Post by almagata on Jul 28, 2016 16:49:06 GMT
Leonard Lake was born in San Francisco October 29, 1945. His parents had a rocky relationship and split up when he was young. His mom decided to move to Seattle when Leonard was about 6 and he was left in the care of his grandparents in San Francisco. While in high school he was exposed to a Norse mythology cult and claimed to be an Odinist. He developed an obsession with an impending Armageddon but the source of this and the Odinist exposure is not documented. After graduating from Balboa High School in 1964, Leonard Lake enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam but not in a combat role. His assignment in Vietnam was as a radar technician. Lake's behavior eventually became erratic enough that his mental state was evaluated by the Marines and Lake was held at Camp Pendleton in a mental ward for two years prior to his discharge.
While in the Marines, Lake married a woman by the name of Karen L Meinersmann in 1969 but they divorced in 1972. Interestingly, for the EARONS case, Meinersmann had an address in Laguna Niguel a few miles from the Harrington murder site in 1980 (34120 Selva Rd 286, Laguna Niguel, CA, 92677). Following his release from the Marines, Lake returned to the Bay Area and eventually ended up living on the Greenfield Ranch in Ukiah. Greenfield was known as an alternative lifestyle counterculture commune. The residents there were into self sufficiency and living off the grid but Lake's obsession with preparation for Armageddon and hording guns did not blend well with the peace focused residents. Lake was introduced to Charles Ng via a survivalist magazine ad and when Ng was fleeing from a court martial for stealing guns in Hawaii, he fled to the safety and isolation that Lake offered in Ukiah. Ng had been placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, following the gun theft and escape in Hawaii so eventually, someone tipped the FBI off that Ng was staying with Lake in Ukiah and the ranch was raided by the ATF and FBI. Ng and Lake were arrested. Ng was returned to Hawaii for face his court marital and Lake was charged in California on weapons charges but he would skip bail and become a fugitive for the rest of his life swearing never to be jailed.
Lake had met Claralyn Balazs aka "Cricket" at a Renaissance Fair and her S&M sexual tastes appealed to Lake. They eventually married and moved in together at Greenfield Ranch. Cricket was not charged in the FBI raid and she would eventually divorce Lake choosing not to become a fugitive with him. She, however, continued to have a relationship with Lake and it is her parent's property in Wilseyville, CA that Lake and Ng use as their torture and murder site.
Throughout all of Lake's adult life, he pursued woman, especially adolescent and young adult women, and was very successful at convincing them to pose for nude or semi-nude pictures. He kept these photos in albums which he shared freely with his guests. In the book, Die for Me about the Lake/Ng murders, the author implies that Lake sold these nude images but to who they were sold was never detailed. There are also account published on-line that indicate Lake's grandmother encouraged Lake to take nude photos of his sisters and that Lake coerced his sisters into providing sex to him.
Lake's favorite book was a book called The Collector about a man that collect butterflies and has a hard time relating to people. He dreams about capturing a woman and holding her hostage until she falls in love with him. In the book, the man does kidnap a woman and holds her captive but she eventually dies. The women's name in the book is Miranda. Lake while at the Greenfield Ranch starts planning for Armageddon and part of his plan is to have sex slaves that he can repopulate the world with following the end of times. The kidnapping and captivity plan for these women he names Operation Miranda. The operation never is implemented in Ukiah but once Lake moves to Wileseyville, he begins building the bunker with the captive cell necessary to implement the plan.
Lake begins building the cell and writes Ng who has been imprisoned in Leavenworth for his court martial often. When Ng gets out of prison, he returns to California and they work on identifying women who are Miranda candidates. While Ng was in prison, it is believed that Lake killed a number of people solo including Charles Gunnar who was the best man at his wedding to Cricket and his brother Donald who had suffered a traumatic brain injury and who Charles felt was a burden to his mother and society because he was on disability. There are a number of other people that police believe Lake is also responsible for their disappearances but no bodies have ever been located.
While living at Wilseyville, Lake got a German Shepard puppy which he named Wodan (misstated Wudon in the book) which is the German pronunciation of Odin, the Norse god of poetry and war and is it said that Odin speaks only in poems.
