The Executioner is a paperback series of books (343 as of June 2007) created and written by
American author
Don Pendleton in
1969 who would go on to write 36 more Bolan novels before he licensed the rights to
Gold Eagle. The series details the ongoing adventures of twelve-year career Army
sniper Master Sergeant Mack Bolan, introduced in
The Executioner #1 (
War Against the Mafia).
Bolan is a weapons specialist and skilled
armorer who was serving his second tour of duty in Vietnam when he returned home on leave to the United States following news of the death of his parents and sister, and the critical wounding of his younger brother. Bolan discovered that a local
Mafia "family" had been intimidating and harassing his family, as well as luring his younger sister into a life of prostitution, which resulted in a murder/suicide committed by his own father. Bolan decided his war with the "real" enemy was right here at home and not on the battlegrounds of Vietnam.
In books 1 through 38 Bolan fights a one man battle against different
Mafia and
Mafia-controlled organizations throughout the country. His successes in breaking up various
Mafia operations (mainly by killing the leadership and most of the local muscle) were attributable to his use of a mix of stealth & infiltration and military-style attacks, including heavy weapons (grenades, mortars, automatic weapons, missiles, sniper rifles) plus his excellent marksmanship with rifles and handguns. His signature during the early books was to leave a marksman's medal on or near his victims, an idea borrowed from earlier characters in
pulp fiction.
During his campaigns against the mafia, which he refers to as his "Mafia Wars," Mack vows to "Shake their house down." He uses such aliases as LaMancha and Omega in conjunction with a laminated playing card of an
ace of spades. This card was used by the mafia to identify a mafia enforcer called a "Black Ace" who had almost unlimited power among
Mafiosi to even unseat the head of a
Mafia family on his own authority. A Black Ace was greatly feared by
Mafia families.
The Executioner is often cited as the inspiration for the Marvel Comics character
The Punisher, who also fights the Mafia.
Several announcements have been made of an
Executioner film at first produced by
Joseph E. Levine who contracted
Richard Maibaum to write a screenplay. Coincidentally or otherwise, Maibaum's unproduced screenplay and the earliest
Executioner book not written by Pendleton (
Sicilian Slaughter by
Jim Peterson; a house name of Pinnacle books) featured Bolan fighting the Mafia in Europe. Later announcements were made of
Executioner projects variously starring
Burt Reynolds or
Sylvester Stallone (with
Cynthia Rothrock appearing opposite him
[1]) but the ideas never left
development hell.
http://www.donpendleton.com/executionerseries.html
I actually adopted his breathing techniques and organizational skills. This series had a great impact on my vision of right and wrong.
I have never met anyone else that has read or even heard of this series so I don't know what impact it has had on others. I still occassionally control my breathing this way when I am paniced.