Sept. 6, 2025
E132 - The Serpent: Charles Sobhraj
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Episode one thirty two will cover the extremely complicated and convoluted case of a man who seemingly was able to control everyone around him. His various crimes spanned multiple countries, ranging from petty theft to murder. Who is Charles Sobhraj and where is he now?
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This episode was researched and co-written by Anamika Nair.
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jessica, and you're listening to the Asian Madness podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to episode one thirty two from me, the Asian Madness podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hope everyone is taking great care of themselves both physically and mentally.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Summer is in full swing here and hopefully that means my seasonal allergies will be coming to an end soon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, let me talk a bit about today's case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you're into true crime, then you're likely to be very familiar with the names like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or even Dennis Raider, also known as BTK.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In my opinion, today's case is a rather well-known case, partly because it involves a serial killer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It spans across various countries, and this guy's name is actually in the news in recent years.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No joke.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I had this case noted down during my research for when I just started my podcast, like back in twenty seventeen.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What took so long for me to get to it?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I was a bit intimidated for the reasons mentioned earlier, serial killer, meaning multiple murders.
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[SPEAKER_00]: spanning multiple countries, lots of information to dig into.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So ultimately, with the help from my wonderful researcher and scriptwriter, I am finally ready to talk about Charles Subrage, also known as the bikini killer or the serpent.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes serial killers get really weird nicknames.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As Charles Sorrage is a serial killer, we will not be looking at one particular case, but several cases connected to him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is an episode about a man who's cunning and manipulative ways have loved a permanent mark in true crime history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He's not your run-of-the-mill dumb ass serial killer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot deny he is smart, but he really could have used those brains for something with more potential.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and something more legal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We will start off by digging into his backstory, and we will discuss what it is that led him to prison, eventually.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quick warning, this episode will contain names from countries I am not familiar with, so please don't make fun of me or get mad at me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also, the details in this case can get extensive, sometimes information can slightly vary from sight to sight as well.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you find a glaring mistake, do let me know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, and let's begin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Charles was not a typical murder because his actions were not exactly violent in nature.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was not like the serial killers who took pleasure in the process of killing, dismembering bodies, inflicting pain, or in some cases, eating their victims.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He did not want to torture the victims or even see them suffer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't care about that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was more of a con artist, a jewel thief, and a fraudster.
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[SPEAKER_00]: People dying was just a side effect.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you know the secret weapon of Con artist.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Good looks and undeniable charm.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Charles had the strange motive for his crimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He killed his victims because he just really wanted their identities so he could travel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So he would kill a person, steal their identity, and travel under false pretenses to move from continent to continent.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This might be one of the strangest motives of Evercome across.
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[SPEAKER_00]: People want financial gain to satisfy their sick urges and fantasies.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then here we have this weirdo who just wants to travel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, what his reasoning was is completely irrelevant.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It just feels odd in a way I can't properly articulate.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One of his nicknames was the serpent killer, because just like serpent's and ancient stories, Charles Sebrage possessed a dangerous charm and deceitfulness, using his charisma to trap unsuspecting victims.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His ability to manipulate not only those he preyed upon, but also law enforcement, and society in general, really cemented this reputation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get carried away, who is Charles?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hachand, Baunani, Gurmuk, Sabraj, was born on April six, nineteen forty-four in Saigon to a Vietnamese mother and an Indian father.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The pair almost instantaneously fell in love when they first met.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But remained unmarried until they had their first born.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I know, scandalous.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Subradi's father moved back to India right after he was born, leaving him and his mother behind.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His mother later remarried to a French lieutenant, posted in French Indochina, and they all moved to France shortly after.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's how Hocchand, Bawani, Grimuk, Sobrage, who no doubt had a difficult name for the locals to pronounce, became Charles, and earned his French passport and nationality.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're only a few minutes in, and this case already touches on three different countries.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There is more though.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While it sucks that his biological father left him and his mom, it is kind of sweet that his mother was able to find love again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, the dynamics within this new family was not very comfortable for Charles, as he always felt neglected by his parents.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is not unheard of when a parent remarries.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The existing child may end up feeling unwanted, especially so of the couple have another kid together.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, this relationship with his mother and stepfather and the emotional void left by them will go on to play a huge role in his future and crimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In nineteen sixty three at just nineteen, he found himself behind bars for burglary.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a silver lining for him, at least.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In prison, Subraaj met Felix Discon, a wealthy prison volunteer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They developed the fast friendship, which was both surprising and a blessing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After serving his time, Subraaj moved in with him, and this connection turned out to be crucial for Subraaj's later adventures.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Subrides soon found himself shifting easily between the street-wise criminal fraternity of Paris and the wealthy high society.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Becoming the sort of social-class chameleon gave him all the access he needed to become a successful criminal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He realized he had the superpower to charm just about anyone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that he did.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Why waste your talents?
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, he managed to charm a lady named Shantel Koppanyon, a young Parisian lady from a devoutly conservative family.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They got married, and after a year of marital bliss, Shantel got pregnant.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Charles took her and began traveling through Europe and Asia.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The idea was to travel, but in reality, it was more of a crime spree.
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[SPEAKER_00]: To fund her journey to Asia, Sebrage turned to some petty crimes, robbing tourists and using their stolen passports.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Once in Asia, he leveled up this game, getting into Carthet, smuggling, and armed robbery.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because of this, he was all too familiar with the inside of a prison cell, and he was equally skilled at escaping them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His usual style was to pretend he was sick, so he would get transferred to a hospital.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it was severe abdominal pain, and other times he would cough up fake blood.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In Kabul, he once drugged a guard watching over him and simply walked out of the hospital.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He had a talent for exploiting the trust of the people around him too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Following the steering escape, he knew people would be on the lookout for him, so like the little rat that he is, he abandoned his wife and fled to Iran, leaving her to go back to her family in Paris.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For the next few years, he always escaped capture, traveling through eastern Europe and the Middle East with the help of his half-brother.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But after being caught in Greece in nineteen seventy three, or jewelry he managed to solve identities and evade arrest again, while his half brother faced nearly three years in prison.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, subroge and shantel already had a baby daughter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite his crime spree and always being on the move, subroge for some reason, really wanted his kid back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Before he could head back to France and take his daughter, though, Shantel made the first move and fled to America with her daughter, escaping subroge once and for all.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As time went on, the intensity of his crimes were getting worse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His first known murder was in collaboration with a young Indian man, Ajay Chaudhury.
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[SPEAKER_00]: who would end up playing a major role in many of Sabrage's crimes, and who was a J. According to sources, he came from a middle class Indian family and met Sabrage sometime in nineteen seventy-five in New Delhi.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Initially, it was said that he worked odd jobs for Sabrage, but seeing how lavishly his employer lived, it did not take much time to get him onboarded as well.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, Subraaj also met a young French Canadian woman named Marie Andre Le Cloak, a traveler from Canada.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He approached her, did his regular charming act, and they started dating.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Le Cloak became his right-hand woman, completely and wholly devoted to them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was later quoted as saying, quote, I swore to myself to try all means to make him love me, but little by little I became his slave, unquote.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In reality, Subraaj wasn't just fooling his victims.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He built up his group of followers, just like he had done before, and kept them loyal to him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometime in nineteen seventy-five, the trio were in Bangkok, Thailand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their first murder victim, Theresa Nolton, was a twenty-one-year-old traveler from Seattle, Washington.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She had hopped on a plane and arrived in Southeast Asia, hoping to explore both the world and her identity while on the so-called hippie trail.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She also had plans to study at Copa on Monastery to learn more about Tibetan Buddhism.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, she was discovered floating in the Gulf of Thailand on October eighteen, nineteen seventy-five, wearing a bikini.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was believed that Teresa had somehow come across so broad, and he had somehow tricked her into either visiting his residence, a hotel, or going out drinking.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This was his modest uprandy befriending people, spiking their drinks, murdering them, and taking off with their valuables.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Soon after this murder, he and his quote-unquote team went off to India, hoping to Reese's case would soon blow over.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Subraaj did not work alone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He had the charm and wit to gather followers and co-conspirators.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He orchestrated the whole thing like a cult leader, charming them, and acting like he had all the answers, and he would very easily gain the trust and loyalty of the subjects.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He really makes me wonder just how charming this man really was.
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[SPEAKER_00]: was he able to convince and turn someone against very obvious facts?
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[SPEAKER_00]: He had to be either very convincing and manipulative, or he was extremely good at finding people who would believe anything.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he had a knack for seeking out people, looking for leadership, someone who really wanted a so-called purpose in life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And from this point on, Sobra just journey started getting crazier by the minute.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Soon enough, he wasn't just committing crimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was pretty much running a crime help desk.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He assisted two X French cops in finding their missing passports.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you might think that's a nice thing to do until you find out that those passports were originally stolen by subroge himself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In another crazy move, subroge played host to a Frenchman who seemed to be sick with dysentery, very Oregon Trail of them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dysentery, if you don't know, is a gastrointestinal disease caused by an infection, and a symptoms can include fever, nausea, weight loss, cramps, among other things.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it seems like a nice thing to host and help a man obviously suffering a medical issue until you realize that it was a surprise that got the man sick in the first place.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So he basically goes around creating problems and would then step in to resolve said problem, which would then make him look like a hero.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't all easy though, because the broad was under suspicion for several murders, and even arrested at one point.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Except he was never formally charged, so he was like, go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This continued until Sabrage got tired of exploiting this crowd.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He needed new territory with a new set of victims.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Almost implying he was getting bored and running out of victims.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And in a way, it is smart to move around because staying too long tends to route suspicion.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So he packed up his bags and moved back to Thailand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The scene of his very first murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When he came back to Thailand, Sabrage realized he might need a new stick.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So he came up with the idea of becoming a fake drug dealer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was like a child playing doctor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing was real, and Sabrage got to play dealer, selling fake drugs to travelers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This must have journey started with a sad ending of Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found near where they regularly met and hung out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Then when Vitali's girlfriend came to Thailand to look for answers, she met a fate similar to her boyfriends.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After that, two Dutch students were found in similar circumstances, strangled and burned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Though some sources say these two victims were burned while still alive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In an interview in twenty twenty one, a woman whom subrog had befriended when he moved into her building in Bangkok said, quote, many people were getting sick in his home.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was not only a swindler, a seducer, a robber of tourists, but an evil murder, unquote.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Death seemed to follow the man wherever he went.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that isn't something you can just ignore.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So once again, he felt like things were getting a bit too heated in Thailand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was time to make an escape and hit up a new location.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's when subrogent LaClirque ran away to Nepal, along with their trusted follower, Ajay, Chaudhury.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And there, the trio continued their crimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: like journeying along the hippy trail, targeting North American tourists and backpackers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Among its victims were a twenty-six-year-old Canadian and a twenty-nine-year-old American.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While some might think these travelers are way too trusting, it's worth remembering that this was a whole different timeline.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hitchhiking in North America was probably still somewhat acceptable.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also, when you travel abroad and run into a friendly person, it's not really weird to let your guard down just a little bit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some people make meaningful connections while abroad, and if the person seems nice and helpful, why would you doubt their intentions?
