Terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (aka Carlos the Jackal) was born to an affluent family in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 12, 1949. His parents, Elba Maria Sanchez and lawyer Jose Altagracia Ramirez Navas, were highly educated individuals. His father was a devout Marxist who, over his wife's objection, named each of his three sons after his hero Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (Lenin). While his mother tried to persuade the children to follow her Catholic faith, Jose heavily indoctrinated his boys in his Marxist-Leninist beliefs. After long separations, his parents divorced when Ilich was thirteen.

After the divorce, Jose Navas sent Ilich to the Fermin Toro Lycée School, that was known for its extreme leftist leanings. In 1964, at age 15, Ilich joined the Venezuelan Communist Party. It was rumored that he went to a Cuban camp to receive training in terrorism-related skills. In 1966, his mother moved with her children to London, and...