Leonard Lake & Charles Ng

He then returned to Hong Kong until, at the age of eighteen, he obtained a student visa to study in the U.S. and attended Notre Dame College in Belmont California. Obviously the life of a student didn't appeal to him as he dropped out after just one semester. In October 1979, Ng was charged in relation to a hit and run accident. He was later convicted and ordered to pay damages. Shortly after, he enlisted in the Marines, even though he wasn't an American citizen, listing Bloomfield, Indiana as his place of birth.

By 1981, Ng had been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. His military career ended shortly after, however, when he and three accomplices stole military weapons from an armoury at Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii. A month later, he was arrested by the Military Police and locked up. Within days of his incarceration, he escaped and made his way to California where he met up with Leonard Lake. One story suggests that the two met as a result of an ad that Lake had placed in a survivalist magazine but this information cannot be verified. Not long after, he moved in with Lake and Balasz until the FBI arrested them for weapons offences.

Following his release from Leavenworth in June 1984, Ng returned to California and moved into the Wilseyville cabin with Lake. Ng should have been deported following his release from Leavenworth but the Marine Corps was still unaware that he was not an American citizen.

Don Giuletti

The FBI estimates their kidnapping and killing spree started within a month of their reunion. In July 1984, Donald Giuletti, a San Francisco disc jockey, and his roommate, Richard Carrazza, were shot by an Asian man who broke into their apartment and robbed them. Giuletti died in the attack but Carrazza survived and would later identify Charles Ng as his attacker. The pistol used in the attack was found at the Wilseyville site.

Gradually, the FBI were successful in tracing Ng's movements after leaving San Francisco. On the day that Claralyn Balasz had driven him to the airport, he was seen boarding an American Airlines flight to Chicago. On his arrival, he booked into the Chateau Hotel under the name of Mike Kimoto before checking out four days later. He then met up with an unidentified friend and travelled to Detroit before crossing the border into Canada alone. A search of his apartment revealed a cache of weapons and property allegedly belonging to the victims as well as a pay slip from the Dennis Moving Company.

Leonard Lake at the time of his arrest

The FBI also compiled a dossier on Leonard Lake who obviously hadn't had the benefit of the privileged upbringing that Ng had enjoyed. He was born in San Francisco on October 29, 1945 to parents who were constantly fighting. His birth obviously did nothing to ease their domestic conflict as he was sent to live with various relatives until, at the age of six, he found a permanent home with his grandparents.

According to statements taken from his friends and relatives, Lake was never able to come to terms with his feelings of rejection and abandonment.

At the age of nineteen, Lake left home and enlisted in the Marines where he was trained as a radar operator. Following his specialist training, he was sent to Da Nang in Vietnam. According to his medical records, Lake was hospitalised during his first tour for "exhibiting incipient psychotic reactions." Obviously his superiors did not consider his condition serious as he was treated and returned to his unit to finish his tour. A second tour lasted a few short months before it was cut short when Lake was deemed to be suffering from "unspecified medical problems" and returned to El Toro Marine Base in Orange County. In all, he served seven years, earning the Vietnam Service Medal, a Vietnam Campaign Medal and two other medals for good conduct. He was later discharged on medical grounds and went to live in San Jose, California.

Shortly after his release, he entered the Oakland Veteran's Administration Hospital where he was treated for "psychological problems." Following his release, he briefly attended college at San Jose State University. Five years after his discharge, he met Claralyn Balasz at a renaissance fair in Marin County where he ran a stall, charging visitors for photographs posed with a goat that he had disguised as a unicorn. In 1981, Lake and Balasz were married and moved to a commune, located in Philo, Mendocino County, Northern California. While in Philo, the Lake's lived in a sprawling ranch that Leonard called "Alibi Run" where he allegedly grew marijuana. According to friends, it was about this time that Lake became delusional and converted his ranch into a "survivalist enclosure" and stocked it with weapons and supplies to ward off the "siege" that he believed was coming.

Although Charles Ng managed to elude a nationwide manhunt for thirty-four days, his penchant for shoplifting lead to his demise just as it had for Leonard Lake. On Saturday July 6, 1985, two security guards in a "Hudson Bay" store in Calgary approached Ng after he had attempted to leave the store with several grocery items secreted in a backpack. When they challenged him, Ng drew a gun and threatened them. A short scuffle followed, during which, one of the officers was shot in the hand before Ng was overpowered and taken into custody. He was later charged at Calgary Metropolitan Police station with robbery, attempted robbery, possession of a firearm and attempted murder.

As Charles Ng prepared to face the courts, news of his arrest reached the Calaveras Task Force. Any elation at his capture was soon dispelled, however, when John Cosbie, the Canadian Justice Minister, announced that under the terms of a 1976 extradition treaty with the United States, he had refused the request for Ng's extradition as Canada, having abolished capital punishment, would not release any prisoner charged with a capital crime that carried the death penalty.

After the US authorities had recovered from their shock, two San Francisco detectives were sent to interview Ng in his Calgary jail cell. He told them that it was Lake who was responsible for most of the Wilseyville killings but admitted helping to dispose of Paul Cosner's body. Following the interview, the US justice department made a renewed attempt to have Ng extradited but the Canadian authorities refused, as they were about to bring Ng to trial for offences committed on Canadian soil. He was later tried and convicted on the Calgary shoplifting and assault charges and sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment.

As Ng prepared to serve his sentence, the United States Justice Department began what would become a long and protracted battle to extradite Charles Ng.

Ng "the lawyer"

The battle lasted almost six years, during this period Ng spent most of his time studying American law. During the extradition proceedings, evidence was tabled that Ng had drawn several cartoons, which, according to US attorneys, showed details of the Wilseyville killings that only someone with an intimate knowledge of the killings could produce.