History Main / IndirectSerialKiller

* ''Literature/TonyHillAndCarolJordan'': "The Voice" from "The Torment of Others" aka [[spoiler:Detective Sergeant Jan Shields]] is an egotistical sexual sadist driven by an obsession with [[ControlFreak having absolute control over other human beings]]. To that end, they brainwash the vulnerable Derek Tyler into being her "trained monkey" and has him brutally murder four prostitutes for her own pleasure. Following Tyler's arrest, the voice brainwashes another person to carry on their killing spree.

** The various Jigsaw killers and copycats are notorious for kidnapping people and forcing them into life-or-death scenarios where they're forced to do a LifeOrLimbDecision or solve CriminalMindGames in order to survive. In some (but not all) "[[DeadlyGame games]]" involving multiple victims, one person has to kill the other (be it directly or indirectly) to win. Thus far, whereas most of the other Jigsaw killers almost exclusively followed this MO, Mark Hoffman is the only one who has also committed direct murders regularly.

* ''Film/Se7en'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the villain John Doe. He models his murders on the SevenDeadlySins, but strictly speaking, he only directly kills two people himself: the Gluttony victim, who he force-feeds to the point of collapse and then kicks in the stomach, and [[spoiler:Tracy Mills, who he beheads to make himself the Envy victim]]. The other victims don't technically die by his hand: the Greed victim is made to cut off a pound of his own flesh and bleeds out; the Sloth victim is tied to a bed for a year and given just enough food and water to survive; the Lust victim is raped by a man wearing a bladed dildo (who only does it at gunpoint); the Pride victim chooses to swallow a bottle of pills that Doe taped to her hand after he cuts off her nose; and the Wrath victim is [[spoiler:David Mills, who doesn't die but instead goes to prison for killing Doe in revenge for the aforementioned murder of his wife Tracy]]. Of course, anyone in their right mind knows that Doe ''is'' responsible for all of the deaths even if he didn't "officially" kill all of his victims, but Doe himself is utterly insane and genuinely thinks that there's a distinction between his actions and murder.

* ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'': A gravely ill Franchise/HerculePoirot reunites with his [[TheWatson old friend Hastings]] for one last case. Poirot tells Hastings that one of the guests at the hotel he is staying at is a serial killer who Poirot does not know how to stop. It turns out that the killer has been psychologically manipulating people into murdering people they hate. Since the killer took no direct action in the murders and has no connection to the people who are being murdered he/she cannot be arrested. After the murderer [[spoiler:almost tricks Hastings into committing murder]], Poirot [[spoiler:takes matters into his own hands and kills the murderer]].

* ''Literature/TonyHillAndCarolJordan'': "The Voice" from "The Torment of Others" aka [[spoiler:Detective Sergeant Jan Shields]] is an egotistical sexual sadist driven by an obsession with [[ControlFreak having absolute control over other human beings]]. To that end, they brainwash the vulnerable Derek Tyler into being her "trained monkey" and has him brutally murder four prostitutes for her own pleasure. Following Tyler being arrested, the voice brainwashes another person to carry on their killing spree.

** The two-parter "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E25ToHell To Hell]]... [[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E26AndBack And Back]]" features [[EvilCripple Mason Turner]] a man paralyzed from the neck down who has his mentally handicapped brother Lucas kidnap and murder people and perform experiments on their corpses. This potential consequences of this are discussed by the team, who note that the fact Mason doesn't do any killing will make it hard to prosecute him. [[spoiler:So a victim's brother goes for a VigilanteExecution]].

* ''Series/SafeHouse'': Downplayed with the second season's antagonist [[MalevolentMaskedMan the Crow]]. His MO is to break into married couple's homes, restrain the husband and abduct the wife at gunpoint, with him killing the wives and hiding the bodies to the point that they are never found. However, the police eventually realise that his actual targets are the husbands, with the entire event deliberately designed to [[DrivenToSuicide drive them to suicide out of grief and guilt]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'': The Oracle is an agent of [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness The Orange Clan]] who repeatedly commits serial killings in the form of ritual sacrifices by possessing random people and using them to commit murders. As a result, most of his possessed targets either committed suicide or went insane after upon seeing what they've done.

