Doomed to Fail - Ep 237: Real Life Super-Villain? - Carlos the Jackal

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

When does someone turn into a super villain? Let's talk about Carlos the Jackal - part serial killer, part terrorist, full guy who just wants to make a mess. We'll walk through his childhood in South America and his adulthood in literally any organization that needed a murderer. Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life! patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPodWe would love to hear from you! Please follow along! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod  Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod Email: [e-mail] 

In the matter of the people of the state of California versus Hortenthall James Simpson, case number B.A. 019. And so, my fellow Americans. And what your country can do for you. Boom, we are back. Can you believe the Patriots won? I was just going to say that or something similar to that, which is fun. I think next year the Bears are going to play in Madrid. And my dad wants to go. I mean, that would be fun.

Because a lot of the teams play exhibition games in Europe. that'd be dope. I don't think those are exhibition games. I think they're actual season games. Yeah. I can't wait. Yeah. The NFL's attempt to like expand globally. They're like, listen, we're going to turn this thing around and we're going to overtake soccer in England.

It's like, I don't think that's going to happen. No, they're absolutely not going to do that. But it's, it is fun. Like, I saw the Super Bowl when I lived in, when I was studying brought in Italy, like in the middle of the night at a bar. And that was super fun. That's fun. Yeah. Yeah.

Into it. Well, why don't you go ahead and introduce us? Hello, everyone. Welcome to doomed to fail. We bring you historical disasters and failures like the Patriots. And my name is Taylor, I joined by Fars. We just said the Patriots won. I know, but I feel like I don't feel like the Patriots deserve like a comeback kid story.

Now that I've gone through your like, oh, they have a nice coach now. I don't know. You don't want to see Ted Lhasta win? I guess. I don't know. I stopped watching Ted Lassa for like the second season because I was like, this is a little much... I only have seen like three episodes, and I thought it was cute. But that's as far as I got. You know me.

I can't keep up with things. Like, mine just doesn't do that very well. All six episodes of Heat of Ravory are available for you right now. I'm not going to watch it. God, it's so good. Did Rachel watch it? No. No, I don't want to see a love story.

Like, that's not interesting. It's so good. Oh, my God. It's so much more than that. Keep going. You go. Okay. I have a very, very fun story today.

This is the, I was, I started going, like, picking this topic, or I started thinking about this topic. And the more I went into, the more I was, like, this is, like, and so insane. And, like, you can't believe this guy's real. Like, it actually touches a little bit on your, like, it touches on your story from last week only in the sense that this person lived like an insane insane life and in this case in a pretty short period of time so I'm going to cover this individual very interesting very confusing and I'm going to start by telling you where you know I got the

inspiration which was two movies that are based on a book the book is called the day of the jackal the movie is called the day of the jackal from 1973 and then you have the movie the Jackal that came out in 1997 which was kind of like a rough remake of the original starring Bruce Willis and Richard Garrett. Have you seen any of these? No. My dad showed me the day of the Jackal back when I was

the kid and it scared me because the guy was an absolute sociopath and I was like, why did you show this me? Ah, parents, it's our job to have your kids watch a movie that ruins their life. Yeah. So the movie is basically focused on a freelance serial killer

like a mercenary serial killer type person. He's kind of like a black ops operational guy, but one that does it for money rather than country, basically. And for the longest time, I thought the movies were based on a real guy. I thought, like, there was an inspiration for it because I heard there were some true story elements to it. Then I got deeper into the research here, and then I realized that the real guy got the name, the jackal, because some journalist, after there was like a raid in his place, his house or whatever, they found the book the day of the jackal and they gave him the nickname the jackal. So that's how that kind of came about. So it was like a little bit inverse. But like

he's basically this guy. He's basically the guy from the movies. So the book, the book isn't about him. It's not about him. But he basically, like he was doing what he was doing. and then the book came out in the middle of his exploits but it wasn't really about him but he basically became this guy like he was like really inspired by it he was already doing it

he was already doing it yeah he was already doing it yeah he was already doing it and nobody knew who he really was when this book came out again this guy was like underground undercovered all that stuff somebody just wrote like this political serial killer mercenary book and then somebody found it in his possession

like oh wait this guy is is literally this jackal guy. Got it. So if I was reading a Batman comic while also being vigilante, you might call me Batman. Exactly. Got it.

I would. I definitely would. So I'm going to cover this guy's name's Carlos the Jackal. And I'm going to do it in a little bit of a weird fashion. So stay tuned for that. And this one was hard for me to cover to research for several reasons.

One is that his real life activities are just so. preposterously insane. The amount of carnage this guy caused, it's kind of hard to comprehend it in like a modern context. And this guy just like was able to do what he was doing because we're surveilled everywhere, right? We're tracked everywhere. We're surveilled everywhere. It's like it's almost impossible. Like, wait, how did this happen? And nobody seemed to care for a long time. And after I did all my research, I still don't totally know like what he was all about. Like, what drove him to do the things that he did.