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[SPEAKER_00]: But after a while, they once again decided it was time to move on, so they ran off to India, using the stolen identities of the people they had harmed or killed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I was not alive during this time, but I would bet that traveling back then was definitely a lot more relaxed than it is today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No intense scrutiny had borders, documents tend to look like some artwork put together by kid.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That kind of stuff.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Having had their fill of Nepal and India, the trio continued the journey back to the south, to Singapore, where they murdered and is rarely tourist, Ellen, Aaron, Jacob, solely for his passport.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But this point, several subrogents, La Clarks, friends, and Thailand started getting suspicious of them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I do believe some people are more prone to be more gullible, and these people, despite being their friends, called bullshit when they started smelling it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some of these friends, though, were involved in their theft plans, but they were not privy to the murders.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I guess they drew a hard line at murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They strongly suspected the trio of carrying out multiple murders and whatnot, and they even spoke to the police about their theories.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, the police did not brush this off.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It must have made a lot of sense once all the theories were put together.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So with the type police on board, that meant that when the three criminals returned to Thailand in nineteen seventy-six, Sebrosh became a wanted man.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, he was completely unaware of this development.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In his mind, he was just returning home.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But some eagle-eyed locals in Bangkok recognize the killer and reported him, which led to an arrest in a very, very quick chat with the police.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quicker than what anyone would expect.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And if he can't believe it, Subraaj was, again, released.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't need an escape plan, or any clever tricks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He simply walked out the doors and brought daylight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: How can a man be that lucky?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we know he was charming, but nobody can be that charming, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's possible he uses smarts to play a different angle, distracting the police from the ongoing crimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're saying I'm a killer and a thief?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's a heavy accusation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What do this made the news?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know how much Thailand relies on tourism?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you should know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that is true.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thailand gets quite a chunk of money from tourism.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and in the seventies, tourism was booming.
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[SPEAKER_00]: By arresting and charging subroad, it would mean revealing the dangers of Thailand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And if people found out how dangerous Thailand was, would anyone ever want to travel there again?
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[SPEAKER_00]: While in theory, that might make sense, I have to say these moments require a cost benefit analysis.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what is better?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Being known for having a lot of crimes but successfully capturing the criminals and putting them behind bars, or being the place that allows criminals free-range over your popular tourist spots.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You could bury your head in the sand, look the other way for a while, but ultimately, it would become so obvious you would not be able to ignore it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And once that happens, it'll look even worse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's short-sighted for sure, but that's how it goes sometimes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, Subraaj walked out, and he realized that while he was very lucky, he would need to leave Thailand again, at least for now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Soon, the trio ended up in Malaysia, but now the dynamics were changing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ajay Chaudhary suddenly disappeared one night after transporting stolen gems to his leader.
20:02.123 --> 20:04.304
[SPEAKER_00]: He has never been seen or heard from since then.
20:05.565 --> 20:14.552
[SPEAKER_00]: Once Charles Abroad's story became major news, police believe that Abroad's very likely murdered his accomplice, perhaps to have a bigger share of their spoils.
20:15.693 --> 20:18.215
[SPEAKER_00]: Loyalty, it turns out, has its limits.
20:20.522 --> 20:25.526
[SPEAKER_00]: The clerks stuck with Sabrage as they traveled through Switzerland, pretending to be fancy jewel traders.
20:26.566 --> 20:33.992
[SPEAKER_00]: Around the same time, Interpol was now convinced that this man was not just a con artist, a thief, but also a murder.
20:34.952 --> 20:41.597
[SPEAKER_00]: An international arrest warrant was issued for Sabrage, charging him for the multiple murders he had committed while in Thailand.
20:42.458 --> 20:45.280
[SPEAKER_00]: But Sabrage is either unaware or unbothered.
20:46.050 --> 20:50.453
[SPEAKER_00]: The couple even added another murder while in Bombay to their ever-growing list.
20:51.313 --> 20:53.374
[SPEAKER_00]: But, Subraaj had other plans in mind.
20:54.055 --> 20:56.096
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to recruit more people to help him.
20:57.076 --> 21:04.220
[SPEAKER_00]: He approached two women, Barbara Smith and Mary Ellen Ether, who both willingly became a part of his criminal gang.
21:05.621 --> 21:15.747
[SPEAKER_00]: While they were now a solid for some, they got into trouble while in New Delhi, when the gang tried a pretty bold plan involving sixty French post-grad students.
21:17.087 --> 21:21.868
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to trick them with some anti-disciplinary medication, but things went wrong.
21:22.868 --> 21:27.069
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not really sure what he gave them, but it was something that made them sick.
21:28.269 --> 21:38.091
[SPEAKER_00]: The drugs he gave them took effect way more quickly than he had expected, which meant that while some of them were already getting violently sick, some others hadn't even taken it yet.
21:39.031 --> 21:45.652
[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing how this was playing out, the students realized what was going on, so they overpowered subrudge and called the police.
21:47.839 --> 21:49.902
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you can guess where this is going.
21:50.443 --> 21:56.210
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, being the charismatic guy he was, Sebrosh turned his trial into a media show.
21:56.992 --> 22:00.596
[SPEAKER_00]: Hunger strikes, changing legal teams like he was changing clothes.
22:01.277 --> 22:02.559
[SPEAKER_00]: He was all over the news.
22:03.456 --> 22:05.417
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was just that, a show.
22:06.438 --> 22:12.242
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, the distraction did not work, and he was eventually given a twelve-year sentence for a tenth at robbery.
22:13.263 --> 22:20.468
[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, his two new-wish accomplices, Barbara and Mary Ellen, tried to kill themselves while sitting in prison.
22:21.728 --> 22:27.793
[SPEAKER_00]: Not really sure what happened to them afterwards, but as Sebrage got twelve years, they probably got a lot less.
22:28.814 --> 22:29.975
[SPEAKER_00]: Then we have the girlfriend.
22:30.756 --> 22:31.576
[SPEAKER_00]: Marie LeClarke.
22:32.197 --> 22:36.060
[SPEAKER_00]: She was found guilty along with Sebrage, despite her claiming she was innocent.
22:37.101 --> 22:42.385
[SPEAKER_00]: Once she was per old, she returned to Canada and was soon diagnosed with the variant cancer.
22:43.325 --> 22:46.448
[SPEAKER_00]: She died at age thirty-eight, in April of nineteen eighty-four.
22:47.925 --> 22:52.206
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile back in Tihar Jail, Subraaj was leading a very different life.
22:53.106 --> 23:09.371
[SPEAKER_00]: In an interview, he claimed that in every situation he ever encountered, even in the most challenging circumstances, he consistently maintained control, rather than allowing the situation to dictate his actions, which is why he had the ability to manipulate the circumstances.
23:10.471 --> 23:12.732
[SPEAKER_00]: Effectively managing the people he dealt with
23:14.098 --> 23:21.363
[SPEAKER_00]: His mantra remained that as long as he engaged with others, he can navigate and overcome any challenges that may come his way.
23:22.804 --> 23:27.767
[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly, this man thinks extremely highly of himself, and, in a way, I get it.
23:28.768 --> 23:39.035
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gotten this far, wheezing his way out of police custody, convincing people to help him commit crimes, and learning God knows how many people to their deaths.
23:40.223 --> 23:45.808
[SPEAKER_00]: In another life, he could have been a salesman, a CEO, or even a politician.
23:46.809 --> 23:51.413
[SPEAKER_00]: So, even behind bars, Subraaj managed to create an oddly luxurious life.
23:52.294 --> 23:59.420
[SPEAKER_00]: He would slip stolen gemstones to the police for special treatment now and then, giving him the ability to live large in prison.
24:00.341 --> 24:03.364
[SPEAKER_00]: He had his own TV, enjoyed top notch meals,
24:05.165 --> 24:10.609
[SPEAKER_00]: His charm worked like magic, making friends with everyone from the underdogs to the hardest criminals.
24:11.410 --> 24:14.492
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like key-turned prison into a little staycation.
24:15.212 --> 24:16.453
[SPEAKER_00]: No need to run or hide.
24:17.874 --> 24:20.536
[SPEAKER_00]: However, sometimes good things do not last.
24:21.337 --> 24:28.022
[SPEAKER_00]: Back in Thailand, a Dutch diplomat Herman Nippenberg was investigating the death of the two missing students
24:29.566 --> 24:36.032
[SPEAKER_00]: Nippenburg thoroughly retraced subrages steps all the way to his abandoned house, where he found the mother load.
24:36.733 --> 24:43.659
[SPEAKER_00]: A whole bag of passports, licenses, and cash, telling us that there were more victims than anyone even suspected.
24:44.600 --> 24:48.824
[SPEAKER_00]: With this information coming to light, subrages was again in a tight spot.
24:49.585 --> 24:52.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, things were comfortable in the Indian prison.
24:52.708 --> 24:54.469
[SPEAKER_00]: And he only had two years left to serve.
24:55.389 --> 25:03.411
[SPEAKER_00]: But if his crimes in Thailand caught up to him, he would be sent back to Thailand to face his crimes, and he'd likely be given the dot sentence.
