SATARO FUKIAGE

Sataro Fukiage (吹上 佐太郎, Fukiage Satarō, February 1889 – September 28, 1926)

Was a Japanese rapist and serial killer. He killed at least seven girls. He murdered his first victim in 1906, and killed six girls between 1923 and 1924. He was tried for three out of six cases, but his exact number of victims is unknown.

He raped a number of women besides the murder victims and according to one theory, he raped at least 93 girls.Some estimates say he raped more than 100 women.

Early life

He was born in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto. His family forced him to work at the age of nine under the East Asian age reckoning.He frequently changed jobs. At the age of 11, he had sex with a girl about 17 years old, for which he lost his job.At 12, he was arrested for theft. Fukiage learned kana and math during the two months he spent in jail. He was arrested again for theft soon after his release, but learned classical Chinese while in jail the second time.

Fukiage had sex with a 54-year-old woman at the age of 17. He later raped the woman's 11-year-old daughter and some other girls in their neighborhood.

First murder and imprisonment

On September 24, 1906, he raped and murdered an 11-year-old girl at Kinkaku-ji.^[4] The victim was an acquaintance of his. At the time he was culturally considered to be 18 years old, although he was 17 years old under the western age system. In jail, he studied the works of Confucius, Mencius, Socrates, Aristotle and Nichiren. He was released in 1922 and found employment, but he was fired due to his criminal past. In April 1923, he was arrested for molesting a four-year-old girl, but was released.

Later murders and arrest

Between June 1923 and April 1924, he raped and murdered six girls, ages 11 to 16. He was arrested on July 28, 1924. He confessed to 13 murders, but later recanted, and insisting that he had murdered only six girls and that a police officer had asked him a leading question. He wrote a book, The Street (娑婆, Shaba^?). He was sentenced to death on May 17, 1925. The Supreme Court of Japan upheld his death sentence on July 2, 1926.

Death

He was executed by hanging on September 28, 1926. The media reported that he went to die nobly, unlike many prisoners. In his book, he requested that parents take care of their children.

LEWIS HUTCHINSON

Lewis Hutchinson,

A Scottish immigrant to Jamaica, was the first recorded serial killer in Jamaica's history and one of its most prolific.

Hutchinson, better known as the Mad Master and Mad Doctor of Edinburgh Castle, was born in Scotland in 1733 where he is believed to have studied medicine. In the 1760s, he came to Jamaica to head an estate called Edinburgh Castle. He was said to have legally obtained the house (now a ruin) but to have maintained his group of cattle through the theft of strays from neighbours. This would not be the only accusation made of Hutchinson.

Shortly after Hutchinson's arrival in Jamaica, travellers began to disappear and suspicion started to mount. For many miles, Edinburgh Castle was the only populated location on the way from Saint Ann's Bay and, not knowing that they would become the target of Hutchinson's rifle, travellers would rest at the castle, only to succumb to the Mad Doctor's attack. Hutchinson murdered for pure sport, what may be described as a thrill killing, as passers-by from all races, shapes, sizes, and incomes were fair game.

What is true about Hutchinson's killings is debatable. He would shoot lone travellers and was said to feed on the flow of his victims' blood as well as dismember them. He, or according to some sources his slaves, would then toss the remains in a cotton tree or a sinkhole for animals to feast on. That sinkhole became known as Hutchinson's Hole. At the height of his villainy, he would invite guests to his castle to be entertained before killing them.

Hutchinson's reputation for debauchery made him notable as many would avoid him out of fear. His slaves' tales of terrible treatment and the gruesome details of the murders made him legendary. This is why he was allowed to roam free for a time until he shot an English soldier by the name of John Callendar. John Callender attempted to apprehend Hutchison. After Hutchinson shot Callender, he bolted south to Old Harbour and boarded a ship. The Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Rodney, caught Hutchinson before he could escape.

Shortly after being caught, he was tried and found guilty. In 1773 he was hanged in Spanish Town Square. Although the final toll won't be known, upon searching his home after his arrest, approximately 43 watches and a large amount of clothes were found. The records of his trial stand in the National Archives.

ROBERTO SUCCO

Roberto Succo also known as Roberto Zucco, (Venice April 3, 1962 – Vicenza May 23, 1988) was an Italian serial killer who murdered several people in Europe in 1987 and 1988.

Murders

Succo committed his first known murders on April 9, 1981 when he fatally stabbed his mother and strangled his father, a Police officer; they had refused to lend him their car. He then escaped, hiding his parents' bodies in the bathtub covered in water and lime to retard the discover of the murders, and taking away his father's service pistol. After Succo was caught, he was judged mentally ill and he was sentenced to 10 years in a psychiatric prison in Reggio Emilia. While in the facility, he studied and earned a degree in political science.

On May 15, 1986, after serving five years of his sentence, Succo escaped from the psychiatric hospital. He evaded police and left the country to travel to France by rail. In the next few years, Succo committed numerous crimes ranging from burglary to rape to murder; in France, he raped and killed two teenage girls, murdered a physician, and two Police officers who were about to capture him.

He kidnapped, hijacked, and terrorized people across at least four European countries. He was considered Public Enemy number one by France, Italy and Swiss Confederation.

On February 28, 1988, he was caught in his hometown of Mestre (a district of Venice). On March 1, 1988, during the course of an escape attempt he fell off the roof of the prison in which he was detained. He committed suicide in his cell on May 23, 1988.

Biographies

In 1988, Bernard-Marie Koltès wrote a play (Roberto Zucco) inspired by Succo's life and crimes. At the same time, French journalist Pascale Froment was working on a non-fiction book entitled Je te tue. Histoire vraie de Roberto Succo assassin sans raison (1991) about Succo's life, and she and Koltès corresponded on the subject. Je te tue later became the basis for the film Roberto Succo, directed by Cédric Kahn. In the wake of the film, Froment's book was reissued in 2001 under the title Roberto Succo.

Kahn's movie tells the story of Succo's life without judging his actions. This neutral point of view was criticized by the French police.

From THE INDEPENDENT

When Cédric Kahn's film Roberto Succo was first screened in Cannes last year, the French director found himself under fire from two sets of critics. One camp was made up of people who had admired his earlier films, in particular the taut psychosexual drama L'Ennui, and wondered why such a distinctive art-cinema director had gone on to make what seemed a mainstream true-crime drama. The other, more vociferous camp was composed of French police officers who objected to Kahn's film supposedly glorifying its subject, a multiple murderer who ran wild in France in the mid-1980s. Police from the Haute-Savoie region, where Succo was active, demonstrated outside the Cannes Palais, and the controversy followed the film around France on its eventual release.

