Assassination has long fascinated historians, politicians, and even pop culture — from spy thrillers to conspiracy theories.
But behind the drama, it is often cold, calculated, and meticulously organised.
That’s the message running through Simon Ball’s gripping new book Death To Order: A Modern History Of Assassination, which unpacks the history, politics, and methods behind some of the most infamous killings of the past century.
Ball doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths: very few assassinations are the work of lone wolves.
More often than not, they are conspiracies — involving planning, engineering, funding, and a trail of denials afterwards.
The Complicated Machinery Behind the Act
Ball paints a vivid picture of what it really takes to carry out an assassination.
This is not the work of a single person with a pistol in a dark alley; it’s often a coordinated operation.
He describes how devices are built, car bombs engineered to deliver maximum impact, and how political cover-ups unfold through lies and half-truths.
What makes his research difficult, Ball admits, is the secrecy.
Many official files have been redacted, destroyed, or simply hidden, leaving gaping holes in the record.
Yet, the fragments that remain are enough to show just how systemic assassination has been in modern politics.
From Sarajevo to the Raj: When Assassination Shaped History
The book revisits the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 — the event often blamed for sparking the First World War. But Ball reminds us that tensions were already running high; any spark could have set off the conflict.
Elsewhere, he digs into British India, where Hindu extremists launched deadly attacks on police officers, lawyers, judges, and colonial officials. Bombs, shootings, and ambushes forced many working under the Raj to pack up and head home, unwilling to risk being the next target.
Ireland and the IRA’s Deadly Campaign
Closer to home, Ball examines Ireland in the early 20th century, when the IRA assassinated policemen and officials linked to British rule.
By the 1970s, Belfast had earned the grim reputation as the “assassination capital of Europe.”
The group’s reach extended far beyond Northern Ireland, with attempts and successes against prominent figures like Lord Mountbatten and Airey Neave.
Security was lax in many cases, but for powerful leaders like Stalin or Hitler, paranoia turned protection into an industry of its own.
Dictators Who Lived in Fear
Stalin’s reign of terror makes a strong appearance in Ball’s study.
Obsessed with potential threats, he relied on security details, torture, and purges to neutralize even imagined enemies.
Trotsky’s infamous death in Mexico, his skull split with an ice pick, was Stalin’s doing.
Hitler too lived in constant fear. His fortified residences, assassination-proof cars, and battalions of guards didn’t always protect him — he narrowly escaped bomb plots more than once.
But when Reinhard Heydrich was successfully killed in Prague, the Nazi response was brutal, wiping out entire villages in revenge.
America and the Shadow of Conspiracy
Across the Atlantic, U.S. presidents have always walked a fine line between public exposure and security.
Despite their elaborate protection, assassinations still happened.
Ball raises provocative questions about John F. Kennedy’s death, even hinting at possible Soviet involvement.
He also explores the CIA’s so-called “Executive Action Capability,” where assassination became a euphemism wrapped in bureaucracy.
From the alleged Mafia plots against Fidel Castro to shadowy operations abroad, Ball shows how little the public will ever really know.
France, Algeria, and the Seeds of Fiction
The chaos surrounding Algerian independence produced assassination squads that terrorized France, killing hundreds and dumping bodies into rivers. These events went on to inspire Frederick Forsyth’s classic novel The Day of the Jackal and its many adaptations. In reality, the violence was relentless, with even General de Gaulle narrowly escaping machine-gun fire in his Citroen.
The Endless Cycle of Political Murder
Ball doesn’t stop at Europe and America. He traces the disturbing cycle of assassinations in newly independent nations, where political rivals turned on each other almost immediately.
Gandhi’s murder by Hindu nationalists, Indira Gandhi’s killing by her bodyguards, and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination by a suicide bomber all show how personal vendettas and political grudges feed into the tradition.
Israel’s so-called policy of “mowing the grass,” targeting Palestinian leaders, and Putin’s alleged poisonings show that state-led assassination campaigns remain alive today.
A Book That Forces Us to Confront Reality
What makes Death To Order so gripping is Ball’s ability to connect past and present, revealing assassination not as isolated acts but as part of a long, ugly pattern of political violence.
His book is packed with uncomfortable questions about power, conspiracy, and human cruelty.
As Ball himself notes, once one mission is complete, another always seems to begin.
Reading his work leaves you with a chilling thought: it’s a wonder any leader — or perhaps any of us — survives at all.