*** Manfred Von Karma is a [[AmoralAttorney corrupt prosecutor]] whose desire for a 'perfect win record' of guilty verdicts (obtained by JuryAndWitnessTampering, evidence tampering, and intimidating judges) has led to one confirmed unjust conviction (Jeffery Master from ''Ace Attorney Investigations 2'') and, given the state of the ''Ace Attorney'' legal system, probably many more. While we can't know how many of said individuals were executed (Jeffery Master was merely imprisoned), it's almost certain he'd have enough murders to be considered a serial killer if he didn't have the state do his dirty work. [[spoiler:The one person he killed himself was Gregory Edgeworth, and then only after he stumbled on a perfect opportunity to kill Gregory with no one knowing the culprit.]]

** In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney 2: Resolve'', the BigBad [[spoiler:Mael Stronghart prides himself as to having technically "done nothing wrong" when revealed to have been the mastermind behind all the major conspiracies of the game. He blackmailed, pressured, and manipulated many people involved in the Justice system into killing his targets and covering up his crimes to rise up to power, planning to get rid of the crime that was plaguing London no matter the cost. He uses this to his advantage by manipulating the court in the final case of the game, telling him how even though he has committed crime, it was necessary to build the strong Justice system it was as of today, [[NearVillainVictory almost managing to weasel himself out of it]]]].

** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Nagito Komaeda is an odd version. He'd never kill one of the Ultimates he loves so much, but his [[BlueAndOrangeMorality bizarre mindset]] means that he's willing to get ''himself'' killed in order to cause chaos, only for his [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck]] to step in and mess things up. As such, while he has three indirect victims ([[spoiler: The Ultimate Impostor, who's the first victim, Teruteru Hanamura, the first killer, and Chiaki Nanami, who he tricks into being the unintentional culprit for his sucide]]), none of them are actually people he wanted to kill. [[spoiler:His plot in the first chapter was to trick Teruteru into killing ''him'', and when he killed himself to make Chiaki the Blackened, he wanted her to win the class trial and for everyone else to die, only for her to figure out his plan and pull a HeroicSacrifice.]]
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': [[ManipulativeBastard Kokichi Ouma]] becomes one during the killing game, starting in Chapter 2 by telling [[DeathSeeker Ryoma Hoshi]] which student has his motive video, seeing which becomes the final nail in the coffin that drives Ryoma to commit SuicideByCop. Then in Chapter 4 he drives [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Gonta Gokuhara]] over the DespairEventHorizon using a Flashback Light that shows the outside world being completely dead in order to suggest him to MercyKill everyone to save them from this AwfulTruth via killing [[TheDogBitesBack Miu Iruma]] and winning a class trial, only to betray Gonta during the trial and reveal him as the killer, taking sadistic glee in his grief and subsequent execution. Finally, in Chapter 5 he blackmails [[TheHeart Kaito Momota]] into killing him in order to create an unsolvable murder, which would inevitably lead to Kaito's death by execution.

* ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'': A gravely ill Literature/HerculePoirot reunites with his [[TheWatson old friend Hastings]] for one last case. Poirot tells Hastings that one of the guests at the hotel he is staying at is a serial killer who Poirot does not know how to stop. It turns out that the killer has been psychologically manipulating people into murdering people they hate. Since the killer took no direct action in the murders and has no connection to the people who are being murdered he/she cannot be arrested. After the murderer [[spoiler:almost tricks Hastings into committing murder]], Poirot [[spoiler:takes matters into his own hands and kills the murderer]].

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* ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': Malty S. Melromarc is a VillainousPrincess who gives out {{False Rape Accusation}}s to innocent victims, which would result in the death penalty for everyone except [[TheHero Naofumi Iwatani]] since he's one of the Four Cardinal Heroes, and is [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou too important to kill]].
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** The two-parter "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E25ToHell To Hell]]... [[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E26AndBack And Back]]" features [[EvilCripple Mason Turner]] a man paralyzed from the neck down who has his mentally handicapped brother Lucas kidnap and murder people and perform experiments on their corpses.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light starts to invoke this trope after [[spoiler:Near picks up investigating Kira from where L left off,]] having other notebook users such as Misa, Takada, and Mikami write names on his behalf in order to divert his pursuers.

