The Hunt for the Boneyard Killers: California's Most Infamous Murder Case | Real Crime

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 as the mountains 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 [Music] on the morning of october 26 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 to convict and put people in in jail or prison and that's part of the job too but it really is our responsibility to make sure the justice system um particularly a criminal justice system is uh is uh carried out fairly to the point where justice is always taught on june 2nd 1985 a south san francisco dispatch operator received a call a theft was in progress at south city lumber 31.1 1087 robert one at south city lumber railroad and spruce on a 48 shoplifting officer daniel wright of the south san francisco police department responded to the call i had just one year on the street at that time and you know my thoughts were you know officer safety be careful like any call you go to things could go awry at any time [Music] a witness told wright he had seen an asian male stealing a 75 table vice he said the thief when confronted tossed the vice 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 uh cylinder shape object that was probably six to nine inches long and through my training i observed it to be a a silencer the gun was illegally modified as wright took a closer look an agitated man burst from the store he told the officer he paid for the vice his friend had taken right supervisor sergeant paul ziemer arrived on the scene the gun in the honda made both officers suspicious the car was impounded at that time we told him that he was going to be going down to the station to give a statement about the weapon and he was handcuffed and placed into uh officer zemer's vehicle and brought to our station on the way to the station the man told zemer the shoplifter's name was charles zing i got an id [Music] the officer used his radio to request a background check on aim november golf they got a hit [Music] ing was a former marine born in hong kong he'd 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 but first he wanted a piece of paper a pencil [Music] [Music] the on-call detective that sunday when they returned lake was on the floor convulsing wildly detective hopper called the paramedics he was flopping around on the floor it was a 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 detective hopper called the paramedics once the paradigms got up to the emergency hospital we found out a little later that there was they were fighting no activity at all in his brain that he was apparently prayed an autopsy later revealed that lake had ingested capsules containing cyanide the doctor told me and the lab technicians told me that it took about 20 to 25 minutes for the gel cap to dissolve before the cyanide actually hit a 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 rather than writing a statement blake had written a note to a woman named lynn the note read dear lin 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 ing police issued a warrant for ing'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 that the car belonged to paul costner kosner a bay area resident had been missing for seven months hello detective irene brun of the san francisco police department investigated kosner's disappearance sister had reported him missing months earlier and she was quite distraught her brother had disappeared he had 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 kosner was only one of many strange cases involving missing persons in the bay area detective brown was also investigating the disappearance of an entire family on july 25th 1984 san francisco police responded to a frantic call for help harvey dubs his wife and their 16 month old son sean hadn't been seen for several days police had to climb through a window to gain access to the dubs apartment san francisco police department the dubs family had indeed disappeared and the signs of a struggle were apparent days earlier rv dubs had placed an ad in the newspaper to rent out his video equipment that equipment was now missing missing person 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 brun 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 were just didn't look right they left their cats locked in the house unattended and they wouldn't have done that it is unusual for people like paul kosner 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 now we're up to november 2nd so because of the caseload you know you're not trying to pin cases together the only similarity was a newspaper ad based on the discovery of paul cosner's brown honda bronn and her partner reopened his case and searched the vehicle for clues they found a driver's license belonging to a man named scott stapley [Music] they found a stun gun and several unspent bullets on the floor of the car [Music] a recent electric bill addressed to an unknown woman named clerilyn balaz 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 the trajectory of the bullet indicated the shot was fired from the back seat the 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 braun and her partner now suspected they would never find kosner alive [Music] with leonard lake dead and his partner charles ing 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 ron 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 the woman whose name appeared on the electric bill found in cosner's car clara limbaugh's was lake's ex-wife they had been married for three years but divorced a year earlier it's been a long drive detectives suspected she might be the woman lake addressed in his suicide note they asked balaz how an electric bill in her name wound up in paul cosner's car velaz explained the address on the bill was for a cabin her family owned in calaveras county in northern california although braun and her partner were eager to search the cabin the laws claimed she was too busy to take them there until the next day the detectives postponed their search until the following morning so we called the calaveras sheriff's department and told them that we were going to 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 calaveras county covers over 1100 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 onto 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 