Assassination that were too brutal for TV

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Julius Caesar, the ultimate betrayal.

[00:00:03]Imagine it's the Ides of March, 44 BC.

[00:00:06]You are the most powerful man in Rome, walking confidently into the Senate floor.

[00:00:12]You are surrounded by your peers, friends, and trusted advisers who are crowding around you, offering petitions and asking for political favors.

[00:00:20]The atmosphere is official, respectful, and completely normal for a day of politics.

[00:00:26]You are at the absolute peak of your power, and you feel entirely untouchable.

[00:00:31]But as one senator grabs your toga and violently pulls it down from your shoulder, the illusion of loyalty shatters.

[00:00:38]Another man steps up and plunges a dagger directly into your neck.

[00:00:43]You try to fight back, but suddenly every single person surrounding you draws a blade.

[00:00:49]You are trapped in a sea of your own friends, completely defenseless as they violently tear into you from every possible angle, like a pack of starving wolves.

[00:00:58]You suffer 23 separate agonizing stab wounds in a matter of seconds. This was the legendary and brutal assassination of Julius Caesar.

[00:01:08]Over 60 senators conspired in the sudden attack, leaving the dictator bleeding to death on the cold stone floor of the Senate at the feet of his rival's statue.

[00:01:18]It was an act of sheer, overwhelming betrayal that didn't save the Republic, but instead plunged Rome into a devastating and bloody civil war.

[00:01:27]Inejirō Asanuma, the live broadcast.

[00:01:31]Picture yourself in Tokyo, 1960.

[00:01:34]You are a prominent political leader in the middle of a passionate televised debate.

[00:01:39]You're standing at the podium in a massive auditorium, the bright stage lights shining down on you as you address a rowdy, but engaged crowd.

[00:01:48]You are completely in your element, projecting your voice to millions of viewers watching from the safety of their living rooms on live television.

[00:01:56]Suddenly, the crowd gasps. A 17-year-old ultra-nationalist boy sprints across the stage at full speed.

[00:02:04]Before your security can react, or you can even raise your hands to defend yourself, the boy slams into you with the force of a freight train.

[00:02:12]He drives a foot-long traditional samurai short sword directly into your ribs, ripping entirely through your abdomen.

[00:02:20]The razor-sharp blade punctured your aorta instantly.

[00:02:24]You stumble and fall as the live broadcast continues to roll, capturing the pure terror of the moment.

[00:02:31]This was the shocking assassination of Inejiro Asanuma.

[00:02:35]The fatal strike was so sudden and violent that Asanuma passed away before he even reached the hospital.

[00:02:42]The horrific exact moment of impact was captured by a photographer, freezing the pure brutality of the attack in time forever.

[00:02:50]Zar Alexander II, the bulletproof carriage.

[00:02:54]Imagine yourself in 1881, riding back to your palace in a luxurious, bulletproof, custom-made carriage gifted to you by Napoleon III.

[00:03:03]It's a freezing Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, and the streets are covered in snow.

[00:03:09]You're surrounded by heavily armed Cossack guards riding alongside you.

[00:03:13]You are completely insulated from the freezing cold and completely protected from the outside world.

[00:03:19]Suddenly, an explosion rocks the street.

[00:03:23]An assassin has thrown a bomb beneath your carriage.

[00:03:26]But your bulletproof armor saves you.

[00:03:28]Shaken, but unhurt, you step out of the carriage into the smoke and snow to check on your wounded guards.

[00:03:35]But it's a trap.

[00:03:36]As you stand in the street, completely exposed, a second assassin emerges from the crowd.

[00:03:42]He shouts, "It is too early to thank God." and throws a second bomb directly between your feet.

[00:03:49]The second explosion goes off with nowhere for the blast to go but up.

[00:03:53]The sheer force of the bomb completely shatters both of your legs, tearing away flesh and bone up to your knees.

[00:04:00]This was the gruesome end of Tsar Alexander the Second.

[00:04:04]His guards rushed his mangled, bleeding body back to the Winter Palace, but the blunt trauma and massive blood loss were too severe.

[00:04:12]He bled to death in his study less than an hour later. Leon Trotsky, the unexpected strike.

[00:04:18]Imagine it's a quiet afternoon in August 1940.

[00:04:22]You're living in exile in Mexico, but you finally feel safe.

[00:04:26]You're sitting at the desk in your peaceful study, reading over a political article brought to you by a trusted friend's fiance.

[00:04:33]The sunlight is streaming through the window. Your beloved dogs are fed, and you feel completely at ease as the young man stands quietly behind your chair, waiting for your feedback.

[00:04:44]But what you don't know is that the raincoat he's holding over his arm is hiding a cut-down mountain ice axe.

[00:04:50]Without a single word of warning, he raises the steel weapon and brings the spiked end crashing down directly into the back of your skull.

[00:04:58]The blunt force and razor-sharp steel penetrate almost 3 in deep into your brain.

[00:05:04]This was the horrific fate of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

[00:05:10]Incredibly, despite the lethal blow, Trotsky stood up, spat on his attacker, and wrestled him to the ground before his bodyguards rushed in.

[00:05:19]He survived for another 26 hours in a local hospital before succumbing to blood loss and shock.

[00:05:26]The assassin, a Soviet agent named Ramon Mercader, served 20 years in a Mexican prison, while the ice axe itself became one of the most infamous murder weapons in history.

[00:05:37]Grigori Rasputin, the unkillable mystic.

[00:05:41]Imagine you are a notorious, powerful mystic in 1916 Russia.

[00:05:47]You have been invited to a wealthy prince's palace for a late-night gathering.

[00:05:51]You're sitting in a beautiful, warm basement eating sweet pink cakes and drinking rich Madeira wine.

[00:05:59]The prince sitting across from you seems incredibly nervous, sweating and pacing the room, but you feel invincible.

[00:06:07]The prince isn't nervous. He's terrified because those cakes were laced with enough cyanide to drop an elephant. And you aren't dying.

[00:06:16]Panicking, he pulls out a revolver and shoots you squarely in the chest.

[00:06:21]You collapse to the floor, entirely devoid of life.

[00:06:25]The assassins celebrate upstairs.

[00:06:28]But hours later, when they come to check your body, you open your eyes.

[00:06:33]You lunge at them, violently strangling the prince.

[00:06:37]You burst out into the freezing, snowy courtyard, desperate to survive, but the other assassins chase you down and shoot you three more times in the back and head.

[00:06:48]But even with poison in your stomach and four bullets in your body, you still refuse to die.

[00:06:54]The terrified assassins tie your hands and throw you into the freezing Malaya Nevka River.

[00:07:01]This was the legendary assassination of Grigori Rasputin.

[00:07:06]When authorities finally pulled his frozen body from the ice days later, they found water in his lungs.

[00:07:13]Meaning that despite the poison and the point-blank gunshots, he was actually still alive when they threw him into the water, fighting until his very last breath. It turns out the history books are filled with some pretty horrific ways to go.

[00:07:27]But nonetheless, most of us will never have to worry about a medieval ice ax, a bomb under our commute, or poisoned pink cakes.

[00:07:36]So make sure you watch your back. Be careful who you trust.

[00:07:40]Don't eat strange pastries in a basement, and most importantly, have a happy day.