@Setanta,
It's not easy to kill someone who is determined to stay alive (not that I would know...)
I read an account a few years back about two guys who were supposed to get rid of a husband and wife. I think I remember it this way:
One night, the assassins took the couple by gunpoint, swiped a small motorboat and headed out onto Sheepshead Bay. They tied them up, hooked a concrete block onto each of them and, once out far enough from shore (they thought), they rolled them over the side.
They reported later:
"The wife disappeared with just some splashes and a few bubbles, but the guy, the guy was a strong swimmer and we hadn't put enough weight on him. He kept coming to the surface and we would have to turn the boat around and try to get an oar on him. We tried running him down with the boat too, but he somehow would get below where the prop would hit him and then surface again after we went by.
This went on for about an hour and the clouds moved in and we couldn't see a thing past about ten feet; we only had the running lights and a small flashlight to work with. We had to listen for him to surface, so we had to shut the motor off until we did, then start up and head towards the sound. We tried shooting him too, but after six or seven shots, we stopped, we didn't have any spare ammo and we wanted to wait for a sure shot. Besides, we didn't want the Coast Guard or the Fish and Game guys to come around.
We didn't hear anything for a long time and we figured, that's it, he's done. We pulled everything together in the boat, started up and headed back to the dock.
~Meanwhile, the husband, who had managed to get one arm free, had swam to the nearest shore, gotten out of the water, found help at a nearby house, called the cops and hitched a ride with the home owner back to where the thugs had left their car. That's how he came to be standing on the dock with six cops when the two, very tired, assailants motored up in the stolen boat.
Joe(Never kidnap a local boy, they know the names of all the little places and all the faces too.)Nation