(upbeat music) - Paper was like gold in Medieval times. (upbeat music) - Oh, not tobacco, sugar. (upbeat music) - That everything we thought
we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong. (calming music) - [Narrator] In the summer of 1984, San Francisco is gripped by fear. Neighbors, family and friends are vanishing without a trace. Police are perplexed. The investigation takes a deadly turn when a killing field is uncovered high in the California mountains. As the body count climbs, the evidence points to an elusive killer. To bring this murderer to justice, a small town prosecutor must take a long, dark journey into
the mind of a serial killer. (dramatic music)
(sirens wailing) On the morning of October 26th, 1998, the longest and most
expensive criminal trial in California history got underway. With an investigation spanning 13 years and a case file weighing over two tons, the burden of prosecuting one of California's most notorious killers will fall on Peter Smith, the District Attorney of Calaveras County. - A prosecutor's job is to seek justice. I think many people look at prosecutors and think their job is to convict and put people in jail or prison, and that's part of the job too, but it really is our responsibility to make sure the justice system, particularly the criminal
justice system is carried out fairly to the point where justice is always sought. (fingers typing) - [Narrator] On June 2nd, 1985, a South San Francisco dispatch
operator received a call. A theft was in progress
at South City Lumber. - 3141. 1087 Robert-1 at South City
Lumber, Railroad and Spruce, on a 488 shoplifting. (radio chatter) - [Narrator] Officer Daniel Wright of the South San Francisco
Police Department responded to the call. (siren wails) - I had just one year on
the street at that time, and my thoughts were, you know,
officer safety, be careful. Like any corner you go to, things can go awry at any time. (siren wails) (tense music) - [Narrator] A witness told Wright he had seen an Asian male
stealing a $75 table vise. He said the thief when confronted tossed the vise into the
trunk of a brown Honda and fled on foot. Inside the Honda, Wright spotted
a suspicious looking case. - I opened up the case
and found a .22 Ruger with a cylinder shaped object that was probably 6 to 9 inches long. And through my training, I observed it to be a silencer. - [Narrator] The gun
was illegally modified. As Wright took a closer look, an agitated man burst from the store. - Calm down. - I got the receipt right here. - Okay, calm down. - [Narrator] He told the
officer he paid for the vise his friend had taken. Wright's supervisor, Sergeant Paul Ziemer, arrived on the scene. The gun and the Honda made
both officers suspicious. The car was impounded. - At that time, we told him that he was gonna be going down to the station to give a statement about the weapon, and he was handcuffed and placed into Officer Ziemer's vehicle and brought to our station. - [Narrator] On the way to the station, the man told Ziemer the
shoplifter's name was Charles Ng. (tense music) - Dispatch. I've got an ID on the Asian male subject. - [Narrator] The officer used his radio to request a background check on Ng. - November-golf. - [Narrator] They got a hit. Ng was a former Marine, born in Hong Kong. He had been convicted in military court for stealing automatic weapons from a military base in Hawaii. He had once escaped
from a military prison. At the South San Francisco Police Station, the subject was placed
in a secure holding room. He told the officer his
name was Leonard Lake. He said he was a fugitive from justice and offered to make a statement. - Be right back. - [Narrator] But first, he
wanted a piece of paper- - [Officer] All right, sir. - [Narrator] A pencil,
and a glass of water. (tense music) - Write your statement, I'll be back in a few minutes. Oh, he asked for- - [Narrator] Ziemer left the
room to summon Gary Hopper, the on-call detective that Sunday. When they returned, Lake was
on the floor convulsing wildly. Detective Hopper called the paramedics. - Ziemer! He was flopping around on the floor. It was very violent, like a fish flapping out
of water, uncontrollable. We had no idea what was
happening at the time, whether it was like an epileptic seizure, or just what was going on. - [Narrator] Detective
Hopper called the paramedics. (sirens wailing) - Once the paramedics got
into the emergency hospital, we found out a little later that they were finding no
activity at all in his brain. That he was apparently brain dead. (machine beeps) - [Narrator] An autopsy
later revealed that Lake had ingested capsules
containing cyanide. - The doctor told me, the
lab technicians told me that it took about 20 to 25 minutes for the gel cap to dissolve before the cyanide
actually hit his system, and that that would probably
coincide fairly well with the amount of time between
he was at the lumber yard and brought to the police station. - [Narrator] Rather than
writing a statement, Lake had written a note
to a woman named "Lyn". The note read... "Dear Lyn, I love you. I forgive you. Freedom is better than all else. I'm sorry, Mom, Patty and all. I'm sorry for all the trouble. Love, Leonard." Police were perplexed. Why had the suspect taken his own life? Whatever secrets Leonard Lake held, he took to the grave. The answer might lie with
Lake's companion, Charles Ng. Police issued a warrant for
Ng's arrest for shoplifting. Then, they processed the
car Lake had been driving. When they ran the serial number on the Honda's engine block, investigators discovered the
car belonged to Paul Cosner. Cosner, a Bay Area resident, had been missing for 7 months. (phone rings) - Hello? - [Narrator] Detective Irene Brunn of the San Francisco Police Department investigated Cosner's disappearance. Cosner's sister had reported
him missing months earlier. - I'll be in in a half hour. And she was quite distraught, her brother had disappeared. He'd had a date that evening with his girlfriend for dinner, who also lived in the
same apartment building where he lived. He failed to show up for that dinner date, and in speaking to the girlfriend, Paul was going to show a car that he was selling through
an advertisement in the paper. - [Narrator] Cosner was only
one of many strange cases involving missing persons in the Bay Area. Detective Brunn was also investigating the disappearance of an entire family. (waves crashing) On July 25th, 1984, San Francisco police responded to a frantic call for help. (mysterious music) Harvey Dubs, his wife, and
their 16 month old son, Sean, hadn't been seen for several days. (tense music) Police had to climb through a window to gain access to the Dubs apartment. - San Francisco Police Department. Anybody on the premises? - [Narrator] The Dubs family
had indeed disappeared, and the signs of a struggle were apparent. Days earlier, Harvey Dubs had placed an ad in the newspaper to rent
out his video equipment. That equipment was now missing. Missing persons cases usually
fit a certain profile. They often involve teenage runaways, or people who disappear
without telling anyone, only to return a few days later. In the case of the Dubs, it was clear the family
hadn't left voluntarily. Detective Brunn feared
they would never return. - In the house, there were things that were unusual and out of order. The baby's room was out of order. Deborah's medication was left at home, and it was something she
had to take every day. So, there were a lot of things that just didn't look right. They left their cats locked
in the house unattended, and they wouldn't have done that. - [Narrator] It is unusual
for people like Paul Cosner or the Dubs family to simply
vanish without a trace. Without leads, both cases had gone cold. - To be realistic, we get 500 a month. We had one family disappeared July 25th, now we're up to November 2nd. So, because of the case load, you're not trying to pin cases together. The only similarity was a newspaper ad. - [Narrator] Based on the discovery of Paul Cosner's brown Honda, Brunn and her partner re-opened his case, and searched the vehicle for clues. (camera snaps) They found a driver's license belonging to a man named Scott Stapley. They found a stun gun and
several unspent bullets on the floor of the car. A recent electric bill addressed to an unknown woman named Claralyn Balazs was found under the passenger seat. And in the roof of the car, investigators found a single bullet hole. - Can you see that from up there, partner? - [Narrator] The trajectory of the bullet indicated the shot was
fired from the backseat. Investigators sprayed luminol around the interior of the vehicle. Luminol reacts with proteins in blood, making even traces of blood fluoresce. High velocity blood spatter associated with a gunshot wound appeared on the roof next
to the front passenger seat. Brunn and her partner now suspected they would never find Cosner alive. With Leonard Lake dead, and his
partner Charles Ng at large, investigators could only wonder how many more victims they might find at the end of this trail of blood. Leonard Lake's mysterious suicide had now launched a full
scale police investigation. Brunn and her partner drove to the home of Leonard Lake's mother, who lived about an hour
outside of San Francisco. - Hi ma'am, I'm Detective Tom Heison, I'm with the police department- - [Narrator] At the house, they were surprised to
find Claralyn Balazs, the woman whose name
appeared on the electric bill found in Cosner's car. - Yeah, come in. - [Narrator] Claralyn
Balazs was Lake's ex-wife. They had been married for three years, but divorced a year earlier. - It's been a long drive up. - [Narrator] Detectives
