Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
In the summer of 1984 san fransisco is gripped by fear.Neigbhors ,family and friends are vanishing without a trace.police are perplexed.The investigation takes a deadly turn.when a killing field is uncovered,high in the california mountains.
As the mountains count climbs ,the evidence to an elusive killer.
To bring this murderer to juctice, a small town procescutor must take a long dark journey into a mind of a serial killer.
On the morning of October 26.1998 the longest and most expensive Criminal trial in California history got underway.
With an investigation spanning 13 years and a case file weighing over two tons,the burden of prosecuting one of californias most notorious killers will fall on on peter smith, the district attorney of calavares.
Peter Smith
On june 2nd 1985 ,a south San Fransisco dispatch operator received a call , a theft was in progress.south city lumber.
Officer daniel wright of the south san fransisco police departement responded to the call .A vittness todl Wright he had seen an asian male stealing a 75 table vice. He said the thief when confronted tossed the vice into the trunk of as brown honda and fled on foot.
Inside the Honda Wright spotted a suspecious looking case,he open the case and found a 22 ruger ,with a cylinder shape object that was probebly six to nine inches long. and through his training he observed to be a silencer.
The gun was illegally modified as wright took a closer look as wright took a closer look an agitated man burst from from the store.He told the officer he paid for the vice his friend had taken.
supervisor sergeant paul ziemer arrived on the scene.The gun iin the Honda made both suspicious,the car was impounded.
at that time the police told him that he was going to be going down the station.to give a statement about the weapon.He was handcuff and place into officers Ziemers vehicle and brought to the station.
The officer used his radio to request a background check. they got a hit.
Ng was a former marine.born in Hong Kong.H´ed been convicted in military court for stealing automatic weapons from a military base in hawaii.He had ones ascaped from a military prison.
At the south san fransisco police polis station ,the subject, was place in a secure holding room.
He told the officer his name was leonard lake.He said he was fugitive from jucstice and offered to make a statement.But first he wanted a piece of paper.a pencil and a glas of water.
Zimer called in The on -call dectetive that sunday and when they returned lake was on the floor convulsing widly.
Dectetives Hooper called the paramedics.
“he was flopping around on the floor.it was wery violent , like a fish flapping out of water.uncontrollable, we had no idea what was happening. at the time wheter it was like an epiletic seizure or just what was going on “Hopper said
detective Hooper called Peremedics. Once the paramedics got up to the emergency hospital. hooper and ziemer found out a little later that there was no activity at all in his brain that he was braindead.an autopsy later revealed that lake had ingested capsules containing cyanid.
the doctors and lab technicians said that it took about 20 to 25 minutes for the gel cap to dissolve before the cyanide actually hit a system and that would probably concicide fairywell the amount of time between he was at the lumber yards and brought to the police station.
Rather than writen a statement. blake had written a note to a women named Lynn.
” Dear Lin, i love you i forgive you ,freedom is better than all else.i´m sorry, mom , patty and all , i´m sorry for all the trouble.love leonard.”
Leonard lake
Police were perplexed.why had the suspect taken his own life? wthatever secrets leonard held he took to the grave.
Charles Ng
The answer might lie with lake´s companion. charles Ng. Police issuesd a warrant for Ngs arrest for shoplifting.
Than they processed the car ,lake have been driving.when they ran the serial number on the Honda´s engine block , investigators that the car to Paul Cosner.
Paul Cosner
Irene Brown.
kosner´s sister had reported him missing mounth earlier.the sister was quite distraught.her brother had disappeared ,he had a date that evening with his girlfriend for dinner hwo also lived in the same apartment building where he lived. he failed to show up for that dinner date and speaking to the girlfriend paul was going to show a car that he was selling through an advertisement in the paper.says brown
Kosner was only one of many strange cases involving missing persons in the Bay area. detective brown was also investigating the disappearance of an entire family.
San Fransisco
On july 25th 1984 San fransisco police responded to a frentic call for help . harvey Dubs,his wife and their 16 month old son sean hadn´t been seen for severel days.Police had to climb through a window to gain access to the Dubs apartement.
The Dubs family had indeed disapeared and the signs of struglle were apparent.days earlier Harvey dubs had placed an ad in the news paper to ren out his video equipment. that equipment was now missing.
Missing person cases usually fit a certain profile. They often involve teenage runaways or people who disappear without telling anyone. only to return a few days later.
In the case of the Dubs ,it was clear the family hadn´t left voluntarily. Detective brown feared they would never return.
In the house there were things that was unusual and out of order the babys room was out of order .deborah´s medication was left at home and it was something she had to take every day.lot of things that were just didn´t look rigtht ,they left their cats locked in the house unattended and they wouldn´t have done that.
It is unusual for people like paul kosner or the Dubs family to simply vanish vithout a trace.without leads boths cases had gone cold.
only similarity was a newspaper ad.
Based on the discovery of paul kosner´s honda. brown and her partner reopened his case and searched the veichle for clues.
they found a driver´s license beloning to to a man named scott stapley.They found a stun gun and several unspent bullets on the floor of the car
a recent electric bill adressed unknown women named clerilyn balaz was found under the passager seat.
and in the rof of the car investigators found a singel bullet hole .
The trajectory of the bullet indicated the shot was fired from the back seat.
Investigators sprayed luminol all around the interior of the vehicle. Luminol reacts with with proteins in blood making even traces of blood fluoresce.High velocity blood a spatter associated with a gunshot wound appeared on the roof next to the front passanger seat.
Brown and her partner now suspected.they would never find Cosner alive.
With leonard lake dead and his partner charles Ng at large. Investigators could only wounder how many more victims they might find at the end of this trail of blood.
