Hed also left behind a trail of broken women. With BBC drama The Serpent now streaming on Netflix in the US, Nige Tassell reveals the story of the brazen career criminal who graduated from petty theft to cold-blooded murder. Whats not known is that after that call, I had a very long conversation with Jaswant Singh and suggested to him a second solution: that the Government of India gives an official undertaking, endorsed by Parliament, that Masood would be released within six months, and I would try my best to negotiate with Harkat ul Ansar on that ground. Our writer recalls his bizarre meetings with a charmer and psychopath, At the beginning of The Serpent, the new BBC drama series based on the exploits of a real-life serial killer, a title page declares: In 1997 an American TV crew tracked Charles Sobhraj down to Paris where he was living as a free man.. He analysed character according to a system devised by the French psychologist Rene Le Senne, a method he used to impose himself on the gullible. And Sobhraj was not unaware of his magnetic appeal. The honeymoon ended in 1973 when Sobhraj was arrested for holding a flamenco dancer prisoner for three days in her New Delhi hotel room, while he and an accomplice tried to drill through her ceiling to a gem store below. Sign up for our Celebrity & Entertainment newsletter. I would see, she said, casually. He looked small and inconsequential, but better than any 68-. year-old who's spent the last ten years in a decrepit prison has any right to look. Definitely. "Mention David Beckham in England, everybody knows. Sobhraj took Johnson's advice and went to the Telegraph, but while he was still in talks with that paper, he went off to Nepal. So his greatest ever prison escape was foiled long before it could take off. Accused of murdering dozens of Western tourists across Thailand, Nepal and India in the 1970s, Charles Sobhraj's life story has spawned multiple books, a movie, and a new BBC miniseries on Netflix. His first killing had been of a taxi driver in Pakistan several years before, but between October 1975 and March 1976 he is believed to have committed 11 more murders, nearly all of them young backpackers. "She said he did them all," he said. He didnt seem dangerous to me, but then he didnt seem dangerous to those he killed, either. 'He can't deal with the outside world,' says the documentary maker and writer Farrukh Dhondy. It had been 15 years since I'd last heard from Sobhraj, quite possibly the most disarming serial killer in criminal history, but his voice was instantly recognisable. According to Sobhraj, he aimed to double-cross both parties and enable the CIA to smash an international drug and arms deal between a terrorist organisation and a crime syndicate. On the run from the Indian police, Sobhraj and Compagnon sent their daughter back to Paris and moved on to Afghanistan, where they were soon imprisoned for car theft and not paying an hotel bill. It's about a serial killer who is arrested in Nepal for a couple of murders that took place years before. He looked a curiously slight figure, his skin remarkably smooth, even youthful, given that hed spent the past two decades in an Indian jail. Since then, however, his release kept getting delayed in 2017, he had a heart surgery and then came the Covid pandemic. Will MS Dhoni pass the baton to Ben Stokes in what could be his final season for CSK? He yearns for life outside, but once there he soon finds himself back behind bars. Soon recognised by a journalist, Sobhraj found himself in the Himalayan Times. It will be a bestseller. After politely sidestepping his offer, I got on to the question I'd been waiting a long time to ask: whatever made him come back to Nepal? Here's What We Know, Miley Cyrus Returns to Disney With "Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions)" Special, Miley Cyrus Takes the No-Pants Trend to a New Level in a One-Legged Catsuit, All the Changes the "Daisy Jones & The Six" TV Show Has Made to the Book So Far, "Daisy Jones & The Six" Inspired This New Amazon Luxury Storefront, Pedro Pascal Was "Very Excited" to See Sarah Michelle Gellar's Instagram Post About Him, "Bel-Air"'s Akira Akbar on Having Tatyana Ali as a Mentor: "She Just Gave Me Such Great Advice", drugging and trying to rob a group of French engineering students in India, wasn't convicted for any murders prior to 1997, statute of limitations on his arrest was up, paid $5 million for his life story and reportedly gave interviews for $6,000 each, detailed his own experience talking with Sobhraj, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. We needed our little jokes because actually we were a long way out of our depth. His motto was: 'When you feel the heat, go to the kitchen,' and he certainly thrived in stressful situations. He told me in Paris that he had regrets but he wouldnt say what they were. Hunting 'The Serpent': the diplomat turned detective - BBC We then continued our all-consuming research into the murders. When he left prison, the statute of limitations on his arrest was up. I have started a second manuscript which Ill complete after about six months. As The Serpent shows, Bangkok in 1976 was a place where anyone with the right connections and spare cash could evade unwanted police attention. Forever