suspected she might be the woman Lake addressed in his suicide note. They asked Balazs how an
electric bill in her name wound up in Paul Cosner's car. Balazs explained the address on the bill was for a cabin her family owned in Calaveras County in
Northern California. Although Brunn and her partner were eager to search the cabin, Balazs claimed she was too
busy to take them there until the next day. The detectives postponed their search until the following morning, and instructed Balazs not to visit the property in the meantime. - 10 o'clock. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. - So, we called the Calaveras
Sheriff's Department, and told them that we were gonna be coming up the following morning, and why we were going, and if it was possible for them to have somebody keep
an eye on the property. - [Narrator] Calaveras
County covers over 11,000 square miles of wild terrain. A force of 34 officers protected
the entire county in 1985. There hadn't been need for more. The sheriff sent two
deputies to watch the cabin, which was located outside
the town of Wilseyville. A metal gate prevented them from driving on to the property. - Because of their manpower shortage, they couldn't have somebody sit there for the next 24 hours, but they would make passing calls, which was reasonable. - [Narrator] The following morning, Brunn and her partner arranged
to meet Claralyn Balazs outside the Wilseyville post office. (radio chatter) They were surprised when she
arrived with Lake's mother. - And at that point, Claralyn admitted that they had driven up the night before. And the pretext was that
Leonard was very untidy, and they wanted to tidy up the cabin. - [Narrator] Concerned that
Balazs and Lake's mother might have compromised
evidence at the cabin, Brunn, her partner, and the
Calaveras County sheriffs followed them to the property. The detectives asked Balazs about a cinder block
bunker near the cabin. She said she didn't have the key, and would not give them
permission to search it. - That's not a good idea. It's something he built for us. - [Narrator] Lacking
sufficient probable cause for a warrant, the detectives would have
to limit their search to the cabin alone. - But at this point, we
were still more interested in getting into the house, so we didn't want to antagonize her. Because this was a consent search, other than that, we would've had to stop and go get a search warrant at that point. (dog barks) - [Narrator] While her
partner questioned Balazs, Detective Brunn searched the house. - [Claralyn] I came up last
night just for a few minutes- - [Narrator] She noticed
something odd about the bed. There were holes drilled into
the bed posts and the floor. It seemed designed to tie someone up. - And I was standing in
front of this bookcase, and I happened to turn around, and all of a sudden I
recognized a piece of equipment. And then it dawns on
me where I had seen it, it was the Dubs. - [Narrator] The video
equipment, Brunn recalled, had been stolen from
the home of Harvey Dubs, the San Francisco man who
vanished with his family 11 months earlier. - So, I went over and called my office. I said, "Would you mind
checking our inventory and read me the serial number?" He proceeded to start
reading the serial number, and then I gave him the last three numbers from the piece of paper
that I had in my hand. And so at that point we realized that now this is even getting bigger. It's not just Mr. Cosner,
now we have the Dubs. And at that point, Claralyn
got very nervous and said, "You've been here long
enough, I want you to leave." - [Narrator] To learn what other secrets the isolated cabin held, Detective Brunn would need
to obtain a search warrant. Investigators left the property, but this time they made sure
the cabin would be secure until they returned. (car drives) As investigators conducted a search of Leonard Lake's cabin
in Calaveras County, they had discovered video equipment that belonged to a family
who had been missing for more than a year. This gave them sufficient probable cause to petition the judge for a warrant. Ron McFall led the investigation for the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. - We did get one that day, and later that afternoon we went back to the residence to conduct a search of the
residence and the property, and what looked like a tool shed at first. - [Narrator] The tool shed
was a cinder block structure that bordered the driveway. Claralyn Balazs referred to
it as a "fallout shelter". - Got it! - [Man] Good, good. - [Narrator] Leonard Lake
had been a survivalist, and this was his fortress
against nuclear holocaust. (tense music) As the heavy doors swung open, investigators could only wonder what they might find inside. - And we went into the tool shed, and we found 21 photos of young ladies 18 to 23 years old. And then so at that point, we were really concerned
about who are these females, who are these ladies? - [Narrator] Many of the
photos were of young girls in various stages of undress. Some were nude. It was unclear who the subjects were, or where they had been photographed. Everyone feared the
pictures might be trophies, such as those serial killers
often keep of their victims. They also found a journal
written by Leonard Lake. In it, he wrote of "The Collector". A novel about a butterfly collector who captures his ultimate prize, a young girl named Miranda. In his journal, Lake writes, "The Collector. Has it really been near 20 years I've carried this fantasy? And Miranda, how fitting. My lovely little prisoner of the future." In other entries, Lake referred to a series of operations under the heading of
the "Miranda Project". The investigators could only speculate as to what this meant, but it seemed ominous. - Right here, Ron. - [Ron] Okay. - And you'll see where
there appears to be- - [Narrator] 100 yards from the bunker, Ron McFall and the other investigators noticed the ground had been scarred by a series of several fires. - We noticed at that point, approximately 7 different
burn sites on the property. We decided to look at the
burn sites a little further, and we found what we thought
may be bone fragments, but we weren't really sure. - [Narrator] If the
piles of ash did contain human bone fragments, someone had attempted to
conceal an unspeakable horror. Now desperate for answers, investigators ran the license plates of a truck parked near the cabin. It belonged to Lonnie
Bond, Lake's neighbor. - Hello, anybody in the house? - [Narrator] Lonnie
Bond lived with his wife and his 18 month old son in a house about 50
yards from Lake's cabin. - Anybody home? - [Narrator] Officers walked
next door to speak with Bond. - Hello? Anybody here? - Anybody home? - [Narrator] The smell of
decayed food thickened the air. The house appeared to have
been empty for some time, perhaps months. Although it seemed the
occupants departed abruptly, there was no sign of foul play. - [Officer] It's like
they all just disappeared. - [Narrator] Another vehicle
found on Lake's property belonged to Robin Scott Stapley. Stapley had been missing for some time, and his driver's license was
found in Paul Cosner's car. - Leonard Lake had used Scott
Stapley's drivers license because they were both big fellas, and he had been trying to pass
himself off as Scott Stapley. So we're contacting Southern California to see where is Scott Stapley, and it turns out he had been
living at the cabin next door, and no one had seen them either. - [Narrator] Investigators
intensified their search. (dog whimpers) Cadaver dogs, known for
their acute sense of smell were brought in to help. Authorities now suspected
that 8 missing people from Northern California
were linked to the cabin. If they had been murdered
as police feared, perhaps their bodies were
buried on the property. (dogs barking) - Hey, Rick, come here. - [Narrator] One of the dogs
recovered a piece of bone. - Hold it, come here! - [Narrator] The deputies
working the scene knew immediately that this
was not an animal bone. With the discovery of human remains, what had been a missing persons case now became a homicide investigation. Investigators declared Leonard Lake's property a crime scene, and assembled a task force to process the cabin and
surrounding property. - [Ron] We're just gonna
brief you a little bit about what's happened. - [Narrator] Due to the
expanding scope of the case, the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office called in additional help. - The location that we're talking about- - [Narrator] Specialists
from the San Francisco Police Department and the
California Department of Justice arrived to help with the investigation. - [Ron] Again... (radio chatter) - [Narrator] Three days
after Leonard Lake's suicide, a convoy of law enforcement vehicles descended on the property. (radio chatter) - [Narrator] Now that this
was a murder investigation, police knew that all material
recovered from the site could become vital to the
eventual prosecution of the case. Each section of the property was assigned to a specific team. The teams began a thorough search of the two acres surrounding the cabin. (radio chatter) In a clearing about a
hundred yards from the cabin, officers found a trench with loose dirt. (mysterious music) They found the trench had been filled with personal belongings and debris. - Hey, Officer Ballard! I got something. (radio chatter) - [Narrator] Sergeant Larry Copeland, an investigator for the Calaveras
County Sheriff's Office, joined in the search for clues. - Every button, zipper, jewelry even, everything that was taken out of there was turned over to the evidence officer who took each one, and individually photographed
