Charles Sobhraj was born on April 6, 1944 in Ho Chi Minh City, known as Saigon, Vietnam. He is part Vietnamese and Indian origin since his mother was born in Vietnam and his father in India. Sobhraj’s parents never married and his father later parted from him and his mother. He grew up with his mother’s boyfriend who was a French Army officer stationed in French Indochina (Charles Sobhraj Biography). When he was a child, he was living in France with his mother and step father who decided to send him to boarding school. As a kid he was mischievous, he tried escaping from France twice in order to go back to Saigon by sea but failed. At the young age of 15, Sobhraj first served time at Poissy prison in 1963 for burglary charges. Sobhraj’s charisma …show more content…
The first victim was a young woman named Teresa Knowlton. She was found drowned in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand by Sobhraj. He got one of his many nicknames, “The Bikini Killer” by the similarity of his victims wearing swimsuits during the murders, and Knowlton being one of them (Indiana, 2014). The second victim was Vitali Hakim whose burnt body was found on the road where Sobhraj and his emerging group of criminals living for a while. His next murder involved two Dutch students, Henk Bintanja, and his fiancé, Cornelia Hemker, who were invited to Thailand by Sobhraj after meeting him in Hong Kong. They fell for Sobhraj’s appeal and were poisoned by him. He then tried to keep them conscious in order to obtain beneficial information from them. After lying to them and telling them they would live if they shared information, Sobhraj and Chowdury immediately murdered them. Their bodies were found strangled and burned on December 16, 1975. Around the same time, Sobhraj was overwhelmed because he was also visited by one of his previous victim’s girlfriend, Charmayne Carrou, who had arrived to investigate her boyfriend's death. Sobhraj and Chowdury drowned Carrou because she was trying to expose and threaten Sobhraj. She was found wearing a flowered …show more content…
Sobhraj drugged them by tricking them into thinking they were anti-dysentery medicine. Three of the students were aware of what Sobhraj was doing and contacted the police. During the interrogation, Sobhraj's accomplices, Barbara and Mary Ellen quickly confessed about the crime. Sobhraj and Leclerc were charged with a count of murders and all four were sent to the Tihar prison (Anthony, 2014). They were all placed in a disreputable prison where the conditions were horrible. Barbara and Mary Ellen attempted suicide several times during the two years they served before their final trail. However, Sobhraj had it easier than the women for the reason that he had valuable gem stones hidden with him. That served him as a benefit. He bribed officers and inmates in order to live securely in jail without experiencing any problems. Sobhraj remarkably sought every opportunity to acquire money and turned his long trial into a television show. He craved attention and did not mind everyone ranting him. His moment of fame ended when he was sentenced to 12 years in prison (Anthony, 2014). His partner, Leclerc, served some time in prison for being found guilty of drugging the French students and later received paroled. She was then returned to her country Canada. She later died in April of 1984, while still remaining loyal to
In June 2014, Justin Bourque was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder after shooting three RCMP officers and wounding two others in Moncton, New Brunswick (Chronicle Herald 2014). He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seventy-five years (Chronicle Herald 2014). Bourque’s sentence is unprecedented and is the longest sentence in Canadian history (Chronicle Herald 2014). A Canadian judge has not given a harsh a punishment since the final executions in 1962 (Chronicle Herald 2014).
In June 2014, Justin Bourque was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder after shooting three RCMP officers and wounding two others in Moncton, New Brunswick (Chronicle Herald 2014). He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seventy-five years (Chronicle Herald 2014). Bourque’s sentencing is unprecedented and is the longest sentence in Canadian history (Chronicle Herald 2014). A Canadian judge has not given a harsh a punishment since the final executions in 1962 (Chronicle Herald 2014).
Dr. Andrew Wiest graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is currently a Professor of History at The University of Southern Mississippi. He is a founding director of the Center for the Study of War and Society, and has served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Warfighting Strategy in the United States Air Force Air War College. He is a widely published award winning author. In addition, he appears in and consults on historical documentaries for several publishers. He began with a desire to help students understand Vietnam better. He met a Vietnam veteran, John Young, and discovered that the story of Charlie Company was a tale that needed to be told. He researched using personal papers, collections of letters, newspaper...
Another strength of this book is Prochnau's treatment of the central characters. These journalists were often reviled and criticized for their caustic and searing articles about the Vietnamese situation. These popular opinions undermined the legitimacy of their work and the truthfulness of their reportage of the deterioration of South Vietnam. Prochnau's accounting of these individuals runs contrary to these opinions, and in effect, reaffirms the validity of these journalists' work. For example, the David Halberstram has often been portrayed as an antiwar hero, yet the author stated that Halberstram was quite the opposite. "But not once during his Vietnam years or well afterward, did he (Halberstram) question America's right, even her need to be there (Vietnam). His criticisms were of methods and foolishness, lying and self-delusion, of a failure to set a policy that could win."(pg 141) These depictions exonerate the image of this hardy "band of brothers."
