WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.180 Okay, so for this deep dive, I want to start 00:00:02.180 --> 00:00:04.559 by putting you in a very specific headspace. 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:08.880 Okay. It's June 2nd, 1985. It's a Sunday. You're 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:11.279 in South San Francisco. And it's one of those 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.419 days that just feels heavy, you know, maybe a 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:17.620 little overcast, just a standard boring weekend. 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:20.280 Right. The kind of day where you have a list 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:22.179 of chores you've been putting off. Exactly. You 00:00:22.179 --> 00:00:24.640 need to fix a fence, maybe build a shelf. So 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:26.420 where do you go? You go to the lumber store. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:28.519 The absolute center of the suburban universe. 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:30.820 It's the place where absolutely nothing, life 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:33.079 or death, is ever supposed to happen. It is, 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:35.399 I mean, the definition of mundane. Precisely. 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:37.759 It's the smell of sawdust, the sound of forklifts 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:40.320 beeping in reverse, guys in flannel shirts debating 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:44.500 plywood grades. It's safe. And in walks a man. 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:47.810 He looks. Completely unremarkable. He walks down 00:00:47.810 --> 00:00:50.130 an aisle. He picks up a vice, a heavy -duty clamp 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:52.270 for a workbench. And he just walks out with it. 00:00:52.310 --> 00:00:54.829 No attempt to pay. No elaborate distraction or 00:00:54.829 --> 00:00:58.109 anything. Just the sheer audacity of, I want 00:00:58.109 --> 00:01:00.789 this, so I am taking this. And this vice costs 00:01:00.789 --> 00:01:03.670 $75. Now, adjusted for inflation, that's not 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.790 nothing, but it's not a diamond heist, you know. 00:01:06.829 --> 00:01:10.329 No, it's petty theft. A nuisance crime. It is. 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:13.900 A store employee sees him, shouts, grabs him. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.719 The guy panics, drops the vice into the trunk 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:18.560 of a Honda Prelude that's in the parking lot, 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.280 and then he just bolts. He runs away. And in, 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:24.439 you know, 99 % of scenarios, this is a misdemeanor. 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:27.079 It's a ticket. Maybe a night in the drunk tank 00:01:27.079 --> 00:01:29.500 if the guy is intoxicated. It's just a story 00:01:29.500 --> 00:01:31.439 the store clerk tells at a bar later that night. 00:01:31.579 --> 00:01:33.959 Yeah. You'll never believe this. Some idiot tried 00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:36.739 to steal a clamp. But this isn't that story because 00:01:36.739 --> 00:01:40.040 that $75 vice, that was the loose thread on a 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.560 sweater that when you pull it, the entire garment 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:44.719 just disintegrates. It wasn't just a loose thread. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:47.480 No. That theft didn't just lead to a shoplifting 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:50.840 charge. It led police to a remote cabin up in 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:53.519 the Sierra Nevada foothills, to a buried bunker, 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:56.060 and to a nightmare that California law enforcement 00:01:56.060 --> 00:01:58.180 had absolutely no idea was happening. happening 00:01:58.180 --> 00:02:00.700 right under their noses. It is the ultimate case 00:02:00.700 --> 00:02:02.680 of the butterfly effect in criminal history. 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:07.620 I mean, a tiny, petty theft in a lumberyard unraveled 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:10.919 one of the most sophisticated, sadistic, and 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:14.240 just psychologically complex serial killing partnerships 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:16.710 the world has ever seen. Today, we are going 00:02:16.710 --> 00:02:19.569 deep on Charles Eng and Leonard Lake. And I don't 00:02:19.569 --> 00:02:21.969 use the term deep dive lightly here. We are not 00:02:21.969 --> 00:02:23.710 just looking at the crimes themselves. Right. 00:02:23.810 --> 00:02:26.030 We are looking at the years, literally decades 00:02:26.030 --> 00:02:29.129 of legal warfare that followed. We're talking 00:02:29.129 --> 00:02:31.569 about a case that went from a cabin in the woods 00:02:31.569 --> 00:02:33.789 all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. And 00:02:33.789 --> 00:02:36.550 back again. And finally, to a trial that cost 00:02:36.550 --> 00:02:39.949 the taxpayers of California $20 million. $20 00:02:39.949 --> 00:02:42.789 million. It's a staggering number. And along 00:02:42.789 --> 00:02:45.050 the way, we really have to unpack a very difficult. 