each and every piece of it. And we're talking hundreds. - [Narrator] Everything
excavated from the property was potential evidence. All of the items were collected and sent to the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. They were meticulously cataloged. Investigators hoped that somewhere in this vast collection of evidence they would find the
clue that would untangle the mysteries hidden on Lake's property. - If we felt there was any
chance of it being used, or something that either ourselves or the defense could use,
we took it, and booked it. - [Narrator] Investigators sorted through the survival gear and supplies Lake had stockpiled in his
so called fallout shelter. (tense music) Lieutenant Ron McFall remembers that during this phase of the search, they made a surprising discovery. There was a secret door inside the bunker. - It was a false door. You really couldn't tell
just by looking at it, but there was shelving units, and after you wiggled the shelves, you saw that the door
actually popped open. - [Narrator] Beyond the
shelves was a double door leading to a hidden room. Off to the side was another three foot by six foot compartment. The cramped space contained
a homemade wood cot, a crude shelf holding some toiletries, and a roll of toilet paper. A small hole had been cut into
the wall near the ceiling, possibly for ventilation. A typed list of rules
was affixed to one wall. They included, "I must always
be ready to service my master. I must never speak unless spoken to. I must always be obedient. And never look my master in the eye." From outside, investigators
could see into the small room through a two way mirror. They also noticed that
the hinges of the door had been damaged. - The top and the bottom. You'll further notice the hinges are bent from obviously pressure from
inside the door pushing out, trying to get the door open. Both the top and bottom- - [Narrator] Remembering Lake's journal, investigators feared that Lake had acted upon his fantasy of kidnapping and holding
captive a human slave. Forensics specialists
dusted for fingerprints and blatant evidence. They hoped that if Lake had
indeed kept a prisoner here, he or she had left behind
some clue of their presence. They found nothing. As the search of the property
outside the bunker continued, an investigator noticed some loose soil next to the driveway. There, they found a 5 gallon
plastic paint container. As darkness fell, the task
force suspended its search. Inside the cabin, the investigators viewed one of the videotapes they had found buried in the plastic container. They could hardly believe
what they were seeing. This case was becoming more frightening with each piece of
evidence they uncovered. But nothing could prepare
them for what lay ahead. After two days of searching
Leonard Lake's cabin, investigators feared more then 8 people had been killed and possibly
buried on the property. On the second night, the task force moved inside the cabin to view the videotape found buried in a plastic container. The tape depicted two women suffering extreme verbal and psychological abuse at the hands of Leonard
Lake, and his accomplice, who demanded sexual submission under the threat of violence. - We also observed an
Asian male on the tape, and he had a knife in his hand, and he was cutting the clothing. This would be the blouse and the top, as well as the bra strap, removing clothes from the female. - [Narrator] The Asian male
was identified as Charles Ng. The shoplifter Leonard Lake had identified just prior to his suicide. The homicide division of the
San Francisco Police Department launched a full scale
manhunt for Charles Ng. Investigators started with a search of Ng's San Francisco apartment. They collected some video equipment and a number of videotapes. Everything was tagged as evidence and sent for analysis. San Francisco homicide
detective Ed Erdelatz led a task force that investigated the year old disappearance
of the Dubs family. The equipment Lake and Ng had used to videotape their captives had once belonged to Harvey Dubs. - Investigators had obtained his California driver's license photo and had made up a photo collage, showed it to neighbors and identified him as one of the people coming
out of the Dubs home. - [Narrator] One of the Dubs neighbors told investigators that the night before the family was reported missing, she saw two men leaving their residence. One of the men was carrying
a large duffel bag. It was dark, but she said
she could identify him. (mysterious music) The eye witness's critical
identification of Charles Ng gave investigators probable cause to issue an arrest warrant. - Well, I told him he just- - [Narrator] Claralyn Balazs,
Leonard Lake's ex-wife, was questioned about her ex-husband's association with Charles Ng. She agreed to talk, but
only after her attorney convinced the District Attorney's Office to grant her immunity from prosecution. Balazs claimed she didn't know
anything about the murders. She did tell them that after
the shoplifting incident, Ng walked to her house. - [Claralyn] What kinda
trouble are you in? - [Narrator] The two drove
back to the lumberyard to see if Lake was all right. - Well- - [Narrator] When they saw
him talking to the police, they returned to her house. There they waited,
expecting a call from Lake, who was now in police custody. When he didn't call, Claralyn
drove Ng to his apartment. Ng told Claralyn he
had to get out of town. - She said that she thought he
would probably go to Chicago, that he had mentioned that
he would go to Chicago if he had to get out of town, and she claims that was
the last that she saw him. - [Narrator] Because Ng
was wanted for murder, and there was reason to
believe he had fled the state, the California investigators asked for assistance from the FBI. - I'm Special Agent Dave
Stewart with the FBI. - [Narrator] In response,
the bureau launched a massive manhunt for Charles Ng. At San Francisco International Airport, agents learned that a passenger
fitting Ng's description had boarded a plane to Chicago, traveling under the name "Mike Komodo". In Chicago, agents worked
to track Ng's movements. They started with an
extensive background check. - [Charles] Hey, Leonard, how you doing? - Charlie! - [Narrator] Investigators
learned that Charles Ng was born in Hong Kong, and entered the United States
on a student visa in 1979. He enlisted in the Marine Corps, but was eventually arrested
for stealing weapons. He escaped from prison, and on the advice of a friend, hid out with Leonard Lake
and his wife, Claralyn. Ng stayed with Lake and
his wife for six months in Philo, California. At the same time, ATF agents were building a case against Lake for
possession of illegal firearms. (radio chatter) In the spring of 1981, they
arrested both Lake and Ng. Lake skipped jail and began
his life as a fugitive. Ng was sent back to prison to serve the remainder
of his original sentence. - Ng was released from prison in 1984, and immediately came back to
the San Francisco Bay Area, was picked up at the
airport by Claralyn Balazs, and rejoined his buddy Leonard Lake. - [Narrator] Charles Ng
was an experienced fugitive with a wide network of
friends who could help him. To develop more leads, the FBI placed Ng on their 10 Most Wanted list. For the time being, agents
focused on Ng's friends and acquaintances in the Chicago area. As the investigation
into Charles Ng expanded, the body count in Calaveras
County continued to climb. (zipper zips) Not far from Lake's cabin, investigators unearthed two intact bodies wrapped in sleeping bags. Calaveras County coroner
Terry Parker was on the scene. - They were mostly skeletal
remains that were wrapped. Couldn't really make out
if they were men or women because of the time that
the bodies had been there. (zipper zips) - [Narrator] Due to the
deterioration of the bodies, Parker could make only a
cursory examination at the site. It appeared both victims had
been gagged and handcuffs. He asked for help from the San
Francisco medical examiner. - San Francisco has a very
good forensic department. And he was more than happy
to come up and assist us. We removed the bodies and transported them to his office for the forensic
work, where that was done. - [Narrator] At autopsy, the
San Francisco medical examiner determined both victims were males, and that they had been shot to death. Using dental records,
he identified the men as Lake's neighbors, Lonnie
Bond and Scott Stapley. In Chicago, the FBI got their first lead. They learned that after serving
time on the weapons charge, Ng had kept in touch with
his former cell mate. The man described how he had
driven Ng first to Detroit, then to the border town of Chatham. There, he said, they split up. A witness came forward and told agents that he had seen Ng board a bus in Chatham bound for Toronto. Agents were aware that
Ng's sister lived there. (radio chatter) The FBI deployed a surveillance
team at her apartment house, but the fugitive never showed. After days of following
Ng, the trail grew cold. The suspected serial killer was now roaming free in Canada. (helicopter blades whirring) As word of the multiple murders spread, the news media descended on a property in Calaveras County. Don Lasseter is a true crime author who wrote a book on the Charles Ng case. - And of course, the media
when they first heard of this, rushed to the site, and daily the media coverage grew, and it got coverage all over California and soon all over the United States, and certainly even in Canada. - All right.
