History Main / ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination

* Used in the final episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', in which [[spoiler:Suzaku dressed as Zero]] kills [[spoiler:[[TheEmperor Emperor]] [[VillainProtagonist Lelouch]]]]. In this case, it makes a lot of sense why everything occurs so neatly, as [[spoiler:Lelouch planned his death to ensure a better world, and deliberately made himself the most stereotypical, [[LargeHam over the top]] EvilOverlord he could be, just so he could unite the world in their ''hatred'' of him]].

* On a much lower end of the scale, there was the case of Ken [=McElroy=], notorious criminal that terrorized the town of Skidmore, Missori for decades and somehow dodged justice every time. The man was subject to a VigilanteExecution in front of ''sixty'' people, yet to this day, no one has said a word on who was responsible. Keeping in mind the townspeople hated him so much no one even bothered to call an ambulance and just let him bleed to death in his car, subtlety wasn't necessary.

Aiding this is if the victim so [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating unpopular]] that BodyguardBetrayal occurs. The people supposed to provide security either stand by and let it happen or help out. This would definitely make the escape easier.

* In Creator/TomClancy's ''Ryanverse'', this happens in the last two novels before the introduction of The Campus: In ''Executive Orders'', a long-trusted and very loyal bodyguard of a never-named Saddam Hussein expy kills the Iraqi leader right in the middle of a public speech, to make it clear that he's dead and severely destabilize the country [[spoiler:so that Iran can take it over]]. Later in the book, [[spoiler:Secret Service agent Aref Raman tries the same thing, but settles for a killing in the Oval Office instead]]. In ''The Bear and the Dragon'', the book opens with a very public murder of a pimp, using an RPG right in front of the Kremlin. [[spoiler:The real target was Golovko, the Russian president's most trusted and capable adviser, who just happened to be in the same model and color car as the pimp]].

* ''The Brotherhood of the Rose'' by David Morrell. Saul is tasked by his surrogate father, CIA spymaster Elliot, with blowing up a BigFancyHouse where a conference is being held. He wonders why they haven't been told to discreetly kill them off via road accidents or poisonings in different parts of the country, so only the members of victim's own circle would realise what was happening. Nevertheless he obeys orders not knowing one of the victims is a friend of the US President, so the assassination would attract attention anyway and and he's being set up to take the fall as a RogueAgent.
* In ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' by Frederick Forsythe, the Jackal plans to assassinate Charles [=DeGaulle=] at a public event -- notably the award ceremony on Liberation Day, the one occasion he can be certain the President of France will turn up, no matter what threats have been made against his life.

* Alluded to in ''Film/RedEye'', where, seated at a "red eye" airplane flight, Jackson Rippner casually drops a SarcasticConfession about his employment being at "managing" operations such as "government overthrows, flashy assassinations". (The actual plot of the movie concerns the details of "firing a bazooka at the exterior of a hotel" and arranging things just so it's likely to work.)
* ''Film/RoadToPerdition''. Michael Sullivan Sr. is after Conner Rooney, who murdered Sullivan's wife Annie and son Peter. Thing is, Rooney is under the protection of the Chicago syndicate. He steals money from some of the syndicate's bank and agrees to return it if they give up Conner. They do so after Sullivan reluctantly kills his mentor, Conner's father John Rooney so that the Chicago syndicate has no reason to continue protecting Conner. We then see Sullivan entering a Chicago hotel, walking past mob guards on all floors who make no attempt to stop him, entering a room where he casually shoots dead his target, then walking out again.

* Although the general setup is a ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate''-style sniping, [[spoiler:Colonel West]]'s attempt in ''Film/{{Star Trek VI|The Undiscovered Country}}'' counts due to using a [[EnergyWeapons phaser]] with a bright blue beam. Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] because [[spoiler:he is disguised as a Klingon in order to incite war, and therefore ''must'' be seen for the plan to work]].
* Subverted in ''Film/TheTerminator''. The T-800 Model 101 decimates a local police station and in the sequel ''[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay Judgment Day]]'', the LAPD gets some pictures of the T-800 and immediately recognize that this is the same suspect that destroyed the police station in ''The Terminator''.
-->"That was a different T-101."\\

"Exactly."
* In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', [[spoiler:Mystique tries to assassinate Trask for revenge at the Paris Peace Conference, and when that fails, at the Sentinel demonstration at the White House. It's a ''very'' bad idea as such public violent action spurs hostile countermeasures like the Sentinel programme, as Xavier points out.]]

