Jackal (The Day Of The Jackal)
Encyclopedia
The Jackal is the main character
and protagonist
in the novel
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth
, which features a storyline centred on an assassin
who is contracted by the OAS
French
terrorist
group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle
, the President of France. The book was published on 7 June 1971, in the year following Charles de Gaulle's death and became an instant bestseller. In the original 1973 film adaptation, he is portrayed by Edward Fox
. A revised version of the character was portrayed by Bruce Willis
in the 1997 remake
, The Jackal, which shared little in common with its original.
, London
. He is described by Frederick Forsyth
as six feet tall, with a muscular build and few distinguishing features, one of which comprises his cold grey eyes. In the novel, it is stated he likes to wear striped shirts. During the course of the novel he changes his hair colour frequently.
, specialising in individual killings.
He uses a numbered Swiss bank account to hold the proceeds of his work. He is a sophisticated man who thoroughly thinks out his plans. No police force in Europe has ever heard of him, implying that he might change his codename for each of his missions. It is also revealed the Jackal is an acquaintance of a former Congo mercenary called 'Louis', whom he met in Katanga
and acts as a contact who puts him in touch with a skilled armourer who fabricates the assassin's rifle and a forger who provides false identification papers.
The Jackal speaks fluent French
and is so skilled in hand-to-hand combat that he can kill with his bare hands. He is skilled with handguns and a marksman with a rifle. In the novel, unlike other first-class assassins, such as German
'Hans-Dieter Kassel' and South African mercenary 'Piet Schuyper', he has managed to remain anonymous except to those select few who recommend him for work. The character considers his anonymity his main weapon and prefers to use it rather than rely on support.
In the novel, the International Police forces hunting him speculate that he may have helped assassinate Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
— a real-life person — in the Dominican Republic
by shooting the driver of his armoured car, causing it to crash.
Prior to being approached by the OAS, the Jackal's only known confirmed kills are of two German rocket scientists in Egypt
, who were helping Nasser
build rockets to attack Israel
. He performed this task at close range using a small-calibre weapon, a crime that left the Egyptian government baffled. The Jackal was paid by a Zionist millionaire in New York, who considered his money "well spent".
500,000 from the OAS to kill De Gaulle gave him the opportunity to retire early. Despite his concern over the "security slackness of the OAS", the job is too tempting to turn down.
The assassin invents the codename of the Jackal after he is hired by Rodin and his fellow conspirators. The codename seems to stem from the name of the animal
, as both the assassin and the animal are predators. When asked for his choice of codename in the novel the Jackal replies: "Since we have been speaking of hunting, what about the Jackal? Will that do?".
Taking his usual elaborate precautions, the Jackal arranged a false passport to get him into France and forged identity papers to get him close to De Gaulle. He also stole two passports as contingent identities and bought disguises to match. Unfortunately, France's Action Service was able to kidnap and interrogate an OAS bodyguard, one of the few men who was aware of the plot to kill De Gaulle.
Using OAS agent "Valmy" as a cut-out, the Jackal was kept fully informed of the French police's pursuit of him. This, and his constant changes of identity, enabled him to stay ahead of the police until Liberation Day, 25 August 1963, when the Jackal tried to shoot De Gaulle with a rifle he had disguised as an aluminium
crutch.
However, De Gaulle moved his head at the last moment, causing the Jackal to miss. As the Jackal prepared for a second shot, he was discovered by French police detective Claude Lebel, who shot him. He was buried two days later in an unmarked grave; only Lebel attended, anonymously. The death certificate identified him as "an unknown foreign tourist, killed in a car accident".
, some of the Jackal's background details are clarified. The dossier the OAS read from states that the Jackal killed Trujillo
and the "man in the Congo
" (presumably Patrice Lumumba
).
In any event, it is suggested that the British stumbled across the Jackal's false identity of Duggan by blind luck and that the Jackal may not even have been an Englishman.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
in the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal is a thriller novel by English writer Frederick Forsyth, about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France....
by Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
, which features a storyline centred on an assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
who is contracted by the OAS
Organisation armée secrète
The Organisation de l'armée secrète was a short-lived, French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War . The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence...
French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, the President of France. The book was published on 7 June 1971, in the year following Charles de Gaulle's death and became an instant bestseller. In the original 1973 film adaptation, he is portrayed by Edward Fox
Edward Fox (actor)
Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
. A revised version of the character was portrayed by Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
in the 1997 remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
, The Jackal, which shared little in common with its original.
