Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)
Unknown English assassin hired by the OAS to kill de Gaulle.
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His real name is never revealed, and he is described as a tall, blond man in his early thirties with cold grey eyes.[1][2]
Making and release
Frederick Forsyth wrote the novel The Day of the Jackal in just 35 days.[3] The book was initially entitled The Jackal.[3] Within two years, Fred Zinnemann directed a film adaptation with Edward Fox portraying the Jackal.[3][4] The novel became a word-of-mouth sensation.[3]
Forsyth's novel came out on 7 June 1971 and quickly achieved bestseller status.[4] After being hired, the assassin creates the alias "the Jackal"; when the conspirators ask for a codename, he responds, "Since we have been speaking of hunting, what about the Jackal?"[5] The character is fluent in French and possesses the hand-to-hand combat skills necessary to kill someone using only his hands.[6] He views staying unknown as his primary asset and chooses to operate without partners.[6]
What the cited sources add
A Guardian article states the novel influenced thriller writers such as Jack Higgins, Ken Follett, Tom Clancy, and Andy McNab.[3] A Hebrew translation of the novel was found in possession of Yigal Amir, the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin.[3] Real-life terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was nicknamed "Carlos the Jackal" after a copy of the novel was discovered at his flat.[3][7] The Guardian reporter who found the novel at the flat christened Carlos "The Jackal" in a front-page world scoop.[8]
Carlos the Jackal had probably never even read the book he was named after.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Forsyth (1971) p. 36 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Forsyth (1971) p. 61 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Cumming, "The Day of the Jackal – the hit we nearly missed", The Guardian, 3 June 2011. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
- Wikipedia, "Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cumming, "The Day of the Jackal – the hit we nearly missed", The Guardian, 3 June 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Forsyth (1971) p. 61 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Forsyth (1971) pp. 49, 56 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jackal (The Day of the Jackal)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rose, "Carlos director Olivier Assayas on the terrorist who became a pop culture icon", The Guardian, October 23, 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Rose, "Carlos director Olivier Assayas on the terrorist who became a pop culture icon", The Guardian, October 23, 2010. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jackal (The Day of the Jackal) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Jackal (The Day of the Jackal) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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