It's kind of confusing in terms of like the steps that he would take to go through, go through his activities. I started out this research thing and this guy was kind of like a badass fighting for his beliefs and his values. And by the end of it, I was asking Chad to BT to figure out what this guy actually believed in and why he did the things he did. So like that's the difference.

Like maybe he was just crazy. Maybe he was just crazy. Maybe he was like incredibly talented in this one thing which was blowing up a shitload of people all the time and killing a bunch of others with guns. Like, I don't know. I don't know. It's hard to figure this out. The last part that made this hard is, again, I've talked about this before.

I kind of hate covering, like, murder stories at this point because it's always the exact same thing. It's like, and then he broke it, then he strangled her, and then he killed her and then he buried her body. It's like, there's exact same thing over and over again. And the repetition of the point where it, like, loses meaning. And parts of the story feel like that. So I'm going to like gloss over some stuff because I can't, how many times can I say,

and then he killed someone or blew up, whatever. Like, I'll hit the high nose, but I'm not going to go into like the repetition of it. Yeah. So it's just story after story of violent terrorist acts and eventually, you know, they just kind of bleed into each other. So we're just going to dive straight into it. One of the thing I'm going to do that's kind of unique about this one is I'm going to tell this story within the framework of my own like understanding of when I think that like his reason

for doing things is shifting and changing. I'm going to like punctuate those in my narrative as a narrative shift. I'm going to call those out and I'll be telling telling part of the story that involves his activities, which I don't understand in the context of his previous activities. So like we can kind of like all align in terms like, why would you do this? Why would you go about this action? Are you just a crazy stereotypillar or you're an idolat? I can't tell. So let's get into it. Who was Carlos the Jackal?

So Carlos was born in Venezuela in 1949. He was born to parents who came up during a chaotic time in Venezuela's history, which has always been chaotic. I know. I'm like, when was it not? I know. So real quick history lesson, just super briefly. Just because I'm trying to paint a picture of like his ideology

that might help us understand why he was the person that he was. So from 1908 to 1935, Venezuela was ruled by this military dictator. And that guy is named Juan Gomez. He led a bunch of U.S. oil companies come in and extract oil and generate a ton of wealth for basically Juan Gomez. Like, that was it. Like, all the oil that was the main thing from Venezuela went into his pockets and his coffers. None of that went down to like everyday people. So obviously, I researched a lot around like when Marxists.

Marxism in general comes into play within cultures. And like this tends to be it. This tends to be like where like 90% of your population is like starving and can't feed their kids. And then like you're super fine and you're doing great up there. From here on, I just want to be like super deliberate about the terminology I use. So just so everybody knows I'm not throwing out around language willy-nilly. I actually went super into the weeds about this because it's super confusing. there are actual distinctions between Marxism, socialism, and communism.

So like, we use those words so interchangeably in modern life. But like to understand what drives somebody to this kind of ideology, like, it's important to like actually understand like what the conditions were and then what the ideology was offering. So we'll start on a Marxism front. So it comes in many different stripes. and the fact that a huge class disparity results in Marxist rule is mostly what's relevant about what was going on in Venezuela during this time. It basically provided the grounds for socialism, which is the implementation of Marxism,

to take place in Venezuela because of this disparity between the wealth. In this case, the version that came out of it was called, it was Democratic Socialism under the political party note is. democratic action. That's the actual political party that rose up after Juan Gomez, Gomez set down in power. Actually, he died. This was like a tame version of Marxism, and it was in power until 1949 in Venezuela when the Communist Party, which was the radical version of Marxism, took over the country. So democratic socialism is kind of like what we see today. That's kind of just like, hey, It's like, it's what you've said before, which was like, what was your framing of it?

It's like, nobody should be poor or something. Yeah, like, I was saying the capitalism is like, anyone can be rich. And then, like, Democrat socialism is anyone can be rich, but nobody should be poor. That's what it was. Yeah. That in this context was, like, the initial stepping stone to the Communist Party, which, like, it's not that. It's like, stitch on your neighbors, gel-in-you-law. You know, like, it's whatever.

Like, you get it. And those people were just absolutely nuts. Those are the version of Marxists that were saying if somebody has a different belief in us as a collective, we should just off them and kill them. And that's a lot of what was going on. This was like the solonization of Marxism, basically. Right. It's not like Soviet. I'm not talking like Soviet Russia.

You know, yeah. Like you are now. Yeah. Yeah. That is Soviet. That is actually like that that's the end state that they would get to. Right. So here's a narrative shift part.

Carlos' dad was one of these guys. Carlos' dad wasn't like the Democratic Socialist side. He was the Communist Party side of this. For context, Carlos isn't even Carlos Dachal real name. His real name is Elich Ramirez Sanchez. Do you have any idea where the name Elych came from? Mm-mm. Okay.

