'f.' .1: ''1,; ,1i. ~. ¡~- ~:: ; \) ' ' .:', ;.. t ~. t 1 : 1 ! '~"' ''~ ;~ , .\ -'~;:~::' ':'.,;-:1i ·;~~~i .( , N THE dead of night, Michael Vernon a distan¿e by a low-frequency radio signal, the and slips away into che darkness tO begin a jour­ Townley enters a quiet suburban cul­ pager will no longer beep but instead produce an ney thac will remove him as far as possible from de-sac like a thief. In the driveway of electrical charge powerful enough tO 'light' che scene of the subsequent, ultimate crime, in one of its unpretentious houses, he lies Townley's match and detonate his bombo accordance with his orders. Town1ey is the tech­ on his back alongside a blue Ford Lying alongside the Chevelle, Town1ey uses nician and the facilitatOr, not che button mano Chevelle. From underneath his sweat­ electrical insulating tape tO attach the baking The task of transmitting the signal that will shirt he retrieves an aluminium baking tray to a crossbeam direccly beneath the driver's complete Town1ey's mission has been delegated tray, bought that afternoon from a seat. He is a large man and has only a few inches to hired help. local branch of the Sears department of vertical space in which to work. Out of the The signal is sene - 'on 31.040 megahertz, if store. Ir contains four pounds of TNT comer of one eye he sees the tyres of an my memory serves me well,' says Townley - as and a few ounces of more volatile plas­ approaching car. Judging by its crackling radio the blue Chevelle enters Sheridan Cirde, a tique, which will enhance tlle intended messages, Town1ey can teU it is a prowling police roundabout on Washington DC's embassy roW. explosiono The detonating cord - the car, but the occupanes do not notÍce him. When The cirde is crowded with morning rush-hour fuse - is attached to an 'electric they have gone, he breathes again and reaches craffic, but Town1ey has designed his bomb so atch', which is Townley's invention. He foc the switch that will arm the device, tO dis­ that mosc of its force will vene upwards in a nar­ lieves his match to be vasdy superior to the cover he has inadvertendy covered it with tape. row vertical band aimed at che driver, thus limit­ nventiona! blasting cap. N evertheless, a blast­ Very carefully, he probes with his fingers tO free ing what Townley calls 'coIlacera! damage', and 5 cap is also present in Townley's package, the switch, acutely aware that if and when he he has done his work weIl. The explosion ~red in parallel, as insurance; Townley is noth­ succeeds he may release a latene charge that removes a seccion of che fioor, and che driver's g if not thorough. couId prematurely detonate the bomb, and legs. The remainder of che driver's body faUs The trigger is a 'beeper', a radio pager which obliterate him. It is, so tO speak, his main occu­ chrough che hole while che car is still in motion, lS been adapted by Townley. He has removed pational hazard. the stumps ofhis chighs dragging on the tarmac ; miniacure speaker and replaced it with bat­ The bomb does not explode; not yet. His work leaving a trail of reddish-black grease. In no ríes bought from Radio Shack. Activated from done, Townley gets up from beside the Chevelle more than a few minutes, long before his would­ . TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE lillenue'S n6aU 01 al'lliOO J.UJ.·litll:l, lmU~J.·d.l. excraOJeea eo rne U01rc:a ,)tatc:s auu ucuugU[ (U Carlos Prats, lived in exile in accounc for ie, he muse remain in che shadows, Buenos Aires, Shortly a.tter Townley hidden by a false identity, conseandy on watch travelled tb.ere, Prats and bis for rus enemies who, in various ways, still seek wife were blown to pieces in this car their revenge. They are nwnerous. They iDelude che authori­ ties of boeh Argencina and Italy, who wish to che service of his cause,' he says. '1 was a soldier prosecuee Townley for his alleged murdérous in che service of mine.' aceivities in cheir respective countries; Cuban le all sounds like someching from che pages nacionalists in New Jersey and Florida whó did of a spy novel, but Michael T~wnley, secret direy work for Townley, who now fee! betrayed agenc, is real enough. So were the bodies he by him; an assortmenc. qf right-wing European caused ro be buried. terrorists abouc whom Town1ey knows too much; the re!acives of his viceims, sorne of whom have ~ ON FIRST meeting, ac leasc, Townley fails to obcained a judgment against him for $6 million Ü live up co any of che scereotypes of che profes­ in civil damages which they cannot hope to col- i sional assassin. He has been dubbed 'The J ackal', Ieee