
I fell in love with an assassin (2008) - Tomte
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/i-fell-in-love-with-a-female-assassin-791978.html
======
pmarreck
A good story, if not fantastically-written.

I'd advise not flipping through the photos until you read it, though. Spoiler
alert. Some of those should have been left for the end.

~~~
abandonliberty
I followed this advice. Highly recommend it.

------
tebruno99
Everyone is of course titled to their own opinion but for me personally I feel
like Love doesn't mean what this person thinks it means.....

~~~
duxup
He was young too. Perhaps it was love, for him, as he understood it at that
time.

------
mcjiggerlog
Fascinating story.

Colombia still has a ways to go, but luckily things have improved a lot in the
last 10 to 15 years. It's my favourite country I've ever travelled in and I
was met with nothing but hospitality and generosity.

------
2T1Qka0rEiPr
> leading a secret double life &ndash; as an assassin

These things always make me chuckle

~~~
ainiriand
Like: meet [name], actress and model.

~~~
jacurtis
I don't think it's quite the same.

She could have been living a double life and not been an assassin. They aren't
synonymous. People live double lives where they have multiple families, or
other things. A double life isn't only reserved for assasins, so the
clarification is actually quite important.

The author was explaining that he just found out that his girlfriend was
living an alternative life in addition to the one he knew. Then he clarifies,
what the "double life" was, it was as an assassin.

~~~
EGreg
What if the assassin discovers you lead a double life - and assassinates one
of your lives - so you have one life? Then double lives would be only for
assassins.

------
erikb
I always cringe a little when I read these naive white-boy style of stories,
in form of documentaries or texts like this one. Reminds me so much of how I
acted the first time I was in a country where people are still required to
face reality much closer than they like. Reminds me of how I probably still
act considering how good a life we live here in the West.

It's really a pity when these documentaries don't contain literal quotes and
face expression images, since there is so much that a naive documenter can't
see, and therefore can't write down. For instance in these situations for the
man it's usually an exciting adventure with sexy cherries on top. But for her
it's often an attempt for a better life, a very serious matter. But because
she knows that the John Snows don't know anything, she also needs to play the
relaxed sexy lover.

This, I believe is true strength. Constantly for weeks, maybe months, acting
relaxed and enjoying having another person inside you, not because it's the
truth but because you hope for your daughter, your blood, that she will have a
better life than you. It's an amazing thing to watch. And really painful when
she dies in the end like in this story, to some degree because the guy wasn't
able to even get a hint of the situation.

For other people who also enjoy that I suggest the movie "The Banquet (2006)"
(夜宴) from China. It gives a good opportunity to get an inside view into that
kind of situation. Quote (own translation): "The true art is not to hide your
feelings behind a mask. The true art is to turn your face into the mask."

------
moron4hire
>> But her excuses, or lack of them, riled me and I told her she represented
everything that was wrong with the country.

Bold thing to say to a sociopath with a gun.

~~~
make3
Thinking only sociopaths can do really terrible things is likely very wrong.
Normal people can decide over some time to switch off empathy, or to work
against it. This needs to be understood.

~~~
LordKano
Anger, pain or desperation will make otherwise normal people do some very
abnormal things.

Even in the most "civilized" and wealthy of western democracies, 1 week of no
food, water and electricity would lead to absolute bedlam.

Three months of that kind of desperation would lead to otherwise normal people
killing and robbing strangers. When the crisis abates, they'll be able to
rationalize away their behavior because it was necessary.

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
The most dangerous person in the world is someone with nothing to lose. If you
have nothing left to lose then you aren't constrained by worrying about
tomorrow.

------
haffla
"With their story set to become a major Hollywood film..."

Has anybody heared of that major Hollywood film?

~~~
coldtea
Usually film plots linger for decades (even major stuff) and often die
altogether.

There's this, which might be tangentially inspired (2 years after the
article):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombiana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombiana)

There's also a documentary about the guy in the article (who's a
photojournalist himself):
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3766432/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3766432/)

------
luord
As a Colombian who remembers how things were nine years ago (I was sixteen and
just starting college)[1], I have to admit that the thing I found most
shocking was that he wasn't just kidnapped by the rebels. That non-sequitur of
mine aside, good story.