Leonard lake´s mysterious suicide had now launched a full-scale police investigation
detectives drow to the home of leonard lake´s mother who lived about an hour outside of san fransisco. at the house they were suprised to find clerilyn balaz the women whose name apparead on the electric bill found in cosner´s car.
clerilyn balaz was lakes ex -wife.they had been married for three years but divorced a year earlier.
clerilyn balaz ,leonard lake
Detectives suspected she might be the women lake addressed in his suicide note. they asked balaz how an electric bill in her name wound up in paul cosner´s car. balaz expleained the adress on te bill was for a cabin her family owned in Calaveras county in northen california.
allthoug detectives were eager to search the cabin balaz claimed she was too busy to take them there until the next day.
the detectives postponed their search until the following morning.
detectives called the calaveras sheriffs departement and told them that they were going to be coming the following morning and why they were going and if it was possible for them to have somebody keep an eye on the property.
Calaveras county covers over 1100 square miles of wild terrain.A force of 3 officers protected the entire county in 1985. there hadn´t been need for more.
The sheriff sent two deputies to watch the cabin. witch was located ouside the town of wilseyville.
A metal gate prevented them from driving onto the property.
Because of their manpower shortage they couldn´t have somebody sit there for the next 24 hours but they would make passing calls ,witch was reasonable.
Ther following morning. detectives arranged to meet balaz outside the wilseyville post office. they were suprised when she with lakes mother.
at that point balaza admitted thay they had driven up the night before. and the pretex was that leonard was very untidy and they wanted to tidy up the cabin .Concerned that balaz and lakes mother might have compromised evidence at the cabin the detectives and calaveras county sheriffs followed them to the property.
The detectives asked balaz about a cinderblock bunker.near the cabin. She said she didn´t have the key sand would not give them permissionto search. Lackong suifficient probable cause for a warrant ,detectives would have to limit their search to the cabin alone.
But at this point detectives were still more interested in getting into the house.so they didn´t want to antagonize her.because this was a consent search other that they have had to stop and go get a search warrant at that point. while one of the detectives question balaz, detective brown searched the house. brown notis something odd about the bed. there were holes drilled into the bedpost and the floor.
it seemed designed to tie someone up.
A grim dungeon was built to avoid nuclear disaster, but housed a number of atrocities instead
( Image: San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
detective brown was standing in front of a bookcase and happened to turn around and all of a sudden the detective brown recognize a piece of equipment and it dawns on her where she had seen it it was at the Dubs.
The video equipment detective recalled had been stolen from the home of harvey dubs. the san fransisco man who vanished with his family 11months earlier.
detective brown called the office ” would you mind checking our inventory and read me the serial number.” he proceed to start reading the serieal number and i gave himthe last three numbers from the piece of paper that i had in my hand and so in that point we realized that now this is een getting bigger, it´s not just mr cosner.now we have the Dubs”
In that point balazgot very nervous and said ” you´ve been her long enough.i want you to leave “
To learn what other secrets the isolated cabin held detective brown would need to obtain a search warrant.Investigators left the property but this time they made certain the cabine would be secure until they returned.
As investigators conducted a ssearch of leonard lake´s cabin in Calaveras county, they had discovered video equipment.that belonged to a family who had been missing for nearly a year. This gave them sufficient priobable cause to petition the judge for a warrant.
Ron Mc Faul
Ron mcfaul led the investigation for the calaveras county sheriff´s office.
“we did get one that day and later that afternoon we went back to the residence to conduct a search of the residents and the property.and what look looked like a tool shed at first.”
The tool shed was a cinder block structure that bordered the driveway.
balaz referred to it as a fallout shelter.Leonard lake hade been a survivalist and this was his fortress.against nuclear holocaust.as the heavy door swung open, investigators could only wounder what they might find inside
” and we went into the tool shed and we saw 21 photos of young ladies.18 to 23 years old.and so we were at that point really conserned abouthow are this females who are ,how are this ladies ” ron said.
Many of the photos were of young girls in various stages of undress, some were nude.it was unclear who the subjects were ot where they hade been photographed.everyone feared the pictures might be trophies such as those serial killers often keep of their victims. they also find a journal Written by leonard lake.In it he wrote of the collector,a novel about a butterfly collector who caputers his ultimate prize a young girl named miranda.
In his journal , lake writes” the collector ,has it really been near 20 i´ve carried this fantasy and miranda how fitting my lovely little prisoner of the future.”
In other entries lake referred to a series of operations under the heading of the miranda project.The investigators coiuld only speculate asto what this meant ,but it seemed ominous.
100 yards from the bunker ,ron mcfaul and the other investigators noticed,the ground had ben scarred by a series of several fires.
“we noticed at that point approximately seven different burn sites on the property.we decided to look at the burn sites a little futher and we found what we thought may be bone fregments but we really weren´t sure.”ron said.
If the piles of ash did containe human bone fragments someone had attempted to conceal an unspeakable horror .Now desperate for answers
investigators ran the license plates of a truck parked near the cabin.
it belonged to lonnie bond. lake´s neighbor. Lonnie bond lived with his wife.and 18 months old son in a house about 50 yards from lakes cabin.
officers walked next door to speak with bond. the smell of decayed food thickened the air. the house appeared to have been empty fot some times perhaps ,months. allthough it seem the occupants departed abruptly there was no signe of foul play.
Another vehicle found on lake´s property belonged to robin scott stapley
Scott Stapley
scott stapley had been missing for some time and his driver´s license was found in paul cosner´s car. Leonard lake used scott stapleys driver´s licence,because they were bothe big fellas and he had been trying to pass himself off of scott
“so we´re contacting southern california too see where sis scott stapley and it turns out that he had been living at the cabin next door and no one has seen him either.
Investigators intensified their search. cadaver dogs known for their acute sense of were brought in to help. authorities now suspected that eight missing people from north california were linked to the cabin.
If they had been murdered as police feared perhaps their bodies were buried on the property.
One of the dogs recovered a piece of bone. the deputies working the scene knew immediately that this was not an animal bone.