It came from a guy named Vladimir E. E. Leach Lennon. Oh. Oh, there you go. Can you guess what Carlos is... Go ahead, sorry. His dad named him that? Obviously, they didn't name him Carlos the Jekyll, but like...

Yeah, they named him at Leach. Yeah, yeah. Can you guess what the dad also named his two siblings? Marks and Stalin. Lennon and Vladimir. So the family, the siblings were Vladimir-Eleach-Lennon. I love a little Venezuelan with Vladimir. Yeah. Yeah. So apparently his poor mother was like, can we please name these kids something normal?

And dad was like, no, hell no. We got to build cartoon character villains here. Like, it's like, it's insane. Or real. And also, I'm just going to call him Carlos because it's a nickname that he was given later on in life, but it's just easier to remember. So what was his first name when he was born? Elyche. His first name was Elish. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

So Carlos was basically brought. up by his father to be a revolutionary. Like that's basically, again, think about the timelines. He was born in 40, 49. His dad came up in this time period where you had the huge class disparities that led to democratic socialism and then someone like him

or like, this isn't enough. We need to go further into it. And there was enough time there to kind of build up into the Communist Party. So he literally raised his kid to be like a revolutionary. He would join the Communist Party. He would attend events, a line with his dad's political obliaps.

And for summer camp, he was sent to Havana to a place called Camp Matanasas, whatever, which was literally a training camp for guerrilla warfare. They taught them how to rig IUDs and fucking like insane. Like, they said a kid there. Typical kid stuff. I know. There's so many, like,

whenever I see an, and I very, very, obviously don't know a lot of what's going on, like in Africa and in ever but like you know there's all those videos of like kids with like machine guns like being trained to do these things and you're like geez i just wish every kid could just be a kid for like four fucking seconds you know calm down yeah for real if i were just take it down like a lot of notches so during this time during all this all this is going on Carlos's poor mother was like can we please raise these kids to be normal but dad was obviously hell no force not um and so she ends up divorcing

the dad and trying to take Carlos so sorry the mom's the mom's divorces the dad and tries to take Carlos and the siblings to London to study at a normal college and get a normal education. Then the dad somehow wrenched his way in there and sent him to a university of Moscow. Wow. Yeah. So. Yeah. Still, that's interesting that they, so whatever he was doing in Venice. The mom was undoing. Well, the mom was undoing, but also the dad was like making enough money and like on that side of it to be able to do these things. You know, like a lot of, we hear these stories here like bin Laden and, going to school in Europe, you know, like, Kim and John A went to school in Europe.

Like, that's just, like that as why. Yeah. Yeah. So, regardless, Paulus didn't last this university very long. He was expelled in 1970. I tried to research it. I have no idea why he got expelled. Did he speak Russian? I don't know. I don't know. You'd presume he would, but I don't know. So here's a little bit of a narrative shift. So after he was expelled, he went to Beirut, Lebanon, to take part in training, for the popular front for the liberation of Palestine and took up arms fighting Israel. And those are the people that did the

Olympic terrorist attack in Munich. I think they were, yeah. Yeah, yeah. This is, it's going to be called the, it's the PFLP, that's what I'm going to refer to it from here on now. But again, narrative shift, like, why this? In my mind, I'm like, it's dovetailing with something that's like, anti-imperial or something.

It has nothing to do with, like, farmers not having food. No. Like, there's weird disconnect. I'm imagining that he was just told all this violence. And then with, like, the right person, it'd be like, well, I want to do all this, like, violence or other things, not just, because you were saying, like, you're trying to find an ideological thread and you can't find one, you know? So just, like, I imagine that, like, his.

his childhood was you know drilled into him to be violent and it was he was he kind of reminds me of Rambo where they were like it was kind of like a he was looking for the fight he kind of reminds me a peacemaker have you watching are you watching peacemaker

no with John Cena it's good second season is out now we're watching it and there is like a alternate universe scenario but in his universe the one that you watch, like he is like very much like abused by his dad and like made to be like a very violent character. And he's like,

his character is like, I want peace and I don't care who I have to kill to be able to do it. You know, and you're like, okay. You know, it's supposed to be a thing. Well,

it introduces or like actually like punctuates the fact that like there's so many wares to what people do and why they do them. But. So a little bit of context about the PFL because again, this kind of breaks our modern understanding of like a Palestinian cause. It wasn't a Muslim organization. We would see it in modern times.