25:04.431 --> 25:05.912
[SPEAKER_00]: So what would Subraaj do?
25:06.852 --> 25:11.613
[SPEAKER_00]: Accept his fate and give in, acknowledge the gravity of his actions and express remorse?
25:12.774 --> 25:12.914
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
25:13.694 --> 25:16.115
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, I know, I'll throw a party.
25:17.368 --> 25:24.334
[SPEAKER_00]: As bizarre as that sounds, he did throw a party within the confines of the Tahar Jail involving both inmates and guards.
25:25.455 --> 25:30.379
[SPEAKER_00]: The extent of his influence was surreal, creating a knot atmosphere behind prison walls.
25:31.340 --> 25:35.283
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine being an inmate during this time, like, what a weird experience.
25:37.123 --> 25:42.811
[SPEAKER_00]: On the surface, this was just a party, but in reality, this wasn't a skate plan.
25:43.511 --> 25:47.697
[SPEAKER_00]: During the party, some broad slits sleeping pills into everybody's drinks.
25:48.718 --> 25:53.184
[SPEAKER_00]: Where he got all this contraband is honestly a mystery, but clearly he happened.
25:54.315 --> 25:57.980
[SPEAKER_00]: And as everybody started falling asleep, he simply walked out of prison.
25:59.022 --> 26:01.445
[SPEAKER_00]: Something he was probably accustomed to by this point.
26:02.507 --> 26:04.109
[SPEAKER_00]: It was really as easy as it sounds.
26:04.590 --> 26:08.736
[SPEAKER_00]: No crazy high maneuver, escape plans, just a quick stroll to freedom.
26:09.637 --> 26:15.421
[SPEAKER_00]: He was found in Goa, less than a month later, and was sentenced to another ten years for what he did at the party.
26:16.242 --> 26:24.607
[SPEAKER_00]: But what you might not know is that even this capture in Goa, and this resentencing, was part of his divine plan all along.
26:25.748 --> 26:30.751
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like the internet is straight aligned to me at this point, because this is just insane.
26:31.672 --> 26:37.376
[SPEAKER_00]: Just when you thought that he had finally failed, he was really just executing a meticulously thought out plan.
26:38.281 --> 26:39.402
[SPEAKER_00]: all part of the long game.
26:40.282 --> 26:43.944
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he once said, he controls the situation, not the other way around.
26:44.825 --> 26:53.710
[SPEAKER_00]: The new ten-year sentence meant that he would be out in ninety-seven, just as a twenty-year statute of limitation from his Thailand crimes would expire.
26:54.651 --> 26:57.953
[SPEAKER_00]: This way, he could not be charged for the crimes he committed in Thailand.
26:58.513 --> 27:05.538
[SPEAKER_00]: He would continue his charms and reign over Indian prisons, successfully escaping actual justice in Thailand.
27:06.478 --> 27:13.862
[SPEAKER_00]: and so he continued his luxurious prison life in India until his eventual release as a free man in both countries.
27:15.483 --> 27:24.109
[SPEAKER_00]: After his release in India, Subraaj returned to the familiar streets of Paris, his home, where his mother and stepfather remained all these years.
27:24.969 --> 27:29.952
[SPEAKER_00]: By this time, his cat and mouse game with the law, his crimes and the whole trial or deal
27:30.483 --> 27:34.164
[SPEAKER_00]: turned him somewhat into a celebrity, thanks to the media circus.
27:35.224 --> 27:44.927
[SPEAKER_00]: Capitalizing on that, Subrage started charging thousands for interviews and photographs, and he charged fifteen million US dollars for the rights to make a movie on his life.
27:45.727 --> 27:48.348
[SPEAKER_00]: But for him, that was still not enough.
27:49.680 --> 27:57.429
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward a bit to two thousand and three, he decided to visit his old stomping grounds, heading back to Nepal to open a mineral water business.
27:58.350 --> 28:03.055
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have just stayed back in France, sitting atop his gold and live out the rest of his life.
28:03.556 --> 28:05.578
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, he wanted to do stuff.
28:07.298 --> 28:11.299
[SPEAKER_00]: But returning to a country where you had committed crimes and is absolutely unhinged.
28:12.420 --> 28:17.061
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he definitely got a bit too cocky, because things did not turn out the way he had hoped.
28:17.521 --> 28:23.443
[SPEAKER_00]: At least, not this time, because karma finally caught up with him on the streets of Katmandu.
28:24.023 --> 28:27.244
[SPEAKER_00]: When a journalist spotted him and decided to follow him for two weeks,
28:28.310 --> 28:33.754
[SPEAKER_00]: This journalist and wrote an article on his findings along with various photos for the Himalayan Times.
28:34.855 --> 28:38.538
[SPEAKER_00]: Police officers got a hold of this article and sprung into action.
28:39.538 --> 28:45.783
[SPEAKER_00]: The police conducted a raid and arrested him for the murder of those North American backpackers back in nineteen seventy five.
28:46.804 --> 28:52.228
[SPEAKER_00]: In August of two thousand and four, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu District Court.
28:54.037 --> 28:59.739
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time this case seems to come to an end, more comes out, but I promise you, we're almost at the end.
29:00.719 --> 29:02.600
[SPEAKER_00]: Subrage, of course, appealed to sentence.
29:03.440 --> 29:07.161
[SPEAKER_00]: It did not seem as if there was a trial, or at least that's what he claimed.
29:07.801 --> 29:09.662
[SPEAKER_00]: He called a whole ordeal unfair.
29:10.882 --> 29:11.943
[SPEAKER_00]: the audacity, though.
29:12.423 --> 29:21.290
[SPEAKER_00]: Him, his lawyers, and the court went back and forth on this, appealing, upholding sentences, then resentencing, etc.
29:21.951 --> 29:28.716
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Bride's lawyer claimed that her client was denied justice because, quote, "'Dudishary is corrupt," unquote.
29:29.236 --> 29:32.519
[SPEAKER_00]: And for this outburst, she was charged with contempt of court.
29:33.359 --> 29:35.201
[SPEAKER_00]: It was messy, not gonna lie.
29:36.141 --> 29:37.563
[SPEAKER_00]: So, why not add some more mess?
29:38.423 --> 29:45.687
[SPEAKER_00]: In two thousand and eight, Subraaj stunned everyone by announcing his engagement to Nihita, this was, on the Polywoman.
29:46.747 --> 29:50.670
[SPEAKER_00]: She was reportedly Subraaj's interpreter and his lawyer's daughter.
29:51.530 --> 29:53.271
[SPEAKER_00]: And forty-four years younger than him.
29:53.951 --> 29:55.552
[SPEAKER_00]: She was born in nineteen eighty-eight.
29:55.972 --> 29:57.693
[SPEAKER_00]: He was born in nineteen forty-four.
29:58.354 --> 29:59.114
[SPEAKER_00]: You can do the math.
30:00.060 --> 30:01.500
[SPEAKER_00]: He could literally be her dad.
30:02.721 --> 30:12.864
[SPEAKER_00]: Even with all his charms, I don't know how he pulled that one off, but Subrajan Hita allegedly got married on October ninth, twenty-eight right inside the jail.
30:13.904 --> 30:19.706
[SPEAKER_00]: The authorities disagreed saying that what they did was simply a part of a Hindu festival in Nepal.
30:20.626 --> 30:27.551
[SPEAKER_00]: When the so-called bride was interviewed later, Nihita denied all of it, saying that they were close, but never anything more.
30:28.592 --> 30:30.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing else is known about this relationship.
30:31.634 --> 30:32.915
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I guess, the lack of it.
30:34.076 --> 30:39.520
[SPEAKER_00]: But we do know that Nihita donated her blood when he was having open heart surgery in twenty seventeen.
30:40.500 --> 30:47.285
[SPEAKER_00]: To finally conclude this whole ordeal, subrides with sentence for the last time, to twenty years in prison in twenty fourteen.
30:48.046 --> 30:49.186
[SPEAKER_00]: What time already served?
30:50.147 --> 30:57.393
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe a sentence started once he was initially found guilty in two thousand and four, so he would have been out by twenty twenty four.
30:57.993 --> 31:05.539
[SPEAKER_00]: But before that could happen, he was granted an early release due to his age, health conditions, and so called good behavior.
31:06.660 --> 31:13.005
[SPEAKER_00]: Once released, he had fifteen days to get his ass out in a paul, and was not allowed to return for at least ten years.
31:14.333 --> 31:19.454
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they need to worry about that, as in twenty thirty four, he would be ninety years old.
31:20.475 --> 31:25.096
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, he could still be alive and still be able to travel, but I sure hope not.
31:26.176 --> 31:29.057
[SPEAKER_00]: He is most likely living out the rest of his life back in France.
31:29.917 --> 31:32.398
[SPEAKER_00]: He is eighty one years old in twenty twenty five.
31:33.378 --> 31:35.838
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that he had a wife once upon a time?
31:36.619 --> 31:41.760
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not find any record of them ever getting a divorce, so I don't have any more followups on that.
31:43.611 --> 32:01.042
[SPEAKER_00]: As you can imagine, the whole case surrounding Sabrage was made into several films and books, serpentine by Thomas Thompson, the life and crimes of Charles Sabrage by Richard Neville and Julie Clark, and a section called the bikini murders by Noel Barber in the reader's digest.
32:01.883 --> 32:04.304
[SPEAKER_00]: A Hindi film based on Sabrage was released in
32:06.243 --> 32:13.417
[SPEAKER_00]: and in more recent years, an eight-part mini-series called the Serpent was released, which you might be able to find on Netflix.
32:14.359 --> 32:17.425
[SPEAKER_00]: There's probably more here and there, but those are the main ones.
32:18.751 --> 32:22.314
[SPEAKER_00]: One extremely odd choice is this restaurant located in India.
32:23.395 --> 32:34.103
[SPEAKER_00]: If you recall, Subraaj orchestrated his escape in the Indian prison, just so he could get re-arusted and sentenced to ten more years in India to escape the Thai legal system.
32:35.044 --> 32:39.007
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, Subraaj has found dining in a restaurant called Okalcaro.