- Okay, we're- - [Narrator] The investigators agreed to let the media on the property. They showed them the site, and allowed them to videotape some of the evidence they had collected. - Up until this point, we've really relied on our imaginations to
visualize this story. But today, we have pictures. Pictures that will
probably leave many people with an everlasting image of the horror that occurred at the end of this road. These are some of the bone fragments that have been found, and investigators say there
are countless fragments just like those scattered
over a third of an acre here. The California Conversation
Corps have been recruited to pick up the bones. Most of them worked on
their hands and knees, raking the ground with their fingers. Investigators came up
with 10 pounds of bones. The local coroners says five bodies have been found here so far. The Calaveras County
sheriff once told me though he believes there are as
many as 20 victims though, buried on the property. - [Narrator] Investigators were counting on the media exposure to help identify the 21 women depicted in the photographs tacked to the wall of Lake's bunker. - We certainly want to
know the circumstances of the photos, when they were taken. We're interested in
knowing anything we can about Mr. Lake and Mr. Ng. - [Narrator] A telephone hotline was setup by the Calaveras Sheriff's Department, and calls soon began pouring in. Detectives believed
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng crossed paths with as many as 25 people who were lated reported missing. - His property in Calaveras County. - [Narrator] Working under San Francisco investigator Ed Erdelatz, the task force tried to
piece together any leads that would locate Ng or help identify the growing list of victims. - Anybody that had anything to do with either Lake or Ng
we attempted to identify and find out if they were still alive, and if they were, what
their relationship was. And it was through that process that we began to identify
different victims. - [Narrator] Members of the task force were sent around with photos of personal belongings
found on the property in an effort to identify anyone who had been at the cabin. - We wanted to see if you recognized- - [Narrator] Relatives
and friends of the missing realized their loved ones
might be among the dead. (tense music) There was the Dubs family
from San Francisco, who placed an ad in the newspaper to rent their video equipment and were never heard from again. Randy Jacobson, a friend
of Leonard Lake's, was found buried near a
chicken coop behind the cabin. Jeff Gerald who worked with Ng at a San Francisco moving company disappeared along with his
friend Clifford Peranteau, who worked at the same company. Ng's long time friend Mike Carroll and his girlfriend, Kathleen
Allen, had disappeared. Lake's neighbors were also missing. Lonnie Bond, Brenda O'Connor, and their 16 month old child, Lonnie Jr. Their friend Robin Scott Stapley had vanished with them. And finally, Paul Cosner, whose car had originally led investigators on this trail of kidnapping and murder. The task force received
one bit of good news. - Okay, listen up, fellas.
- Listen up, listen up. - We finally caught a break on this one. We were able to ID all these women, and they're all still alive. - [Narrator] Finding the
girls alive was a relief, but Lake's property still
held many mysteries. Agents feared they would never know the complete story of the
Calaveras County murders, unless they found Charles Ng. After weeks of searching, they still had not located the fugitive. (mysterious music) Then on July 6th, 1985, a boy riding his bicycle
in a Canadian park spotted the perfect place for a play fort. He was surprised to
see a man living there. He went to the police and told them he had found a campsite, and had seen a man who
looked like Charles Ng. The boy recognized him
from wanted posters. (tense music) He led police to the makeshift shelter, only to find that Ng had fled. - The campsite's clear, he's gone. - [Narrator] Later that same day, Charles Ng would make the mistake investigators had been waiting for. Ironically, it was the same mistake that started the police investigation a month earlier. - Call the police now. Check him out.
- Okay. - [Narrator] A security guard confronted a young Asian male as he
slipped stolen merchandise into his knapsack in a
Calgary department store. (gun fires) (people screaming) As the security guard
struggled with the gun, he was shot in the hand. Still, he managed to wrestle
the weapon from the shooter, and hold him until police arrived. Charles Ng was captured and booked on charges of attempted murder, robbery, and possession of a firearm. - [Reporter] This is
Channel 10 Eyewitness News, Night Watch. - Good evening, topic, Night Watch. Charles Ng is in a Canadian jail tonight, and the worldwide manhunt
has ended for the- - Hey, Ron, come take a look at the news. - [Narrator] News of Ng's arrest in Canada reached the sheriff's
office in Calaveras County. - [Reporter] Ng was
captured by security guards in a Calgary department store, but not before he engaged
them in a brief gun battle, and wounded one of the guards. Ng was quickly subdued by store patrons, and was taken into police custody. - [Narrator] San Francisco
Police Inspector Ed Erdelatz was eager to question the suspect. He flew to Calgary,
where Ng was being held in a maximum security prison. - And we spent quite a
few hours with Charles in the detention center in Calgary, and although he did talk with us, most of his responses were
one and two word answers, very little dialogue,
and primarily denial. We could've gone into a lot of things had he been willing to talk
to us about those things, but that didn't occur. - [Narrator] The murders, Ng claimed, were all the work of Leonard Lake. When pressed, Ng did admit to Erdelatz that he had helped Lake dispose the bodies of Lonnie Bond and Scott Stapley the day after they were murdered. In Calaveras County, the
district attorney's office indicted Ng on 12 counts
of first degree murder, making it possible for the prosection to seek the death penalty. But Ng's flight to Canada had created a significant obstacle. District attorney Pete Smith explains. - There was an extradition treaty between the United States
and Canada at the time, and in that extradition treaty, there was a condition that
nobody would be extradited from Canada back to the United States who faced the death penalty. - [Narrator] There were some exceptions to the treaty, however. - Do you think we can work around that? - [Narrator] If the
District Attorney's Office could prove to a Canadian court that Ng was guilty of multiple murders, Canada would be required to
hand over the suspected killer. (helicopter blades whirring) Before the extradition
hearing could begin, Ng would have to stand trial in Canada on shoplifting and assault charges. In order to delay his extradition, Ng waived his right to a jury trial and asked for a speedier bench trial. He received a four and
a half year sentenced. Until he completed that sentence, the Calaveras County District Attorney could not initiate the
complicated extradition process. - Over all the evidence with him- - [Narrator] Even if they
could prove their case, they would have to wait over 4 years before they could begin. While the Calaveras County
District Attorney's Office built their case against Charles Ng, the search for evidence continued at Leonard Lake's cabin. By this time, 5 bodies had