the following morning brun and her partner arranged to meet clara lynn balaz outside the wilsonville post office they were surprised when she arrived and at that point carolyn 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 concerned that balaz and lake's mother might have compromised evidence at the cabin brun her partner and the calaveras county sheriffs followed them to the property the detectives asked bellaz about a cinderblock bunker near the cabin she said she didn't have the key and would not give them permission to search it lacking sufficient probable cause for a warrant 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 have had to stop and go get a search warrant at that point while her partner questioned balaz detective bruns searched the house i came up last night just for a few 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 recognize a piece of equipment and then it dawns on me where i had seen it it was the dubs the video equipment brun 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 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 clara lynn got very nervous and said you've been here long enough i want you to leave [Music] to learn what other secrets the isolated cabin held detective brun would need to obtain a search warrant the investigators left the property but this time they made certain the cabin would be secure until they returned 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 nearly a year this gave them sufficient probable cause to petition the judge for a warrant ron mcfaul 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 residents and the property and what looked like a tool shed at first the tool shed was a cinder block structure that bordered the driveway clarolin balaz referred to it as a fallout shelter got it good good leonard lake had been a survivalist and this was his fortress against nuclear holocaust [Music] [Applause] [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 saw 21 photos of young ladies 18 to 23 years old and so we were at that point really concerned about who are these females who are these ladies 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 [Music] 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 100 yards from the bunker ron mcfaul and the other investigators noticed the ground had been scarred by a series of several fires we noticed at that point approximately seven 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 really weren't sure 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 lonnie bond lived with his wife and 18 month old son in a house about 50 yards from lake's cabin [Music] 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 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 has used scott stapley's driver's license because they were both big fellas and he had been trying to pass himself off of scott stapley so we're contacting southern california to see you know where is scott stapley and it turns out that he had been living at the cabin next door and no one has seen them either investigators intensified their search cadaver dogs known for their acute sense of smell were brought in to help authorities now suspected that eight 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 [Music] hey rick come here one of the dogs recovered a piece of bone the deputies working the scene knew immediately that this was not an animal with the bone of human remains what had been a missing person's 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 a little bit about what's happening [Music] due to the expanding scope of the case the calaveras county sheriff's office called in additional about help from the san francisco police department and the california department of justice arrived to help with the investigation [Music] three days after leonard lake's suicide a convoy of law enforcement vehicles descended on the property now that this was a murder investigation police knew that all material recovered from a 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 in a clearing about a hundred yards from the cabin officers found a trench with loose dirt they found the trench had been filled with personal belongings and debris the officer i got something 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 turn over the evidence officer who took each one and individually photographed each and every piece of it and we're talking hundreds everything excavated from the property was potential evidence all of the items were collected and sent to the calaveras county sheriff's office [Music] they were meticulously catalogued 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 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 investigators sorted through the survival gear and supplies lake had stockpiled in his so-called fallout shelter lieutenant ron mcfaul 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 story 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 beyond the shelves was a double door leading to a hidden room the inner chamber off to the side was another three foot by six foot compartment [Music] 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 [Music] a typed list of rules was affixed to one wall they included i must always be ready to service my master and must never speak unless spoken to i must always be obedient and never look my master in the eye [Music] 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 at 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 remembering lake's journal investigators feared that lake had acted upon his fantasy of kidnapping and holding captive a human slave [Music] forensic specialists dusted for fingerprints and latent 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 blue soil next to the driveway there they found a five-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 than eight 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 the blouse the top as well as the bra strap removing clothes from the from the female the asian male was identified as charles ing a shoplifter leonard lake had identified just prior to his suicide [Music] the homicide division of the san francisco police department launched a full-scale manhunt for charles inn investigators started with a search of ing'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 erdolatz led a task force