enterprising, the first thing Sobhraj had done after his arrest was sell the rights to his life story to a Bangkok businessman, who sold them on to Random House, who asked Richard to immediately get to Delhi. A REAL LIFE hero backpacker who escaped a serial killer in BBC drama The Serpent is alive, well - and helping to run his local billiards club. Its prison administration? , The Serpent: Is the 1997 Charles Sobhraj Interview Real? A bright but delinquent teenager, he was irresistibly drawn to crime car theft, street muggings, and then holding up housewives with a gun. We were both having nightmares that Sobhraj was chasing us, or suddenly appearing in our room. There seems little doubt that had the same quality of evidence produced in the Kathmandu court been put to a judge and jury in Britain, the case would have been dismissed. Now 76 years old, he is reportedly in poor health while serving a life sentence in Nepal. I had never been much interested in serial killers but I happened to read Richard Nevilles and Julie Clarkes extraordinary account of the killings, The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj, just before Sobhrajs release was announced. He eventually made off with thousands of pounds worth of jewels. How will you survive financially after getting freedom? Not subtle, but clearly we were under surveillance. Real life hero backpacker who escaped killer in BBC crime drama The Sobhraj replies, "That's what Time magazine said. He has made a continual fuss about his conviction, appealing to everyone from the UN downwards, and is demanding 7m (5.8) compensation for unlawful imprisonment. I dont know, lets see after the publication of my bookThere could be a future Hindi movie. He was staying in a tiny room at the Lutetia, the Left Bank hotel that was requisitioned by the Nazi secret service during the war. It's debatable whether or not Sobhraj is a psychopath - he certainly doesn't seem constrained by an overdeveloped sense of empathy - but he is clearly not stupid, despite his prison record. Our friends thought we had gone nuts. But exactly why he then killed these harmless young travellers remains a mystery. I was 23 and Richard Neville, who later became my husband, was 33. "I would see," she said, unflustered. After 20 years in a New Delhi jail, the man who had confessed to . Often with the former nurse Leclercs help, he drugged them, led them to believe they had contracted a tropical bug, and prevented them from leaving his apartments on the top floor of Kanit House in Bangkok. It was in this transient milieu that Sobhraj stole from impressionable travellers. Excerpts from Sobhrajs interview with The Indian Express. You met Pakistani terrorist Masood Azhar while in Tihar Jail. Talking. I met Thapa and Biswas together in Kathmandu to discuss Sobhraj and his case. The Bikini Killer: serial murderer Charles Sobhraj to be subject of He told me he thought that they were killed because they rejected his criminal entreaties. The first thing he did when I knocked on the door was offer me an open bottle of Coke, which was also the way he had incapacitated many of his victims. He finds himself not famous, whereas in prison hes a somebody.. . There will be film rights too.". I declined the offer but asked him to tell me why hed come to Nepal. Sobhraj is now serving a life sentence in a Nepalese jail for killing two tourists in 1975. It was like a personal motto. Actor Randeep Hooda met you in Kathmandu Jail. Despite my pressing, he refused to speak about the murders, only allowing that there were things in his past that he regretted but they were now behind him and he wanted to start life anew. At first, he sent an envoy to meet me in Paris. On August 15, 2016, when his release seemed imminent, Sobhraj replied to questions I sent him on email, with a caveat: the interview, he insisted, should be published only on his release from Kathmandu Jail. Charles Sobhraj exclusive interview: 'I am going straight back to France to my family I hope to live for many years to come' With the master of guile set to take his flight to freedom at age 78, the world may finally get to hear from the man himself - the chronicles, claims and conspiracy theories that make up Charles Sobhraj. Charles Sobhraj is bundled into a police van in Delhi in 1997, shortly after his release from jail. 11 hours ago, by Sarah Wasilak He had taken whatever money he could get from his previous wives, one of whom remained perversely loyal. In Afghanistan, he drugged his prison guard and disappeared, leaving his young wife in a cramped and dirty cell in Kabul prison. After many false starts, a year later I found myself back in Kathmandu, where the producers had secured a prison interview. (In case those names don't sound familiar, they're renamed Willem and Helena in the series.) "But I was also working for the CIA," he added, as I'm still trying to put the pieces together. After all, I cannot now face trial . The Serpent - Where Charles Sobhraj and Marie are now The Serpent: Is the 1997 Charles Sobhraj Interview Real? Here's What We Charles Sobhraj, pictured in 1997, the year he was released after 21 years in a New Delhi jail. You were arrested in Nepal in 2003. Handicrafts? The Serpent: Charles Sobhraj's Real 1997 Interview - POPSUGAR