Leonard Lake

Leonard Lake
Undated photograph
Born	Leonard Thomas Lake (1945-10-29)October 29, 1945 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	June 6, 1985(1985-06-06) (aged 39) South San Francisco, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Suicide by cyanide poisoning
Other names	Leonard J. Hill Leonard Blake Alan Drey Tom Meyers Jim Bright Ted White Steve Charles Gunnar Donald Lake Randy Jacobsen Robin Stapley Paul Cosner
Spouse	2nd wife: Claralyn Balazs (divorced)

Conviction(s)	Previously convicted of vehicle theft to one year of probation; never convicted for the murders
Details
Victims	11 confirmed, 25 suspected^[1]
Span of crimes	1983–1985
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	June 2, 1985

Leonard Thomas Lake (October 29, 1945 – June 6, 1985), also known as Leonard Hill and a variety of other aliases, was an American serial killer. During the mid-1980s, he and his accomplice, British Hong Kong-born Charles Ng, raped, tortured and murdered an estimated eleven to twenty-five victims at a remote cabin near Wilseyville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, located 150 miles east of San Francisco.^[2] After his 1985 arrest on unrelated charges, Lake swallowed cyanide pills that he had sewn into his clothing and died four days later. Human remains, videotapes, and journals found at Lake's cabin later confirmed Ng's involvement, and were used to convict Ng on eleven counts of capital murder.^[3]^[1]

