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"murderer" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often killer (6 letters).
Definitions
a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
Word origin
From Middle English murderere; equivalent to murder + -er.
Used in a sentence
“Neither does a great nation […] debate, with drivelling tears, and diabolical sympathies, whether it ought not piously to save, and nursingly cherish, the lives of its murderers.”
“I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.”
““Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend,” observed Poirot philosophically. “You cannot mix up sentiment and reason.””
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Crime-story killer”8 letters
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