1.   Authorities have long suspected that Sullivan, an investor, had placed a contract hit on Lita Sullivan because he believed he would suffer financially after their divorce.

2.   Authorities, from Atlanta police to the FBI, have said she was the victim of a contract hit.

3.   Police had suspected Cherenkov of masterminding the apparent contract hit last April that has shocked the Russian sports world.

4.   A high-ranking official responsible for providing municipal services in St. Petersburg was killed early Monday in a bombing that was believed to be a contract hit.

5.   A Russian banker was shot dead in the entrance of his St. Petersburg apartment building in an apparent contract hit, officials said Friday.

6.   Contract hits are so common they hardly ever rate more than a few paragraphs in the newspapers.

7.   He is accused of using police officers to execute at least four contract hits while he was interior minister.

8.   In recent months, a legislative aide, a high-ranking city official and a prominent banker were killed in St. Petersburg in apparent contract hits.

9.   Killings that police describe as contract hits are frequent, but rarely solved.

10.   Last week in Moscow, two Georgian generals studying in a Russan military academy were attacked by unknown gunmen in what appeared to be a contract hit.