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girls trip that he had a good judgment that this quarter forwarded your ego and you've been a bit more easily for everything that you know and it's just like a told the judge made and forgive me and one indeed child and say that they pick and headed for a like for a while for anything and everything that he killed eight people bertinotti evidently sydney sydney vera dismembered barrington anyway i feel that they were crushed in some manner an injury and the eleven million really this is a card change that shows any asian individual and he has a child by the legs and here is that what he's doing is using cocaine this child more custom especially true to baby and the jury had been returned a verdict there will be having that coming up later to deliver a message dated roles and would be you know you better you can't now because on angel of death comes a time for mercy is over the the returned now in nineteen eighty four charter in the hong kong which is subject and then at lake a native californian committed a series of horrific crimes that devastated the lives of everyone with a conscience at special inspections of militarism and lyrics sexual fantasy kidnapped tortured and murdered and the evidence but left behind stanzas testimony from a handy creatures lake recorded his state of mind in his chair and in charge of the murders in a series of cartoons and they'd be devoted to torture of two women they have this texans and talk to us from prison during his trial ect k let's talk about that and he said in his home made her life to contain or aren't and offer that combines the disadvantage is that these two men became a lethal cocktail and a story shows how devastating such deep into the company goes undetected fundamentally return after the nineteen eighty five he committed suicide and it is taken fifteen years to bring charting to justice lost in protest his innocence and this woman lakes ex-wife has immunity on nineteen counts of murder this is the story of the hottest created by the street and a devastating impact on the lives of so many more than a twenty five victims yesterday it something spent those fifteen years in solitary confinement and demand in anything better than most is his lawyer public defender bill cannon in speaking about charles things personality if u appeared annoyed or here in katy initially let's say you're arguing with him at severe stress assert himself what you assert himself you assert yourself typically he just withdraws and becomes very meek and uh... kind of those who shall uh... i would say he's uh... without confidence almost child michael mormon christmas eve nineteen sixty in hong kong talking with a constant disappointment to his demanding father as a child he fought hard against the family's expectations this lead to severe and repeated beatings patrick callahan a criminal psychologist animal parity in this case has spent many hours in conversation with him editing charles father uh... was seriously physically abusive uh... charles interesting to note is that while he was being physically abusive he was saying it was to make him strong him charles strong and he was also saying while he was being beaten encountered to out the window i love you i'm doing is to make you strong it's for your own good that's been fannie mae being withdrawn for other into a fantasy world of violence and martial arts he began to sacrifice collins abstinence charming become a disgrace throughout middle class family then in nineteen seventy seven he was found to a private school in england bidding could not fund with this new environment he became more violent felt compelled to keep cool and harassed his teacher with sexually explicit necklace he would then sent to san francisco to live with relatives and in october nineteen seventy nine using a fake both certificate didn't join the u_s_ marines and and opt out calendaring corporate is not an individual but he saw the organization except sunday he can go on to the cash yourself to be part of so they never really felt with his father after email also found environment encouraged his novel minus but within two years interesting fifteen weapons he escaped went on the run and sold out and ex-marine he had contacted through our right to me was the client list magazine batman with leonard lake he was to become the father figure in the things that simple and would feel inclined section couldn't hack somewhere toter there and i'm starting to st uh... script or or organization or said and feel and ac seventeen late because i'm gril owner showing signs of retarded sexual development when he met a classic novel called the collection it approved a catalyst for the dvd's and his dad could shake his adult life the collector is a chilling story of an obsessive young man isolated from the world he fixed rates on the young woman miranda in prison time and i hope she will grant to love him lake became obsessed with his tail and over the next twenty years distorted planting trees and women's six decoded plan project miranda off to the imprisonment collector and called his victims and ladies even laid out two sets of rules by which he would close his miranda to leave just to quote number three years i was never show my disrespect either verbally or silence promise never crossed my arms or ladies in front of my body or clench my fist unless eating must always keep my lips parted so you can see from that leonard not only wanted physical domination but he wanted psychological domination he wanted them to be totally open to him so that they lost their individuality lost their personal grudge and totally became everywhere but mister itself creative facility that it's a start so i think that it shouldn't have painful questions anticipated it condition n too cooperate network contract wasn't leveling construction will constitute towards women what the repeated and compounding a series of rejections faster the child when he's adored mother abandoned him then by his beloved marines when he was just javascript severe psychological problems after two tours in vietnam at the last straw was the first one divorcing him thirty-eight confided to his sister looking back on all of the event i think it certainly was a significant one in terms of his developing her reinforcement i should say we enforce memphis hatred of women today despite patrons lake was to find a woman who said he extreme sexual appetite in nineteen eighty he met critical ash and a year later they were married either it strong special hold on lake would give cricket a controlling influence over him until his death he's also rejected by women that someone like cricket for that westmont particularly beautiful or intelligent for him to be involved with someone like that i think reflect his own self-esteem problems that to me was clearly a dynamic even though he claimed to be smarter and cleverer than her if he had no power and the relationship but the relationship lake can't control was about to begin solving was on the ground lost his arm section on the marines defense leonard lake if revivalist pen pal in remembers the first time he made this man arrow and reform the got along very well on the stand a lot of time to get it d lived very cooperatively and cooperatively they had a patient care of the dog they and they look like intermingling confound the classic partner to help you realize he's projects miranda and indonesian schindler to the closure to the extreme sexual games played by lake and could here it another the a when he observes that there was an ab reduction or there was a connection between at the wedding of pain and loved that he felt in his relationship with his father and his mother and and that again blinded him more closely to lake and to correct it's life with hispanic family was abruptly started when he had laid were arrested by the f_b_i_ for weapons in went to prison motley jumps bail and began life as a fugitive and as you mentioned he's turned lake completely severed his links with society amusing are ran to the previews not prepared to give it to actively with the true the freemen partly due to one who carries sign and in his pocket when de tocqueville fears four crewmen fifteen fugitive he had told us job he been experimenting to find the right joseph finder that way killed a man an adult male and that he was to keep her from capsule with him at all times uh... afresh one-third in the event that he wherever captured that he wasn't he would rather die than be imprisoned in nineteen eighty-three lake this lady crickets to buy a house in the remote field the calaveras county three dollars from san francisco the client hamilton will be built was the perfect place is produced in london we'll sort it all tropical wall com approval and most people are brought up her first beauty and it's quiet and uh... before from us i think on it like stronger could be isolation it was the uh... ideal place for him nobody bothered him nobody recommend him nobody would ask you one question legs began his adverse effects for the perfect time lately the woman he would hold captive in his bunker haiti their headquarters initiate more long-haired just ahead bhai reasonable lake needed a new identity which meant cold-bloodedly murdering his best friend charles kinam and he needed money to build a bunker close to his house so he lost his brother danny up to move to them when he came to pick up time to take into this apartment house sitting job he shot him in the head while he was asleep input point-blank he shot him couple of project miranda lake would require a constant supply of money using the right hand inoculate donnie academy beginning then in june nineteen eighty fourteen was released from prison he hates shaking his newfound coming in with him finally landed late