the REAL way to make a silent kill

[Numb1lp]

My dad was a commando, and I seem to remember him mentioning clapping a hand over the victim's mouth and just stabbing him in the throat as much as possible.

He may have been telling me tall tales, however...
I was only about ten at the time...

Your dad told you this when you were ten... F*cking rad!

 

[Pyro Paul]

I've read some of Marine Mike Reviews here, and thought to add one of my own like his.

There is a myth going on about slitting somebody's throat with a knife is a silent kill. It is anything but silent. The enemy will gurgle and thrash around until his brains run out of oxygen, creating a lot of noise in the process.

No, if you want a silent kill, you gotta put your blade at the indent at the base of your enemy's skull (bone is thin there) and slam upward at a 45-degree angle. You'll scramble his medulla oblongata and the motor senses are cut off immediately.

I think they did that in one of the later CoD games, like Black Ops.

if you slit some ones throat correctly it is silent.
the blade must be pushed in deep enough to damage the carotid artery as well as the larynx. such method will cause the individual to pass out from blood loss in little less then 2 seconds and make them incapable of making any noise what so ever.

the only problem with such a technique isn't that it is loud.. it's that it is messy... just like every other knife attack out there. you'll often create massive amounts of blood which you will get on the weapon, the target, yourself, as well as two or 3 surrounding areas.

as for your suggestion...
doesn't work 4 out of 5 times.

it requires a high degree of precision, strength, and one hell of a sharp blade. Most of the time the attackers blade will catch the skull and slide off target leaving mostly superficial wounds at best.

the best silent attack is to cup the mouth, lean back with your body (pulling them), then inserting the knife into their kidney/liver. although it is not the quickest it gives you the most control over the situation, which is why the military often teaches that as the primary silent kill method.

 

[hipster666]

Why is the majority of people posting to this thread acting like they know what they're talking about? Unless you're posting this from a jail cell, I doubt anyone actually does.

The military don't even go into this stuff that much anymore. Fighting with knives/bayonets is so last century. Hell, nowadays soldiers don't even kill people with guns, believe it or not. It's all about holding position until you can get in artillery or a gunship to blow up whoever's shooting at you. They say in Iraq, for every 250,000 rounds fired, only one combatant is actually killed by small arms fire.

Ha ha a slightly better ratio than the one assessed for WWI... I'm no soldier, never been in a war, but have had a few moments with guns (shotguns and a rifle once) which were kinda hairy and been in enough fights in my youth to know a few things:-

Movies lie. Guys don't go limp with a single punch, knocking someone out with a straight punch to the head is pretty darned hard and certainly not guaranteed. I've done it a couple of times but each time it's been more luck than anything.

The silent kill is a myth. Death is ugly and loud in almost every form. Whether it's the gurgles of a throat cut (from the cut in the throat not the mouth itself, so clamping the mouth would be ultimately pointless), the sound made from a silencer (which is never truly silent), to the sleeper hold which still allows for grunting, gurgling and thrashing all of which make noise.

The neck break... Dear god every guy I know thinks this is the best silent kill ever and it's total Hollywood BS. As soon as you put your hand on someone's face their instinct is to pull away, meaning you not only have to break the bone but also the force the strong neck muscles pulling the other way. I've heard of techniques that counter this, but they take skill, practice and not a small amount of luck.

If you had a non-proficient combatant who panicked while attacked you MIGHT be able to get off a pretty quiet kill, but any soldier worth their salt, when attacked, would do considerably more than thrash about and go limp.

With regards to the OP, really you're down to poison or gas. If in a sealed room CO would be great because it starves the body of oxygen slowly and puts the person to sleep. The same would be true of a sedative, but it would need to be a contact sedative or the person targetted would feel the pinprick of a dart or needle. A contact paralytic would similarly be good, something on a coin dropped near their sight (if on a grassy plain) would work, or a note if somewhere more audible as long as there is a slight breeze and you're upwind. Still, not very easy to target an individual and not foolproof, depending on individual resistances to the paralytic and time taken for full effect.

Oh, I just remembered, there's the British Army guy who killed someone from several kilometres away. While silenced and in mountains the noise was supposed to be dispersed enough that the guy got hit without ever seeing a muzzle flash or hearing the sound of the shot. Got two guys that way, although under exceptional weather conditions and using tremendous skill. I doubt anyone reading or contributing to this would manage the same shot!

