What is the most efficient way to kill someone ...

Without a gun? just curious.

Kindness

define efficient in this context please.

I mean quickly. Some act that will always be fatal but deliver death fast. Do you go for the brain or the heart or some artery that isn't protected by bone. This is for a short story I'm writing.

Old age. :P

EDIT: oh okay, you want them dead fast.

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:01:37 AM by joeyjojo

Global Thermonuclear War?

Crush the trachea, But That Would Be Wrong.

... Did I just gave advice for murder, here?

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:02:49 AM by RufusShinra

Agreed, the trachea, let the guy choke on his own blood.

It's for a Book, eh?

You might want to check out the Writers Block subforum if you haven't already - they have threads for questions like this and any others you happen to have floating around.

Probably arteries, yes; you might want to look at how they do it in slaughterhouses or something, because those places are designed for a minimum of pain and a maximum of efficiency. Stunned and then bled out by the throat is the most common method, I think.

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:15:54 AM by LoniJay

In the spy thrillers I've read they say that if you punch some one in the nose hard enough with a upwards motion the nose will break off and stab the front of the brain killing them.

It might be an old wives's tale but I've seen it come up in a few places

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:16:17 AM by joeyjojo

You can do the OHK on the trachea as well with less damage to your hand.

If you have a knife and complete surprise, I'd go for the arteries.

Stab directly through the side of the neck, then cut outwards; it does a better job of opening up the jugular. The "ear-to-ear" draw-cut that most people imagine when they imagine cutting the throat isn't as reliable.

@OP: Why do you want to know?

Well, if you sever the femoral artery cleanly then it won't be very painful, they'll go into shock very fast, and die very fast as well.

There's also blunt trauma to the head, take a sledgehammer and give someone a good swing to the face from a stationary position and they'll either die or be unconscious, which invites a painless follow up swing to finish them off.

Or just blow them up.

I'd say that blunt force trauma is superior. Less blood, less pain, everybody wins. That means less cleanup as well, which is what adds to its efficiency.

edited 23rd Aug '11 6:29:16 AM by Barkey

Why not just deprive them of food and water?

...because you would have to keep the victim away from it for several days?

I'd say to the fastest way would be to use the heel of the hand to drive the bones of the nose into the brain.

I'm pretty sure that is a myth. Sounds Bad Ass though.

I'm not sure it's entirely possible is every situation. But if the attacker is sufficently stronger then the victim, it should work.

I think it's possible but not consistently enough to be useful.

<shrugs> The question was for fast, not useful.

Well then, if there is no need for it to be useful then Spontaneous human combustion is obviously the most efficient way to kill people. They die and leave a pile of ashes without damaging anything else.

Stab or shoot someone through the back of the head from a low angle. That way there's a good chance the medulla will be shredded, which is the center of your body's major motor/vital functions.

edited 23rd Aug '11 4:55:43 PM by MechaJesus

Spontaneous human combustion is fairly rare Too you know?

edited 23rd Aug '11 8:26:23 AM by joeyjojo

Moving to Writer's Block

I don't know how reliable this is, but I know that death is a possibility of an "incorrectly" applied sleeper hold. It's basically the same as cutting the jugular, except you have to hold on to the person while they're thrashing around trying to throw you off but there'd be no blood.