It's not related to the liberation of Palestine specifically. It was considered a Marxist-Leninist organization. And again, just be super clear about terminology here. Marxist-Leninism is basically the only version of communism that we've ever experienced the world. It's been the practical application of Marxist-Leninism. And like, it's kind of the reason why communism is number work out is because by time you get about the implementation of Marxism, you're Marxism, you're Marxism. And at that point, human greed gets in the way and you can never actually realize it, basically. But that's that's the, that's kind of the underlying ideology. The PFLP operated all over the globe with many different cells who were constantly battling between being caught and doing like this insane stuff that they were planning. they basically like operated kind of like a mini version of like a I don't know like it was like an intelligence community almost

like a spy agency with no country essentially as an example of that Carlos had his own PFL handler so there was a guy named Michelle McCarabal and the whole point of that was that rank and fault people wouldn't know who Carlos was or who the other high level operators within the PFLP were or that he even existed. He just dealt with Michelle on logistics and to facilitate connections to various cells

when they were trying to plan to do some insane thing. That was the entire idea behind it. It's like in that sense, it kind of operates the way the CIA would operate where it's like they just have a handler, you go there, you get some information, you move on, you know, that kind of thing. I think sometimes someone just shows up

and they're like, can I help? And they're like, okay. Yeah, yeah, 100%. So in 1973, he attempted its first targeted assassination by going to that London home of the leader of the British Zionist Federation, he found him in his bathtub and shot up in the face. Apparently, the shot went between his nose and his mouth.

So he, like, knocked out the front of his mouth. And, yeah, and it knocked him unconscious. And the gun jammed, and he thought he was dead anyway, so he shot him in the face. And the gun jammed anyway, so he just fled. The guy survived. He was not unconscious. You just like, yeah, like crazy. I can't believe he actually lived through that.

And what kind of a life did you live after that? Yikes. Yeah. It seems easy to kill someone in a bathtub. I don't want to be a dick. You would think so. I don't know. Aim differently.

Yeah. So that same year, he was responsible for car bombing several newspapers who the PFLP deemed as having pro-Israel positions. And then we get to 1973. This is insane. I can't like. So he took part. in a coordinated effort with other groups

to attack France's embassy in the Hague. Whoa. Yeah. So one takeaway from my research here, anyone who thinks that the world is topsy-turvy now, can you imagine that? You walk into an embassy and just start firing machine. I'm going to get into the story.

Like, this is exactly. No, I mean, it's never. what we are learning is that it's never been okay and it's oftentimes been worse than we ever thought. I don't know what to do with that. It's so much worse. But like that's what that's our like thesis statement, I think, when this is all over. Dude, literally from the, again, if I already go through every one of these, which I'm not going

to, it's like 1970s to 1980s, there, I'm going to, I'm going to stop. You're not going to totally get what I'm saying here. It's like going to go to the story. You're going to see this. So basically. this was a coordinated effort between the PFLP which Carlos had organized and the Japanese Red Army,

which was yet another militant group attempting to overthrow the Japanese government and start a world revolution. This is where the story kind of turns into Air Force One with Harrison Ford. Remember that? I was good. Remember there was a loan-outly question that was like, what does he say? Get off my plane or something? And that was the answer.

Yeah, yeah. So the Japanese army was basically pissed because years earlier, France had arrested one of their leaders of a guy named Yataka on attempted murder and weapon charges. They, in collaboration, with the PFLP, launched an attack on the embassy and took hostages in exchange for the release of this guy and a bunch of money. That was basically the deal. So that's where it's like Air Force One, where they're like, they're like, we're going to, they just did that because they're trying to release their blood leader or whatever. This siege and the ensuing negotiations would end up last about three days. in the middle of which Carlos went to a cafe in Paris,

which was a symbolic location on this case, because with the heart of France, was right on the Chantelizze. It was full of journalists and elites and literati people and all that stuff. And then he threw a grenade inside of this cafe. By the way, the hostage situation is happening in the Hague. Right. He was doing this in Paris.

Like, do you remember a couple, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, but there someone shot up that cafe in Paris like similarly like a tourist there's so many of those that went on in Paris

that time I can't it's hard they kind of blend it in together also can you just pause and tell me what the Hague is again it's like it feels like a mythical place the Hague is a city I had to research this because I was like

I thought the Hague was a building it's not a building it is a city it is called capital T the Hague and it is in what kind of country? It's in, I think it's the Netherlands. That's okay, that's what I thought

to do. So it's in the Netherlands, but it's also like a neutral place where things happen. Where the International Court of Criminal Justice is based and all that, yeah. Okay, thank you. Yeah. So

in this attack on this cafe, none of these people had anything to do with the Japanese Red Army, the Hague, nothing. just like random people who are probably on vacation having a coffee. This fucking croissant. This action killed two people and Maine 34 others, many of which were children. Oh.

And the point of all this was to show France mined negotiation that the Japanese, that with the Japanese army, that this attack in the Hague at their embassy doesn't have to be an isolated attack. So as you're negotiating, don't overplay your hand because there's cells operating everywhere that can do other things. So give these guys what they're looking for. And this is kind of the point, like the narrative shift-wise, where I don't see him as like an ideological freedom fighter. He's just like kind of indiscriminately killing random people. Like, he's not like fighting for a reason. Who will let me do this thing that I wanted to do? Right.

I trained for this when I was 13 at a summer camp. Like, come on. Yeah. I need to go and do this. I don't care where. So who's financing him? At this point, it's the Palestinian liberation folks. Yeah.