unless ehey find him; and - noe least - 9 but only by headline wricers who lack imagina­ former members of DINA, che now-defunce ¡ cion and joumaliscs who have never mee him. Chilean Deparcment of Nacional Intelligence, :i. Townley's emocional responses are far coo ordi­ which Townley served as an agent and assassin. ~ nary - tOO banal. - ro allow comparison wich Above them all, however, seands one man: E Frederick Forsych's cold-eyed creation; and any­ General Juan ~~nu~l Cont'fc:.1;~$/!P9!.veda, who ~ way,unlike che Jackal, Townley was poorly was DINA's architeet and cruef conduceor. There ~ ,e rescuers can cuc him from che wreckagc, che rewarded for his services. He would prefer com­ was a eime when Townley near-idolised General :lan bleeds dry. parison co one of John Le Carré's characcers, or Concreras; now, he says, he despises him, and ic However, for all Townley's careful planning Adam Hall's Quiller: a soldier wichouc a uni­ is safe co asswne thae the feeling is mutua!. nd proficiency, his mission is not an unqualified form who killed for his country - buc che coun­ Concreras was once che second mose powerful uccess. Though his orders specified chac che cry Townley killed for was noc his own, however man in Chile, second only eo Presidenc Auguseo :river should be alone when che bomb was deco­ much he wished ic might have been. And yec Pinochee, whose milicary regime survived from I.aced, chere are cwo passengers in che car, aman Townley was no mercenary, nor a mindl.ess 1973 uncil1990 chanks, in large pare, to DINA' s .nd rus wife. The husband, sining in the back of fanacic. True, he believed in a cause, but noc quick and brueal suppression of any opposicion. he car, escapes wieh superficial burns. His wife, unchinkingly. He says he always questioned che Today, because ofTownley, Concreras faces erial he front seac passenger, is hic in che neck by a order co kili: was chere noc anocher way co neu­ in a now-democratic Chile, accused of ordering iny piece of shrapnel chac severs her carocid cralise che enemy, he would ask his superiors. the Sheridan Circle bombing and, by implica­ Irtery. Lying by che side of che road, wacched by Even so, he did enough chac he now drives his tion, of waging an unauthorised 'dircy war' on ler francic husband, she also bleeds to deach, car wich one eye permanendy fixed on che rear­ chose he perceived tO be Chile's enemies. übeit more slowly chan che driver. view mirror, and he never sics in a public place Buc Townley cannot cravel to Chile co cescify For causing her deach, Townley eventually wich his back tO the door. Though ic is 16 years against Concreras - not, in his view, with :ays he is profoundly sorry. Speaking of che man chis monch since Townley caused che explosion any real prospecc of returning alive , for even in le killed, he verbally shrugs. 'He was a soldier in in Sheridan Circle, and 14 years since he was democracic Chile the general retains powerful TELEGRAPH MAGAZlNE 3S friends. Which is why earller this year Townley ried, but though he had captured bis prize, emerged brieBy from the shadows to talk pub- Townley was never certain of it. For the nen 22 licly for the first time about bis career. In order to years, he says, he wondered 'when - not if ­ 'set the record straight' about Contreras, he Mariana would leave me'. She was very much the agreed to cooperate wim a BBC1 television doc- . dominant partner, or as Townley wryly puts it, umentary - to be broadcast next Wednes­ he made all of che decisions about tbeir lives day - and to talk to The Teiegraph Magazine. 'except me imporcant ones'. None was more It turns out we have different agendas. His is imporcant, in retrospect, than Mariana's abrupt to explain the bistorical and polítical context of declaration in September 1970 that she was what happened in Chile; tO juStify not what he leaving Miami,where. the couple had lived for did but why. Mine is tO understand how an all- four years, to return to Chile. American boy from a small town in lowa, ofunex­ It was not a convenient decision. Townley had ceptional background, who seems normal, who just bought into a car transmission repair busi­ is articulate, intelligent, considerate of strang­ ness with money borrowed from bis father, and ers, and devoted to his parenes, bis children and there was a new home and, by then, five children his dog, was persuaded tO become a killer. to supporc - but nothmg would dissuade her. For Salvador Allende had just been elecced presi­ WE MEET one weekend in an airport Holiday dent of Chile on an avowedly Marxist platform, Inn somewhere.