With the descovery of human remains what had been a missing person´s case now became a homocide investigation.
Investigators declared leonard lake´s property a crime scene and assembled a task force to process the cabin and surrounding property.
Due to the expanding scope of the case the calaveras county sheriffs office called in additional help .Specialists from the san fransisco polis departement and the california departement of justice arrived to help with the investigation .
Tree days after leonard lake´s suicide a convoy of law enforcement vehicles descended on the property.Now that is a murder investigation police knew that all material recovered from the site could become vital to the eventual prosecution of the case.
Each section of the property was assigned to a specific team. The teams began a thorough search of the two acres surrounding the cabin.
In a clearing about a hundred yards from the cabin officers found a trench with loose dirt.
They found the trench had been filled with personal belonings and debris. sergant larry copeland an investigator for the calaveras county sheriff´s joined in the search for clues.
Larry Copeland
“every button,zippser, jewelry even .everything that was taken out of there was turn over to the evidence officer who took each one and individually photographed each and every pieces.uhm.. we talking hundreds ” larry said.
Everything excavate from the property was potential evidence.all of the items were collected and sent to the calaveras county sheriff´s office. they were meticulously catalogued.investigators hoped that somewhere in this wat collection of evidence. they would fiindthe clue that would untangle the mysteries hidden on lake´s property.
” if we felt there was any chance of being used or something that either ourselves or the defense could usse we took it and booked it. ” larry said.
the bunker on lake´s property.
Investigators sorted through the survival gears and suplies lake hade stockpiled in so -called fallout shelter.
” it was a fals door. tyou really couldn´t tell ,just looking ast it but here was shelving units and after your wiggled the shelves you saw that the door actually popped open”Ron said.
beyond the shelves was a double door. leading to a hidden room.
Off to the side was another three foot by six foot compartment. the cramped space contained a homemade vood cot.a crude shelf holding some toiletries and and a rollof toalet paper. a small hole had ben cut into the wall near the ceiling possibly for ventilation.
a typed list of rules was affixed to one wall. they included
” i must always be ready to service my master and must never speak unless spoken to.i must always be obedient and never look my master in the eye.
From outside investigators could see intothe small room through a two-way mirror. they also noticed that the hinges of the door had been. damaged.
“the door had been damaged at the bottom further notice the hinges are bent from obviously pressure from the inside of the door pushing out trying to get the door open both the top and bottom ” ron said.
Remembering lake´s journal ,investigators feared that lake had acted upon his fantasy of kidnapping and holding captive a human slave.
forensic specialists dusted for fingerprints and latent evidence.They hoped that if lake had indeed kept a prisoner here he or she had left behind some clue of their presence. they found nothing.
As the search of the property outside the bunker continued an investigator noticed some blue soil next to the driveway. there theyfound a five-gallon plastick paint container.
As darkness fell the task force suspended its search. Inside the cabin the investigators viewed one of the videotapes they had found buried in the the plastic container.they could hardly believe what they were seeing.
This case was becoming more frightening with each piece of evidence they uncovered.but nothing could prepare them for what lay ahead.
After two days of searching leonard lake´s cabin.investigators feared more than eight people had been killed and possibly buried on the property. On the second night the task force moved inside the cabin to view the videotape found buried ina plastic container.
The tape depicted two women suffering extreme verbal and psychological abuse at the hands of leonard lake and his accomplice who demanded sexual submission under the threat of violence
” we also observed an asian male on the tape and he had a knife in his hand and he was cutting the clothing .this would be the blouse the top as well as the bra strap.removing clothes from the..from the female.ron said.
The sasian male was identified as charles Ng.the shoplifter leonard lake had identified just prior to his suicide.
The homicide division of the san fransisco police departement launched a full-scale manhunt for charles Ng.
Investigators stsarted with NG:s san fransisco apartement. they collected some video equipment and a number of videotapes.everything was tagged as evidence and sent for analysis.
san fransisco homicide detective ed erdolatz led the task force that investigated the year old disappearance of the dubs family.
The equipment lake and Ng had used to videotape their captives hade once belonged to harevey Dubs.
Ed Erdolatz
” Investigators had obtained his california driver´s license photo and made a photo collage shown it to neighbors and identified him as one of the people coming out of the dubs home.” ed said.
One of the Dub´s neighbors told investigators that the night before the family was reported missing ,she saw two men leaving their residence.
One of the man was carrying a large duffel bag.It was dark ,but she said she could identify him.
The eyewitness´s critical identification of charles Ng gave investigators probable cause to issue an arrest warrant.
Balaz , leonard lake´s ex-wife was questioned about her ex-husband´s association with charles Ng. she agreed to talk.but only after her attorney convinced the district attorney´s office to grant her immunity from prosecution.
balaz claimed she didn´t know anything about the murders.she did tell them that after the shoplifting incident ,Ng walked to her house. .the two drove back to the lumber yard to see if lake was allright. when they saw him talking to the police ,they returned to her house. there they waited expecting a call from lake whos was now in police custody. when he didn´t call balaz drove Ng to his apartement.
Ng told balaz he had to get out of town.
Lake´s bunker
” she said that she thought, he probably go to chicago, that he had mentioned that he would go to chicago if he had to get out of town.and she claims that was the last time she saw him.ed .said.
Because Ng was wanted for murder and there was resason to believe he had fled the state, the california investigators asked assistance from the FBI.in response the the bureau launched a massive manhunt for charles Ng. at san fransisco international airport agents learned that the passanger fitting Ng´s description had boarded a plane to chicago, traveling under the name mike kimoto.
In chicago agents worked to tracking he´s movement they started with an extensive background check.
Investigators learned that charles was born in hong kong and entered the united states on a student Visa 1979. He enlisted in the marine corps but was eventually arrested for stealing weapons,he escaped from prison and on the advice of a friend hid out with leonard lake.and his wife clerilyn . Ng stayed with lake and his wife for six month in philo,california.
