The miniseries, originally broadcast on BBC One and now available on Netflix, is based on a true story and sets the plot between 1975 and 1976, before being captured in India.
It’s already on Netflix ‘Snake’, new miniseries in which Tahar rahim (“A Prophet,” “The Mauritanian”) penetrates the skin Charles Sobhraj, a crook and thief, who ended up becoming a dangerous serial killer who terrorized the so-called “Hippie Trail” in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. But who was he really?
The miniseries, originally broadcast on BBC One, is based on real events and places the plot between 1975 and 1976, shortly before being captured in India and focusing on him her relationship with her boyfriend and accomplice Marie-Andrée Leclerc. However, the wave of crime started much earlier, being one of Interpol’s most wanted men and putting the police in control of at least nine countries on two continents.
Charles Sobhraj was born on April 6, 1944 in Old Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, in the former French Indochina. The son of an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother, his life went to Indochina, present-day Vietnam and France. He first entered prison in 1963 after being convicted of robbery. In prison, he met Felix d’Escogne, a wealthy volunteer with whom he left to live after his release.
When he moved to Escogne, he went to Paris, making contact with French high society and where he continued to commit crimes with a white collar. In 1970, he married Chantal Compagnon, a young Parisian from a conservative family, with whom he had his only child. The couple traveled to Asia, where they began to lead a criminal life.
The crimes were considered minor, although they increased when he became dedicated car smuggling and armed robbery. On several occasions he was arrested, managing to escape easily. In fact, it was common for him to pretend to be ill and be hospitalized.
Sobhraj had a flair for people and charisma, which made it easier for him to manipulate others and gain their trust. On a flight to Iran from Kabul, Sobhraj decided to break up with Compagnon, who returned to live with his family in Paris. For several years the killer was hidden between Eastern Europe and the Middle East, thanks to the help of a stepbrother.
However, both were arrested in Athens, although Sobhraj managed to escape, being only his brother imprisoned, who served a sentence of two years and ten months in prison.
Sobhraj is considered to have a antisocial personality disorder or a form of psychopathy, because he did not kill by violent impulses, but killed as a way of life. The only proof is that he had an irrational hatred for the hippie, who were his main victims.
crime
Sobhraj started killing before meeting her favorite boyfriend. Initially, I hired them Ajay Chowdhury, a young Indian who was his first stable accomplice. His first victim was Teresa Knowlton, a Seattle backpack that was found drowned on the shores of the Gulf of Thailand in 1975.
Knowlton was wearing a bikini when she was found. Because the future female victims were found similarly, Sobhraj was nicknamed Bikini Killer. He was also called the Serpent for his way of evading justice.
In Thailand, he posed as a drug dealer and jewelry dealer. At that moment, he met Marie-Andrée Leclerc, who became his most loyal accomplice. Sobhraj’s next victim was Vitali Hakin, a Turkish hippie whose body was found charred near the complex where Sobhraj and Leclerc lived.
His next victims were two Dutch students, Henk Bintanja and Cornelia Hemker, who were strangled and their bodies were also burned. Later, the next victim was the Frenchwoman Charmayne Carrou, Hakim’s girlfriend, who traveled to Thailand to investigate the disappearance of her partner.
Sobhraj and Leclerc fled to Nepal, where they met two backpackers, Canadian Laurent Carrière and American Connie Bronzich, whom they killed. Vthey traveled to India, where Sobhraj killed the Frenchman Jean-Luc Solomon and returned to Thailand using the passports of their victims.
Upon returning to Bangkok, several Sobhraj and Leclerc partners in their illicit business began to suspect that they were involved in several crimes and decided to report it to the authorities. Sobhraj, Leclerc and also Chowdhury fled to Singapore and later to Malaysia, where Chowdhury’s trail was lost and they returned to India, where Israeli tourist Alan Aron Jacobs was killed just to get his passport.
When they returned to the Thai capital, none of them knew that Sobhraj was already the most wanted man in Southeast Asia. In the spring of 1976 he was interrogated by the police, although he was released by the Thai authorities to prevent him from giving the country a bad image.
SENTENCED TO THEFT IN 1976
Sobhraj and Leclerc continued to travel to Switzerland and India, posing as jewelry merchants. In New Delhi, Sobhraj ended up behind bars. The reason was that he tried deceive and rob a group of 60 French students, those who tried to cause severe diarrhea. However, he misjudged the doses, and some of the students began to get sick violently, causing the rest of the group to get acquainted and hold him until the police arrived.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted robbery and held in Tihar prison. Due to his ability to manipulate, he obtained several benefits from officials, becoming the great lord of the prison. Two years before he was released after serving his sentence, Sobhraj escaped to be caught intentionally.
The reason he extended his sentence in India was to avoid the death penalty in Thailand, where he was wanted for crimes, thanks to the investigation of a diplomat from the US Embassy. Holland, Herman Knippenberg, who began investigating after the murder of Dutch students. A search of Sobhraj’s home in Bangkok found different passports with different identities.
IT’S LOADED AGAIN AND IT REMAINS IN DANGER
When he was released in 1997, Sohbraj managed to escape the death penalty in Thailand because his search and arrest warrant had expired. After his release, he returned to Paris, where he enjoyed a certain fame.. In 2003, he decided to travel to Nepal to be arrested by the authorities for his crimes, although he sought public notoriety again.
Since then, Sobhraj has served his sentence in a prison in Kathmandu, as he has not yet been released from prison since March 2021. Officially, he killed 12 people, although it is estimated that he could be more than double the actual victims. A more serious fate befell her loyal lover, as Leclerc was imprisoned as an accomplice, although she was allowed to return to Canada in 1983 due to terminal cancer. He died a year later, at the age of 38.