History Main / PsychoForHire

* Tin-Tin, Funboy, T-Bird, and Skank, Eric Draven's targets of vengeance from ''Film/TheCrow'', who do particularly brutal jobs for the city's kingpin, Top Dollar. In something of a subversion of the trope, Top Dollar is [[ForTheEvulz far more evil]] than even these psychotic killers.

* Bennett from ''Film/{{Commando}}'':

* [[Franchise/LuigisMansion King Boo]] from the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series games could well be this to Bowser, and is easily the vilest of his subordinates.

A hired agent who is in it [[ForTheEvulz for the killing and torturing]]. There doesn't need to be killing involved; they like doing unpleasant things to people and there are people willing (and dumb enough) to pay them to do something they'd probably do for free. The paycheck or other reward they get at the end of the day is incidental; they get a huge kick out of hurting complete strangers, NeverHurtAnInnocent and WouldNotShootACivilian is not in their vocabulary and will be very glad to target them too. On the pro side, you could say they love their job.[[note]]The labor economics term for this is "non-pecuniary benefits". Another example of a job with non-pecuniary benefits is working at Club Med in Antigua (you get to live in a tropical resort). When a job has awesome non-pecuniary benefits, the employer can pay low wages. [[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' prefers HumongousMecha and his KillSat instead of killing and maiming directly, but it's hard to ignore the maniacal glee with which he steals organs or reduces cities to rubble.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Aku's enforcers cause devastation and carnage on a daily basis, '''even without his direct involvement'''. Atrocities are pretty common in Aku's rule.

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' has at least a few in every game. To name some, Armored Core For Answer has Shamir Ravi Ravi, who is known as "[[MegaCorp Algebra ]]'s [[NamesToRunAwayFrom Femme-Arachnid]]", and her partner Du So, while Armored Core 5 has [[AIIsACrapShoot Chief]]. Several previous games have had the RecurringBoss Stinger, a power-hungry Irregular who has allied with the Doomsday Organization.

-->'''Clyde:''' I'm gonna kill you, cut you open, and go to an aerobics class wearing your intestines for leg warmers!
-->'''Salem:''' I mean, does that even make ''sense.''
-->'''Clyde:''' I'm gonna kill you both, drain all your blood, take out your bones, put your body in a big chair with some elves and reindeer, sit on your lap, and tell you all the cool shit I want for Christmas!
-->'''Salem:''' Clearly, this guy had a messed-up childhood.
-->'''Rios:''' Heh heh, you think?

* The Frenchman and the Female from the titular ''Comicbook/TheBoys'' divide their time between playing board games and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

** The biggest example is [[Characters/DCComicsLobo Lobo]], a parody of {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es whose favorite sport is killing.

** From the first season 'The Runner' and 'The Driver' (their names could not be given due to the concurrent court case), whose claim to fame was to kill Jason Moran in front of their kids, would also qualify. Specifically, when the Runner thinks his wife is having an affair, he first tracks down who he thinks she is with, only for the teenager to not only be taken into protection by the police but is the wrong man, after trashing his house he beats and rapes his wife.
** Christopher Dale Flannery (who was also depicted in ''Series/BlueMurder'') was certifiably off his rocker. He aims to be the biggest killer in Australia. He takes credit for the killing of horse race robber Ray Chuck before earning his reputation by going on a killing spree for the highest bidder. He eventually takes out contracts for racing identity George Freeman, before it is realised the hitman is too dangerous to live. Experts say the real-life Flannery was either accurately portrayed or a lot worse.

* Chris Flannerly of ''Series/{{Underbelly}}'' was certifiably off his rocker. He aims to be the biggest killer in Australia. He takes credit for the killing of horse race robber Ray Chuck before earning his reputation by going on a killing spree for the highest bidder. He eventually takes out contracts for racing identity George Freeman, before it is realised the hitman is too dangerous to live. Experts say the real-life Flannerly was either accurately portrayed or a lot worse.
** 'The Runner' and 'The Driver' (their names could not be given due to the concurrent court case), whose claim to fame was to kill Jason Moran in front of their kids, would also qualify. Specifically, when the Runner thinks his wife is having an affair, he first tracks down who he thinks she is with, only for the teenager to not only be taken into protection by the police but is the wrong man, after trashing his house he beats and rapes his wife.

** Then there's Faith, who acts in this way for a time as the evil Mayor's enforcer (and briefly as an assassin for Wolfram & Hart, which, because the target is Angel, is really an attempt to commit SuicideByCop) after a FaceHeelTurn brought on by accidentally killing a random human while fighting vampires a bit too recklessly in an alley.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E21LivingWitness Living Witness]]", the entire ''Voyager'' crew are portrayed like this in a falsified historical representation on an alien planet. Now the "warship ''Voyager''", they were hired by a race called the Vaskans to defeat their enemy the Kyrians. The crew's main mission is still to get back to Earth, but they get so much fun out of killing that they happily torture prisoners to death, shoot unarmed people, and commit genocide.

