Update on trial of CA SK Charles Ng:Defense tries to blame all killings on Leonard Lake,new details emerge on Leonard's childhood
Joe1orbit
As most of you are no doubt aware, the murder trial of accused California
serial killer Charles Ng is underway. It has been underway for about a month
already, and I am pleased to present this update. The Charles Ng/Leonard Lake
serial murders have always been very fascinating to me, even more so than most
other serial killing cases. The fact that Leonard Lake chose to swallow a
suicide cyanide pill immediately after his arrest, successfully killing
himself, served to give this case a sense of mystique and mystery that goes far
beyond most cases. Add in the fact that we have two serial killers working
together, VIDEOTAPING the torture of their victims, claiming the lives of men,
women, and children, and you really have a UNIQUE case, unequalled in the
annals of serial murder in terms of the modus operandi and specific details.
We learn below that last week especially, Charles's lawyers went on the
offensive, in terms of trying to convince the jury that Leonard Lake was the
leader and sole perpetrator of all the murders. This is obviously a WISE
strategy, since Leonard is dead and cannot himself contradict any of the
accusations. A parade of people who knew Leonard back in the 1970's and early
1980's were put on the witness stand by the defense, and they testified about
their memories of and encounters with Leonard, prior to his tragic suicide 14
years ago.
In the testimony of these relatives, friends, and acquaintances of Leonard,
some interesting new details on this mysterious and enigmatic serial killer do
emerge. Former girlfriends tell us that Leonard was a real CHARMER, a lady's
man who swept off their feet and easily won their trust and affection.
He began building his underground prison for captive women just one DAY after
videotaping himself saying: "What I want is an off-the-shelf partner. I want to
be able to use a woman whenever and however I want, and when I'm tired or
satiated, I simply want to put her away." This makes a lot of sense. Your
society TRIES to force all men to "settle down" into long-term relationships
with solo women. Leonard simply recognized that this was a perverse imposition
upon his personal autonomy, that he was not willing to tolerate.
As has been reported previously, Leonard was a big fan of the John Fowles
fictional book: "The Collector", which deals with a fellow who captures &
imprisones a young gal. I've read this book myself, and it certainly is quite
engrossing and compelling in it's narrative. Leonard probably read this book as
a teen-ager, 20 or so years before he began capturing & killing women, and it
struck such a powerful chord of DOMINATION in his mind, that he obsessed over
this fantasy for all those years. No surprise really, CHILDREN are rendered
POWERLESS by society. It is only natural for some children to become obsessed
with having complete power and contrl over one or more fellow humans, and to
retain this obsession throughout their entire lives.
Like ALL serial killers, Leonard was severely abused and traumatized as a
child. His Mommy abandoned him as a child, leaving him behind but taking his 2
younger siblings with her when she decided to reunite with her estranged,
alcoholic, husband. Leonard's younger sister testified a few days ago that
Leonard was 9 years old when abandoned, and even though he initially acted
tough and pretended that he didn't want to go with his Mommy, as the train
wasabout to leave the station, with Leonard's Mommy & 2 siblings, she saw 9
year old Leonard hysterically screaming: "Take me with you!", but of course his
screaming was of no avail, and the abandonment occured.
He lived with his grandparents until age 18, when he promptly joined a
brainwashing organization designed to turn him into an immoral mass murderer.
That organization was the US marine corps. He served in Vietnam for TWO tours
of duty, no doubt murdering HUNDREDS of Vietnamese by his own hand. Of course
shese murders were LEGAL. As is the case with many socvietally brainwashed mass
murderers, he eventually suffered a mental breakdown and was promptly thrown
out of the marine corps. Society had USED HIM UP, and had no further use for
this slave in terms of committing legal murder. He had gotten married during
his Vietnam years, and his ex-wife tells us that after the mental breakdown, he
was never the same, and began to tie, beat, and abuse her. Why shouldn't he
tie, beat, and abuse women?? His society FORCED him to MASS MURDER complete
strangers! Compared to that, abuse of women is FAR easier to rationalize and
see as being a perfectly valid act, far more so than the mass murder of total
strangers.
They got divorced in 1972, but Leonard continued to stalk her, breaking into
her house at least three times. He eventually decided to move on, met a 16 year
old girl, and raped her, then proceeded to become a "lady's man", romancing &
wooing HUNDREDS of gals, while ironing out his plan to build a sex dungeon &
imprison women in the future.