When Cédric Kahn's film Roberto Succo was first screened in Cannes last year, the French director found himself under fire from two sets of critics. One camp was made up of people who had admired his earlier films, in particular the taut psychosexual drama L'Ennui, and wondered why such a distinctive art-cinema director had gone on to make what seemed a mainstream true-crime drama. The other, more vociferous camp was composed of French police officers who objected to Kahn's film supposedly glorifying its subject, a multiple murderer who ran wild in France in the mid-1980s. Police from the Haute-Savoie region, where Succo was active, demonstrated outside the Cannes Palais, and the controversy followed the film around France on its eventual release.

Released in Britain a year later, Kahn's film looks neither such a scandal, nor such an anomaly. Anyone who admired the chilly intensity of L'Ennui will recognise a similar tone in his sober, distanced recreation of Succo's career, with its jigsaw impression of a disturbed figure whose true nature evades understanding much as Succo himself evaded capture.

Kahn has described his film's subject as "pure madness". Succo, he explains, represents "a madness you can't rationalise – he's not just a little bit mad, he's an extreme case." In 1981, Succo, aged 18, from the Venetian suburb of Mestre, murdered his mother and father. Five years later, he escaped from psychiatric custody and went on the run in France, where he committed a number of apparently motiveless murders, including those of two policemen. Killing himself in prison in 1988, he was commemorated as the anti-hero of the play Robert Zucco by French dramatist Bernard-Marie Koltès. This Brechtian, almost fairy-tale work depicts Zucco as a satanic, almost mythical figure, but Kahn found himself more intrigued by the Succo described in a book by journalist Pascale Froment.

"In the play he's a sort of black angel. The play's very poetic, very exalted – it's about a killer hero, an anarchist. The great thing about the book is that it offers no explanation of him. There's just this juxtaposition of incoherent facts, which ends up forming a portrait."

Kahn's great achievement is to give the semi-legendary figure a real, strikingly ordinary presence. Played by unknown Italian non-professional Stefano Cassetti, the screen Succo with his piercing eyes could be a glamorous figure, but instead comes over as a mundane, rather pathetic poseur, an overgrown schoolboy trying on fantasy roles (gangster, secret agent, terrorist) to impress people.

Kahn's film depicts Succo as someone whose life was ruled by randomness: whether or not he killed depended on how he felt, or where he happened to find himself. "He wasn't a serial killer – that's someone who kills methodically, creating a certain mise en scene around death. With Succo, it's a matter of circumstance – it's chaos. He's a megalomaniac who sees himself as being above the world, having the power of life and death over people who get in his way. A psychiatrist could explain it, but I didn't want to get into that area."

What Kahn pursues instead is a pair of parallel observations. On the one hand he juxtaposes disconnected incidents in Succo's life, particularly interludes with his captivated but bewildered ingenue girlfriend; on the other, he gives us a terse police procedural drama, focused on the investigations of a taciturn inspector. This is the aspect that baffled some critics, Kahn's new interest in conventional thriller terrain. But it is hardly unusual for auteur directors to venture at least halfway into the mainstream. "What's tempting," Kahn says, "is to visit a genre without being a prisoner of genre."

In fact, Roberto Succo is not so far from Kahn's previous work. Like his Alberto Moravia adaptation L'Ennui, it is the story of one person helplessly fascinated by another. Succo's girlfriend comes under his spell just as in L'Ennui, a middle-aged male academic became erotically obsessed with an equally lawless young woman. But Kahn is loath to trace patterns: "I can't analyse the connections between my films because I'm the one making them. I don't make films in a very intellectual way."

Starting out as an assistant editor working for Maurice Pialat, Kahn graduated to his own debut feature in 1992, the small-town drama Bar des rails, then followed it with Trop de bonheur, commissioned for a series of films about tormented adolescence (Olivier Assayas, André Téchiné and Claire Denis also contributed). He claims to have no idea what he has taken from influences such as Pialat and Jean Eustache, except "a certain relation to reality, an investigation of human nature. But I can't define the links with film-makers I admire. I can't really find traces of their work in mine."

Perhaps this refusal of self-analysis extends to what seems a bizarre oversight on Kahn's part, one which people haven't stopped pointing out to him, namely, that Stefano Cassetti, his choice to play Roberto Succo, looks uncannily like Kahn himself. "I hadn't noticed it. It's just a coincidence." There is just the hint of a significant pause. "But then there's no such thing as coincidence."

LEONARDA CIANCIULLI

Leonarda Cianciulli (1893-October 15, 1970)

Was an Italian serial killer. Better known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio", she murdered three women in Correggio between 1939 and 1940, and turned their bodies into soap.

Early life

Cianciulli was born in Montella di Avellino and had an unhappy childhood. Her mother didn't love her because her pregnancy was due to a rape. While still a young girl, Leonarda attempted suicide twice. In 1914 she married a registry office clerk, Raffaele Pansardi: her parents didn't approve that marriage, as they planned her to marry another man. Leonarda claimed that on this occasion her mother cursed them. The couple moved to Lariano in Alta Irpinia. Their home was destroyed by an earthquake in 1930, and they moved once more, this time to Correggio, where Leonarda opened a small shop and became very popular as a nice, gentle woman, a doting mother and a nice neighbour.

Cianciulli had seventeen pregnancies during her marriage, but lost three of the children to miscarriage; ten more died in their youth. Consequently she was heavily protective of the four surviving children. Her fears were fueled by a warning she had received some time earlier from a fortune teller, who said that she would marry and have children, but that all of the children would die. Reportedly, Cianciulli also visited another Gypsy who practiced palm reading, and who told her, “In your right hand I see prison, in your left a criminal asylum.” Cianciulli was a superstitious woman, and seems to have taken these warnings very much to heart.

Murders

In 1939, Cianciulli heard that her eldest son, Giuseppe, was to join the Italian army in preparation for World War II. Giuseppe was her favorite child, and she was determined to protect him at all costs. She came to the conclusion that his safety required human sacrifices. She found her victims in three middle-aged women, all neighbours. Some sources record that Cianciulli was something of a fortune teller herself, and that these women all visited her for help; others state merely that they were friends of hers seeking advice. Whatever the reason, Cianciulli began to plan the deaths of the three women.

