History Main / WhoMurderedTheAsshole

* ''Film/InBroadDaylight'': After town bully Len Rowan is killed on a Darby, Missouri street, various law enforcement agencies find the entire community quite unwilling to help them find the parties that shot Rowan in the back.

Establishing that the victim was widely despised makes for a more complex murder mystery because of the way it broadens [[EveryoneIsASuspect the pool of suspects]]. This helps to draw out the investigation and also makes obtaining a conviction harder, as the jury might sympathize with the killer. Expect the police to comment at some point that maybe Bob had it coming, or that his killer did the world a favor. Typically, the truth will be shown that the murder was [[RedHerring unrelated]] to Bob's despicable nature (or at least not ''directly'' related). Alternatively, it will come out that EverybodyDidIt: Bob's victims conspired to off him, and their attempts to cover for each other make the investigation more difficult. In any case, Bob's killer will generally remain {{sympathetic|Murderer}} to the audience unless she was even ''more'' loathsome than Bob.

* Walter Breckenridge in Creator/AynRand's ''Theatre/ThinkTwice'' is a wealthy philanthropist who uses his power to keep people dependent on him, so he can run their lives. When he's murdered, nearly everyone is happy about it.

* Zane in ''Welcome To Temptation'' by Jennifer Crusie was essentially trying to blackmail and/or harass almost every prominent person in town and annoyed the hell out of pretty much everyone else. Amusingly enough, despite his having been hit by a car, maced in the face, bundled up in a shower curtain, and disposed of... he died of a heart condition without actually having been murdered at all.

* In the Josh Lanyon gay murder mystery ''Somebody Killed His Editor'', both of the victims were reprehensible jerks who habitually trod on and mistreated others. This has the effect of setting up the protagonist, writer Christopher Holmes, as a main suspect, since he'd been publicly humiliated by both and he had verbally shot back at each of them, just as publicly, in retaliation, in one case joking about how he'd poison the future victim if he had the chance.

* CC de Poitiers, the victim in Louise Penny's second ''Three Pines'' mystery ''A Fatal Grace'', is self-obsessed, emotionally and verbally abusive to her husband and daughter, and universally loathed (even by the man she's having an affair with). Possible motives are not hard to come by.
* Stella Rodes, the [[{{Hypocrite}} seemingly angelic victim]] in Creator/JohnLeCarre's second novel, ''A Murder of Quality.'' It turns out that she runs the gamut from taunting people to outright blackmailing them (which is what finally gets her killed).
* Creator/BenElton's ''Past Mortem'', in which a series of [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp grown-up school bullies]] are found murdered in ways similar to accounts of ways they used to bully their childhood victims. It's zig-zagged, however, in that while some of the bullies kept up being assholes in adulthood, others of them had clearly matured and, even if they didn't exactly regret what they had done, were at least not assholes worthy of death.

* One of the earlier examples in film is 1949's ''Cover Up'', where everybody in town plays cagey about the unexpected suicide of the despised local tycoon Roger Philips -- not because they know anything about it, but they all suspect murder and want to passively impede the insurance investigator's report so whoever killed him isn't punished for it. Ultimately, he learns that the late, lamented Dr. Gerrow, who passes away from a heart attack during his time there, had a nervous breakdown over Philips' cruelty and shot him, but the Sheriff and Mr. Weatherby kept it a secret, for fear that the most beloved man in town being a murderer would permanently demoralize the community; the investigator decides to label it "suicide" on the official report. It was released by Creator/UnitedArtists, in part because the Production Code would've frowned on a movie that involved a murderer going ambiguously unpunished, or sympathetic law enforcement participating in a conspiracy to hide the truth, had it been a larger distributor.

* The first murder victim in ''VideoGame/Pentiment'', [[spoiler: Baron Rothvogel]], turns out to have been a violent lecherous rapist who gave many different people ample reason to want him dead.

** Nina's mother made her life hell because she blamed Nina for introducing Betsy and Rob, thus causing her to lose out on becoming Rob's wife and leaving them struggling financially (especially as Rob had told her to turn down a role in what became an extremely successful sit-com because he didn't want her working so much when they were newly married).

** Family friend and neighbour George Curtis had an affair with Betsy while going through a rough patch with his wife. Betsy began pressuring him to get a divorce, but George decided to stay with Isabelle after she told him she was pregnant with twins, they having previously suffered four miscarriages. Betsy blackmailed Rob to pay her $25 million or she would tell Isabelle everything. Rob was terrified of losing Isabelle and their future children, and even though he could easily afford the $25 million, he knew how Betsy loved to toy with people and feared she wouldn't keep her end of the deal. He also secretly returned to the Powell mansion after the party intending to take back the jewellery he'd given Betsy to hide the evidence of their affair, which was around the same time Betsy was killed.

** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': The victim of the fourth case is Miu Iruma, TheFriendNobodyLikes who insults everyone around her while touting her beauty. In addition, it turns out she herself was plotting to kill Kokichi and frame Kaito for it. But Kokichi thought ahead and manipulated Gonta into offing her instead.
** Also from Killing Harmony we have Angie Yonaga and Kokichi Oma himself. One is a rather nasty cult leader who brainwashed Himiko and played to everyone's good natures to manipulate them into serving Atua. By comparison, the second victim of the case Tenko Chabashira was at least trying to help Himiko get out of her shell. As for Kokichi, while at first people think [[TheHeart Kaito]] is the victim, Kokichi was a ruthless mastermind who loved to gleefully torment his friends they quickly find out it was Kokichi and while the mystery is more cut and dry than the previous case, the murderer being naturally the one who didn't die, his murder was meant to stop the killings by creating a murder Monokuma couldn't figure out.