tromping and could you tell us your feet get it now operation around the country this week within the next year total of twenty five people would disappear from san francisco when the will of the hill area never can be seen the bronco was ready and particularly under had indeed to be done lakes chatting fantasy with finally on the way facility for today passionate lenin lake named not seen used much these days my next year for the future skilled with definite arctic ten fantasy nine major talked the bronco madera project miranda was good and the next year but see at least twenty-five violent there the murders that were perpetrated by leonard lake and charles ng are very complex they include individual murders they include families were a whole family is murdered and include the murder of children show dogs and his parents continent country the reduction from her home in san francisco when lincoln being tainted by the video camera backing will be filled render a comment on the bombs and their faces abduction from the house next door to lakes debated shown dobson lonnie bundy unionism and incontinence suggest horrifying and the children were perhaps tortured i'd teach further gaining compliance of the women vendor o'connor kathy allen and possibly deborah dot imprisonment and radiation voted independent demand were killed quite quickly because they were physical threat lay hang and again the fact that they could leave any witnesses led to the gap of many of these people but when they contain abducted cool calm clear they could not have broken down the deficit consistent with which he kissed and sharon stone ito when such control my connection with the in cases that uh... my brother park i was there was one of their victims he and put it out in the home chronicle in nineteen eighty four to sell a car a honda prelude and um... leading to lake answered that and decided my brother look enough like him two years to cite the someone told reporters the clearance to the police but was told they wouldn't look for a missing person over six years of age but they would look for a stolen car my brother is missing nobody care all awaiting donating five thousand dollars thinking cars dot and you can send somebody over right away fish are not going to cut concerns fly picking the city with pictures of pool no i didn't sleep i didn't eat i kept thinking packet income everything to do but i can't find forgot one thing that would work sharon's fights to find her brother was not completely insane by reporting his comic thing every month for seven months she kept the vehicle on the hot seat and on june second nineteen eighty five this was instrumental in the capture of the men the conduct of the program he died on that day they contain went to a hardware store in san francisco and attempts to steal advice when confronted instead to seen eating lakes to deal with the police un-checking the honda prelude lake was driving the police found a company called silencer at the police station lake discourses after his identity card the concentration triple costner and the i_d_ card to another missing person scott stately determined not to be taken alive lakes alleged suicide attack so she kept sending the abilities jacket before he couldn't himself lake then two suicide notes cricket his ex-wife dearest cricket and love you i forgive you freedom is better than arnelle's before he lost consciousness lakes gave the police king's name nurturing is very clear he believes that uh... he was given up by eleven lake in order to give time for cricket to get away and uh... for her also to uh... dispose of whatever evidence there may be opt-out wilsonville but he was not completely betrayed cricket took him downtown dc alexis clare who comes and she drove him to come from to content and will make was unconscious in hospital cricket had called and told me that when you talk to find a capsule he was on life support so about midnight that night my mother and three younger sister and i went to kaiser in they were detectives waiting for us in the waiting room at the intensive care unit who wanted to access question about money and of course at this point we had no idea anything that was about to unfold within the four days it took leonard lake county if insignificant shoplifting incident grew into a horrifying case of mass murder police if that's cool cause news conference but it holds as well as electricity bill in the name of cricket a large peddling tied to the will to build property after being questioned by the police cricket took a chance it was jennifer at the gate after my brother swallow the cyanide capsule cricket keen to my mother's house she was very nervous she was very agitated she actually asked need to go up with her to the wheels of the house what she said get some personal belongings out of the house that she did not want the police to see lakes if they refuse to go with cricket but lakes mother agreed and mother told me later that she filled several bach cardboard boxes an things including beforehand the next day policeman with cricket calculates house but there was no way they could ever have imagined the magnitude of the crimes they would uncovered big case just started just mushrooming out from there and when the inspector from san francisco found that video equipment to the dubs family i think that's when things really started parole the police found bullet holes in blood stains in the house gustaria pollsters who measure the the next to the bed with the video camera stolen from the government can then they could use to film the building acupuncture and you can teach nothing crime periods cut in here without across that worked for twenty four hours myself three uninhabitable picks and shovels and we'll go to work three or four days cricket became more nervous because we find and refused to let the police expert pablo bunker close to the house later on that day we uh... william brought the search warrant to the residence and took a look around the grounds and at that point in time uh... there was a uh... uh... patrol ship it had all the regular towards just the people who were trapped anyways from their detectives after looking at it notice that the war with for their back into the hillside and then as they drove around the more they found that there was quite a bit of the building that went back into the dirt so that they don't pay for how you get in and they started looking and they found a secret sir passageway what we're looking at is what has been described as the inner cell area of this bunker as you can see the door was hidden with uh... to forfeit three cultural he gave us a lot about a career with actually two different compartment in the first they found a copy of the collector and packed to the wall by photographs of twenty one's any clothes young women but you're a member of the product bundle including one which was in fact hiney and this is an next to the middle of the night before his undoubtedly team to the congress so i actually in the cell if you go in there close the door internalized it's very much pregnant women that one then you can daily for two nd people have been held captive here but who was in a and why would they held lake and barry evidence in front of the bunker would enable the police to unravel this mystery they discovered lakes journal detaining the last eighteen months of his life and he philosophy taint expanding his plans for project around here but most chilling we could be delayed boot immediately filmed in lake house and sharing late and ng torturing innocent women if you don't go along with us will probably take you into bed tie you down radio shoot you andheri what appears interesting is at least of the two in ways that we know that they were not his easy to control as letterhead a fuck and las i'd think they're they're just working in short at first police had no idea who these two women work or whether they were alive or dead until they found a trench that was fifty yards long and contain the driving licenses of kathy allen and brendor o'connor the two women on the and they just need amongst hundreds of other items of personal belongings the fleet also found cold continents i_d_ and evidence that friend his best friend who sometimes celebrating here that they found a articles of clothing belongs to a more victims one of them being sky quickly yes sure believes cooperative own pocket the property with literally strewn with human bone protecting until cost were and this is a plot for plot five in in this area it appears that they would bring in japan in just a moment retired police eight weeks to sift through these grisly remains in mn my from some across from a_b_c_'s literacy at least one child uh... grin brutal only one of the people who did for forty five minutes groups bloomberg constitute is minimal research worried humans salt we knew that we had been awarded number of people that have been killed disinclined to danny six identifiable body had been found in the the bones of other evidence the estimated at least another seventeen victims vista three weeks later police found more bodies untundi released into the waistband and hunted down for school and shelves they tried to escape one of them are returned franco's three both of these victims were shocked and it was right there in this area that there were tested fabric material on the ground there have been better price that's where the air the bodies of water bonds nothing further bissell was shut down his throat and it was render i'm breaking all of his teeth out and he was shocked acted just makes for a shudder to think torture of what he must have been going through why did this have to happen to these people want and uh... uh... to to mankind such tragedy in the lives of so many people are not just the family lives of the victims but other