Faustina Setti

The first of Cianciulli's victims, Faustina Setti, was a lifelong spinster who had come to her for help in finding a husband. Cianciulli told her of a suitable mate in Pola, but convinced her to tell nobody of the news. She further convinced Setti to write letters and postcards to relatives and friends; these, to be mailed when she reached Pola, were merely to tell them that everything was fine.

On the day of her departure, Setti came to visit Cianciulli one last time; Cianciulli offered her a glass of drugged wine, then killed her with an axe and dragged the body into a closet. There she cut it into nine parts, gathering the blood into a basin. In her memorial (titled "An embittered soul's confessions") Cianciulli described what happened next in her official statement:

I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.

Some sources also record that Cianciulli apparently received Setti's life savings, 30,000 lire, as payment for her services.

Francesca Soavi

Francesca Soavi was the second victim; Cianciulli claimed to have found her a job at a school for girls in Piacenza. Like Setti, Soavi was convinced to write postcards to be sent to friends, this time from Correggio, detailing her plans. Also like Setti, Soavi came to visit with Cianciulli before her departure; she, too, was given drugged wine and then killed with an axe. The murder occurred on September 5, 1940. Soavi's body was given the same treatment as Setti's, and Cianciulli is said to have obtained 3,000 lire from her second victim.

Virginia Cacioppo

Cianciulli's final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former soprano said to have sung at La Scala. For her, Cianciulli claimed to have found work as the secretary for a mysterious impresario in Florence; as with the other two women, she was told not to tell a single person where she was going. Virginia agreed, and on September 30, 1940, came for a last visit with Cianciulli. The pattern to the murder was exactly the same as the first two; according to Cianciulli's statement:

She ended up in the pot, like the other two...her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbours and acquaintances. The cakes, too, were better: that woman was really sweet.

From Cacioppo, Cianciulli reportedly received 50,000 lire and assorted jewels.

Discovery and trial

Cacioppo's sister-in-law grew suspicious at her sudden disappearance, and had last seen her entering Cianciulli's house. She reported her fears to the superintendent of police in Reggio Emilia, who opened an investigation and soon arrested Cianciulli. Cianciulli immediately confessed to the murders, providing detailed accounts of what she had done.

Cianciulli was tried for murder in Reggio Emilia in 1946. She remained unrepentant, going so far as to correct the official account while on the stand:

At her trial in Reggio Emilia last week Poetess Leonarda gripped the witness-stand rail with oddly delicate hands and calmly set the prosecutor right on certain details. Her deep-set dark eyes gleamed with a wild inner pride as she concluded: "I gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim the fat off the kettles, to my country, which was so badly in need of metal during the last days of the war...."

She was found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum.

Cianciulli died of cerebral apoplexy in the women's criminal asylum in Pozzuoli on October 15, 1970. A number of artifacts from the case, including the pot in which the victims were boiled, are on display at the Criminological Museum in Rome.

DONATO BILANCIA

Donato Bilancia: (born July 10, 1951 in Potenza, Italy)

Is an Italian serial killer.

Bilancia killed at least 17 people in Liguria, Italy from October 1997 to May 1998. On April 12, 2000 he was sentenced to 17 terms of life imprisonment for murder in 17 cases plus one additional sentence of 14 years of prison for one case of attempted murder.

Biography

Bilancia was born in Potenza on July 10, 1951, before his family moved to Genova in 1956. He grew up having a difficult relationship with his family and early on turned to theft and burglary as a source of income. In 1975 he was arrested for thievery and later, in 1976, was arrested again for robbery, but was able to escape from custody.

In 1982 his brother, carrying his infant child, threw himself before a train in a Genova train station, which reportedly had a grave effect on Donato and caused his mental disorders to become more defined.

In 1990 he was seriously injured in a car accident and remained in a coma for several days.

Besides theft and burglary, he began to gamble on a regular basis and later declared to the Carabinieri that he used to win and lose great sums of money in a single night, but had always remained an "honest" player who paid his debts and maintained his word. He went by the name 'Walter' in the clandestine gambling houses he visited.

First Murders

On October 16, 1997, Bilancia killed Giorgio Centanaro in his house, strangling him with adhesive tape. However, the death was falsely determined to be derived from natural causes because the investigators didn't find any clues that pointed to murder. Bilancia confessed the crime after his arrest, saying that he killed Centanaro because he had dishonoured him and had cheated at the gambling table.

On October 24, 1997, he killed Maurizio Parenti and his wife Carla Scotto in their house for the same reason, thinking that Parenti and his first victim Centanaro were gambling partners. He fled the house with 13 million Italian lire (about 6.500 Euros or 9.500 US-Dollars) and some valuable items.

On October 27, 1997, he killed Bruno Solari and his wife Maria Luigia Pitto after he broke in their house to rob them.

On November 13, 1997, he killed Luciano Marro, a money changer living in Ventimiglia, and fled with 45 million Italian lire (about 22.500 Euros or 33.000 US-Dollars).

On January 25, 1998, he killed Giangiorgio Canu, a night security guard, in Genova and later stated that his only motive was his intention to take revenge on the police forces.

The Prostitute Killings

On March 9, 1998, Bilancia shot to death Stela Truya, an Albanian prostitute, in Varazze.

On March 18, 1998, he killed Ukrainian prostitute Ljudmyla Zubskova in Pietra Ligure with a bullet to her head.

On March 20, 1998, he robbed and killed another money changer, Enzo Gorni, again in Ventimiglia. The victim's brother in law witnessed Bilancia's escape in a black Mercedes.

On March 24, 1998, Bilancia attempted to kill transsexual "Lorena" Castro in Novi Ligure, but Castro figured his intentions and fled with the help of two security guards that were patrolling the area. Bilancia immobilized both guards with gunshot wounds, and upon catching up with Castro shot her in the chest and left her for dead. Afterwards, he returned to the wounded guards, Massimiliano Garillo and Candido Randò, and executed them with bullets to their heads.

On March 29, 1998, he killed Nigerian prostitute Tessy Adobo in Cogoleto. This murder was a turning point for the investigation since the crime was connected to the murder of Stela Truya and, later on, to the murders of the other prostitutes. It was the ballistic studies of the RIS of Parma that revealed the uniqueness of the weapon used.