It's nice to get all these details, and more, revealed to us, even if it is
such a long time since Leonard's death. We at least get to try and relate to
his True Reality life path. It certainly was a very busy life that Leonard led,
but his primary goal of enslaving women dated back all the way to his childhood
and teen years. Like all serial killers, Leonard was CREATED as a child, even
if he didn't start serially killing until he was in his late 30's or 40's.
In another interesting detail, we hear that Leonard liked to perform
scientific experiments as a child, and once he DISSOLVED a whole buch of living
mice with chemicals, leaving behind only a "gooey green liquid residue". If
only it was that easy to dissolve human beings completely, Leonard & Charles
MIGHT never been found out to be serial killers.
Leonard STARTED his killing spree by slaughtering his own brother and the
best man from his wedding, in order to collect their government checks. IMO,
these killings were to Leonard just as "justifiable" as any of his "legal
murders" in Vietnam were. And why shouldn't they be?? It makes much MORE
rational sense to kill people that you KNOW, than to kill complete strangers.
Arrested at his mountain cabin/fortress, Leonard was taken to police
headquarters, BETRAYED Charles Ng to police by named Charles as his ACCOMPLICE,
then asked for a glass of water. When given the water, he popped a hidden
cyanide pill into his mouth, swallowed, went into a coma, and soon died.
Bummer! The world has gone on for 14 years already, since Leonard died. He has
missed out on so much. Oh well, it was his choice, stupid as it was, to end his
life.
Charles Ng had and has a much greater degree of self-love, IMO. And one can
only hope that his lawyers can somehow convince the jury that his partner
Leonard committed all of the actual murders, and thus retan acquittal for
Charles. That is VERRY unlikely, IMO, but hope springs eternal. And no matter
what the verdict is, I think Charles will survive and thrive well behind bars,
because he possesses the all important sense and REALITY within himself of self
love, that some killers are tragically missing.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 12/ 7/98 online edition of The
Sacramento Bee newspaper:
Portrait of complex Lake emerges in Ng trial
By Laura Mecoy
Bee Los Angeles Bureau
(Published Dec. 7, 1998)
SANTA ANA -- Leonard Lake has been dead nearly 14 years, but accused mass
murderer Charles Ng's lawyers still put him on trial last week.
Opening their case in one of the state's most macabre murder trials, Ng's
lawyers called Lake's former friends, neighbors and lovers to paint a portrait
of a man who epitomized evil.
Before he killed himself in 1985, Ng's lawyers claim, Lake was a violent
misogynist who acted alone to kill the 12 people their client is charged with
helping him murder. They say that Lake may have killed at least six more.
But nearly five weeks of testimony, interviews, court files and Lake's own
words reveal a much more complex character. Former acquaintances and
girlfriends said he was a sweet-talker who could sweep women off their feet
"like out of a movie."
At the same time, the overweight and balding ex-Marine was a troubled misfit
who complained that he wasn't attractive enough to get the women he desired.
So, he said in his matter-of-fact manner, he would make them his sex slaves.
"What I want is an off-the-shelf partner," he said in an October 1983 home
video. "I want to be able to use a woman whenever and however I want, and when
I'm tired or satiated . . . I simply want to put her away."
The next day he broke ground on an underground bunker with a hidden, soundproof
room for his female captives.
He called it "Operation Miranda" in honor of the young woman named Miranda
imprisoned by a clerk in the John Fowles novel "The Collector."
Lake said it was a fantasy he'd had for 20 years.
Patrick J. Callahan, a forensic psychologist who has written about Lake, said
Lake must have read the novel in high school. "Along with his own feelings of
rejection and his inability to deal with women, it must have made him want to
control women," Callahan said.
Ng's lawyers trace Lake's deep-seated hatred of women to his mother's
abandonment of him. She left him in San Francisco and took his two younger
siblings to Seattle to join her alcoholic husband.
Sylvia Showalters, Lake's younger sister, said her brother was just 9 and had
said he didn't want to go. But she said her mother heard him screaming "take me
with you" when their train pulled away from the station.
Lake stayed with his grandparents until he joined the Marines in 1964, at age
18. There, he would display troubling signs of mental instability.
He had married Karen Roedlin 1969 and returned to Vietnam for his second tour
of duty as a radio technician when he suffered a mental breakdown.
The doctors diagnosed him as suffering from impending schizophrenia and
hysterical neurosis, and the Marines declared him unfit for service in 1971.
Roedl said Lake was a changed man after that. He tied her up during sex and
beat her. She divorced him in 1972. But he continued to stalk her and broke
into her home three times.
