All began with three Hungarians in their country’s Uprising against its Soviet occupiers in October 1956, when Sári met and joined forces with compatriots and anti-communist activists Lajos Marton (1931-2025) and László Varga (dates unknown) in Budapest. Directly after the revolt failed, the three men became wanted criminals and were due to be sentenced to death, resulting in them fleeing Hungary and making their way to France.

There the threesome, who came from military backgrounds, volunteered to join the OAS, the Organisation armée secrete (Secret Army Organisation), an underground right-wing paramilitary group dedicated to assassinating the President of France, General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970).

The OAS and many other French people felt that de Gaulle had betrayed the country by going back on his word and unexpectedly giving independence to Algeria to 1962. The North African colony had a sizeable French population and had lived under French rule since 1848.

Seen as patriots to some and outlaws by others, the would-be killers of the OAS waited to ambush de Gaulle at the sleepy, nondescript suburb of Petit-Clamart in southern Paris on 22 August 1962. A discreet convoy of cars escorted the President and his wife Yvonne in their chauffeur-driven Citroën DS limousine along the D906 main road, heading to a small, private airfield a few kilometres south-west of the capital. Whilst en-route, they were struck by an ambush at the Petit-Clamart suburb. They came under rapid machine-gun fire but as if by a miracle managed to escape with little harm despite obvious damage to the official cars and nearby buildings.

The French and Hungarian gang members went on the run but were finally rounded up and arrested during 1963. Their leader, Jean Bastien-Thiry, received the death penalty and was executed by firing squad, while the others were given 20-year prison sentences.

Surprisingly the Hungarian Jackals, as they became known, were pardoned in 1968, so they served only five years. The fearless and ironically chartable de Gaulle managed to survive 30 assassination attempts in all and he had the last laugh while playing cat-and-mice with the humiliated OAS, dismissing the organisation as mere amateurs and “lousy marksmen”. De Gaulle himself died of natural causes a short while later in 1970.

After prison, Sári, Marton and Varga settled in France but little is known what became of them beyond this point. In post-millennial times the outspoken Marton married a French lady, dabbled in the country’s secret services and finally had a small truck delivery business. Still known as a soldier and occasionally listed as a terrorist, he wrote a defiant book recalling his memories. The unsubtle title, “Il faut tuer de Gaulle”, translates as “De Gaulle Must Be Killed.” It was published only in French, in 2002, and Hungarian, as “Meg kell ölni De Gaulle-t”, in 2003.

After a long absence, Marton made a return to Budapest and gave a book presentation. He also had a chance to read his numerous communist secret police files. He died aged 94 in Longjumeau, south of Paris, in December 2025.

As for Varga, he took to a life of crime committing robberies in France. He died (I assume by some kind of targeted force by the authorities while on the job) during the 1970s.

Sári, I believe, had the lowest profile of the three. It is difficult to report on him. During my research no one at the Ministries provided anything, so I can only assume he lived out the rest of his life maintaining a low profile. Even so, it is known that the three would-be assassins had only one regret – that the 1962 OAS ambush failed.

In theory this is a closed case with three generations having passed and France remaining relatively safe. But the OAS action is still a subject of debate today, for had they succeeded it could have led to a very different scenario for France and possibly for Europe. Although de Gaulle had imperfections and could not please everyone, he was at least a strongman at the helm able to hold his country together.

The momentous event unexpectedly became the subject of a riveting suspense novel by the great mastermind of espionage, English author Frederick Forsyth. His political thriller “The Day of the Jackal” was published in 1971 and delivered his own credible account of what might have transpired with the OAS after August 1962. This was his first book and became a best seller, followed by an excelling film with the same title in 1973.

There are many “Jackal” and de Gaulle landmarks in Paris and the Petit-Clamart suburb where one can recall the remarkable Hungarian connections. For more, see my The Budapest Times article “Shadowy Hungarians had role in attempt to kill de Gaulle”.

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