Charles Ng

Charles Chi-Tat Ng (Chinese: 吳志達, Cantonese , pinyin: Wú Zhìdá; born December 24, 1960) is a Chinese-American serial killer who committed his crimes with Leonard Lake, in America.

Early life

He was born in Hong Kong, and was the son to a wealthy executive of a company. As a child he was harshly disciplined and abused by his father. As a teenager, Ng was described as troubled and a loner and was expelled from various schools. After he was arrested for shoplifting when he was fifteen, his father tried to straighten his son out and sent him to a boarding school in England. Not very long after Ng arrived in England, he was expelled from school after he was caught stealing possessions of other students. After he was expelled, he returned to Hong Kong.

Ng eventually moved to the United States where he briefly attended Notre Dame College until he dropped out after one year. He then enlisted in the Marine Corps in late 1979 and served for less than one year before he was dishonorably discharged for theft of heavy weaponry and machine guns at MCAS Kaneohe Bay. He was further charged with escape from confinement and attempt at desertion, although the charge for desertion was dropped. Ng was convicted on the remaining charges and ordered to spend 14 years in a military prison. He only served a fraction of that time before his sentence was commuted and he was released in the early 1980s. (Reference: United States vs Charles Ng)

Ng then met Leonard Lake in 1982 and the pair are suspected of murdering up to 25 people at Lake's ranch in Calaveras County, California. They filmed themselves raping and torturing their victims.

Killing spree

The crimes came to light in 1985 when Lake committed suicide after being arrested for a firearms offense, and police searched his ranch and found human remains. Charles Ng was identified as Lake's partner in the crimes. Ng fled to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he was arrested by the Calgary Police Service on July 6, 1985 after resisting arrest for shoplifting at The Bay department store. Ng pulled a gun on two security officers, and after a brief struggle Ng shot one of them in the hand. However, the two officers did manage to overpower him and held him in custody. Ng was charged and subsequently convicted of shoplifting, assault, and possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to four and half years in a Canadian prison. After a long extradition battle (see Reference re Ng Extradition), Ng was finally handed over to the U.S. authorities. Ng stood trial on 12 counts of murder in 1998. He was convicted on February 11, 1999 of 11 of the murders, those of six men, three women and two baby boys, and was sentenced to death. Ng's trial was lengthy and cost the state approximately $14 million, which remains the most expensive trial in California state history. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.