that investigated the year old disappearance of the dubs family the equipment lake and ing 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 shown it to neighbors and identified him as one of the people coming out of the dubs home one of the dub's 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 the eyewitness's critical identification of charles ing gave investigators probable cause to issue an arrest warrant leonard lake's ex-wife was questioned about her ex-husband's association with charles ing [Music] she agreed to talk but only after her attorney convinced the district attorney's office to grant her immunity from prosecution balance claimed she didn't know anything about the murders she did tell them that after the shoplifting incident ing walked to her house what kind of trouble are you in the two drove back to the lumber yard to see if lake was all when right 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 clareland drove into his apartment ing told clarilyn 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 if he had to get out of town and she claims that that was the last that she saw because ing was wanted for murder and there was reason to believe he had fled the state the california investigators asked for assistance from the fbi in response the bureau launched a massive manhunt for charles ing at san francisco international airport agents learned that a passenger fitting ing's description had boarded a plane to chicago traveling under the name mike kimoto in chicago agents worked to tracking's movements they started with an extensive background check charlie investigators learned that charles 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 clara lynn ing stayed with lake and his wife for six months in philo california [Music] at the same time atf agents were building a case against lake for possession of illegal firearms in the spring of 1981 they arrested both lake blake skipped bale and began his life as a fugitive ing was sent back to prison to serve the remainder of his original sentence ing was released from prison in 1984 and immediately came back to the san francisco bay area was picked up at the airport by clara lynn balaz and rejoined his buddy leonard lake charles ing was an experienced fugitive with a wide network of friends who could help him to develop more leads the fbi placed ing on their 10 most wanted list for the time being agents focused on ing's friends and acquaintances in the chicago area as the investigation into charles yang expanded a body count in calaveras county continued to climb 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 you couldn't really make out if they were men or women because of the the time that the bodies had been there 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 handcuffed 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 [Music] 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 bonnie bond and scott stapley in chicago the fbi got their first meeting they learned that after serving time on the weapons charge ing had kept in touch with his former cellmate a man described how he had driven in 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 ing board a bus in chatham bound for toronto agents were aware that ing's sister lived there [Music] the fbi deployed a surveillance team at her apartment house but the fugitive never showed after days of following the trail grew cold a suspected serial killer was now roaming free in canada as word of the multiple murders spread the news media descended on the property in calaveras county don lasseter is a true crime author who wrote a book on the charles inn case and of course the media when they first heard of this rushed to the site and daily the the media coverage grew and it got coverage all over california and swimming all over the united states and certainly even in canada all right okay 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 conservation corps has 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 coroner 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 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 uh anything we can about mr lake and mr yang a telephone hotline was set up by the calaveras sheriff's department and calls soon began pouring in [Music] detectives believed leonard lake and charles ing crossed paths with as many as 25 people who were later reported missing property in calaveras county working under san francisco investigator ed urtelats the task force tried to piece together any leads that would locate ing or help identify the growing list of victims anybody that had anything to do with either lakering 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 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 relatives and friends of the missing realized their loved ones might be among the dead [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 lakes was found buried near a chicken coop behind the cabin jeff gerald who worked with ing at a san francisco moving company disappeared along with his friend clifford perranto who worked at the same company [Music] ing's longtime 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 kosner whose car had originally led investigators on this trail of kidnapping and murder the task force received one bit of good news hey listen we finally caught a break on this one we were able to id all these women and they're all still alive 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 ing he left california after weeks of searching they still had not located the fugitive then on july 6 1985 a boy riding his bicycle in a canadian park spotted the perfect place for a playfort 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 ing the boy recognized him from wanted posters he led police to the makeshift shelter only to find that ing had fled later that same day charles would make the mistake investigators have been waiting for ironically it was the same mistake that started the police investigation a month earlier [Music] a security guard confronted a young asian male as he slipped stolen merchandise into his knapsack in a calgary department store 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 was captured and booked on charges of attempted murder robbery and possession of a firearm good evening popping night watch charles ing