What happened on my birthday (year is irrelevant) that occurred in crime. Feel free to share yours!
Calaveras County, CA officers and investigators start to dig up bodies on Claralyn Balazs’ estate, specifically the ditch beside the cabin and “survival shelter”. They found pounds of unidentified bone fragments, and bones belonging to victims. The fragments are being re-examined by California Justice Department despite the Leonard Lake and Charles Ng case being closed due to identifying victims for the families’ closure.
Note: I chose to do this one first because for my Forensic Science class we had to investigate a case of our choice, write and report, and do a powerpoint for it and this was basically my final project for the class. Enjoy!
The span of these crimes was from 1983-1985 and the victims were lured to a bunker in the woods through ads that were posted of stolen goods. If the respondents were male, they were beaten, robbed from, and then shot often within a day of their capture. Female respondents were tied up, tortured, forced into submission, then raped. They would be shot and killed after their “services were no longer needed.” Families or couples that were brought to the bunker had the same outcomes.
Charles Ng (pronounced as ing) was born Christmas Eve of 1960 in Hong Kong. Ng was a compulsive Kleptomaniac as a child and he was sent to several boarding schools in both China and London. He was granted a student visa in 1978 to study in the U.S and his parents hoped a new life in another country would set their son straight. Briefly attending the College of Notre Dame, Ng dropped out after one semester to join the Marines.
To do so, Ng lied about his birthplace in order to keep his criminal record a secret. He was caught stealing guns, explosives, and other weaponry before being sentenced to 18 months in Leavenworth prison after his dishonorable discharge from the U.S Marines.
Leonard Lake was born on October 29, 1945, in San Francisco. His parents separated when he was six years old, leaving him and his siblings in the care of his grandparents.
Growing up, Lake was described as very cunning but sinister as he would collect mice and other small animals to dissolve them in acidic chemicals. He developed a pornography addiction during this time and Lake would force his sisters into taking sexual photos of themselves or performing sexual acts in exchange for protection from their abusive brother Dom. This incestual behavior was encouraged by Lake’s grandmother.
Lake attended the University of San Jose State but also dropped out after a single semester. He also joined the Marines in 1965 when he was 19 years old and served two tours as a radar operator during Vietnam. He received a medical diagnosis of Schizoid Personality Disorder, an uncommon condition in which people avoid social activities and consistently shy away from interaction with others and also have a limited range of emotional expression, which caused him to be medically discharged in 1971.
After his diagnosis, he received psychotherapy treatments and joined a hippie commune afterward. At the commune, Lake was directing and starring in adult films that involved bondage and/or sadomasochism. He met his first wife at the commune but the marriage didn’t last long when she discovered Lake’s film industry and after he kept insisting that she star in said films.
Lake was remarried to Claralyn “Cricket” Balazs in 1981 after Lake was imprisoned in 1980 for car theft, she was the “woman of his dreams” as she willingly complied to his sexual interests. It is suspected that Cricket had some knowledge of her husband’s behavior and that she assisted in the luring of Ng and Lake’s victims.
She once admitted in a police interview that Lake would often bring in children or various ages and genders and that she wondered what it would feel like to do stuff to them.
The bunker in the woods where the crimes took place also belonged to Balazs.
Lake had believed a nuclear holocaust was near and needed sex slaves to repopulate the earth. When he met Ng he passed this plan on to the susceptible, younger male. As chronicled in a series of video diaries, Ng and Lake are caught on tape raping, beating, and killing their victims along with their own personal monologues.
There was also a typed journal with a list of Lake’s Rules for his behavior and treatment to his victims. They had more of a mentor-mentee relationship; Ng was the Sheep and Lake was the Shepard. Ng had always had such ideas but he was too shy of a man to commit to his urges by himself.
The Victims (Confirmed):
Harvey Dubs
Deborah Dubs
Sean Dubs (infant)
Lonnie Bond Sr. (Lake’s Neighbor)
Brenda O’Connor (Bond’s Wife)
Lonnie Bond Jr. (infant)
Clifford Peranteau
Jeffrey Gerald
Michael Carroll
Kathleen Allen (boyfriend was Ng’s cellmate)
Robin Scott Stapley
Both men are suspected of being responsible for the disappearances of up to 25 people. The women were kept in the bunker for at least a few days or up to a week before they were shot and killed after they were tortured and raped repeatedly while their family watched and then got shot right in front of her eyes. The men were used for financial gain, although they and the children were not the main priority of Ng and Lake. Men and children were killed within the same day as their abduction.
