, eventually resorting to [[spoiler:dealing with the head of the Emperor's personal guard to try and sell you out, only for this to backfire horribly on her]]. When first encountered, the player character can either begin a short quest chain to ''wipe them out'' or join them and put them on the path to renewed glory.

* Thugs-4-Less in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando''. Boasting such mottos as "If it ain't broke, we'll break it!" and "Pay for six hits and the seventh one's free." Thugs-4-Less flunkies challenge Ratchet throughout the game, and the Thugs-4-Less leader serves as one of the game's main villains, even though [[spoiler:you end up on the same side as the person who hired them in the first place. Right around the time it's revealed the thief is a good guy, and Mr. Fizzwidget doesn't really want anything more to do with you, the Thugs-4-Less leader gets a phone call to make him switch sides, and still be opposed to you.]]

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has several factions that basically exist to murder other players, particularly the Darkwraiths, Blade of the Darkmoon and the Forest Hunters.

* Team Vorg, from ''Webcomic/CwensQuest'', is a "business" in CQ's fantasy world who's whole business model is based around having large armies going about conquering city's and towns at the behest of their psychotic and unstable but also Reaganomic, corporate minded & business savvy leader.

* The Creator/BobClampett short ''Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs'' has the queen hire assassins literally called Murder Inc. to "black out So White''. On their van, they even have "Midgets 1/2 Price, [[WartimeCartoon Japs Free]]" proudly lit up on it's side.

* ''Murder Inc.'', a 1960 BMovie, is [[BasedOnATrueStory an adaptation of Brooklyn DA Burton Turkus's]] account of the RealLIfe TropeNamer. It's otherwise notable as the breakout performance for Creator/PeterFalk.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' has [[FunWithAcronyms Immediate Murder Professionals]], a Hell-based startup who visit the living world to settle their damned clients' scores.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' has [[FunWithAcronyms Immediate Murder Professionals]], a Hell-based startup who visit the living world to settle their damned clients' scores.

Please note that Murder, Inc. isn't always [[EvilInc evil.]] They don't tend to let [[TrueNeutral codes of morality]] get in the way of their [[OnlyInItForTheMoney business model]]. [[note]](Sometimes...)[[/note]]

* The Fraternity in ''Film/{{Wanted}}''.

** The Morag Tong is a guild of assassins officially sanctioned by the [[OurElvesAreBetter Dunmer (Dark Elf)]] government. To put it lightly, the Dunmer [[TheClan Great Houses]] don't get along very well, and since open warring between the Great Houses would weaken the Dunmer overall, the Morag Tong was sanctioned as the solution. Whenever someone with a enough wealth to hire the Morag Tong wants someone dead, an "Honorable Writ of Execution" will be created for that person and a Tong assassin will be dispatched to kill them. They [[EvenEvilHasStandards follow a strict code of honor]] and are [[ProfessionalKillers highly professional]] in regards to their work. (Even if one of their agents could get away without getting caught following an assassination, they are still encouraged to turn themselves in and present their Honorable Writ of Execution to ensure that everything remains above board.) After aiding in [[TheKingslayer the assassination of Emperor Reman Cyrodiil III]] at the end of the 1st Era, they were outlawed everywhere in Tamriel except for Morrowind. Amusingly, their and the Dark Brotherhood's modern lore characterization is almost an exact flip of what they were when the Morag Tong was introduced[[note]]''Redguard'' introduced the Tong as the creepy cultist assassins with odd possibly Sithis-connected beliefs, while the Dark Brotherhood were presented as professional and business-focused with little religious influence between ''Daggerfall'' and ''Morrowind'' (the Dark Brotherhood ''was'' a secretive cult up to nefarious deeds in ''Arena''... but they [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness weren't assassins yet]])[[/note]].

* Tarot in ''Series/TheCape''.

** The New Firm: Mr. Pin, the brains, and Mr. Tulip, the muscle (with a bad chemical habit and a deep appreciation for antiquities). Aside from referencing Misters Croup and Vandemar, some of their dialogue also echoes Jules and Vincent of ''Film/PulpFiction''; for example, the two have a discussion on what they call a sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm, and Mr. Tulip owns a coin-purse that says "Not A Very Nice Person At All" on it.

** The New Firm: Mr. Pin, the brains, and Mr. Tulip, the muscle (with a bad chemical habit and a deep appreciation for antiquities). Aside from referencing Misters Croup and Vandemar, some of their dialogue also echoes Jules and Vincent of ''Film/PulpFiction''. Mr. Tulip's purse says "Not A Very Nice Person At All," which says it all, really.

-->-- '''[[NoNameGiven Thug Leader]]''', VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 members of the Assassin prestige class are typically supposed to be members of an assassin's guild. in supplemental campaign material, one of the most famous of such organisations is The Garrotte, a multi-planar guild of assassins with operatives virtually everywhere. They are also the only apparent epic level assassins guild. All of this may or may not hold true in a given campaign.

** The Assassins' Guild of the great city of Ankh-Morpork, whose motto is "''Nil Mortifi Sine Lucre''": "No killing without profit", is at once a parody and a lampshading of the trope. The Guild is legal, its head is an influential public figure, and it is common for nobles to send their children to its excellent fee-paying school. The Guild will take political actions for the good of the city, and will even enforce their monopoly on assassination by hunting down murderers. Assassins themselves abide by several rules, including that they always wear black, even when this is detrimental to any attempt to be inconspicuous, and especially that they're not allowed to kill people unless they are paid to do so, and they cannot kill the defenseless. Of course, anyone rich enough is automatically considered able to defend themselves by hiring someone else to protect them. In ''{{Discworld/Pyramids}}'', the head of the Assassin's Guild gives a great speech about how killing for a cause is extremely dangerous and inherently evil, as compared to killing for money.

** There was also ''ThePunisher: Assassin's Guild'', featuring another such organization. Oddly enough it had the Punisher ''teaming up'' with the guild.

* ''Film/JohnWick'' (and its sequels) features a elaborate world of Assassins that seems to effectively operate with impunity. They all function on a strict set of rules and obey a CosmopolitanCouncil of criminals called The High Table. The Assassinations themselves seem to work on a contract-based system, with open contracts being basically public bounties anyone can collect and closed contracts being essentially traditional hitman hiring.