00:02:45.229 --> 00:02:47.849 dynamic, the relationship between a master and 00:02:47.849 --> 00:02:50.150 a follower, the psychology of a die -killing 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:52.830 team. And how a kleptomaniac compulsions this 00:02:52.830 --> 00:02:56.169 inability to stop stealing small, stupid things 00:02:56.169 --> 00:02:59.090 brought down a man who was getting away with 00:02:59.090 --> 00:03:01.150 mass murder. It's a case study in how the legal 00:03:01.150 --> 00:03:04.990 system handles, or I guess mishandles, pure unadulterated 00:03:04.990 --> 00:03:07.569 obstructionism. So let's get into it. We usually 00:03:07.569 --> 00:03:10.569 start with the childhood, the how did we get 00:03:10.569 --> 00:03:12.849 here part of the story. But with Charles Eng, 00:03:13.150 --> 00:03:15.979 his origin story feels... less like a tragic 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:18.360 backstory and more like a prelude to a disaster. 00:03:18.699 --> 00:03:21.240 He wasn't a kid born into poverty fighting for 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:23.500 scraps, was he? No, far from it. And that's what 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:25.659 makes his profile so interesting compared to, 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:28.639 say, a Richard Ramirez or even a Manson family 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:30.800 member, you know, people who came from the absolute 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.159 fringes of society. Charles Angborn, Ang Chee 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.780 Tat, was born in 1960 in British Hong Kong. And 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:39.879 his father was a very wealthy executive. They 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:42.400 had money. They had status. So on paper, he's 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:44.560 set up for success. You know, international city, 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:47.379 wealthy parents. The world's his oyster. On paper, 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.280 yes. But inside the house, the dynamic was. It 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:52.520 was volatile. Reports suggest his father was 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:54.419 incredibly harsh. We're talking strict discipline 00:03:54.419 --> 00:03:56.719 that really crossed the line into physical abuse. 00:03:56.860 --> 00:03:59.039 Wow. Eng was the only son, the youngest of three 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.300 children. And in traditional Chinese families 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:04.120 of that era and that kind of status, the pressure 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:07.280 on... The only son to succeed to carry on the 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:09.960 family name is just Ansel. And if you don't meet 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:11.979 those expectations. You become the black sheep. 00:04:12.099 --> 00:04:14.300 And N didn't just fail to meet expectations. 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:18.319 He actively rebelled against them in a very specific 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:21.540 and I think telling way. He became what everyone 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:24.519 described as a troubled loner. He was expelled 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:27.019 from multiple schools in Hong Kong. And here 00:04:27.019 --> 00:04:30.000 is the trait that defines his entire life. Right 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.459 up until the very bitter end, he started stealing. 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:35.589 At 15, right, he gets arrested for shoplifting. 00:04:35.829 --> 00:04:38.230 Yes. And we have to analyze his behavior for 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:41.430 a second. When a wealthy kid steals, it's rarely 00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:43.709 about needing the object. He didn't need the 00:04:43.709 --> 00:04:45.829 money. It's about the thrill. It's about control. 00:04:45.970 --> 00:04:49.050 Or maybe it's a way to embarrass the father who 00:04:49.050 --> 00:04:51.509 puts so much pressure on him. It's passive -aggressive 00:04:51.509 --> 00:04:53.389 warfare. That's a perfect way to put it. It really 00:04:53.389 --> 00:04:56.399 is. So the father. Probably embarrassed and frustrated 00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:59.399 and at his wits end pulls the classic move of 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:01.579 the wealthy parent with a problem child. Let's 00:05:01.579 --> 00:05:03.519 just ship him off to boarding school. And not 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:06.279 just any boarding school. To England specifically. 