Asia's Premier Serial Killer by Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj - Book Report/Review Example

He was admitted to a boarding school in Paris but he managed to drop out at least twice to visit Vietnam. It is interesting reading that these trips were paid with the help of fraud checks. Nevertheless, Sobhraj spent three years for burglary and eight months for car theft in prison in France in the 1960s. In the 1970's Sobhraj became dabbling in drug smuggling. He made a core group for himself and acted in the pack as he was very flexible with his ways of crime. It at this point in his career that the notorious "Bikini Murders" took shape with Teresa Knowlton, a Seattle woman who had traveled to Bangkok on her way to Kathmandu.

Multiple murders of a similar type surfaced and it was found out that the usual methods of Sobhraj were to the drug first and then go for the kill and occasionally burning the bodies after the kill. Sobhraj is implicated in at least 10 murders in Thailand in 1975 alone. The total body count for this killer is actually 32. Sobhraj, once commented that his greatest strength was his great love for the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. This is an interesting clue to the psyche of this serial killer.

As in Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy, he also believed that women should be treated on the whip. This is one reason why he used women mostly as his prime target. Moreover, no steady relations were ever discovered with any women but it was found that he had sexual relations with numerous women. This is to suggest that Charles Sobhraj only used women when he wanted to at his will and left them alone immediately when his need was fulfilled.Traces of this behavior could well be found within is disturbing childhood which was mostly full of turmoil, emotionally and culturally.

It should be remembered that in South Asian countries the patriarchal form of society is extremely dominant making divorce a social trauma. In this context, it is but obvious that a child would be the easiest target for this social mishap and in Sobhraj's case, it was no different. His mental balance faltered as he tried to coup up with the cultural diversity with the biological father and his legal father and guardian. This could be termed as the single most tragedy of Charles Sobhraj's life that ultimately shaped his future.

Social stigma like these is not easy to handle and it on the part of society itself that can render any assistance in this matter.