It was the Sunday before Christmas, 1975, and Vienna was covered by a foot of snow.
Just before 11:30a.m., six strangers stepped off a red tram outside the headquarters of OPEC, the world’s most powerful oil cartel, “their long coats and heavy bags casting dark shadows against the snow,” writes Joby Warrick in his new book, “The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist” (Scribner, Aug. 18). A trio of reporters staking out the building guessed the group was a delegation from some junior member state.
Minutes later, the strangers pulled submachine guns from their identical sports bags and shot their way through the second floor, killing three people and capturing 62 hostages, including the top oil officials of nearly every petroleum-producing nation on Earth.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
