Recalling the life and crimes of ‘Bikini killer’ Charles Sobhraj

Difficult childhood

Sobhraj was born to an expatriate Indian moneylender and a Vietnamese woman in French-occupied Saigon in 1944. His birth father left him and his mother when he was just three; his mother then married a French army officer. Charles’ childhood was defined by crises of identity and belonging as he was “shunted back and forth between parents and continents”, according to his biographers Richard Neville and Julie Clarke.

Towards the end of his sentence, Sobhraj escaped, by giving Tihar prison guards spiked sweets for his “birthday”. (File)

Charles spent most of his adolescence in and out of juvenile offender homes — he stole cars, robbed housewives, and mugged people on the street. By his 20s, he was moving between Parisian high society and the underworld, making money through scams and burglaries. He grew close to Chantal Compagnon, whom he married in 1969.

From early on, Sobhraj displayed little remorse for his actions, Neville and Clarke reported. Rather, he saw himself as a victim of an unjust society and wretched fate, with his only way to power, wealth and opulence being the path of crime.

Victims on the hippie trail

In the 1970s, many Westerners journeyed to the ‘Orient’ to “find themselves” outside the capitalist decadence of their native lands. Hordes of young Europeans came to South and East Asia on shoestring budgets — and it was in the obscurity and transience of the hippie trail that Sobhraj committed his worst crimes, often targeting those who were allured by his magnetism. He was arrested multiple times in Athens, Delhi, and Kabul — he got away each time through bribery or audaciously planned escapes.

After Chantal left Charles, taking their baby along, a young Canadian named Marie-Andrée Leclerc fell for the criminal after meeting him in India. She became his close companion and remained devoted to him despite his addiction to gambling and women. The ability to gain people’s trust and make them want to do things for him remained Charles’ abiding character trait.

Thailand, India murders

In 1975, Sobhraj and Leclerc found themselves in Thailand, where he committed his first confirmed murder. The American Teresa Knowlton was found dead in a tidal pool wearing a bikini, the first of similar murders that earned him his name of Bikini Killer. He would be accused of killing at least another 11 people in Thailand, Nepal, and India; some estimates put the number of his victims at 30.

In 1976, Sobhraj, along with Leclerc and an Indian accomplice Ajai Chaudhary alias Mohan Lal, was accused of murdering, robbing, and forging the identity of an Israeli tourist in Varanasi. Like most of his murders, Sobhraj had allegedly killed his victim by poisoning. A trial court convicted him, but he was acquitted by the Allahabad HC and then the Supreme Court in 1996 after the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

He had been arrested earlier in Delhi for trying to rob an emporium at Hotel Ashoka and a con job in Tilak Nagar among other petty crimes. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced for trying to poison and rob some French tourists.

Why Sobhraj killed so many remains a mystery. Sobhraj has himself claimed that many of the deaths were either accidental drug overdoses or cartel killings. He often used the passport and identities of his victims to travel to multiple countries.

Herman Knippenberg, a Dutch diplomat who was key to uncovering details about Sobhraj, told The Guardian in 2020 that he killed his victims because they rejected his criminal entreaties. “In resisting the overtures of Sobhraj,” he said, “they triggered his childhood preoccupation with being rejected”.

Tihar stay, Nepal arrest

In 1976, Thai police issued a warrant against Sobhraj for the murder of six women, all of whom were found dead in bikinis on beaches. But he was caught in Delhi before Thai authorities could get to him. He was charged with the murder of Frenchman Jean-Luc Solomon and received a 12-year sentence.

Sobhraj lived lavishly in Tihar, bribing guards and befriending prisoners for special treatment. In 1986, he escaped after drugging inmates and guards — but was recaptured in Goa soon, and had 10 years added to his sentence.

It has been speculated that this was precisely what Sobhraj wanted — he had realised that if released before Thailand’s 20-year statute of limitation expired, he would be deported and would receive the death penalty — and had planned the escape to extend his stay in prison in India.

In 1997, when Sobhraj was finally released, most warrants against him had expired, and evidence and witnesses gone. He returned to France, where he sold film rights on his life for $15 million, and charged big money for interviews and photographs.

It was probably hubris that caused Sobhraj to return to Nepal in 2003 — one of the few countries where he was still wanted. He was arrested and convicted of murders he had committed in 2006, and received a 20-year sentence.