At the same time ATF agents were building a case lake for possession of illegal firearms.
In spring of 1981 they arrested both lake and Ng.Blake skipped bale and began his life as a fugitive.Ng was sent back to prison to serve the remain of his original sentence.
” Ng was resleased from prison in 1984 and immediately came back to the san fransisco bay area.was picked up at the ariport by balaz and rejoined his buddy leonard lake.” ed said.
Charles Ng.was an experienced fugitive wit a wide network of friends who could help him. To develop more leads. the FBI placed Ng on their 10 most wanted list .for the time being. agents focus on Ng´s friends and acquaintances in the chicago area.
As the investigation into charles Ng expanded a body count i calaveras county ,continued to climb.not far from lake´s cabin,investigators unearthed two intact bodies wrapped in sleeing bags. calaveras county coroner terry parker was on the scene.
Terry Parker
” they were mostly skeletal remains that were wrapped ,you couldn´t really make out if they were men or women,because of the time that the bodies had been there” terry said.
Due to the deterioration of the bodies , parker could make only a cursory examination at the site.it appeared both victims had been gagged and handcuffed.he asked for helf from the san fransisco medical examiner.
” san fransisco has a very good forensic departement. and he was more than happy to com up and assist us ,we removed the bodies and transported them to his office for the forensic work. where that was done.” terry said.
At autopsy the san fransisco medical examiner determined both victims were males and that they had been shot to death.Using dental records he identified the men as lake´s neighbors. lonnie bond and scott stapley.
In chicago ,the FBI got their first lead . they learned that after serving time on the weapons charge Ng had kept in touch with his former cellmate, a man described how he had driven Ng first to detroit than to the border town of chatham ,there he said.they split up.
A witness came forward and told agents that he had seen Ng board a bus inchatham bound for toronto.
Agent were aware that Ng´s sister lived there. FBI deployed a surveillance team at he rapartment house.but the fugitive never showed.After days of following Ng ,the trail grew cold.
A suspected serial killer was now roaming free in Canada.
As word of the multiple murders spread,the new media descended on the property in Calaveras county.Don lasseter is a true crime author who wrote a book on charles Ng´s case.
Don Lasseter
” and of course the media ,when they first heard of this rushed to the site.and daily the media coverage grew and it got coverage all over california and soon all over the united states and certainley even in canada.” Don said.
Investigators agreed to let the media on the property.they showed them the site and allowed them to video tape some of the evidence they had collected.
Investigators were counting on the media exposure to help identify the 21 women depicted in the photographs tacked to the wall of lake´s bunker. A telephone hotline was set up by the calaveras sheriff´s departement. and calls soon began poyring in.
Detectives believed leonard lake and charles Ng crossed paths with as many as 25 people who later reported missing.
tries to piece together, any leads that would locate Ng or help identify the growing list of victims ,anybody that had anything to do with either lakering we asttempted to identify and find out if they were still allive. and if they were ,what their relationship was.and it was through that process that we began to identify different victims.” ed said.
Memberes of the task force were sent around with photos of personal belongings found onthe property,in an effort to identify anyone who had been at the cabin.relatives and friends of the missing realized their loved ones might be among the dead.
There was the Dubs family from san fransisco who placed an ad in the newspaper to rent their video equipment and were never heard from again . Randy jacobson,friend of leonard lakes was found buried near a chicken coop behind the cabin.
Randy jacobson,friend of leonard lakes was found buried neara chicken coop behind the cabin.
Jeff gerald who worked with Ng at the san fransisco moving company dissappeared along with his friend…..
Clifford Perranto who worked at the same company.
Ng´s longtime friend mike carroll and his girlfriend….
kathleen allen had disappeared
lake´s neighbors were also missing.Lonnie bond
brenda o´connor and their 16 month old child lonnie jr.
their friend robin scott stapley had vanished with them.
and finally paul kosner whose car had originally led investigators on this trail of kidnappning and murder.
The task force received one bit of good news . finding the girls alive was a relief ……
but lakes property still held many mysteries.Agents feared they would never know the complete story of the calaveras countys murders. unless they found charles Ng
After weeks of of searching they still not located the fugitive. then on july 6 1995.a boy riding his bicycle in a canadian park spotted the perfect place for a playfort, he was suprised to see a man living there. He went to the police and told them he had founde a campsite and had seen a man who looked like charles Ng. the boy recognized him from wanted posters. he led police to the makeshift shelter only to find that Ng had fled.
Later that same day.charles Ng would make the misstake investigators have been waiting for.Ironically it was the same misstake that started the police investigation a month earlier. a security guard confronted a young asian male as he slipped stolen merchandise into his handsack in a calgary departement store. Ng pull out a gun from his bag ,as the security guard struggled with with the gun . he was shot in the hand.
leonard lake´s bunker.torture chamber
still he managed to wrestle the weapon from the shooter.and hold him until police arrived. charles were captured and booked on charges of attempted murder robbery and possession of a firearm.
san fransisco police inspector ed was eager to question the suspect. he flew to calgary where Ng was held in a maximum security prison.
“and we spent quite a few hours with charles Ng in the detention center in calgary and although he did talk with us most of his responses were one and two word answers.very little dialogue and primarily denial.we could have gone into a lot things.had he been willing to talk about those things but that didn´t occur” ed said.
the murders Ng claimed were all the work of leonard lake when pressed ,Ng .did admit to he had helped lake dispose the bodies of lonnie bond and scott stapley the day after they were murdered.
In calvares county.the district attorney´s office indicted Ng on 12 counts of first-degree murder making it possible for the prosecution to seek the death penalty.
But Ng´s flight to canada had created a significant obstracle. district attorney pete explains.
