THE REAL STORY OF
ARRESTED: But Sobhraj had an easy time in jail a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand, wearing a flowered bikini. It was to be months before it was proved her death was not an accident but murder.
The next victim was Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found on the road to the Pattaya resort, where Sobhraj and his growing clan were staying.
Having met Sobhraj in Hong Kong, Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker, 25, were invited to Thailand, where their bodies were to be found strangled and burned on December 16, 1975.
Not long after, Charmayne Carrou, who had arrived to investigate her boyfriend Vitali’s death, was found drowned and wearing a similar bikini to that of Teresa Knowlton. Although the murders of both women were not connected by investigators at the time, they would earn Sobhraj the nickname The Bikini Killer.
On December 18, the day the bodies of Bintanja and Hemker were identified, Sobhraj and Leclerc entered Nepal using the deceased pair’s passports.
Within days they had murdered Canadian Laurent Carrière, 26, and American Connie Bronzich, 29, after which they returned to Thailand, using their latest victims’ passports.
Sobhraj discovered that his three French companions had started to suspect him of serial murder, having found documents belonging to the murder victims. Sobhraj’s former companions then fled to Paris after notifying local authorities.
Sobhraj’s next went to Kolkata in India, where he murdered Israeli scholar Avoni Jacob, then used his passport to travel with Leclerc and Chowdhury – first to Singapore, then to India, and, in March 1976, back to Bangkok, where suspicions were growing.
Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg, investigating the murders of Bintanja and Hemker, dug up evidence of wrongdoing but the trio were on the move to Malaysia, where Chowdhury stole gems and was seen giving them to Sobhraj. It would be the last time he was ever seen.
Soon back in Asia, in Bombay, Sobhraj poisoned JeanLuc Solomon, a Frenchman, and killed him.
In July 1976 in New Delhi, Sobhraj and three of his women followers were nicked after their bid to poison and rob a group of went wrong and the police were called in.
Sobhraj was sentenced to 12 years in prison, where he bribed prison guards outrageously and lived a life of luxury.
When his sentence was due to end, the 20- year Thai arrest warrant against him would still
VICTIMS: Teresa Knowlton ( was first then ( Connie Bronzich, Henk Bintanja, Cornelia Hemker and even Sobhraj’s accomplice Ajay Chowdhury have been valid, making possible his extradition and certain execution.
So in March 1986, Sobhraj threw a big party for his guards and fellow inmates, drugged them with sleeping pills and walked out of the jail.
He was later recaptured but his prison term was extended by 10 years, just as he had hoped.
In February 1997, Sobhraj was released with most warrants, evidence and even witnesses against him long lost. He returned to France a free man.
In Paris, Sobhraj made a fortune giving interviews and selling the rights to his life story.
But he was to spotted spending some of that fortune in a casino in Kathmandu and was arrested by the Nepal police, who reopened the double murder case from 1975. Sobhraj was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2004 for the murders of Bronzich and Carrière.
Despite numerous appeals, Sobhraj this time has been unable to escape prison – and having had several open heart surgeries, it seems certain that death will be his only way out of prison.
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