** The colonial Marshal has one carried out on the Administrator from Earth sent to give the subjects their independence in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants "The Mutants"]].
** The Master does this to the President of Gallifrey in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin "The Deadly Assassin"]], having first lured the Doctor into a position where he can take the fall for the assassination.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums The Sound of Drums]]": The Master sets up the President of the US to be assassinated on live TV by the Toclafane. This is one of the few events that isn't {{retgone}}d by the destruction of the [[TemporalParadox Paradox Machine]].
%%** The Marshall has one carried out in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E5Underworld Underworld]]". Add context and place in correct order before uncommenting.

** In the pilot, the [[EnergyBeing Taelon]] representative Da'an is giving a public speech in Ohio, praising the cooperation between humans and Taelons, as well as the end to world hunger thanks to Taelon technology. A cop named William Boone assigned as part of the security detail spots a LaserSight from a sniper rifle and yells for Da'an to get down. The billionaire Jonathan Doors jumps in front of Da'an and is seemingly killed by the shot. It's difficult to believe that someone like Da'an wouldn't be protected better than that. While the whole thing was revealed to be a set up by Doors to fake his death in order to secretly run LaResistance, it's difficult to believe that a sniper would be able to get into a building within shooting range of such a high profile dignitary. On the other hand, a later episode reveals that Taelons are immune to bullets, so maybe Da'an insisted that human authorities don't bother with tight security.

* On ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' two Blutbad criminals are killed publicly in a police station in front of TV cameras. The criminals flouted a centuries-old compact binding all Wesen and their actions threatened to expose the existence of Wesen to the human public. The assassination was a message from the Wesen Council that such actions would not be tolerated. At the end of the episode, the Wesen Council official mentions that such displays are necessary about once a generation in order to reinforce the rules. In a later episode, [[spoiler:a mayoral candidate is shot at a public gathering by a sniper employed by the Black Claw. This is all a ploy to replace him with Sean Renard, whom they control by holding his daughter hostage. The bad guys even orchestrate the killing of the assassin by Renard in order to put him in a good light for the public]].
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': The female assassin in “Washington Holiday” tries to do this twice, first in Brussels and later in DC.

* In ''Series/TheManInTheHighCastle'' the Crown Prince of Japan is shot as he delivers a public speech. [[spoiler:The assassin intended to be caught and serve as a PretextForWar between Japan and the Reich.]]

** In the pilot, Ian Sykes, disguised as a painter, open fire on a campaign rally with a Weatherby Fibermark rifle, supposedly trying to kill mayoral candidate Warren St. Claire. St. Claire survives, but his bodyguard Jason Ronstadt is fatally shot. Then it turns out [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt Ronstadt was Sykes's target]], not St. Claire at all, and Sykes's employer (St. Claire's campaign manager, who had originally hired Sykes to kill a volunteer who had found evidence that Lloyd was embezzling money, and had originally solicited Ronstadt to commit that murder) wanted Ronstadt killed in public because it would look like an attempt on St. Claire's life, giving the guy extra publicity and an upswing in votes.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus", disgruntled trapeze artist Natasha Lovara shoots and kills her ex-husband Sergei at a crowded outdoor café. She does it here because everyone currently assumes [[ObfuscatingDisability she's confined to a wheelchair after she broke her foot in an accidental fall]] two weeks earlier, and she needs witnesses to see the shooter perform feats that no woman with a broken right foot could possibly do.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," one thing that leads Monk to suspect that Stottlemeyer's girlfriend Linda Fusco killed her business partner is the fact that the killer explicitly waited to shoot him until there were witnesses around to see it happen, and she needed witnesses because she has an alibi for the time of the murder, and Linda's alibi is that she was at home, video-chatting with Stottlemeyer up until twenty minutes before the murder, and it would be impossible for her to cover the distance between the two points in that timeframe.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Mind's Eye", Geordi [=LaForge=] is captured by the Romulans and brainwashed to assassinate a Klingon governor, which would surely start a war between the Klingons and TheFederation. [[spoiler:Fortunately, Picard, Worf, and Data stop the assassination and expose the plot.]]

