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Lesser Known But Intriguing Historic Criminals

Khalid Elhassan October 17, 2019 32 min

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History - Crime

11. Sobhraj’s Prison Break

Charles Sobhraj was convicted of numerous offenses and imprisoned in India, but he managed to escape in 1986 after drugging his prison guards. He stayed on the lam for a month before he was recaptured. While behind bars, Sobhraj used his cunning and charisma to keep himself in the public eye and maintain his celebrity status. He made good money charging for interviews and made even better money selling his Indian movie rights.

Sobhraj was released in 1997, returned to Paris, where he enjoyed a celebrity lifestyle, and sold his international movie rights for U$15 million. Karma caught up with him, however, when he unwisely traveled to Nepal in 2003. Nepalese authorities arrested him for a 1975 double murder committed in their country. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life. As of 2019, Sobhraj was still behind bars in Nepal.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.