Who is Charles Sobhraj, the 'Bikini Killer' and conman?
4 Apr, 2021 07:03 PM
5 minutes to read
Charles Sobhraj is bundled into a police van in Delhi in 1997, shortly after his release from jail. Photo / AP
Charles Sobhraj is bundled into a police van in Delhi in 1997, shortly after his release from jail. Photo / AP
news.com.au
Handsome, charming, and fluent in several languages, Charles Sobhraj was "like some bizarre real-life combination of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley and Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter".
His isn't a name that many would recognise — yet the suave Vietnamese-Indian Frenchman was once one of Asia's most wanted criminals, the charismatic con artist and so-called "Bikini Killer" who lured at least a dozen young backpackers to their deaths in the 1970s.