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:09.019 Bentham Grammar School in North Yorkshire. A 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:11.639 complete change of scenery. Rural, structured, 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.500 you know, classic British discipline. It's the 00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:17.279 geographic cure. The idea that if you just move 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:19.879 a troubled person to a new place, all the trouble 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:21.660 disappears with them. I'm guessing the trouble 00:05:21.660 --> 00:05:24.310 did not disappear. The trouble accelerated. He 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:25.889 hadn't been there very long at all before he 00:05:25.889 --> 00:05:28.050 was caught stealing from other students. He was 00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:30.829 expelled almost immediately. So he just bounces 00:05:30.829 --> 00:05:32.870 back to Hong Kong. What happens then? He does. 00:05:32.970 --> 00:05:36.329 And then in 1978, he somehow manages to get a 00:05:36.329 --> 00:05:39.089 student visa for the United States. He lands 00:05:39.089 --> 00:05:41.449 in Belmont, California at the College of Notre 00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:44.930 Dame to study biology. Biology. That implies 00:05:44.930 --> 00:05:47.350 a level of, I don't know, academic focus that 00:05:47.350 --> 00:05:48.889 I just wouldn't expect from a guy getting kicked 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:50.769 out of schools left and right. He was intelligent. 00:05:51.550 --> 00:05:54.189 That's the scary part here. He wasn't drifting 00:05:54.189 --> 00:05:57.209 because he's incapable. He was drifting because 00:05:57.209 --> 00:06:00.970 he was disordered. But true to form, he dropped 00:06:00.970 --> 00:06:03.689 out after just one semester. And then again, 00:06:03.889 --> 00:06:06.529 true to form, he gets involved in a hit and run 00:06:06.529 --> 00:06:09.189 accident. Now she's facing prosecution in the 00:06:09.189 --> 00:06:11.870 U .S. He's a foreign national. This is the point 00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:14.629 where he should have been deported and just disappeared 00:06:14.629 --> 00:06:16.730 from American history entirely. But he doesn't 00:06:16.730 --> 00:06:19.629 leave. He doubles down. He joins the U .S. Marine 00:06:19.629 --> 00:06:22.250 Corps. And I have to pause here because this 00:06:22.250 --> 00:06:25.209 has always baffled me. How does a foreign national 00:06:25.209 --> 00:06:27.670 with a criminal record and a pending hit and 00:06:27.670 --> 00:06:31.470 run charge just walk into a recruitment office 00:06:31.470 --> 00:06:34.550 and sign up for the Marines? It speaks to two 00:06:34.550 --> 00:06:36.629 things, I think. The recruitment standards of 00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:40.009 1979, which were maybe a little different than 00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:42.250 they are today. A little looser, yeah. And Charles 00:06:42.250 --> 00:06:45.029 Nang's incredible ability to lie with a completely 00:06:45.029 --> 00:06:48.050 straight face. He used false documents. He claimed 00:06:48.050 --> 00:06:50.319 he was born in Bloomington, Indiana. Bloomington, 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:52.879 Indiana. Of all places, why there? It's so wholesome, 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:54.800 right? It's the heartland. It sounds completely 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:56.879 innocuous. Who's going to check the birth records 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:58.980 of some random guy claiming to be from Bloomington? 00:06:59.540 --> 00:07:03.000 He listed in October 1979. And for a brief moment, 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.240 he's in the system. He's a Marine. Does the structure 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:07.060 help him at all? Does the Marine Corps, you know, 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:09.120 straighten him out? For a normal person with 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:11.459 discipline issues, maybe it would have. But for 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:15.300 a kleptomaniac with what we'd later see as sociopathic 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:17.980 tendencies, no, not at all. He was stationed 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:21.120 at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. Okay. And the stealing 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:25.339 escalated from petty to major federal felony 00:07:25.339 --> 00:07:27.800 very, very quickly. He wasn't stealing candy 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:30.180 bars from the PX anymore. He was stealing automatic 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:33.379 weapons from the base armory. Whoa. Okay, that 00:07:33.379 --> 00:07:36.279 is a massive escalation. That's not, I want this 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:38.779 item. That's, I am preparing for something. Or 00:07:38.779 --> 00:07:40.980 maybe he just saw the value in black market arms. 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:43.920 It could be profit. But given who he meets later, 00:07:44.019 --> 00:07:46.079 it really suggests a fascination with power. 