is in a canadian jail tonight and the worldwide manhunt has ended for the reached the sheriff's office in calaveras county ing 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 ing was quickly subdued by store patrons and was taken into police custody san francisco police inspector ed erdolatz was eager to question the suspect he flew to calgary wherein was being held in a maximum security prison and 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 have gone into a lot of things had he had he been willing to talk to us about those things but that didn't occur the murders inc claimed were all the work of leonard lake when pressed ing did admit to her lats 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 ing on 12 counts of first-degree murder making it possible for the prosecution to seek the death penalty but ing'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 there were some exceptions to the treaty however do you think we can work around that if the district attorney's office could prove to a canadian court that ing was guilty of multiple murders canada would be required to hand over the suspected killer before the extradition hearing could begin ing would have to stand trial in canada on shoplifting and assault charges in order to delay his extradition ing waved his right to a jury trial and asked for a speedier bench trial he received a four and a half year sentence until he completed that sentence the calaveras county district attorney could not initiate the complicated extradition process even if they could prove their case they would have to wait over four years before they could begin [Music] while the calaveras county district attorney's office built their case against charles ing the search for evidence continued at leonard lake's cabin by this time five bodies had been found and identified hundreds of personal effects had been recovered [Music] 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 capital as the evidence against ing 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 that the legal system here and how to deal with it a guard reported to the prison wharton he overheard ing say to a fellow inmate if you want to delay the system you just have to fire your lawyers on october 17 1988 the extradition hearings finally began ing lost the case and appealed all the way to the canadian supreme court his appeal was denied [Music] within the same day charles ing was placed on an airplane in canada and flown back to california but the pursuit of justice was far from over charles ing had used his time in canada to arm himself with enough legal knowledge to wage an all-out war on the american judicial system on september 26 1991 suspected serial killer charles ing was finally returned to california the calaveras county district attorney charged ing with 12 counts of murder detective sergeant randy grassmark transported ing 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 that somebody wanted to kill charles ing let's face it the last thing we wanted to do as calvary county sheriff's department was lose charles ing calaveras county was not prepared to handle a prisoner like charles zing their courthouse wasn't secure enough to hold a maximum security prisoner the county had to build a special cage to house ing during his legal proceedings from the moment ing 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 i we have five 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 [Music] the prosecution battled charles ing 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 the purpose of this proceeding was simply to determine whether the prosecution had sufficient evidence to try ing for the 12 murders against the defendant moving forward to trial although the burden of proof is not as strict as that of an actual trial the prosecution had little direct evidence linking into the murders lacking eyewitnesses fingerprints and blood evidence the prosecution would have to present its case mostly on circumstantial evidence [Music] their strongest evidence was the videotape found at the cabin entitled m ladies the preliminary hearing was the first time the tape was played for the public on the tape lake and ing were seen torturing two women one of whom was brenda o'connor inspector erdolatz explains the impact of the videotaped evidence brent 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 zing 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 the tapes were incriminating but with so little physical evidence directly linking ing to the murders the prosecution would have to rely on the testimony of another criminal maurice la berge had served time with ing in canada [Music] to pass the time ing entertained leberge 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 the bears turned over the cartoons and told authorities the details of his conversations with inc one of the most damning cartoons depicted in killing a baby the bears testified at ing's extradition hearing detailing everything ing had confessed during their jail time together [Music] leberge's testimony was presented as evidence on november 13 1992 the court found sufficient grounds to try charles ing on 12 counts of murder the judge set his trial date for january 12 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 now that ing knew he would stand trial for his crimes he began a desperate attempt to delay the proceedings in any way possible he filed a motion alleging that his court-appointed attorneys were incompetent he succeeded in firing them and the court appointed him new counsel because pre-trial publicity made it impossible to find an impartial jury in calaveras county king'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 ing's new council the orange county public defender's office the material included hundreds of boxes of records documenting eight years of courtroom hearings witness testimony investigative medical and police reports and thousands of evidence photographs william kelly ing's newly appointed counsel asked for and received two and a half years to prepare his client's case 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 in any case memories fade witnesses die and things of that nature and so when you tack on six years to the life of a criminal case that's a long time to delay a case from going to trial good morning gentlemen