Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors
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Overview
Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors is a book written by Rex Feral (an obvious pseudonym) and published by Paladin Press in 1983. The book is a how-to guide to starting a career as a hit man and fulfilling contracts. Existing copies at Paladin Press were destroyed, after the book was claimded to be used as a guide during a triple murder in 1993, but one can easily read the book online or purchase a used copy of the book from independent sellers.
The controversy
The website overthrow.com states: "In 1993, a triple murder was committed in Montgomery County by a man who was alleged to have used this book, Hit Man, as his guide. He was caught and convicted and sentenced to death. Wanting to profit from their loved one's murder, and realizing that the murderer himself was too poor to be worth suing, the family of those killed by the hit man sued Paladin Press, the publisher of the book Hit Man, saying Paladin Press "aided and abetted" the murder. May 21, 1999, Paladin Press settled the case, giving the families of those killed by the hit man several million dollars, agreeing to destroy the remaining 700 copies of the book in their possession, and surrendering any rights they have to publish and reproduce the work. While the families were successful in profiting from their loved one's death, they have not been successful in stifling the book. With the surrender of the publishing rights by Paladin Press, the book has entered the public domain, and was published on the Internet at Overthrow.com in its entirety on May 22, 1999.
The book was initially published in 1983. 13,000 copies of the book are now in existence. There has only ever been one case where the book was associated with a crime, in that case the criminal had recently finished a lengthy prison sentence and had a history of prior violent crime. It is our opinion this book has never incited a murder, that the settlement of the Paladin Press case was wrong and forced by the insurance company, and that this book, and no book, should be banned. We invite the public to judge for themselves."