The Bikini Killer. Now that’s a sobriquet that sticks. Easily the most enigmatic criminal and serial killer from the sub-continent, Charles Sobhraj is finally the subject of a feature film.
From the trailer of Main Aur Charles, Randeep Hooda’s portrayal of Sobhraj seems true to the popular perception of the man. He is a suave, handsome womaniser with style, sex appeal and of course a hidden penchant for murder.
There is however, another theory on the appeal of Sobhraj. In an article by Gary Indiana on Vice, the author suggests that it’s because he was provincial and not ‘worldly’or ‘European’ that white people on the hippie trail found him appealing, even harmless.
So who is the real Sobhraj? Is he the suave con man who walked out of jail, fooled and robbed tourists, and mingled with Parisian high society? Or is he the man who, in the course of a year, brutally murdered or burnt alive his victims.
While one is a confident criminal and sociopath, the other is clearly laying to rest some demons.
A Smooth Criminal
Bhawani Gurmukh (Charles) Sobhraj was born in Vietnam to a French-Vietnamese mother and Indian father, but was later adopted by his mother’s French boyfriend.
It was in France that Sobhraj began his criminal career, robbing and conning his way to wealth and the French high society. His first partner, a fetching young socialite, Chantal Compagnon, also began to assist him in his criminal endeavors. First jailed in France, Sobhraj and Compagnon left for Asia when he was released from prison in 1963. By 1970, he was in Bombay running a stolen luxury car ring.
But what made Sobhraj really famous were his crimes across the hippie trail and his audacious escapes from prison. Across the hippie trail, stretching from eastern Europe to Nepal and India, he would charm, befriend and drug tourists, and then rob them of everything they had. There is also his reputation as a womaniser, though this is persona he himself has also tried to cultivate. And of course, there was his infamous escape from Tihar, where he first drugged the guards with laced cake and sweets, coolly walking out of prison after.
He even managed to have his lawyer’s daughter, decades his junior, fall in love and marry him while he was still imprisoned in Nepal.
His ease with women, his apparent charm and complete lack of remorse have all formed part of the mystery that surrounds Sobhraj. But his most heinous crime, murder, paints a slightly different picture.
A Murderous Year
In the early 1970s, Ajay Chowdhary, a young criminal became a follower of Sobhraj, eventually becoming his chief lieutenant. It was with Ajay and his new girlfriend Marie Leclerc that Sobhraj committed his known murders.
Teresa Knowlton, a young American woman, was burnt alive in Thailand in 1975. Soon after, another America, Jennie Bollivar, was found; she had been drowned and still had her bikini on, earning Sobhraj his most famous nickname—the Bikini Killer.
Next, Vitali Hakim’s burnt body was discovered. Sobhraj and Ajay also murdered and burnt a Dutch couple, Henk Bintanja and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker.
These murders were planned, brutal and vengeful. They were a departure from his earlier, cleaner criminal activities. Sobhraj was angry enough to dehumanise and eviscerate the bodies of his victims.
What is even more surprising is that these murders were limited to a year, in a criminal record that spans decades. Sobhraj’s earlier crimes were non violent, based on his ease and charm. But his murders tell a different story.
So who is the real Sobhraj: The womaniser and conman or the man who went on a year-long murderous rampage? What could have led Sobhraj to committ such violence, uncharacteristic till 1975?
Gary Indiana does have a theory.
What if, instead of an image of perfection, they saw an obviously Asian, hilariously sleazy loser, like a ponce in a business suit shilling in front of a strip joint, absurdly pretending to be French, or Dutch, or vaguely European, “like them.” What if they considered him amusingly pathetic but possibly useful? Most had been “lured” not by his sex appeal, or his oily patter, but by the prospect of getting expensive gemstones on the cheap. It’s just possible that his victims imagined they were conning him and found him as ridiculous as I did. And maybe they believed—patronizingly, with liberal, enlightened indulgence—that a ridiculous person is also a harmless one.
Gary Indiana, on Vice.com
Was Sobhraj finally sick of being a clown to European elite? Or was he simply a psychopath, whose motives are beyond us?
Perhaps Main aur Charles can shed some light on of the most enigmatic criminals of the last century.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)