I remember reading Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear” about environazis who would stop at nothing to save the earth from man (and at the same time keep all their money from government schemes to combat global warming coming in)
Their preferred method of assassination of those getting too close to the truth was to use a Blue-ringed Octopus. It is very tiny, with psychedelic yellow with blue rings, and it’s bite is painless, but the venom will result in rapid neuro-muscular paralysis, most importantly, the respiratory muscles.
So, the key assassination method for the evil environmentalist thugs (I loved Michael Crichton’s work!) was to have a tiny Blue-ringed Octopus in a ziploc bag, walk up to someone and bump into them and press the open end of the bag against the exposed skin of an unsuspecting victim, who was bitten by the octopus, and within minutes, would be lying on the ground unable to move and losing the ability to cognate due to failing respiration.
If someone passed by and saw them with the limp but eyes open and conscious (but unable to communicate) victim, they would say the person had too much to drink, and take their arm over a shoulder to walk them away.
To finish the job decisively, they would toss the person into a river where they would decompose or be eaten by fish to hide the microscopic bite that would be likely missed in an autopsy anyway, and the fast-acting toxin leaves no traces.
The thing I loved most about the book, is the evil eco-nazi bad guys, instead of driving a black Cadillac (or the ever present Lada in communist countries driven by KGB or STASI) the evil guys in “State of Fear” drove...Toyota Prius’!
Sigh. I wish Michael Crichton had lived longer, he died relatively young. And he was a conservative.
There are a few exceptional people who knew how to tell the story and who seemed to have died somewhat prematurely and I’ll always wonder about their deaths, even if their facts line up as medically expected.
Crichton is one. Breitbart is another. And I’ll probably always wonder about Clancy and Tim Russert, too.