California authorities were led to a cabin that hid 11 victims abducted by Charles Ng and Leonard Lake.
A routine shoplifting arrest in San Francisco led to the investigation of one of the most disturbing and gruesome string of atrocities in California history. The evidence showed Charles Ng to have committed acts of depravity and cruelty against 11 women but it would take 14 more years for him to be tried and convicted.
Born in Hong Kong on December 24, 1960, Charles Ng was the youngest of three children. Being the only son of a wealthy Hong Kong executive, Charles was often disciplined violently by his father. As a teen Charles was expelled from many schools, including a boarding school in England, and was described by his peers as a troubled loner.
He moved to the United States on a student visa in 1978 and enrolled at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California, only to drop out after one semester. There, he was involved in a hit-and-run accident. To avoid prosecution Charles enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in October 1979. But his tour of duty was cut short when he was caught stealing automatic weapons from the Kaneohe Bay base armory.
A few months later in 1980 Ng was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged, but was able to flee back to northern California before completing his sentence. He then met survivalist Leonard Lake. The pair developed a close bond and shared a mobile home in Ukiah where they kept a large stash of illegal weapons and explosives.
A police raid of the mobile home in April 1982 led to Ng’s arrest. Leonard was released
on bond, but jumped bail to hide in a cabin in Wilseyville. Ng was returned to Marine custody and sentenced to eighteen months in the stockade at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After serving time, Ng rejoined Lake who was still hiding at the Wilseyville cabin where he had built a makeshift bunker.
That’s when their spree of mayhem and murder began.
Ng and Lake lured 11 victims to the cabin and held them captive in the bunker for long periods, often months, torturing, then killing them with gunshot or by other, more gruesome means. Two of the victims weren’t identified until 2025.
The deadly spree continued until June 2, 1985 when Ng was caught shoplifting from a hardware store in San Francisco. The police responded and discovered that Ng was accompanied by Lake. A search of Lake’s vehicle uncovered unlicensed guns and a silencer. That was ample grounds to arrest Lake while Ng was arrested for shoplifting.
While in custody Lake swallowed a hidden cyanide pill and was later found dead. This prompted the authorities to trace his life back to the Wilseyville cabin where investigators discovered the torture bunker along with buried human remains, videotapes of victims, and journals detailing the murders.
During the booking process, Ng managed to escape while the officers were dealing with paperwork and fled to Canada. On July 6 of the same year he was caught shoplifting a can of salmon from a Calgary department store. When confronted, Ng pulled a gun and shot a store security guard. He was convicted in Canada for assault and robbery and served several years in prison before being extradited to the United States on September 26, 1991.
The trial of Charles Ng didn’t begin until October 26, 1998. It became one of the longest and most expensive trials in California history. It wasn’t until February 24, 1999 that he was convicted of multiple counts of murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Now 65, Charles Ng, remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
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