“The mechanical act of killing is my chief concern, but the student is warned that it would be wrong to celebrate the death of the subject or to take pleasure in his demise. This is the first indication that your values are slipping and your moral perspective is being distorted. This in turn affects your continued usefulness – kill without joy!”
– John Minnery, Kill Without Joy, How To Kill, 1973-1984
You may know John Minnery from some of this other works, such as CIA Catalog of Clandestine Weapons, Tools and Gadgets, Fingertip Firepower: Pen Guns, Knives, and Bombs and Improvised Modified Firearms: Deadly Homemade Weapons, but here we look at his six-book series How To Kill.
Published as a single issue in 1992, the six volumes of the How To Kill series (1873 – 1984), are an illustrated narrative to assassination and death by design. The books are divided into ‘lessons’. And lest you fall under the mistaken impression that this is guide to murder and mayhem, the Preface informs readers:
The information presented in this book is for reference and historical purposes only! The author and the publisher do not in any way endorse nor condone any illegal activity or act that may be depicted in the following pages. Therefore, the author and the publisher disclaim any liability and assume no responsibility for the use or misuse of the information herein.
The first edition’s Preface expands on that:
The object of this study is to instruct the reader in the techniques of taking another human life, up close, and doing it well. You may well find this booklet offensive, repulsive, brutal, and vicious. It is meant to be. It is completely contemptuous of human life and my only admonition to the would-be assassin is: Kill without joy.
No attempt is made to differentiate between the moral good or bad and the complexities of the motives of the reader are not delved into This book will merely show you how to kill.
…
The professional killer be he a soldier or a cold warrior (i.e. government directed assassin) has a duty to kill on command his country’s enemies, who, for whatever reason, cannot be permitted to go on living. Special Forces have assassination squads that are employed in guerrilla and counterinsurgency operations. It is in the hope of making these people more effective that this booklet is written.
To kill at close range, five to ten feet or at arm’s length and closer, requires the deftness of a surgeon and the ferocity of a rabid animal. One must have complete confidence in one’s ability to kill, and this means he must know the human body— one must practice what amounts to black medicine and do the exact opposite of what a doctor might do to save life.
Having read the Preface, readers move to the ‘Lessons’ in Volume 1:
HOW TO KILL, VOL. I
Lesson 1: The Target
Lesson 2: To Kill Unarmed
Lesson 3: Clubs for Killers *
Lesson 4: The Hatchet Job
Lesson 5: Knifework
Lesson 6: Hang Tough
Lesson 7: A Dose of Death
Lesson 8: Fiery Red
Lesson 9: Hot Wire
Lesson 10: Shoot to Kill
Appendix A: The Signs of Death
Appendix B: Your First
Appendix C: Special Weapons
Appendix D: A List of Poisons
As noted by Atlanta-based Pinakotheca books, “The books were part of the post-Vietnam/Cold War milieu of the 1970s, books like these were enjoyed by the same audience as Soldier Of Fortune magazine, with the reader hoping to gain insider knowledge about techniques as he slowly fell into paranoiac schizophrenia about his bosses work schedule.”
We cannot vouch for the audience, but in the 1970s militarism was a burgeoning market. By 1976, Soldier of Fortune was selling 120,000 copies per month. Founded by Robert K. Brown, and reportedly published by his Omega Group Ltd., based in Boulder, Colorado, the magazine reports on various armed confrontations around the world, as well as on new weapons and other military technology.
John Minnery’s work was published by the Brown-owned Paladin Press. As Pinakotheca writes, “Paladin was infamous for publishing books that pushed the limit of free speech, with a focus on improvised weapons, and guerrilla tactics.”
* The Lesson ‘Clubs for Killers’ is not a social group for would-be murders, rather a section on cudgels, batons, coshes, nightstick and other impact weapon.
Via archive.org, posted purely for educational, historical purposes and has no connection to anything but itself.
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