32:40.007 --> 32:43.030
[SPEAKER_00]: And this restaurant proudly mentions this on their website.
32:43.950 --> 32:46.652
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they even at one point had a statue of Subraaj.
32:47.833 --> 32:53.538
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess that's one way to stay relevant, though I find it rather tacky and disrespectful to his victims.
32:54.479 --> 32:55.960
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if they did that in the U.S.
32:56.825 --> 32:59.366
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Ted Bundy ate here and he loved her food.
33:00.007 --> 33:03.348
[SPEAKER_00]: So good, in fact, he was willing to risk his freedom for our specials.
33:04.629 --> 33:07.911
[SPEAKER_00]: One more thing I wanted to touch on before I go, the victims.
33:08.911 --> 33:17.176
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, I do not have much background information on all his victims, and to be honest, the total number of victims is still being disputed.
33:18.182 --> 33:22.566
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Wikipedia, it ranges from twelve confirmed to as high as thirty-one.
33:23.447 --> 33:26.169
[SPEAKER_00]: In a BBC article, it says more than twenty.
33:27.030 --> 33:30.213
[SPEAKER_00]: In an NBC article, it says more than twenty as well.
33:31.254 --> 33:40.102
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure subroge was asked this, probably many times, but it's possible that he himself lost count as well, if he was even counting to begin with.
33:41.652 --> 33:47.715
[SPEAKER_00]: It makes me incredibly upset that so many of these victims never receive justice, and so many are just considered gone.
33:48.315 --> 33:51.337
[SPEAKER_00]: Their families and friends never knowing what became of their loved one.
33:52.257 --> 33:56.079
[SPEAKER_00]: What makes it worse is that Charles Sebrage never once showed any remorse.
33:56.899 --> 34:00.920
[SPEAKER_00]: He even once claimed, quote, I can justify the murders to myself.
34:01.700 --> 34:03.741
[SPEAKER_00]: I never killed good people, unquote.
34:04.761 --> 34:07.642
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a chilling perspective on this distorted sense of morality.
34:08.462 --> 34:13.844
[SPEAKER_00]: I truly think some broad fisted description of a psychopath, at least according to this list I found.
34:15.084 --> 34:27.950
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretends to care, has fake and shallow relationships, maintains a normal life as a cover for criminal activity, cannot form genuine relationships, comes off as cold, among many other things.
34:29.230 --> 34:35.033
[SPEAKER_00]: It is also clear whom his actions that Charles Sebrage was fond of the media attention he got from his cons and murders.
34:36.093 --> 34:52.865
[SPEAKER_00]: In my unprofessional opinion, he also displays signs of narcissistic personality disorder, such as being very self-important, requires admiration, entitled, critical of others, takes advantage of others to get their way, expects others to do his bidding.
34:53.965 --> 34:54.546
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think?
34:55.446 --> 35:00.710
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, again, I am not a professional, but those are just my thoughts on this monster.
35:02.800 --> 35:03.541
[SPEAKER_00]: So there we have it.
35:04.021 --> 35:11.668
[SPEAKER_00]: The case of an extremely calculated and manipulative man who had no care or thought for the people, only acting in his own interest.
35:12.829 --> 35:20.336
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose being abandoned by his father and neglected by his mother and stepfather made him seek out attention in the worst way possible.
35:21.116 --> 35:27.582
[SPEAKER_00]: This is obviously just a guess, but we do see many serial murders and criminals have the same villain origin story.
35:28.858 --> 35:32.401
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, a terrible childhood is never a good excuse for their actions.
35:33.442 --> 35:37.365
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's scarier is we still don't know the actual number of subroges victims.
35:38.346 --> 35:46.974
[SPEAKER_00]: How much money he earned through as many many scams is also unknown, but judging by the long history of his crimes, it could be in the millions of dollars.
35:48.055 --> 35:50.397
[SPEAKER_00]: Subroges never truly paid for his crimes, I feel.
35:51.097 --> 35:55.601
[SPEAKER_00]: He managed to escape through the worst moments, never having felt a moment of guilt or remorse.
35:56.442 --> 35:59.005
[SPEAKER_00]: would any sentence be enough for someone like him?
36:00.306 --> 36:07.053
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he had different motives from our regular serial killers, it does not make him any less evil or guilty.
36:08.343 --> 36:15.646
[SPEAKER_00]: He's exactly like the rest of them, going about using and discarding people as objects, as a means to an end.
36:16.767 --> 36:19.348
[SPEAKER_00]: So that brings me to the end of this convoluted episode.
36:20.548 --> 36:30.973
[SPEAKER_00]: Apologies for my mispronunciation, and if I got anything in the timeline wrong, I took a lot of time jumping from source to source, and a lot of them gave me conflicting information at times.
36:31.913 --> 36:33.938
[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, that is a story.
36:34.599 --> 36:38.347
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for taking the time and remember to stay safe out there.
36:39.168 --> 36:39.790
[SPEAKER_00]: Till next time.
00:00.693 --> 00:06.169
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jessica, and you're listening to the Asian Madness podcast.
00:46.881 --> 00:51.104
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to episode one thirty two from me, the Asian Madness podcast.
00:51.704 --> 00:55.406
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope everyone is taking great care of themselves both physically and mentally.
00:56.747 --> 01:01.950
[SPEAKER_00]: Summer is in full swing here and hopefully that means my seasonal allergies will be coming to an end soon.
01:02.911 --> 01:06.093
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, let me talk a bit about today's case.
01:07.432 --> 01:17.780
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're into true crime, then you're likely to be very familiar with the names like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or even Dennis Raider, also known as BTK.
01:18.721 --> 01:24.205
[SPEAKER_00]: In my opinion, today's case is a rather well-known case, partly because it involves a serial killer.
01:24.886 --> 01:30.490
[SPEAKER_00]: It spans across various countries, and this guy's name is actually in the news in recent years.
01:32.212 --> 01:32.672
[SPEAKER_00]: No joke.
01:33.313 --> 01:40.177
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this case noted down during my research for when I just started my podcast, like back in twenty seventeen.
01:40.997 --> 01:42.858
[SPEAKER_00]: What took so long for me to get to it?
01:43.779 --> 01:49.362
[SPEAKER_00]: I was a bit intimidated for the reasons mentioned earlier, serial killer, meaning multiple murders.
01:49.842 --> 01:53.603
[SPEAKER_00]: spanning multiple countries, lots of information to dig into.
01:54.403 --> 02:05.407
[SPEAKER_00]: So ultimately, with the help from my wonderful researcher and scriptwriter, I am finally ready to talk about Charles Subrage, also known as the bikini killer or the serpent.
02:06.627 --> 02:09.049
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes serial killers get really weird nicknames.
02:10.169 --> 02:17.533
[SPEAKER_00]: As Charles Sorrage is a serial killer, we will not be looking at one particular case, but several cases connected to him.
02:18.674 --> 02:25.157
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an episode about a man who's cunning and manipulative ways have loved a permanent mark in true crime history.
02:25.958 --> 02:28.379
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not your run-of-the-mill dumb ass serial killer.
02:29.160 --> 02:35.363
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot deny he is smart, but he really could have used those brains for something with more potential.
02:36.127 --> 02:37.601
[SPEAKER_00]: and something more legal.
02:38.854 --> 02:45.758
[SPEAKER_00]: We will start off by digging into his backstory, and we will discuss what it is that led him to prison, eventually.
02:46.959 --> 02:54.463
[SPEAKER_00]: Quick warning, this episode will contain names from countries I am not familiar with, so please don't make fun of me or get mad at me.
02:55.464 --> 03:01.807
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, the details in this case can get extensive, sometimes information can slightly vary from sight to sight as well.
03:02.588 --> 03:05.429
[SPEAKER_00]: If you find a glaring mistake, do let me know.
03:06.190 --> 03:08.371
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, and let's begin.
03:09.935 --> 03:15.482
[SPEAKER_00]: Charles was not a typical murder because his actions were not exactly violent in nature.
03:16.577 --> 03:25.999
[SPEAKER_00]: He was not like the serial killers who took pleasure in the process of killing, dismembering bodies, inflicting pain, or in some cases, eating their victims.
03:26.700 --> 03:29.780
[SPEAKER_00]: He did not want to torture the victims or even see them suffer.
03:30.381 --> 03:31.521
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't care about that.
03:32.101 --> 03:36.682
[SPEAKER_00]: He was more of a con artist, a jewel thief, and a fraudster.
03:37.402 --> 03:39.823
[SPEAKER_00]: People dying was just a side effect.
03:41.204 --> 03:43.186
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know the secret weapon of Con artist.
03:43.727 --> 03:46.029
[SPEAKER_00]: Good looks and undeniable charm.
03:46.790 --> 03:49.112
[SPEAKER_00]: Charles had the strange motive for his crimes.
03:49.993 --> 03:54.177
[SPEAKER_00]: He killed his victims because he just really wanted their identities so he could travel.
03:55.855 --> 04:02.960
[SPEAKER_00]: So he would kill a person, steal their identity, and travel under false pretenses to move from continent to continent.
04:04.021 --> 04:06.822
[SPEAKER_00]: This might be one of the strangest motives of Evercome across.
04:07.863 --> 04:12.206
[SPEAKER_00]: People want financial gain to satisfy their sick urges and fantasies.
04:13.387 --> 04:16.289
[SPEAKER_00]: And then here we have this weirdo who just wants to travel.
04:16.309 --> 04:20.792
[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, what his reasoning was is completely irrelevant.
04:21.572 --> 04:24.493
[SPEAKER_00]: It just feels odd in a way I can't properly articulate.
04:25.613 --> 04:39.857
[SPEAKER_00]: One of his nicknames was the serpent killer, because just like serpent's and ancient stories, Charles Sebrage possessed a dangerous charm and deceitfulness, using his charisma to trap unsuspecting victims.
04:40.817 --> 04:49.820
[SPEAKER_00]: His ability to manipulate not only those he preyed upon, but also law enforcement, and society in general, really cemented this reputation.
04:52.008 --> 04:54.890
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get carried away, who is Charles?