have a seat as the prosecution and defense attorneys finalized their trial preparations ing again attempted to delay the process but judge john ryan put a stop to his tactics the case was finally going to trial the prosecution team from calaveras county worked out their strategy with charlene honaka the deputy attorney general for the state of california peter smith yes i know she's a tremendous lawyer and a a better person she was in essence the heart and soul for for this case and for the prosecution as prosecutors prepared to begin jury selection the team suffered a devastating setback maurice laverge was killed in a car accident while on parole [Music] he was the only person to whom ing had confessed his crimes the prosecution had just lost its key witness thirteen 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 ing with 12 counts of murder ing had managed to delay his trial for more than a decade but could delay no longer the murder trial of charles yang 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 is it'll take uh to try this case while council was in the midst of qualifying the jurors please restrain yourself shouting obscenities they tried to halt the proceedings telling the judge that he did not want a trial judge ryan ordered ing 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 [Music] attorneys from the prosecution and the defense took a month to choose a jury of eight women and four men along with six alternates [Music] to protect their identities each member of the jury was assigned a number on monday october 26 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 [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 time frame 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 onaka described the property in calaveras county as a killing field and a mass graveyard direct evidence connecting this defendant she then told the jury about the m ladies tape found buried near the cabin and how they depicted a partially nude ing demanding massages from kathleen allen and cutting the clothes off of brenda o'connor we're going to play for you two segments from that videotape as a means of demonstrating the evidence and in helping you understand the videotape was the centerpiece of the prosecution's case it showed the jury exactly who charles ing was a man who not only tortured women but who recorded his acts on videotape so he could relive them again and again the videotapes dramatic it is the most it is the most incriminating piece of evidence i've ever used in a case it is also the most emotional piece of evidence i've ever used in a case you can sense the terror and the uh the fear those two victims had when they realized the situation they were in because this was the strongest physical evidence linking ing to the murders the prosecution planned to use the videotape throughout the trial to prove charles ing's guilt [Music] william kelly ing'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 ing 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 kelly asserted that lake's plan for murder was outlined in his diary under the heading the miranda project he then read the jury excerpts from leonard lake's journal kelly suggested that lake's conspirator was not ing but carolyn balaz lake's ex-wife [Music] he asserted that she knew about the miranda project and even recruited potential victims nobody's going to walk in here sit down in that jury box point a finger at charles ang and say i saw charlie eng murder somebody it's not gonna happen with very little physical evidence placing ing at the murders kelly intended to discredit the prosecution's circumstantial case and prove it was leonard lake not charles ing who murdered the 12 victims he asserted that ing 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 he told the jury about a startling discovery he made while analyzing the videotapes confiscated from ing's san francisco apartments it appeared and i'd put this tape in and push played play and it started with the credits so i thought well she was 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 we went what copeland discovered was a still image of two bodies in a wheelbarrow the image was entered into evidence yes it is the he was asked to identify two photographs of bodies found at the cabin yes i believe that's the remains of scott stabling uh and this next one uh those remains are from um lonnie bond he went on the way in which lonnie bond and scott stapley were bound gagged and wrapped in sleeping bags [Music] 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 [Music] shortly after death when the blood flow is interrupted [Music] it only lasts for a few hours until the body begins to decay [Music] in canada ing told inspector erdolatz 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 ing'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 ing'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 hurblicka 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 belong to the people who had gone missing and the victims in our case the prosecution then attempted to establish a link between kathleen allen and charles zing kathleen allen was one of the women on the m ladies tape who was tortured by lake and ing 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 ms 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'd place this in evidence the prosecution then began to construct the timeline of kathleen allen's disappearance to explain how she got to this april 14th 1984 her former supervisor discussed an odd phone conversation she had while at work 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 kathleen allen worked at a grocery store in milpitas california her boyfriend mike carroll had met charles ing 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 in a what in a brown or bronze honda i think did you have an opportunity to see the driver a little a little yes can you tell us what he looked like he was in his 40s bald dark hair and he had a beard that's all i remember a 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 willsville she is handcuffed and she's seated in a chair kathy was told if you don't agree with us right now we're going to 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 is her boyfriend mike did you ever hear from her again 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 