Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat

April 28, 1192

Days after being elected king of Jerusalem, Conrad was ambushed in a Tyre street by two Nizari Ismaili killers who had converted to Christianity and entered his service months earlier. The murder etched the word assassin into European languages and eliminated one of Richard's political rivals. Suspicion for the killing fell on Richard himself, on Saladin, and on the Old Man of the Mountain in roughly equal measure.