Frederick Forsyth - "The Day Of The Jackal" Quiz

Answer: General Charles de Gaulle

De Gaulle has been president of France since the end of World War Two. He died of natural causes in 1970, so we can assume all assassins were unsuccessful.

Answer: No one

When the convoy of limousines driving de Gaulle, his wife and his ministers drive into the street where the terrorists are waiting, the closest thug has the sun in his eyes and doesn't see the cars in time. When their machine-guns fire at the cars and motorcycle escorts, no one is hurt.
Despite the lack of fatalities, most of the conspirators are sentenced to death after being rounded up. But their leader Bastien-Thiry is convinced no French soldier would shoot him so he is smiling confidently when told his final appeal has been rejected.
But, early the next morning, he is proven wrong...

Answer: Colonel Marc Rodin

Rodin is lying low in Austria when the news of the leader's execution comes onto the radio. He says something I cannot repeat and then contacts his two most trusted colleagues Casson and Montpellier, the treasurer and the underworld coordinator. All three men agree that with the OAS so tattered, broke and informant-riddled there is no point in organising any more assassination attempts. Unless...
They hire someone OUTSIDE their organisation.

Answer: English

Rodin makes discreet inquiries about an English professional assassin he has heard about. When the three OAS chieftains summon this man to Austria, he comes almost immediately and unsurprised. It turns out he'd learnt they had been asking about him and he did some research on them and De Gaulle before flying over.

Answer: 500,000 US Dollars

At first the OAS treasurer is outraged at having to pay such a sum. He is further outraged when The Jackal points out they cannot afford to be emotional and that he is their only hope because the OAS has so many informers. The Jackal comments "Considering you expect to get France, I'd have thought it a fair price."
Eventually they agree.

Answer: They move to a guarded hotel in Rome

Everyone agrees that Rodin, Casson and Montpelier should hide in Rome under guard until De Gaulle dies. Since they're the only ones who know about the plot, everything would be ruined if one of them was caught. The Jackal was very clear: "If either one of you is captured I shall feel free to call the whole thing off."

Answer: False

He is a very careful professional; he does not buy a gun anywhere. He actually asks a Belgian underworld gunsmith to make one for him. This gun can be dissembled and hidden in a variety of places. Underneath a car, inside a fake plaster cast, under clothing etc. All these The Jackal does and no one finds the weapon of death.

Answer: All these people

He's very good at giving himself false identities, disguises, clothing, hair-dye, and even fake passports. The passports were either stolen from men roughly his size or issued to him under a false name. They say after the book was published the British police were so worried about the plausibility of the scam that they hurried to the passport offices to make sure no passports had been issued for dead people!

Answer: They kidnap a bodyguard of the conspirators

The French Secret Service tricks Victor Kowalski, a Polish ex-paratrooper who fought alongside Rodin in Algeria, into returning to France. They convince him that his daughter is dying of leukemia. The good news is: she is actually perfectly healthy. The bad news is: they arrest Kowalski and torture him so harshly that they accidentally kill him. From his distorted ramblings about a blond stranger, a "jackal", and the crime-wave that had hit banks all over France lately, they put two and two together.

The next step is to track down the assassin who calls himself "The Jackal".

Answer: False

He has no choice about this assignment. He is given all the resources and support of all the Government departments imaginable. But he is also given subtle hints about what will happen to his career if he doesn't find The Jackal in time.

Answer: A watermelon

He takes the watermelon into a secluded forest in Belgium and hangs it from the branches of a large tree (after painting a face on it.) Then steps back a considerable distance and shoots the "head" with eventual perfect accuracy.

Answer: Blackmails him

When they first met The Jackal insisted everything from the photo negatives to his driving license (under his real name) be handed over when the work is done. But when the forger hands over the fake ID cards he casually remarks he locked everything The Jackal wants in a safe deposit box somewhere. Unless The Jackal gives him a lot more money, he will not get them back. At first The Jackal agrees to the new price and both men are laughing heartily...when The Jackal suddenly clobbers the forger and breaks his neck.