04:56.251 --> 05:06.839
[SPEAKER_00]: Hachand, Baunani, Gurmuk, Sabraj, was born on April six, nineteen forty-four in Saigon to a Vietnamese mother and an Indian father.
05:07.719 --> 05:10.842
[SPEAKER_00]: The pair almost instantaneously fell in love when they first met.
05:11.562 --> 05:14.544
[SPEAKER_00]: But remained unmarried until they had their first born.
05:15.424 --> 05:16.685
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, scandalous.
05:17.545 --> 05:22.888
[SPEAKER_00]: But Subradi's father moved back to India right after he was born, leaving him and his mother behind.
05:23.628 --> 05:30.912
[SPEAKER_00]: His mother later remarried to a French lieutenant, posted in French Indochina, and they all moved to France shortly after.
05:31.812 --> 05:42.822
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how Hocchand, Bawani, Grimuk, Sobrage, who no doubt had a difficult name for the locals to pronounce, became Charles, and earned his French passport and nationality.
05:44.364 --> 05:48.227
[SPEAKER_00]: We're only a few minutes in, and this case already touches on three different countries.
05:48.928 --> 05:49.749
[SPEAKER_00]: There is more though.
05:50.910 --> 05:57.756
[SPEAKER_00]: While it sucks that his biological father left him and his mom, it is kind of sweet that his mother was able to find love again.
05:59.292 --> 06:06.582
[SPEAKER_00]: However, the dynamics within this new family was not very comfortable for Charles, as he always felt neglected by his parents.
06:07.997 --> 06:10.379
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not unheard of when a parent remarries.
06:10.939 --> 06:17.365
[SPEAKER_00]: The existing child may end up feeling unwanted, especially so of the couple have another kid together.
06:18.606 --> 06:27.793
[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, this relationship with his mother and stepfather and the emotional void left by them will go on to play a huge role in his future and crimes.
06:28.854 --> 06:33.878
[SPEAKER_00]: In nineteen sixty three at just nineteen, he found himself behind bars for burglary.
06:35.199 --> 06:38.201
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a silver lining for him, at least.
06:39.081 --> 06:44.204
[SPEAKER_00]: In prison, Subraaj met Felix Discon, a wealthy prison volunteer.
06:45.065 --> 06:48.887
[SPEAKER_00]: They developed the fast friendship, which was both surprising and a blessing.
06:49.808 --> 06:56.372
[SPEAKER_00]: After serving his time, Subraaj moved in with him, and this connection turned out to be crucial for Subraaj's later adventures.
06:57.652 --> 07:04.277
[SPEAKER_00]: Subrides soon found himself shifting easily between the street-wise criminal fraternity of Paris and the wealthy high society.
07:05.258 --> 07:11.022
[SPEAKER_00]: Becoming the sort of social-class chameleon gave him all the access he needed to become a successful criminal.
07:11.762 --> 07:15.145
[SPEAKER_00]: He realized he had the superpower to charm just about anyone.
07:15.985 --> 07:16.786
[SPEAKER_00]: And that he did.
07:17.847 --> 07:18.947
[SPEAKER_00]: Why waste your talents?
07:20.148 --> 07:27.695
[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, he managed to charm a lady named Shantel Koppanyon, a young Parisian lady from a devoutly conservative family.
07:28.356 --> 07:33.020
[SPEAKER_00]: They got married, and after a year of marital bliss, Shantel got pregnant.
07:34.021 --> 07:37.345
[SPEAKER_00]: Charles took her and began traveling through Europe and Asia.
07:38.566 --> 07:42.930
[SPEAKER_00]: The idea was to travel, but in reality, it was more of a crime spree.
07:44.825 --> 07:52.408
[SPEAKER_00]: To fund her journey to Asia, Sebrage turned to some petty crimes, robbing tourists and using their stolen passports.
07:53.429 --> 07:59.631
[SPEAKER_00]: Once in Asia, he leveled up this game, getting into Carthet, smuggling, and armed robbery.
08:00.412 --> 08:07.115
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of this, he was all too familiar with the inside of a prison cell, and he was equally skilled at escaping them.
08:08.175 --> 08:12.941
[SPEAKER_00]: His usual style was to pretend he was sick, so he would get transferred to a hospital.
08:13.762 --> 08:18.827
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it was severe abdominal pain, and other times he would cough up fake blood.
08:19.808 --> 08:25.014
[SPEAKER_00]: In Kabul, he once drugged a guard watching over him and simply walked out of the hospital.
08:25.915 --> 08:28.879
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a talent for exploiting the trust of the people around him too.
08:30.236 --> 08:42.624
[SPEAKER_00]: Following the steering escape, he knew people would be on the lookout for him, so like the little rat that he is, he abandoned his wife and fled to Iran, leaving her to go back to her family in Paris.
08:43.724 --> 08:51.409
[SPEAKER_00]: For the next few years, he always escaped capture, traveling through eastern Europe and the Middle East with the help of his half-brother.
08:53.385 --> 09:04.558
[SPEAKER_00]: But after being caught in Greece in nineteen seventy three, or jewelry he managed to solve identities and evade arrest again, while his half brother faced nearly three years in prison.
09:05.660 --> 09:09.324
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, subroge and shantel already had a baby daughter.
09:10.975 --> 09:17.419
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite his crime spree and always being on the move, subroge for some reason, really wanted his kid back.
09:18.139 --> 09:27.025
[SPEAKER_00]: Before he could head back to France and take his daughter, though, Shantel made the first move and fled to America with her daughter, escaping subroge once and for all.
09:28.086 --> 09:31.027
[SPEAKER_00]: As time went on, the intensity of his crimes were getting worse.
09:31.628 --> 09:36.511
[SPEAKER_00]: His first known murder was in collaboration with a young Indian man, Ajay Chaudhury.
09:37.431 --> 09:50.660
[SPEAKER_00]: who would end up playing a major role in many of Sabrage's crimes, and who was a J. According to sources, he came from a middle class Indian family and met Sabrage sometime in nineteen seventy-five in New Delhi.
09:51.620 --> 10:01.687
[SPEAKER_00]: Initially, it was said that he worked odd jobs for Sabrage, but seeing how lavishly his employer lived, it did not take much time to get him onboarded as well.
10:03.122 --> 10:10.485
[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, Subraaj also met a young French Canadian woman named Marie Andre Le Cloak, a traveler from Canada.
10:11.346 --> 10:15.468
[SPEAKER_00]: He approached her, did his regular charming act, and they started dating.
10:16.748 --> 10:20.870
[SPEAKER_00]: Le Cloak became his right-hand woman, completely and wholly devoted to them.
10:21.791 --> 10:31.555
[SPEAKER_00]: She was later quoted as saying, quote, I swore to myself to try all means to make him love me, but little by little I became his slave, unquote.
10:32.943 --> 10:35.786
[SPEAKER_00]: In reality, Subraaj wasn't just fooling his victims.
10:36.546 --> 10:41.591
[SPEAKER_00]: He built up his group of followers, just like he had done before, and kept them loyal to him.
10:42.331 --> 10:46.555
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometime in nineteen seventy-five, the trio were in Bangkok, Thailand.
10:47.216 --> 10:52.981
[SPEAKER_00]: Their first murder victim, Theresa Nolton, was a twenty-one-year-old traveler from Seattle, Washington.
10:54.031 --> 11:02.605
[SPEAKER_00]: She had hopped on a plane and arrived in Southeast Asia, hoping to explore both the world and her identity while on the so-called hippie trail.
11:03.807 --> 11:09.055
[SPEAKER_00]: She also had plans to study at Copa on Monastery to learn more about Tibetan Buddhism.
11:11.280 --> 11:18.765
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, she was discovered floating in the Gulf of Thailand on October eighteen, nineteen seventy-five, wearing a bikini.
11:19.805 --> 11:28.971
[SPEAKER_00]: It was believed that Teresa had somehow come across so broad, and he had somehow tricked her into either visiting his residence, a hotel, or going out drinking.
11:30.152 --> 11:38.622
[SPEAKER_00]: This was his modest uprandy befriending people, spiking their drinks, murdering them, and taking off with their valuables.
11:39.783 --> 11:47.473
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon after this murder, he and his quote-unquote team went off to India, hoping to Reese's case would soon blow over.
11:49.007 --> 11:50.749
[SPEAKER_00]: But Subraaj did not work alone.
11:51.349 --> 11:55.073
[SPEAKER_00]: He had the charm and wit to gather followers and co-conspirators.
11:55.974 --> 12:05.584
[SPEAKER_00]: He orchestrated the whole thing like a cult leader, charming them, and acting like he had all the answers, and he would very easily gain the trust and loyalty of the subjects.
12:06.585 --> 12:10.009
[SPEAKER_00]: He really makes me wonder just how charming this man really was.
12:10.992 --> 12:14.314
[SPEAKER_00]: was he able to convince and turn someone against very obvious facts?
12:15.295 --> 12:22.500
[SPEAKER_00]: He had to be either very convincing and manipulative, or he was extremely good at finding people who would believe anything.
12:24.140 --> 12:31.868
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he had a knack for seeking out people, looking for leadership, someone who really wanted a so-called purpose in life.
12:33.169 --> 12:36.893
[SPEAKER_00]: And from this point on, Sobra just journey started getting crazier by the minute.
12:37.874 --> 12:40.216
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon enough, he wasn't just committing crimes.
12:40.897 --> 12:43.239
[SPEAKER_00]: He was pretty much running a crime help desk.
12:44.100 --> 12:47.623
[SPEAKER_00]: He assisted two X French cops in finding their missing passports.
12:48.588 --> 12:55.651
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might think that's a nice thing to do until you find out that those passports were originally stolen by subroge himself.
12:56.851 --> 13:04.314
[SPEAKER_00]: In another crazy move, subroge played host to a Frenchman who seemed to be sick with dysentery, very Oregon Trail of them.
13:05.214 --> 13:16.479
[SPEAKER_00]: Dysentery, if you don't know, is a gastrointestinal disease caused by an infection, and a symptoms can include fever, nausea, weight loss, cramps, among other things.