” there was an extradition treaty between between the united states and canaada at the time and in that extradition treaty there was a condition that nobody would be extradited from canada back to the united states to face the death penalty” pete .said.
There were som exceptions to the treaty however. the district attorney´s office could prove to canadian court that Ng was guilty of multiple murders.canada woudl be required to hand over the suspected killer.
Before the extradition hearing could begin Ng would have to stand trial in canada on shoplifting and assult charges.In order to delay his extradition Ng waved his right to a jury trial and asked for a speedier bench trial . He received a four and a half year sentence , until he completed that sentence the calaveras county district attorney could not initiate the complicated extradition process.
Even if they could prove their case they would hae to wait over four years before they could begin.
while the calaveras county district attorney´s office built their case charles Ng,the search for evidence continued at leonards lake´s cabin. by this time,five bodies had be found and identified. Hundreds of peresonal effects had been recovered, more than 40 pounds of unidentifiable human remains had been unearthed.Investigators believed that as many as 25 missing persons had been linked t the capital
As the evidence against Ng continued to grow.he used his time in a canadian prison to try fend off any attempts at extradition. he knew if he was successfully extradited back to the united states he would h ave to face a murder trial and the possibility of the death penalty.
He began to educate himself on the american legal system.
” for a boy with limited education raised in hong kong he was remakably adept at knowing that the legal system here and how to deal with it “Don.said.
A guard reported to the warden,he overheard Ng say to a fellow inmate
“if you want to dealy the system,your just have to fire your lawyers”
-Ng
On october 17,1988 the extradition hearings finnaly began.Ng lost the case and appealed all the way to the canadian supreme court.His appeal was denied.
” within the same day .charles Ng was placed on an airplane in Canada and flown back to California.pete said.
But the pursuit of justice.was far from over.charles Ng used his time in canada to arm himself with enough legal knowledge to wage an all -out war on the american judicial system.
On september 26 1991 suspected serial killer charles Ng was finally returned to california.
The calaveras county district attorney charged Ng with 12 counts of murder. detective sergeant randy grassmark transported Ng from california departement corrctions to the calaveras county courthouse.
“we had high security ,we had our SWAT team up on the roof for a while we had heard that, somebody wanted to kill charles Ng. let´s face it the last thing we wanted to do as calaveras county sheriff´s departement.was lose charles Ng.” sheriff´s county said.
Calaveras county was not prepared to handle a prisoner like charles Ng. their courthosue wasn´t secure enough to hold a maximum security prisoner. The county had to build a special cage to house charles Ng
Ng, now 61, was convicted in 1999 on 11 counts of murder.Associated Press
during his legal proceedings.from the moment Ng arrived.county he was intent on wreaking havoc and creatating delay.He began by trying to fire his attorneys and complaining about his treatment. he filed motions for better food and a shorter commute from the prison. he demanded to have his cage dismantled.allthough each motion was frivolous it sapped The resource of the calaveras county district attorney´s.
” i didn´t realize how truly huge this case was.we´re very small. we have five attorney´s including my self. there´s the assistant district attorney. and then i have three deputy district attorneys ,we have two investigtors and we have, thre support staff ,and that´s it.peter smith. said.” in our criminal division.its like a very small law firm.” added peter.
The prosecution battled charles Ng for a full year.before his preliminary hearing even started.
the purpose for this proceeding was simply to determine wheter the prosecution had sufficient to try Ng for the 12 murders .
although the burden of proof is not as strictas that of an actual trial the prosecution had litle direct evidence linking into the murders.
Lacking eyewitnesses,fingerprints and blood evidence.the prosecution would have to presnt its case mostly on circumstantial evidence. the strongest evidence was the video tape found at the cabine
entitled M ladies .the preliminary hearing was the first time the tape was played for the public.
On the tape lake and Ng were seen torturing two women whom was brenda o´conner .
” brenda o´connor is a women who lived on the adjacent property. with her boyfriend and his friend and the litle baby .and you see her on film, she´s handcuffed and she´s begging lake and Ng for her baby back .she wants her baby back and she.. she´s crying.of coure they killed this little baby.and.. it´s susch a sad thing to see.her asking for her little baby back.” peter smith said.
the tapes were incriminating.but with so littl physical directly linking Ng to the murders.prosection would havae to rely on the testimony of antoher criminial.
Maurice la berge had served time with Ng in canada.to past the time
Ng entertained leberge wih crudely drawn cartoons depicting his crimes and with stories of what had happened at the lake´s in california.
To gain favor with his parole board la berg turned over the cartoons and told the authorities the details of his conversation with Ng.
One of the most damning cartoons depicted in killing a baby .
Laberg testified at Ng´s extradition hearing, detailing everything Ng had confessed during during their jail time together.
Leberg´s testimony was presented as evidence. On november 13 1992 the court found sufficient grounds to try charles Ng on 12 counts of murder.
Judge set his trial date for january 12 1993
” we felt that the case would be and over with by -93 but no later then 1994,well…that didn´t happen,what did happen was delay” peter said.
Now that Ng knew he would stand trial for his crimes ,he began despereate attempt to delay the proceedings in anyway possible. He filed a motion alleging that his court -appointed attorneys were incompetent.He succeeded in firing them and the court appointed him new counsel.Because pre-trial publicity made it impossible to find an impartial jury in Calaveras county Ng´s new defense team filed a motion to move the trial.
The judges granted the motion ,moving the trial to Orange county in southern california.
a fully loaded 35-foot truck delivered a mountain of case material to Ng´s new council the orange county public defender´s office. material included hundreds of boxes of records documenting eight years of court rooms hearings,witnnes testimony, investigative medical and police reports and thousands of evidence photographs,William kelly Ng´s newly appointed counsel.
William kelly
William kelly Ng´s newly appointed counsel,asked for and received two and a half years to prepare his client´s case .