So all of that is a crazy tank. We're going to talk about that because it is coming. Again, the world wasn't saying. So France agreed to release this Japanese Red Army leader, along with about $300,000 in cash and provided a flight out of the country for the terrorists involved in this. In the end, the Japanese Red Army folks were mostly captured. Some of them were captured 20 years later.

Like, it wasn't like a quick thing. And some of them were still at large. So probably dead at this point, but still a large. A year later, Carlos would attempt to shoot down an Israeli commercial airplane at a Paris airport. It's not Charles de Gaulle. It's another one. I came from the name of it exactly. He was using a rocker-propelled grenade launcher to take this plane down.

He failed at that, but he did take down a random Yugoslavian pattern. passenger plane. It's just like, it's like insane. It's like, I feel like it was his personal grenade launcher, you know. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, unbelievable. A little bit of a narrative shift here.

So we're four months after this fact. Carlos is at a house party in Paris where he is approached by two guys who were not in any sort of uniform. And they were just, they just started kind of asking a very specific questions. We don't know the exact conversation. they had, I dug a lot into trying to figure out what the conversation was. But by all implications, they were implying, knowing about some of his associations,

his movements, where he's been, and generally got, he got the impression they were, they were trying to probe and verify who he was, essentially. To make matters worse, Carlos, to make matters worse, worse for Carlos, Michelle, his handler, the guy mentioned earlier, he was also at this party. just before this party had happened Michelle was arrested by what's called the DST which is a French version of the CIA and nobody knows what Michelle did

or didn't say about Carlos but Carlos pieced together from the line of question these two guys were doing in Michelle's presence that these guys were DST and that Michelle had talked and giving them up essentially and he was right the guys were DST they actually were they were from this intelligence agency from France

again, for this next part, remember, he's at a house party in someone's apartment in the middle of France. What ended up happening was in that moment, he immediately drew his firearm, shot both of the officers, no hesitation, and then turned and killed Michelle as well. And then fled, left the apartment on presumably a pre-planned escape route

from Paris to Brussels, eventually to Beirut. It gets like a super villain character. That was wild. And like to

how to I feel like some of it you feel as somebody because of movies where it's so easy to kill someone, you know, but like that is a lot

and a very quick decision to be like I'm going to pull up my gun, kill these two people who I think who are coming to get me and then kill Michelle to them who I trusted yesterday

because I think that they told on me and then leave, like you said, in the pre-deplanade escape route. Like, that's a lot of work. And a lot of, like, you have to, you have to be, you can't, not, not anyone could do that. This is like James Bond shit. If James Bond was like a villain. Yeah.

It's incredible. So in retrospect, history looks at the killing of Michelle as basically like an operational cleanup by Carlos. The most likely thing is that Michelle didn't actually betray Carlos. The DSC and French authorities already knew who we would. he was. By all accounts, he was just killed because Carlis just couldn't afford to be uncertain in this

moment. Right, because if I understand what you're saying, he did it like really fucking fast. Yeah, immediately. These guys are asked some questions. Michelle's here. Michelle got arrested. Yeah, gone. I'm gone. Nuts. Wow.

So, from this point on, he knows several things. One is that he's known and that he is therefore wanted. And he just doubles down and this next part is unbelievable. In December of 1975, dude, these are all happening within the course of like two years. Like this is not like a decade of a life.

And how old is he? So 75? He was born in 48. So what is that? 27. Yeah, he was 27 years old. It's a lot. Is the guy the back to the first guy he killed or probably not.

Or the first guy he tried to kill? Yeah, probably not. I mean, you don't think. that at that camp, that summer camp, they strapped a bunch of people who said we should all have food and killed them. They absolutely fucking did. You're 100% right. Yes.

So do you know what OPEC is? No. Okay. So it stands for the organization of petroleum exporting countries. It's basically like an association of these countries that get together and decide on major infrastructure level things and how oil moves and

pricing and all that stuff. That's the whole point of it. In December of 1975, they're holding their annual meeting at their headquarters in Vienna. Okay, picture this. You have the financial leaders from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, all the oil-producing countries, all their most important financial people are in this building. It's basically like Davos. It's like Davos, except if you only focus on oil side of it. things is what it is. So everybody's, every dress the nines, there's probably, you know, 80 plates of lobster sitting around and caviar and stuff like that.

Humans. Humans, yeah, they're using, they're using maids as tables. Yeah, it's one of those deals. I was wearing a mask for some reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somehow it becomes eyes wide shut. We don't know why. Mm-hmm.

So Carlos and his team of six break in to the headquarters in Vienna. immediately kill the guards, walk into the conference room where the meeting is being held, start firing their guns into the air. They strap explosives to one side that is where the exit is, and they segment out

the people that they consider like neutrals or semi-friendlies versus enemies, and the enemies, the guys that are from those countries, they have to sit next to the bomb. And everybody who's kind of like a friendly or neutral gets to sit on the other side of the room.

