There, he continued to rob tourists, leading him to pull the same trick to escape to Iran. Jenna Coleman and Tahir Rahim in 'The Serpent.' BBC He managed to escape, however, by faking an illness, and then fled to Kabul. He took around $20,000 worth of jewels (per India Today), but was eventually captured for the crime. When this did not work, he threatened the owners with a gun and drugged them.

His first brush with the authorities came in October 1971 after he tried to burgle a jewellery story in New Delhi, India, by drilling into it from the room above. On the way, he used false documents (something The Serpent viewers see a lot of) and made his way through Europe by stealing from tourists that he met on the way. In 1970, he left France for Asia in order to avoid another arrest. His ability to charm and bribe prison guards continued-a later prison sentence saw him smuggling gems into prison so as to get special privileges. In this imprisonment, his talent for charming people into giving him special favors was in evidence, with the guards allowing him books in his cell-a privilege denied to other prisoners. In fact, he first went to prison in 1963 in Paris for burglary. The true story behind The Serpent on Netflixīorn in what was then Saigon (and is now Hoi Chi Minh City) in Vietnam, Sobhraj' criminal career began with petty crimes in France in the 1960s. Though the Netflix show mostly focuses on the murders that Sobhraj committed, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the true story. in early 2021, tells the story of Charles Sobhraj (played by Tahar Rahim), who evaded the police for decades while embarking on a global crime spree. The show, which aired on the BBC in the U.K. “He just said it had been a very scary time for him, that he thought he would die, and he was eternally grateful to the people that helped save him.”Īnother friend of his added, “ is happy to talk about anything except his time in Thailand – his wife says it still plays on his mind, and he still has nightmares sometimes when he thinks how close he came to being a victim.” However, Dominique himself spoke to the above-mentioned publication recently, stating, “This all happened a long time ago, and I have no desire to speak any more of Charles Sobhraj.The Serpent is streaming now on Netflix, and is the streamer's latest foray into true crime.

“We only found out a few years ago he was connected to the case when he gave an interview to a radio station, and someone heard it and asked if it was him, and he said yes,” one of Dominique’s friends told The Sun. He organizes competitions, is social, and has a good group of friends, but he never talks about Thailand with anybody. Since the 70s, Dominique has understandably kept a low profile, but we do know that he presently serves as the Treasurer of his local billiards club, where he’s been a regular for years.

At the end of ‘The Serpent,’ we are told that he now has grown-up children, and that’s true as well: he has two. Where is Dominique Renelleau Now?ĭominique Renelleau, still a keen traveler and sailor despite everything he went through with Charles Sobhraj in Thailand, currently resides in a seaside town in western France with his wife, Therese. Fortunately, Dominique managed to flee Thailand before it was too late. It is also true that Charles’ then-neighbors, Nadine and Remi Gires, helped Dominique escape by lending him money and reconstructing his passport while the criminal was out of the country. Then, he realized that he wasn’t suffering from dysentery but was, in fact, being poisoned by the same people he thought were treating him. While caring for the French native, Charles took his passport but gave him an apartment in return.Īfter a few weeks, Dominique began to notice that several travelers who attended the parties at Charles and Marie’s apartment disappeared after a while, never to be seen or heard from again. And the next thing he knew, he woke up two days later, feeling terrible and in Bangkok. According to his accounts, he thought of Charles to be very pleasant at first, having been introduced to him with his girlfriend, Marie-Andrée Leclerc, by his side – unlike how it is depicted on ‘The Serpent.’ The trio talked about Charles’ gem dealing business for a while before the couple invited Dominique to their place for dinner. Dominique Renelleau met Charles Sobhraj in a café in northern Thailand back in the 1970s.

Charles sobhraj dominique renelleau