The prosecution made th move from calaveras county ,400 south to orange county and prepared for the largest case of their careers.
the years of delay, worried prosecutor peter smith.
” as you know in any… memories fade,wittnesses die and things of that nature. and so when you tack on six years ..to the life of a criminal case that´s a long time to delay a case from going to trial.” peter said.
As the prosecution and defense attorneys finalized their trial preparations Ng -again attempted to delay the processes. but judge john ryan put a stop to his tactics. the case was finally going to trial.
The prosecution team from Calaveras county worked out their strategy with charlene Honaka the debuty attorney general for the state of california.
“she´s a tremendous lawyer and a better person.she was in essence the
heart and soul for this case and for the prosecution.” peter said.
As prosecutors prepared to begin jury selection the team suffered a devastating setback.Maurice laberg was killed in a car accident while on parole.He was the only person to whom Ng had confessed his crimes. The prosecution had just lost its key witness.
Thirteen years had passed since Invesigators began finding bodies at a mountain cabin in calaveras county,california.
allthough they evantually linked 25 missing people to lake´s property, they only had enough evidence to charge charles Ng with 12 counts of murder.Ng had managed to delay his trial for more than a decade but could delay no longer.The murder trial of charles Ng was finally about to begin.The accused serial killer´s fate woulds now rest with a jury . peter smith´s job was to select that jury
” because the case was going to take so long ,we had to time qualifiy jurors. we had to bring in over 2000 people from orange county to ask them basically “can you commit to the time it is it´ll takes.”.uh…to try this case.said peter.
While council was in the midst of qualifying jurors Ng grew aggiteded. He shouting obscentities he tried to halt the proceedings telling judge that he did not want a trial.
Judge ryan ordered Ng to wear an electric stun belt for the duriation of the trial. The bailiff couild trigger the device by remote control if he became violent again.
Atthorneys from the prosecution and the defense took a month to choose a jury of eight women and four men along with six alternates.to protect their identities each member of the jury was assigned a number.
On monday october 26 1998 the trial began with opening statements. For both the prosecution and the defense opening statements serveras an outline telling the jury what they are trying to prove. and how they intend to prove it. with the years of waiting over ,charlene hanaka rose to make the opening statement for the prosecution.
” what the evidence in this case is going to show is that this defendant with leonard lake planned and committed the 12 charged murders in this case. this is a chart.witch lists the 12 counts. the evidence will show that between a time frame from july 1984 until 1985,these 12 victims disappeared from the face of the earth and this trial will tell you the story what happened to them.” charlene said.
Charlene described the property in Calaveras as a killing field and a mass graveyard. she then told the jury about the M ladies tape found buried near the cabin and how they depicted a partially nude Ng demanding massages from kathleen allen and cuttingthe clothes off of brenda O´connor.
The videotape was the centerpiece of the prosecution´s case .It showed the jury exactly who charles Ng was, a man who not only tortured women but recorded his acts on videotape so he could relive them again and again.
” the videotapes dramatic.it is the most…it is the most incriminating piece of evidence i´ve ever used in a case.um…it is also the most emotional piece of evidence i´ve ever used in a case.eh…you can sense the terror and the uh…um..the fear those two victims had when they realized the situation they wre in ” pete said.
Because this was the strongest physical evidence linking Ng to the murders the prosecution planned to use the videotape throughout the trial to prove charles Ng´s guilt.
William kelly,Ngs court -appointed attorney scarcely mentioned the defenant in much of his opening statement.
His strategy was to shift the focus of the accusations from his client charles Ng to the late leonard lake.
Kelly asserted that lake´s plan for murder was outlined in his diary under the heading the Miranda project.He then read the jury excerpts from leonard lake´s journal. kelly suggested that lake´s conspirator was not Ng but Claralyn Balaz, lake´s ex-wife. he asserted that she knew about the mirandsa project and even recruited potential victims.
with little physical evidence placing Ng at the murders.kelly intended to discredit the prosecution´s circumsstantial case and prove it was leonard lake not charles Ng who murdered the 12 victims. he asserted that Ng killed no one.
The cinder-block bunker, built into a hillside, had a hidden room and two-way mirrors that were used as a sex-torture chamber. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty
The prosecution called sergeant larry copeland of the calaveras county sheriff´s departement to the stand. He told the jury abount a startling descovery he made while analyzing videotapes confiscated from Ng´s san fransisco apartement.
what copeland discovered was a still image of two bodies in a wheelbarrow,the image was entered into evidence.The medical examiner was asked to identify two photografs of bodies found at the cabin.
medical examiner” yeas, i believe that´s the remains of scott stapley”charlene “and this next one?”
medical examiner”those remains are from lonnie bond”
he went on the way in which lonnie bond and scott stapley was bound and gagged and wrapped in sleeping bags.the sleeping bags matches those on the tape.The medical examiner testified that the bodies on the tape were in full rigor mortis.
rigor mortis occurs shortly after death when the blood flow is interrupted,it only lasts for a few hours until the body begins to decay
In Canada Ng told inspector Ed Erdolatz he helped bury bond and stapley 24 hours after they were murdered.whoever had taken the picture had done so immediately after they were killed.the single frame on the videotape found at Ng´s apartement linked him to the murder of lonnie bond and scott stapley.
Because so few of the remains found on the property could be identified the prosecution relied on hundreds of peresonal effects discovered at Ng´s apartement and the cabin to link him to the victims.
These items were photographed and entered as evidence. The district attorney´s lead investigator mitch hurblicka was in charge of wittnesses testimony for the prosecution
mitch hurblicka
” we had over 200 pieces of evidence that we used in the guilt phase of the trial. and we had about 75 witnesses that we had to bring in from various parts of the country as well as Canada to prove that those items belongs to the people who had gone missing and the victims in our case.” mitch said.