Lake moved to Ukiah a year later, where he met a woman, identified in court
only as Ms. L. An inveterate photographer, he persuaded her to pose for him.
Then, she said, he raped her. She was just 16.
He photographed and pursued many more women in Ukiah until he met Tania Levy in
1974. He moved in with her at her 200-acre farm at Greenfield Ranch, a utopian
community that eschewed violence and modern amenities.
Two years later, she said she sold her farm to Lake because he'd become
violent.
During his eight years at Greenfield Ranch, Lake's neighbors said, he was
charming and always willing to help. But many never really trusted him.
"He was kind of a misfit," neighbor Oberon Zell said. "The rest of us were . .
. hippies, and he was a pretty straight guy."
Lake was a survivalist who boasted of carrying "death in my pocket" in the form
of cyanide pills he vowed to take when the "nuclear holocaust" came.
He was helping Zell display his "unicorn," a goat surgically altered to sprout
a single horn, when Lake met and married his second wife, Claralyn Balazs, in
1981.
In the spring of 1982, a Marine who had met Lake through a mutual friend went
to work at the Philo motel Lake and Balazs were managing.
He was Charles Chitat Ng, a fugitive who had escaped from a Hawaii military
prison several months earlier.
In April, the FBI found Ng at Lake's ranch and arrested him for allegedly
stealing automatic weapons from the Hawaiian military base where he had been
stationed.
Sheriff's deputies also arrested Lake on charges of stealing goods and weapons
they found in the same raid. Lake jumped bail and began his life as a fugitive.
Balazs divorced him, Ng went to prison and Lake was suddenly on his own.
In an ominous entry in his diary, he said America couldn't "deal with a truly
free man" willing to kill himself.
Falling back on his military training, Lake launched his "ops," or operations,
to make money he could no longer earn legitimately.
In his diary, he describes home burglaries and raids on marijuana farms at
Greenfield Ranch. Ng's lawyers claim Lake even murdered his brother and the
best man from his wedding to assume their identities and collect their
government checks. Neither of those deaths was known until after Lake died.
Lake's sisters said he had long resented his younger brother Donald, who had
suffered a disabling head injury after he was struck by a train.
In late 1982 or early 1983, Lake told his family he had a house-sitting job for
his brother. The two brothers left together, and no one has seen Donald since.
In his diary, Lake writes about collecting his brother's disability checks.
Then, he says, he "woke for the third morning in a row with dreams of guilt."
But his guilt didn't stop him from planning to kill the best man from his
wedding, Charles Gunnar. He discusses several failed attempts and berates
himself for being a "Coward!!" But on May 24, 1983, he writes that he "finally"
completed his plot.
Gunnar's body was found nine years later buried at Lake's Calaveras County
cabin.
In October 1983, Lake began building his underground bunker and wrote about it
in letters to his imprisoned friend Ng.
Then, shortly before Ng's June 24, 1984, release, Lake stopped writing in his
diary.
On July 25, 1984, Harvey Dubs, his wife, Deborah, and their infant son, Sean,
disappeared from their San Francisco apartment. A neighbor later saw Ng taking
items from their apartment.
In September, Lake resumed writing in his diary with a chilling entry. He says
"the past two months saw Miranda come to fruit."
Over the next nine months, six more men, two more women and one more infant
would disappear.
Each of them, the prosecution contends, was a victim of Ng's and Lake's
cold-blooded killing spree.
It was a spree that continued until a reserve police officer spotted Ng
shoplifting in South San Francisco on June 2, 1985.
Ng ran off, but Lake stayed behind and the police arrested him. At the station,
he named Ng and asked for water, paper and a pen.
He scribbled a note, swallowed the cyanide pill hidden in his shirt, slumped
into a coma, and died four days later.
In the last words he scribbled in the note addressed to his ex-wife Balazs, he
said: "I love you. Please forgive me. I forgive you. Please tell Mama, Fern and
Patty, I'm sorry."
--------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/1/98 online edition of The
Sacramento Bee newspaper:
Lake raped 16-year-old girl, Ng jurors told
By Laura Mecoy
Bee Los Angeles Bureau
(Published Dec. 1, 1998)
SANTA ANA -- The defense in alleged mass murderer Charles Ng's trial opened its
case Monday by portraying the defendant's friend, Leonard Lake, as a
controlling man who engaged in sexual bondage and raped a 16-year-old.
Three of Lake's past sexual partners testified that he tried to control them
and tied them to a bed in the same manner as one of the women seen on a
videotape Lake and Ng made. The tape shows two of the women Ng is charged with
killing.