* ''Literature/SixSuspects'': Vicky Rai was such a terrible person, who victimized so many people, that there are no less than [[TitleDrop six suspects]] in his murder. Not only is his own father among the suspects, it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:his father did in fact order a hit on him because he had become a liability, though it was never carried out]]. Ultimately it turns out [[spoiler:the murderer wasn't any of the six suspects, it was a journalist who was tired of seeing men like Vicky Rai get away with so much, and was never suspected because he had no personal connection to him.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Mr. Burns survives the events of the two-part episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsWhoShotMrBurns Who Shot Mr. Burns]]" after being shot by an unseen gunman. The whole idea of the {{Cliffhanger}} is that practically ''everyone'' in Springfield wanted to kill him, and in many cases, few would have blamed them. However, not only does he survive, the shooting was (presumably) an accident, making it a subversion twice-over.

Establishing that the victim was widely despised makes for a more complex murder mystery because of the way it broadens [[EveryoneIsASuspect the pool of suspects]]. This helps to draw out the investigation and make obtaining a conviction harder, as the jury might sympathize with the killer. Expect the police to comment at some point that maybe Bob had it coming, or that his killer did the world a favor. Typically, the truth will be shown that the murder was [[RedHerring unrelated]] to Bob's despicable nature (or at least not ''directly'' related). Alternatively, it will come out that EverybodyDidIt: Bob's victims conspired to off him and to cover for each other when the cops came around. In either case, Bob's killer will generally remain a SympatheticMurderer unless she was even ''more'' loathsome than Bob.

* ''Film/InBroadDaylight'': After town bully Len Rowan is killed on a Darby, Missouri street law enforcement finds the entire community quite unwilling to help them find the parties that shot Rowan in the back.

** In the ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' novel "Bloodlines" Han Solo's evil cousin Thracken Sal-Solo is killed by Boba Fett's granddaughter Mitra Gev. Not knowing it was her, Corellian security has to work through a fair number of suspects given how many wanted Sal-Solo dead and how many are taking credit for the death.
*** Later, in the novel "Sacrifice" Sal-Solo's replacement Dur Gejjen was assassinated by Ben Skywalker under orders from his cousin Jacen, and CorSec doesn't realize that he was the real killer. Contacted later by Luke Skywalker, Han tells Luke that given how many people wanted Gejjen dead CorSec is having trouble organizing the sheer number of suspects. Once again several groups that had nothing to do with the murder claim credit for it.

Establishing that the victim was widely despised makes for a more complex murder mystery because of the way it broadens [[EveryoneIsASuspect the pool of suspects]]. This helps to draw out the investigation and makes obtaining a conviction harder, as the jury might sympathize with the killer. Expect the police to express the feeling at some point that maybe Bob had it coming, or that his killer did the world a favor. Typically, they'll discover that the murder was [[RedHerring unrelated]] to the victim's despicable nature (or at least not as directly related as it seemed). Alternatively, it will come out that EverybodyDidIt: Bob's victims conspired to off him and cover for each other when the cops came around.

It might also be used to make the audience [[SympatheticMurderer sympathize with the murderer]] when they're finally discovered. Because of the morally challenging nature of this plot, it's best to send in a ByTheBookCop or a KnightInSourArmor to solve the crime because they try to not become emotionally compromised. A common message in these kinds of stories is that [[PayEvilUntoEvil two wrongs]] do not make a right.

Establishing that the victim was widely despised makes for a more complex murder mystery because of the way it broadens [[EveryoneIsASuspect the pool of suspects]]. This helps to draw out the investigation and makes obtaining a conviction harder, as the jury might sympathize with the killer. Expect the police to express the feeling at some point that maybe this guy had it coming, or that his killer did the world a favor. Typically, in the end, it's discovered that the murder was [[RedHerring unrelated]] to the victim's being so thoroughly despised, or at least not directly related. Either that or [[EverybodyDidIt his targets got fed up enough to work together and create plausible deniability for any one suspect]].

Bob has just been murdered. The investigators start looking for the person with a motive to kill him and quickly find someone... and someone else... and someone ''else''. Turns out, [[AssholeVictim Bob was such an asshole]] that ''anyone'' would have gladly done the deed.

Establishing that the victim was widely despised makes for a more complex murder mystery because of how broad it makes [[EveryoneIsASuspect the pool of suspects]]. This helps to draw out the investigation and makes obtaining a conviction harder, as the jury might sympathize with the killer. Expect the police to express the feeling at some point that maybe this guy deserved to die, and that his killer did a public service. Typically, in the end, it's discovered that the murder was [[RedHerring unrelated]] to the victim's being so thoroughly despised, or at least not directly related. Either that or [[EverybodyDidIt his targets got fed up enough to work together and create plausible deniability for any one suspect]].

Someone has been murdered. The first step is simply to determine what sort of motivation someone might have had to kill them. There's just one problem: [[AssholeVictim they were a complete and total asshole]], so ''everyone'' wanted to kill them.

Establishing that the victim was widely despised makes for a more challenging murder mystery because of the [[EveryoneIsASuspect sheer number of suspects with motives]]. This helps to draw out the investigation and makes obtaining a conviction harder, as the jury might sympathize with the killer. Expect the police to express the feeling at some point that maybe this guy deserved to die, and that his killer did a public service. Typically, in the end, it's discovered that the murder was [[RedHerring unrelated]] to the victim's being so thoroughly despised, or at least not directly related. Either that or [[EverybodyDidIt his targets got fed up enough to work together and create plausible deniability for any one suspect]].