BALTIMORE — A publisher has agreed to stop selling a book on how to be a hit
man and will pay millions of dollars to two families who claimed a hired
assassin followed the manual's instructions to kill their loved ones.
Paladin Press of Boulder, Colo., on May 21 settled a federal lawsuit filed by
the family of Mildred Horn and her 8-year-old quadriplegic son, Trevor, and the
family of nurse Janice Saunders.
The lawsuit, which was scheduled to go to trial this week, had accused
Paladin Press of providing James Perry with a 130-page blueprint for murder.
Perry was convicted of killing the Horns and Saunders in 1993, a year after
ordering the book, Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent
Contractors. Perry is on death row.
Lawrence T. Horn, Horn's ex-husband, was sentenced to life in prison for
hiring Perry so he could inherit the $1.7 million estate his son won from a
medical malpractice suit.
The amount of the settlement, in which Paladin agreed to stop selling its
book, was not made public.
"It is a multi-million dollar settlement in which Paladin has agreed, in
addition, to make donations to two charities," said John Marshall, an attorney
for the families. "They have agreed to remove Hit Man from their catalog and to
cease publication."
Paladin lawyer Lee Levine said the recent school shootings in Colorado and
Georgia could have made it harder to convince a jury that the book did not cause
the murders or substantially help Perry commit them.
More than 13,000 copies of the book have been sold since it was first
published in 1983. It offers tips for deadly effectiveness, such as shooting
victims in the head. Mildred Horn and Saunders were shot in the eye. Trevor's
breathing tube was disconnected.
Paladin lawyers claimed the book was intended for a wide audience including
crime buffs and mystery writers and said there were few similarities between
Perry's crimes and the book. Paladin lawyers said Perry learned what he knew
while growing up in a tough Detroit neighborhood.
But in 1997, a federal appeals court allowed the lawsuit, saying the book was
"a step-by-step murder manual" for assassins.
The 13,500-member Society of Professional Journalists filed a court brief in
Paladin Enterprises v. Rice in support of Paladin Press, saying the suit
threatens the right of free speech.
"Unfortunately, the timing for the suit is difficult given our recent
experience with the Littleton, Colorado, shooting," said Wendy S. Myers, the
group's president.
And Bob Vanderet, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents movie studios, TV
producers and book publishers, said the case was making the entertainment
industry nervous.
A Louisiana court cited the Paladin case in its decision to uphold a lawsuit
against director Oliver Stone and his film "Natural Born Killers." The suit was
brought by the family of a convenience store clerk who was shot and paralyzed.
Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment lawyer, spoke to The Washington
Post about the Paladin settlement, saying: "The case has always been one of
the most dangerous and anger-provoking of any involving the publication of a
book. …The chances of the publisher winning at trial seemed slight and even
slighter after the recent Jenny Jones verdict. It is a case that the press as a
whole is the better for having behind it."