Leonard Lake

Early life Leonard Lake was born in San Francisco, California, the first of three children to Elgin Leonard Lake and Gloria May Williams. Lake's parents divorced when he was six years old, and his mother's second marriage produced two half-sisters. The siblings moved in with their maternal grandmother after the divorce.

Lake was reportedly a bright child, but developed an obsession with pornography after habitually photographing his sisters nude, which his grandmother apparently encouraged. Lake allegedly killed mice by dissolving them in chemicals, in the same manner he would later dispose of his human victims' corpses, and became fascinated with the idea of holding women captive after reading the John Fowles novel The Collector (1963) in his teens. He served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War as a radar electronics technician. During this period, Lake was first diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. After what was termed a "delusional breakdown" in Da Nang, Lake received psychotherapy and, in 1971, a medical discharge.

In April 1982, police arrested Lake and Ng on weapons charges. Ng was returned to Fort Leavenworth to complete his sentence. Lake jumped bail and began life as a fugitive, using various aliases and disguises in an attempt to hide his identity. In July 1984, Ng rejoined Lake and his wife after he had completed his sentence and had been dishonorably discharged. He first stayed in an apartment rented by one of Lake's sisters before moving into an apartment on Lenox Way in San Francisco that autumn. Meanwhile, Lake moved into a remote cabin near Wilseyville owned by his in-laws. Next to the cabin he had built a structure described in his journals as a "dungeon". Lake is known to have committed several murders without the assistance of Ng, and wrote in his journal that Ng was initially "very hesitant to get involved with my plan". In December 1982, Donald was living with his mother in San Francisco, California when Leonard stopped by and asked Donald to come along to a house-sitting job. Donald was never seen again, and his mother reported him missing. Leonard resurfaced on New Year's Day in 1983 to rent a room in a house under the name "Alan Drey". Leonard had stolen Donald's identity and began cashing his disability checks. Leonard also later forged a letter to their mother claiming to be Donald and that he had moved away to live with drug dealers in Reno, Nevada. Four months later, Lake moved in with his friend Charles Donald Gunnar, 34. Gunnar was the best man at Lake's wedding to Balazs in 1981. On May 20, 1983, Lake invited Gunnar on a road trip to Las Vegas after his divorce. Several days later, Lake returned alone in Gunnar's van and told acquaintances that Gunnar ran off with a woman. Gunnar was never seen again. In 1984, Reginald "Reggie" Frisby, 29, was murdered. He was never reported missing and it is unclear how he met Lake and Ng. His remains were found on June 7, 1985, by police investigating a cabin near Wilseyville during the initial investigation but not identified until January 2025 using investigative genetic genealogy. Frisby had been living in San Francisco and disappeared from public records after January 1984; his body was buried alongside that of Maurice Rock, indicating they were possibly killed around the same time in July or August of that year. In 1993 while he was still unidentified, his remains were chosen to be analyzed by a forensic anthropologist due to the fact that he was the only complete skeleton found on the property whose identity was still unknown, and a sketch was prepared of his likeness. On May 1, 1984, Jeffrey Dean Askren, 30, was reported missing after not showing up for work in Santa Clara, California. His late model Honda automobile was found three days later in the West Point area of Calaveras County, six miles from Lake's home. On July 11, 1984, Donald Albert Giulietti, 36, a disc jockey from San Francisco, California, was shot in the head by an assailant armed with a pistol. Giulietti lived with a man named Richard Carrazza. Carrazza was also shot in the chest but survived and contacted police after the shooter fled. Carrazza, the only known victim of Lake or Ng to have survived, identified Ng as the shooter. On the night they disappeared, Deborah was speaking on the telephone to a friend when the doorbell rang at their apartment. Deborah told her friend that she had to end the conversation, as two men had arrived. The Dubs family were never heard from again. A receipt in Harvey's name and video equipment from the Dubses' home were found at Lake's cabin. On October 15, 1984, Randy Vern Jacobson, 35, disappeared from a San Francisco rooming house after becoming involved in a business deal with Lake. Lake subsequently stole his identity and tried to steal his van after the murder, but the van was towed before he was able to move it. Jacobson's remains were buried on the Wilseyville property. On November 2, 1984, Paul Steven Cosner, 39, was last seen in San Francisco, California. His brown 1980 Honda Prelude disappeared with him. Cosner had advertised the vehicle for sale in a local newspaper and went missing when he went to show his car to a potential buyer he described as “weird". On November 16, 1984, Cheryl Lynn Okoro (born Sheryl Lynn Porter), 25, disappeared from the same San Francisco rooming house where Rock had lived. Photographs, personal belongings, and an 11-page letter by Okoro were recovered from the Wilseyville property, but her remains were never found. On January 20, 1985, Clifford Raymond Peranteau, 23, went missing from San Francisco. He was a coworker of Ng's at Dennis Moving Company and in April 1985, Lake sold Peranteau's motorcycle to a man in West Point, California. Several of Peranteau's personal belongings were discovered in an apartment Ng owned. On February 24, 1985, Jeffrey Dean Gerald, 25, went missing from San Francisco after saying he was going to help Ng move for a side job. On April 19, 1985, Lonnie Wayne Bond Sr., 27, his live-in girlfriend Brenda Sue O'Connor, 20, their son, Lonnie Wayne Bond Jr., 1, and a family friend, Robin Scott Stapley, 26, went missing from Wilseyville. When Lake was arrested on June 2, Lonnie's license plate was affixed to the car he was driving. Lonnie Sr.'s and Stapley's bodies were found buried at Wilseyville in a shallow grave about a mile (1,600 m) from Lake's property. O'Connor's remains were identified as being among those found at the cabin by police in 2025. Lonnie Jr. has never been found.

Lake's fall and aftermath On June 2, 1985, Ng was caught shoplifting a vise from a hardware store in South San Francisco and fled on foot, throwing the vise into the trunk of a brown Honda. Lake attempted to pay for the vise, but by then police had arrived.

Ng, who had never obtained U.S. citizenship, was captured in a department store in Calgary, Alberta, on July 6, 1985. A store security guard suspected him of shoplifting, and in the ensuing confrontation, Ng shot the security guard. Although wounded, the security guard disarmed and detained Ng until police arrived. Ng served four and a half years in a Canadian prison, and tried to fight extradition to the United States on the grounds that he would be subject to capital punishment. In 1991, he was extradited to California, where he was indicted on 12 counts of first-degree murder. Despite the video evidence and the information in Lake's diaries, Ng maintained that he was merely an observer and that Lake planned and committed all of the kidnappings, rapes, and murders unassisted.

In February 1999, Ng was convicted of 11 of the 12 homicides—six men, three women, and two male infants. Jurors deadlocked on the 12th charge, the murder of Paul Cosner, but Ng was sentenced to death. The presiding judge noted: "Mr. Ng was not under any duress, nor does the evidence support that he was under the domination of Leonard Lake."

, Ng was incarcerated at California Medical Facility.