Charles Sobharaj, the notorious serial killer, who has more than a dozen cases of murder against him, has been released recently on health grounds. He was serving his life term sentence in Kathmandu jail.
Sobharaj has been serving a life sentence, since 2003, for the murder of American, Connie Jo Bronzish, in Nepal. He was also convicted for the murder of a Canadian backpacker in 2014. A life sentence in Nepal is of 20 years.
Early Life Of The Murderer
Born to a Vietnamese mother and an Indian father in French-occupied Saigon in 1944. He had a tumultuous childhood where his parents left him at an early age. According to biographers Richard Neville and Julie Clarke, Charles Sobharaj had his childhood defined as a crisis of identity where he constantly huddled between continents and parents.
In his adolescence, he was in and out of juvenile offender homes. He stole cars, robbed housewives, and mugged people on the street.
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Bikini Killer And The Serpent
For the people close to him, Charles Sobharaj was charismatic and affable. Sobharaj targeted backpackers and tourists in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, India, and Nepal. As he was so skilled at deception and evasion, he was nicknamed, ‘the serpent.’
He followed a modus operandi of befriending the backpackers, drugging them, stealing their belongings, killing them, and using their passports to travel to another country. The gruesome murders after which, he threw the bodies wearing bikinis, earned him the name of bikini killer.
What Makes A Man A Murderer?
In 1997, after Sobharaj was released as his warrants had expired and witnesses had gone. He returned to France where he sold the film rights on his life and charged huge money for photographs and interviews.
In an interview with a news channel, he was asked, ‘What makes a man a murderer?’ Charles replied,”‘Feeling. Either they have too much feeling and cannot control themselves, or they have no feeling. It is always one of the two.’
Charles Sobharaj saw himself as a victim of an unjust society and wretched fate, with his only way to power, wealth, and opulence being the path of crime. Neville and Clarke reported that Sobhraj displayed no guilt for his actions.
Serial killers have had their share of childhood trauma but that doesn’t justify the wrongdoings. Primary question arises-Why others have to bear the brunt of someone else’s traumatic experience?
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: The Print, Indian Express, Times of India
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This post is tagged under: serpent, bikini killer, murderer, serial killer, Charles Sobharaj, Vietnam, Nepal, India, France, Asia, deception, jail, trauma, identity, killings, backpackers, early life, murders, feelings
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