The prosecution then attempted to establish a link between kathleen allen and charles Ng. kathleen allen was one of the women on the M ladies tape who was tortured by lake and Ng.although her body was never found several of her personal effects were unearthed near the cabin. The prosecution asked her sister to identify a heart -shaped pendant.the sister said it was kathleens necklace .
The prosecutor then began to construct the timeline of kathleen Allens disappearance to explain how she got to the cabin.Her former supervisor discussed an odd phone conversation she had while at work. katleen allen worked at a grocery store in milpitas ,california.
her boyfriend mike carroll had met charles Ng while serving time in Leavenworth prison. mike called kathleen to say he was in lake tahoe and had been shot.he was sending a friend to pick her up and bring her to him. kathleen told her supervisor what mike had said and asked for somet time off.
former supervisor” a man came by to pick her up in a brown or bronze Honda, i think , he was in his 40s, bald ,dark hair and he had a beard that´s all i remember.”
The bunker was 150 miles east of San Francisco and was secluded in the woods.San Francisco Chronicle via Gett
A prosecution then showed the jury kathleen allens´s videotaped ordeal. John Crawford investigated her disapperance.
John Crawford
Crawford” the videotape shows that kathy is brought into the residence into the living room of the residence,at the cabin. she is handcuffed and she ´s seated in a chair.kathy was told if you don´t agree with us right now we´re going to take you into the bedroom tie to the bed, rape you, take you outside and pull a bullet in your head and bury you in the same place we buried mike…who is her boyfriend. mike carroll”
Kathleen was never seen or heard from again.her manager later received a typewritten letter saying ,she had gotten a job in lake tahoe. and didn´t intend to return. the letter was dsated may 6th. three weeks after she the grocery store.
Many of the vitctims and co-workers families and friends received typewritten letters from the victims to explain their absence.
a comparison of the letters showed they all originated from the same typewritter. An Olympia typewritter found in the cabin was analyzied by forensic document examiners.they concluded that it was the one on which the letters were written.
The prosecution entered the typewritter into evidence.
A prosecution next tried to prove that charles Ng was responsible for the abduction and murder of the Dubs family. they called karen tuck who was asked to testify about the last time ,she spoke with her friend deborah dubs on the telephone.
karen” deb was expecting someone to come over to talk to harvey or see his video equipment.and the doorbell rang..or someone knocked and we terminated the conversation”
Harvey dubs a part -time wedding photographer had placed an ad in a newspaper offering to rent his video equipment.
karen told the court she tried to call the Dubbs next day ,but no one answered the phone. the Dubs family disappeard on july 25th 1984. there bodies were never found.karen tuck was the last person to speak with deborah Dubs on the day she and her family were abducted from their san fransisco home.after placing an ad in the newspaper to tent some video equipment ,harvey dubs ,his wife deborah and his son sean had been roobed and taken from their home. the family was never seen again.
Detective Irene brown found an inventory of harvey Dubs equipment at his home.
Brown ” harvey was meticulous in keeping records and photographs and he kept the original receipts from he purchased them ,he had serial numbers ,brand names for everything that he had.”
Harvey Dubs detailed record enabled investigators to race his equipment to leonard lake´s cabin.but some video equipment was also found in charles Ng´s apartement.one of these pieces matched harvey Dubbs inventory.
The prosecution entered the video equipment into evidence.
Since the Dubs bodies were never found ,the prosecution´s strategy was to use owerhelming circumstantial evidence to tie Ng to the missing family.
peter ” a case is like a puzzle,you have to start putting pieces together so that the jury can get a clear understanding of what took place and to prove a case ,you have to fit enough pieces of the puzzle together , so that a jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular defendant murdered or commited crime”
seargent larry copeland. was called back to the stand.He testified about the seven burn sites they had found,he also described hundreds of bone fragments he found .many of which had been crushed,burned and scattered around the property.
Judging from the size and number of burn sites ,investigators suspected lake and Ng had used fire to dispose of bodies of many of their victims The condition of the remains would make it impossible to identify all the victims.No one had wittnessed any of these crimes, but the prosecution´s next move was to put Ng´s confesson on the stand.
During his canadian prison time .Ng told maurice that he helped lake abduct victims an burn their bodies.
maurice was the prosecutions key wittness.his first person account on the drawings Ng gave him.would cement their case. but maurice died before the trial began.
At the extradition hearing in Canada maurice testified about everything Ng had told him. In a calculated move the prosecution argued to have the written transcripts of maurice canadian testimony into the records.
Despite the defense´s strong objections the judge ruled to admit the transcript.
seargent raymond monroe ,royal canadian police took the stand and read maurice prior testimony. In the transcript maurice described how Ng gave him the grotesque cartoons and spook of the the crimes he commited including the videotaped sessions with kathleen and brenda.
maurice was a career criminal who served repeated terms of robbery and sexual assult on cross afternoon kelly sattacked maurice credibility
Kelly implied that maurice testimony had been bought and paid for,kelly´s cross- examination had been successful in sinuating that maurice would say anything for money.
although the prosecutions key witness had taken the stand. they now feared the defense attack had destroyed his credibility . sergeant monroe was one of the prosecution´s last witnesses.After presenting their case for 12 days the prosecution rested.
Charles Ng
On november 17 1998,kelly began presenting Ng´s defense to the jury. he had a relatively simple strategy to prove that leonard lake was the real killer and Ng was just a bystander.first kelly called sa series of women to the stand. each testified as to their bizarre sexual encounters with leonard lake.the women spoke of his interest in bondage and taking lurid photographs.
one women had a year -long relationship with lake and posed for dozens of photos. she explained she left him because of his frightening fantasies involving sex and death.
Another women testified that lake had threatened to rape her and that he believed in human sacrifice.the testimony painted lake as the monster and established that none of the witnesses had even met charlesNg.
Another witness tesstified that he had seen lake verbally abusing Ng. helping the the defense estabish that Ng was subservient to lake.
