Calling Card (crime) - Examples in Fiction

Examples in Fiction

• In the 1919-1920 Fritz Lang adventure film series The Spiders a spider was the calling card for the criminal organization known as 'The Spiders'.
• In the 1963 movie The Pink Panther, the "Phantom" would leave behind a white glove with a monogrammed P on it after every successful theft.
• In the 1990 film Home Alone, the "Wet Bandits" rob the houses of people on vacation, and leave the water running. They return as the "Sticky Bandits" in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
• In the highly acclaimed novel, The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner, the villainous Count Kalliovski leaves a necklace of red silk set with garnets upon each of his murder victims, making it appear as though the victim's throat has been slit.
• In the 2000 book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, a Hassassin uses brands representing the four classical elements as calling cards in a series of ritualistic murders related to each element (e.g. fire for one victim who had been burned to death.)
• In DC Comics, Batman's enemies often leave calling cards. In particular, his arch-enemy, The Joker, uses two types of calling cards, one is a simple joker card from a deck of playing cards, which was used in the end of the film Batman Begins. The other is by far more sinister - Joker Venom, which causes death while laughing madly and applies a permanent, ear-to-ear, grin.
• Another Batman villain, The Riddler, leaves behind a riddle or other puzzle, whose solution is a clue to his overall plot.
• In the 2003 film Pokémon Heroes, Annie and Oakley leave a rose and a black card with lipstick marks at the robbery scene at the library.
• In the 2000 novel Holes, Kate Barlow kisses the corpses of her victims, leaving a lipstick mark at every murder.
• In the 2004 movie Saw the killer, Jigsaw, cuts a jigsaw piece out of the flesh of the victim, symbolizing the piece that the person was missing.
• In the 2004 movie Ocean's Twelve, the "Night Fox" leaves behind an onyx fox at every robbery.
• In a 2007 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent a murder victim is found with the ace of hearts left on the body. It is later revealed that the killer did this as an homage to his grandfather, a 1950s-era gangster who would leave the ace at all his crime scenes.
• In the first couple of books in The Executioner (book series), the main character, Mack Bolan, would leave behind a marksman's medal on or near his victims.
• In the Sucker Punch video games Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, the main character, Sly Cooper, always leaves behind a blue calling card in the shape of his raccoon-head logo.
• In an episode of the anime series The Big O the assassin R.D.(short for Red Destiny) leaves the words "Cast In The Name of God, Ye Not Guilty" written in red lipstick at the scene of every murder she commits.
• In the new Video-Game Dishonored, The main character leaves a calling card in the form of a distorted mask.