Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - French Serial Killer - The Charles Sobhraj story

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

This is the story of serial killer Charles Sobhraj

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One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply. So this guy, let's call him murder-ry. And murder-ry, he likes to murder people, I guess. But he doesn't start out that way. He starts out just robbing people.

He steals things, he breaks into cars, stuff like that. And one day he flies over from France to Thailand with his girlfriend. And once he's there, he's got this whole scheme to scam mostly Western tourists. And like he befriends them, and then he spikes their food and drinks with sleeping pills or some other pill to make them sick. and then he robs them of their passports and money. So, while he's there in Thailand, murdery befriends this American woman, a backpacker.

And he befriends her, and he drugs her, and he goes to rob her, but I guess he decides that robbing her isn't enough, and he ends up throwing her in the ocean to drown. Oh, but he doesn't stop there. Because soon after, he unalives another tourist, but this time he burns the body and leaves it on the side of the road. But that tourist's girlfriend, she notices he's missing and she goes to murdery and she's asking him, I guess, too many questions,

and then Murdery drugs her and he drowns her too. Now, at this point, Murdery is living a pretty good life off the money he steals from these unsuspecting backpackers. But he knows he's got to keep moving before people get suspicious that all these backpackers around him are dying. So, Murdery invites this Dutch couple he met in Hong Kong to come visit him in Thailand. And of course, when the couple gets there, Murdery drugs them and he strangles them and burns them alive. Once they're unalived, he takes their passports and he and his girlfriend use them to flee Thailand and head all the way over to Nepal. While in Nepal, murdery befriends a Canadian guy and an American woman, and he stabs them and he burns them.

Now these two murders in Nepal, they'll become important later. Anyway, once he gets their passports, he and his girlfriend go back to Thailand. And from there, he flees by road all the way to India. And once he's in India, murdery continues his string of crimes. He unalives yet another guy, and then he uses the guy's passport to travel to Singapore, and then back to India, and then Thailand again. And I mean, like, nobody is safe when it comes to murdery. Like one time, he's just trying to rob someone and he accidentally gives them too much poison, so they die. And another time, his close friend, who had helped him commit some of these murders,

I guess they have some kind of falling out, and so murdery just gets rid of him, and the friend is like never seen again, ever. Like, I can't even name all the crimes this guy did. But anyway, one day, murdery is back in India, and he gets this crazy idea. He's going to try to rob 60 people at once, a bunch of French engineering students that he had just met in New Delhi. And so he puts drugs in 60 water bottles, and he starts handing them out to these students. He's trying to drug him. bunch of the students drink it, but the drugs start working too fast. And by the time murdery is finishing handing out these water bottles, the first students who drank, they're

starting to pass out and fall unconscious. So then some of the other students realize what's happening and I guess they're able to overpower murdery and they call the police. And the police come and then bam, they arrest him. And he gets 12 years in prison for poisoning and robbing the engineering students and they try to convict him for some of the murders he did in the past, but the conviction is ultimately overturned due to lack of evidence. Now, while in prison, murdery still has a big problem. He's now wanted back in Thailand on suspicion of several of those murders he committed. So Thailand wants to extradite him as soon as he's out of prison in India.

And while he'd be there in Thailand, he'd probably get the death penalty. And murdery, he doesn't want the death penalty. So he comes up with a plan to stay in Indian prison much longer. And he goes and he gives prison guards some candy laced with sedatives. And those guards eat it and they pass out. And while they're passed out, he just straight up walks out of the prison. Like that's how he escapes. But then he allows himself to be caught.

And because of that, because of this little escape, they sentence him to another 10 years in that Indian prison. Which is perfect for him because by the time he'll be released, the 20 year statute of limitations will be up for all his crimes in Thailand. So he won't be extradited. there and he won't get the death penalty. It's pretty slick. So anyway, many years pass and murdery serves his full term and eventually they let him out. And now he's in his 50s and it seems like he's never going to be convicted for any of those murders he did in the past.

Until six years go by and he's out of prison now. And one day, for some reason, murdery decides to take a little vacation over to Nepal. Here's the thing about Nepal. Murdery is also wanted there too for unaliving that Canadian guy and that American woman 30 years before, those two that I had mentioned. And Nepal has no statute of limitations on murder. So while he's there vacationing, bam,

murdery gets arrested. And he goes to trial and he gets sentenced to 20 years in prison and 19 years later, he gets out. So the dude is out now and at some point he sells the film and book rights to his life story for $15 million. So this guy is a serial killer and he's now out of prison and he has $15 million $1,000. Fuck my life.