been found and identified. Hundreds of personal
effects had been recovered. More than 40 pounds of unidentifiable human remains had been unearthed. Investigators believed that
as many as 25 missing persons had been linked to the cabin. As the evidence against
Ng continued to grow, he used his time in a Canadian prison to try to fend off any
attempts at extradition. He knew if he was successfully extradited back to the United States, he would have to face a murder trial and the possibility of the death penalty. He began to educate himself on the American legal system. - For a boy with limited
education raised in Hong Kong, he was remarkably adept at knowing the legal system here
and how to deal with it. - What are you gonna when your time is up and they send you back- - [Narrator] A guard
reported to the prison warden he overhead Ng say to a fellow inmate, "If you want to delay the system, you just have to fire your lawyers." (tense music) On October 17th, 1988, the extradition hearings finally began. Ng lost the case, and appealed all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court. His appeal was denied. - Within the same day, Charles Ng was placed on
an airplane in Canada, and flown back to California. - [Narrator] But the pursuit of justice was far from over. Charles Ng had used his time in Canada to arm himself with enough legal knowledge to wage an all out war on
the American judicial system. (flags blowing) On September 26th, 1991, suspected serial killer Charles Ng was finally returned to California. The Calaveras County District Attorney charged Ng with 12 counts of murder. Detective Sergeant Randy
Grassbuck transported Ng daily from the California
Department of Corrections to the Calaveras County Courthouse. - We had high security,
we had our SWAT team up on the roof for a while. We had heard that somebody
wanted to kill Charles Ng. Well, let's face it, the
last thing we wanted to do as the Calaveras County
Sheriff's Department was lose Charles Ng. - [Narrator] Calaveras
County was not prepared to handle a prisoner like Charles Ng. Their courthouse wasn't secure enough to hold a maximum security prisoner. The county had to build a special cage to house Ng during his legal proceedings. From the moment Ng arrived in the county, he was intent on wreaking
havoc and creating delay. He began by trying to fire his attorneys and complaining about his treatment. He filed motions for better food, and a shorter commute from the prison. He demanded to have his cage dismantled. Although each motion was frivolous, it sapped the resources of the Calaveras County
District Attorney's Office. - I didn't realize how
truly huge this case was. We're very small, we have 5
attorneys including myself. There's the assistant District Attorney, and then I have three
deputy District Attorneys. We have two investigators, and we have three support
staff, and that's it, in our criminal division. It's like a very small law firm. (flags blowing) - [Narrator] The prosecution
battled Charles Ng for a full year before his
preliminary hearing even started. - Your Honor, at this point in time, we would like to present
photos, affidavits, and videotapes into evidence
against the defendant. - [Narrator] The purpose
of this proceeding was simply to determine
whether the prosecution had sufficient evidence to
try Ng for the 12 murders. - State's case against the defendant, moving forward to trial. - [Narrator] Although the burden of proof is not as strict as
that of an actual trial, the prosecution had little direct evidence linking Ng to the murders. Lacking eyewitnesses,
fingerprints and blood evidence, the prosecution would
have to present its case mostly on circumstantial evidence. (dramatic music) Their strongest evidence was the videotape found at the cabin titled "M-Ladies". The preliminary hearing was the first time the tape was played for the public. On the tape, Lake and Ng were
seen torturing two women, one of whom was Brenda O'Connor. Inspector Erdelatz explains the impact of the videotaped evidence. - Brenda O'Connor is a woman who lived on the adjacent property with
her boyfriend and his friend and their little baby. And you see her on film, she's handcuffed and she's begging Leonard Lake and Charles
Ng for her baby back, she wants her baby back, and she's crying. Of course, they killed this little baby, and it's such a sad thing to see, her asking for this little baby back. - [Narrator] The tapes were incriminating. But with so little physical evidence directly linking Ng to the murders, the prosecution would have to rely on the testimony of another criminal. - Hey, Maurice! - [Narrator] Maurice Laberge had served time with Ng in Canada. To pass the time, Ng entertained Laberge with crudely drawn cartoons
depicting his crimes, and with stories of what had happened at Lake's cabin in California. To gain favor with his parole board, Laberge turned over the cartoons and told authorities the details of his conversations with Ng. One of the most damning cartoons depicted Ng killing a baby. Laberge testified at
Ng's extradition hearing, detailing everything Ng had confessed during their jail time together. Laberge's testimony was
presented as evidence. On November 13th, 1992, the court found sufficient grounds to try Charles Ng on 12 counts of murder. The judge set his trial
date for January 12th, 1993. - We felt that the case would
be tried and over with by '93, but no later than 1994. Well, that didn't happen. What did happen was delay. - Your Honor. - [Narrator] Now that Ng knew he would stand trial for his crimes, he began a desperate attempt
to delay the proceedings in any way possible. - Well, Mr. Ng, I'll take that into- - [Narrator] He filed a motion alleging that his court appointed
attorneys were incompetent. He succeeded in firing them, and the court appointed him new council. Because pre-trial publicity
made it impossible to find an impartial
jury in Calaveras County, Ng's new defense team filed
a motion to move the trial. The judge granted the motion, moving the trial to Orange
County in Southern California. A fully loaded 36 foot truck delivered a mountain of case material to Ng's new council, the Orange County Public
Defender's Office. The material included
hundreds of boxes of records documenting 8 years of courtroom hearings, witness testimony, investigative, medical and police reports, and thousands of evidenced photographs. William Kelly, Ng's
newly appointed council, asked for and received
two and a half years to prepare his client's case. (cars driving) The prosecution made the
move from Calaveras County 400 miles south to Orange County, and prepared for the largest
case of their careers. The years of delay worried
prosecutor Peter Smith. - As you know, in any case, memories fade, witnesses die,
and things of that nature, and so when you tack on 6 years to a life of a criminal case, that's a long time to delay a case from going to trial. - Good morning, gentlemen. Have a seat. - [Narrator] As the prosecution
and defense attorneys finalized their trial preparations, Ng again attempted to delay the process. - We're overwhelmed. - [Narrator] But Judge John Ryan put a stop to his tactics. The case was finally going to trial. (tense music) A prosecution team from Calaveras County worked out their strategy
with Charlene Hanaka, the Deputy Attorney General for the state of California. - Peter Smith.
