Joseph Hamilton (born in St. Joseph on August 28, 1938 – August 3, 2021) was a retired professional wrestler, wrestling promoter and trainer. In his active days, Hamilton was known as one half of the tag team “The Assassins,” where he was called “Assassin #1.” When The Assassins ended, Hamilton wrestled as “The Assassin” and “The Flame” both wearing a mask.

Before turning professional, Hamilton was a promising amateur boxer, but instead of continuing his training he decided to follow in the footsteps of his brother Larry Hamilton. Larry was a professional wrestler known as “The Missouri Mauler.” He started working for Gus Karras Promotions, a professional wrestling promotion company based in St. Louis. By 1957 Hamilton started teaming with his brother Larry and worked as a full time professional wrestler. In May 1958, The Hamilton Brothers faced Rocca and Perez in the main event of a Madison Square Garden show making Jody at age 19 the youngest man to ever co star in a main event at Madison Square Garden.

After the Hamilton Brothers time in New York, Jody Hamilton decided to strike out on his own working as a singles wrestler. He received an offer from the Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1961 and was given a partner Tom Renesto to make “The Assassins” or the “Masked Assassins.” They wrestled all over the world with great success under the trademark gold and black masks.

In the 1980’s, Hamilton founded Deep South Wrestling, where he also wrestled until a back injury forced him to retire in 1988. After Deep South Wrestling, Hamilton worked extensively for World Championship Wrestling both on the booking team and as a trainer.

Hamilton was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame as part of the 1994 class at the Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.