Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes: The Assassins Who Changed History

by Kris Hollington

“A history of the twentieth century punctuated by gunshots. . . . An exciting account.” -- Sunday Telegraph (UK) Exploding telephones, pipe-guns, bullets made of teeth, aspirin explosives, cobra-venom darts, a rifle that shoots around corners, exploding clams, samurai swords, karate chops, poisoned umbrellas, and a fuel-laden light aircraft. Sometimes even a regular gun. These are just some of the methods that have been used over the last ?fty years to speed four thousand VIPs to a premature end. Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes is not an encyclopedia of assassination but rather a gripping history that charts the development of the modern world through the eyes of the assassins that tried to alter it. An experienced investigative reporter, Kris Hollington exposes shocking unknown stories of assassination. Surprising conspiracies and remarkable connections are uncovered throughout. Hollington relates the story of the man who shot Uday Hussein seventeen times, the remarkable career of the CIA’s “black sorcerer,” reveals how an East German Stasi agent, an American B-movie actress, and a Saudi prince conspired to commit one of the most important assassinations of the twentieth century, uncovers the terrible history of South Africa’s brutal assassination squad and exposes for the ?rst time the secret society that ensured racist assassins in the South never paid for their crimes. It also features previously classi?ed information from the Secret Service, including the story of how President Jimmy Carter was saved from a sniper’s bullet by a rabid swamp rabbit. This book is the first to study in detail not only the causes and surprising consequences of assassination, but also the crucial seconds of the act itself and the psychology of the killer in an effort to understand why some assassinations succeed where others fail---and what might be done to prevent them. It is also the ?rst book to examine the fascinating facts and ?gures of assassination, revealing everything from the success rate by type of weapon and the escape and survival rates of assassins to the most popular time of year and location for an attack. The definitive book on assassination, Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes shows that sometimes, one murder can change the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Crime

448 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2008

Reviews

[Bobbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but interesting

[Yael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the last fifty-eight years, assassins have used everything from exploding telephones and cobra venom darts to pipe guns, bullets made of teeth, rifles that shoot around corners, samurai swords, exploding clams, karate chops, aspirin explosives, poisoned umbrellas, and fuel-laden light aircraft to achieve their objectives -- and, sometimes, regular guns. Those are some of the methods that have been used over the last six decades to send more than four thousand powerful, very important people to their deaths.

Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes is not an encyclopedic review of modern assassination, but rather a compelling history of the development of the modern world through the eyes of the assassinations that tried to change it.An experienced investigative reporter, Kris Hollington exposes stunning, previously unknown stories of assassination, uncovering surprising conspiracies and remarkable connections throughout the book.

The book is a page-turner, the sort of book you can't easily put down. However, it has a number or problems. One, it should have been proofread by an American editing team -- Hollington is British, and apparently the British are a good deal more careless about grammar, punctuation, and other literary concerns than Americans are, and it shows to the point of irritation in this book.

Two, Every so often I got tired of endless stories of sudden death and had to put the book down for a while before I could continue reading it.

Three, some of the chapters, especially toward the end, contained one or more assassination stories that tended to fade into one huge, blood-stained blur. The author's descriptions of various tortures applied to the victims in many cases also became repulsive at times, another reason I had to leave off reading fairly frequently so I could still be able to eat my dinner later on. (Of course, compared to what goes on in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO's A Game of Thrones at times, I suppose that Wolves, Foxes, and Jackals doesn't rate very high on the Disgusting Scale after all.)

All in all, I give this book four stars, but because of the problems I had with it, I can't give five. Even so, as I said before, it really is a page-turner, and a fascinating history of the latter half of the 20th century and the beginning of this century told from a unique point of view, that of the assassins and their targets.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much about the assassins as it is about the assassinations and their effect on the world. Apparently, an attempt on Truman's life was nearly successful, there really was an umbrella of death, genocide in Rwanda was sparked when the preseident's wife had him killed and blamed it on the other guys, and Uday Hussein was a sadistic psycho. Overall, an interesting read though on occasion, the author writes as those certain things are fact when they are merely suspected so it would have been nice if there were footnotes instead of just a bibliography.

[Melissa Rochelle]

If you're at all interested in the world we live in and how it came to be this way...then read this book. It's crazy to read about all of these people that are murdered for absolutely insane reasons, or for NO reason whatsoever. AND if you like statistics, this book has 'em! Want to know what day is most popular for a head of state to be assassinated, it's Friday!

While I didn't finish the book, I only read the first 19 chapters (of 36) it's not because I didn't like it...it's that reading about all of these deaths got a little depressing.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate this book because it was a good and interesting book but I had to keep put it down a couple times because it got repetitive with account after account and there's only so many accounts of killing important figures I can take in one sitting. 3.5 stars because it definitely was a good read. One of those books that's good for reading 4 or 5 chapters while waiting for something, then picking it up a couple days later and continuing.

[Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book although it's odd that the author has never met the possibility of a conspiracy theory that he could embrace. He devotes around 7 pages per assasination, just enough for the facts and the aftermath. the author has come to the conclusion that political murder does frequently achieve it's desired results. A good, brisk read.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a fair amount about very famous assassinations. The stories were at times hard to keep straight, but I think that in part is due to the number of assassinations in warring countries. An interesting change for true crime readers who need a break from serial killers.

[David Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes: The Assassins Who Changed History by Kris Hollington (Thomas Dunne Books 2007) (364.1524). This book bills itself as “ an experienced investigative reporter exposes the world of assassination.” I think not. DNF. My rating: 2/10, finished 2009.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another three and a half star rating. This was interesting, and exhaustively researched, but not as compelling as I had hoped. I've had such good luck this summer with my non-fiction choices, too.

[Aaron Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historically interesting, but a lot of the gore is done in bad taste and sensationalized.

[Papajack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting point of view.

[Brittany W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off interesting but I quickly lost interest after that.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can get a little clinical, but it's still a good read.