13:17.679 --> 13:28.742
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it seems like a nice thing to host and help a man obviously suffering a medical issue until you realize that it was a surprise that got the man sick in the first place.
13:29.802 --> 13:38.184
[SPEAKER_00]: So he basically goes around creating problems and would then step in to resolve said problem, which would then make him look like a hero.
13:39.527 --> 13:45.760
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't all easy though, because the broad was under suspicion for several murders, and even arrested at one point.
13:46.361 --> 13:49.308
[SPEAKER_00]: Except he was never formally charged, so he was like, go.
13:50.864 --> 13:54.506
[SPEAKER_00]: This continued until Sabrage got tired of exploiting this crowd.
13:55.247 --> 13:57.848
[SPEAKER_00]: He needed new territory with a new set of victims.
13:58.889 --> 14:01.851
[SPEAKER_00]: Almost implying he was getting bored and running out of victims.
14:02.792 --> 14:08.275
[SPEAKER_00]: And in a way, it is smart to move around because staying too long tends to route suspicion.
14:09.216 --> 14:11.557
[SPEAKER_00]: So he packed up his bags and moved back to Thailand.
14:12.198 --> 14:13.799
[SPEAKER_00]: The scene of his very first murder.
14:14.979 --> 14:18.722
[SPEAKER_00]: When he came back to Thailand, Sabrage realized he might need a new stick.
14:19.788 --> 14:22.229
[SPEAKER_00]: So he came up with the idea of becoming a fake drug dealer.
14:23.130 --> 14:24.771
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like a child playing doctor.
14:25.531 --> 14:30.354
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing was real, and Sabrage got to play dealer, selling fake drugs to travelers.
14:31.634 --> 14:39.459
[SPEAKER_00]: This must have journey started with a sad ending of Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found near where they regularly met and hung out.
14:40.659 --> 14:46.763
[SPEAKER_00]: Then when Vitali's girlfriend came to Thailand to look for answers, she met a fate similar to her boyfriends.
14:47.964 --> 14:53.627
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, two Dutch students were found in similar circumstances, strangled and burned.
14:54.288 --> 14:58.190
[SPEAKER_00]: Though some sources say these two victims were burned while still alive.
14:59.291 --> 15:09.555
[SPEAKER_00]: In an interview in twenty twenty one, a woman whom subrog had befriended when he moved into her building in Bangkok said, quote, many people were getting sick in his home.
15:10.195 --> 15:16.398
[SPEAKER_00]: He was not only a swindler, a seducer, a robber of tourists, but an evil murder, unquote.
15:17.936 --> 15:20.537
[SPEAKER_00]: Death seemed to follow the man wherever he went.
15:21.497 --> 15:23.358
[SPEAKER_00]: And that isn't something you can just ignore.
15:24.139 --> 15:27.820
[SPEAKER_00]: So once again, he felt like things were getting a bit too heated in Thailand.
15:28.520 --> 15:31.081
[SPEAKER_00]: It was time to make an escape and hit up a new location.
15:32.122 --> 15:38.885
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when subrogent LaClirque ran away to Nepal, along with their trusted follower, Ajay, Chaudhury.
15:40.265 --> 15:42.226
[SPEAKER_00]: And there, the trio continued their crimes.
15:42.877 --> 15:47.900
[SPEAKER_00]: like journeying along the hippy trail, targeting North American tourists and backpackers.
15:48.880 --> 15:52.922
[SPEAKER_00]: Among its victims were a twenty-six-year-old Canadian and a twenty-nine-year-old American.
15:53.943 --> 16:00.066
[SPEAKER_00]: While some might think these travelers are way too trusting, it's worth remembering that this was a whole different timeline.
16:00.766 --> 16:03.928
[SPEAKER_00]: Hitchhiking in North America was probably still somewhat acceptable.
16:04.948 --> 16:11.572
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, when you travel abroad and run into a friendly person, it's not really weird to let your guard down just a little bit.
16:12.532 --> 16:19.636
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people make meaningful connections while abroad, and if the person seems nice and helpful, why would you doubt their intentions?
16:20.536 --> 16:29.481
[SPEAKER_00]: But after a while, they once again decided it was time to move on, so they ran off to India, using the stolen identities of the people they had harmed or killed.
16:30.953 --> 16:37.977
[SPEAKER_00]: I was not alive during this time, but I would bet that traveling back then was definitely a lot more relaxed than it is today.
16:38.938 --> 16:44.441
[SPEAKER_00]: No intense scrutiny had borders, documents tend to look like some artwork put together by kid.
16:45.121 --> 16:45.882
[SPEAKER_00]: That kind of stuff.
16:47.542 --> 16:59.549
[SPEAKER_00]: Having had their fill of Nepal and India, the trio continued the journey back to the south, to Singapore, where they murdered and is rarely tourist, Ellen, Aaron, Jacob, solely for his passport.
17:00.610 --> 17:05.773
[SPEAKER_00]: But this point, several subrogents, La Clarks, friends, and Thailand started getting suspicious of them.
17:07.123 --> 17:15.371
[SPEAKER_00]: I do believe some people are more prone to be more gullible, and these people, despite being their friends, called bullshit when they started smelling it.
17:16.292 --> 17:21.297
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of these friends, though, were involved in their theft plans, but they were not privy to the murders.
17:22.398 --> 17:24.079
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess they drew a hard line at murder.
17:25.120 --> 17:31.606
[SPEAKER_00]: They strongly suspected the trio of carrying out multiple murders and whatnot, and they even spoke to the police about their theories.
17:32.669 --> 17:35.051
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, the police did not brush this off.
17:36.012 --> 17:39.115
[SPEAKER_00]: It must have made a lot of sense once all the theories were put together.
17:40.056 --> 17:47.542
[SPEAKER_00]: So with the type police on board, that meant that when the three criminals returned to Thailand in nineteen seventy-six, Sebrosh became a wanted man.
17:48.363 --> 17:51.606
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, he was completely unaware of this development.
17:52.326 --> 17:54.468
[SPEAKER_00]: In his mind, he was just returning home.
17:55.369 --> 18:03.352
[SPEAKER_00]: But some eagle-eyed locals in Bangkok recognize the killer and reported him, which led to an arrest in a very, very quick chat with the police.
18:04.392 --> 18:06.253
[SPEAKER_00]: Quicker than what anyone would expect.
18:07.553 --> 18:10.875
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he can't believe it, Subraaj was, again, released.
18:11.655 --> 18:14.456
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't need an escape plan, or any clever tricks.
18:15.096 --> 18:17.497
[SPEAKER_00]: He simply walked out the doors and brought daylight.
18:18.577 --> 18:20.118
[SPEAKER_00]: How can a man be that lucky?
18:21.313 --> 18:25.214
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we know he was charming, but nobody can be that charming, right?
18:25.934 --> 18:31.655
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's possible he uses smarts to play a different angle, distracting the police from the ongoing crimes.
18:32.715 --> 18:34.795
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're saying I'm a killer and a thief?
18:35.616 --> 18:37.216
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's a heavy accusation.
18:37.956 --> 18:39.136
[SPEAKER_00]: What do this made the news?
18:39.596 --> 18:42.377
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know how much Thailand relies on tourism?
18:43.277 --> 18:44.357
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you should know.
18:45.257 --> 18:46.137
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is true.
18:46.738 --> 18:49.158
[SPEAKER_00]: Thailand gets quite a chunk of money from tourism.
18:49.825 --> 18:52.368
[SPEAKER_00]: and in the seventies, tourism was booming.
18:53.249 --> 18:57.474
[SPEAKER_00]: By arresting and charging subroad, it would mean revealing the dangers of Thailand.
18:58.255 --> 19:03.300
[SPEAKER_00]: And if people found out how dangerous Thailand was, would anyone ever want to travel there again?
19:04.302 --> 19:09.848
[SPEAKER_00]: While in theory, that might make sense, I have to say these moments require a cost benefit analysis.
19:11.418 --> 19:12.498
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what is better?
19:13.259 --> 19:23.441
[SPEAKER_00]: Being known for having a lot of crimes but successfully capturing the criminals and putting them behind bars, or being the place that allows criminals free-range over your popular tourist spots.
19:24.502 --> 19:32.224
[SPEAKER_00]: You could bury your head in the sand, look the other way for a while, but ultimately, it would become so obvious you would not be able to ignore it.
19:33.284 --> 19:35.945
[SPEAKER_00]: And once that happens, it'll look even worse.
19:36.983 --> 19:40.366
[SPEAKER_00]: It's short-sighted for sure, but that's how it goes sometimes.
19:41.567 --> 19:49.933
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Subraaj walked out, and he realized that while he was very lucky, he would need to leave Thailand again, at least for now.
19:51.014 --> 19:55.117
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon, the trio ended up in Malaysia, but now the dynamics were changing.
19:56.118 --> 20:01.202
[SPEAKER_00]: Ajay Chaudhary suddenly disappeared one night after transporting stolen gems to his leader.
20:02.123 --> 20:04.304
[SPEAKER_00]: He has never been seen or heard from since then.
20:05.565 --> 20:14.552
[SPEAKER_00]: Once Charles Abroad's story became major news, police believe that Abroad's very likely murdered his accomplice, perhaps to have a bigger share of their spoils.
20:15.693 --> 20:18.215
[SPEAKER_00]: Loyalty, it turns out, has its limits.
20:20.522 --> 20:25.526
[SPEAKER_00]: The clerks stuck with Sabrage as they traveled through Switzerland, pretending to be fancy jewel traders.
20:26.566 --> 20:33.992
[SPEAKER_00]: Around the same time, Interpol was now convinced that this man was not just a con artist, a thief, but also a murder.
20:34.952 --> 20:41.597
[SPEAKER_00]: An international arrest warrant was issued for Sabrage, charging him for the multiple murders he had committed while in Thailand.
20:42.458 --> 20:45.280
[SPEAKER_00]: But Sabrage is either unaware or unbothered.
20:46.050 --> 20:50.453
[SPEAKER_00]: The couple even added another murder while in Bombay to their ever-growing list.
20:51.313 --> 20:53.374
[SPEAKER_00]: But, Subraaj had other plans in mind.
