Independently wealthy, he's debonair and travels the world looking for adventure. He's a ladies' man who drives cool cars and attends lavish parties. He knows about weapons, explosives, espionage gadgets, and tradecraft. He's ruthless, never hesitates to kill to complete his mission, and is backed by a number of governments. No, this isn't James Bond. This is the most dangerous man in the world, a fearless terrorist so powerful that he evaded the authorities for three decades. He's Carlos the Jackal
Carlos, then and now
Before there was Osama bin Laden, before there was Ramzi Yousef, there was the Jackal.
He was born in Venezuela, under the more sane name of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, but history will remember him as Carlos the Jackal. He was the first superterrorist, back in the days when terrorism was still far enough from U.S. soil for Americans to consider it glamorous.
The Jackal's exact entry into the world of international terrorism remains enigmatic, appropriately enough. He was born in 1949 to a family headed by a man described as a "millionaire Marxist" by the BBC. So the young Jackal was no stranger to paradox.
The Jackal had a talent for languages, enhanced by travels during his youth.
Various accounts describe the young Jackal receiving terrorist training at an early age, possibly in Cuba and/or under the supervision of the KGB. Whatever the case, he debuted as a terrorist during the early 1970s. His studies had taken him to the Soviet Union, where he took an interest in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, even as his talents were nurtured by the KGB. The Soviets sent him to the Middle East for terrorist training around 1970, when he officially took the name "Carlos."
("The Jackal" was appended later, after investigators found a copy of spy thriller "The Day of the Jackal" in one of Carlos' hideouts.)
After an elaborate sting executed with the cooperation of Sudanese authorities, the Jackal was arrested by the french authorities in 1994,
With more than 80 deaths, probably thousands of injuries and millions of dollars in property damage to his credit, the only question was which crime to try him for. In 1997, Carlos the Jackal was sentenced to life in prison for three murders.While further trials may be possible, France has no death penalty, so it's likely the Jackal will remain right where he is for the rest of his life.
Once a feared killer, now just another prisoner, Carlos staged a brief hunger strike but now seems destined to fade into Hollywood-style obscurity, his life and supposed causes reduced to star vehicles for the likes of Bruce Willis, Matt Damon and Aidan Quinn.
Carlos in Fiction:
- The Bourne Ultimatum ISBN 0553287737 (in this work, Carlos is killed)
- (The movies based on these books make no mention of Carlos.)
- Frederick Forsyth wrote a novel, The Day of the Jackal, first published in 1971, in which an international assassin named "The Jackal" is hired to assassinate Charles De Gaulle. A copy of this novel was found in Ramirez's hotel room during a police raid. This may be the origin of the "Carlos" nickname. Many erroneously believe that the character portrayed in that novel was based on him, which is impossible as the novel was published before Carlos come to public attention.
- In the movie True Lies, the character of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a secret agent, intimidates Bill Paxton's character by (deliberately falsely) accusing him of being a dangerous terrorist called "Carlos."
