John Withington discusses history’s most notorious political killings – from the first known assassination to the plots to kill Franz Ferdinand and JFK
Slay ride
Thomas Beckett, Julius Caesar, Good King Wenceslaus.they all came to a grisly end at the hands of assassins. A new history shines a light on them
Edward Fox in the film version of The Day of the Jackal
GOOD King Wenceslaus looked out, the carol states, on the Feast of Stephen.
For the noble name-checked in the song, taking up an invitation to a Saints Day banquet from his brother did not end well. The Bohemian noble was brutally assassinated, hacked to pieces by his sibling’s henchmen after dinner.
Wenceslaus’s story, along with more than 300 others, are retold by author John Withington in a comprehensive, chronological history of this particular form of murder.
Slay ride
Thomas Beckett, Julius Caesar, Good King Wenceslaus.they all came to a grisly end at the hands of assassins. A new history shines a light on them
Edward Fox in the film version of The Day of the Jackal
GOOD King Wenceslaus looked out, the carol states, on the Feast of Stephen.
For the noble name-checked in the song, taking up an invitation to a Saints Day banquet from his brother did not end well. The Bohemian noble was brutally assassinated, hacked to pieces by his sibling’s henchmen after dinner.
Wenceslaus’s story, along with more than 300 others, are retold by author John Withington in a comprehensive, chronological history of this particular form of murder.