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 [Music] 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 a prosecution next tried to prove that charles zing was responsible for the abduction and murder of the dubs family ms tuck you told us that your last contact with deborah devs they called karen tuck who was asked to testify about the last time she spoke with her friend deborah dubs on the telephone well deb 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 so someone came to her door while you were in the phone conversation right [Music] hi hi we're here about the video equipment harvey dubs a part-time wedding photographer had placed an ad in a newspaper offering to rent his video equipment he's got a heavy-duty cable too karen tuck told the court she tried to call deborah dubs the next day but no one answered the phone [Music] the dubs family disappeared on july 25th 1984. their bodies were never [Music] found deb was expecting someone to come over karen tuck was the last person to speak with deborah dubs on the day she and her family were abducted from their san francisco homes takes really good pictures after placing an ad in the newspaper to rent some video equipment rv dubs his wife deborah and his son sean had been robbed and taken from their home the family was never seen again detective irene brun found an inventory of harvey dubs 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 harvey dubs detailed records enabled investigators to trace his equipment to leonard lake's cabin but some video equipment was also found in charles ing'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 in 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 of the puzzle together so that a jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular defendant murdered or committed a crime and focused our attention on this bunker sergeant larry copeland was called back to the stop when we first came on uh he testified about the seven burn sites they had found there was administrative he also described the hundreds of bone fragments he found many of which had been crushed burned and scattered around the property judging from the size and number of burn sites investigators suspected lake and ing 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 but the prosecution's next move was to put ing's confessor on the stand during his canadian prison term ing told maurice laberge he helped lake abduct victims and burn their bodies was the prosecution's key witness his first person account on the drawings ing gave him would cement their case but la berge died before the trial began at the extradition hearing in canada the bears testified about everything ing had told him [Music] in a calculated move the prosecution argued to have the written transcripts of liberty's canadian testimony if it's intended to show that leonard despite the defense's strong objections the judge ruled to admit the transcript sergeant raymond monroe the royal canadian mounted police took the stand and read liberta's prior testimony the defendant in the transcript laberge described how ing gave him the grotesque cartoons and spoke of the crimes 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 it had a butterfly knife he called it he flicked it open and cut her clothes off thank you maurice la berge was a career criminal who served repeated terms for robbery and sexual assault on cross afternoon kelly attacked laberge's credibility isn't it true that maurice leberge had an extensive criminal history objection your honor we've already established that overruled 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 la burrs received 36 000 dollars i believe that was the deal that we struck with him yes kelly implied that liberia's testimony had been bought and paid for sexual assault and robbery yes it is and do you recall offhand what if any contents were retrieved from the automobile at the site of the accident there was twenty thousand dollars in cash found in the vehicle twenty thousand dollars in cash kelly's cross-examination had been successful in insinuating that la berge would say anything for money you're a career police officer the prosecution's key witness had taken the stand by the country they now feared the defense attack had destroyed his credibility isn't it true sergeant monroe was one of the prosecution's last witnesses after presenting their case for 12 days the prosecution rested on november 17 1998 william kelly began presenting ing's defense to the jury [Music] he had a relatively simple strategy to prove that leonard lake was the real killer and ing was just a bystander first kelly called a series of women to the standard to the jury please each testified as to their bizarre sexual encounters with leonard lake the women spoke of his interest in bondage and taking lurid 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 so that would have been 15 years ago another woman testified that lake had threatened to rape her and that he believed in human sacrifice the testimony painted lake as the monster and established that none of the witnesses had even met charles zing thank [Music] you another witness testified that he had seen lake verbally abusing usually working as sort of his assistant or helper helping the defense establish that ing was subservient to lake by calling witnesses who had often seen balaz with lake at the cabin in most the fence attempted to show that balaz herself was an accomplice to lake kelly also used this testimony to demonstrate that ing 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 ing 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 ang 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 added to diary is inadmissible [Music] kelly's attempt to put leonard lake on trial appeared blocked but he countered the prosecution strategy with his next witness [Music] in his opening statement kelly asserted clareland balaz 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 balaz not ing who was lake's accomplice the prosecution had not called her as a witness so as balaz 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 clara lynn belaz the state of california promises 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 [Music] no questions [Music] in a stunning move kelly chose not to question balaz he created the appearance