- Yes, I know. - She's a tremendous
lawyer and a better person. She was, in essence, the heart and soul for this case and for the prosecution. - [Narrator] As prosecutors prepared to begin jury selection, the team suffered a devastating setback. Maurice Laberge was
killed in a car accident while on parole. He was the only person to whom Ng had confessed his crimes. The prosecution had just
lost its key witness. 13 years had passed since
investigators began finding bodies at a mountain cabin in
Calaveras County, California. Although they eventually
linked 25 missing people to Lake's property, they only had enough evidence to charge Charles Ng with 12 counts of murder. Ng had managed to delay his trial for more than a decade, but could delay no longer. The murder trial of Charles Ng was finally about to begin. The accused serial killer's fate would now rest with a jury of his peers. Peter Smith's job was to select that jury. - Because the case was
going to take so long, we had to time qualify jurors. We had to bring in over 2,000
people from Orange County to ask them, basically, "Can you commit to the time it'll take to try this case?" - [Narrator] While
council was in the midst of qualifying the
jurors, Ng grew agitated. - Please restrain yourself! - [Narrator] Shouting obscenities, he tried to halt the proceedings, telling the judge that
he did not want a trial. - I don't want this trial. - [Narrator] Judge Ryan ordered Ng to wear an electric stun belt for the duration of the trial. The bailiff could trigger
the device by remote control if he became violent again. Attorneys from the
prosecution and the defense took a month to choose a
jury of 8 women and 4 men, along with 6 alternates. To protect their identities, each member of the jury
was assigned a number. On Monday, October 26th, 1998, the trial began with opening statements. For both the prosecution and the defense, opening statements serve as an outline, telling the jury what
they are trying to prove, and how they intend to prove it. (tense music) With the years of waiting over, Charlene Hanaka rose to
make the opening statement for the prosecution. - What the evidence in
this case is going to show is that this defendant, with Leonard Lake, planned and committed the 12
charged murders in this case. This is a chart, which
lists the 12 counts. The evidence will show
that between a timeframe from July, 1984, until 1985, these 12 victims disappeared
from the face of the Earth. And this trial will tell you the story of what happened to them. - [Narrator] Hanaka described the property in Calaveras County as a "killing field" and a "mass graveyard". - Direct evidence
connecting this defendant- - [Narrator] She then told the jury about the M-Ladies tape
found buried near the cabin, and how they depicted a partially nude Ng demanding massages from Kathleen Allen, and cutting the clothes
off of Brenda O'Connor. - We're gonna play for you two segments from that videotape, as a means of demonstrating the evidence, and in helping you understand. - [Narrator] The videotape
was the centerpiece of the prosecution's case. It showed the jury exactly
who Charles Ng was. A man who not only tortured women, but who recorded his acts on videotape so he could relive them again and again. - The videotape's traumatic. It is the most incriminating
piece of evidence I have ever used in a case. It is also the most
emotional piece of evidence I have ever used in a case. You can sense the terror and the... The fear those two victims had when they realized the
situation they were in. - [Narrator] Because
this was the strongest physical evidence linking
Ng to the murders, the prosecution planned
to use the videotape throughout the trial to
prove Charles Ng's guilt. William Kelly, Ng's
court appointed attorney, scarcely mentioned the defendant in much of his opening statement. His strategy was to shift
the focus of the accusations from his client, Charles Ng, to the late Leonard Lake. - The defense in this
case is really simple. That is Leonard Lake
had a motive for murder. Leonard Lake also had a plan for murder. - [Narrator] Kelly asserted
that Lake's plan for murder was outlined in his diary under the heading the "Miranda Project". He then read the journey excerpts from Leonard Lake's journal. Kelly suggested that Lake's
conspirator was not Ng, but Claralyn Balazs, Lake's ex-wife. He asserted that she knew
about the Miranda Project, and even recruited potential victims. - Nobody's gonna walk in here,
sit down in that cherry box, point a finger at Charles Ng and say, "I saw Charlie Ng murder somebody." It's not gonna happen. - [Narrator] With very
little physical evidence placing Ng at the murders, Kelly intended to discredit the prosecution's circumstantial case, and prove it was Leonard
Lake, not Charles Ng, who murdered the 12 victims. He asserted that Ng killed no one. The prosecution called
Sergeant Larry Copeland of the Calaveras County Sheriff's
Department to the stand. - Can you tell us how long- - [Narrator] He told the jury about a startling discovery he made while analyzing the videotapes confiscated from Ng's
San Francisco apartment. - It appeared that there
had been an attempt... So I had put this tape in and pushed play, and it started with the credits. So I thought, "Well gee-wiz, someone didn't rewind this tape." So I pushed rewind, but
I didn't push stop first, I just pushed rewind. So it started playing in reverse. And then all of a sudden
right at the end of the tape, it went "boop". - [Narrator] What Copeland discovered was a still image of two
bodies in a wheelbarrow. The image was entered into evidence. - [Examiner] Yes, it is. - [Narrator] The medical
examiner was sworn in. He was asked to identify two photographs of bodies found at the cabin. - Yes, I believe that's the
remains of Scott Stapley. - And this next one? - [Examiner] Uh, those
remains are from Lonnie Bond. - [Narrator] He went on to explain the way in which Lonnie
Bond and Scott Stapley were bound, gagged, and
wrapped in sleeping bags. The sleeping bags matched
those on the tape. The medical examiner testified that the bodies on the tape
were in full rigor mortis. - One of the victims had been bound- - [Narrator] Rigor mortis
occurs shortly after death, when the blood flow is interrupted. It only lasts for a few hours, until the body begins to decay. In Canada, Ng told Inspector Erdelatz he helped bury Bond and Stapley 24 hours after they were murdered. Whoever had taken the picture had done so immediately
after they were killed. The single frame on the
videotape found at Ng's apartment linked him to the murder of
Lonnie Bond and Scott Stapley. Because so few of the remains found on the property could be identified, the prosecution relied on hundreds of personal effects discovered at Ng's apartment and the cabin to link him to the victims. These items were photographed
and entered as evidence. The District Attorney's lead
investigator, Mitch Herlicka, was in charge of witnesses testimony for the prosecution. - Well, we had over 200 pieces of evidence that we used in the
guilt phase of the trial, and we had about 75 witnesses that we had to bring in from
various parts of the country as well as Canada, to prove that those items belonged to the people who had gone missing, and the victims in our case. - [Narrator] The
prosecution then attempted to establish a link between
Kathleen Allen and Charles Ng. Kathleen Allen was one of the women on the M-Ladies tape who
was tortured by Lake and Ng. Although her body was never found, several of her personal effects were unearthed near the cabin. The prosecution asked her sister to identify a heart-shaped pendant. - Miss Allen, I know this may
be very difficult for you, but I want you to look very
closely at this necklace, and tell me if you recognize it. - It's a necklace Kathy
used to wear all the time. - Thank you. Your Honor, we'd like the record to show that the witness identified the necklace as belonging to the victim Kathy Allen. And at this time, the
people would like to move that we place this in evidence. - [Narrator] The prosecution then began to construct the timeline of
Kathleen Allen's disappearance to explain how she got to the cabin. - On April 14th, 1985- - [Narrator] Her former
supervisor discussed an odd phone conversation
she had while at work. - Yes, sir, I did. - And can you tell us
about that conversation? - Uh, yes. She said she got a call, and she said she wanted
to join her boyfriend because he got a gunshot wound. (phone rings) - [Narrator] Kathleen Allen
worked a grocery store at Milpitas, California. Her boyfriend, Mike Carroll, had met Charles Ng while serving time in Leavenworth Federal Prison. Mike called Kathleen to
say he was in Lake Tahoe, and had been shot. He was sending a friend to pick her up and bring her to him. Kathleen told her supervisor
what Mike had said, and asked for some time off. - And what happened after that? - A man came by to pick her up. - [Prosecutor] In a what? - In a brown or bronze Honda, I think. - [Prosecutor] Did you have an opportunity to see the driver? - [Supervisor] A little. A little, yes. - [Prosecutor] Can you tell
us what he looked like? - [Supervisor] He was in
his 40s, bald, dark hair, and he had a beard. That's all I remember. - [Narrator] The prosecution
then showed the jury Kathleen Allen's videotaped ordeal. John Crawford investigated