One of the women who testified Monday was identified only as Ms. L and
haltingly described Lake tying her up and raping her when she was just 16 years
old.
A fourth witness, identified only as Mrs. M, said Lake wanted to make "snuff
films," in which he would murder his sexual partner, because he said "that
would be the ultimate sexual high."
Lake killed himself shortly after his 1985 arrest, and the defense is trying to
convince the jury that he alone killed the seven men, three women and two
infants Ng is charged with murdering.
As Ng's lawyers opened their case after the holiday recess, they focused on
their claim that Lake had such a deep-seated hatred for women and a desire to
control them that he alone had the motive to murder the three women.
The defense lawyers lost their bid to get two of the murder charges against
their client dismissed. William Kelley, Ng's lead lawyer, also lost his bid to
get the public excluded from the courtroom to protect the privacy of two women
who subsequently testified anonymously.
One victim's father and various media organizations, including The Sacramento
Bee, objected.
Dwight Stapley, whose son Scott is among the seven men Ng is charged with
killing, told the judge the victims' privacy wasn't protected during the three
weeks of the prosecution's case.
"They (the defense lawyers) totally invaded Scott's privacy, our privacy, too,"
Stapley said later with his wife alongside.
Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan acknowledged that "very sensitive things" had
been discussed about the victims, and ruled that the women would have to
testify in open court.
Despite The Bee's objection, he allowed them to testify anonymously to protect
their privacy.
The first to testify anonymously, Ms. L, said her mother gave Lake permission
to take photos of her as a teenager in 1974. Eventually, she said, her mother
allowed her to go alone with Lake to his home.
There, she said, Lake must have slipped a drug into her drink because he got
photos of her nude -- photos for which she has "no memory" of posing.
Ms. L, now 40, said she agreed to more photo sessions because he threatened to
show the nude pictures to her mother. During one of the photo sessions, she
said, Lake strapped her to a bed and then "he raped me of my virginity."
"I just kept screaming for him to stop and that I was going to tell," she said.
"After it was over, he said no one would believe me after they saw the (nude)
pictures of me." Ms. L said he continued to threaten her, so she continued to
have sex with him until 1975, when she moved.
Mrs. M, the second woman allowed to testify anonymously, said she met Lake in
October 1972 through a personal ad. She said their relationship quickly went
from a "sweet, very gentle" one to a "kinky" one.
"There was bondage, prostitution," she said. "There was swinging -- pretty
aberrant behavior."
She said she was "stupid" to get involved in such behavior and ended the
relationship in June 1973 after he struck her.
While she was living with him, though, Mrs. M said Lake told her he wanted to
make a "snuff film" because it "would create a passion for a woman that would
be unequalled."
Lake's first wife, Karen Roedl, testified Monday that he tried to control her
by taking the tips and the paychecks she earned as a dancer after they married
in 1969.
Psychiatric problems led to Lake's discharge from the Marines in 1971, and
Roedl said he became more controlling.
Blushing deeply, she said he got her to participate in "wife swapping" and
their "playful bondage became more serious . . . I couldn't get loose. The
physical fighting things became me being slapped while I was tied up."
Another former girlfriend, Charla Neilson, said she never had a sexual
relationship with Lake. But she testified that he told her he was a pagan who
believed in animal sacrifice.
While Monday's testimony may have shown Lake to be a sexual predator, Ng's
lawyers fell short in their efforts to show Lake hated all women because of the
resentment he felt for his mother.
Lake's sister, Sylvia Showalters, said Lake had a "pretty friendly"
relationship with his mother -- even though she left him with his grandmother
when he was 9.
Lake's cousin, Chester Richardson, also said Lake's relationship with his
mother "seemed OK."
Richardson, however, said Lake was very interested in scientific experiments at
an early age.
He said his cousin had a room full of white mice from a school experiment. When
he had to get rid of them, Richardson said Lake chemically dissolved the mice,
leaving behind only a "lumpy green liquid."
Police found the bodies of only two of the 12 people Ng is charged with
killing. The rest have never been recovered.
Peggi Hsu
killings on Leonard Lake,new details emerge o
>From: joe1...@aol.com (Joe1orbit)
>Date: 12/7/98 10:37 AM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <19981207133740...@ng38.aol.com>
*** Thanks for the update, Joe. This look into Leonard's childhood is most
interesting. I do not recall who came up with it, but a while back an ATC-er
had a theory. It was during the heat of the high school shootings. The theory
was of least- favored children becomming killers. I believe some of the high
school shooters had siblings that were top students, very popular, teachers
pets, etc.