she had something to hide and since she had not spoken on the stand the prosecution could not cross-examine her velaz 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 a woman whenever and however i want and when i'm tired or satiated or bored or not interested i simply want to put her away [Music] with a final glimpse into the mind of leonard lake the defense rested its case [Music] 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 [Music] then the trial took its most surprising turn after hearing the prosecution sum up their case against him ing filed a handwritten motion demanding he be allowed to testify on his own behalf [Music] when kelly tried to convince his client otherwise ing threatened to fire him against the advice of his attorneys charles ing would be taking the witness stand observers in the charles zing trial were stunned when they entered the courtroom on january 27 1999 the accused serial killer himself was now on the witness stand ing was charged with killing 12 people and after three months of listening to his case he demanded to testify on his own behalf assuming the prosecution would use libergia's testimony to cornering deputy public defender clapp decided to take the offensive and prove that leberge had lied [Music] 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 ing 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 um you put their bodies on a pile of wood and ignited it with gasoline no did you agree to kill and tend to kill or kill any of the victims in the 12 murder charges no denials continued for hours as clapp went over every statement ing allegedly made to his jail mate then clap moved to have ing explain away the prosecution's other key evidence the m ladies tape on the tape brenda o'connor begged ing not to take her baby away with regard to the video which he replied it is better than the baby is dead why did you say that i don't know why 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 the m ladies tapes had been transcribed during the extradition hearing so that every word spoken on the tape could be understood when charlene honaka cross-examined ing 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 le bears know that you could hear the sounds of handcuffs clicking but that's not on the printed transcript right of them ladies right monaka demonstrated for the jury that the only way could have known about the sound of the handcuffs was if ing told him it was clear despite ing's denials on the stand that he had told maurice la bears the details of the torture and the killings details laverge couldn't have known any other way then set out to establish that charles ing was not a bystander but a willing participant in the crimes she replayed a scene from the m ladies tape showing ing cutting the shirt off brenda o'connor so you never talk 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 our clothes off right yes without any specific instruction from leonard lake monaca again turned to the videotapes she played a portion of the tape where ing tells leonard lake that a gun is on the table told leonard at one point that the piece was on the table right 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 and she's got leg manacles on yes i believe so and there are two of you and one of her right 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 um something like that anaka had shown that ing was more than a bystander to leonard lake's crimes thank you he was an active participant who sometimes even directed leonard lake because ing took the stand after the prosecution closed the judge gave them the opportunity to restate their closing arguments after ing's testimony it's never rang'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 william kelly then gave the closing arguments for 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 and excerpts from it there's one thing you never see anybody being murdered and you don't see charles yang 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 charles zing had been charged with the murders of seven men three women and two babies his fate was now in the hands of the jury anybody who prosecutes cases or tries cases knows there's never a sure thing with the jury and that's the difficult aspect of being a prosecutor you have to convince 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt and they all 12 have to agree it has to be unanimous 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 [Music] this was not a good sign for the prosecution who knew their case was mostly circumstantial if the jury demanded strong physical evidence linking to the crimes in order to deliver a guilty verdict and charles ing might go free as time dragged on all the prosecution could do was wait [Music] on february 24 1999 after three 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 zing all that evidence was now in the hands of the jury [Music] as the jury reached his verdict we are deadlocked we are deadlocked on one count will the defendant rise and face the jury please read your verdict we the jury in the above entitled case find the defendant charles ing guilty of the murder of sean dubs is charged in count one the jury found charles yang guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder they could not come to a conclusion on the death of case they did not feel they had enough evidence to convict charles 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 eng 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 and prosecuted charles ing and i was in essence the last person standing from calaveras county after all these years 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 [Music] justice charles ing now sits on california's death row

Channel: Real Crime

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Keywords: real crime, crime documentary, true crime, full documentary, full episode, full length documentaries, documentary, tv shows - topic, reenactment, docuseries, docudrama, reenacted documentary, docudrama full episodes, the boneyard, true crime stories, true crime documentary, true crime youtubers, serial killer documentary, serial killer stories, serial killer, leonard thomas lake, horror stories, thriller documentary, leonard hill

Id: -pPKfxTk_qA

Length: 91min 35sec (5495 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021