In 1972, for example, the wily Frenchman was seized in Her-at, Afghanistan, for car theft. But when the Afghans moved him to Kabul, he got himself transferred to a prison hospital and then drugged the Afghan guards. And escaped' In 19?5, he was locked up in Greece but successfully fled while being transported in a police van. He hid gasoline in a bottle of shampoo which he carried with him into the van'
brick lanes, where earnest "nomads" planned treks
tï;ï
ïi
Well,
track them down.
or
when Thai police belatedly brought Sobhraj in for questioning, they neglected to keep a careful eye on him
It1976,
he insisted, merery
Tttey weïe srupefied: after 27 hazv v.c?rs .sint'e ï:::'1"-0. '" was
feigning illness and changing changing hi
always
allegedly
couple and stealing more than US$2,000's worth of their belongings in 1975. They survived. Today, they could provide valuable testimony if they agree to talk, but it was uncertain whether or not Australian authorities would try and
scooped up Tibetan-style souvenirs' He was a businessman'
the infamous dr¡uble murder, Sobhtai ff back in l{epal. Word spread, and police h rdentity. identity. And he rushed to yank him from the Yak and Yeti.
bribing officials,
in Thailand for
attempting to murder two Australians, Russell Lapthorne and his wife Vera, after repeatedly drugging the Melbourne
Today, the S9-year-old Sobhraj may be safe from any murder trial in Kathmandu because, after all those years, the evidence, files, testimony and witnesses are scattered' Confident, Sobhraj told the cops this was actually his first time visiting NePal. He said he had been dwelling in Thamel, the capital's tourist trap of old
Afghanistan, Iran,
I:;*::
Sobhraj was also wanted
up for an equally spectacular 1976'
Inside the vehicle, he poured the gasoline on the floor and ignited the fluid. Amid the screams and fiery chaos, he fled tã Trrk"y, though he was wanted there for a robbery at the Istanbul Hilton. Over the years, the fast-talking confidence man eluded police in Hong Kong, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan,
Turkey, Greece and
back to health, while continuing to concoct toxic potions that would keep them quivering in his apartment for days until whatever passpofis, foreign exchange and other precious items could be extracted from their weakening grasp'
Annabella Tremont and Laddie DuParr)' Way back then, police and investigalors suspected Sobhraj, but he slipped ãut of the Kathmandu Valley and crossed the Himalayan foothills into India where he had other vicious crimes lined as
escaped. almost
always... Those
are His hunting along Asia's continent, ¿ idealistic Westerners.
In
n his ream-long resume'
arrived.
vulnerable cul-de-sacs still criss-crosses this rade of Young, naive'
southeast to
those days' daze, they were
ir:^:,:"'lrl^iT NepaI's sharvls unáÌa,'dicrart''
But no
one
really knew why
Sobhraj had suddenlY
\
miles News of his arrest immediately echoed hundreds of
crippled by Sobhraj be sensational committed in 1975. e unsolved murders include:
Bolliver' of Cabrillo Beach' California' at Pattaya, a ribald resort on the Gulf of
and salt water in her lungs as if forcibly drowned, according to a Thai pathologist' on French woman, Charmayne Carrou, also found dead neck her that Pattaya's beach. She was strángled so forcibly bones broke.
suits' Both Jennifer and Charmayne were clad in bathing
inspiring the Thai media at the time to dub the mysterious
and traveller's cheques.
"You
rtigltt tind out later t:hat the road w'ill ertd in
while he waited in a police station. The experienced escape artist simply walked free when police looked the other way' Sobhraj skipped south across the border to Malaysia with his Canadian lover, foxy-looking Marie-Andre Leclerc from the small town of Levis, Quebec. They were joined by their alleged paltner, an Indian named Ajay Chowdhury. They bounced through Europe and Asia until they arrived in India where a mess of red-tape, comrplion, contradictions and chaos created an
easy stomping ground for the quick-witted,
Deuoit,
flashy maniac.
Hone¡', the roacl will et'en end in Katlttnanclu'
But
India also has its own
unfathomable traps. The wheel of
life
and
death can turn vicious as it grinds across that
According to Sobhrai's own written description of himse]f to prornote his still-unpublished memoirs, het c]airned tc-t Ite a "rrua.ster iail breakerr" "mastet criminal" and "rÌfaster murderer".
ancient land, and it hacks its cuts most deeply in the Hindu holy city of Benares,
street.
also known as Varanasi, along the Ganges River. Sobhraj, and not-so-sweet Marie, were soon arrested and convicted in India of killing Israeli tourist Avoni Jacob in 1976 amid Benares's temples and ghee-smeared funeral pyres. Sobhraj had also slipped up elsewhere in India. An
They were stupefied: after 27 hazy years since the infamous double -trd"r, Sobhraj was back in Nepal' Word
ill -- if they Carriere, whose burnt bodies were discovered
on
Kathmandu's outskirts (and sometimes confusingly identified
16
Indian court found him guilty of killing a French tourist, ever awoke at all.
*llli
Those who could open their eves then found them #i'!"JuI,;i'em, politelv offering to nurse
*".#i;
IHE
CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY
2OO4
Iong prison sentence, and possible execution by hanging, Ioomed in front of Sobhraj who nervously contacted better Iawyers while tugging on other expensive strings. Eventually, Sobhraj was acquitted ofboth murders. But in 197? he was imprisoned in India for 10 years for the madcap act of drugging an entire busload of French tourists in New Delhi's middle-class Vikram Hotel while attempting to rob them. The slumping, babbling tourists
Jean-Luc Solomon, in New Delhi the same year. The Israeli and the French victims were both found drugged to death. A THE coRRESpoNDENT ApRIL/MAy 2oo4
staggered through the hotel while slowly passing out in public, screwing up Sobhraj's plot because his timing was all wrong. Quizzical hotel staff meanwhile called unamused police.
Eight years later, during jailhouse interviews in New Delhi, the muscular Sobhraj appeared suave yet excited when he told me in 1985 in aggressive, French-accented English: "Officially I am denying I killed anyone. Of course I am denying!"
17