In the documentary ‘Bra Boys: Blood is thicker than Water’, the harsh violent scenes of the surf gang, contrast with the beautiful Sydney beaches, showing no parallel whatsoever. The documentary leaves audiences shocked and disgusted at the brutality displayed by the gang, suggesting that Sunny Abberton did more harm than good in his documentary.
Prison Writings, by Leonard Peltier, provides us with a heart-throbbing story of a martyr fighting for the right of his fellow Native Americans. In this book, Peltier explains the events that led to his arrest, and his experience being imprisoned for a crime that he didn’t commit. He starts off with a chilling tale, reminiscing the horror of being imprisoned, and recalling the paranoia of having to always be “on the edge” and of “never [letting] your guard down.” (Peltier, 3) He then tells us, in his point of view, the circumstances that led up to his arrest, revealing his poor upbringing in the Dakotas, and his involvement with the AIM (American Indian Movement). As an American Indian leader, Peltier went to help and protect the people at the siege going on at Pine Ridge, where there has a gun battle and two agents were killed. After the siege, Peltier went to hide in Canada, where he was captured by the RMP. He was then
In this chapter, O’Brien contrasts the lost innocence of a young Vietnamese girl who dances in grief for her slaughtered family with that of scarred, traumatized soldiers, using unique rhetorical devices
Even though Little Saigon provided Vietnamese American with economic benefit, political power, this landmark also witnessed many difficulties that Vietnamese experienced. Vietnamese American experienced many traumatic events prior to migration such as war, journey on boats, therefore many of them suffered posttraumatic stress disorder, stress, and depression. Significantly, Vietnamese refugees who went to the re-education camps sustained torture, humiliation, deprivation, brainwashing and several other punishments from Vietnamese Communist. Those refugees have higher rates of having mental disorder. Language barrier is another obstacle that...
Charles Manson was a troubled youth. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 12 ,1934. (Petersen,1) His mother was an unwed 16 year old runaway named Kathleen Maddox.(Petersen,1) Charles did not have much of a home life. His mother and his uncle were both sent to jail for armed robbery when he was only five years old. (Petersen,1) During his childhood Charles got in trouble quite a few times. At the young age of nine he was sent to reform school for stealing. (Peterson,1) When he was twelve years old he was caught again for stealing and was sent to the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana. (Petersen, 1) After a short time he ran away, but to his surprise was returned to the authorities by his mother. (Petersen, 1) By the age of thirteen he was arrested for burglarizing a grocery store. (Carlson,1) This time he was sent to the Indiana School for boys in Plainfield, Indiana. It was
The story focuses on her great-grandfather, who was in disapproval of the French occupation of Vietnam, but still excelled at his job as a Mandarin under the puppet imperial court, fearing persecution of his family if he were to resign. In this section, the author also mentions more about the how the values of confusion had influenced the Vietnamese people in attempts to justify her great grandfather’s
Among the many differing cases of wrongfully convicted Canadians, the case of Guy Paul Morin is very interesting. There were many issues that caused an innocent man from Queensville, Ontario to be convicted of the murder of Christine Jessop. We’re going to look at how the police failed to conduct a thorough investigation, how the court system failed, and how cases like this can be preventing in the future.
In 1988 Robert Stone directed a documentary film titled Radio Bikini: the most terrifying and unbelievable story of the nuclear age. The film documented the United States’ nuclear weapons tests in a small chain of islands known as Bikini Atoll. This paper discusses the background of Bikini Atoll to include the native population, the preparation of the tests, the results of the tests, and what we learned from the tests. This paper will also show that the movie was not completely objective. Various references were used to show the events, circumstances and accounts for what took place in the experiments.
Mary Mullen, she was not technically killed by the strangler, but rather a fatal heart attack when confronted by him. On June 30th, 1962, Helen Blake met death at the hands of the strangler. Next was 68 year old Nina Nichols. The fifth victim was 75 year old Ida Irga.
Wrongful Convictions Culminating Activity - Steven Truscott An Overview of the Case On June 9th 1959 near Clinton, Ontario 14-year-old Steven Truscott gave his classmate 12-year-old Lynne Harper a ride on his bike from their school down to Highway 8 (Ontario Justice Education Network Timeline of Events for the Steven Truscott Case). This sole event would be the one to change his life forever. The next day Lynne’s body was discovered near Lawson’s bush (close to the area in which he dropped her off) where she had been strangled, sexually assaulted and subsequently killed. That day Constable Hobbs conducted a lengthy seven-hour interview on young Steven Truscott in which he asked him a number of gruelling questions concerning the death of 12-year-old Lynne Harper.
Hayslip, Le Ly, and Jay Wurts. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace. New York: Plume, 1990. Print.