people who are affected during the investigation has been heightened he's for the victims' families that fight for justice was done beginning many have turned out to lunch too badly the police had no suspects to question and the family's pain is being mailed to public by the media and lina answer machine and drinking and i turn it on and i said uh... mysteries if they pay their fair so-and-so protection french television station in san francisco we would like to talk to you about your son robin in the murders in calaveras county our telephone number is blah blah blah blah please call us but today we have pictures picture that will probably leave namely the were watching the news one night and all of a sudden on the t_v_ there's my daughter saying in a chair in shared goals him cutting her clothes she'll is big into the baby descended on friday instead has changed out conditionally present they just kept talking they'd show their hands on t_v_ at night and i have marble sized chunks sometime and he didn't have to postpone you know and nobody's wildest imagination can we expect it to be this bad in this horrible facade discoveries it will be bill had left the police with many questions and a victims' relatives in the evening desperate for justice but late today cricket refused to give any information without immunity badlands charting advanced and international manhunt was underway then on july six nineteen eighty five ng attempted to shop lead from the hudson bay department store calgary in canada he was arrested within hours f_b_i_ agents were in calgary to bury fire that this man was charles n and to take him back to california but the canadian government refused to extradite being tuesday twenty face the death penalty it took six years of campaigning by sound silly to other victims' relatives as well as political wrangling between governments before in facing extradition hearing doesn't have any right he made a decision event the ronnie one and a half of the consequence must be a condition was granted in with on the plane back to california mckinney com afghanistan has this in a task force all the time this whole six years that he getting canada they would just got that i have to pick them up and ask them off and process what we can and and that's not what happened the next seven years so it's a procession of delays due to meet management of the case and interning jailhouse lawyer imagine even a an american citizen and he's manage two years our legal system debtor any longer than any criminal in history and the united states that was born here ke aane changed extranet likey changed his stock five teams the defense lawyers seven judges and three trials dot dates cain and went one million nineteen ninety-four english given the low end that would be spent in the trial i was appointed trolleys lawyer in november of nineteen ninety four immediately uh... i went to calaveras county just to get a sense of how large the file was and i was a of course dumbstruck six times of paper and machinery bookshelves in our county four tons of paper as we estimate amy had been charged with the murder of twelve twenty-five will develop victims katine eighty three years to prepare this huge case then i realized that we had waited fourteen years for a trial that was they extend twenty million dollars uh... putting this together uh... with unbelievable there are more rough or that the paula to come to court and ask for any relief what we're looking at no emotion for a new trial demanded everything he could to disrupt the trial he began to dozens of motions to the court including complaints of travel sickness and pat looking at a local by mysteries visa those involved here or are you were it with the listen to what the world on the what route did you go organic motivated by the time with that velasco pain management has been to juror in an effort to cause a mistrial after i found out that it was in fact housing bennett called me and have been able to reach out from his failed and can't get into my house it's scary kiki doesn't belong here i'd couldn't just needed ako anymore without home with him and i resent that weirdly clearly uh... great deal of influential the victims' relatives in joint eight months of corrected and a defense case the presented lately the manipulator anti nearly encompass yet institutional he is an actual field the one person he knew the truth was not questioned in the trial by other side okay she went down to the case but despite banning evidence could get the lines have been given immunity on nineteen counts of murder she knew what was going on i think she procuring grow i think she learned people up there for their and i think uh... series of will and pictures of him also uh... day dot the was one particular conversation where creek is actually seen looking into photographic albums grow darrow dan primary proper and a very mentioned uh... making some of the girls at the school disappear at that time cricket was eight teacher's aide at his school if he was a high school they're actually talking about making people disappear the debate really stood out i mean she you know they couldn't prove it she lied and uh... and so there wasn't so document for the prosecution could get cookie elastic cords but they could not make questioning her on the stand that they did have two pieces of evidence that was damning proof of things to role in the will to do americans development for showing the number of drawings some of which was specifically were connected to the mall victims in any trial as pieces of evidence who they weren't that good from my perspective alleged to have here minus um... two individuals and it appears that what they're doing is they are dropping this person into cease-fire we just don't want to believe that uh... these two men all work capable of taking living human beings and placing them into a fire because we know from the fourth picture that they were late because they were able to speak when they were placed in and an employer the independent in helping hand-in-hand just crushed stones from the many bernstein scattered around the property however the evidence that finally preaching skills to the jury was p_m_a_b_c_ kathy allen and then printer icon and look at the picnic in the bank account the video tape showed in court today threw me into ex-spouse that clinton cut off at nine point they were threatened with great undetected that they've been and concerns and k but bettered copy utah dot com uh... frederick ka the case that my daughter was found it was a tape of torture mental torture and him cutting her clothes off and everything are truly big effect on the terry that one tears still has nightmares status my daughter's place and brenda just wanted to know where her baby was sleep a little rock you know and laughing and uh... and making fun of it and then when they had it not stripped down to take a look at the shower she thoughtful and leonard lake is over there for little and her and pretending to be nice to her little he'll let me help you in a just made me think it still makes me sick no dot optional dot close tried traffic but there's no doubt that that that charles ng in jordan what he'd get and in his drawings the cartoon introduced heat does staying in one of them no killed both royal which would suggest left for him the enjoyment what he got out of the behavior is exhibit on m ladies the floral of control but robin hood twenty fourteen year for lasted eight months and in february nineteen ninety nine the jury gave their verdict from twelve counts of murder fish and silly to live those magic screwfix devastating kind to her long fight for justice before they everything started my mother were sitting there candid character could have entrenched the verdict well jerry federal title case find the defendant trophy kathleen locate please any take-out guilty telephony reference jer industrial holt it way they do that a brother lightning rod and we are told by the way and career and uh... program or worker in eighty five district attorney terrorized by murder rape and pillage deposit punishment is listening to what u within the habit that you've caused pain issues cause to the families and appear you are victims too the baby was beautiful and he loved his grandpa he thought he love over we got to get me there what trials and that everybody in that courtroom every family member was a victim of charles yang and would like aditi everything debut active when he came back here at the end it for you in canada and mexico but let and make k evette that's right anytime so i cannot take a look at hold each other at allegation kareem buddy and durable off the barnyard plan they sometimes strike arson our supporting he had just outside of that no one should ever have to make a child especially in such a statistic manner human beings interrogate you can get deborah hardy inside of the kathleen yellow clue we athlete grandpa just don't like what carol white bread let u again the restaurant that is the judgment that this quarter initially pushed by that it within the walls at california state president when california it although it overwhelmed red rev and something and i want and threatening franklin-templeton his execution is unlikely to happen within the next fifteen years manipulated dead and has never been punished and could people are so you can join a new life in san franciscan most of the victims' families have known remains to be hearing and friend has never been able to let you do not want to read remarkably sometime to hide from his templeton but the good things happen to us on twitter you know people are dead there's a saying that no matter how anything evil happened blend will come of it and this isn't just about as evil if anything can be enablement head and chest that anything could be the

