Shelly de Killer

"Miles Edgeworth"

- A special investigation team has existed for a number of years, but few know of it. [...] Their task is to find the "owner" of this card... A man called Shelly de Killer. And just as his name states, he is a "killer", an assassin. The best, at that.

Shelly de Killer is an assassin who was called to testify as a witness -- through a radio transceiver -- to the murder of Juan Corrida, whom he had been hired to kill. He is the third heir to a line of assassins known as "de Killer" that first became known in the early 20th century.

Involvement in Corrida's murder

 * Main article: Farewell, My Turnabout

On March 2018, Matt Engarde hired de Killer to kill Juan Corrida at the Gatewater Imperial Hotel and retrieve Celeste Inpax's suicide note, which was hidden in a Swiss bear toy. After the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix was over, Engarde met up with de Killer, who disguised himself as a bellboy, and paid him as part of the contract. De Killer soon killed Corrida by strangulation, left his calling card, and gave Engarde the bear. However, Adrian Andrews discovered the crime scene before anybody else did. She accidentally took de Killer's calling card and meddled with the crime scene to frame Engarde for the murder. The resulting arrest was the first time that one of de Killer's clients had been arrested for one of his hits. In light of this, de Killer delivered the bear toy to Engarde Mansion.

Still under the guise of a bellboy, de Killer lured Maya Fey by alerting her of a phone call at the front desk. De Killer then gave Will Powers a transceiver to give to Phoenix Wright for two-way communication, and he demanded a complete acquittal for Engarde in one trial day, holding Fey as ransom. He kept Fey locked up in Engarde Mansion's wine cellar and informed her of his profession and the deal that he had just made.

Shortly before the trial, de Killer shot the case prosecutor, Franziska von Karma, in the shoulder, as a "present" to Wright. As von Karma was sent to the Hotti Clinic, Miles Edgeworth prosecuted in her stead. Although Wright tried to make the case for Adrian Andrews being the real killer, he failed to do so, and the trial was adjourned for the day. Before Andrews left, however, Edgeworth discovered the card that Andrews had absentmindedly found, and he demanded that Andrews give it to him.

After the trial, Wright went to visit von Karma, and Edgeworth told him about de Killer. During Wright's investigation, Fey tried to escape with de Killer's calling card, and she found a picture of Celeste Inpax in a private lounge before de Killer caught her. When Engarde asked Wright to feed his cat Shoe at his mansion, Wright met de Killer in person for the first time, albeit in the guise of "John Doe", Engarde's butler. Wright tried to gain information out of Doe, but Doe insisted that it would be inappropriate for him to talk about it.

While Wright was in Corrida's room, de Killer contacted Wright about the "deal" that they had made. He reluctantly agreed to let Wright try again tomorrow, but communication between them suddenly broke off into static. The cause was eventually discovered: a hidden spy camera in one of Corrida's bear presents, which was traced back to Engarde. Wright confronted Engarde about this, and Engarde revealed his true self, revealing that he had videotaped the Corrida's murder as "insurance" against de Killer, as well as a possible way to blackmail him.

Edgeworth was waiting for Wright as he left the detention center, and they went to the Criminal Affairs Department to discuss Wright's situation. During the conversation, de Killer contacted Wright again, and when Wright asked why de Killer would do so much for Engarde, the assassin replied that he saw it as part of his duty to protect his clients. He then remarked that it would be quite troublesome for sometime to trace the signal and ended the call, but ironically, he had his location given away by a "meow" from Shoe at the end of the call. Edgeworth immediately sent police units to Engarde Mansion, but he had already escaped. Wright realized that he had talked to de Killer face-to-face as the butler "John Doe".

On the second day of Engarde's trial, Will Powers testified that he had seen de Killer's bellboy disguise was brought about by Will Powers's testimony. After Andrews's testimony about the bear figurine, Edgeworth was forced to perform a handwriting analysis test on the suicide note and had the judge give a recess. During the recess, de Killer called him and told him the name of his client. Since de Killer was supposed to testify about the murder, he testified via radio transceiver in favor of Engarde, claiming responsibility for the murder and naming his client as Adrian Andrews. However, de Killer was caught lying by mistaking Andrews's name belonging to a male and her not burning the suicide note.

During the testimony, he tried to escape the police but accidentally left four pieces of evidence behind: a pistol, a video tape, the bellboy's uniform he wore and his calling card drawn on by Maya. de Killer attempted to get the evidence back but failed to and injured three officers in the process. When Gumshoe tried to bring the evidence to court, he ran into a traffic pole but von Karma was able to track him down using her tracker and managed to bring the evidence to court.

