8. Always Try To Make It Look Like An Accident (Shadow Of A Doubt, 1943)
But why get caught at all, right? If you make it look like its an accident, no one will ever suspect foul play. In the brilliant Shadow Of A Doubt, serial killer uncle Charlie seduces women and then kills them for their money, one after the other. Of course, thats part of the problem: he has his method down pat, but hes got an identifiable pattern of behaviour that causes him to become a suspect instead. If youre going to murder people for their money, you should really only ever do it once. Nonetheless, uncle Charlie is a smooth operator - he nearly manages to take care of his niece Charlie in the same way when she begins to suspect him. Its an excellent rule of thumb: remove all suspicion by presenting a completely innocuous scenario for the victims demise.