May 9, 1944 - Charles Sobhraj
Operating along the hippie trail of the 1970s, Sobhraj preyed on young Western travelers seeking adventure, using charm, disguise, and drugging to gain their trust before robbing and killing them. His ability to evade justice across multiple jurisdictions — India, Thailand, Nepal — for decades made him one of the more studied cases of serial criminality in South and Southeast Asia. He cultivated a public persona that attracted media attention even while wanted, and his legal maneuvering prolonged his freedom long after his crimes were known.
From Wikipedia
Charles Sobhraj (born Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj; 6 April 1944) is a French serial killer, fraudster, and thief whose victims were mainly Western tourists travelling on the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s. He is of Sindhi and Vietnamese origin. He was known as the Bikini Killer because of the attire of several of his victims, as well as the Splitting Killer and the Serpent for "his snake-like ability to avoid detection by authorities".
It is thought that Sobhraj murdered at least 20 tourists in South and Southeast Asia, including 14 in Thailand. He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release he returned to France. Sobhraj went to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and given a life sentence. On 21 December 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age, after he had served 19 years of his prison term.
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