![]() ![]() The Office of National Statistics (ONS) - which is responsible for keeping records on births and deaths - is in the middle of a consultation process which may see the paper-based system, operated since 1837, transferred to a computer database. So why has the loophole not been plugged? "Because bureaucrats are naturally lazy and indolent," says Mr Forsyth.īut the days of the Jackal scam may be numbered. That was almost 32 years ago," Mr Forsyth told BBC News Online. ![]() "When the book was published, I assumed this loophole would have been closed by officialdom within weeks. Taking the details of the late Alexander James Quentin Duggan to the Central Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths, the Jackal buys a copy of the deceased's birth certificate - all the proof he needs to successfully apply for a passport. The book's protagonist - the Jackal - trawls three village graveyards looking for the headstone of a baby boy who, had he not died, would have been about the same age as the assassin. Or apply for one under a false name."įor his thriller - about a marksman hired to assassinate France's President de Gaulle - Mr Forsyth chose the latter method, by far the most straightforward and effective. Bribe an official for one 'en blanc' in which you can fill in your details. "I asked a forger how to get hold of a passport. ![]() Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal ![]()
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