You might think that a person who’d commit a murder would want to do it privately. After all, a killer doesn’t usually want to have witnesses. But if you think about it, a large crowd can be an effective ‘cover.’ People don’t usually pay attention to others in a crowd unless they’re doing something unusual. There’s also the fact that it can be very easy to slip away in a crowd, so that nobody remembers a particular person being in a particular place. Of course, it’s got to be done skillfully, and the murderer needs to look and act ‘normal,’ and blend in. But a quick look at crime fiction shows that murder in a large crowd isn’t as hard as you might think. Of course, it’s a bit harder now with today’s CCTV, but it can still be accomplished. Here are a few examples from crime fiction to show you what I mean.

In Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, Hercule Poirot works with the police to find out who’s committed a series of murders. The only clues they have are cryptic warning notes sent to Poirot before each murder, and an ABC railway guide left near each body. In one case, the murderer warns Poirot that the next killing will take place in Doncaster. Chief Inspector Japp and the police are on the alert and watching carefully. But they’ve forgotten that a major race is being held there, and crowds have poured into the town. They try to surveil, but it’s unsuccessful. The killer strikes successfully, and a dead man is found in a movie theatre. The racing crowd and the theatre crowd didn’t notice anything. It takes all of Poirot’s skills to finally find out who the killer is.

Josephine Tey’s The Man in the Queue is the first of her novels to feature Inspector Alan Grant. He is faced with a difficult case when small-time bookmaker Albert Sorrell is stabbed to death. What makes this case challenging is that the victim was waiting with a crowd of other people at the door of the Woofington Theatre. When the doors opened, the crowd rushed in, and sometime during that controlled chaos, someone stabbed Sorrell. The witnesses who were standing near Sorrell aren’t much help; they didn’t pay attention to the people around him. The crowd was too large for anyone to notice someone running away, either. It takes time and some searching through the victim’s history to find out who would have wanted to kill him, and how that person got away with the crime with so many people around.

One plot thread of Tony Hillerman’s Sacred Clowns concerns Francis Sayesva, a member of the Taos Nation and a koshare – a member of a society of dancers within the community. One day, he and other koshares are performing a sacred dance as a part of a larger observance. There are crowds of people watching, and of course several participants. One of the people at the event is Jim Chee, a member of the Navajo Nation and a member of the Navajo Tribal (now Nation) Police. Right after the dance, Sayesva is murdered. Plenty of people were around, including Chee. But nobody saw exactly who did what, so at first, Sayesva’s killer seems to get away. But Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn work together and link this death up with another. They eventually learn what connects the deaths and who’s behind both.

In Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza’s Alone in the Crowd, we are introduced to Dona Laureta Sales Ribeiro. One morning she goes to the headquarters of Rio de Janeiro’s 12^th Precinct and asks to speak to Inspector Espinosa. She’s told that he’s in a meeting and can’t be disturbed, so she agrees to come back later. Then, she heads for a local bus stop. When the bus pulls up, she falls (or is pushed) under it. Nobody paid attention to anyone around her, so nobody really knows what happened. When Espinosa learns that the woman who was killed at the bus stop is the same one who came to see him, he guesses that her death was no accident, and sets out to learn who killed her and why. He finds out that her death has to do with another death that occurs in the novel.

Katherine Howell’s Web of Deceit features New South Wales police detective Ella Marconi and her police partner Murray Shakespeare. One day they’re alerted to a death that’s taken place at a busy train station. It seems that a man fell, or was pushed, under an oncoming train. There were large crowds around, and nobody was paying much attention to what was going on. Even CCTV footage isn’t much help. It establishes that the man was pushed, but it doesn’t show a clear picture of who is responsible. The only information the police have to go on at first is given to them by two first responders, Jane Koutofides and Alex Churchill. They tell the police that the man is Marko Meixner, whom they took to a local hospital earlier that day after a traffic accident. He had told the paramedics that he was in danger for his life, and that they would be, too, if they spent any time with him. They wanted him to get a psychological workup, but Meixner refused. Now it seems as though he was telling the truth.

A crowd can actually provide an effective cover for a murderer. It’s not as easy with CCTV equipment, and there’ve been several news events where CCTV footage has proved essential in solving crimes. But even so, murders in a crowd can happen, including crime-fictional ones.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Little River Band’s Take It Easy on Me.