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:49.120 with firepower he was caught of course military 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.779 police arrested him and this is the real turning 00:07:51.779 --> 00:07:54.100 point this is where it all goes wrong or i guess 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.800 more wrong facing a court -martial he escapes 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:00.180 custody in 1980 he literally breaks out and flees 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:02.259 back to northern california and this is where 00:08:02.259 --> 00:08:04.240 the timeline gets really dark because up until 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.860 now ang is a criminal he's a nuisance he's a 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:09.279 thief but he hasn't killed anyone that we know 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:12.800 of he's a drifter and in the ecosystem of 1980s 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:16.060 california The drifter found his predator. Or 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:18.220 rather, his partner. His partner. He meets Leonard 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:21.290 Lake. We need to set the scene for Northern California 00:08:21.290 --> 00:08:24.629 in the early 80s. It wasn't just, you know, hippies 00:08:24.629 --> 00:08:27.509 and tech startups yet. In the rural areas, up 00:08:27.509 --> 00:08:30.470 in the foothills, there was a very strong, very 00:08:30.470 --> 00:08:32.830 paranoid survivalist movement. Right. The Cold 00:08:32.830 --> 00:08:35.590 War was still a very real thing. Oh, it was freezing 00:08:35.590 --> 00:08:38.330 hot. People were building bunkers, stockpiling 00:08:38.330 --> 00:08:40.649 food and weapons, preparing for nuclear winter 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:43.149 or some kind of massive social collapse. And 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:45.250 Leonard Lake was the poster child for this whole 00:08:45.250 --> 00:08:47.509 movement, wasn't he? Leonard Lake was a Vietnam 00:08:47.509 --> 00:08:50.710 veteran. Highly intelligent, but deeply, deeply 00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:53.789 disturbed. By the time Aang meets him, Lake is 00:08:53.789 --> 00:08:56.309 already living way out on the edge. He's paranoid. 00:08:56.490 --> 00:08:59.149 He believes the end is coming. He's obsessed 00:08:59.149 --> 00:09:01.230 with the idea of a new world order where he's 00:09:01.230 --> 00:09:04.210 the one in charge. So you have Lake. He's older, 00:09:04.409 --> 00:09:06.850 charismatic in this really dark way. He has the 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:09.269 infrastructure, the guns, the bunker mentality. 00:09:09.590 --> 00:09:13.480 And then you have Aang, younger. drifting maybe 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.039 looking for a father figure but also hating authority 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:18.899 and obsessed with weapons it's like it's like 00:09:18.899 --> 00:09:21.039 two chemicals mixing in a beaker it's a classic 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:24.279 folia do a madness of two and usually in these 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:26.360 pairings you have a dominant personality and 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:29.700 a submissive one think brady and henley or the 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:32.809 dc snipers lake was the architect He had the 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:36.009 philosophy, the grand vision. Eng was the instrument. 00:09:36.230 --> 00:09:38.850 He had the rage. But they didn't start killing 00:09:38.850 --> 00:09:40.690 immediately, though. They had a run -in with 00:09:40.690 --> 00:09:43.269 the feds first, didn't they? They did. In 1982, 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:45.269 they were living together in a mobile home in 00:09:45.269 --> 00:09:48.629 Ukiah. The FBI raided it, not for murder, but 00:09:48.629 --> 00:09:51.629 for illegal weapons. Okay. Lake jumped bail and 00:09:51.629 --> 00:09:54.200 ran to this remote cabin in Willsieville. Ang 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:55.940 was caught. He was sent back to the Marines. 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:58.059 And he actually served time. He did 18 months 00:09:58.059 --> 00:10:00.220 at Leavenworth. So he's in a military prison. 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:02.580 He has a year and a half to think about his life. 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:06.259 He gets out in 1984, dishonorably discharged. 00:10:06.740 --> 00:10:08.659 He could go anywhere in the world. He could go 00:10:08.659 --> 00:10:10.320 back to Hong Kong. He could go to New York. He 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:12.460 could start over. But he goes right back to that 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:14.940 cabin. He goes back to the darkness. And when 00:10:14.940 --> 00:10:17.879 he gets back to Willsieville, he finds that Leonard 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:21.080 Lake has been very, very busy. This wasn't just 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:23.740 a cabin in the woods anymore. Lake had convinced 00:10:23.740 --> 00:10:26.940 his ex -wife, a woman named Clarilyn Balazs, 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.500 to let him stay on her property there. Okay. 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:31.980 And next to the cabin, he had built a cinder 00:10:31.980 --> 00:10:35.399 block structure, a bunker. This is the infamous 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:38.019 dungeon we always hear about. Lake called it 00:10:38.019 --> 00:10:40.500 that in his own journals. And this is where we 00:10:40.500 --> 00:10:42.200 have to talk about the book, The Collector. The 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:44.879 novel by John Fowles? Yes. Published back in 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:47.279 1963. Have you read it? I haven't, but I know 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:50.129 the basic premise. A guy wins the lottery, buys 00:10:50.129 --> 00:10:52.629 a big house, and kidnaps a girl he's obsessed 00:10:52.629 --> 00:10:55.090 with. It's even darker than that. The protagonist, 00:10:55.350 --> 00:10:58.789 Frederick Clegg, is this lonely, socially awkward 00:10:58.789 --> 00:11:01.970 man who collects butterflies. He captures them, 00:11:02.029 --> 00:11:04.590 he pins them, he preserves their beauty, and 00:11:04.590 --> 00:11:06.929 he becomes obsessed with an art student named 00:11:06.929 --> 00:11:10.169 Miranda. Right. He decides that if he captures 00:11:10.169 --> 00:11:12.970 her and keeps her in his cellar, just like one 00:11:12.970 --> 00:11:15.690 of his butterflies, she will eventually see his 00:11:15.690 --> 00:11:18.450 true worth. and she'll fall in love with them. 00:11:18.590 --> 00:11:21.129 It's a complete fantasy of possession. It's not 00:11:21.129 --> 00:11:23.309 really about sex necessarily. It's about ownership, 00:11:23.529 --> 00:11:26.710 control. Exactly. And Leonard Lake treated this 00:11:26.710 --> 00:11:30.070 novel not as fiction, but as a blueprint, a how 00:11:30.070 --> 00:11:32.509 -to guide. He launched what he called in his 00:11:32.509 --> 00:11:35.509 journals Operation Miranda. Wow. He wanted to 00:11:35.509 --> 00:11:37.590 capture women, keep them in this purpose -built 00:11:37.590 --> 00:11:40.269 cell in his bunker, and train them to be his 00:11:40.269 --> 00:11:43.870 perfect submissive companions for the post -apocalyptic 00:11:43.870 --> 00:11:46.210 world he was sure was coming. It sounds completely 00:11:46.210 --> 00:11:48.690 delusional, but he put real engineering and effort 00:11:48.690 --> 00:11:50.909 into it. Well, he did. The bunker had a hidden 00:11:50.909 --> 00:11:53.409 room behind a sliding shelf inside that was a 00:11:53.409 --> 00:11:55.909 tiny windowless cell with just a bucket and a 00:11:55.909 --> 00:11:58.169 mattress. He had soundproofing. He had handcuffs. 00:11:58.190 --> 00:12:00.350 He had a list of rules typed out for the captives. 00:12:00.429 --> 00:12:03.409 And Charles Nang walks into this. He sees the 00:12:03.409 --> 00:12:05.970 bunker. He sees the plan. And he doesn't run 00:12:05.970 --> 00:12:08.850 screaming. He signs out. He becomes the enforcer. 00:12:09.190 --> 00:12:12.269 And this is where the Operation Miranda fantasy 00:12:12.269 --> 00:12:16.870 turns into a brutal, horrifying reality. Because 00:12:16.870 --> 00:12:19.570 real women aren't characters in a book. They 00:12:19.570 --> 00:12:21.730 fight back. They cry. They don't fall in love 00:12:21.730 --> 00:12:23.929 with their captors. And when the fantasy failed. 00:12:24.049 --> 00:12:27.429 The violence began. The sheer scope of what happened 00:12:27.429 --> 00:12:29.090 on that property. It's just hard to wrap your 00:12:29.090 --> 00:12:30.950 head around. We're talking about bones found 00:12:30.950 --> 00:12:33.370 in burn pits. Police eventually recovered roughly 00:12:33.370 --> 00:12:36.450 45 pounds of charred. crushed bone fragments, 00:12:36.590 --> 00:12:39.809 45 pounds. Forensics identified a minimum of 00:12:39.809 --> 00:12:43.190 11 bodies, but they found maps and journals that 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:46.289 suggested the count could be as high as 25. And 00:12:46.289 --> 00:12:48.090 these weren't just random hitchhikers they were 00:12:48.090 --> 00:12:49.669 picking up. This is the part of the story that 00:12:49.669 --> 00:12:51.529 always gives me chills. They were killing their 00:12:51.529 --> 00:12:53.529 neighbors. That's the most brazen part of it 00:12:53.529 --> 00:12:57.149 all. The Dubs family. Harvey, Debra, and their 00:12:57.149 --> 00:13:01.429 baby, Sean. It's just vanished. Yeah. And their 00:13:01.429 --> 00:13:03.789 video equipment ended up in Lake's cabin. Unbelievable. 00:13:03.889 --> 00:13:08.529 But even closer, a man named Lonnie Bond. Lonnie 00:13:08.529 --> 00:13:11.610 Bond lived 50 yards away from Lake's cabin. 50 00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:14.009 yards. You can practically see into their windows 00:13:14.009 --> 00:13:16.269 from that distance. You absolutely could. Lonnie 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:18.970 Bond, his girlfriend Brenda O 'Connor, and their 00:13:18.970 --> 00:13:21.929 infant son. And a friend of theirs, Robin Scott 00:13:21.929 --> 00:13:25.080 Stapley. Lake Enang essentially wiped out the 00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:27.200 entire neighboring household to take to property 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:31.220 their cars and, well, the women. The victimology 00:13:31.220 --> 00:13:33.840 shows a very clear pattern, doesn't it? The men 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.100 and the babies were killed almost instantly. 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:38.159 They were obstacles. Yeah. In Lake's twisted 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:40.200 worldview, the men were competition or they were 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:42.950 threats and the babies were just... They were 00:13:42.950 --> 00:13:45.269 disposed of immediately. The women people like 00:13:45.269 --> 00:13:47.370 Brenda O 'Connor, Kathy Allen, they were the 00:13:47.370 --> 00:13:49.289 targets of Operation Miranda. They were kept 00:13:49.289 --> 00:13:51.070 alive. And we know what happened to them, not 00:13:51.070 --> 00:13:52.889 just because of the physical evidence, but because 00:13:52.889 --> 00:13:56.230 Lake and Eng, they videotaped it. The M -Ladies 00:13:56.230 --> 00:13:59.629 tapes. When police excavated the site, they found 00:13:59.629 --> 00:14:02.049 these five -gallon buckets buried in the ground. 00:14:02.330 --> 00:14:06.389 And inside were Lake's journals. And these videotapes, 00:14:06.389 --> 00:14:08.970 these tapes are, I mean, they are generally considered 00:14:08.970 --> 00:14:10.870 some of the most disturbing evidence ever shown 00:14:10.870 --> 00:14:12.830 in a California courtroom. Because it's not a 00:14:12.830 --> 00:14:15.289 movie. It's real -time torture. It is psychological 00:14:15.289 --> 00:14:18.769 torture documented for their own pleasure. And 00:14:18.769 --> 00:14:20.929 there is a specific sequence on one of those 00:14:20.929 --> 00:14:23.830 tapes that just completely destroys any defense 00:14:23.830 --> 00:14:26.210 Charles Nang ever tried to mount. What happens? 00:14:26.549 --> 00:14:29.450 Nang is seen on camera using a knife to cut the 00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:32.389 shirt off of Brenda O 'Connor. Now, you have 00:14:32.389 --> 00:14:34.980 to remember, Brenda is his neighbor. He knows 00:14:34.980 --> 00:14:37.360 her. Her baby is probably already dead at this 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:39.600 point. Oh, my God. And he says to her, and this 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.500 is a direct quote, you can cry and stuff like 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:45.000 the rest of them, but it won't do any good. We 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.960 are pretty cold hearted, so to speak. We are 00:14:47.960 --> 00:14:49.559 pretty cold hearted. That's the quote that sticks 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:51.320 with everyone. It's so casual. It's so casual. 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:53.539 It's like he's explaining a policy at the DMV. 00:14:53.580 --> 00:14:56.139 Sorry, the window is now closed. It completely 00:14:56.139 --> 00:14:58.840 dismantles the idea that he was just a victim 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:02.840 or a follower. In the takes, Lake is often the 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:06.059 one lecturing, giving these long pseudo -philosophical 00:15:06.059 --> 00:15:07.899 speeches to the women about why they're there. 00:15:08.019 --> 00:15:11.419 Right, the grand architect. But Eng, Eng is enjoying 00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:14.000 it. He's taunting. He's active. There's a dynamic 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.320 where Lake is the director and Eng is the actor, 00:15:16.419 --> 00:15:19.100 and he's loving his role. There's another moment 00:15:19.100 --> 00:15:21.259 involving a victim named Kathy Allen, right? 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:23.740 Yes. Kathy Allen went to the cabin looking for 00:15:23.740 --> 00:15:25.620 her boyfriend, Michael Carroll, who they had. 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:28.320 Of course, already killed. Lake sits her down 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:30.600 and tells her in this calm, monotonous voice 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:33.919 that she is now going to be enslaved, raped and 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.659 eventually killed and buried on the property. 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:38.379 He explains it like a business transaction. And 00:15:38.379 --> 00:15:40.700 Eng is there for this. Eng is right there reinforcing 00:15:40.700 --> 00:15:43.759 it, participating. It's pure, unadulterated horror. 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:46.100 And they were getting away with it. They were 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:48.179 driving the victim's car as they were using their 00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:50.490 identities. That's how they moved around. Paul 00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:53.210 Cosner, who is a used car seller, he vanished 00:15:53.210 --> 00:15:56.490 in November 1984. They took his Honda Prelude. 00:15:56.649 --> 00:15:58.409 And they were driving that car around for months. 00:15:58.629 --> 00:16:01.029 Which brings us right back to that Sunday in 00:16:01.029 --> 00:16:04.649 South San Francisco. June 6th, 1985. They are 00:16:04.649 --> 00:16:07.129 driving Paul Cosner's car. The trunk is full 00:16:07.129 --> 00:16:10.250 of evidence from God knows how many crimes. And 00:16:10.250 --> 00:16:14.059 Charles Eng decides he needs that $75 vice. It's 00:16:14.059 --> 00:16:16.159 the arrogance of the psychopath. They had gotten 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:18.759 away with murder literally dozens of times. They 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:20.919 felt invincible. What's a lumber store clerk 00:16:20.919 --> 00:16:23.759 to them? Right. So the clerk confronts Eng. Eng 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:26.519 runs. The cops arrive. And who is standing by 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:29.200 the car looking like a deer in headlights? Leonard 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:32.039 Lake. Lake is left holding the bag. The officer 00:16:32.039 --> 00:16:33.620 on the scene looks in the trunk of the Honda. 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:36.200 He sees the stolen vice. That's the probable 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:38.659 cause he needs to search. But next to the vice, 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:42.419 a .22 caliber pistol with a homemade silencer 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:44.470 on it. And that's a felony. That's immediate 00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:46.929 handcuffs. No questions asked. Lake tries to 00:16:46.929 --> 00:16:48.789 bluff his way out of it. He's smooth. He says, 00:16:48.789 --> 00:16:51.289 our officer, it's all a misunderstanding. He 00:16:51.289 --> 00:16:53.509 hands the officer a driver's license. But the 00:16:53.509 --> 00:16:55.889 license is for a man named Robin Scott Stapley. 00:16:56.029 --> 00:16:58.610 Their dead neighbor. Their dead neighbor. The 00:16:58.610 --> 00:17:01.169 officer, he's looking at this license and he 00:17:01.169 --> 00:17:03.610 realizes the white guy in the picture is about 00:17:03.610 --> 00:17:06.490 10 years younger and looks absolutely nothing 00:17:06.490 --> 00:17:09.130 like the guy standing in front of him. So the 00:17:09.130 --> 00:17:12.240 whole story is falling apart. In real time. Then 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:14.779 he checks the license plates on the car. They're 00:17:14.779 --> 00:17:17.119 registered to Lonnie Bond, another dead neighbor. 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:19.880 Then he runs the VIN number. The car belongs 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:22.779 to Paul Cosner. It's a convergence of ghosts. 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:25.180 All the people they killed are suddenly present 00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:28.319 in that parking lot through their property. Exactly. 00:17:28.819 --> 00:17:31.119 Lake is arrested. He's brought to the station. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:33.660 And this is where the master plan completely 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:36.339 ends. Lake knows what's in the cabin. He knows 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:38.579 the bunker is full of bodies. He knows the tapes 00:17:38.579 --> 00:17:40.619 are buried there. He knows it's over. He doesn't 00:17:40.619 --> 00:17:42.400 wait for a lawyer. He doesn't try to make a deal. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:45.420 No. He asks for a glass of water, a piece of 00:17:45.420 --> 00:17:48.319 paper, and a pencil. He writes a short note to 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:51.039 his ex -wife. And then he swallows a cyanide 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:53.039 capsule he had sewn into the collar of his shirt. 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:54.940 Wait, he was just walking around with a suicide 00:17:54.940 --> 00:17:57.480 pill sewn into his clothes? That is some hardcore 00:17:57.480 --> 00:17:59.880 survivalist paranoia right there. It was his 00:17:59.880 --> 00:18:02.079 final exit strategy. He had prepared for this 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:04.799 exact moment. He collapsed, went into a coma, 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:07.960 and died four days later on June 6th. He never 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:11.259 spoke a single word to the police. He just checked 00:18:11.259 --> 00:18:13.759 out. Leaving Charles and Ang as the sole survivor 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:16.359 of this partnership. And now Ang is on the run. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:18.799 Ang made it to Lake's ex -wife's house, Claire 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:22.019 Lynn Balazs. Now, her role in all this is extremely 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:23.900 controversial. And we could probably spend an 00:18:23.900 --> 00:18:26.220 entire hour just on her. But the short version 00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:29.259 is, she drove him to the airport. She helped 00:18:29.259 --> 00:18:31.779 him flee. She drives a man wanted in connection 00:18:31.779 --> 00:18:35.619 with this unfolding horror show to SFO. She does. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.259 He gets on a plane to Chicago under the alias 00:18:38.259 --> 00:18:40.680 Mike Komodo. From there, he goes to Detroit. 00:18:40.839 --> 00:18:43.160 And then he crosses the border into Canada. And 00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:44.740 this is where the story should have shifted into 00:18:44.740 --> 00:18:47.519 a cold case file. He's in Canada. It's 1985. 00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:49.740 There's no digital tracking like we have today. 00:18:49.819 --> 00:18:51.680 If he just keeps his head down, gets a labor 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:54.500 job, shuts his mouth, he probably never gets 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:57.069 caught. Probably not. But again, you have to 00:18:57.069 --> 00:19:00.069 look at the pathology. He is a compulsion -driven 00:19:00.069 --> 00:19:02.910 machine. He can't help himself. He settles in 00:19:02.910 --> 00:19:05.809 Calgary, Alberta. He's living in a lean -to in 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:08.190 Fish Creek Provincial Park. He's basically homeless, 00:19:08.349 --> 00:19:11.049 living on the edge. And a month later, just one 00:19:11.049 --> 00:19:14.029 month after the Vice incident, he walks into 00:19:14.029 --> 00:19:16.349 a department store. A Hudson's Bay department 00:19:16.349 --> 00:19:19.529 store. A famous Canadian chain. And he tries 00:19:19.529 --> 00:19:22.380 to steal a can of salmon. A can of salmon. I 00:19:22.380 --> 00:19:25.599 mean, he's an international fugitive from a multiple 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:28.400 homicide investigation, and he's risking it all 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:32.359 for a $3 can of fish. It defies all logic, but 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:35.220 it fits the profile perfectly. The security guards 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:37.720 spot him. This time, though, Eng doesn't just 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.319 run. He pulls a gun. He shoots one of the guards, 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:42.660 a man named Sean Doyle, in the hand. A scuffle 00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:44.920 ensues, and he is finally tackled and arrested. 