her disappearance. - The videotape picks up from there and shows that Kathy is
brought into the residence, into the living room of the
residence in Wilseyville. She is handcuffed and
she is seated in a chair. Kathy was told, "If you don't
agree with us right now, we're gonna take you into the bedroom, tie you to the bed, rape you, take you outside and put
a bullet in your head, and bury you in the same
place we buried Mike." Who was her boyfriend, Mike Carroll. - Did you ever hear from her again? - [Narrator] Kathleen was
never seen or heard from again. Her manager later received
a typewritten letter saying she had gotten a job in Lake Tahoe and didn't intend to return. The letter was dated May 6th, three weeks after she
left the grocery store. Many of the victims' co-workers,
families, and friends, received typewritten
letters from the victims to explain their absence. A comparison of the letters showed they all originated from
the same typewriter. An Olympia typewriter found in the cabin was analyzed by forensic
document examiners. They concluded that it was the one on which the letters were written. The prosecution entered the
typewriter into evidence. The prosecution next tried to prove that Charles Ng was responsible for the abduction and
murder of the Dubs family. - Miss Tuck. You told us that your last
contact with Deborah Dubs- - [Narrator] They called Karen Tuck, who was asked to testify about the last time she spoke with
her friend, Deborah Dubs, on the telephone. - Well, Deborah was expecting someone to come over to talk to Harvey or see his video equipment, and then the doorbell
rang or someone knocked, and we terminated the conversation. - [Charlene] So, someone came to her door while you were in the phone
conversation with her? - Right. - Hi. - [Leonard] Hi. I'm here about the video equipment. - Yeah. - [Narrator] Harvey Dubs, a
part-time wedding photographer had placed an ad in the newspaper offering to rent his video equipment. (ominous music) - It's got a heavy duty coax cable too. - [Narrator] Karen Tuck told the court she tried to call Deborah
Dubs the next day, but no one answered the phone. The Dubs family disappeared
on July 25th, 1984. Their bodies were never found. - Well, Deborah was expecting
someone to come over- - [Narrator] Karen Tuck
was the last person to speak with Deborah Dubs on the day she and her
family were abducted from her San Francisco home. - [Harvey] It takes really good pictures. - [Narrator] After placing
an ad in the newspaper to rent some video equipment, Harvey Dubs, his wife,
Deborah, and his son, Sean, had been robbed and taken from their home. The family was never seen again. Detective Irene Brunn found an inventory of Harvey Dubs's equipment at his home. - Harvey was meticulous in
keeping records and photographs, and he kept the original receipts from when he purchased them. He had serial numbers, brand names for everything that he had. (radio chatter) - [Narrator] Harvey Dubs' detailed records enabled investigators
to trace his equipment to Leonard Lake's cabin. But some video equipment was also found in Charles Ng's apartment. One of these pieces matched
Harvey Dubs' inventory. The prosecution entered the
video equipment into evidence. Since the Dubs' bodies were never found, the prosecution's strategy was to use overwhelming circumstantial evidence to tie Ng to the missing family. - A case is like a puzzle. You have to start putting
the pieces together so that the jury can get
a clear understanding of what took place. And to prove a case,
you have to fit enough pieces of the puzzle together so that a jury believes
beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular defendant
murdered or committed a crime. - [Larry] And focus our
attention on this bunker. - [Narrator] Sergeant Larry
Copeland was called back to the stand. - Well, when we first came on- - [Narrator] He testified
about the seven burn sites they had found. He also described the hundreds of bone fragments he had found, many of which had been crushed, burned, and scattered around the property. - Discover a complete- - [Narrator] Judging from the size and number of burn sites, investigators suspected Lake and Ng had used fire to dispose of the bodies of many of their victims. The condition of the remains
would make it impossible to identify all the victims. No one had witnessed any of these crimes. The prosecution's next move was to put Ng's confessor on the stand. During his Canadian prison term, Ng told Maurice Laberge he helped Lake abduct victims
and burn their bodies. - Ng, here's your book. - [Narrator] Laberge was the
prosecution's key witness. His first person account and the drawings Ng gave
him, would cement their case. But Laberge died before the trial began. At the extradition hearing in Canada, Laberge testified about
everything Ng had told him. In a calculated move, the prosecution argued to
have the written transcripts of Laberge's Canadian
testimony read into the record. - If it's intended to
show that Leonard Lake- - [Narrator] Despite the
defense's strong objections, the judge ruled to admit the transcript. (dramatic music) Sergeant Raymond Monroe of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police took the stand and read Laberge's prior testimony. In the transcript,
Laberge described how Ng gave him the grotesque cartoons, and spoke of the times he committed, including the videotaped sessions with Kathleen Allen and Brenda O'Connor. - Following statement. - "He told me that the
videotape shows a female complaining that it's too warm, and that he had a butterfly
knife, he called it. He flipped it open and
cut her clothes off." - Thank you. - [Narrator] Maurice Laberge
was a career criminal who served repeated terms for robbery and sexual assault. On cross, Kelly attacked
Laberge's credibility. - Isn't it true that Maurice Laberge had an extensive criminal history? - Objection, Your Honor. We've already established that. - [Judge] Overruled. - [William] Thank you. Sir, isn't that correct? - Yes, sir. - And is it also true that
as part of an agreement with the Canadian government to enter the witness protection program, that Maurice Laberge received $36,000? - [Raymond] I believe that was the deal that we struck with him, yes. - Mhm. - [Narrator] Kelly implied
that Laberge's testimony had been bought and paid for. - For sexual assault and robbery? - [Raymond] Yes, it is. - And do you recall off-hand, what if any contents were retrieved from the automobile at
the site of the accident? - There was $20,000 in
cash found in the vehicle. - $20,000 in cash. - [Narrator] Kelly's cross
examination had been successful in insinuating that Laberge
would say anything for money. - You're a career police officer- - [Narrator] Although the
prosecution's key witness had taken the stand by proxy, they now fear the defense attack had destroyed his credibility. - Isn't it true- - [Narrator] Sergeant Monroe was one of the prosecution's last witnesses. After presenting their case for 12 days, the prosecution rested. On November 17th, 1998, William Kelly began presenting Ng's defense to the jury. He had a relatively simple strategy, to prove that Leonard
Lake was the real killer, and Ng was just a bystander. First, Kelly called a series
of women to the stand. - Identify yourself to the jury, please. - [Narrator] Each testified
as to their bizarre sexual encounters with Leonard Lake. The women spoke of his
interest in bondage, and taking mirrored photographs. One woman had a year long
relationship with Lake, and posed for dozens of photos. She explained she left him because of his frightening fantasies involving sex and death. - [Woman] So, that
would've been 15 years ago? - [Narrator] Another
woman testified that Lake had threatened to rape her, and that he believed in human sacrifice. - He had come over with some people- - [Narrator] The testimony
painted Lake as the monster, and established that none of the witnesses had even met Charles Ng. - Thank you. - [Narrator] Another witness testified that he had seen Lake verbally abuse Ng. - Working usually as sort
of his assistant or helper- - [Narrator] Helping the defense establish that Ng was subservient to Lake. By calling witnesses who had often seen Balazs with Lake at the cabin, the defense attempted to
show that Balazs herself was an accomplice to Lake. Kelly also used this testimony to demonstrate that Ng spent little time at Leonard Lake's cabin. The defense's strongest proof that Lake planned to kidnap, torture, and murder his victims was his journal. It was here that Lake outlined the so called "Miranda Project". While the jury was out, Kelly moved to enter an edited version of the journal into evidence. Because the edited version eliminated references to Charles Ng, the judge resisted. - I believe the court should
eliminate misleading evidence. And this edited diary could do just that, if it is intended to
show that Leonard Lake killed all 12 victims without
the help of Charles Ng. I believe the diary needs to be excluded, most of it is just pure junk. - But the diary shows that Lake was thinking of the fantasy for 20 years. - The jury knows what Lake planned. This edited diary is inadmissible. - [Narrator] Kelly's attempt
to put Leonard Lake on trial appeared blocked. But he countered the
prosecution's strategy with his next witness. In his opening statement, Kelly asserted Claralyn Balazs