 

[hipster666]

And the point of this thread is....?

To provide the police with suspects apparently.

Nah, they have enough on their hands with the suspects running about in London to bother with us reprobates.

Theoretically killing someone is kind of a guy thing like debating the best tactics once the zombie apocalypse starts (shotgun, lotsa shells and sword for me), it's harmless fun really. I remember debating the guy-ness of a female friend who reckoned she was one of the blokes so I asked her about her zombie apocalypse plan. She looked at me like I was insane and I said text your husband the same question. He came back with an answer inside of five minutes from sending the text...

 

[hipster666]

Good luck trying to stick a knife through the entire spine at the base of the skull.

45 degree angle would mean you're aiming roughly at the nose or upper mouth by the way.

No, he's actually right. My human anatomy and physiology professor also happened to be an expert in medieval swordsmanship... go figure that one out... but he taught us fighting techniques in the classroom as well as biology stuff - this was one of them.

In reality though, according to him, you don't even need to technically aim at any angle. the entire base of the neck is weak, and odds are you'll SERIOUSLY fuck shit up if you hit anywhere around there.

Thing is the thread was about a silent kill not a guaranteed one. I agree, any serious injury to the spine would put someone down super fast, but silently? Quietly is quite likely by many of the suggestions given, but since the guillotine was banned in many countries because it had a habit of NOT severing the head and was considerably heavier than most blades, I don't think the practicalities of a spinal severing are a good way to go. Besides, if you don't sever the cords then you end up with twitching and thrashing = noise.

I guess we need the OP to be more specific about the conditions? Is the victim within ten metres of someone else? Twenty? Thirty? Seperate room, outside, weather, background noise?

 

[Redratson]

My dad was a commando, and I seem to remember him mentioning clapping a hand over the victim's mouth and just stabbing him in the throat as much as possible.

He may have been telling me tall tales, however...
I was only about ten at the time...

Thats the way I always knew how to make a silent kill work, or all of the old war movies with commandos and or criminal-to-commandos movies were lying to me since I was 8.

Wait, does this make my dad....*shudders*....RIGHT?!

Oh god. :/

.....no..................yea

 

[The Virgo]

You are correct, OP.

Reference material:
Warning: violent subject matter.

Spoiler

http://www.bestgore.com/beheading/dagestan-massacre-1999-video-worst-beheading/

[small]Note to mods: this isn't intended as a shock site, a warning about graphic content was provided.[/small]

All in all I don't recommend learning those techniques from games.

The perfect knife for performing this technique would be something like the Cold Steel AK-47. However I still would choose the versatility of a longer knife for overt use.

Huh? Slicing the jugular is one of the most efficient types of killing available, just clamp your hand over their mouth to muffle the gurglin' and off you pop to another slaughter.

What? No.

The gurgling sound actually comes from the neck. Hitting the jugular without severing the windpipe is hard on a incapacitated subject as it is (see video). It's not really possible to do reliably in the field.

Besides chances are you won't completely transect the jugular in one move. Sure it'll EVENTUALLY result in a kill but it will take longer than movies make you think and won't be nowhere near as clean.

...if your fast you can breat their spine... by twisting their neck to a 120 Degree angle, which would do the same as the knife to the back of the skull... but without the need for a knife.

Have you actually practiced the technique you're describing or are you pulling it out of your arse?

If the former who was your instructor.

Not questioning you or anything, but how do you know so much about killing people? O_e

 

[Sud0_x]

you people are freaking me out. i am leaving and making some hot chocolate.

Ooh! Someone with sensible interests! Got an extra mug?

 

[Eisenfaust]

What about a trench spike through the skull or temple?

or a railway spike... though that might not do anything except change your entire personality...

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Silent kill? Easy. You just insert a mind probe deep enough into their mind so that you can take control of their vital functions, then just shut then down all at once. Easy, clean, and silent as can be.

 

[Harlief]

I've read some of Marine Mike Reviews here, and thought to add one of my own like his.

There is a myth going on about slitting somebody's throat with a knife is a silent kill. It is anything but silent. The enemy will gurgle and thrash around until his brains run out of oxygen, creating a lot of noise in the process.