Appearance
The Jackal is described as a tall, blonde Englishman in his early thirties. The character's real name is unknown and details of his background are sketchy. Forsyth explains in the novel, "Alexander Duggan who died at the age of two and a half years in 1931... would have been a few months older than the Jackal in July 1963". The character is written as an Englishman living in MayfairMayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He is described by Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
as six feet tall, with a muscular build and few distinguishing features, one of which comprises his cold grey eyes. In the novel, it is stated he likes to wear striped shirts. During the course of the novel he changes his hair colour frequently.
Abilities and skill
To avoid detection the character worked in an office and commuted to work (and despised it). Dreaming of "Cadillacs and Jaguars", he became a mercenaryMercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, specialising in individual killings.
He uses a numbered Swiss bank account to hold the proceeds of his work. He is a sophisticated man who thoroughly thinks out his plans. No police force in Europe has ever heard of him, implying that he might change his codename for each of his missions. It is also revealed the Jackal is an acquaintance of a former Congo mercenary called 'Louis', whom he met in Katanga
Katanga Province
Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...
and acts as a contact who puts him in touch with a skilled armourer who fabricates the assassin's rifle and a forger who provides false identification papers.
The Jackal speaks fluent French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and is so skilled in hand-to-hand combat that he can kill with his bare hands. He is skilled with handguns and a marksman with a rifle. In the novel, unlike other first-class assassins, such as German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
'Hans-Dieter Kassel' and South African mercenary 'Piet Schuyper', he has managed to remain anonymous except to those select few who recommend him for work. The character considers his anonymity his main weapon and prefers to use it rather than rely on support.
In the novel, the International Police forces hunting him speculate that he may have helped assassinate Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina , nicknamed El Jefe , ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He officially served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, otherwise ruling as an unelected military strongman...
— a real-life person — in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
by shooting the driver of his armoured car, causing it to crash.
Prior to being approached by the OAS, the Jackal's only known confirmed kills are of two German rocket scientists in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, who were helping Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
build rockets to attack Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He performed this task at close range using a small-calibre weapon, a crime that left the Egyptian government baffled. The Jackal was paid by a Zionist millionaire in New York, who considered his money "well spent".
Main novel plot
The Jackal planned to continue as an assassin until he had enough money to retire. The money paid to the Jackal for the Egyptian kill was enough to keep him in luxury for several years, but the offer of US$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
500,000 from the OAS to kill De Gaulle gave him the opportunity to retire early. Despite his concern over the "security slackness of the OAS", the job is too tempting to turn down.
The assassin invents the codename of the Jackal after he is hired by Rodin and his fellow conspirators. The codename seems to stem from the name of the animal
Jackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
, as both the assassin and the animal are predators. When asked for his choice of codename in the novel the Jackal replies: "Since we have been speaking of hunting, what about the Jackal? Will that do?".
Taking his usual elaborate precautions, the Jackal arranged a false passport to get him into France and forged identity papers to get him close to De Gaulle. He also stole two passports as contingent identities and bought disguises to match. Unfortunately, France's Action Service was able to kidnap and interrogate an OAS bodyguard, one of the few men who was aware of the plot to kill De Gaulle.
Using OAS agent "Valmy" as a cut-out, the Jackal was kept fully informed of the French police's pursuit of him. This, and his constant changes of identity, enabled him to stay ahead of the police until Liberation Day, 25 August 1963, when the Jackal tried to shoot De Gaulle with a rifle he had disguised as an aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
crutch.
However, De Gaulle moved his head at the last moment, causing the Jackal to miss. As the Jackal prepared for a second shot, he was discovered by French police detective Claude Lebel, who shot him. He was buried two days later in an unmarked grave; only Lebel attended, anonymously. The death certificate identified him as "an unknown foreign tourist, killed in a car accident".
The 1973 film
For the 1973 adaptationThe Day of the Jackal (film)
The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 Anglo-French film, set in August 1963 and based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, it stars Edward Fox as the assassin known only as "the Jackal" who is hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.- Synopsis :The film opens...
, some of the Jackal's background details are clarified. The dossier the OAS read from states that the Jackal killed Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina , nicknamed El Jefe , ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He officially served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, otherwise ruling as an unelected military strongman...
and the "man in the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
" (presumably Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...
).
