Charles Ng

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Chi-Tat Ng (Chinese: 吳志達, Cantonese IPA: [ŋ̩²¹ ʣ̥i³³ d̥ɑt̚²²], Pinyin: Wú Zhìdá; born December 24, 1960) is an American serial killer who committed his crimes with Leonard Lake.

He was born to wealthy parents in Hong Kong and partly educated in England. As a child he was harshly disciplined by his father at every opportunity. Ng eventually moved to the United States and briefly served in the Marine Corps before he was dishonorably discharged for theft, for which he served time in prison. In the early 1980s he met Leonard Lake. 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, most of whom were women. ^[1] ^[2]

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. 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 4 and half years to 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 of 11 of the murders, those of six men, three women and two baby boys, and was sentenced to death. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.