The Railroad Murders and The Liguria Monster

When the investigating police forces came up with an increasingly detailed profile, Bilancia altered his modus operandi. A detailed criminological profile had been established mainly thanks to the testimony of surviving witness Castro who could contribute accurate information on her attacker's black Mercedes as well as numerous details regarding his appearance, leading to the issue of an accurate identikit of the "Monster".

On April 12, 1998, Bilancia used his burglar skills to picklock a bathroom on the La Spezia-Venezia InterCity, where he shot passenger Elisabetta Zoppetti to death.

On April 14, 1998, he killed another prostitute, Kristina Valla.

On April 18, 1998, he killed passenger Maria Angela Rubino on a train between Genova and Ventimiglia.

Following the killer's move from the relatively segregated environment of street prostitution to a totally random choice of his victims on trains, the case of the Liguria Monster immediately became national top news on television and in newspapers. The police forces' intense investigation into the serial killings further fueled the public interest. At that time, two suspects were investigated, but ultimately none of them had any involvement in the case. Meanwhile, the police kept searching for the two cars used by the killer, a black Mercedes and a white Opel Kadett.

Then, on April 21, 1998, Bilancia robbed and killed his last victim, gas station attendant Giuseppe Mileto, in Arma di Taggia.

The Capture

The final turning point in the investigation came when the Carabinieri received a report on the theft of a black Mercedes, which had been given to a man for a test drive, but has never been returned. Upon checking on the vehicle's recipient, the Carabinieri found an almost perfect match between Bilancia and the composite sketch established with Castro's help. Moreover, cross-ckecks of the tire tracks found at some of the crime scenes with those of the seized Mercedes produced identical matches, as did comparisons of Bilancia's DNA (collected from cigarette butts and from a cup of coffee) with DNA traces of the killer collected in the field.

Donato Bilancia was arrested on May 6, 1998, and, after few days, gave a spontaneous confession of all the murders, including the death of Giorgio Centenaro, which had previously been assumed to be a natural death.

On April 12, 2000, the Genova court pronounced the sentence of 17 terms of life imprisonment for the murders and an additional 14 years for the attempted murder of Lorena Castro.

Wolfgang Abel and Mario Furlan

Wolfgang Abel and Mario Furlan

Were arrested for a series of murders in Italy between 1977 and 1984. They claimed innocence, saying they were scapegoats for a police force that could not find the real criminals.

The crimes

At each of these crime scenes was a leaflet, written in Italian, headed with the name 'Ludwig' over a Nazi eagle and swastika. Each had a slogan, such as "We are the last of the Nazis" and "Death comes to those who betray the true god"^[1], and explained the reason for each murder. According to the leaflets the victims were chosen because they were "sub-human"; being homosexual, prostitutes, drug addicts; and needed to be eliminated.

Abel and Furlan's criminal career together began in August 1977, when they burned a Gypsy drug addict alive.

• In Padua they stabbed a casino worker to death. This was followed shortly by the beating and stabbing of a homosexual waiter in Venice who died from his thirty-four knife wounds.
• In Vicenza they axed a prostitute and crushed the skulls of two priests with a hammer.
• They burned a sleeping hitch-hiker to death in Verona.
• In Trento a homosexual priest was killed with a nail hammered in his forehead, followed by a chisel with a wooden cross on it.
• On March 3, 1984, in Mantua Abel and Furlan, dressed in Pierrot costumes, were caught dousing the carpet and furniture in a crowded discotheque with gasoline.

Trial and after

Despite being arrested in March 1984, their trial did not begin until December 1986, the intervening time spent in jail. The trial lasted until January 1987 when they were found guilty of 10 out of 27 counts of murder, and in February they were sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in the appeal procedures both men were eventually released. They had only served three years, most of it before their trial.

Abel moved to Mestrino and Furlan to Casale Scodosia.

NICOLAI BONNER

Nicolai Bonner (Hebrew: ניקולאי בונר‎)

Is an Israeli serial killer, who in the year 2005, under heavy influence of alcohol (vodka), murdered 4 immigrants from the former Soviet Union, 3 of them homeless, in industrial area of Haifa. The victims were all beaten, their faces bruised, and then their bodies were set on fire. The victims were found in an industrial area of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, major port, and center of heavy industry, the bodies badly burned and charred black beyond recognition. Bonner had done this so as to hide all evidence.

Bonner was born in Moldavia, and immigrated to Israel in 2000 with his Jewish wife, who later died of tuberculosis. After his capture, Bonner claimed he degraded the homeless partly because he could not get over his wife's death. Two months after his first murder, the Israel national police began to link Bonner to the murders, after the body of Valeri Soznov was discovered. Evidence gathered linked the murders to Bonner, who was subsequently arrested and brought to trial.

On May 6th, 2007 Bonner was sentenced to life imprisonment, 4 consecutive life terms and additional 17 years imprisionement for other crimes: 5 years for attempted murder, 9 years for aggravated rape, and 3 years for other charges including aggravated assault and interfering with judicial proceedings.

From HAARETZ.COM

Serial murderer sentenced to four consecutive life terms

By Fadi Eyadat, Haaretz Correspondent

The Haifa District Court Sunday sentenced Nicolai Bonner, 33, to four consecutive life sentences for the grisly serial killings of four immigrants from the former Soviet Union, three of them homeless. The victims were all beaten, their faces bruised, and then attempts were made to set their bodies on fire. He was also sentenced to five years' imprisionement for attempted murder, nine years' impriosonement for aggravated rape, and three years for other charges including aggravated assault and interfering with judicial proceedings.

Bonnet had maintained his innocence, saying that he had confessed to the crimes under pressure, that he had been drunk at the time and that he had made the statement for fear that his family might be hurt if he did not. His statements failed to persuade the judges. They noted that, apart from his confession, he had also led interrogators to the scenes of the murders. Bonner moved to Israel from Moldova in 2000. His wife contracted tuberculosis, and passed away in January of 2003. One month after the death of his wife, with a rapidly deteriorating emotional state, Bonner requested a leave of absence from his job at a Jaffa pipe factory. Bonner's defense attorney Ofer Cohen had requested that the court take his circumstances into account when considering his sentence, citing the defendant's unstable mental state. Although the first murder occurred in 2005, police did not suspect a serial murderer until the third body of Valeri Soznov was uncovered two months later, and similarities were noted between the crime scenes.

