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An assassin is one who kills people for money. The original term comes from the Assassins of Arabia, but the practice long preceeded that organization. It has been common to the politics of many cultures to use stratgic killings as a tool of politics, and paid killers have always been very necessary to this practice. (Because of this, political killings are sometimes referred to as "assassinations" even though no money actually was involved.) Individually, too, people have always found their reasons to attempt to arrange the deaths of others through paid intermediaries.

Entire organizations have sometimes specialized in assassination as one of their services. Besides the Assassins themeselves, the ninja clans of Japan were rumored to perform assassinations. In the United States, an organization with ties to the Mafia, Murder Incorporated, was formed for the sole purpose of performing assassinations for organized crime.

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See also: assassins.