The stories of serial killers usually begin with intense phenomena (of any kind) of violence in the family environment that often cause trauma to the 'piece' of the brain responsible for the conscious control of our actions, judgment and emotional reactions (see frontal lobe). A role is always played by hereditary disorders that were never diagnosed and therefore never taken care of, together with abandonment and a strong feeling of being wronged/desperate. Of 'why was I born?'.
The truth is that most criminals were 'programmed' from childhood to live the life they lived. Charles Sobhraj doesn't quite confirm the rule. As it does not completely refute him. Charles Sobhraj is the 'Serpent' who has been trending for weeks on Netlix. And it led scientists in the field of mental health to review the findings up until then, on how a psychopath is defined.
The racketeer, drug dealer, trafficker of precious stones and murderer - at least 20 people - Sobhraj presented himself as a celebrity on two different continents, where he operated. He escaped three times from prisons, one was in Greece and when he realized that the cycle was 'closed' he secured a deal of 15,000,000 dollars, before he was sentenced.
This is his story
Hotchand Bhawnani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj was born on 6/6 1944 in French Indochina. His father was an Indian tailor and his mother Vietnamese. They were not married. The child was stateless. The first feeling he felt was his parents' indifference to his existence. His father had abandoned his mother shortly after Charles was born (he was given this name after his Catholic baptism, as a teenager), with the result that she blamed her son for this rejection throughout his life. She didn't care how her child felt about her own rejection and that of his dad - who was completely indifferent. To 'struggle' with abandonment, Charles's childhood mind elevated his father to a mythical, heroic figure.
At some point his mother met a French soldier, whom she married. Alphonse Darreau was interested in adopting Charles. She didn't want to give him his name either. He was treated exceptionally well. How he treated the children he had with Song. The boy, however, felt that he did not 'belong' in his own home. Things got even worse after Darreau suffered a shock in battle. Since then he had been in and out of hospitals for post-traumatic stress disorder, and in his mind Charles was draining the family resources that weren't in abundance. He started doing whatever he could think of to gain the attention of his parents. According to scientists, "for neglected children, even negative attention is better than its absence".
Although the later popular Serpent was intelligent and charismatic, he was also always disobedient, with delinquent behavior. He rarely went to school and when he did, his discipline issues led to punishments. In addition, the family's comings and goings from France to Indochina did not help him feel any sense of security or safety. Not the repeated failed attempts to establish a relationship with his biological father.
At some point, his mother and stepfather stopped 'tearing' him. He had become uncontrollable.
The first time he was arrested he was 19 years old (1963). The reason was robbery. He was sent to Poissy prison, near Paris, a building that had been created in the 16th century as a monastery and the cells had room only for sleeping. The rest of the time the prisoners were separated according to the ferocity of their crime, their sanity and their nationality.
During his three-year imprisonment (during which none of his family showed the slightest interest in knowing if he was alive or dead) he decided to build his own family - with himself as a father figure - and punish society for evil that he had done to him. The last statement was a manifestation of his new art.
The short - half-Asian - young man did not have a very good first few months in prison. The solution to the problems that had arisen was to learn to manipulate people. He started with the guards so they would do him special favors. Such as; Let him have books in his cell. He continued with Felix d'Escogne, a young and wealthy man who worked as a volunteer at the penitentiary. When he was released - on parole - Charles moved into the house of his 'saviour', who had tried to fix his new friend's relationship with his parents (without success) and then took him over completely - from his education to his emotional stability. It was he who introduced him to the high society of Paris. He adored her. At the same time, he could not part with the underworld, where he always felt most comfortable. Through various 'combines' he had managed to collect enough money.
Soon he returned to prison, on the day of the marriage proposal he had made to his then fiancee.
He had stolen a car to take Chantal to a casino. There he lost a lot of money and on the way back he drove like a maniac, until she accepted the marriage proposal. A few minutes later, he was stopped by a patrol car and arrested. He returned for eight months to Poissy. d'Escogne requested his friend's psychiatric assessment in a letter he had sent to the judge. He had emphasized to her that "he exploits one hundred percent the weaknesses of those around him. He has little conscience and can be kind, but also scheming. Impulsive and aggressive".
Once he was a free man again, he married Chantal, who was pregnant with their child, a few months later. It was then (1970) that Charles decided to leave Europe for the East, as the line was tight and it was only a matter of time before he was arrested as the mastermind behind a series of robberies of wealthy homes. He asked d'Escogne to lend him his car for two days. He loaded it with all his valuables, took Chantal and they disappeared towards eastern Europe.
They presented fake documents, robbed those who thought they wanted to be friends, and when they arrived in Istanbul, in Paris the couple was wanted by the police. Chantal gave birth to Usha in Mumbai. Charles was already addicted to gambling, where most of his money went. There also went the jewelry that he used to give to Chantal, to calm her down for always leaving her alone.
To 'make amends' he agreed to take part in an armed robbery - at a jewelry store - that took place in 1973 at the suggestion of a Frenchman who had been introduced to him. He managed to escape (he complained of a stomach ulcer, underwent unnecessary surgery and escaped from the hospital with Chantal's help), but was caught driving a stolen car after a phone call from a man who thought his picture matched the description of the wanted robber. jewelry store.
He borrowed money to secure his release from his father and then fled to Kabul. There he robbed hippies and "ran" various scams against tourists. He was again in prison, because he had not paid the hotel where he was staying for two months. He escaped again, after finding a way to secure a syringe, he used it to 'draw' some of his blood, which he drank to convince himself he had an ulcer. At the hospital he drugged his guard and disappeared. This time his destination was Iran. Chantal took their daughter and they returned to France. She vowed never to see him again.
