The only reason I can come up with, is that if Jim dies before he finishes the book, Ken gets the $1MM insurance policy. I suppose he makes much less for a novel? That has to be the reason, but Ken is stupid. The last Melville novel would sell a ton with the writer dead. I guess a million in the hand is worth more than Melville in the bush.

Now I'm thinking he could have gotten both the royalties of the new book (if Jim finished it) and the insurance if they hadn't published the book yet. Perhaps they had a written agreement terminating their partnership and he had to kill him to get the money?

Also, why is Jack Cassidy always killing authors?