The farther away that you have me from the bomb. I was telling my nail lady that's like obviously I'm not cut out for the spy business. But like when you get your nails done like I do, you put them underneath the UV lamp. And sometimes it hurts like a lot. Like it burns. Like it feels like your fingers on fire. And I have to take it out and like blow on it and like put it back in. But I was telling my nail lady like I, if someone was torturing me and they're like,

we're going to pull off your fingernails, I'd be like, I will tell you fucking everything. Do not. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. In like two seconds. I'd be like, I'd be like, I'd be like, you guys are the best. Can I sit the furthest way from the bomb? That'd be great.

You know what I was thinking? I was watching, you know, I watched a lot of UFC fights. I was watching the one last time. One thing these guys do is they'll stop on the other guy's feet when they're like held up against the cage. And I was sitting there thinking. I was like, my big toe curls up a little bit. And I was like, oh my God. What if someone did that to me? And then just like, oh, God. That'd be terrible. Be like, if someone just stepping a feet once, you'd be like, I will tell you literally everything. Anything, anything. I just start tapping on them.

I'd be like, please stop to smash my teeth. So all these people are kind of like in this room, they're now officially hostages. Carlos demands a bus to take him in the hostages to the airport, where he planned to kidnap most of the hostages, except for the leaders that were Iranian and Saudi Arabian. He told them that he's going to kill them. Like, that was his thing. He was like, you guys got to go. Everybody else, we're going to get money for you.

I wonder if like, like, we obviously like we are nervous about applying for like other reasons. But like I showed you I watched that one Mayday air disaster recently where it was like an Ethiopian pilot who'd been like hijacked three times. You know? Like it was just like happening all the time in like. It's crazy. Depending on like where you are like what part of like the world is. I feel like in this the time period, like there's always something happening at an airport where someone's trying to escape with a plane. Like has it ever worked?

Like what is that, like what exactly does that even mean? Yeah, it's worse. Yeah, it's works a lot. Yeah, the Japanese Red Army got away with it. And I'm going to tell you how these guys get away with it too. Like, it definitely worked. So eventually, he actually does do this. So they actually do bring a bus.

The bus takes him to the airport. He loads up all the hostages onto this airplane. And he actually lands in Tripoli. And then he's on his way to Algeria. He is convinced. by the president of Algeria to release the hostages. And he does that about two days later, after the hospital,

which is when the hostage situation had started. Apparently part of the negotiation was that he couldn't kill the Iranian and Saudi delegation. And Carlos, after he accepted this deal with the president of Algeria, he apparently had banter. Like he went up to the delegations that he was supposed to kill and was like expressed forlornment that like, unfortunately, I won't be able to kill you.

So, yeah, like, it was a whole scene that sounded like on the plane. I'm so sorry to tell you that you have, I'm not allowed to kill you. Well, apparently, him killing these guys was like a, like a directive of the PFLP. Like, it was like, you have to tell these guys. So the fact that he didn't, wasn't able to that he made this other deal was like a really bad thing for him. And nobody knows for sure why he was so agreeable about releasing these, what the president of Algeria really said to him. some there's been some speculation that he was compensated to the tune of $20 million to really see people so like that was that's where

what the assumptions are the trade the bartering was going on there so because he failed his mission the pfl was pissed at him and they were like you didn't do what you were supposed to do and we also think he took a bunch of money which is like the most anti-Marxist london this thing in the world you just took $20 million like not good Of course he did. Yeah.

Yeah. So he's basically expelled from PFLP. In 1976, so shortly after this, he settles in Yemen and set about founding his own organization. And I don't totally know what founding an organization in this context means. It's just like you're looking for a bunch of other maniacs who want a reason to the carrier grenade launcher around. I don't. I think yes, sometimes. Yeah. Maybe that. Maybe that. So he called it the organization of armed struggle and started recruiting rebels. It was around this time he formed a partnership with Estasi, which was the intelligence arm in East Germany. So this is before the Berlin Wall came down. It was basically KGB light. It was basically KBGB, but just for East Germany. And so ideologically, there were some alignment there with Carlos and his past Marxist's and slender beliefs and all that stuff. So I think that's where that came about.

It was also around this time that he met his future wife, a very unfortunate woman named Magdalena Cope. Magdalena was a West German photographer and also the founder of another terrorist cell named the Revolutionary Cell. Oh, well, they had some stuff in common. It had some stuff in common. I could do a whole side quest on the world. Again, just the story about this one guy, I've named like four or five random terrorist cells that are completely. completely different from organizations that are totally different from each other, just blowing shit up in all the countries. You know what was in my local paper the other day is they caught like four people making bombs and a tent in like the middle of the desert.

