I've been reading about the Crusades in Zoe Oldenbourgs book, "The Crusades" and am in the middle of the Third Crusade.
I'm wondering about the death of Conrad of Montferrat (a few days after his election as King of Jerusalaem just so we're all thinking of the right person).
Four possibilities were suggested in the book.
1) King Richard had him killed
2) Saladin had him killed, because the Ismailians owed him a blood debt.
3) The Ismailians did it off their own bat, "to add to the discord among the Franks"
The first seems unlikely since Richard doesn't seem the type to collude with the enemy, he'd just have had a knight throw him off a tower or something.
So were left with the second two. What kind of blood debt did the Ismailis owe Saladin, the author mentions Saladins killing of Reynald of Chattilon as a simialar case?

Besides all this, the book is decades old, has anything read anything more recent, has any further evidence/theories come up?