Each episode features a real life story of a "contract" murder.

He was shot outside his Moscow apartment after what the police said could have been a robbery attempt staged to cover a contract murder.

A wave of contract murders of politicians and businessmen has swept the city in recent months.

Brothers soon graduated into labor racketeering and contract murder.

Indeed, contract murders reached a frequency of more than one a day in the mid-1990's.

"I cannot use the office of the Presidency to carry out contract murder," the President said levelly.

One of their contract murders had been recorded, however mystically, by a living entity.

The police have described the case as a contract murder, and said they believe Mr. Klebnikov was killed because of his work.

From the beginning, detectives suspected that the killing was a contract murder, but the case was stalled for nearly a year, officials said.

Clark was convicted of the contract murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.