And they like got caught because they like were talking to an FBI person, of course. And that that person like was an undercover agent and got them. But I'm like they came from L.A. out into the desert to build bombs. I don't even know why. But you're like, they're just like hipsters in their 30s. I'm like what? What? But like that's, yeah, I guess that is all happening.

Again, whole side quest on this thing that Magdalena Cope founded, revolutionary self, it was just a bunch of bombings, like killing. That's basically it. A little bit of narrative shifts here. I think this is the point he basically became a mercenary. I think this is like the point that that flip is switched. So, for example, in 1981, the president of Roman,

the president of Romania who was the one who led Romania through their communist transition, a guy named Niccolo Chechescu, terrible human being. Like, he's a whole other thing. The torture camps to that guy was responsible for

is obscene. And the fact that nobody seemed to care is insane. He paid Carlos to bomb the headquarters in Munich of Radio Free Europe. So that was basically so it that's basically like an American propaganda thing.

So what they were doing was talking about like freedom and capitalism and anti-communist things. And we're trying to funnel that into radios in communist countries. One of them being Romania, right? And so that's where the alignment was. And when you asked me earlier about money,

like this is how this stuff happens. Like the president of a country is paying your organization to do these actions. Like that's where the money comes from. That's how the cash flows. Which is like insane to think about today,

but like that's probably still happening today. Like I don't know, but it doesn't see insane. I mean, especially with things like, I mean, with like crypto, like why wouldn't you do it that way? Like it's untraceable. Like, yeah. Yeah. So after all, after this happened,

Magdalena was arrested for very stupid reasons. I'm not going to go into the weeds with. We're already kind of, I've already taken a long time with us. What was she a citizen of Russia? Germany. Germany? Okay.

East Germany. No, West Germany. West Germany. Okay. Dude, that is the thing. Nobody, nobody, the only people who are throwing up arms and complaining are the ones who don't have to live on this shit. Like, nobody in East Germany is throwing up arms and say, let's go fight the West Germans. It's always the one in the West Germany who read some book about poetry and Western philosophy or Eastern philosophy was like,

You know what? We should all be commenting it. Like, that's exactly how this starts. I mean, I'm sure there are people in East Germany trying to fight what was going on. But yes, it's not exclusive to that. You're right. Yeah. Yeah, they were trying to fight what was happening in East Germany.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. So, long story short, she gets arrested for, again, stupid reasons related to all the terrorist activity that she'd been a part of. and Carlos basically undertook a bombing siege to pressure the government to release. She ended up getting a four-year prison sentence. In total, while she was in prison, he committed five mass bombings, killed 12 people, main 207 others.

And it worked. They released her for seven months. We're good on him, mission accomplished. I guess that's one way to get your wife out of jail. They also had a little baby. They also a little baby named Elba Rosa Ramirez Cope. So, you know, there you go. At this point, Carlos is getting to the point where, like, he's not really welcome many places because intelligence communities are kind of like unto him.

So they bounced around for a little bit, trying to find a country to accept him and his family. They eventually settled in Syria until 1990 when they were expelled from Syria and went to Libya. Eventually, Libya grew tired of Carlos, and he was also expelled from there. at this point him and magdalena decided to split and she and their daughter went to live in venezuela that's where magdalen's story kind of ends she basically hung around venezuela for a little bit until the media figured out who she was married to at which point her and her daughter fled back to germany where they basically just lived a quiet life that's that's her that's her story carlos on the other hand will look around for a country to accept him for another two years

he'd eventually get a limited time exemption to live in Sudan, which is also where the CIA and the French DST joined forces to try and capture him once and for all. They would approach the Sudanese government with an offer for government and military equipment in exchange for Carlos. When I say the government, it's weird. Sudan's weird.

It's like a chieftain tried thing going on there where it was this one specific guy who was responsible for this one region who was like this, you're safe here, just paying you a bunch of money until this until these guys showed up and asked for him um and that was basically it the the government offered all this equipment and this guy accepted and so they let him let let them know where carlos was so they can go go and capture him uh carlos would wake up at 3 a m on august 14th 1994 surrounded by men who would shack down to the bed tranquilize him

and fly him via private jet to Paris. He was tried for various murders in bombings. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Later on, he'd get two more life sentences tacked on to him. He's been, I think he's been in solitary confinement the entire time. Where is he? He's in France. Okay.

Yeah. And like, again, this is the yada yada part of the story where it's like, and then they figured out he killed this person. Then they figured out he killed that person. Then he bombed this thing and then he took down this plane. And so he just started getting things racked on top of each other in terms of sentences, but he's never getting out of jail. And yeah, he's basically been in jail this whole time. He's 76 years old. And again, kind of a narrative shift here. He's also, like, was really into and, like, extolled praise on the Islamic Revolution in Iran and also on the September 11th attacks, which I'm like,

I mean, what ideology is that? Right. He just like wants to be violent, I feel like. He just wants violence. Like, whatever it is. It's something about like bringing down the world order by any means necessary

with no consideration of what that means afterwards. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah, 76 years old, send in prison. Magdalena.

