Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry (; 19 October 1927 – 11 March 1963) was a French Air Force lieutenant-colonel and military air-weaponry engineer. He was the creator of the Nord SS.10/SS.11 missiles. He attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following de Gaulle's decision to accept Algerian independence. The attack made international headlines. Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad in France. Though the assassination attempt almost claimed de Gaulle's life, the President and his entire entourage escaped injury. The event is depicted in Frederick Forsyth's novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and also in the film adaptation of the same name (1973), in which Bastien-Thiry was portrayed by actor Jean Sorel. Life Bastien-Thiry was born to a family of Catholic military officers in Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His father had known de Gaulle in the 1930s and was a member of the Gaullist RPF. He attended the École polytechnique, followed by the École nationale supérieure de l'Aéronautique, then entered the French Air Force where he specialized in the design of air-to-air missiles. In 1957, he was promoted to principal military air engineer. He was married to Geneviève Lamirand whose father, Georges Lamirand (1899–1994), had been General Secretary of Youth from September 1940 to March 1943 in the government of Vichy France although the rest of the family was Free French. Together they had three daughters. Assassination attempt Since 1848, the French state had considered French Algeria as part of Metropolitan France, an integral part of the French nation, as opposed to other French colonies. This did not extend to granting voting rights to its Muslim population. French Algeria also had a large population of Algerian-born Europeans known as pied-noirs, who largely controlled its politics and it economy. After returning to power with the stated intention of maintaining the French Départements of Algeria, in September 1959, de Gaulle reversed his policy and supported the independence of Algeria. Until this time, Bastien-Thiry had been a Gaullist; now he became an opponent. Due to this new policy, two referendums on self-determination were held, the first in 1961 and the second in 1962 (the French Évian Accords referendum). Bastien-Thiry, who was involved with the still-mysterious organization, "Vieil État-Major", tried to make contact with the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a paramilitary group opposed to de Gaulle's policy and to the National Liberation Front (FLN). According to Dr Pérez, OAS