Early life

Leonard Lake was born in San Francisco, California. When he was six years old, his parents separated, whereupon he and his siblings moved in with their maternal grandmother.^[4]^: 91 Lake was reportedly a bright child, but after habitually photographing his sisters nude, which his grandmother apparently encouraged, he became obsessed with pornography.^[5]^: 134 He then reportedly extorted his sisters to perform sexual acts.^[5]^: 159 Lake also collected mice and killed them by dissolving them in chemicals, in the same manner he would later dispose of his human victims' corpses.^[4]^: 91

After attending Balboa High School, Lake enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1964.^[6] He served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a radar electronics technician. During this period, Lake was first diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder.^[7] After what was termed a "delusional breakdown" in Da Nang, he received psychotherapy and, in 1971, a medical discharge.^[4]^: 91

Lake settled in San Jose and enrolled at San Jose State University, but dropped out after one semester upon becoming enamored of the hippie lifestyle in San Francisco. He moved to a commune there, and married briefly in 1975. The marriage dissolved after his wife discovered that he was making and appearing in amateur pornographic movies, usually involving bondage or sadomasochism.^[4]^: 92

For the next eight years, Lake lived at the Greenfield Ranch, a 5,600 acre back-to-the-land settlement near Calpella, north of Ukiah, California. There, he met and eventually married Claralyn Balazs — nicknamed "Cricket" — who became involved in Lake's fantasies and appeared in many of his pornographic films.^[4]^: 93 Lake's growing fear of impending nuclear holocaust prompted him to begin construction of a "bunker" on the settlement grounds, until the owner of the property became aware of the project and ordered it halted.^[4]^: 94

Murders

FBI mugshot of Charles Ng, April 30, 1982

Prison mugshot of Charles Ng, June 12, 2007

Lake met fellow former Marine Charles Ng, originally from Hong Kong, in 1980 or 1981. Sources claim the two met through a survivalist magazine advertisement Lake placed.^[8] Lake was managing the Philo Motel in Philo, California at the time. Ng had escaped from a military prison following a conviction for weapons theft and stayed at the motel for a time and then moved into a house along with Lake and Balazs. Several witnesses testified that Ng was very subservient and allowed Lake to order him around and speak to him in a condescending, disparaging manner. Ng stated that he looked up to Lake "like a brotherly, fatherly figure". In April 1982, police raided the house and arrested Ng and Lake on weapons charges. Ng was returned to Fort Leavenworth to complete his sentence. Lake jumped bail and began life as a fugitive, using various aliases and wearing disguises in an attempt to hide his true identity. In July 1984, Ng was dishonorably discharged after serving time for theft and desertion, and rejoined Lake and Balazs. Ng first stayed in an apartment rented by Lake's sister before moving into an apartment on Lenox Ave in San Francisco in the fall of 1984. Lake was living in Wilseyville in a cabin owned by Balazs' parents by this time. Next to the cabin, Lake had built a structure described in his journals as a "dungeon". Lake had already murdered his own brother, Donald Lake, and a friend Charles Gunnar, stealing their money and identities.^[4]^: 92^[3]

Over the next year, Lake and Ng began a pattern of rape, torture, and murder. Lake and Ng targeted women but were not hesitant to abduct entire families. After killing the men and children to get them out of the way, Lake would hold the women captive in a custom-built room in the bunker at the ranch, tie them up and torture and rape them, and eventually kill them. Lake allegedly did not allow Ng to enter the rear portion of the bunker, telling him "that is my domain". Lake also lured men to the compound with promises of work but would instead rob and murder them, after which Lake stole their identities. After killing the victims by shooting them, they would either bury them in shallow graves on or near the property, or burn them and scatter the bones. Police found over forty pounds of burned, crushed bone fragments scattered around the Wilseyville property. Charles Ng was convicted of murdering eleven people, but because of the massive amount of burned, shattered bone fragments found at the cabin, they are thought to have killed as many as twenty five people.^[9] Lake is known to have committed several murders without the assistance of Ng, and wrote in his journal that Ng was initially "very hesitant to get involved with my plan". Known victims include Lake's brother, his best friend, his neighbors, multiple people met through newspaper advertisements, tenants of a boarding house where Lake had rented a room, two men who had advertised gay sex (one of whom survived), and two workmates of Ng.^[3]