20:54.055 --> 20:56.096
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to recruit more people to help him.
20:57.076 --> 21:04.220
[SPEAKER_00]: He approached two women, Barbara Smith and Mary Ellen Ether, who both willingly became a part of his criminal gang.
21:05.621 --> 21:15.747
[SPEAKER_00]: While they were now a solid for some, they got into trouble while in New Delhi, when the gang tried a pretty bold plan involving sixty French post-grad students.
21:17.087 --> 21:21.868
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to trick them with some anti-disciplinary medication, but things went wrong.
21:22.868 --> 21:27.069
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not really sure what he gave them, but it was something that made them sick.
21:28.269 --> 21:38.091
[SPEAKER_00]: The drugs he gave them took effect way more quickly than he had expected, which meant that while some of them were already getting violently sick, some others hadn't even taken it yet.
21:39.031 --> 21:45.652
[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing how this was playing out, the students realized what was going on, so they overpowered subrudge and called the police.
21:47.839 --> 21:49.902
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you can guess where this is going.
21:50.443 --> 21:56.210
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, being the charismatic guy he was, Sebrosh turned his trial into a media show.
21:56.992 --> 22:00.596
[SPEAKER_00]: Hunger strikes, changing legal teams like he was changing clothes.
22:01.277 --> 22:02.559
[SPEAKER_00]: He was all over the news.
22:03.456 --> 22:05.417
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was just that, a show.
22:06.438 --> 22:12.242
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, the distraction did not work, and he was eventually given a twelve-year sentence for a tenth at robbery.
22:13.263 --> 22:20.468
[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, his two new-wish accomplices, Barbara and Mary Ellen, tried to kill themselves while sitting in prison.
22:21.728 --> 22:27.793
[SPEAKER_00]: Not really sure what happened to them afterwards, but as Sebrage got twelve years, they probably got a lot less.
22:28.814 --> 22:29.975
[SPEAKER_00]: Then we have the girlfriend.
22:30.756 --> 22:31.576
[SPEAKER_00]: Marie LeClarke.
22:32.197 --> 22:36.060
[SPEAKER_00]: She was found guilty along with Sebrage, despite her claiming she was innocent.
22:37.101 --> 22:42.385
[SPEAKER_00]: Once she was per old, she returned to Canada and was soon diagnosed with the variant cancer.
22:43.325 --> 22:46.448
[SPEAKER_00]: She died at age thirty-eight, in April of nineteen eighty-four.
22:47.925 --> 22:52.206
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile back in Tihar Jail, Subraaj was leading a very different life.
22:53.106 --> 23:09.371
[SPEAKER_00]: In an interview, he claimed that in every situation he ever encountered, even in the most challenging circumstances, he consistently maintained control, rather than allowing the situation to dictate his actions, which is why he had the ability to manipulate the circumstances.
23:10.471 --> 23:12.732
[SPEAKER_00]: Effectively managing the people he dealt with
23:14.098 --> 23:21.363
[SPEAKER_00]: His mantra remained that as long as he engaged with others, he can navigate and overcome any challenges that may come his way.
23:22.804 --> 23:27.767
[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly, this man thinks extremely highly of himself, and, in a way, I get it.
23:28.768 --> 23:39.035
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gotten this far, wheezing his way out of police custody, convincing people to help him commit crimes, and learning God knows how many people to their deaths.
23:40.223 --> 23:45.808
[SPEAKER_00]: In another life, he could have been a salesman, a CEO, or even a politician.
23:46.809 --> 23:51.413
[SPEAKER_00]: So, even behind bars, Subraaj managed to create an oddly luxurious life.
23:52.294 --> 23:59.420
[SPEAKER_00]: He would slip stolen gemstones to the police for special treatment now and then, giving him the ability to live large in prison.
24:00.341 --> 24:03.364
[SPEAKER_00]: He had his own TV, enjoyed top notch meals,
24:05.165 --> 24:10.609
[SPEAKER_00]: His charm worked like magic, making friends with everyone from the underdogs to the hardest criminals.
24:11.410 --> 24:14.492
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like key-turned prison into a little staycation.
24:15.212 --> 24:16.453
[SPEAKER_00]: No need to run or hide.
24:17.874 --> 24:20.536
[SPEAKER_00]: However, sometimes good things do not last.
24:21.337 --> 24:28.022
[SPEAKER_00]: Back in Thailand, a Dutch diplomat Herman Nippenberg was investigating the death of the two missing students
24:29.566 --> 24:36.032
[SPEAKER_00]: Nippenburg thoroughly retraced subrages steps all the way to his abandoned house, where he found the mother load.
24:36.733 --> 24:43.659
[SPEAKER_00]: A whole bag of passports, licenses, and cash, telling us that there were more victims than anyone even suspected.
24:44.600 --> 24:48.824
[SPEAKER_00]: With this information coming to light, subrages was again in a tight spot.
24:49.585 --> 24:52.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, things were comfortable in the Indian prison.
24:52.708 --> 24:54.469
[SPEAKER_00]: And he only had two years left to serve.
24:55.389 --> 25:03.411
[SPEAKER_00]: But if his crimes in Thailand caught up to him, he would be sent back to Thailand to face his crimes, and he'd likely be given the dot sentence.
25:04.431 --> 25:05.912
[SPEAKER_00]: So what would Subraaj do?
25:06.852 --> 25:11.613
[SPEAKER_00]: Accept his fate and give in, acknowledge the gravity of his actions and express remorse?
25:12.774 --> 25:12.914
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
25:13.694 --> 25:16.115
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, I know, I'll throw a party.
25:17.368 --> 25:24.334
[SPEAKER_00]: As bizarre as that sounds, he did throw a party within the confines of the Tahar Jail involving both inmates and guards.
25:25.455 --> 25:30.379
[SPEAKER_00]: The extent of his influence was surreal, creating a knot atmosphere behind prison walls.
25:31.340 --> 25:35.283
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine being an inmate during this time, like, what a weird experience.
25:37.123 --> 25:42.811
[SPEAKER_00]: On the surface, this was just a party, but in reality, this wasn't a skate plan.
25:43.511 --> 25:47.697
[SPEAKER_00]: During the party, some broad slits sleeping pills into everybody's drinks.
25:48.718 --> 25:53.184
[SPEAKER_00]: Where he got all this contraband is honestly a mystery, but clearly he happened.
25:54.315 --> 25:57.980
[SPEAKER_00]: And as everybody started falling asleep, he simply walked out of prison.
25:59.022 --> 26:01.445
[SPEAKER_00]: Something he was probably accustomed to by this point.
26:02.507 --> 26:04.109
[SPEAKER_00]: It was really as easy as it sounds.
26:04.590 --> 26:08.736
[SPEAKER_00]: No crazy high maneuver, escape plans, just a quick stroll to freedom.
26:09.637 --> 26:15.421
[SPEAKER_00]: He was found in Goa, less than a month later, and was sentenced to another ten years for what he did at the party.
26:16.242 --> 26:24.607
[SPEAKER_00]: But what you might not know is that even this capture in Goa, and this resentencing, was part of his divine plan all along.
26:25.748 --> 26:30.751
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like the internet is straight aligned to me at this point, because this is just insane.
26:31.672 --> 26:37.376
[SPEAKER_00]: Just when you thought that he had finally failed, he was really just executing a meticulously thought out plan.
26:38.281 --> 26:39.402
[SPEAKER_00]: all part of the long game.
26:40.282 --> 26:43.944
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he once said, he controls the situation, not the other way around.
26:44.825 --> 26:53.710
[SPEAKER_00]: The new ten-year sentence meant that he would be out in ninety-seven, just as a twenty-year statute of limitation from his Thailand crimes would expire.
26:54.651 --> 26:57.953
[SPEAKER_00]: This way, he could not be charged for the crimes he committed in Thailand.
26:58.513 --> 27:05.538
[SPEAKER_00]: He would continue his charms and reign over Indian prisons, successfully escaping actual justice in Thailand.
27:06.478 --> 27:13.862
[SPEAKER_00]: and so he continued his luxurious prison life in India until his eventual release as a free man in both countries.
27:15.483 --> 27:24.109
[SPEAKER_00]: After his release in India, Subraaj returned to the familiar streets of Paris, his home, where his mother and stepfather remained all these years.
27:24.969 --> 27:29.952
[SPEAKER_00]: By this time, his cat and mouse game with the law, his crimes and the whole trial or deal
27:30.483 --> 27:34.164
[SPEAKER_00]: turned him somewhat into a celebrity, thanks to the media circus.
27:35.224 --> 27:44.927
[SPEAKER_00]: Capitalizing on that, Subrage started charging thousands for interviews and photographs, and he charged fifteen million US dollars for the rights to make a movie on his life.
27:45.727 --> 27:48.348
[SPEAKER_00]: But for him, that was still not enough.
27:49.680 --> 27:57.429
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward a bit to two thousand and three, he decided to visit his old stomping grounds, heading back to Nepal to open a mineral water business.
27:58.350 --> 28:03.055
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have just stayed back in France, sitting atop his gold and live out the rest of his life.
28:03.556 --> 28:05.578
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, he wanted to do stuff.
28:07.298 --> 28:11.299
[SPEAKER_00]: But returning to a country where you had committed crimes and is absolutely unhinged.
28:12.420 --> 28:17.061
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he definitely got a bit too cocky, because things did not turn out the way he had hoped.
28:17.521 --> 28:23.443
[SPEAKER_00]: At least, not this time, because karma finally caught up with him on the streets of Katmandu.
28:24.023 --> 28:27.244
[SPEAKER_00]: When a journalist spotted him and decided to follow him for two weeks,
28:28.310 --> 28:33.754
[SPEAKER_00]: This journalist and wrote an article on his findings along with various photos for the Himalayan Times.
28:34.855 --> 28:38.538
[SPEAKER_00]: Police officers got a hold of this article and sprung into action.
28:39.538 --> 28:45.783
[SPEAKER_00]: The police conducted a raid and arrested him for the murder of those North American backpackers back in nineteen seventy five.