I didn't mention this because he was actually married two more times while he was still married. Like his life is like insane. Yeah. His life is so insane. You don't have to do that. He was like 48 years old when he got arrested. He still got, he's been in jail for I guess 30 years now. It really is wild that like there are people just like carry around bombs, you know.

I'm like doing the stuff somewhere in the world. Yeah, that was one thing I realized researched this. I was like, something was going on in that 60s to like 80s time frame. There were so many of these organizations. Everybody I would research it connected to this guy. Oh, yeah, he found this organization that was just bombing the shadow of Germany. And this guy found this organization that was bombing the shadow of Italy. And this guy, like, it's all, like, it's wild.

And I wonder if a lot of that has. changed into cyber and, like, data crimes. You know? Yeah. Like, now, like, when we were talking about, like, the FBI's most wanted a list, like a lot of those people are, like, Russians wanted for cyber crimes, you know? Yeah. Like, so I wonder if a lot of it is, because that can technically cause a ton of damage as well.

You know what I mean? Like, if you can. Yeah, it depends on what it is that you think you're trying to accomplish. Like this, like, yeah, none of them achieve their wheel and goals. Yeah. Like, the Red Army, the Japanese group, like, they were trying to start, like, a worldwide revolution. Like, they were, like, going all in. Like, yeah, wild stuff.

Yeah. So, anyways, good punctuation point. the love of God, people stop radicalizing yourself. Left, right, center. Stop doing it. Just calm down. As bad as you think everything is in your moment in time, you're not a snowflake. It's always chaotic because people are chaotic and things go nuts.

I think, yes. And also it's okay to be freaking out right now. because I don't know how you're supposed to do normal stuff and also be aware of what's going on. Put it within the framework of human history. I know. I know. No,

I know. And I know that's kind of like what we're trying to do to, but it still feels like a lot. And like I guess, yeah, that the answer is like it's always been a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

If it's not this and something else and it wasn't this, it's always, yeah, across the board, across the board. Yeah. The fact that there hasn't been an actual movie made about this guy, there was one name, I think it was like Venezuela.

It was like shitty reviews. Like, like, this is one guy. There's probably like thousands of guys like this all across the world that are doing these kinds of things and living these kinds of lives. And we're so centric to our part of the world. And it's like, there's a whole bigger world out there that like is also dealing with a lot of stuff. I know. I mean, yeah, like you, I don't know, like I said, this one, like I said, this one, like there's so much stuff going on that I don't know about. That is terrible. So, so many bad things. Yeah. And also so many good things. The world is always like that. That's true. That's true. That's my story. Carlos the Jackal, um, wild guy. Very, very wild guy.

Yeah, I hadn't heard about that. Also, parents, don't put your kids in summer camps where they learn how to make grenades. Like, just don't do it. Just like kids be kids for like a little while, you know? Like, they're going to find out about this stuff. It's hard. Like, I talk to my kids about hard stuff, you know, but I'm like, but we're very lucky, you know. We have a very good everything.

So it's hard. I was telling my husband like it's hard because I have everything I've ever wanted right now. I love my house. I love my friends. I love my family. I love my job. I everything. And it's hard to be like some people don't have everything they ever wanted.

So you have to use your privilege to try to help. Most people don't have everything they've ever wanted. The ones who choose gratitude have everything they want. It's a, I think it's a decision. Yeah. Yeah. That being said, Taylor, do we have anything to read off? We've got a couple of fun, just people who enjoyed our episode that we did with Juan Carlos and his Remindex. Justin emailed and that he really liked it and then wanted to hear more.

And my friend Nicole is listening to it last night and was texting us about it as well. And she said that when she was in elementary school, they put their addresses and balloons and let them go. And I hope him would write back and know it did. which is like a very eight-p-based thing to do. I know. I know. I know. It's thinking back.

She was like, oh, hey, I'm a child. Here's my home address. You know, like, what are you doing? Schools in the 80s. Also, do I ever tell you this? This is just a similar stupid 80s story that when I was in elementary school, they had like a little tiny house and they would bring it to the school parking lot, and they would fill it with smoke and you had to get out.

I feel like we did something like that. Like, they just would never do that these days. what were they doing? I know, we were more hardy. And then the generation before us is more hardy. And then, you know, it is what it is. Yeah. And then, you know, we leave this world to everyone to fuck it up again.

The positivity coming from you is just like absolutely. I had it for a second. You said that really nice thing about gratitude. And then I just like remembered the world. Try our best. Taylor, you got to turn off social media. I mean, you can't. You can't.

it, but you have to try to survive during it. It's a bit of both. Cool. Well, yeah, thank you. Thank you, everyone. If you have any ideas or want to talk to us, we're at doomed toefalpod at gmail.com, Instagram, all the socials at doomed to fail pod, and let us know what you think. Sweet. Thanks, Taylor.

Thank you.