For two years, Charles Ng and Leonard Lake enslaved and brutalized upwards of 11 people — until Ng tried to steal a torture device.
“ you’re able to hollo and stuff and nonsense , like the rest of them , but it wo n’t do any commodity . We are pretty … stale - hearted , so to talk . ”
This is what Charles Ng muttered to his victim , 19 - year - old mother Brenda O’Connor , as she was pleading for her animation in his homemade sniff TV . Somewhere offscreen was her baby — in endangerment .
For almost two year between 1983 and 1985 , Ng act as an accomplice toLeonard Lake , luring and brutalizing victims from their remote cabin in the Sierra Nevadas .
MurderpediaNg was not interested in following in the footsteps of his hardworking parents.
Before the cinematography was through , O’Connor , her husband , and her child would all be killed .
Charles Ng Was Destructive From The Beginning
MurderpediaNg was not concerned in be in the footsteps of his hardworking parents .
Charles Ng Chi - Tat was carry in 1960 to hardworking parent , Kenneth Ng and Oi Ping , in Hong Kong . He was a rebellious minor who consistently performed ill in his class , which enraged his father . Ng ’s father wouldlater admitto beating him on a regular basis .
Ng want to pursue martial arts professionally , and this did not go over well with his father , who unrelentingly pushed him to surpass at school .
Bettman/Getty ImagesLeonard Lake briefly led a semi-normal life before he and Charles Ng met.
From there , Ng get to spiral out of dominance . He was expelled from several schools , the first prison term for take up a blast in a classroom , and the second from a boarding school in England ( where his parents had commit him in promise of straightening out his behaviour ) for slip from classmate and shrinkage .
At 18 , Ng obtained a student visa and moved to Belmont , California , to attend the College of Notre Dame but he lasted just one semester before drop out .
Their Crimes Escalate
Bettman / Getty ImagesLeonard Lake briefly lead a semi - normal aliveness before he and Charles Ng fulfill .
Ngenlistedin the U.S. Marines . But this decision was not fated to last either . At the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station in Hawaii , Ng participated in a raid of a weapons depot . He was caught but managed to take flight to Northern California , where he lived with Leonard Lake in a roving home in Ukiah .
In 1982 , law enforcement raid the property , seized a tumid assembling of illegal weapons and explosives , and motor inn - martialed Ng . Lake was eject on bail and fled .
Wikimedia CommonsCharles Ng’s mugshot after being court-martialed in 1982.
Ng was incarcerate at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , where he served 18 months . When he was released , his reunion with Lake would try a black one .
The two valet moved into a remote cabin that Lake was renting near the Sierra Nevada foothills . Lake , a survivalist believing the earth was manoeuvre for a atomic final solution , built a structure beside the cabin . He nickname it his “ torture dungeon . ”
The Horrors Begin
Before Charles Ng had even move in , Lake had broken in that dungeon when he tortured and killed his own brother , Donald , and his friend Charles Gunnar .
But now with Ng as an accomplice , Lake couldembarkon a gruesome killing fling that lasted close to two years .
The exact number of their victims is not known but is think to be as high as 25 — including babies . Indeed , Ng and Lake did not separate when it arrive to choosing their victims ; they take anyone they could get their hand on .
An aerial view of serial killer Leonard Lake’s compound, where he lured women in and murdered them on camera in his basement.
Wikimedia CommonsCharles Ng ’s mugshot after being court - martialed in 1982 .
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng did , however , derive more pleasure from female victims . Male and babe victim were killed chop-chop so that Ng and Lake could excruciate and dishonor the women . The dread ordeals were often filmed by Lake .
“ He [ Ng ] get laid it ; the torture , the pure panic . He wanted to see terror . He wanted to see them beg , to plead , ” an unnamed prisoner toldInside Editionseveral years after Ng was caught .
Getty ImagesCharles Ng at the Orange County Superior Court after being found guilty of 11 murders.