SAEED HANAEI

Saeed Hanaei or Said Hanai (سعید حنایی, died April 8, 2002)

Was an Iranian serial killer.

Crimes

Hanaei targeted female prostitutes, in the eastern city of Mashhad. He often targeted drug addicts, because he felt that he was helping rid the city of moral corruption.

The killings were referred to as the "spider killings" by the Iranian press due to the fact that Hanaei lured the women to his home and had sex with them before strangling them and dumping their bodies. Hanaei killed 16 women before he was apprehended by the police.

Execution

Following a high-profile case, he was praised by some fundamentalists. He was found guilty and hanged at dawn on April 8, 2002 in Mashhad Prison.

In popular culture

The incident was the subject of the 2002 documentary And Along Came a Spider.

Shock rocker Alice Cooper's 2008 album, Along Came A Spider, is a concept album, following Hanaei's crimes.

From THE GUARDIAN

The beast of Mashhad

Saeed Hanaei believed prostitutes were a 'waste of blood'. So he murdered 16 - and became a hero for Iran's Islamic militants. Dan De Luce on a shocking documentary

When the drought ended and the rains came, Saeed Hanaei believed that it was a sign from God that his killing spree had divine approval. "I realised God looked favourably on me. That he had taken notice of my work," Hanaei said. With 12 prostitutes already dead by his hands, Hanaei carried on his "work" and strangled at least four more women after luring them to his house in the Iranian city of Mashhad.

1. And Along Came a Spider
2. Production year: 2002
3. Country: Rest of the world
4. Runtime: 52 mins
5. Directors: Mazair Bahari

And Along Came a Spider, which had its UK premiere at the Edinburgh festival yesterday, tells the disturbing tale of a murderous psychopath who found an alarming degree of ideological sympathy among Islamic militants in Iran. The serial killer and his trial attracted a media frenzy in Iran and exposed deep divisions in a society where a conservative-minded minority feels threatened by social change.

The director of the documentary, Maziar Bahari, says he believes Hanaei was a murderer by nature who was catapulted to folk-hero status by religious extremists. "Hanaei was living in a very claustrophobic environment and he could somehow justify his killings through ideological slogans that are acceptable in that environment," Bahari says. "He is basically a terrorist. He's not as technologically advanced as some, but the result is the same."

Bahari's documentary provides an extraordinary glimpse into the attitudes of a working-class district in Mashhad and the desperate world of prostitutes entrapped by drug addiction, poverty and patriarchal cruelty. Newspapers dubbed the murders the "spider killings" because of the way victims were drawn into Hanaei's home and then strangled with a scarf. He then dumped the bodies by the roadside or in open sewers, wrapping them in their chadors, the long, flowing black garments that cover a woman from head to toe.

Hanaei confessed to the killings, smiled for news photographers and proudly told the court that he was fighting a crusade against moral corruption and vice. He and his lawyer cited an ambiguous provision in Iranian and Islamic law that refers to sinners as a "waste of blood", arguing that Hanaei deserved lenient treatment.

The case provoked a debate between reformers who condemned the authorities for failing to catch him earlier and some conservatives who shared the killer's disgust with a rise in prostitution.

"Who is to be judged?" wrote the conservative newspaper Jomhuri Islami. "Those who look to eradicate the sickness or those who stand at the root of the corruption?" Such sentiments are expressed by the killer's merchant friends at the Mashhad bazaar, one of whom says with a laugh: "He did the right thing. He should have continued."

The argument over the spider killings represented a kind of microcosm of a wider battle still being waged in Iran over the proper role of Islam in society. Reformists in parliament and government have tried to push for a relaxation of the country's theocratic system, advocating what they call a "democratic interpretation of Islam". Their opponents fear the reformists will only undermine Islam and open the floodgates to secular, western influences.

The most disturbing defence of Hanaei comes from his own 14-year-old son, Ali, who says his father was cleansing the Islamic republic of the "corrupt of the Earth". "If they kill him tomorrow, dozens will replace him," Ali says. "Since his arrest, 10 or 20 people have asked me to continue what my Dad was doing. I say, 'Let's wait and see.' "

Those who sympathise with Hanaei remain powerful and vocal, but the majority of Iranians want to see a more tolerant, less ideological society, according to Bahari. "I think they are in the minority, and their numbers are decreasing," he said.

Between the scenes of Hanaei recounting his crimes in a matter-of-fact tone, we see haunting photos of the victims before and after they were killed and we meet two children whose mothers were murdered. Interviews with 10-year-old Sahar and eight-year-old Sara provide some of the documentary's most powerful moments.

Firoozeh, the 14th victim, went out to buy opium one day at about 5.30pm, says her daughter, Sahar. "We were all waiting for her but she never came home." We see a drawing in crayon from Sara, with a bearded Hanaei in handcuffs, her mother lying dead and a little girl kneeling in despair. Sahar looks away from the camera and says she hasn't spoken to anyone at school about what has happened. She says she wants to be a journalist when she grows up because she hopes to document what happened to her mother.

Hanaei served as a volunteer in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and described his murders as a "continuation of the war effort". He first became obsessed with "street women" after his wife was mistaken for a prostitute by a taxi driver. We learn from a journalist that Hanaei went looking for men who were soliciting prostitutes and got beaten up. "So he turns to the people who don't have the power to fight back," says the journalist, Roya Karimi.

Hanaei had plenty of opportunities to prey on the powerless in Mashhad, a city with all the ingredients for a thriving prostitution trade. While millions of pilgrims visit the city's holy Shia shrine every year, massive amounts of opium pour over the border from neighbouring Afghanistan and are transported through the city. Growing levels of poverty and unemployment, with rural families migrating to cities, have fed the increase in "street women".

The spider case forced the invisible world of prostitution into the public arena and government officials can no longer pretend otherwise. But prostitution remains a sensitive issue and Bahari's documentary, which has been shown throughout Europe, has yet to be broadcast in Iran. The criminal code's vague reference to victims deemed to be a "waste of blood" has come under increasing scrutiny from lawyers.

Despite Hanaei's confession in prison that he had "improper relations" with his victims, some ideologues still sympathise with the spider killer. This month a hardline paramilitary group, Ansar-e Hizbollah, warned in its weekly publication that declining morality among women could lead to more such killings: "It is likely that what happened in Mashhad and Kerman could be repeated in Tehran."