Known Victims

December 1982 - Donald Lake, 32 was the younger brother of Leonard Lake. Donald was hit by a train as a child and suffered mental problems as a result of the accident. He was described as a very nice, gentle man by acquaintances but Leonard resented him because his disability required the full attention of their mother, resulting in Leonard being raised by their grandparents. Leonard referred to him as a "leech" in conversations with his ex-wife Claralyn Balazs, and said that he did not deserve to live. In December 1982, Donald was living with his mother in San Francisco, California when Leonard stopped by on a road trip up north and asked Donald to come along to a house sitting job. Donald was never seen again, and his mother reported him missing. Leonard resurfaced on New Year's Day in 1983 to rent a room in a house on 19th street under the false name "Alan Drey". Leonard stole Donald's identity, opened up a P.O. box in his name, and began cashing his disability checks. Leonard later forged a letter to their mother claiming to be Donald and that he had moved away to live with drug dealers in Reno, Nevada. It is believed that Donald was the first person murdered by Leonard.
May 22, 1983 - Four months later, Lake moved in with his friend, Charles Gunnar, 36. Gunnar was a former postman and drama coach from Morgan Hill, California. He was best man at Lake's wedding to Balazs in 1981. They had a lot in common as they both valued survival skills and the weaponry world. On May 22, Lake invited Gunnar to go on a road trip to Las Vegas or Tahoe for rest and relaxation after his divorce. Gunnar left his daughters with a babysitter. A couple of days later, Lake returned alone in Gunnar's van and told the babysitter that Gunnar ran off with a woman. Charles Gunnar was never seen again. After the murder, Lake stole Gunnar's identity and began to cash his government checks. Lake introduced himself as 'Charles Gunnar' to most of the people he met while living in Wilseyville. Gunnar's body was not found by police during the initial 1985 investigation, but was unearthed in 1992 when a subsequent owner of the Wilseyville property was digging down to install a footing for a new garage.
April 1984 - Jeffrey D. Askren, 30 of Sunnyvale vanished in April 1984. His late model Honda automobile was found a few days later in the West Point area of Calaveras County, near Lake's home.
July 11, 1984 - Donald Giulietti, 36, a radio personality from San Francisco, California was spending time in his apartment expecting a visitor. Giulietti was an openly gay man who lived with another man named Richard Carrazza. Giulietti placed a personal ad in a low-key newspaper offering to give oral sex to straight men. That night a stranger knocked on the door and Giulietti assumed it was someone taking him up on his offer. As soon as Giulietti opened the door, a man whipped out a pistol and shot him in the head at close range. Carrazza ran from the back room into the study and found Giulietti on the floor. Carrazza was also immediately shot in the chest and left for dead. The shooter fled and Carrazza survived the attack. Carrazza called 911 and when the police questioned him, he was able to give a description of the shooter. Carrazza described being shot by a small Chinese man wearing prescription glasses. Carrazza, the only known survivor victim of Lake or Ng, would go on to identify Ng as the shooter.
July 25, 1984 - Harvey Dubs, 29; Deborah Dubs, 33; Sean Dubs, 1, lived in San Francisco, California in 1984. Harvey was selling video equipment in July of that year and placed an advertisement in a local newspaper. Deborah was speaking on the telephone to a friend on July 25 when the doorbell rang at their family's apartment. Deborah told her friend that she had to end the conversation, as two men who were interested in the items had arrived at their home. Deborah, Harvey, and Sean have never been heard from again. A neighbor across the alley saw an Asian man leave their residence struggling to carry a large duffel bag later in the day. The same neighbor observed an unidentified vehicle drive away from the Dubs's apartment on July 26, the day after the family disappeared, with the Asian man in the passenger seat and a bearded man driving. Another neighbor who lived in the apartment below the Dubs' heard footsteps a few days after the family had been reported missing, and saw an Asian man exiting the Dubs' front door with a large duffel bag and a suitcase. She walked outside and called out to the man, but he ignored her and briskly walked away down the street. Once he reached the end of the street, a vehicle quickly pulled around the corner and the man got in the passenger seat. The car quickly sped off. Later that evening, the same neighbor was returning home and believed she could see the same man in the Dubs' apartment through the living room window and once again heard footsteps upon going inside. A man identifying himself as 'James Bright' called Harvey's employer in late July and claimed that Harvey had to go to Washington for a family emergency. The unidentified man terminated the conversation when Harvey's coworker became suspicious. Years later, the coworker described being played a tape by investigators and stated that the voice on the tape was "quite similar" to the voice she heard over the telephone. The voice on the tape was Leonard Lake. A receipt in Harvey Dubs' name, and videotape equipment from the Dubs' San Francisco home were found at Lake's cabin.
August 1984 - Maurice Rock, of San Francisco, disappeared from a Carl Street rooming house known as the "Pink Palace". Lake had rented a room at the Pink Palace under the pseudonym "Alan Dray". Some time after Rock disappeared, the woman renting the room next to Rock saw a man removing a refrigerator from his room. The man introduced himself as 'Steve' and offered to photograph her. She agreed, but felt unsettled and changed her mind once 'Steve' came to her room with his camera equipment. She later identified the man as Lake. Rock's remains were recovered from the Wilseyville property.
August 1984 - Sheryl Okoro, of San Francisco disappeared from the Pink Palace rooming house. Photographs, an 11-page letter written by Okoro, and remains were recovered from the Wilseyville property.
October 15, 1984 - Randy Jacobson, 36 of San Francisco, disappeared from the rooming house after becoming involved in a business deal with Lake. His identity was subsequently stolen by Lake. Lake also tried to steal Jacobson's van after the murder, but was unsuccessful as the van was towed away before Lake was able to move it. Jacobson's remains were buried under the chicken coop on the Wilseyville property.
November 2, 1984 - Paul Cosner, 40, was last seen in San Francisco, California on November 2. He was employed as a used car dealer at the time of his disappearance. His brown 1980 Honda Prelude disappeared with him. Cosner had advertised the vehicle for sale in a local newspaper and told his fiancée that he had found a potential buyer, whom he described as "weird." He said he was leaving his apartment at 7:30 p.m. to meet the buyer and would return at 8:00 p.m. to watch a television program with her. He was never heard from again. Strange messages from an unidentified caller were left on his answering machine after his disappearance. Lake was arrested with Cosner's car on June 2, 1985. There were two bullet holes in the car, one in the front passenger door and another in the roof above the front passenger sun visor. Personal effects including Cosner's driver's license, glasses, and other paperwork were found buried in a bucket on the Wilseyville property. Cosner's remains have never been found.
January 20, 1985 - Clifford Peranteau, 23, was a coworker of Charles Ng at Dennis Moving Company in San Francisco, California in 1985. Peranteau was last seen in San Francisco on January 20. He has never been heard from again. In April 1985, Lake sold Peranteau's motorcycle to a man in West Point, California. Several of Peranteau's personal belongings including an engraved pen/pencil set were discovered in an apartment owned by Ng.
February 24, 1985 - Jeffrey Gerald, 25, worked as a mover at Dennis Moving Company with Ng and spent evenings playing drums for the band Crash And Burn. On February 24, he vanished after saying he was going to help Ng move for a side job. The following day, February 25, 1985, the owner of a church youth campground in Wilseyville confronted Lake's neighbor Lonnie Bond and a friend for firing guns through the trees while camp was in session nearby. After Bond and his friend explained to the man that they only shoot into the dirt, the camp owner walked next door to the house of a man he knew as 'Charles Gunnar' and knocked on the door. After several minutes of knocking, Lake answered the door with a sheet wrapped around his arm and otherwise appeared to be naked. The sheet appeared to have a significant amount of blood. When questioned, Lake said he had severely cut himself on a circular saw. A doctor in Jackson, California later testified that he treated Lake on February 25, 1985, for a fresh gunshot wound to his fingers. A magazine advertisement was later posted by 'Charles Gunnar' for the sale of Jeff Gerald's car.
April 12–15, 1985 - Michael Carroll, 23, had served time with Ng in Fort Leavenworth and they remained acquainted afterward. He and his girlfriend Kathleen Allen, 18, were spending time in a Milpitas, California motel room where they were temporarily staying. At 10 p.m. one night, Carroll told Allen that he had to do something and would be back in the morning. Carroll never returned. A few days later, on April 14, Allen received a phone call at the Milpitas Safeway where she worked. The caller told her that her boyfriend Michael was at Lake Tahoe and may have been shot. She immediately told her boss that she had to leave and go to Lake Tahoe to be with Carroll. She was last seen getting into a brown/gold car with a bearded man in the parking lot of the Safeway. The following day, Allen called her boss at the Safeway and requested 4 weeks off to be with Carroll in Lake Tahoe. A later search of telephone records revealed that each of these calls to the Safeway were made by someone at Lake's Wilseyville property. Allen appeared in a videotape found at Lake's home and her last paycheck was sent to a town near his cabin, according to San Jose police. Carroll was also mentioned in the videotape and his driver's license was found at the cabin.
April 19, 1985 - Lonnie Bond Sr., 27, his live-in girlfriend Brenda O'Connor, 19, their son, Lonnie Bond Jr., 1, and a family friend Robin Scott Stapley, 26, who went by his middle name. The Bond family moved into the house next door to Lake in January 1985. Lonnie Sr. and O'Connor disliked their neighbor, whom they knew as 'Charles Gunnar', who they claimed was "extremely obnoxious, rude, and demented". Lake disliked the Bonds because they constantly fired weapons on their property and regularly left the main gate to their shared driveway unlocked. O'Connor felt uncomfortable with Lake because he repeatedly asked her to pose naked for him. On April 18, 1985, Bond and a group of friends returned to a friend's house from a Yuma, Arizona motorcycle rally. Bond armed himself with a .22 pistol and left for Wilseyville, telling a friend that he was going to confront Lake over his sexual advances toward O'Connor. Likewise, Stapley had picked up a newly purchased .22 Ruger on April 16 and joined Bond in Wilseyville. None of them were ever seen again. Calaveras County Sheriff Claude Ballard said investigators believe O'Connor appeared in a videotape in which Ng cuts her clothes off with a butterfly knife as Lake tells her that her "baby is going to be taken away" and was "sound asleep, like a rock". When Lake was arrested on June 2, Lonnie Bond's license plate was affixed to the car he was driving - the Honda Prelude stolen from Paul Cosner. Police said that Lake was in possession of Stapley's gun and driver's license, and initially identified himself as Stapley when he was arrested. The bodies of Lonnie Sr. and Stapley were found buried in Wilseyville in a shallow grave about a mile from Lake's property. O'Connor and Lonnie Jr. have never been found.

