Leonard Lake

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Leonard Lake (born October 29, 1945 or July 20, 1946 , † June 6, 1985 ) was an American serial killer . He committed his crimes with Charles Ng . The series of murders was exposed when Lake died of suicide by swallowing a potassium cyanide pill after he was arrested on a gun crime.

biography

Early years

Lake was born in San Francisco . He was a bright kid but obsessed with pornography . One of the reasons for this is that he took nude pictures of his sisters, which his mother apparently encouraged him to do. It is alleged that Lake blackmailed his sisters into sexually serving him in order to protect them from their younger brother Donald, who was already criminal.

Lake joined the US Marines at the age of twenty and served as a radar officer during the Vietnam War . When he was diagnosed with mental illness, he was discharged from the military and underwent medical treatment. Back in the civilian world, he got married. His wife divorced when she found out that he was producing and actively participating in amateur porn that included bondage .

In 1980, Lake received a one-year suspended sentence for theft. He married again. His wife soon left him, fed up with her husband's increasingly moody behavior and his insistence on her involvement in porn . Lake was arrested in 1982 for violating the gun law. He defied parole and settled in Wilseyville . Here he was joined by Charles Ng , a young man from Hong Kong whom he had met a few years earlier.

discovery

On June 2, 1985, an Asian man who was later identified as Charles Ng was caught shoplifting in southern San Francisco. He fled when police arrived while Leonard Lake, who was with him, was arrested when police searched his car and found a gun that was illegally fitted with a silencer . He gave his name as Robin Stapley and showed a driver's license in that name. The police became suspicious that Robin Stapley was 26 years old according to the driver's license, while the man in front of them was clearly in his late 30s. While being questioned at the police station, Lake asked for a glass of water and used it to swallow a potassium cyanide pill that he had hidden in the lapel of his shirt. He collapsed and was taken to the hospital. Lake fell into a coma and survived on life support machines for four days before he was pronounced dead.

At this point, police had established the suspect's real identity as Leonard Lake. It also became clear that the man Lake claimed to be, Robin Stapley, had been missing for several weeks. The car Lake was using was identified as the car of Paul Cosner, 39, who had been missing for eight months.

Police raided Lakes Ranch in Wilseyville. It turned out that Lake was a "survivalist", his ranch was equipped with a bunker and various weapons. In a diary, Lake wrote that he was convinced that a nuclear war would take place - and that he planned to survive in his bunker and rebuild the human race with a collection of female slaves . He named this plan "Operation Miranda" after a character in the book The Collector by John Fowles . The police also found videos showing Lake and Ng torturing and raping women.

The ranch floor was dug up and twelve bodies were found in shallow graves. These victims included two entire families: Harvey Dubs, his wife Deborah, and their baby Sean, and Lonnie Bond, Brenda O'Connor, and their baby Lonnie Bond Jr.The women were sexually abused and killed after their husbands and children were tortured and killed had been. This was partly done to make the women compliant. Five bodies were from men lured to the ranch to be robbed and killed, including Robin Stapley and Paul Cosner. One body was identified as 18-year-old Kathleen Allen, whom Ng knew through her brother who had been his cellmate in prison. The police also found many charred bones of human origin but were unable to establish the identity or the number of victims.

Lake's younger brother Donald had been missing and believed dead since 1983, as had Charles Gunnar, a friend of Lake's military service, whose remains were discovered under the ranch in 1992.

Authorities believe Lake and Ng killed up to 25 people.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Don Lasseter: Die for Me: The Terrifying True Story of the Charles Ng & Leonard Lake . Pinnacle Books in New York , NY , 2000, ISBN 0-7860-1107-6 , p20.
  2. ↑ a b Michael Newton: The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers . Checkmark Books in New York , NY , 1999, ISBN 0-8160-3978-X , p134.
  3. ^ Newton, p. 135.
  4. ^ Newton, p. 136.
personal data
SURNAME Lake, Leonard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1945 or July 20, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1985