Theresa Norton was an American woman who was the first victim of the murders of French serial killer and fraudster Charles Sobhraj.
Wiki/Biography
Anne Theresa Knowlton was born on Thursday, February 18, 1954 (age 21 at the time of her death) in San Pedro, California, USA. Her star sign was Aquarius. At the time of her death, she lived in Seattle. In October 1975, she visited Thailand on her way to Kathmandu to study Tibetan Buddhism at the Kopan Monastery and become a nun.
Family and Race
Theresa is the daughter of Robert Lucien Knowlton and Loretta Mae Iorio. She has two brothers, Robert Knowlton and Ronald Knowlton, and a sister, Yolanda Knowlton.
murder
Theresa attended a wild party hosted by Charles at his Bangkok apartment. On October 18, 1975, a farmer found Theresa’s body in the Gulf of Thailand. She was wearing a floral bikini. Her death was thought to be an accidental drowning until an autopsy showed that someone had held her head under water until she drowned. There are many accounts of her murder. According to one source, Sobhraj knew Theresa would be staying at the Malaysia Hotel, so he sent his accomplice, Ajay, to lure her to his Bangkok apartment. Another source claimed that while enjoying refreshments, she was drugged, stripped naked, and put on a bikini. Other accounts suggest that Sobhraj, Ajay, and Theresa drank at a bar, where she was drugged. Sobhraj and Ajay then drove her to Pattaya Beach, where Ajay was asked to take Theresa swimming and drown her. The exact reasons why Sobhraj murdered her are unknown, and Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberger believes that Sobhraj killed her after she refused to join his entourage and become a smuggler. Sobhraj later confessed to her murder in an interview, saying,
That girl from California. She was drunk and Ajay brought her to Kanit House. You know, we knew her. We knew she was involved with heroin. I killed her because she was selling drugs.”
Facts/Trivia
- In some sources, she is also known as Jennie Bollivar.
- Charles then murdered another woman, Charmayne Carrou, in a similar manner to Therese (being found drowned in a floral bikini). Although initial investigations found no connection between the murders of Carrou and Knowlton, the mainstream media and the public linked the two murders together and dubbed the killer the “Bikini Killer.” Charles Sobhraj became known around the world as the “Bikini Killer.”
- Theresa’s murder was the first known murder of Sobhraj, and Sobhraj confessed to killing her in several interviews. Theresa appears in two biographies of Charles, Serpentine (1979) by Thomas Thompson and The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj (1980; re-issued as The Snake’s Trail) by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke.
- In 2021, BBC One and Netflix co-produced a series called Snakes, which is based on the crimes and life of Charles Sobhraj. In the series, the character of Theresa is played by Australian actress Alice Englert.
Alice Englert as Theresa Knowlton in Snakes (2021)
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education