Although Hanaei was sentenced to death, he was shocked and angry when the moment came for his hanging in April last year. Unlike at his highly publicised trial, there were no cameras around to record how he screamed in protest, baffled that his ideological allies never came to his rescue. "Even until the last second before his execution, Hanaei thought someone in the government would come to save him," Bahari says.

Hanaei's case had sparked debate and morbid fascination but not much mourning for the death of the 16 "street women". And Along Came a Spider commemorates these women and grants them a degree of dignity they never received while they were alive.

· And Along Came a Spider is at the Filmhouse tonight and on Wednesday. Box office: 0131-623 8030.

MOHAMMED BIJEH

Mohammed Bijeh (Persian: محمد بيژه) (February 7, 1975 – March 16, 2005)

Was an Iranian serial killer. He confessed in court to raping and killing 16 young boys between March and September 2004, and was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8 and 15 years old. In addition, he killed two adults.

Execution

On March 16, 2005, in front of a crowd of about 5,000, his shirt was removed and he was handcuffed to an iron post, where he received his lashings from different judicial officials. He fell to the ground more than once during the punishment, but did not cry out. A relative of one of the victims managed to get by security and stab Bijeh. The mother of one of the victims put a blue nylon rope around his neck, and he was hoisted about 10 meters in the air by a crane until he died. He was hanged in Pakdasht, Iran, the town near the desert area where the killings occurred.

From BBC

Iran's 'desert vampire' executed

An Iranian serial killer who murdered at least 20 children has been executed in front a large crowd of spectators.

Mohammad Bijeh, 24, dubbed "the Tehran desert vampire" by Iran's press, was flogged 100 times before being hanged.

A brother of one of his young victims stabbed him as he was being punished. The mother of another victim was asked to put the noose around his neck.

The execution took place in Pakdasht south of Tehran, near where Bijeh's year-long killing spree took place.

The killer was hoisted about 10 metres into the air by a crane and slowly throttled to death in front of the baying crowd.

Hanging by a crane - a common form of execution in Iran - does not involve a swift death as the condemned prisoner's neck is not broken.

Calm and silent

The killer collapsed twice during the punishment, although he remained calm and silent throughout.

Spectators, held back by barbed wire and about 100 police officers, chanted "harder, harder" as judicial officials took turns to flog Bijeh's bare back before his hanging.

The condemned collapsed twice during the pre-execution flogging

Bijeh was stabbed by the 17-year-old brother of victim Rahim Younessi, AFP reported, as he was being readied to be hanged.

Officials then invited the mother Milad Kahani to put the blue nylon rope around his neck.

The crimes of Mohammed Bijeh and his accomplice Ali Baghi had drawn massive attention in the Iranian media.

They reportedly tricked children to go with them into the desert south of Tehran by saying they were going to hunt animals. They then poisoned or knocked their victims out, sexually abused them and buried them in shallow graves.

They were found guilty of the murders of between 19 and 22 people, but local people believe the toll to be higher.

Baghi has been given a 15 year prison term.

AHMAD SURADJI

Ahmad Suradji

was a serial killer in Indonesia. Suradji, a cattle-breeder born in 1951, was executed July 10May 2, 1997, after bodies were discovered near his home on the outskirts of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. He buried his victims in a sugarcane plantation near his home, with heads of the victims facing his house, which he believed would give him extra power. 2008. He was also known as Nasib Kelewang, or by his alias Datuk. He admitted to killing 42 girls and women over a period of 11 years. His victims ranged in age from 11 to 30, and were strangled with a cable after being buried up to their waists in the ground as part of a ritual. Suradji was arrested on

He told police that he had a dream in 1988 in which his father's ghost told him to kill 70 women and drink their saliva, so that he could become a mystic healer. As a sorcerer or dukun, women came to him for spiritual advice or on making themselves more beautiful or richer. His three wives—all sisters—were also arrested for assisting in the murders and helping to hide the bodies. One of his wives, Tumini, was tried as his accomplice. The trial began on December 11, 1997, with a 363-page charge against him, and although Suradji maintained his innocence, he was found guilty on April 27, 1998 by a three-judge panel in Lubukpakam. He was sentenced to death by firing squad and executed on July 10, 2008

From SKY NEWS

Ahmad Suradji, 57, was killed by firing squad despite a last minute appeal from human-rights group Amnesty International.

Bonaventura Nainggolan, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said: "He appeared resigned to his fate.

"His final wish was to see his wife. We fulfilled this."

He added: "He pretended to be a shaman who could heal any kind of disease. If someone asked to be healed, both their possessions and their lives were taken."

Suradji lured his female victims to a sugarcane field near his home in western Indonesia.

He then buried them up to the waist and strangled them before reburying their bodies with the heads pointing toward his house.

Suradji also drank their saliva, believing it would enhance his powers.

The serial killer was arrested in May 1997 following the discovery of a body in the field in Lubukpakan, a village in North Sumatra province.

Dozens of other corpses were later found nearby.

A district court found the sorcerer guilty a year later of killing 42 women and girls, between the ages 11 and 30, over an 11-year period.

Many Indonesians believe in witchcraft and Suradji claimed he had the power to influence people's futures.

The victims were believed to have been seeking his help in making their husbands or boyfriends faithful.

Suradji's wife, Tumini, was also sentenced to death for assisting with the murders, but her sentence was later reduced to life in prison.

CHARLES SOBHRAJ

Hatchand Bhaonani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj (born April 6, 1944),

Better known as Charles Sobhraj, is a French serial killer of Indian and Vietnamese origin, who preyed on Western tourists throughout Southeast Asia during the 1970s. Nicknamed "the Serpent" and "the Bikini killer" for his skill at deception and evasion, he allegedly committed at least 12 murders. He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997, but managed to live a life of leisure even in prison. After his release, he retired as a celebrity in Paris; he unexpectedly returned to Nepal, where he was arrested, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment on August 12, 2004.

While Sobhraj is widely believed to be a psychopath—he has a manipulative personality and is incapable of remorse—his motives for killing differed from those of most serial killers. Sobhraj was not driven to murder by deep-seated, violent impulses, but as a means to sustain his lifestyle of adventure. That, as well as his cunning and cultured personality, made him a celebrity long before his release from prison. Sobhraj enjoyed the attention, charging large amounts of money for interviews and film rights; he has been the subject of four books and three documentaries. His search for attention and his overconfidence in his own intelligence are believed responsible for his return to a country where authorities were still eager to arrest him.

Early years

Sobhraj was born as Gurmukh Sobhraj to an unwed Vietnamese mother and an Indian father (Sindhi tailor) in Saigon. The father soon deserted the family. The mother blamed the child. Stateless at first,he was adopted by his mother's new boyfriend, a French army lieutenant stationed in Indochina. However, he was neglected in favour of the couple's later children. Sobhraj continued to move back and forth between France and Indochina with the family, not feeling at home in either place. As a teenager he developed personality problems and turned to petty crime.

Sobhraj received his first jail sentence (for burglary) in 1963, serving at Poissy prison near ParisHowever, not only did he weather the harsh conditions of jail, he managed to manipulate the prison official into granting him special favours like being allowed to keep books in his cell, etc. At around the same time he met and endeared himself to Felix d'Escogne.

After being paroled, Sobhraj moved in with d'Escogne and shared his time between moving in the high society of Paris and the criminal underworld. He soon started accumulating riches through a series of scams and burglaries. During this time, he met and began a relationship with Chantal who was from a conservative Parisian family. On the night he proposed to her, Sobhraj was arrested for evading police while driving a stolen car. He was sentenced back to prison time in Poissy for eight months. Chantal remained supportive during his prison time. Sobhraj and Chantal were married upon his release.

Soon after, facing mounting suspicions by French authorities, he and a now pregnant Chantal left France for Asia to escape arrest. After travelling through Eastern Europe on fake documents and robbing people who befriended them, they arrived in Bombay in 1970. Here Chantal gave birth to a baby girl.While in Bombay, the couple made a good impression on the expatriate community there. In the meantime, Sobhraj resumed his criminal lifestyle by running a car theft and smuggling operation. The profits from this operation of which were used towards his growing gambling addiction.

In 1970, Sobhraj was arrested and imprisoned after an unsuccessful armed robbery attempt on a jewellery store in Hotel Ashoka. Sobhraj did manage to escape with Chantal's help and faking illness, but they were re-captured shortly afterwards. He borrowed money for bail from his father in Saigon and soon after fled to Kabul in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the couple continued robbing tourists on the "hippie trail" only to be arrested once again. But Sobhraj escaped, the same way he had in India, feigning illness and drugging the hospital guard. This time Sobhraj fled to Iran leaving his family behind. Chantal, although still loyal to him, wishing to leave their criminal past behind, returned to France and vowed never to see him again^.

Sobhraj spent the next two years on the run, using as many as 10 stolen passports and visiting several countries in East Europe and the Middle East. He was joined in Istanbul by André, his younger brother. Sobhraj and André quickly became partners in many crimes in both TurkeyGreece. Both were eventually arrested in Athens. After an identity-switch plan gone wrong, Sobhraj escaped in his usual manner. But he left his brother behind. André was turned over to the Turkish police by Greek authorities. He had to serve an 18-year sentence. and

Murders

On the run again, Sobhraj financed his lifestyle by posing as a mysterious drug dealer to impress tourists and defrauding them when they let their guard down. In Thailand, he met Marie-Andrée Leclerc from Lévis, Quebec, one of many tourists looking for adventure in the East. Subjugated by Sobhraj's personality, Leclerc quickly became his most devoted follower, turning a blind eye to his crimes and his philandering with local women.

Sobhraj started gathering followers by helping them out of difficult situations, indebting them to him while he actually was the very cause of their misery. In one case, he helped two former French policemen, named Yannick and Jacques, to recover their passports that he himself had stolen; in another, he provided shelter and comfort to another Frenchman named Dominique Rennelleau, whose apparent dysentery illness was actually the results of poisoning by Sobhraj. He was also joined by a young Indian named Ajay Chowdhury, a fellow criminal who became his lieutenant. Sobhraj wanted to start a criminal "family" of sorts, in the style of Charles Manson's.

It was then that Sobhraj and Chowdhury committed their first (known) murders in 1975. Most of the victims had spent some time with the "clan" before their deaths and were, according to some investigators, potential recruits who had threatened to expose Sobhraj. The first victim was a young woman from Seattle, Teresa Knowlton, who was found burned like many of Sobhraj's other victims. Soon thereafter, a young American Jennie Bollivar, was found drowned in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand, wearing a flowered bikini. It was only months later that the autopsy and forensic evidence revealed the drowning to be murder.

The next victim was a young, nomadic Sephardic Jew named Vitali Hakim, whose burned body was found on the road to the Pattaya resort where Sobhraj and his clan were staying.

Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker, 25, were invited to Thailand after meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong. Just as he had done to Dominique, Sobhraj poisoned them, and then nurtured them back to health to gain their obedience. As they recovered, Sobhraj was visited by his previous victim Hakim's French girlfriend, Charmayne Carrou, coming to investigate her boyfriend's disappearance. Fearing exposure, Sobhraj and Chowdhury quickly hustled the couple out; their bodies were found strangled and burned on December 16, 1975. Soon after, Carrou was found drowned in circumstances similar to Jennie's, and wearing a similar-styled swimsuit. Although the murders of both women were not connected by investigations at the time, they would later earn Sobhraj the nickname of "the bikini killer."

On December 18, the day the bodies of Bintanja and Hemker were identified, Sobhraj and Leclerc entered Nepal using the couple's passports. There they met and, on December 21-22, murdered Canadian Laurent Ormond Carrière, 26 and Californian Connie Bronzich, 29. (The two victims were incorrectly identified in some sources as Laddie DuParr and Annabella Tremont.) Sobhraj and Leclerc then returned to Thailand, once again using their latest victims' passport before their bodies could be identified.

Upon his return to Thailand, Sobhraj discovered that his three French companions had started to suspect him, found documents belonging to the murder victims, and fled to Paris after notifying local authorities.

Sobhraj then went to Calcutta, where he murdered Israeli scholar Avoni Jacob for his passport, and used it to move to Singapore with Leclerc and Chowdhury, then to India and - rather boldly - back to Bangkok in March 1976. There they were interrogated by Thai policemen in connection with the murders, but easily let off the hook because authorities feared that the negative publicity accompanying a murder trial would harm the country's tourist trade.