[1]: Although that's for the publication of the article; the events described
happened before then. But that's even more understandable as the closer one
gets to the nineties (and the actual nineties), the worse the painting of
Colombia is.

------
kstenerud
"But what happens if your new girlfriend has a much darker and more sinister
secret than having slept around a bit?"

And what, exactly, is wrong with "having slept around a bit?"

~~~
greenshackle2
Higher risk of STDs, higher risk of cheating.

There's nothing morally wrong with sleeping around if that's your deal,
doesn't mean I have to want to date people who sleep around.

(I happen not to mind because i) I have a high sex drive, people who've slept
around usually do too so we're a good match, and ii) I'm not very jealous, I'd
consider an open relationship with the right person. But there are legitimate
reasons to worry about it.)

------
LordKano
One time, I fell in love with a run of the mill sociopath. Fortunately, she
wasn't a violent one.

~~~
cl0wnshoes
He definitely had some issues as well. For sex he let assassinating informants
and others (non-militant?) slide. It seemed like he still tried to keep the
sexual relationship going even after she told him she did some side work
cutting a body into pieces, though it was harder and eventually led to him
moving on. All around no bueno.

~~~
silverbax88
Nobody is the villain of their own story.

~~~
LordKano
THIS!

I'm sure that she's the victim in her own story.

------
nbanks
This must be what it would be like to be a Bond girl in real life. Not very
glamorous. As a dude, I've never really thought of what it's like to date
someone who kills people for a living because the gender roles are usually
reversed.

------
rwoodley
this is such a dull article. how did it get upvoted?

------
Tomte
BTW, this is the ninth time I have submitted this story. But I just knew it
fits this audience, so I tried again.

So, if you feel your submissions never make it to the front page, realize that
much of it is pure chance.

~~~
EGreg
Yeah, @dang this is what I've been saying.

How do you resubmit the same link though? You tack on &attempt=55 to the end?

~~~
tiffanyh
One trick is to append a period after the TLD.

So for the link above, it'd be

[http://www.independent.co.uk./news/world/americas/i-fell-
in-...](http://www.independent.co.uk./news/world/americas/i-fell-in-love-with-
a-female-assassin-791978.html)

Notice the period after ".co.uk" and before the "/"

E.g. "Example.com./"

Having a period after TLD is a valid URL. But rarely seen.

~~~
curun1r
This is part of DNS.

Having a period after the domain tells DNS not to search any search domains
setup on the system. If your system was setup with the search domain
example.com, www.independent.co.uk could also be evaluated as
www.independent.co.uk.example.com (if it had a DNS entry) by your system
whereas www.independent.co.uk. can't.

------
ablation
He's certainly a better photographer than writer, as I found that an
overworked chore to read.

~~~
pmarreck
The humans who are both excellent writers AND have the guts to pursue a story
like this in such a dangerous area are probably extremely rare

~~~
ablation
Maybe The Independent could have found a human to work on his copy with him?

~~~
greekyogurt21
2edgy4me

~~~
ablation
Nice throwaway, pal.

~~~
greekyogurt21
* 7 points by greekyogurt21 3 days ago | parent [-] | on: Tesla factory workers pushing for a union send dem...

Made an account just to say that I couldn't tell if this post was sarcasm or
not. Really? You don't want "...tyranny of the masses demanding ever more pay,
benefits, etc until a company is bled dry", but you're ok with "..government
enforced guarantees of decent treatment."?

Strong fucking everything

------
tomohawk
cue Violent Femmes

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
Wrong

Cue Enigma _I Love You... I 'll Kill You_

------
bruno2223
Sad.

------
netzone
The first sentence seems something out of Buzzfeed.

> ... (with a few conveniently erased).

Just... why?

~~~
napworth
Oh great. Yet another person who throws Buzzfeed under the bus without
actually reading their articles.

Have you ever even read their news articles? They are of a much higher
standard than anything The Independent has ever put out.

~~~
Practicality
I am pretty sure he was referring to Buzzfeed's clickbait titles. They are
pretty famous for it so it's a fair comparison.