28:46.804 --> 28:52.228
[SPEAKER_00]: In August of two thousand and four, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu District Court.
28:54.037 --> 28:59.739
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time this case seems to come to an end, more comes out, but I promise you, we're almost at the end.
29:00.719 --> 29:02.600
[SPEAKER_00]: Subrage, of course, appealed to sentence.
29:03.440 --> 29:07.161
[SPEAKER_00]: It did not seem as if there was a trial, or at least that's what he claimed.
29:07.801 --> 29:09.662
[SPEAKER_00]: He called a whole ordeal unfair.
29:10.882 --> 29:11.943
[SPEAKER_00]: the audacity, though.
29:12.423 --> 29:21.290
[SPEAKER_00]: Him, his lawyers, and the court went back and forth on this, appealing, upholding sentences, then resentencing, etc.
29:21.951 --> 29:28.716
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Bride's lawyer claimed that her client was denied justice because, quote, "'Dudishary is corrupt," unquote.
29:29.236 --> 29:32.519
[SPEAKER_00]: And for this outburst, she was charged with contempt of court.
29:33.359 --> 29:35.201
[SPEAKER_00]: It was messy, not gonna lie.
29:36.141 --> 29:37.563
[SPEAKER_00]: So, why not add some more mess?
29:38.423 --> 29:45.687
[SPEAKER_00]: In two thousand and eight, Subraaj stunned everyone by announcing his engagement to Nihita, this was, on the Polywoman.
29:46.747 --> 29:50.670
[SPEAKER_00]: She was reportedly Subraaj's interpreter and his lawyer's daughter.
29:51.530 --> 29:53.271
[SPEAKER_00]: And forty-four years younger than him.
29:53.951 --> 29:55.552
[SPEAKER_00]: She was born in nineteen eighty-eight.
29:55.972 --> 29:57.693
[SPEAKER_00]: He was born in nineteen forty-four.
29:58.354 --> 29:59.114
[SPEAKER_00]: You can do the math.
30:00.060 --> 30:01.500
[SPEAKER_00]: He could literally be her dad.
30:02.721 --> 30:12.864
[SPEAKER_00]: Even with all his charms, I don't know how he pulled that one off, but Subrajan Hita allegedly got married on October ninth, twenty-eight right inside the jail.
30:13.904 --> 30:19.706
[SPEAKER_00]: The authorities disagreed saying that what they did was simply a part of a Hindu festival in Nepal.
30:20.626 --> 30:27.551
[SPEAKER_00]: When the so-called bride was interviewed later, Nihita denied all of it, saying that they were close, but never anything more.
30:28.592 --> 30:30.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing else is known about this relationship.
30:31.634 --> 30:32.915
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I guess, the lack of it.
30:34.076 --> 30:39.520
[SPEAKER_00]: But we do know that Nihita donated her blood when he was having open heart surgery in twenty seventeen.
30:40.500 --> 30:47.285
[SPEAKER_00]: To finally conclude this whole ordeal, subrides with sentence for the last time, to twenty years in prison in twenty fourteen.
30:48.046 --> 30:49.186
[SPEAKER_00]: What time already served?
30:50.147 --> 30:57.393
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe a sentence started once he was initially found guilty in two thousand and four, so he would have been out by twenty twenty four.
30:57.993 --> 31:05.539
[SPEAKER_00]: But before that could happen, he was granted an early release due to his age, health conditions, and so called good behavior.
31:06.660 --> 31:13.005
[SPEAKER_00]: Once released, he had fifteen days to get his ass out in a paul, and was not allowed to return for at least ten years.
31:14.333 --> 31:19.454
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they need to worry about that, as in twenty thirty four, he would be ninety years old.
31:20.475 --> 31:25.096
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, he could still be alive and still be able to travel, but I sure hope not.
31:26.176 --> 31:29.057
[SPEAKER_00]: He is most likely living out the rest of his life back in France.
31:29.917 --> 31:32.398
[SPEAKER_00]: He is eighty one years old in twenty twenty five.
31:33.378 --> 31:35.838
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that he had a wife once upon a time?
31:36.619 --> 31:41.760
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not find any record of them ever getting a divorce, so I don't have any more followups on that.
31:43.611 --> 32:01.042
[SPEAKER_00]: As you can imagine, the whole case surrounding Sabrage was made into several films and books, serpentine by Thomas Thompson, the life and crimes of Charles Sabrage by Richard Neville and Julie Clark, and a section called the bikini murders by Noel Barber in the reader's digest.
32:01.883 --> 32:04.304
[SPEAKER_00]: A Hindi film based on Sabrage was released in
32:06.243 --> 32:13.417
[SPEAKER_00]: and in more recent years, an eight-part mini-series called the Serpent was released, which you might be able to find on Netflix.
32:14.359 --> 32:17.425
[SPEAKER_00]: There's probably more here and there, but those are the main ones.
32:18.751 --> 32:22.314
[SPEAKER_00]: One extremely odd choice is this restaurant located in India.
32:23.395 --> 32:34.103
[SPEAKER_00]: If you recall, Subraaj orchestrated his escape in the Indian prison, just so he could get re-arusted and sentenced to ten more years in India to escape the Thai legal system.
32:35.044 --> 32:39.007
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, Subraaj has found dining in a restaurant called Okalcaro.
32:40.007 --> 32:43.030
[SPEAKER_00]: And this restaurant proudly mentions this on their website.
32:43.950 --> 32:46.652
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they even at one point had a statue of Subraaj.
32:47.833 --> 32:53.538
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess that's one way to stay relevant, though I find it rather tacky and disrespectful to his victims.
32:54.479 --> 32:55.960
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if they did that in the U.S.
32:56.825 --> 32:59.366
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Ted Bundy ate here and he loved her food.
33:00.007 --> 33:03.348
[SPEAKER_00]: So good, in fact, he was willing to risk his freedom for our specials.
33:04.629 --> 33:07.911
[SPEAKER_00]: One more thing I wanted to touch on before I go, the victims.
33:08.911 --> 33:17.176
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, I do not have much background information on all his victims, and to be honest, the total number of victims is still being disputed.
33:18.182 --> 33:22.566
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Wikipedia, it ranges from twelve confirmed to as high as thirty-one.
33:23.447 --> 33:26.169
[SPEAKER_00]: In a BBC article, it says more than twenty.
33:27.030 --> 33:30.213
[SPEAKER_00]: In an NBC article, it says more than twenty as well.
33:31.254 --> 33:40.102
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure subroge was asked this, probably many times, but it's possible that he himself lost count as well, if he was even counting to begin with.
33:41.652 --> 33:47.715
[SPEAKER_00]: It makes me incredibly upset that so many of these victims never receive justice, and so many are just considered gone.
33:48.315 --> 33:51.337
[SPEAKER_00]: Their families and friends never knowing what became of their loved one.
33:52.257 --> 33:56.079
[SPEAKER_00]: What makes it worse is that Charles Sebrage never once showed any remorse.
33:56.899 --> 34:00.920
[SPEAKER_00]: He even once claimed, quote, I can justify the murders to myself.
34:01.700 --> 34:03.741
[SPEAKER_00]: I never killed good people, unquote.
34:04.761 --> 34:07.642
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a chilling perspective on this distorted sense of morality.
34:08.462 --> 34:13.844
[SPEAKER_00]: I truly think some broad fisted description of a psychopath, at least according to this list I found.
34:15.084 --> 34:27.950
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretends to care, has fake and shallow relationships, maintains a normal life as a cover for criminal activity, cannot form genuine relationships, comes off as cold, among many other things.
34:29.230 --> 34:35.033
[SPEAKER_00]: It is also clear whom his actions that Charles Sebrage was fond of the media attention he got from his cons and murders.
34:36.093 --> 34:52.865
[SPEAKER_00]: In my unprofessional opinion, he also displays signs of narcissistic personality disorder, such as being very self-important, requires admiration, entitled, critical of others, takes advantage of others to get their way, expects others to do his bidding.
34:53.965 --> 34:54.546
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think?
34:55.446 --> 35:00.710
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, again, I am not a professional, but those are just my thoughts on this monster.
35:02.800 --> 35:03.541
[SPEAKER_00]: So there we have it.
35:04.021 --> 35:11.668
[SPEAKER_00]: The case of an extremely calculated and manipulative man who had no care or thought for the people, only acting in his own interest.
35:12.829 --> 35:20.336
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose being abandoned by his father and neglected by his mother and stepfather made him seek out attention in the worst way possible.
35:21.116 --> 35:27.582
[SPEAKER_00]: This is obviously just a guess, but we do see many serial murders and criminals have the same villain origin story.
35:28.858 --> 35:32.401
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, a terrible childhood is never a good excuse for their actions.
35:33.442 --> 35:37.365
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's scarier is we still don't know the actual number of subroges victims.
35:38.346 --> 35:46.974
[SPEAKER_00]: How much money he earned through as many many scams is also unknown, but judging by the long history of his crimes, it could be in the millions of dollars.
35:48.055 --> 35:50.397
[SPEAKER_00]: Subroges never truly paid for his crimes, I feel.
35:51.097 --> 35:55.601
[SPEAKER_00]: He managed to escape through the worst moments, never having felt a moment of guilt or remorse.
35:56.442 --> 35:59.005
[SPEAKER_00]: would any sentence be enough for someone like him?
36:00.306 --> 36:07.053
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he had different motives from our regular serial killers, it does not make him any less evil or guilty.
36:08.343 --> 36:15.646
[SPEAKER_00]: He's exactly like the rest of them, going about using and discarding people as objects, as a means to an end.
36:16.767 --> 36:19.348
[SPEAKER_00]: So that brings me to the end of this convoluted episode.
36:20.548 --> 36:30.973
[SPEAKER_00]: Apologies for my mispronunciation, and if I got anything in the timeline wrong, I took a lot of time jumping from source to source, and a lot of them gave me conflicting information at times.
36:31.913 --> 36:33.938
[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, that is a story.
36:34.599 --> 36:38.347
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for taking the time and remember to stay safe out there.
36:39.168 --> 36:39.790
[SPEAKER_00]: Till next time.
