In the decade of 1970, a wave of murders perpetuated by the French Charles Sobhraj shocked Asia.
Known as “the Snake” or “the bikini killer”, Sobhraj acted with determination and was noted for his tricks to evade the authorities using the passports of his victims, who used to be Western tourists who walked the so-called hippie trail of the Indian subcontinent.
The dramatic life of the infamous serial killer, who now has 77 Years, it has inspired literary and cinematographic works and more recently a television series co-produced by the BBC and Netflix.
But who was really “the Serpent” and c How do you spend your days today ?
Born in Saigon in 1944, The son of an Indian merchant who denied him paternity and one of his Vietnamese employees, Sobhraj obtained French nationality when, after the separation of his parents, his mother married a French military man and settled in Marseille, in the south of France .
His father’s rejection marked him and caused him resentment and hatred: “ I will make you regret for having failed in your duty as a father “Sobhraj wrote in his diary.
A terrible prediction that may have come true.
During his adolescence, he never finished fitting in in Europe. He dedicated himself to street assault and car theft in Paris. He entered and left reformatories, and when he reached the age of majority he fell into prison.
His first love
But when he left he managed to a job thanks to the intervention of a benevolent, who also introduced him to Chantal Compagnon, a member of the Parisian bourgeoisie, with whom he fell in love until the obsession.
For a short period, Sobhraj tried to abandon the criminal path and got a job in a restaurant, but his unbridled taste for luxury and money quickly pushed him back to crime. .
Shortly after he was arrested again for carjacking, but Compagnon, blinded by his charms, waited for him to get out of jail and married him. Together they undertook a trip to the Asian continent, in which they had a daughter.
At 30 years ago, “the Serpent” had already made Thailand his new center of operations.
His “specialty“
Many people who knew him agree that he was a charismatic individual.
“Charles Sobhraj’s specialty was murdering hippies who came to discover Asia,” he explains in an article by Vice Gary Indiana, who met “the Serpent” over the years 80.
The author suggests that due to their “provincial” and “non-European” aspect, White tourists on the hippie trail found it interesting and “harmless” .
“Sobhraj had no qualms about cheating this backpackers thirsty for spirituality. He despised these people, he considered them cowards and immoral ”, he adds.
It is still a mystery why he murdered “hippies”, but some who followed his footsteps very closely suggest that the answer can be found in childhood trauma .
Herman Knippenberg, a Dutch diplomat who, after the death of a Dutch couple in Thailand that the local police did not bother to investigate, they began to connect the dots and discover the crimes, they believe that killed them because they did not obey him they would easily.
“By resisting Sobhraj’s proposals, he revived the concern that he had during his childhood to be rejected ”, he explained in conversation with the British journalist Andrew Anthony.
Arrest and escape
In the years 70 the hippie trail had become a popular destination for many young Europeans and Americans who They traveled from Western Europe to the Far East, via the Middle East and India.
At that time border controls were not so strict and “The Serpent” took advantage of it.
The romance with Chantal Compagnon ended when both were arrested in Afghanistan, he managed to escape by drugging a guard; She remained in prison, but upon leaving decided to start a new life away from her troublesome husband.
However, Sobhraj told journalist Andrew Anthony -who interviewed him in Paris over the years 90 and then on 2010 in a prison in Nepal-, which Compagnon continued to support him financially and they remained in contact for a long time after their separation.
Two years after his arrest in Kabul, Sobhraj met Quebecer Marie-Andrée Leclerc in Srinagar , India, and convinced her to go together to spend the summer in Thailand.
“ M ultiples identities ”
Leclerc did not resist the charms of that man whom he knew little about then, but who would change his life forever.
Little by little she was dragged away, began to participate in crimes and He ended up becoming his accomplice .
The modus operandi of the “bikini killer” consisted of drugging his victims, before taking away their belongings.
He earned that nickname after being linked to the deaths of several bikini-clad Western women at the Pattaya resort in Thailand.
He took advantage of the naivety of many western tourists , gaining their trust by inviting them or having a drink: then the victims often woke up in bed with no recollection of the night before.
“He was a man of multiple ident ities: he was an Israeli intellectual one day and the other a Lebanese cloth seller , and he traveled around Asia looking for his prey “, Gary Indiana recalls in his article published by Vice .
Polyglot
At times, Leclerc and Sobhraj kidnapped their victims for several days, even weeks. The Canadian gave them a “medicine” that caused confusion and nausea.
In addition they stole their passports to travel and operate in other countries of the region, thus confusing the authorities.
This form of sneaking catapulted the French as “the snake.”
According to reports, Charles Sobhraj was fluent in several languages, which was useful to him when he assumed the identities of his numerous victims.
His ability to commit a crime was only compared with His ability to escape from prison : It is believed that he managed to escape from prisons in Afghanistan, Greece, Iran and India.
The incredible party that helped him escape from jail
In 1944, escaped from a jail in India – where he was serving a sentence of 20 years for poisoning French tourists traveling in a bus-, feigning appendicitis and fleeing from the hospital.
They returned him to arrest at 1976, but ten years later he was able to escape in an even more surprising way: by throwing a birthday party to which he invited both guards and prisoners.
The grapes and cookies delivered to the guests were injected with sleeping pills, rendering everyone unconscious except Sobhraj and four other fugitives.
According to the local press, the group was so proud of their escape that they photographed themselves passing through the prison gates into the streets of New Delhi.
US $ 15 millions for his image
As a fugitive, Sobhraj did not go to great lengths to hide of justice and frequently went out to enjoy the nightlife. That’s why it wasn’t long before he was arrested again.
Some estimate that he decided to escape towards the end of his ten-year sentence in India to be captured again and thus face new charges. In this way, he could avoid extradition to Thailand , where he was wanted for five murders and would almost certainly be sentenced to death.
When was released in 1997, the term of 20 years for his trial in Bangkok had expired.
Sobhraj returned to France, started a new life in Paris’s Chinatown, hired an agent and negotiated interviews and photographs.
managed to sell rights to a film and u n book for US $ 15 millions.
Victim of his own ego
But in September of 2003 made a mistake: traveled to Nepal and he was immediately recognized by a
Many say that he was a victim of his own ego.
They tried him for having traveled with a false passport and for the murders of two citizens Americans who would have carried out 20 years before.
Despite being accused of the death of 20 people who were drugged, strangled, beaten or burned in India, Thailand, Nepal, Turkey and Iran between 1972 Y 1982, was not until August of 2004 that “the Serpent” was convicted of murder for
As usual, Sobhraj denied the charges, but the police assured that this time they had a “suitcase full ”of evidence against him and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
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He is currently detained in Nepal and in September of 2014 was convicted of a second murder, that of a tourist from Quebec.
Interviewed by biographer Richard Neville, author of Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj, the serial killer confessed: “As long as he can talk to people, I can manipulate her “.
Prison has not prevented her from continuing with her life.
For more than 10 years he has a love affair with Nihita Biswas, the daughter of one of his Nepalese lawyers. According to local media, he married her in 2010.
And according to the British newspaper Sunday Mirror , who managed to talk to him in March, “the Serpent” still pleads not guilty.
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