Cleaner (crime)

In crime fiction, a cleaner is a person who destroys or removes any incriminating evidence at the scene of a crime, typically a murder, as if the crime never happened. Knowledge of crime scene investigation is required, as well as an implacable manner as the perpetrator, who is usually agitated and confused, is inevitably involved with the cleanup.^{[citation needed]}

A cleaner can also refer to an assassin, as murder might be required to "clean" up a situation. The assassin Léon, from the movie of the same name, referred to himself in this way.

A cleaner is also a slang term for an individual (usually a member of a crime organization or a covert government agency) who disposes of a corpse after a hit.

In real life, there is an industry of cleaning up after crime scenes. This involves removing blood and other biohazardous material, or dangerous chemicals used in an illegal drug lab.^[1]

Movies & Television

Curdled is about a woman who takes a job cleaning up crime scenes after the police investigate. The short on which it is based inspired Quentin Tarantino to include an underworld cleaner, played by Harvey Keitel, in Pulp Fiction. Keitel also played a cleaner in Point of No Return, an American remake of Nikita.

Jean Reno played Viktor, a cleaner in the first sense of the term, above, in the film Nikita. In the later film, Léon, he played Léon, an assassin who referred to himself as a cleaner, demonstrating the second sense of the term as well. Luc Besson has stated that these two characters are related ^[2].

The character of Mike in the AMC series Breaking Bad is a cleaner, employed by both Gus and Saul individually .

The fiction film Sunshine Cleaning is based around the business of crime scene cleaning, strictly in a legal manner, not the aforementioned illegal methods.

In the sitcom Seinfeld, episode 155 The Muffin Tops, Newman plays a 'cleaner' (in a parody of Pulp Fiction) who "makes problems go away" by eating leftover muffin "stumps".

Stephen King plays Bachman, a cleaner who helps dispose of a body, in the season 3 episode of Sons of Anarchy titled "Caregiver".

In season 2, episode 3 of Human Target, two cleaners are mentioned, one under the codename "Mr. Chicago". Mr. Chicago was hired along with another cleaner by a gang leader to kill off all the other team members of the heist after it was completed.

See also

Crime scene investigator Forensic scientist

Mechanic White House Plumbers

Examples

• Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe, from Pulp Fiction
• Viktor, from Nikita
• Léon, from Léon
• The Cleaners, from Max Payne 2
• Carl, from Munich
• Wolf, from Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
• Frederica Sawyer, a.k.a. Sawyer the Cleaner, from Black Lagoon
• The Watchdogs, from Manhunt 2
• Tom Cutler, from Cleaner
• The Cleaners, from Underworld: Evolution
• Mike, from Breaking Bad
• Garcian Smith, from Killer7

References

1. ^ Six-figure jobs: Crime-scene cleaner - Apr. 15, 2005
2. ^ Jean Reno Picture, Profile, Gossip, and News at CelebrityWonder.com