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Charles Sobhraj (born 6 April 1944), also known as the Bikini Killer, is a French thief, fraudster and serial killer. He preyed on Western tourists throughout Southeast Asia during the 1970s. He was nicknamed The Splitting Killer and The Serpent. Sobhraj allegedly committed at least a dozen murders. He was convicted and jailed in India from ...
Marie-Andrée Leclerc (born October 26, 1945-April 20, 1984) was a Canadian fraudster and known accomplice to serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who preyed on Western tourists travelling on the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s.
- He Had A Turbulent Childhood
- He Was A Con Artist
- He Spent at Least Two Years on The Run
- He Began Scamming Tourists in South East Asia
- His First Known Murders Were Committed in 1975
- He and His accomplices Used Their Victims’ Passports to Travel
- He Was Apprehended Several Times Before Being Convicted
- He Was Finally Caught in New Delhi in 1976
- Prison Did Little to Stop Him
- He Was Caught in Nepal in 2003 and Sentenced For Murder Again
Born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, Sobhraj’s parents were unmarried and his father subsequently denied paternity. His mother married a lieutenant in the French Army and although the young Charles was taken in by his mother’s new husband, he felt sidelined and unwelcome in their growing family. The family moved back and forth between Fr...
Sobhraj began to make money through burglaries, scams and smuggling. He was extremely charismatic, sweet talking prison guards into giving him favours during any prison stints. On the outside, he made connections with some of the Parisian elites. It was through his dealings with high society that he met his future wife, Chantal Compagnon. She remai...
Between 1973 and 1975, Sobhraj and his half-brother André were on the run. They travelled through Eastern Europe and the Middle East on a series of stolen passports, committing crimes in Turkey and Greece. Eventually, André was caught by the Turkish police (Sobhraj escaped) and was sent to prison, serving an 18-year sentence for his actions.
After André’s arrest, Sobhraj went solo. He concocted a scam he used on tourists again and again, posing as a gem dealer or drug dealer and gaining their trust and loyalty. Typically he poisoned tourists to give them symptoms resembling food poisoning or dysentery and then offered them a place to stay. Recovering supposedly missing passports (which...
It’s thought that Sobhraj first began his killing spree after victims of his fraud threatened to expose him. By the end of the year, he had killed at least 7 young travellers: Teresa Knowlton, Vitali Hakim, Henk Bintanja, Cocky Hemker, Charmayne Carrou, Laurent Carrière and Connie Jo Bronzich, all aided by his girlfriend, Marie-Andree Leclerc, and ...
In order to escape Thailand unnoticed, Sobhraj and Leclerc left on the passports of their two most recent victims, arriving in Nepal, committing their final two murders of the year, and then leaving again before the bodies could be found and identified. Sobhraj continued to use the passports of his victims to travel, evading the authorities several...
Thai authorities had captured and questioned Sobhraj and his accomplices in early 1976, but with little hard evidence and a great deal of pressure not to bring bad publicity or damage the booming tourist industry, they were released without charge. A Dutch diplomat, Herman Knippenberg, later discovered evidence that would have snared Sobhraj, inclu...
By mid-1976, Sobhraj had started working with two women, Barbara Smith and Mary Ellen Eather. They offered their services as tour guides to a group of French students in New Delhi, who fell for the ruse. Sobhraj offered them poison disguised as anti-dysentery medicine. It worked faster than expected, with some of the students falling unconscious. O...
Sobhraj was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Unsurprisingly perhaps, he managed to smuggle precious gems in with him, ensuring he could bribe the guards and live comfortably in jail: reports say he had a television in his cell. He was also allowed to give interviews to journalists during his incarceration. Notably, he sold the rights to his life st...
After serving time in Tihar, New Delhi’s jail, Sobhraj was released in 1997 and returned to France to great fanfare from the press. He conducted numerous interviews and reportedly sold the rights to a movie about his life. In an inexplicably bold move, he returned to Nepal, where he was still wanted for murder, in 2003. He was apprehended after bei...
- Sarah Roller
Apr 2, 2021 · The Serpent tells the story of French-born killer Charles Sobhraj and his crimes along the so-called hippie trail in Southeast Asia during the 1970s. The real-life Sobhraj has told his story...
- arathe@hearst.com
- 50 sec
- Deputy Features Director
Charles Sobhraj — an international serial killer, secretly escaped from Tihar on 16 March 1986, but was recaptured shortly thereafter, returned to the prison and sentenced to an additional ten years for the escape. He was released and deported on completion of his term on 17 February 1997
Shadow of the Cobra is a 1989 television miniseries based on the book The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke. [ 1 ] Cast. Rachel Ward as Chris Royston. Michael Woods. Art Malik as Charles Sobhraj. Helen Buday as Monique Leclerc. Arthur Dignam as Gupta. Lisa Hensley as Lizzy. References. ^ Ed.
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Dec 13, 2016 · Authorities across three continents and a dozen nations had no idea they were all looking for same man: Charles Sobhraj, aka “The Serpent.” A handsome Frenchman of Vietnamese and Indian origin,...