No, if you want a silent kill, you gotta put your blade at the indent at the base of your enemy's skull (bone is thin there) and slam upward at a 45-degree angle. You'll scramble his medulla oblongata and the motor senses are cut off immediately.

I think they did that in one of the later CoD games, like Black Ops.

This is why people blame video games on mass murders.

 

[PancakesSUCKTHEYDO]

The best way is to choke them. Takes longer, but they cannot cry out. (not with your hands of course, a Garrot or something similar.

 

[Wolf-AUS]

My dad was a commando, and I seem to remember him mentioning clapping a hand over the victim's mouth and just stabbing him in the throat as much as possible.

He may have been telling me tall tales, however...
I was only about ten at the time...

Your dad was telling you the truth, this is how it's done. At least that's the consensus from all the commandos I've spoken to when they aren't doing fancy suit or trying for firsts

 

[Febel]

My dad was in the Paras and he said the same thing. Video games can be so misleading, but at least they aren't "teaching kids to kill", right?

Not teaching them very well at least.

It can be a bit obnoxious as a gun nut to listen to COD fans talk like they know fuckall about anything gun-related, though.

What about a trench spike through the skull or temple?

or a railway spike... though that might not do anything except change your entire personality...

A Phineas Gauge reference in my murder thread? It's more likely than I thought.

The spine is usually easier for me, rather than throat slitting. It's not the noise, more the blood splattered everywhere. I don't like getting that on my clothes. A lot of people prefer the traditional twisting-head neck snapping action but I usually stick with grabbing them by the hair and shoving a boot into the small of their back as hard as I can. It?s a personal preference really. But other than a very brief struggle and, of course, the crack, it's pretty quiet.

 

[TacticalAssassin1]

All this talk of silent kills makes me want to go play Hitman.
Fuck it. I'll install it right now.

 

[Blackpapa]

Not questioning you or anything, but how do you know so much about killing people? O_e

I play a lot of Counterstrike and Call of Duty. That makes me an expert.

 

[Lt_Bromhead]

My dad was a commando, and I seem to remember him mentioning clapping a hand over the victim's mouth and just stabbing him in the throat as much as possible.

He may have been telling me tall tales, however...
I was only about ten at the time...

Your dad told you this when you were ten... F*cking rad!

Yeah, he never was one for "age limited material"

My dad was a commando, and I seem to remember him mentioning clapping a hand over the victim's mouth and just stabbing him in the throat as much as possible.

He may have been telling me tall tales, however...
I was only about ten at the time...

Your dad was telling you the truth, this is how it's done. At least that's the consensus from all the commandos I've spoken to when they aren't doing fancy suit or trying for firsts

When they're not doing...what, sorry? You've confused me...

 

[SckizoBoy]

The bone at the base of the eye socket is thin enough for a dagger-like combat knife (eg. Fairbairn-Sykes) to penetrate. It's hard to attack the eyes however as you can expect your opponent to recoil. Protecting the eyes/front of face is a natural first instinct and I see no way it could be a practical technique unless your intention is to tape and release it. In which case you're one sick puppy.

True, but in the context of the 'silent kill' the victim wouldn't see it coming (no pun intended) being covert and such, so any defence against it would be too late until they have a piece of steel through their head. Also, subsequent clean up would be simpler (well, at least more so than throat slitting, which one would think causes quite a mess...) *shrug*

(And when you said 'tape and release it' I was thinking, 'duct-tape? release what?!' and then the penny dropped... I'm a sadist, it's got to last!) =P

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

No, if you want a silent kill, you gotta put your blade at the indent at the base of your enemy's skull (bone is thin there) and slam upward at a 45-degree angle. You'll scramble his medulla oblongata and the motor senses are cut off immediately.

I think they did that in one of the later CoD games, like Black Ops.

Very difficult to do properly, the better way is to grasp the opponent's mouth, pull his head back and insert the knife upwards into his ribcage. You're going to hit lungs and heart almost certainly and without air, he can't yell.

Might be more difficult on women, but the principle's the same.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Huh? Slicing the jugular is one of the most efficient types of killing available, just clamp your hand over their mouth to muffle the gurglin' and off you pop to another slaughter.

This isn't Hollywood, you still haveto endure a couple minutes of intense flailing before he goes down.
Causing enough brain damage on the other hand will simply make him collapse like a muppet.