'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Charles Sobhraj is an international thief, scammer, and serial killer who was infamously known for his series of burglaries and murders, committed on tourists traveling through the hippie trial mainly during the 1970s. Sobhraj got the name of the Bikini Killer for his specification in choosing the victims, whose dead bodies were found wearing bikinis.
In collaboration with his crime partners, he was convicted for the murders of 20 tourists from the hippie trial in South Asia and 14 in Thailand. He was known for drugging his victims, before stealing their wealth, and eventually killing them. Even after committing a series of frauds and homicides, Charles Sobhraj was bailed out and deported to France.
The complete story narrating all the crimes committed by Charles Sobhraj is documented in World's Most Notorious Killers Season 1 Episode 5 titled The Serpent. The episode is set to make its release on December 30, 2024, at 8 PM EST. The official synopsis of the episode reads,
Trending
"In the '70s, tourists in Thailand were brutally killed; years later, the alleged murderer speaks out."
5 key details about the prolific serial killer Charles Sobhraj
1) Charles Sobhraj started deceiving people from a young age
Charles Sobhraj, also known as Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj was born on April 6, 1944, in Vietnam's Ho Chu Minh City, then as Saigon. As per BBC News, on August 12, 2004, he was the son of an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother. Sobhraj went on to receive French citizenship, with his birthplace being under French occupation.
Sobhraj started being involved in little thefts and crimes from a young age and was sent to custody at a Poissy prison in 1963. From that time itself, Sobhraj started bribing police officers to provide him with more comfort in prison. During this time, he started gaining the favor of a wealthy gentleman named Felix d'Escogne who helped him to move to France, where he started a trial of scams and buglery.
2) Charles Sobhraj started committing his crimes with his romantic partner Chantal Compagnon
As per a GQ article, published on April 11, 2014, it was while living in France that Sobhraj met and started developing a relationship with a young Parisian woman named Chantal Compagnon. The day he proposed Compagnon, he was arrested by the police for a vehicle theft, and sent to eight months in prison. The couple got married after his release, and by 1970 Charles Sobhraj had attained French citizenship.
The very same year, Sobhraj escaped to Asia with forged passports and documents, while his wife was pregnant. As per India Times, that year, the couple traveled to Bombay and started carrying out thefts and robberies. His rising gambling addiction started pushing him to commit robberies, and he was eventually caught in 1973.
3) Charles Sobhraj started robbing tourists traveling along the Hippie trail
It was after spending his time, behind bars in India, that Sobhraj decided to fly to Kabul, Afghanistan. As per Crime Plus Investigation, this was when he started robbing backpackers and tourists and traveling around the Hippie Trial. After this time, he left for Iran leaving his partner and the child behind.
After abandoning his family, Charles Sobhraj went on a long run across Europe and Asia fooling the law and civilians, quickly raising his wealth. Sobhraj started gaining the trust of people, by posing as a wealthy man and helping them overcome difficult situations. He befriended his victims, spending time with them, and retrieving information about their assets before robbing them.
4) Charles Sobhraj shifted from burglary to murder
Charles Sobhraj, while on the run, developed a strong addiction to gambling, and started maintaining a luxurious lifestyle. This is when his span crimes slowly started to accelerate, and he shifted to more lethal crimes. Sobhraj was soon connected to the crime underworld, among drug lords, and began luring tourists posing as a gem merchant, or drug dealer.
As per Star Article, published on November 14, 2007, while traveling across India, Charles Sobhraj met an Indian man named Ajay Chowdhury, who soon became his partner in crime. The duo collaboratively drugged and killed a French tourist named Dominique Renelleau in 1975. The pattern of their murders included enlisting potential victims, giving them hope to provide them a share. However, this ended up in their murder, when the new members started to blackmail them.
Charles Sobhraj eventually shifted to Thailand, where he got the name Bikini Killer. As per Women's Health, an American woman named Teresa Knowlton became his first victim, whom he met in a monastery, and the body was found in the Gulf of Thailand. Another man named Vitali Haksim's body was found ambushed on the road in the city of Pattaya, Thailand.
Two other Dutch students named Cornelia Hemker and Henk Bintanja were invited by Sobhraj and Chowdury, who were drugged, and then strangled to death when they refused to cooperate. The girlfriend of Vitali Haksim, who came in search of her partner was found drowned and dead in a bikini, which earned his title as the Bikini Killer.
5) Charles Sobhraj received lifetime imprisonment yet was released free
Charles Sobhraj then continued to travel across India, Nepal, Singapore, and Bangkok during the 1970s, carrying out similar murders of tourists and civilians, and using their documents to get access. It was in 1975 when Sobhraj met and fell in love with a Canadian woman named Marie-Andrée Leclerc. Sobhraj's close ally, Ajay Chowdhury disappeared while stealing and delivering gems in Malaysia, and his remains were never found.
As per a Crime Plus Investigation article, Sobraj returned to Bombay (Mumbai) and formed a trio group with two other women, named May Ellen Eather and Barbara Smith. Together, the trio carried out numerous crimes, luring tourists, and then drugging and killing them. It was while Sobhraj, was trying to drag a group of French postgraduate students, that three students managed to escape, and reported it to the police.
Sobhraj was arrested, with his companions and they were imprisoned in Tihar Jain, New Delhi. As per an article in The Guardian, published on January 23, 2021, Charles Sobhraj started bribing police officers back, with the gems he had managed to take while getting inside. He served his prison time, living a luxurious lifestyle and providing interviews to foreign authors, earning him hefty money. There, he also met his future wife Julie Clarke, a journalist.
As per India Times, it was on February 17, 1997, when Sobhraj was released from prison and went back to France. He returned to Nepal in 2003, intending to set up a mineral water business, however was caught in a casino. As per BBC News, it was on August 20, 2004, when Charles Sobhraj was again sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. However, as per The Kathmandu Post article, on December 21, 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal provided Sobhraj with bail. He was ordered to return to France within 15 days, considering his deteriorating health.
On December 23, 2022, Charles Sobhraj was released from prison and sent back to France. Based on the life story of Sobhraj, an Indian crime drama was released in 2015 titled Main Aur Charles, It was in 2021 when BBC released an eight-part crime drama series titled The Serpent, which made its release on Netflix.
World's Most Notorious Killers Season 1 Episode 5 titled The Serpent will make its release on December 30, 2024, at 8 PM on Oxygen.