He had secured at least 10 different passports. He had bought some. Others he had stolen. None had his name. In 1972 and 1973 he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, Rome, Tehran, Kabul, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Copenhagen.
The reunion with his 'stupid' brother and the arrest in Athens
Years later, in Istanbul, he met his younger half-brother, Andre. A pause here:when Charles was 10 he had told his mother that "I always find someone stupid to do what I want." There had been a theft by his half-brother, with their mother accusing Charles of governing law.
At their reunion, Andre swore to obey Charles, who had declared that he would never return to France, since he was wanted in that country. He thus suggested other destinations to his brother. Specifically, Asian countries where - as he had told him - they would not stand out in appearance, while the police were more 'manageable'. Andre wanted them to go back to Europe. Finally, they did as the elder said. After some robberies in Turkey, they traveled to Greece where they continued their activity. They were arrested for jewelry robbery. Charles hoped the neighbor would not release information about the siblings to Greece - given the countries' historical relationship. Not confirmed.
He had explained to Andre that for the good of both of them, it would be helpful for one to take the other's identity. The good was his alone, since Charles was wanted in many nations. The brothers ended up in the prisons of Korydalos and then of Aegina, with their sentence being 18 months in prison. For the third time our protagonist pretended to be the patient, escaped from the patrol car that was taking him from the prison to the hospital and disappeared. Pulled east.
Andre revealed who he really was (that he wasn't Charles), with the Greek authorities handing him over to the Turkish where he was tried and imprisoned for a year and a half - in hard labour. During this time Charles was active in India, Kashmir and Iran. He followed the beaten path:he found French- or English-speaking tourists, usually couples, befriended them, and then offered to help him transport jewelry—for a fee. If they did not accept, he stole their banknotes, passports and travel tickets.
He did not act alone, but with Marie-Andrée Leclerc - secretary of a clinic in Quebec. They had met in Thailand in 1975. He did everything he knew to 'bewitch' her and be able to manipulate her to the core. Then you can watch it on Netflix. In summary, Sobhraj once again tried to 'build' his own family - in the most perverted sense of the term -, however he became the 'Bikini Killer', as those who did not agree with the plan were murdered.
Usually his victims - tourists going to India for a spiritual journey or drugs - were spotted wearing bikinis. In 1976 he was arrested together with Leclerc. Both were sentenced to life in prison - guilty of one murder and with evidence showing they were responsible for another 11, which later became 19. Ten years later Sobhraj escaped, knowing that Thailand had requested his extradition and being certain that there he would be was sentenced to death. Lelcerc was released in 1983 when she was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and was allowed to return to Canada. He died on 4/20/1984. He was 38 years old.
The return to Paris for a million reasons
Sobhraj was re-arrested in India where he bribed everyone to enjoy a five-star hotel accommodation in prison. Among the gifts he gave to those who served him were narcotics. He remained in prison until 1997, when he decided to return to Paris. He had already signed a contract to grant the rights of his life - to be made into a film - for 15,000,000 dollars. The reason he chose to go to the 'City of Light' was because there he could 'charge' every interview he gave, for 5,000 dollars. He had also hired an agent who would not accept any proposal for a date unless the interested parties first mentioned the money they were willing to give.
In 2003 he returned to Nepal, where he was arrested for the murder of an American tourist in 1975. Immediately all the 'frozen' cases concerning him were opened. In 2004 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2014 he was also convicted of the murder of a Canadian girl in 1975. He remains imprisoned in Nepal. His cell, again, resembled a hotel room.
How Sobhraj Changed Psychiatrists' 'Worldview'
He has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder which is a form of psychopathy. In 2008, he got engaged to Nihita Biswas, his lawyer's daughter and translator. He was 64 years old. She was 20. By the way, the criminal's daughter was 37. They were soon married, with Biswas reaching out to Nicolas Sarkozy to ask him to help her 'innocent' husband. Subsequently, he participated in the national version of Big Brother. When her husband underwent heart surgery in 2017, she gave him her blood.
If I ever killed someone or ordered someone killed, it was purely for business reasons. A job. Like that of the general of the army.
Robert Hare, a professor at the University of British Columbia, who has spent his entire life studying psychopaths (through research, interviews, and experiments on notorious criminals) concluded that "there are hundreds of thousands of psychopaths living, working, and hunting 'prey.' them among us. It could be your boss, your partner or your mother. Those who create paths of destruction and pain, without the slightest remorse or repentance. Without affecting their consciousness. And no one knows what can be done to 'fix' this".
Sobhraj was killing for financial and personal gain. Because he wanted the passports of his victims, which facilitated the trafficking of precious stones and drugs. He was not defined by any sexual desire and did not feel the slightest satisfaction from his murders. His victims happened to be in his path and had something he wanted.
As he had told a journalist, "if I ever killed someone or ordered someone to be killed, it was purely for business reasons. A job. Like that of the general of the army".
Hare explained that for psychopaths like Sobhraj, who are incapable of feeling remorse, 'I want to kill you' has the same emotional power as 'I want to kiss you'. They have no concept of fear and therefore do not perceive the threat of punishment (it is non-existent). In his diagnosis was the behavioral subcategory, which analysts call 'the puppet master'. They manipulate someone to get to someone else. Their power is greater because it is hidden. If someone better appears in their path, they instantly abandon the one they are already controlling and move on to him.
Psychopaths like Sobhraj learn to say only what society wants to hear. They can repeat 'I regret' countless times without ever meaning it," the scientists conclude.