* In the official setting for the science fiction game ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', Arch-Duke Dulinor attempted to claim the Imperial Throne by shooting Emperor Strephon while the monarch sat on his throne. It didn't work out too well for him in the end.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Shot Heard Round the World]]

** Narrowly averted with UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, twice. In both instances, a Secret Service agent spotted the weapon while walking on the advanced route of Ford's walking route. The second one occurred within three weeks of the former and was much closer to actually hitting Ford (the assassin had purchased the gun just that morning and was unfamiliar with aiming it. The bullet strayed only six inches from Ford). Notable in that both incidents are the only time in history where a U.S. President was targeted for assassination by a woman [[note]] one of the two women was Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the inner circle of [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson the Manson Family]], though her motives for assassinating Ford apparently had nothing to do with securing Charles Manson's release but instead was out of environmental grievances. In Fromme's assassination attempt, no shot was actually fired as being unfamiliar with the Colt .45 semiautomatic she had secured from an acquaintance, [[LeftTheSafetyOn she had failed to actually chamber a round]].[[/note]]

** UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was sort of shot in the middle of a parade. And Lee Harvey Oswald was sort of shot on national television.
*** Bobby Kennedy was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan while walking through a crowd during his campaign. Sirhan claims to have been brainwashed by the CIA.
** Narrowly averted with UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, twice. In both instances, a Secret Service agent spotted the weapon while walking on the advanced route of Ford's walking route. The second one occurred within three weeks of the former and was much closer to actually hitting Ford (the assassin had purchased the gun just that morning and was unfamiliar with aiming it. The bullet strayed only six inches from Ford). Notable in that both incidents are the only time in history where a U.S. President was targeted for assassination by a woman.

** Like [=McKinley=], UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was shot by an apparent admirer among the crowd he was greeting. Again, the crowd and Secret Service attacked Hinckley (reacting very quickly in this case).

** In the first season, two of the D'Alessio brothers try to gun him down while he's walking with Margaret on a crowded boardwalk during a summer night. Eddie Kessler, who's shadowing them, spots the shooter's gun and twists his arm as he's pulling the trigger, causing the bullet to instead hit a nearby woman, and the blood splatter from the wound ruins Margaret's dress as the woman falls onto her.

** After corrupt detective Christian Blake gives up information to Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk calls for him to be killed. Blake is subsequently shot by an ESU sniper on live TV while he and his partner Carl Hoffman are overseeing cops outside an abandoned building where Matt has holed up with Vladimir Ranskahov. [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget The sniper also kills two random patrol officers to make Blake's shooting look random.]] But as if by a miracle, Blake survives, forcing Fisk to threaten Hoffman into [[SickbedSlaying poisoning Blake before he can speak out against his employer]].

** In season 3, Fisk has Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter carry assassination missions for him in a Daredevil suit, making sure to be publicly seen so that he can tarnish Matt's reputation.

** In the pilot, Ian Sykes, disguised as a painter, open fire on a campaign rally with a Weatherby Fibermark rifle, supposedly trying to kill mayoral candidate Warren St. Claire. St. Claire survives, but his bodyguard Jason Ronstadt is fatally shot. Then it turns out Ronstadt was Sykes's target, not St. Claire at all, and Sykes's employer (the candidate's campaign manager, who had originally hired Sykes to kill a volunteer who had found evidence that Lloyd was embezzling money, and had originally solicited Ronstadt to commit that murder) wanted Ronstadt killed in public because it would look like an attempt on St. Claire's life, giving the guy extra publicity and an upswing in votes.
** In "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus", disgruntled trapeze artist Natasha Lovara shoots and kills her ex-husband Sergei at a crowded outdoor café. She does it here because everyone currently assumes [[ObfuscatingDisability she's confined to a wheelchair after she broke her foot in an accidental fall]], and she needs witnesses to see the shooter perform feats that no woman with a broken right foot could possibly do.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," one thing that leads Monk to suspect Stottlemeyer's girlfriend killed her business partner is the fact that the killer explicitly waited to shoot him until there were witnesses around to see it happen, and she needed witnesses because she has an alibi for the exact minute of death.