By calling wittnesses who had often seen balaz with lake at the cabin the defenses attempted to show that balaz herself was an accomlice to lake.
kelly also used this testimony to demonstrate that Ng spent little time at leonard lake´s cabin. the defense´s strongest proof that lake planned to kidnap , torture and murder his victims was his journal.
Leonard Lake and some still shots from the video tapes he and Charles Ng made of their victims
It was here that lake outlined the so-called miranda project.
while the jury was out ,kelly moved to enter an edited version of the journal into evidence. because the edited version eliminated references to charles Ng ,the judge resisted. kellys attempt to put leonard lake on trial appeared b locked. but he countered the prosecution strategy with his next witness.In his opening statement kelly asserted balaz knew of the miranda project and helped lake recruit women to photograph.
kelly believed she played a far more active role than she admitted and asserted it was balaz not Ng hwo was lake´s accomplice.
The prosecution had not called her as a witness, so as balaz took the stand everyone in the courtroom ,including the prosecution wounered what she would say. then kelly read the immunity agreement.
kelly” i´ll read it to the jury.-this is an immunity between the state california and balaz,the state of california ,promises witness, transactional immunity for all crimes including but not liimited to murder, conspiracy to commit murder ,aiding and abetting murder, theft and received stolen property related to the victims.”
In a stunning move kelly chose not to question balaz, he created the appearance she had something to hide, and since she had not spoken on the stand ,the prosecution could not cross -examine her.
Balaz made her immunity deal with the prosecution but in the she provided them with little information and became a witness for the defense. kelly then called another witness who could not be cross -examined,he played a tape made by leonard lake describing his rationale for the miranda project.
lake”what i want is an off- the -shelf sex partner.i want to be able to use women .whenever and however i want.and when i´m tired or satiated or bored or not interested,i simply want put her away”
with the final glimpse into the mind of leonard lake the defense rested its case.
Peter smith made the final closing arguments for the prosecution. he reminded the jury of the evidence they had seen. and asked them to turn a guilty verdict.
peter smith.
Then the trial took its most suprising turn.after hearing the prosecution sum up their case against him Ng filed a handwritten motion demanding he be allowed to testify on his own behalf.When kelly tries to convince his client otherwise Ng threatened to fire him.against the advice of his attorneys ,charles Ng would be taken the wittnes stand.
Observes in the charles Ng trial were stunned when they entered the court room on january 27,1999. the accused serial killer himself would now on the witness stand.Ng was charged with killing 12 people and after three monts of listening to his cas.he demanded to testify.on his own behalf.assuming the prosecution would use maurice´s testimony to corner Ng.Debuty public defender Clapp decided to take the offensive and prove that maurice had lied .
Ng testified that he had helped to imprison brenda and kathleen.but had not intended to hurt or kill them.Ng denials continued for hours as clapp went over every statement Ng allegedly made to his jail mate.Then Clapp moved to have Ng explain away the prosecution´s other key evidence the M ladies tape.on the tape brenda begged Ng not to take her baby away.
Which he replied” it is better than the baby is dead.
transcripts of the M ladies tapes had been transcribed during the extradition hearing so that every word spoken on the tape could be understood.
When charlene corss -examined Ng.she used the transcripts to turn his own words against him. charlene demonstrated for the jury that the only way maurice could have known about the sound of the handcuffs was if Ng told him.it was clear despite Ng´s denials on the stand that he had told maurice the details of the torture and the killings.details maurice coiuldn´t have known any other way.
Charlene then set out to establish that charles Ng was not a bystander ,but a willing participant in the crimes. she replayed a scene from the M ladies tape showing Ng cutting the shirt of brenda O´connor.
charlene again turned to the videotapes.she played a portion of the tape where Ng tells leonard lake that the gun is on the table.charlene had shown that Ng was more than a bystander to leonard lake´s crimes. he was an acrive participant who sometimes even directed leonard lake. Because Ng took the stand after the prosecution closed,the judge gave them the opportunity to restate their closing arguments after Ng´s testimony.
kelly then gave the closing arguments for the defense.he asserted the prosecution had simply failed to prove their case and attacked their most important piece of evidence.the M ladies tapes.
charles Ng had been charged with the murders of seven men three women and two babies.his fate was now in the hands of the jury.
peter “anybodywho prosecutes cases or tries cases,knows there´s never a sure thing with the jury.and that´s the difficult aspect of being a prosecutor, you have to convince 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt.
and all 12 have to agree.it has to be unanimous.
The jury delibered for a week,then two weeks the media coverage intensified as the deliberations stretched into their third week.
The prosecutors became increasingly concerned that the jury was having difficulty making a decision. this was not a good sign. for the prosecution who knew their case was mostly circumstantial.
If the jury demanded strong physical evidence linking Ng to the crimes in order to deliver a guilty verdict and charles Ng might go free. as time dragged on all the prosecution could do was wait.
Media
On February 24 1999, after three weeks waiting,the jury informed the judge that they had reached a decision.
The prosecutors had called approximately 75 witnesses and presented about 200 pieces of evidence to prove the charges against charles Ng. All that evidence was now in the hands of the jury.
The jury found charles Ng guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder. they could not com to a conclusion on the death of paul cosner.they did not feel they had enough evidence to convict.
charles Ng.was sentenced to death.for the prosecution the long ordeal was finally over.
peter” and i was just happy for the people of Calaveras county, that finally …uhm. mr Ng was found guilty of these murderes.after so many years.i´m proud of the fact that i was the district attorney at the time and prosecuted charles Ng and i was in essence the last person standing from Calaveras county, after all this years.”
With a final cost over 20 million dollars the longest and most expensive criminal case in california history came to a close. for 13 years the prosecution never wavered in their pursuit of justice.
Charles Ng ,now sits on california´s deathrow.