“ He can defeat and not even think about it . He could defeat you right now … and he has absolutely no conscience … He could kill and go watch a moving-picture show or have breakfast 10 minute by and by . ”
The former cellmate added that Ng said he used pliers to pull off his dupe ’s mammilla , pushed a machine attached to a king practice session up their vagina , thrust rods up their anuses , and broke their knuckles with vise bobby pin .
The men also hog - tie various women , force them into unwritten sex and orgies , or put in leg - irons .
Their confirmed victims let in , but were not limit to , their neighbor , Lonnie Bond , his lady friend Brenda O’Connor , and their babe son , Lonnie Jr.
Harvey Dubs , his wife Deborah , and their babe boy Sean were also amongst the murdered . When friends or congenator stumbled across the cabin looking for their missing congeneric , Lake and Ng would lure them into the dungeon and mercilessly torment and kill them too .
A Lifelong Weakness Brings Charles Ng Down
An aeriform horizon of successive killer Leonard Lake ’s chemical compound , where he lured woman in and murdered them on photographic camera in his basement .
Since puerility , Charless Ng was addicted to shoplifting . If it had n’t been for his kleptomania , who bang how much farsighted Ng and Lake ’s murder spree could have gone on for ?
On June 2 , 1985 , Ng was catch steal a bench vise from a hardware storage in San Francisco and directly flee .
Lake arrived at the store and tried to give for the vise , but ended up face to grimace with constabulary officers who asked to see his ID . As it turn out , the ID belong to a valet de chambre identify Scott Stapely , who had been miss for weeks .
Officers looked through Lake ’s auto and get an illegal muffler . He was arrested and bring to the constabulary station . Once alone , Lake bury several cyanide pills he had been hiding . He died just days before the dead body of his and Ng ’s dupe were found .
The Gruesome Discovery In Wilseyville
Collectively , all the items they found belonged to 25 unlike multitude .
The most worrying find , though , was undoubtedly the 40 pounds of charred human bone on the property that belonged to at least 11 different bodies .
Getty ImagesCharles Ng at the Orange County Superior Court after being discover guilty of 11 murders .
Another bucket contained journals written by Lake which detailed the horror he and Ng had inflict on their victim . With the journals were several homemade tapes featuring Ng torturing Brenda O’Connor and Deborah Dubs .
Justice For Charles Ng?
Charles Ng take flight to Canada after the shoplifting incident in San Francisco . He remained undetected until he was watch stealing a can of salmon from a store and shoot the security guard who caught him .
The security guard even so managed to get Ng and only suffered nonaged injuries .
Ng was charged in Canada on three count : violation , shoplifting and ownership of a concealed piece . He was imprisoned in Canada and finally extradited back to California in 1991 .
Ng was indicted on 12 counts of first - level murder . What would follow was an extremely foresighted and drawn - out sound battle , in which Ng fire attorney after lawyer accusing them of incompetence . At the time , this was consider the most expensive run in the body politic ’s history .
in conclusion , his trial officially began in October 1998 . His lawyer set about to convince the panel that it was Leonard Lake , not Charles Ng , who was to blame for the flagitious murders .
Citing the ill-treatment he endured at the helping hand of his father , Ng said of Lake : “ Part of me saw him as the father or openhanded brother I always wanted . ”
Ng maintained his artlessness throughout the trial , pushing a narrative that he was act but on the direction of Lake because he require to make him majestic .
“ When Lake die I took his place as the sacrificial lamb , ” he afterwards aver in an interview .
The panel , though , was not convinced . For them , the video of Ng torture victim and Lake ’s journal were enough evidence that he was just as blameable .
On Feb. 11 , 1999 , the jury find Ng shamed of 11 murder . He was doom to expiry by lethal injection . However , there have been no performance performed in the state of California since 2006 .
As such , Charles Ng continue on to this day death row at San Quentin State Prison , where he will likely die of old geezerhood .
Next , read about another serial killer like Charles Ng who was get down by his own negligence : theBTK killer . Then , read up on how33 of the most infamous successive killers in history contact their close .
