The Jackal

After the Hardy Boys, Carlos The Jackal is the first character that I have met and become so familiar with in the book world. I am not so sure now if I met him first at Frederick Forsythe’s nuclear bomb thriller “The Fourth Protocol” or in the assassination plot “The Day Of The Jackal”. Of course, we’ve got to put exception to Snow White and Cinderella since you know, they are purely kidstuff.

Carlos The Jackal is one cunning hitman that goes with ultimately sneaky disguises that myths have gone on to tell how once he had put up a female persona and was so good at it that some men actually fell in love with him.

His person is merely fictional at most—-that’s the general drift. Yet there were incessant murmurs in the international police world—-most especially now that we are within the encompassing grasp of the World Wide Web—-that Carlos is in fact not merely a fictional character overused and milked-out by several American thriller-meister out to make good bucks writing convincing political-thriller plots—-such as Mr. Forsythe and Mr. Robert Ludlum—-but is and was in fact based on a real person. Some say he was a Brazilian and had lived towards the 80’s and looked as handsome as Marlon Brando. While some others say he was actually of Italian descent. But one general acceptation about him is that he was of Caucasian built and of latin roots; thus the Spanish-sounding moniker.

His myth had become so persevering that towards this day, literature and Hollywood continue to immortalize him; like in the movie simply titled “The Jackal” and that one where Val Kilmer (The Saint) had tried so vainly to put up disguises that weren’t disguises at all (because the wigs he wore were so fake that in every pony face he had suited, even the blind could tell he was still Val Kilmer).

In the 70’s, a young Venezuelan named Ilich Ramírez Sánchez had among his belongings a copy of “The Day Of The Jackal” and when this was found by authorities, they began to designate a code-name for him, that of “The Jackal”, a title that had since became an international phenomena in the police world. Sanchez had been a known militant, long before the word “terrorist” had become so widespread. He is a mercenary. A true-blue international playboy. And he kills for money. It had reached the point where a question was raised of whether Sanchez was merely mimicking the fictional “Carlos” in Forsythe’s thrillers, or the fictional “Carlos” mimicking Ilich Ramirez Sanchez? Who’s personifying who?

BBC has an incisive story on him.

Such is the myth and legend of one known character in the fictional world. A very rare case where reality meets fiction and fiction enters the threshold of reality in the most palpable manner. There is nothing like this. One good recent example is the work “Primary Colors” where despite the repeated denial by “Mr. Anonymous” (later on to be revealed as Newsweek’s Joe Klein), the sharp and trendy presidential candidate in his book unmistakably resembles a real president of America—-the one named Bill Clinton. One prime example of reality becomes fiction and fiction becomes reality.

Carlos The Jackal is one such memorable character for me. They say he was really a real person, and he was the Venezuelan Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. But I’d like to remember him as that persona written in Mr. Forsythe’s books. At least in the fictional world, he is not as insensitive and senseless, at least not in any way like the real person, who despite the nearly romantic legend, Sanchez had resolved to ultimately destructive violence and had clearly benefited financially from his “undertakings”—-a bloody mercenary as an Englishman would say.

Now you might ask why I am writing about this mythical assassin from a time long gone. The person and idea of Carlos The Jackal had just suddenly came to my mind the moment I read this article about “hitman scams” going around emails with real and fearful threats used as money-baits. I hope you’d be aware of this and not be duped. Might as well read this CNN article and find out for yourself about the latest shenanigan happening in the cyberworld.