Teresa Knowlton was an American woman who was the first known murder victim of French serial killer and fraudster Charles Sobhraj.
Wiki/Biography
Anne Teresa Knowlton was born on Thursday, February 18, 1954 (age 21 at the time of death) in San Pedro, California, USA. Their zodiac sign is Aquarius. At the time of her death, she was based in Seattle. In October 1975, she visited Thailand on her way to Kathmandu to study Tibetan Buddhism at Kopan Monastery and become a nun.
Family and ethnicity
Teresa was the daughter of Robert Lucian Knowlton and Loretta Mae Iorio. He had two brothers named Robert and Ronald Knowlton and a sister named Yolanda Knowlton.
the killing
Teresa attended a wild party hosted by Charles at his Bangkok apartment. On October 18, 1975, Teresa’s body was found floating in the Gulf of Thailand by a farmer. She was wearing a floral bikini. Her death was considered a case of accidental drowning until her autopsy revealed that someone held her head underwater until she drowned. Many claims have been made regarding his murder. According to a source, Sobhraj knew that Teresa would be checking into Hotel Malaysia, where he sent his partner Ajay to take her to his apartment in Bangkok. Another source claimed that while being served refreshments, she was drugged and her clothes were removed and she was made to wear a bikini. Other accounts suggest that Sobhraj, Ajay and Teresa went for drinks at a bar, where she was drugged. Sobhraj and Ajay then took her to Pattaya Beach in their car, where Ajay was asked to take Teresa for a swim and dip her. There is no specific reason as to why Sobhraj murdered him, Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg believes that Sobhraj murdered him because he refused to join his crew and become a smuggler. Shobhraj later confessed to his murder in an interview, saying,
California girl. She was drunk and Ajay brought her to the connaught house. We knew about him, you see. We knew she was involved with heroin. I killed her because she was carrying drugs.
Facts/General Knowledge
- In some sources her name is also Jenni Bolivar.
- Charles then murdered another woman, Charmaine Carrou, in the same manner as Teresa (ie, she was found drowned wearing a flowery bikini). Even though the initial investigation found no connection to the murders of Carou and Knowlton, the mainstream media and public linked the murders and dubbed their killer ‘The Bikini Killer’. Since then Charles Sobhraj became famous across the world as ‘The Bikini Killer’.
- Teresa’s murder was Sobraaj’s first known murder, and he had confessed to killing her in several interviews. Teresa appears in two biographies of Charles, namely, The Serpentine (1979) by Thomas Thompson and The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj (1980; re-released as On the Trail of the Serpent) by Richard Neville and Julie Clark.
- In 2021, BBC One and Netflix co-produced a series titled ‘The Serpent’ based on the crimes and life of Charles Sobhraj. Teresa is played in the series by Australian actress Alice Englert.
Alice Englert as Teresa Knowlton in The Serpent (2021)
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn