A serial killer so scary he had multiple nicknames, including “the Serpent” (because of his escape-artist tendencies) and “the Bikini Killer” (based on a garment that was left behind by one of his victims), as well as “the Proofreader.” His preferred targets were Western tourists traveling the “hippie trail” in Asia in the mid-1970s; his preferred method was drugging them first, robbing them, and then killing them. (He didn’t have a preferred killing tactic, though he “bathtub drowned” at least one victim.)
Before the murders, Sobhraj and his wife Chantal who was pregnant left France in 1970 for Asia to escape arrest. After traveling through Eastern Europe with fake documents, robbing tourists whom they befriended along the way, the Sobhrajs arrived in Mumbai in 1970. Here, Chantal gave birth to a baby girl, Usha. In the meantime, Sobhraj resumed his criminal lifestyle, running a car theft and smuggling operation. Sobhraj's profits were used towards his growing gambling addiction.
In 1973, Sobhraj was arrested and imprisoned after an unsuccessful armed robbery attempt on a jewellery store at Hotel Ashoka. Sobhraj was able to escape, with Chantal's help, due to faking illness, but they were re-captured shortly thereafter. Sobhraj borrowed money for bail from his father and soon after fled to Kabul.
In Kabul, the couple continued robbing tourists on the "hippie trail", only to be arrested once again. And again, Sobhraj escaped in the same way he had in India – feigning illness and drugging the hospital guard. This time, Sobhraj fled to Iran, leaving his family behind. Chantal, although still loyal to Sobhraj, but wishing to leave their criminal past behind, returned to France and vowed never to see him again.
Sobhraj spent the next two years on the run, using as many as 10 stolen passports. He passed through various countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Sobhraj was joined by his younger brother, André, in Istanbul. Sobhraj and André quickly became partners in crime, participating in various criminal activities in both Turkey and Greece. The duo were eventually arrested in Athens. After an identity-switch plan went awry, he escaped, but his brother was left behind. André was turned over to the Turkish police by Greek authorities, and served an 18-year sentence.
Charles Sobhraj gathered followers by gaining their loyalty: a typical scam was to help his target out of difficult situations. In one case, he helped two former French policemen, Yannick and Jacques. They sought Sobhraj's help to recover their missing passports. Sobhraj had actually stolen the passports. In another scheme, Sobhraj provided shelter to a Frenchman, Dominique Rennelleau, who appeared to be suffering from dysentery. Sobhraj had actually poisoned Rennelleau. He was finally joined by a young Indian, Ajay Chowdhury, a fellow criminal who became Sobhraj's second-in-command.
Sobhraj and Chowdhury committed their first (known) murders in 1975. Most of the victims had spent some time with the duo before their deaths and were, according to investigators, recruited by Sobhraj and Chowdhury to join the pair in their crimes. Investigators state that the victims had threatened to expose Sobhraj, which was his motive for murder. The first victim was a young woman from Seattle. Teresa Knowlton who was found drowned in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand. She was wearing a flowered bikini. It was only months later that Knowlton's autopsy, as well as forensic evidence, proved that her drowning, originally believed to be a swimming accident, was murder.
The next victim was a young nomadic Sephardic Jew, Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found on the road to the Pattaya resort, where Sobhraj and his growing clan were staying. Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker, 25, were invited to Thailand after meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong. They, like so many others, were poisoned by Sobhraj, who then nurtured them back to health in order to gain their obedience. As they recovered, Sobhraj was visited by his previous victim Hakim's French girlfriend, Charmayne Carrou, who had come to investigate her boyfriend's disappearance. Fearing exposure, Sobhraj and Chowdhury quickly hustled the couple out. Their bodies were found strangled and burned on 16 December 1975. Soon after, Carrou was found drowned and wearing a similar-styled swimsuit to that of Sobhraj's earlier victim, Teresa Knowlton. Although the murders of both women were not connected by investigations at the time, they would later earn Sobhraj the nickname The Bikini Killer.
Sobhraj's next destination was Calcutta, where he murdered Israeli scholar Avoni Jacob simply to obtain Jacob's passport. Sobhraj used the passport to travel with Leclerc and Chowdhury - first to Singapore, then to India, and, in March 1976, returning to Bangkok, despite knowing that the authorities there sought him. In July 1976 in New Delhi, Sobhraj, joined by his three-woman criminal clan, tricked a tour group of French post-graduate students into accepting them as tour guides. Sobhraj then drugged them by giving them poisoned pills, which he told them were anti-dysentery medicine. However, when the drugs started acting more quickly than Sobhraj had anticipated, the students began to fall unconscious. Three of the students realized what Sobhraj had done. They overpowered him and contacted the police, leading to his capture. During interrogation, Sobhraj's accomplices, Barbara and Mary Ellen, quickly buckled and confessed. While in prison, Sobhraj's systematic bribery of prison guards at Tihar reached outrageous levels. He led a life of luxury inside the jail, with TV and gourmet food, having befriended both guards and prisoners.
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