* A lot of the later demons in ''Series/Charmed1998''.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'' has had a few. There's Billy Mac, an ex-boxer who likes taking the chance to beat up black people. There's Fletcher Nix, a Dixie mafia hitman who forces his victims to play a {{sadist}}ic game before he kills them. There's the late Tommy Bucks, who put dynamite in a man's mouth to prove a point. And of course there's Wynn Duffy, Dixie Mafia middleman and certifiable psychopath who is purported to have once sewed a man's face to a soccer ball, though CharacterDevelopment sets in after he spends a season or two working with some particularly AxCrazy individuals that ''considerably'' mellows him out, to the point he ends up being considered the Dixie Mafia's VoiceOfReason. Apparently, he realized being a psychopath wasn't a very lucrative job position (in fact, mellowing out resulted in him stepping up in the criminal world).

* Murdoc from ''Series/MacGyver1985''. Not only does he kill people in a variety of interesting ways, he rigs cameras to photograph his victims at the moment of their death, ostensibly to prove to the person/people who hired him that victim X is really, really dead (for a while he even sent copies to the authorities "just for kicks"). He is also practically unkillable.

* ''Series/{{Scandal}}'': [[spoiler: Becky, Huck's girlfriend]] is revealed to be this. This person enjoys killing people in general too much.

** Also, Angelus himself acted as a reluctant Psycho For Hire to Jasmine for a while in Season 4 after he lost his soul and she threatened to restore it.
** [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Spike]] himself was introduced as a Psycho For Hire working with the remnants of the Master's followers -- the BadassLongcoat from out of town who maimed for fun and just dropped by to kill the hero and torture her boyfriend to death. However, it took less than an episode for him to decide he'd have more fun if he took charge and dispose of the "Annoying" (Anointed) One.
** Then there was Faith, who acted in this way for a time as the evil Mayor's enforcer (and briefly as an assassin for Wolfram & Hart, which, because the target was Angel, was really an attempt to commit SuicideByCop) after a FaceHeelTurn brought on by accidentally killing a random human while fighting vampires a bit too recklessly in an alley.
** Sorcerer Ethan Rayne in the ''Buffy'' episode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E6BandCandy "Band Candy"]], where Mr Trick has contracted him to cause a distraction by making all the adults in town act like teens while the Mayor performs a ritual sacrifice.
* Gilroy's subtitle in ''Series/BurnNotice'' is "Freelance Psychopath."

* At the end of the pilot episode of ''Series/DarkMatter2015'', the protagonists, who are suffering from total amnesia after coming out of stasis aboard their ship, discover that [[spoiler:they used to be a [[TheDreaded Dreaded]] crew of these, frequently hired by corrupt {{Mega Corp}}s to do their dirty work when they want plausible deniability; in this case, to wipe out the mining colonists on the planet below so that Ferrous Corp can take it over. [[AmnesiacDissonance Rebelling against their pasts]], they decide to [[TheMagnificentSevenSamurai protect the colonists instead]]. Through the rest of the series, they continue to do some mercenary jobs (it's hard to find other sources of revenue when you're a wanted outlaw), but of a less murderous nature]]. There are several others like them in the galactic underworld as well.

** Inverted in "[[Recap/FireflyE02TheTrainJob The Train Job]]", in which the psycho ([[TheMafiya Niska]]) hires ''them''! Niska's first [[TheDragon Dragon]], Crow, is a straight example, a PsychoKnifeNut who shares his boss's love of hurting people. After the ''Serenity'' crew default on their job because the target turns out to be medical supplies people in Paridiso badly need, Crow forgoes Mal's offer of simply returning the advance money Niska had paid them and [[StupidEvil opts to threaten him instead]] (while captive and being made to stand next to the ship's turbine) by saying [[WeWillMeetAgain he'll return]] and "[[TheLastThingYouEverSee the last thing [Mal] will ever see]] is [his] blade." Mal's response is a small "Darn" before kicking him into the turbine. The next captive henchman lined up there is much more agreeable.
** Jubal Early from the episode "[[Recap/FireflyE14ObjectsInSpace Objects in Space]]". At first, he just seems like a somewhat quirky and oddly philosophical BountyHunter, but that goes out the window when he casually threatens to rape Kaylee as an intimidation tactic. A nut job who used to torture animals as a child and terrified his own mother, he tries to insist that hurting people is simply a necessary part of the job. However, as mentioned in the page quote, River's psychoanalysis reveals Early became a bounty hunter expressly so he ''could'' dominate and hurt people for a living.