Arrest and suicide

On June 2, 1985, Ng was caught shoplifting a vise from a hardware store in South San Francisco and fled the scene on foot, throwing the vise into the trunk of a brown Honda. Lake attempted to pay for the vise, but by then police had arrived.^[4]^: 93 Officers noticed that Lake bore no resemblance to the photo on his driver's license, which carried the name of Robin Scott Stapley, a San Diego man reported missing by his family several weeks earlier. Lake was arrested after a gun equipped with a prohibited silencer was found in the trunk of his vehicle, a 1980 Honda Prelude, and was later positively identified via a fingerprint search. At the station, Lake was placed in an interrogation room where he was given a pen, paper, and a glass of water. A short time later, a detective entered the room to conduct an interview and found Lake violently convulsing on the floor. The notepad contained a brief suicide note. At the hospital, it was determined that he swallowed cyanide pills that he had sewn into his clothes. Lake never regained consciousness and died four days later on June 6.^[4]^: 93

The license plate on Lake's vehicle was registered to Lonnie Bond, but the VIN on the Honda itself was registered to Paul Cosner, who had disappeared from San Francisco in November 1984. A utility bill found in the Honda led detectives under the command of San Francisco Police Homicide Lieutenant Gerald McCarthy to the property in Wilseyville, where they found Stapley's and Bond's trucks, and the dungeon. In a makeshift burial site nearby, police unearthed over forty pounds of burned and crushed human bone fragments corresponding to a minimum of eleven bodies.^[4]^: 94 A phone line trench 100 feet long and 10 feet deep was found to be filled with trash, personal effects of victims, and two intact skeletons. Another intact body was found buried under a chicken coop. Two bodies found about a mile from the cabin were later identified as Bond and Stapley. They had been gagged and executed by gunshots to the head.