knew of the Miranda Project, and helped Lake recruit
women to photograph. Kelly believed she played
a far more active role than she admitted, and asserted it was Balazs, not Ng, who was Lake's accomplice. - The prosecution had not
called her as a witness, so as Balazs took the stand, everyone in the courtroom,
including the prosecution, wondered what she would say. Then, Kelly read the immunity agreement. - I'll read it to the jury. "This is an immunity agreement between the state of
California and Claralyn Balazs. The state of California
promises the witness transactional immunity for all crimes including, but not limited to murder, conspiracy to commit murder,
aiding and abetting murder, theft and received stolen
property related to the victims." (tense music) No questions. - [Narrator] In a stunning move, Kelly chose not to question Balazs. It created the appearance
she had something to hide. And since she had not spoken on the stand, the prosecution could
not cross examine her. Balazs made her immunity
deal with the prosecution, but in the end, she provided
them with little information, and became a witness for the defense. Kelly then called another witness who could not be cross examined. He played a tape made by Leonard Lake, describing his rationale
for the Miranda Project. - What I want is an off
the shelf sex partner. I want to be able to use women whenever and however I want. And when I'm tired or satiated or bored or not interested, I simply want to put her away. - [Narrator] With a final glimpse into the mind of Leonard Lake, the defense rested its case. Peter Smith made the
final closing argument for the prosecution. He reminded the jury of
the evidence they had seen, and asked them to return a guilty verdict. Then, the trial took its
most surprising turn. After hearing the prosecution
sum up their case against him, Ng filed a handwritten motion demanding he be allowed to
testify on his own behalf. - I'll fire you, and you! - [Narrator] When Kelly tried to convince his client otherwise, Ng threatened to fire him. Against the advice of his attorneys, Charles Ng would be
taking the witness stand. Observers in the Charles
Ng trial were stunned when they entered the courtroom
on January 27th, 1999. The accused serial killer himself was now on the witness stand. Ng was charged with killing 12 people, and after 3 months of
listening to his case, he demanded to testify on his own behalf. Assuming the prosecution would use Laberge's testimony to corner Ng, Deputy Public Defender Clapp decided to take the offensive and prove that Laberge had lied. - Did you tell him that, with regard to Brenda
O'Connor, Kathy Allen, that you shot them in the head while they were handcuffed
and blindfolded? - No. - [Narrator] Ng testified
that he had helped to imprison Brenda O'Connor
and Kathleen Allen, but had not intended to hurt or kill them. - Did you tell Maurice Laberge that you put their
bodies on a pile of wood and ignited it with gasoline? - No. - Did you agree to kill, intend to kill, or kill any of the victims
in the 12 murder charges? - [Charles] No. - [Narrator] Ng's denials
continued for hours as Clapp went over every statement Ng allegedly made to his jail-mate. - That we gave- - [Narrator] Then Clapp
moved to have Ng explain away the prosecution's other key evidence, the M-Ladies tape. On the tape, Brenda O'Connor begged Ng not to take her baby
away, which he replied, "It is better that the baby is dead." - Why did you say that? - I don't know what I said that, it was just in the heat of the moment. Some of the comments and remarks I made, I don't even know I made until I saw the transcripts. - [Narrator] The M-Ladies
tapes had been transcribed during the extradition hearing so that every word spoken on
the tape could be understood. When Charlene Hanaka cross examined Ng, she used the transcripts to
turn his own words against him. - Were you present at
the extradition hearing when Mr. Laberge testified that you told him that you
could hear on the video the sounds of handcuffs clicking? - I remember that statement he made. - How would Mr. Laberge
know that you could hear the sounds of handcuffs clicking? That's not on the printed
transcript, right? Of M-Ladies? - [Charles] Right. - [Narrator] Hanaka
demonstrated for the jury that the only way Laberge could've known about the sound of the handcuffs, was if Ng told him. It was clear, despite
Ng's denials on the stand, that he had told Maurice Laberge the details of the
torture and the killings. Details Laberge couldn't
have known any other way. Hanaka then set out to establish that Charles Ng was not a bystander, but a willing participant in the crimes. She replayed a scene
from the M-Ladies tape showing Ng cutting the
shirt off Brenda O'Connor. - So, you never talked
to Leonard ahead of time about your plan to cut
her clothes off, right? - No, not on the tape. - So you just decided on your own to cut her clothes off, right? - [Charles] Yes. - Without any specific
instruction from Leonard Lake? (tense music) Hanaka again turned to the video tapes. She played a portion of the tape where Ng tells Leonard Lake that a gun is on the table. - You told Leonard at one point that "The piece was on the table". Right? - [Charles] Yeah, I remember
saying something like that. - What did you mean by "the piece"? - Oh, just wanted to let him know the gun was on the table in case Kathy might grab the gun and shoot him with it. - Well, now she's handcuffed, right? - Yes. - [Charlene] And she's
got leg manacles on? - Yes, I believe so. - And there are two of
you and one of her, right? - [Charles] Yes. - And the reason you told Leonard that the gun was on the table is because you were afraid Kathy might pick it up and shoot him? - Something like that. - [Narrator] Hanaka had shown that Ng was more than a bystander
to Leonard Lake's crimes. - Thank you. - [Narrator] He was an active participants who sometimes even directed Leonard Lake. Because Ng took the stand after the prosecution closed, the judge gave them the opportunity to restate their closing arguments after Ng's testimony. - It's never Ng's fault. He always lays the blame on someone else. He was not under the
control of Leonard Lake. He was his own person. He was making his own independent choices and doing the things he wanted to do. - [Narrator] William Kelly then gave the closing arguments of the defense. He asserted the prosecution
had simply failed to prove their case, and attacked their most
important piece of evidence, the M-Ladies tape. - No matter how many different ways they show it to you in excerpts from it, there's one thing you never see. Anybody being murdered. And you don't see Charles Ng involved in anybody's murder. No matter how many times you see him cut the clothes off Brenda O'Connor. And as offensive as that is, and I grant you, it's offensive... But it ain't murder. It just isn't. - [Narrator] Charles Ng had been charged with the murders of 7 men,
3 women, and 2 babies. His fate was now in the hands of the jury. - Anybody who prosecutes
cases or tries cases knows there is never a
sure thing with a jury, and that's the difficult
aspect of being a prosecutor. You have to convince 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt,
and all 12 have to agree. It has to be unanimous. - [Narrator] The jury
deliberated for a week, then two weeks. The media coverage intensified as the deliberations stretched
into their third week. The prosecutors became
increasingly concerned that the jury was having
difficulty making a decision. This was not a good sign
for the prosecution, who knew their case was
mostly circumstantial. If the jury demanded
strong physical evidence linking Ng to the crimes in order to deliver a guilty verdict, then Charles Ng might go free. As time dragged on, all the prosecution could do was wait. On February 24th, 1999,
after 3 weeks of waiting, the jury informed the judge they had reached a decision. The prosecutors had called
approximately 75 witnesses, and presented about 200 pieces of evidence to prove the charges against Charles Ng. All that evidence was now
in the hands of the jury. (tense music) - Has the jury reached its verdict? - We are deadlocked. We are deadlocked on one count. - [Judge] Will the defendant
rise and face the jury, please? Read your verdict. - We the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, Charles Ng, guilty of the murder of Sean Dubs as charged in count one. - [Narrator] The jury
found Charles Ng guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder. They could not come to a conclusion on the death of Paul Cosner. They did not feel they had
enough evidence to convict. Charles Ng was sentenced to death. For the prosecution, the
long ordeal was finally over. - And I was just happy for the
people of Calaveras County, that finally Mr. Ng was
found guilty of these murders after so many years. I'm proud of the fact that I was the District Attorney at the time, and prosecuted Charles Ng, and I was in essence
the last person standing from Calaveras County
after all these years. - [Narrator] With a final cost
of over 20 million dollars, the longest and most
expensive criminal case in California history came to a close. For 13 years, the
prosecution never wavered in their pursuit of justice. Charles Ng now sits on
California's death row. (dramatic music) (wondrous music)