* Elle Bishop from ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Ended up being a deconstruction. It turned out the higher-ups at Primatech thought she was too unstable, the only reason she kept her job was that her father insisted. After Bob was killed, Angela immediately fired her.

* Martin Keamy in Season 4 of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', a former marine turned PrivateMilitaryContractor who's implied to have a laundry list of atrocities to his name. Currently leading a group working for [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Charles Widmore]], Keamy quickly establishes himself as one of the most bloodthirsty and sadistic characters in the series.
* Murdoc from ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}''. Not only does he kill people in a variety of interesting ways, he rigs cameras to photograph his victims at the moment of their death, ostensibly to prove to the person/people who hired him that victim X is really, really dead (for a while he even sent copies to the authorities "just for kicks"). He is also practically unkillable.

A hired agent who is in it [[ForTheEvulz for the killing and torturing]]. There doesn't need to be killing involved; they like doing unpleasant things to people and there are people willing (and dumb enough) to pay them to do something they'd probably do for free. The paycheck or other reward they get at the end of the day is incidental; they get a huge kick out of hurting complete strangers, NeverHurtAnInnocent and WouldNotShootACivilian is not in their vocabulary and will be very glad to target them too. On the pro side, you could say they love their job[[note]]The labor economics term for this is "non-pecuniary benefits". Another example of a job with non-pecuniary benefits is working at Club Med in Antigua (you get to live in a tropical resort). When a job has awesome non-pecuniary benefits, the employer can pay low wages. [[/note]].

* Montross from ''Star Wars: VideoGame/BountyHunter'' is introduced as Jango Fett's [[TheRival Rival]], and manages to make Fett look like a hero by comparison. Jango brings in targets dead or alive, depending on what pays more. Montross brings ''everyone'' in dead.

* Jonathan Brewster from ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'' is a good example, in that although his villainy is motivated by a desire for wealth, it is apparent from his conversations with his sidekick, Dr. Einstein, that when killing someone who crosses him, he prefers to make their death as long and painful as possible.

* Deadeye Joe is this from ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Contra: Hard Corps]]''. Depending on what route you took, you may fight him right before the FinalBoss after [[DragonTheirFeet you kill his boss]], [[BigBad Colonel Bahamut]].

* In ''Manga/AkameGaKill'', Wild Hunt is this. While officially a secret police force, they're actually a group of sociopathic rapists and murderers who kill hundreds of Imperial citizens both ForTheEvulz and to draw Night Raid out. They get away with this because their leader, Syura, is [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the Prime Minister's son]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''

* ''TabletopGane/DungeonsAndDragons'': The Yugoloths have this as their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. They are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Always Neutral Evil,]] super-greedy, and hire themselves out to all kind of people, mostly demons and devils fighting the [[EvilVersusEvil Blood War,]] but also to mortal [[SummonMagic summoners.]] Of course, they have no loyalty to their "employers", and tend to [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betray them as soon as a better offer comes along.]]

* Both [[{{Cyborg}} Gigan]] and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Ghidorah]] from the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films are two [[IncrediblyLamePun giant-sized]] versions of this trope. Both monsters are often under the employment (or control, as it were) of various evil aliens and both seem to really enjoy destroying cities as well as attempting to kill Godzilla and/or any of his allies, setting them apart from the big guy's other enemies, who tend towards ObliviouslyEvil. Needless to say [[{{Kaiju}} 40-story]] Psychos For Hire can really screw up your day.

*** In ''ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain'', the Kingpin hires ''two'' psychopaths at once to draw out Daredevil and hopefully kill him: Nuke, a SuperSoldier driven insane from years of harsh experiments and being pumped full of drugs, and a killer in a Daredevil costume. Nuke is to drop into Manhattan and just start firing his [[{{BFG}} huge gun]] [[ICallItVera Betsy]], and the other one is supposed to kill Matt Murdock's friends while dressed as Daredevil, [[FrameUp framing him for the crime]].

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' has Demolitia and the Unholy Alliance, who enjoy their work too much to be PunchClockVillains and are not classy enough to form MurderInc.

A hired agent who is in it [[ForTheEvulz for the killing and torturing]]. There doesn't need to be killing involved; they like doing unpleasant things to people and there are people willing (and dumb enough) to pay them to do something they'd probably do for free. The paycheck or other reward they get at the end of the day is incidental; they get a huge kick out of hurting complete strangers. On the pro side, you could say they love their job[[note]]The labor economics term for this is "non-pecuniary benefits". Another example of a job with non-pecuniary benefits is working at Club Med in Antigua (you get to live in a tropical resort). When a job has awesome non-pecuniary benefits, the employer can pay low wages. [[/note]].