Prodding the ground near the cabin, police noticed loose dirt, leading them to two buried five-gallon buckets. One contained an assortment of ID papers and personal possessions, suggesting that the total victim count could be as high as twenty-five. In the other were Lake's handwritten journals for the years 1983 and 1984, and two videotapes . One videotape contained a 20 minute long manifesto recorded on October 23, 1983, in which Lake discusses his plan to build a "cell" and enslave women. The other tape, labeled 'M Ladies', documented the torture of Kathleen Allen and Brenda O'Connor. In one scene, Lake is heard telling O'Connor that her family is not liked by the neighborhood to which O'Connor replies "So we'll leave" and Lake coldly answers "Oh, you've already left. We've closed you down". Ng later tells O'Connor "You can cry and sob like the rest of them, but it won't do any good. We are pretty... cold-hearted, so to speak." In another scene, Allen is seen tied to a bed as Lake tells her "I'm having a little war within myself, between what I want to do and what we might call the decent thing to do. And for the moment the decent thing to do is winning. So rest". Both Allen and O'Connor were subsequently murdered.

Lake's ex-wife, Claralyn Balazs, cooperated with investigators and received legal immunity from prosecution.^[10] Court records stated that Balazs turned over weapons and other material to authorities during the investigation. She was called as a key witness in Ng's trial in 1999. Yet in a surprise move, Ng's lawyer, William Kelley, dismissed Balazs without asking any questions. Kelley later declined to explain his actions. Balazs was on the witness stand for a few minutes as Kelley read sections of her immunity agreement. Balazs had been expected to shed light on what happened inside the mountain cabin that her parents owned and rented to her and Lake.^[10] It was later revealed that Balazs had removed boxes of papers and videotapes from the Wilseyville cabin in the time between Lake's arrest and the initial police search. Many videotapes referenced in Lake's journal were never recovered by investigators.

Ng, who had never legally obtained U.S. citizenship, was captured in a department store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on July 6, 1985. A store security guard suspected Ng of shoplifting and in the ensuing confrontation, Ng shot the security guard. Though wounded, the security guard was able to disarm and detain Ng until the police arrived. Ng served four and a half years in a Canadian prison, and tried to fight extradition to the United States on the grounds that he would be subject to capital punishment. In 1991, he was extradited to California, where he was indicted on twelve counts of first-degree murder. Despite the video evidence, and the detailed information in Lake's diaries, Ng maintained that he was merely an observer and that Lake planned and committed all of the kidnaps, rapes, and murders unassisted.^[3]^[11]

In February 1999, Ng was convicted of eleven of the twelve homicides — six men, three women, and two male infants. Jurors deadlocked on the twelfth charge, the murder of Paul Cosner, but Ng was sentenced to death. The presiding judge noted, "Mr. Ng was not under any duress, nor does the evidence support that he was under the domination of Leonard Lake."^[3] As of January 2022^[update], Ng was still incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.^[12] The last execution in California was in 2006. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order placing a moratorium on the death penalty in California.^[13]

References

^ ^a ^b Welborn, Larry (2011-02-25). "O.C. death row: 11 murders, maybe more". The Register. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
^ "Biography of Charles Ng". A&E Television Networks. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e World: "America's serial killer sentenced to die", BBC News, 30 June 1999, access date 15 August 2013
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Greig, Charlotte (2005). Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0760775664.
^ ^a ^b Newton, Michael (1999). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. New York, New York: Checkmark Books. ISBN 0-8160-3978-X.
^ Howard, John (16 June 1985). "Suspected mass killer leaves trail of mystery". Lawrence Journal-Record. Associated Press. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
^ Lasseter, Don (2000). Die For Me: The Terrifying True Story of the Charles Ng & Leonard Lake Torture Murders. Pinnacle Books. ISBN 978-0-7860-1926-7.
^ The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers; ISBN 978-0-816-03978-4, pg. 153
^ Whittington-Egan, Richard; Whittington-Egan, Molly (1992). The Murder Almanac. Castle Douglas, Scotland: Neil Wilson Publishing. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-897-78404-4.
^ ^a ^b Yi, Daniel (January 8, 1999). "Defense Seeks to Put Ng on Witness Stand". Los Angeles Times.
^ "As Jury Meets to Decide His Fate, Ng Expects Death – latimes". articles.latimes.com. 1999-04-12. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
^ CDCR Division of Adult Operations (2018-08-06). "Death Row Tracking System – Condemned Inmate List". California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
^ CDCR (2018-08-12). "CDCR Inmate Locator". California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Retrieved 2018-08-12.^{[permanent dead link]}

External links

Leonard Lake at IMDb

This page was last edited on 22 May 2024, at 12:07

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