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This week Netflix is confirming an old adage: truth is stranger than fiction. The streaming giant has released The Serpent, an eight-part miniseries about a cult leader who targeted and murdered tourists in the 1970s.
It’s a premise that sounds so out there, maybe Netflix greenlit a show based on a word generator. But that’s the creepy thing about The Serpent. Everything, from Charles Sobhraj’s multiple murders to his shockingly successful escape plans, is true. Here’s your quick guide to the true story at the center of The Serpent on Netflix.
Is The Serpent on Netflix Based on a True Story?
It certainly is, which is another reason why you should think twice about going on vacation. The BBC and Netflix co-production tells the real story of serial killer Charles Sobhraj.
What’s the True Story Behind The Serpent?
Charles Sobhraj started his criminal career early. His first jail sentence happened when he was a teenager, a burglary charge that led to him serving time in a prison near Paris. But Sobhraj truly excelled not as a criminal but as a manipulative mastermind.
Targeting the Hippie Trail of Southeast Asia, Sobhraj would accumulate followers. Once he befriended two former French policemen after finding their passports for them, passports that Sobhraj had in fact stolen. Another time he gained the loyalty of a man who thought he was suffering from dysentery. Sobhraj was actually poisoning him.
It’s been estimated that Sobhraj murdered at least 12 people during the 1970s. In almost every case he would befriend his victims, who were tourists and travelers. Once they joined him, he and his followers would attack. His methods ranged from strangulation to drownings and drug overdoses, often preferring to make the deaths look like an accident. He would often target hippies, a group he actively hated. Sobhraj eventually earned the nicknames the Bikini Killer, the Splitting Killer, and the Serpent.
In July of 1976 Sobhraj tried to target a tour group of French post-graduate students. But when the group started to fall unconscious after taking what was allegedly anti-dysentery medicine, three of the students realized what Sobhraj had done. They overpowered him and contacted the police.
Sobhraj’s arrest and trial, much like the rest of his life, was dramatic. Two years before trial Sobhraj and one of his closest followers attempted suicide. Sobhraj concealed precious gems on his body and used them to bribe his captors. During trial he hired and fired multiple lawyers. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison, but even that he worked to his favor. Due to Sobhraj’s bribery he lived a life of luxury while in prison complete with television and gourmet food. All of this time Sobhraj was slated to be executed, but he managed to turn the tables yet again. His 10th year into his sentence, Sobhraj threw a big party for the prison’s guards and inmates. He drugged all of them and walked out a free man. Eventually the Indian authorities allowed him to return to France.
In the years since Sobhraj has capitalized on his criminal fame. He’s been the subject of countless interviews, three nonfiction books, a made-for-TV film, a Bollywood film, and now Netflix’s The Serpent.