* The [[VillainProtagonist titular]] ''Manga/{{Tomie}}'' is a FemmeFatale who prefers to use her [[BeautyIsBad beauty]] to manipulate oth useers to kill for her, and only kills people herself when she has no other choice.

* The [[VillainProtagonist titular]] ''Manga/{{Tomie}}'' is a FemmeFatale who prefers to use her [[BeautyIsBad beauty]] to manipulate others to kill for her, and only kills people herself when she has no other choice.

** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Nagito Komaeda is an odd version. He'd never kill one of the Ultimates he loves so much, but his [[BlueAndOrangeMorality bizarre mindset]] means that he's willing to get ''himself'' killed in order to cause chaos, only for his [[BornLucky Ultimate Good Luck to step in and mess things up. As such, while he has three indirect victims ([[spoiler: The Ultimate Impostor, who's the first victim, Teruteru Hanamura, the first killer, and Chiaki Nanami, who he tricks into being the unintentional culprit for his sucide]]), none of them are actually people he wanted to kill. [[spoiler:His plot in the first chapter was to trick Teruteru into killing ''him'', and when he killed himself to make Chiaki the Blackened, he wanted her to win the class trial and for everyone else to die, only for her to figure out his plan and pull a HeroicSacrifice.]]

** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': [[ManipulativeBastard Kokichi Ouma]] becomes one during the killing game, starting in Chapter 2 by telling [[DeathSeeker Ryoma Hoshi]] which student has his motive video, seeing which becomes the final nail in the coffin that drives Ryoma to commit SuicideByCop. Then in Chapter 4 he drives [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Gonta Gokuhara]] over the DespairEventHorizon using a Flashback Light that shows the outside world being completely dead in order to suggest him to MercyKill everyone to save them from this AwfulTruth via killing Miu Iruma and winning a class trial, only to betray Gonta during the trial and reveal him as the killer, taking sadistic glee in his grief and subsequent execution. Finally, in Chapter 5 he blackmails [[TheHeart Kaito Momota]] into killing him in order to create an unsolvable murder, which would inevitably lead to Kaito's death by execution.

** ''NewDanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': [[ManipulativeBastard Kokichi Ouma]] becomes one during the killing game, starting in Chapter 2 by telling [[DeathSeeker Ryoma Hoshi]] which student has his motive video, seeing which becomes the final nail in the coffin that drives Ryoma to commit SuicideByCop. Then in Chapter 4 he drives [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Gonta Gokuhara]] over the DespairEventHorizon using a Flashback Light that shows the outside world being completely dead in order to suggest him to MercyKill everyone to save them from this AwfulTruth via killing Miu Iruma and winning a class trial, only to betray Gonta during the trial and reveal him as the killer, taking sadistic glee in his grief and subsequent execution. Finally, in Chapter 5 he blackmails [[TheHeart Kaito Momota]] into killing him in order to create an unsolvable murder, which would inevitably lead to Kaito's death by execution.

* ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': [[spoiler:Judge Lawrence Wargrave is a combination of this and a HangingJudge. Being fully aware of his own sociopathic nature, he pursued a career in law to be able to murder within the acceptable bounds of society by [[SerialKillerKiller targeting the guilty]]. His elaborate murder spree on the island is a deliberate deviation from his ''Modus Operandi'' so he can end his killing career with a bang.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': The various Jigsaw killers and copycats are notorious for kidnapping people and forcing them into life-or-death scenarios where they're forced to do a LifeOrLimbDecision or solve CriminalMindGames in order to survive. In some (but not all) "[[DeadlyGame games]]" involving multiple victims, one person has to kill the other (be it directly or indirectly) to win. Thus far, whereas most of the other Jigsaw killers almost exclusively followed this MO, Mark Hoffman is the only one who has also committed direct murders regularly.