Not so easily silenced, however, was Dutch embassy diplomat Herman Knippenberg, who was investigating the murder of the two Dutch backpackers, and suspected Sobhraj even though he did not know his real name. Knippenberg started to build a case against him, partly with the help of Sobhraj's neighbour. Given police permission to conduct his own search of Sobhraj's apartment (a full month after the suspect had left the country), Knippenberg found a great deal of evidence, such as victims' documents and poison-laced medicines. He would from then on accumulate evidence against Sobhraj for decades, despite the lack of cooperation by law enforcement.

The trio's next stop was in Malaysia, where Chowdhury was sent on a gem-stealing errand, and disappeared after giving the jewels to Sobhraj. No trace of him was ever found, and it is widely believed that Sobhraj murdered his former accomplice before leaving with Leclerc to sell the jewels in Geneva. However, some sources say that Chowdhury was spotted in Germany much later and hunt for him is still on.

Soon back in Asia, Sobhraj started rebuilding his clan, starting in Bombay with two lost Western women named Barbara Sheryl Smith and Mary Ellen Eather. His next victim was Frenchman Jean-Luc Solomon, who succumbed to the poison intended to incapacitate him during a robbery.

In July 1976 in New Delhi, Sobhraj and the three women tricked a tour group of post-graduate French students into accepting them as guides. He then drugged them with pills which he pretended were anti-dysentery medicine. However, when the drugs started acting too quickly and the students started dropping unconscious where they stood, three of them quickly realized what was happening and overcame Sobhraj, leading to his capture by police. During interrogation, Barbara and Mary Ellen quickly cracked and confessed everything. Sobhraj was charged with the murder of Solomon, and all four were sent to Tihar prison outside New Delhi while awaiting formal trial.

Prison time

Conditions inside the notorious prison were unbearable; both Barbara and Mary Ellen attempted suicide during the two years before their trial. Sobhraj, however, had entered with precious gems concealed in his body and was experienced in bribing captors and living comfortably in jail.

Sobhraj turned his trial into a show, hiring and firing lawyers at whim, bringing in his recently-paroled and still-loyal brother André to help, and eventually going on a hunger strike. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison instead of the expected death penalty. Leclerc was found guilty of the drugging of the French students, then later paroled and returned to Canada when she developed ovarian cancer. She was still claiming her innocence, and reportedly still loyal to Sobhraj, when she died at home in April 1984.

Sobhraj's systematic bribery of prison guards at Tihar reached outrageous levels. He led a life of luxury inside the jail, with TV, and gourmet food, having befriended both the guards and the prisoners. He would walk in and out of jail whenever he wanted.Revelling in his notoriety, he gave interviews to Western authors and journalists, such as Oz magazine's Richard Neville in the late 1970s, and Alan Dawson in 1984. He freely talked about his murders, while never actually admitting to them, and pretended that his actions were in retaliation against Western imperialism in Asia.

He also needed to find a way to prolong his sentence, since the 20-year Thai arrest warrantdeportation and almost certain execution. So in March 1986, on his tenth year in prison, he threw a big party for his prisoner and guard friends and, having drugged them with sleeping pills, walked out of the jail. against him would still be valid on his intended release date, leading to his

Shobhraj was quickly caught in Goa and had his prison term prolonged by 10 years, just as he had hoped. On February 17, 1997, 52-year old Sobhraj was released, with most warrants, evidence and even witnesses against him long lost. Without any country to deport him to, Indian authorities let him return to France.

Celebrity and re-capture

Sobhraj retired to a comfortable life in suburban Paris. He hired a publicity agent and charged large sums of money for interviews and photographs. He is said to have charged over $15 million for the rights to a movie based on his life.

In September 17, 2003 Sobhraj was unexpectedly spotted in a street of Kathmandu by a journalist. The journalist quickly reported this to the Nepalese authorities who arrested him two days later in the casino of the Yak and Yeti hotel. Sobhraj's motives for returning to Nepal remain unknown. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu district court in August 20, 2004 for the 1975 murders of Bronzich and Carrière. Most of the evidence used against him in this case was drawn from that painstakingly gathered by Knippenberg and Interpol.

Sobhraj appealed against the conviction claiming that he was sentenced without trial. His lawyer also announced that Chantal, Sobhraj's wife in France, was filing a case before the European Court of Human Rights against the French government, for refusing to provide him with any assistance.

Sobhraj's conviction was confirmed by the Kathmandu Court of Appeals in 2005.

Current status

In late 2007, news media reported that Sobhraj's lawyer had appealed to the current French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, for intervention with Nepal. Sobhraj's lawyer claims that he has been the victim of racism.In 2008, Sobhraj announced his engagement to Nihita Biswas (aged 20) from Nepal.The couple has announced marriage in France if Sobhraj was released by the Nepalese supreme court. On 7 July, 2008, issuing a press release through his fiancee Nihita, he claimed that he was never convicted of murder by any court and asked the media not to refer to him as a serial killer.Later, it was claimed that he married his fiancee Nihita Biswas on October 9, 2008, on the occasion of Bada Dashami, a Nepalese festival, in a much famed, but not publicised wedding, that took place in the jail itself.On the following day, Nepal jail authorities dismissed the claim of his marriage. They said that Nihita and her family had been allowed to conduct a tika ceremony, along with the relatives of hundreds of other prisoners. They further claimed that it was not a wedding but part of the ongoing Dashain festival, when elders put the vermilion mark on the foreheads of those younger to them to signify their blessings.

Bibliography

• Julie Clarke & Richard Neville (1980). The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-330-27001-X.
• Thomas Thompson (1979). Serpentine. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-0749-6.
• Julie Clarke & Richard Neville (1989). Shadow of the Cobra. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0140129373.
• Farrukh Dhondy (2008). The Bikini Murders. Harper Collins India.

In popular culture

• The made for TV movie Shadow of the Cobra (1989) is based on Sobhraj
• On the TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the character of Nicole Wallace, portrayed by Olivia d'Abo, is loosely based on Marie-Andrée Leclerc. In the episode "Slither" (which was originally to be titled "Serpentine"), Michael York appears as Bernard Fremont, Wallace's mentor and former partner-in-crime, who is clearly based on Sobhraj
• Reports are on that Madhur Bhandarkar, who made popular reality films in Bollywood is on talks to make a biopic of Charles Shobraj.