The Jackal then hides the body, thinking no one will discover it for quite some time and leaves, taking his ID cards and money.

Answer: Bryn Thomas

Once the English Prime Minister realises his old friend De Gaulle is in danger he orders everybody to leave no stone unturned to identify, then find The Jackal. One of Bryn Thomas' contacts recalls a rumour about an Englishman who was thought to be involved in the murder of a Dominican lord.

The Englishman used to work for an armaments firm, but was fired. He is not at his apartment when the police come knocking and his passport (at least in his own name) is still there. Suspicion now falls on this man Charles Calthrop (not least because the first three letters spell CHA - CAL, which is the French word for Jackal).

Answer: False

In actual fact, one of the high-ranking officers does not realise his new live-in girlfriend works for the OAS. She passes on everything he tells her to The Jackal. His telephone was later bugged and his lover exposed. He was so embarrassed about being taken in by her for so long that he resigned on the spot. No doubt more series action was taken later on.
Everyone asked the chief detective "But of all the men in this room, how did you know whose phone to bug?"
Claude Lebel replied "I didn't. So I bugged them all."

Answer: A countess

He meets in her in a remote hotel and they spend the night together. He leaves in the morning (shortly before the police move in with dogs and roadblocks to catch him!) and later decides to call on the countess at home since he is a few days ahead of schedule.

She welcomes him in at first (not least because her husband is in Paris and openly cheating on her!) but later that night she discovers he is talking on the phone to someone who warns him the police nearly got him at the hotel. She then goes through his bags and finds what are clearly parts of a gun.

She's heard about the OAS on the news and puts two and two together. But he strangles her before she can cry out for her servants.

Answer: Per Jensen - A Danish pastor

Ever since leaving England he went under the alias Duggan. Once the countess is murdered he crams everything he has to do with Duggan, passport, clothes, drivers license etc, into one of his three suitcases. He throws it into a remote gully and leaves with his hair now dyed black and wearing phony glasses.

Answer: A gay bar

He knew it was only a matter of time until the English told the French that a pastor named Jensen had had his passport stolen in London a few weeks ago. Since The Jackal was roughly the same height and build, they would match that ID to the man seen catching a train close to the poor woman's home. Standard procedure would be to then check all Parisian hotels for new arrivals.

The trouble was, The Jackal did not GO to a hotel. He entered a place he would not normally enter and let someone take him home.

Answer: August 25th

On August 25th 1944 Paris was recaptured from the Nazis by the French. Since then it has become a national holiday called Liberation Day. It is also a day General De Gaulle never ever neglected to attend the parades and put medals on soldiers' chests. The Jackal knows this from his meticulous newspaper research and knows that this is the one day he would definitely catch The General out in the open.

August 25 is also the birthday of Frederick Forsyth.

Answer: A young policeman

The Jackal's plan seems to be working.
He sneaks past the procession barricades by masquerading as an old one-legged war veteran (using the ID card the forger gave him). He is in fact hiding his disassembled gun in his crutches and concealed left leg. He then sneaks into his preselected apartment building which overlooks the procession. Knocking the landlady unconscious, getting inside a deserted apartment, he crouches and fires at De Gaulle...only De Gaulle moved his head at the last second so the shot hits the road instead.
Quickly The Jackal gets ready for another shot, just as Lebel and the cop who let The Jackal pass earlier burst in. The Jackal shoots the poor boy instead and Lebel has enough time to grab the deceased's sub-machine gun - and assassinate the assassin!
General de Gaulle continues his ceremony down below, none the wiser.

Answer: False

Shortly after August 25th, the suspected Charles Calthrop bursts into his apartment and demands to know why the police are searching it. It turns out he had been on holiday fishing in Scotland.
The French and English authorities scratch their heads and say "If The Jackal wasn't Calthrop then who the [deleted] was he?!"
That question is never answered. The body of the unnamed blond Englishman is buried outside Paris later.
The day of The Jackal is over.