Travellers' Checks | The Bikini Killer: serial murderer Charles Sobhraj to be subject of Netflix drama The Serpent
- Sobhraj terrorised Asia in the 1970s, from Istanbul to Hong Kong, and remains behind bars in Nepal
- Also, Tokyo’s beloved Harajuku Station to succumb to modernity, safety regulations post-Games
Backpackers travelling across Asia in the 1980s could often be found with their noses buried in one of a fairly predictable selection of books – usually bought or traded in second-hand bookshops and street stalls scattered along what used to be known as the hippie trail.
Required reading back then included the likes of Midnight Express (1977) when in Turkey, Heat and Dust (1975), Midnight’s Children (1981) and City of Joy (1985) while on the Indian subcontinent and Saint Jack (1973), The Year of Living Dangerously (1978) and Saigon (1982)in Southeast Asia. Tai-Pan (1966) and Noble House (1981) were popular with those whose budgets stretched to Hong Kong or whose passports allowed them to work here for a while.
Two books that struck a chilling chord with travellers across the continent, however, were The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj, by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke, and Serpentine, by Thomas Thompson. Both were published in 1979 and recounted the gruesome pan-Asian crime spree of a psychopathic con man and serial murderer whose nicknames included The Bikini Killer and The Serpent.
Born in Saigon to a Vietnamese mother and Indian father in 1944, Charles Sobhraj was active across Asia, from Istanbul to Hong Kong, in the early to mid-70s. Locked up for murder in India in 1976, he escaped from jail in Delhi in 1986, but was recaptured in Goa and given another 10 years behind bars. He was released in 1997, and, in 2003, overconfidently returned to Nepal, where he had murdered a female American backpacker in 1975. He was recognised, arrested and sent to a Kathmandu jail, where, at age 75 and suspected of more than a dozen killings, he still resides.
Currently out of print, The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj will be republished in March with a new title – On the Trail of the Serpent – to tie in with an eight-part BBC/Netflix drama series titled The Serpent, which will also be arriving next year. Thompson’s Serpentine is available for download in a Kindle edition at Amazon.com.
Tokyo’s wooden Harajuku Station will be demolished