Eventually, Lake and Ng start killing people who they lured up to the Wilseyville property. Many of the killings are of men with the motive being robbery. Often Lake and Ng assumed the victims identity and establish PO boxes and bank accounts in the victims names. Once the bodies were disposed of, they would have government or work checks mailed to them for deposit in the fake accounts. They also would burglarize the victims homes stealing and selling the victims property for cash. They sometimes sold the victims car or in other cases they would keep the car and change the license plate to confuse ownership if questioned by law enforcement. One of the targeted victims had high end video taping and copying equipment for which he was killed and this equipment was taken to Wilseyville to film the Operation Miranda victims.
In June of 1985, Lake and Ng had gone down to the Bay Area and went into a hardware store to find a vise. They had broken a vise and needed to replace it. Ng picked up a vise in the store and walked out without paying for it but was spotted by an off duty officer who happened to be shopping in the same store. The off duty officer told the clerk to call 911 and followed Ng out to their stolen car where he had placed the vise. Ng realized he was being pursued and took off on foot. Lake realized what had happened and offered to pay for the stolen vise hoping that would resolve any conflict. The police arrived and started checking out Lakes fake identity that he provided and found a stolen gun with a silencer in the car. Lake was arrested.
Once at the police station, Lake realized that they would soon know his true identity and he was going to go to prison, so he wrote a quick note to say he was sorry to a few people and took the cyanide pill he had hidden in his clothing. He was rushed to the hospital but died a few days later. Before he did he identified Charles Ng as his accomplice and the manhunt for Ng began.
Police found in the car with the vise, a power bill in Claralyn Balazs' name. They went to her house and she admitted knowing both Ng and Lake and admitted having taken Ng to the airport following the incident at the hardware store. She said she was uncertain of Ng's destination but it might have been Chicago. Ng had ties to a number of locations including Hawaii, Toronto and Hong Kong.
Ng was eventually caught in Toronto shoplifting. During his arrest he attempted to shoot the officer in a scuffle and was charged with attempted murder but was only found guilty of assault and theft. Ng was held for many years following his prison time in Canada on the assault charge pending an extradition agreement between the US and Canada. Once back in California, Ng used incessant legal maneuvers to delay his murder trial but was finally convicted of eleven murders in 1999 and currently is on death row in California.
Claralyn Balazs was given full immunity for her cooperation in the case. Both she and Lake's mother, Gloria Eberling, had visited the Wilseyville ranch to prior to allowing the police on the property to remove items that might be embarrassing to Ms. Balazs. Of interest to the EAR case, Gloria Eberling had an address in Sacramento in 1977 at 2501 Morse Ave #63, Sacramento , CA.
While in the Marines, Lake married a woman by the name of Karen L Meinersmann in 1969 but they divorced in 1972. Interestingly, for the EARONS case, Meinersmann had an address in Laguna Niguel a few miles from the Harrington murder site in 1980 (34120 Selva Rd 286, Laguna Niguel, CA, 92677). Following his release from the Marines, Lake returned to the Bay Area and eventually ended up living on the Greenfield Ranch in Ukiah. Greenfield was known as an alternative lifestyle counterculture commune. The residents there were into self sufficiency and living off the grid but Lake's obsession with preparation for Armageddon and hording guns did not blend well with the peace focused residents. Lake was introduced to Charles Ng via a survivalist magazine ad and when Ng was fleeing from a court martial for stealing guns in Hawaii, he fled to the safety and isolation that Lake offered in Ukiah. Ng had been placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, following the gun theft and escape in Hawaii so eventually, someone tipped the FBI off that Ng was staying with Lake in Ukiah and the ranch was raided by the ATF and FBI. Ng and Lake were arrested. Ng was returned to Hawaii for face his court marital and Lake was charged in California on weapons charges but he would skip bail and become a fugitive for the rest of his life swearing never to be jailed.
Lake had met Claralyn Balazs aka "Cricket" at a Renaissance Fair and her S&M sexual tastes appealed to Lake. They eventually married and moved in together at Greenfield Ranch. Cricket was not charged in the FBI raid and she would eventually divorce Lake choosing not to become a fugitive with him. She, however, continued to have a relationship with Lake and it is her parent's property in Wilseyville, CA that Lake and Ng use as their torture and murder site.
