Since we have been discussing murder, just how

[Tuesday Afternoon]

important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

I mean really. :D

[BeachBaby]

1. I used to wonder about that too....

and then I realized that there is a pattern to how the two terms are used. I could be wrong, but from what I've figured out:

When someone is "assassinated", it seems that the person killed was killed in public, in front of others.

When someone is "murdered", the person killed was found dead - in other words, there weren't several pairs of eyes trained on the victim as the killing occured.

Don't know why the two terms are used the way they are, but that's the only pattern I can find.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. Thanks.

So assassinated means there are witnesses, right?

[BeachBaby]

3. No.....not necessarily.

I'm just explaining to you the pattern I see with how and when the term is used.

I just looked it up in dictionary.com. Seems that the term is used when describing the pre-meditated ending of a politician's life most of the time; however, I do remember watching video of a couple of news groups who described John Lennon's killing as an "assassination".

That's why I have given up on the definition of the two terms. :)

I just go by the pattern.