professional murderer

“That’s right. You people aren’t supposed to know. A bounty hunter is a professional murderer who’s given a list of those he’s supposed to kill. He’s paid a sum—a thousand dollars is the going rate, I understand—for each he gets. Usually he has a contract with a city so he draws a salary as well. But they keep that low so he’ll have incentive.”

Hopefully this is a set-up indicating that the baddie in this film will be a tooled-up three-year-old girl, but it's more likely that his character is just making the most basic possible justification for being a professional murderer.

"Of course, of course," snapped Prince Youssoupov, "I am not a professional murderer."

J.R. moves in a world where Cadillacs park conspicuously in front of tenements and the guy taking his grandchildren down to the corner for a lemon ice is the No. 1 professional murderer on the East Coast.

But suppose a man should set himself up as a professional murderer of Cabinet Ministers .