Identities
- Unknown: The Jackal's real name is never revealed. Until he chooses his new codename — "Jackal" — he is referred to as "the Englishman". At the end of both the novel and the movie Scotland YardMetropolitan Police ServiceThe Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
detectives are still wondering who he was. One apparent inconsistency in the novel is that when his employers try to call him at his London apartment to warn him his cover is blown — and just miss him — there is no indication that the French Intelligence services make note of the London number and thus have a real lead to the Jackal's identity. However, he could have held the Mayfair flat under an assumed name as well, in which case his anonymity is truly airtight. - Unknown: The Jackal signs in at the British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
using his "habitual false identity". In the film version of this scene, all that is seen of this name is "J". - Alexander James Quentin "Alex" Duggan: This is the name of a boy who was born in 1929 but died aged two and a half in a car accident. The Jackal obtains Duggan's birth certificate under false pretences and applies for a passport in this name but with his own photograph and details. In the 1973 film the child's name is changed to Paul Oliver Duggan and his death certificate states that he died of diphtheriaDiphtheriaDiphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
. - Per Jensen: A pastor from CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
who bears a resemblance to the Jackal but is older with iron grey hair and metal-rimmed spectacles. The Jackal steals Pastor Jensen's passport from his LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
hotel room and adopts the disguise after the French police discover his Duggan identity. In the 1973 film, the character's name is Per Lundqvist and he is a schoolteacher; there is no Marty Schulberg character, so it is as Lundqvist that The Jackal pretends to be gay in order to stay at Jules Bernard's flat. - Martin "Marty" Schulberg: A student from SyracuseSyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
who bears a resemblance to the Jackal but is younger, with chestnut brown hair and heavy-rimmed executive spectacles. The Jackal steals Schulberg's handgrip containing his passport and adopts the disguise when he realises the police must be onto Jensen. In the book, as Schulberg, the Jackal pretends to be gay to slip past French security. - Andre Martin: A fictitious French war veteran from Alsace-LorraineAlsace-LorraineThe Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
, Martin is in his late 50s and has only one leg, necessitating walking around with an aluminium crutch. The Jackal becomes Martin — complete with French identity card and mutilé de guerre card courtesy of a Belgian forger — by dyeing his hair grey and cutting it badly, and swallowing a couple of pieces of corditeCorditeCordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance...
to make himself sick and affect a pale complexion. - Charles Calthrop: Charles Calthrop is the name of a former small-arms salesman who was in the Dominican RepublicDominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
at the time Rafael Leónidas TrujilloRafael Leónidas TrujilloRafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina , nicknamed El Jefe , ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He officially served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, otherwise ruling as an unelected military strongman...
was shot. The SISSecret Intelligence ServiceThe Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
later heard a rumor that Calthrop has helped the partisans kill Trujillo by shooting the driver of his armoured car, causing it to crash. In the book, the British police originally think Calthrop is the Jackal's real name, until the real Calthrop shows up at the end, after the Jackal's assassination attempt was thwarted. The authorities were misled by the fact that chacal (i.e., Cha[rles] Cal[throp]) is French for "jackal". When the Jackal learns the French are looking for a Charles Calthrop, he doesn't acknowledge this as his real name. In the movie, however, the OAS mention that the Jackal killed Trujillo, implying that The Jackal may have borrowed Calthrop's identity while in the Caribbean or may just have become mixed up with him.
In any event, it is suggested that the British stumbled across the Jackal's false identity of Duggan by blind luck and that the Jackal may not even have been an Englishman.
The real life Jackal
- Real-life terrorist Ilich Ramirez SanchezCarlos the JackalIlich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....
was given his nickname, Carlos the Jackal, based on this book. Already dubbed Carlos, when police raided one of his safehouses, they found a copy of The Day of the Jackal (actually it belonged to a friend) and a British journalist decided to dub him Carlos the Jackal. Apparently Sanchez despised the nickname, especially because it implied he was a mercenary like the Jackal rather than a revolutionaryRevolutionaryA revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
, which was how he saw himself.
Film portrayals
- The book was quickly adapted into the 1973 movie The Day of the JackalThe Day of the Jackal (film)The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 Anglo-French film, set in August 1963 and based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, it stars Edward Fox as the assassin known only as "the Jackal" who is hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.- Synopsis :The film opens...
with Edward FoxEdward Fox (actor)Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
in the title role. Though initially a box office failureBox office bombThe phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
, it garnered mostly positive reviews and is today widely popular with critics. - In the 1997 film remake The Jackal, the Jackal was played by Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
. IN the remake, he is hired by an AzerbaijanAzerbaijanAzerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
i mobster to assassinate the First Lady of the United StatesFirst Lady of the United StatesFirst Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
, and is pursued by the FBI and a former IRAIraIRA most commonly refers to:*Irish Republican Army, which has existed in various forms since 1916**List of organisations known as the Irish Republican Army**Provisional Irish Republican Army...
sniper with a vendetta against him. This version of the character is substantially different from that featured in the novel and the 1973 film; in this film, he is portrayed as a sociopathAntisocial personality disorderAntisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition , as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood...
, and it is implied that he takes pleasure in killing.