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The proverb 死人【しにん】に 口【くち】 無し【なし】 (the dead do not have a mouth) is listed
e.g. [here](http://www.languagerealm.com/japanese/japaneseproverbs_shi.php)
and I've also heard it from my (native) teacher.

Here's what I'm wondering:

  1. From what I've heard so far, it should be understood to mean "You can say anything about a dead person. They will not talk back". Is that how everyone will understand it? I want to be sure that I'm using it correctly. An alternative interpretation would be "If you want someone to keep her mouth shut, kill her". Can I be sure that this is never meant? (I could imagine such a thing being said in a gangster movie)

  2. How old is this saying/are its origins known? Is it connected to a religion, is it maybe originally Chinese, etc.?
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set-phrases
Origin and meaning of the proverb 死人【しにん】に 口【くち】 無し【なし】
From [what I gather](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/dead+men+tell+no+tales),
the connotation of the English phrase "Dead men tell no tales" is the latter
-- "It's safe to kill everyone who knows the secret". Am I right?

That's not the primary meaning of Japanese 死人に口なし, although it looks very
similar. As your teacher said, this should be understood as "You can easily
accuse a dead person, even unjustly, because they can't argue back". This is
usually used for someone who is already dead, and that person does not
necessarily have a secret.

> 死者は何も語れないので、何の証言も釈明もできない。口のきけない死者は **生きた者の思うように利用されやすい**
> ということ。([故事ことわざ辞典](http://kotowaza-allguide.com/si/shininnikuchinashi.html))
>
> 死人は **無実の罪** を着せられても釈明することができない。また、死人を証人に立てようとしても不可能である。
> ([デジタル大辞泉](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/99528/m0u/))

And I think this proverb is frequently used in the sense along the lines of
"If you want to ask something from a dead person, it's too late", typically in
police dramas.

That said, if Japanese people see 死人に口なし in subtitles of foreign spy films,
etc., I believe they can easily understand that implication. ("Ah, this must
be a euphemistic and cool way of saying _kill'em_!")
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Additional information on question #2, at OP's request:

[日本国語大辞典](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Kokugo_Daijiten) records a usage
that dates back to 1788, which is mid-Edo period.

> 雑俳・柳多留‐二二〔１７８８〕「死人に口なし置みやげとぬかし」

And its relationship with Chinese is unclear. They have a bit different
expression [死无对证](http://baike.baidu.com/view/198295.htm) "the dead cannot
testify" in Chinese, which seemingly traces back to Yuan dynasty. Yet it seems
several languages also have [similar
sayings](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dead_men_tell_no_tales).
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