Lake’s Possible Victim’s
Charles Gunnar: Military friend of Lake’s. Lake’s best man in both of his weddings. Went missing during ‘83-’85 and Lake was using Gunnar’s ID at one point in time. His remains were discovered at the ranch in September of 1992.
Donald “Dom” Lake: Leonard Lake’s younger brother. The one he used as a threat during his childhood in order to get sexual favors from his sisters in exchange for protection. Vanished in 1983 and was presumed dead. His remains were also found on the ranch in September 1992.
Paul Cosner: Police found out that the real Robin Stapley was missing for several weeks at the time of Lake’s arrest and that Lake’s car belonged to Paul Cosner, 39, who had also been missing for eight months in November 1984. 2001: a San Francisco judge found Ng and Lake responsible for the murder of Paul Cosner, a missing auto trader who was presumed dead.
Donald Giulietti: The FBI estimates their kidnapping and killing spree started within a month of their reunion. In July 1984, Donald Giuletti, a San Francisco disc jockey, and his roommate, Richard Carrazza, were shot by an Asian man who broke into their apartment and robbed them.
Giulietti died in the attack but Carrazza survived and would later identify Charles Ng as his attacker. The pistol used in the attack was found at the Wilseyville site.
Lake and Ng got caught when they went to the store to buy a new vise on June 2, 1985. The store owner was immediately suspicious since Lake used Stapely’s ID; Stapely was 26 but Lake looked far from it. Ng couldn’t control his instincts and tried to steal from the store only to have the owner catch Ng in the act. The police were called but Ng fled from the scene, leaving Lake behind to go into hiding.
Lake stayed behind in an attempt to pay for the goods in order to elude arrest. In his car, police found a .22 revolver with an illegally equipped silencer, which is why they were allowed to arrest him at that moment. Since Ng was nowhere to be found, police investigated the bunker.
Police discovered the bodies of 11 people and 45 pounds of unidentifiable bones, caches of weapons and explosives, personals from the victims such as clothes and forms of ID, and the videotape diaries.
Ng escaped to Canada but got caught shoplifting at another store. Only this time, he panicked and drew a gun, which led to one of the officers getting shot in the hand. He was charged with robbery, attempted robbery, possession of a firearm, and attempted murder in Canada; Ng did his time there for the crimes committed there before being turned over to American authorities.
In questioning, Lake told the police about Ng, where the bunker was located and gave a hint about what their master plan was. He asked the officer for a cup of water and a pen with paper. While the officer went to fetch the water, Lake wrote his suicide note. He used the water to swallow two cyanide pills that he had sewn into his coat collar. Police thought Lake was going to put his confession in writing when he asked them for pen and paper so they happily complied.
Lake was rushed to the hospital and fell into a coma, survived on life support for four days before he died on June 6, 1985.
The trial was overly complicated because of Ng’s lie about his nationality and the fact that Ng would often fire lawyers, change the location of the trial, and attempt to defend himself in order to buy himself time and hopefully avoid a trial. Eventually, he faced trial for the first time in 1991.
The final trial took place in 1999 and it lasted for eight months. The jury deliberated for about two weeks until Ng was found guilty for the murder of six men, three women, and two baby boys. He was sentenced to death after he and Lake were caught and was sent to San Quentin. While no sentencing date is set, Ng is appealing his conviction to this day.
Side Notes:
Ng’s Military Cellmate said in a television interview that Ng professed to hating some ethnic groups and homosexuals so much that he killed a gay man by burning him alive.
“The Collector” by John Fowles is a novel about a lonely young man who works as a clerk in a city hall and collects butterflies in his spare time.
The man becomes obsessed with a female art student and instead of coming up to her he watches her from a distance because it appears that he is socially underdeveloped.
He then kidnaps the woman after moving into an isolated lodge and adds her to his collection of preserved beauties. He promises not to hurt her, only to shower her with his spoils.
He is convinced that she would learn to love him over time, but she becomes ill and dies.
Lake is said to have been obsessed with this novel.
Kenneth Ng, Charles Ng’s father, blames himself for his son’s role in the killing spree on the physical abuse he did to his son during his childhood.
He testified in court that during that time, there was almost no line between discipline and child abuse. He meant to bring up his son in a narrow and straight path, which sometimes meant tethering him and whipping him with a stick.
"I tried to bring him up right. Unfortunately, I used the wrong way. I thought this was normal. But now I know how wrong I am."
Mr. Ng wanted his son to be sentenced to life in prison instead of to death, “I do hope I still have him in jail, instead of dead," he said.
Relatives of the victims said they were not swayed by the testimony, but expressed sympathy for Kenneth Ng.
It was reported that Ng held his head down for the testimony and cried silently as his father spoke.