I thought it was a fascinating theory and it seems to apply here. It makes
sense that compounding a child's sense of abandonment by favoring another child
within the family would do much to ignite a deep rage. In this case, the
mother keeping two siblings while abandoning him could only serve to deepen the
pain. IMO Leonard would certainly be an extreme case of this syndrome.
I hope whoever orginally posed this theory will jump in and comment on this
case.
Wolfie =^..^=
Peggi Hsu wrote:
>*** Thanks for the update, Joe. This look into Leonard's childhood is most
> interesting. I do not recall who came up with it, but a while back an ATC-er
> had a theory. It was during the heat of the high school shootings. The theory
> was of least- favored children becomming killers. I believe some of the high
> school shooters had siblings that were top students, very popular, teachers
> pets, etc.
>
> I thought it was a fascinating theory and it seems to apply here. It makes
> sense that compounding a child's sense of abandonment by favoring another child
> within the family would do much to ignite a deep rage. In this case, the
> mother keeping two siblings while abandoning him could only serve to deepen the
> pain. IMO Leonard would certainly be an extreme case of this syndrome.
>
> I hope whoever orginally posed this theory will jump in and comment on this
> case.
I cannot comment on this from anything other than a personal point of view. I was
the oldest child with one sibling 6 years younger. My mother was extremely abusive
to me and often strangled me and attacked me with such a rage it scared me near to
death. When she wasn't doing that, she was totally indifferent to me. Now my sister
on the other hand was not singled out this way. She always did well in school and
never misbehaved like I did. My mother left when I was 10 and took my sister with
her while I was left with my alcoholic father who often threatened to kill himself
and me. My point is, I became a very angry person who fantasized about killing
people all the time. I wanted to kill my father and would threaten him with a
knife. I wanted to kill all the kids at school who made fun of me for being weird
while they were perfect like my sister. I believe I was capable to do these things,
but I ran away from home instead and lived on the streets. To this day I have very
bloody dreams of killing people and it feels so good to watch the fear in their
eyes. The fear I had felt as a small child when no one loved or protected me. I
have a history of violence and being abusive to people, even my own husband, but I
am finally getting help for it and am getting much better.
wolfie
Joe1orbit
pegg...@aol.com (Peggi Hsu) Wrote:
>*** Thanks for the update, Joe.
Hello,
My pleasure. Always glad to try and provide some insight into the True
Reality of a successful and enihmatic serial killer like Leonard.
This look into Leonard's childhood is most
>interesting. I do not recall who came up with it, but a while back an ATC-er
>had a theory. It was during the heat of the high school shootings. The
>theory
>was of least- favored children becomming killers.
Well, it's certainly a valid theory. "Least-favored" implies MOST traumatized
and mistreated and rejected and neglected/abused. So I would certainly agree
that all children who are "least-favored" stand a much greatert chance of
becoming murderers and predators later on in life, as opposed to popular,
well-treated, and favored children.
You humans talk a lot about the importance of not "spoiling" children by
treating them "too well and too leniently." That is ridiculous. A spoiled child
might suffer some adjustment problems in life, when they are forced to live on
their own and experience the trauma of life in this cold and cruel world.
However, the spoiling of a child NEVER results in damage to the child's soul,
and no spoiled child ever goes on to become a murderer or predator, unless they
were ALSO abused and mistreated by some other human as a child, other than the
person or people who "spoiled" them.
> I believe some of the high
>school shooters had siblings that were top students, very popular, teachers
>pets, etc.
I believe that is correct. A few of the school shooters of last year did fit
this criteria, but all all or even a majority.
> I thought it was a fascinating theory and it seems to apply here. It makes
>sense that compounding a child's sense of abandonment by favoring another
>child
>within the family would do much to ignite a deep rage.
I agree. It qualifies as emotional TORTURE.
> In this case, the
>mother keeping two siblings while abandoning him could only serve to deepen
>the
>pain.
I absolutely agree with you.
> IMO Leonard would certainly be an extreme >case of >this syndrome.
Some people, like me, would argue that committing suicide or engaging in self
destructive behavior as a result of this type of emotional torture is a MORE
extreme example of abhorrant behavior, than is the choice that Leonard made to
become a serial killer and direct his rage outward, rather than inward.
Certainly it is more COMMON for victimized children to direct their rage
inward. I think that is a more extreme example of dysfunctionality, than is the
commission of serial murder by a child abuse victim.
>I hope whoever orginally posed this theory will jump in and comment on this
>case.
That would be cool.
Take care, JOE
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