Throughout all of Lake's adult life, he pursued woman, especially adolescent and young adult women, and was very successful at convincing them to pose for nude or semi-nude pictures. He kept these photos in albums which he shared freely with his guests. In the book, Die for Me about the Lake/Ng murders, the author implies that Lake sold these nude images but to who they were sold was never detailed. There are also account published on-line that indicate Lake's grandmother encouraged Lake to take nude photos of his sisters and that Lake coerced his sisters into providing sex to him.
Lake's favorite book was a book called The Collector about a man that collect butterflies and has a hard time relating to people. He dreams about capturing a woman and holding her hostage until she falls in love with him. In the book, the man does kidnap a woman and holds her captive but she eventually dies. The women's name in the book is Miranda. Lake while at the Greenfield Ranch starts planning for Armageddon and part of his plan is to have sex slaves that he can repopulate the world with following the end of times. The kidnapping and captivity plan for these women he names Operation Miranda. The operation never is implemented in Ukiah but once Lake moves to Wileseyville, he begins building the bunker with the captive cell necessary to implement the plan.
Lake begins building the cell and writes Ng who has been imprisoned in Leavenworth for his court martial often. When Ng gets out of prison, he returns to California and they work on identifying women who are Miranda candidates. While Ng was in prison, it is believed that Lake killed a number of people solo including Charles Gunnar who was the best man at his wedding to Cricket and his brother Donald who had suffered a traumatic brain injury and who Charles felt was a burden to his mother and society because he was on disability. There are a number of other people that police believe Lake is also responsible for their disappearances but no bodies have ever been located.
While living at Wilseyville, Lake got a German Shepard puppy which he named Wodan (misstated Wudon in the book) which is the German pronunciation of Odin, the Norse god of poetry and war and is it said that Odin speaks only in poems.
Eventually, Lake and Ng start killing people who they lured up to the Wilseyville property. Many of the killings are of men with the motive being robbery. Often Lake and Ng assumed the victims identity and establish PO boxes and bank accounts in the victims names. Once the bodies were disposed of, they would have government or work checks mailed to them for deposit in the fake accounts. They also would burglarize the victims homes stealing and selling the victims property for cash. They sometimes sold the victims car or in other cases they would keep the car and change the license plate to confuse ownership if questioned by law enforcement. One of the targeted victims had high end video taping and copying equipment for which he was killed and this equipment was taken to Wilseyville to film the Operation Miranda victims.
In June of 1985, Lake and Ng had gone down to the Bay Area and went into a hardware store to find a vise. They had broken a vise and needed to replace it. Ng picked up a vise in the store and walked out without paying for it but was spotted by an off duty officer who happened to be shopping in the same store. The off duty officer told the clerk to call 911 and followed Ng out to their stolen car where he had placed the vise. Ng realized he was being pursued and took off on foot. Lake realized what had happened and offered to pay for the stolen vise hoping that would resolve any conflict. The police arrived and started checking out Lakes fake identity that he provided and found a stolen gun with a silencer in the car. Lake was arrested.
Once at the police station, Lake realized that they would soon know his true identity and he was going to go to prison, so he wrote a quick note to say he was sorry to a few people and took the cyanide pill he had hidden in his clothing. He was rushed to the hospital but died a few days later. Before he did he identified Charles Ng as his accomplice and the manhunt for Ng began.
Police found in the car with the vise, a power bill in Claralyn Balazs' name. They went to her house and she admitted knowing both Ng and Lake and admitted having taken Ng to the airport following the incident at the hardware store. She said she was uncertain of Ng's destination but it might have been Chicago. Ng had ties to a number of locations including Hawaii, Toronto and Hong Kong.
Ng was eventually caught in Toronto shoplifting. During his arrest he attempted to shoot the officer in a scuffle and was charged with attempted murder but was only found guilty of assault and theft. Ng was held for many years following his prison time in Canada on the assault charge pending an extradition agreement between the US and Canada. Once back in California, Ng used incessant legal maneuvers to delay his murder trial but was finally convicted of eleven murders in 1999 and currently is on death row in California.
Claralyn Balazs was given full immunity for her cooperation in the case. Both she and Lake's mother, Gloria Eberling, had visited the Wilseyville ranch to prior to allowing the police on the property to remove items that might be embarrassing to Ms. Balazs. Of interest to the EAR case, Gloria Eberling had an address in Sacramento in 1977 at 2501 Morse Ave #63, Sacramento , CA.
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