The judge was not convinced that the evidence was related to de Killer's client but when Wright asked de Killer about the video tape, he found out that de Killer was ordered by Engarde not to watch the contents of the video. Realizing that the assassin did not know about why the video existed, Wright informed de Killer of Engarde planning to blackmail him with the video tape. de Killer soon broke his contract with Engarde and informed the court that if a client willingly betrayed him, de Killer would swore bloody vengeance on him. Once de Killer decided to give Maya back, Engarde pleaded guilty for his crimes.

Reappearances

 * Main article: Gyakuten Kenji 2

The president's attempted assassination

 * Main article: Turnabout Target

de Killer was next seen as a suspect in the attempted murder of the president of Zheng Fa, Teikun Ō. He was posing as John Doe, an ice cream salesman. When Manosuke Naitō arrived on the scene to take over announcing the death of Gai Tojiro, de Killer took him hostage, so that Edgeworth could continue with his investigation and they proceeded into the president's plane, where the body of Naitō's partner was found. De Killer tried to use this opportunity to make Ō come out of his secure room by threatening to kill Naitō. When it became apparent that the president would not appear, de Killer, satisfied with the progress of the investigation, proceeded to escape. Before that, he informed Edgeworth he had not killed Naitō's partner, and left his trademark calling card.

Naitō revealed that de Killer tried to assassinate the president a few days before his appearance at Gourd Lake. He disguised himself as one of his bodyguards and ambushed him at the embassy of Zheng Fa. He almost succeeded, since almost all of Ō's bodyguards proved useless, except for the head bodyguard, Tojiro, who managed stop him and wounded his arm. Naitō himself was the first to be incapacitated and due to his injury he was forced to wear a neck brace and couldn't turn his head right anymore. De Killer's assault also forced them to change the security plans. Only the two most trusted bodyguards, Naitō and Tojiro, would stand beside the president during his speech.

The calling card in question was the last and only mystery unsolved by Edgeworth and the card itself gave Edgeworth the question of who de Killer's client was.

Attempt to kill his client

 * Main article: The Grand Turnabout

de Killer reappears as his "ice cream salesman" persona at the end of the final case to kill his client, Sōta Sarushiro, a circus clown of the Berry Big Circus. de Killer felt betrayed because he deceived him about a couple of facts. Sarushiro never told him about the president being a fake and eventually killed the president himself, which broke de Killer's rules for an assassin-client trust relationship and thus caused de Killer to end his contract with Sarushiro. He was stopped by Ryōken Hōinbō, Sarushiro's father figure. Once his assassination attempt is foiled, he decided to vanish, with Shi-Long Lang chasing after him.

Personality
"Shelly de Killer"

- ...People are not always who they appear to be.

As a hired assassin, de Killer holds a strictly professional view of his work and carries it out with precision. He strongly values the bond of trust that he has with his clients, and he considers betrayal a horrible crime deserving death. Whenever he commits a murder for a client, de Killer leaves a calling card with a seashell design on it at the crime scene. The card confirms that he had committed the murder, and it serves as insurance against any charges the client may face.

De Killer provides his services to anyone who agrees to keep his identity secret. He has a website for this purpose. Although he often meets his clients face-to-face, he sometimes contacts them by snail mail or online so as not to lose any business opportunities.

Name

 * "Koroshiya" literally means "assassin" in Japanese.


 * "Sazaemon" comes from the Japanese word "sazae" which means "a seashell", a reference to his calling card.


 * His Japanese alias, "Tarou Tanaka" (田中太郎), is a generic, plain name in Japanese. The English equivalent would roughly be "John Smith" or "John Doe".


 * "Shelly" references his calling card, a card with a picture of a conch shell.


 * "De Killer" is a reference to his occupation.


 * Although unintentional, the name "Shelly de Killer" is effectively "the killer with the conches".


 * The name "John Doe" is used when a subject's true identity is unknown or withheld for legal reasons. It is also used for a male corpse or hospital patient if their identity is unknown.


 * His French alias comes from "allons au bistro" which means "let's go to the pub".

Development

 * The transceiver used by de Killer to testify bears a resemblance to the assassin himself. The line down the middle of the transceiver resembles de Killer's stitches and the dial resembles his monocle. This similarity is bolstered by the fact that the groove on the dial looks a lot like his constantly closed eyes and that it rotates according to his emotions.


 * In Gyakuten Kenji 2, the ice-cream cone de Killer is seen holding bears a resemblance to de Killer himself, echoing the resemblance to his own transceiver in the assassin's previous appearance. In the ice-cream's case, it has a cherry "monocle" and the ice-cream itself is split into two flavors up the center, mirroring de Killer's distinctive facial stitches. The ice cream, like the transceiver, shows de Killer's emotions.