5 Assassinations That Changed History

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Assassins have been plotting, murdering, and executing for thousands of years—from the famed Ides of March to forgotten British Prime Ministers. Their reach across history is inconceivable. But what motivates an assassin, and have their murderous ways ever helped them achieve their goals? With most assassinations still shrouded in mystery and conspiracy, quantifying "success" can be difficult. However, can we at least determine the motives behind such gruesome acts?

In this episode, James welcomes author and journalist John Withington to the podcast to discuss the five most influential assassinations in history. From the first recorded assassination in ancient Egypt to assassinations that sparked World Wars, do the motives ever outweigh the consequences? And can assassinations ever be considered legitimate tools to influence politics, ideologies, and society?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The famous five are away on a splendid weekend adventure.
0:03.5	Do we have to go home today?
0:05.5	sighed Anne.
0:06.5	I agree said Dick.
0:08.0	Even Timmy looks sad.
0:09.5	Cheer up everyone.
0:11.5	Beams Julian, I booked long weekend tickets we can return anytime on Monday
0:17.0	Oh you are clever Julian said Anne save over 50% with the long weekend a ticket from Great Western Railway.
0:24.5	Adventures start here.
0:26.0	Selected routes turn supply.
0:27.6	Saving in comparison to an anytime return fare. Assassin have been killing the powerful and the famous for thousands of years.
0:41.0	Political ambition, revenge, anger and ideology have driven the dagger into an emperor's back
0:47.0	or helped pull the trigger that ended a president or prime minister's rule.
0:52.0	But do assassinations work? Are they effect? or do they cause far more unintended
0:53.0	work? Are they effective in achieving the ambitions of the
0:57.5	assassin or do they cause far more unintended consequences, turmoil and a butterfly effect across history that just
1:05.1	ends up impacting all of us.
1:07.0	Well, I'm your host James Passen Rogers, this is warfare, and with the recent drone attacks
1:11.8	on the Kremlin in mind, attacks that were said to be targeting Putin himself,
1:16.5	I wanted to take a deep dive into this morbid history of personal killing.
1:21.0	To find out more, I invited award-winning journalist and author John
1:24.6	Whittington onto the podcast. John is the author of Assassin's Deeds, a history of
	...

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