Charles Sobhraj isn't a name many would recognise, but just a few decades ago the serial killer and conman was one of Asia's most wanted criminals.
Sobhraj, who befriended, drugged then murdered young Western backpackers in the 1970s, has this year achieved notoriety due to the popular limited series, The Serpent.
The Serpent is available on Netflix from Friday, April 2 and is made up of eight episodes, each one hour long.
The series aired in the UK on New Year's Day and became BBC iPlayer's most popular new BBC program since the limited drama series, Normal People.
Is The Serpent a true story?
The Serpent is inspired by real events and focuses on the pursuit of Charles Sobhraj and his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc by Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg in the late 1970s.
Sobhraj is played by Tahar Rahim, who has the titular role in Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch's 2021 film The Mauritanian.
Rahim said he wanted to play Sobhraj, having read The Life And Crimes Of Charles Sobhraj when he was a teenager.
The book was written by Australian journalists Julie Clarke and Richard Neville in 1979.
Clarke and Neville interviewed Sobhraj in prison in Delhi, India, after the rights to his life story were sold to publisher Random House.
That book and others have shaped the story of the killings, but the show was heavily influenced by the real-life experiences of Knippenberg, played by Billy Howle.
Writer of The Serpent, Richard Warlow, said Knippenberg and his then-wife Angela gave him an invaluable procedural understanding, as did Sompol Suthimai, a colonel from Thai Interpol whose own investigation crossed with Knippenberg's.
The writers also spoke with people who stayed and spent time with Sobhraj and Leclerc during that period.
"Sobhraj had been at the wheel of his own story for many years, spinning his yarns to the enthralled and gullible, his ability to mesmerise never waning, it seems," Warlow said.
"We wanted instead to encourage and record the testimonies of others who were there."
The show was also given the nod of approval by the real Nadine Gires, played by Mathilde Warnier, who helped build the case against Sobhraj.
How many people did Charles Sobhraj kill?
Charles Sobhraj is believed to have murdered more than a dozen people, but the exact number is not known.
In the book The Life And Crimes Of Charles Sobhraj, Sobhraj confessed to murdering five people in Thailand and two people in Nepal.
He also claimed Leclerc and his associate Ajay Chowdhury had carried out some of the murders, but the truth of these crimes will likely never be known.
The victims, often backpackers, would be befriended, drugged, then murdered by Sobhraj, who would steal any money they had and their passports to help him evade capture.
His spate of killings in Thailand became known as the "bikini murders" as some of his victims were found in their swimsuits, while he was also given the moniker "the serpent" for his ability to change his appearance and identity.
These are some of the people Sobhraj is believed to have killed in 1975 and 1976.
- Teresa Knowlton, American — Thailand
- Vitali Hakim, Turkish — Thailand
- Charmayne Carrou, French — Thailand
- Henk Bintanja, Dutch — Thailand
- Cornelia Hemker, Dutch — Thailand
- Stephanie Parry, French — Thailand
- Andre Breugnot, French — Thailand
- Connie Bronzich, American — Nepal
- Laurent Carriere, Canadian — Nepal
- Alan Aron Jacobs, Israeli — India
- Jean-Luc Solomon, French — India
What happened to Charles Sobhraj?
Charles Sobhraj was arrested in 1976 for drugging a busload of French students in New Delhi, India.
He was jailed for various charges and served 20 years, briefly escaping in 1986 after drugging the prison guards with poisoned sweets.
He was released from jail in 1997 after the warrant for his extradition to Thailand ran out. He lived in France, where he has citizenship.
In 2003, Sobhraj was arrested in a Kathmandu casino and later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1975 murder of Connie Bronzich.
In 2014, he was also convicted of the 1975 murder of Laurent Carriere.
Sobhraj, now in his mid-70s, has suffered health problems in recent years and is seeking to be released from jail.
He has never stood trial for the alleged murders in Thailand.
What happened to Marie-Andrée Leclerc?
Marie-Andrée Leclerc, who is played by Doctor Who actress Jenna Coleman, was arrested in India alongside Sobhraj in 1976.
She denied taking part in Sobhraj's illegal activities and publicly claimed her only love was God.
Clarke and Neville wrote that while in jail in India, Leclerc was still very much in love with Sobhraj and passed him secret letters.
Leclerc was convicted in 1982 of the murder of Alan Aron Jacobs, who was found dead in his hotel room in India in 1975.
She was diagnosed with uterine cancer in mid-1983 and allowed to return to her home country of Canada for treatment.
She died in April 1985, aged 38.