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:47.579 And just like that, the global manhunt ends in 00:19:47.579 --> 00:19:49.500 the cam goods aisle of a department store. The 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:51.619 Calgary police run his prints. They realize who 00:19:51.619 --> 00:19:53.599 they have, and the authorities down in California 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:55.799 breathe this huge sigh of relief. We got him. 00:19:55.859 --> 00:19:58.140 Send him back. But Canada doesn't just put him 00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:00.599 on a plane and send him back, do they? This is 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:02.619 where the story shifts from a crime thriller 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:06.819 to a legal drama. And honestly, this part is 00:20:06.819 --> 00:20:08.960 almost more frustrating than the crimes themselves. 00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:12.640 It begins a six -year extradition battle. You 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:14.180 have to understand the legal landscape here. 00:20:14.460 --> 00:20:16.960 Canada had abolished the death penalty back in 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:21.400 1976. The United States, and specifically California, 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:25.339 was very, very eager to execute Charles Nang. 00:20:25.420 --> 00:20:28.119 So Canada's position is, we aren't sending him 00:20:28.119 --> 00:20:31.329 back to be put to death. Essentially, yes. Eng's 00:20:31.329 --> 00:20:33.150 lawyers argued that under the Canadian Charter 00:20:33.150 --> 00:20:35.170 of Rights and Freedoms, specifically Section 00:20:35.170 --> 00:20:38.130 7, extraditing a person to a jurisdiction where 00:20:38.130 --> 00:20:40.970 they face execution is a violation of fundamental 00:20:40.970 --> 00:20:43.630 justice. That seems like a massive loophole for 00:20:43.630 --> 00:20:45.329 a serial killer. You know, I'll just commit my 00:20:45.329 --> 00:20:47.089 crimes and hop across the border and I'm safe 00:20:47.089 --> 00:20:49.289 from the chair. That was exactly the fear. And 00:20:49.289 --> 00:20:50.890 that was the argument California was making. 00:20:51.069 --> 00:20:53.529 The prosecutors were furious. They refused to 00:20:53.529 --> 00:20:55.549 waive the death penalty. They said, this man 00:20:55.549 --> 00:20:58.529 killed at least 11 people in our state. We determined 00:20:58.529 --> 00:21:01.220 the punishment, not Canada. It became a huge 00:21:01.220 --> 00:21:04.099 sovereignty issue. Meanwhile, Eng is just sitting 00:21:04.099 --> 00:21:06.619 in a Canadian jail, probably studying law books 00:21:06.619 --> 00:21:08.920 and enjoying the delay. He was. He fought it 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:12.539 every single step of the way. Habeas corpus petitions, 00:21:12.539 --> 00:21:15.660 appeals to the Alberta Court of Appeal. It just 00:21:15.660 --> 00:21:19.299 dragged on and on from 1985 all the way to 1991. 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:22.640 Six years. Six years where the families of the 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:25.599 victims are just waiting in limbo. Finally, the 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:28.440 case reaches the Supreme Court of Canada. The 00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:32.380 case is reference. Ray Eng extradition. And it 00:21:32.380 --> 00:21:34.920 was incredibly close. The court ruled four to 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:37.740 three. Four to three. That is a razor thin margin. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:39.519 That could have gone the other way so easily. 00:21:39.779 --> 00:21:42.480 It was. But the majority ruled that extradition 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:45.160 would not violate the charter in this case, primarily 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:47.099 because Eng was a fugitive who sought refuge 00:21:47.099 --> 00:21:49.339 there, not a Canadian citizen being sent away. 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:51.240 They basically said, we don't like the death 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:53.400 penalty, but we also don't want to be a safe 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:55.660 haven for America's mass murderers. And once 00:21:55.660 --> 00:21:57.240 that ruling came down, I've heard the Canadians 00:21:57.240 --> 00:21:59.960 did not hesitate. Oh, absolutely not. There's 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:01.839 a story from one of the prosecutors involved 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:05.359 who said that within 18 minutes of the Supreme 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:08.420 Court ruling being announced, Charles Nang was 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:10.960 on a U .S. military plane. They had the engines 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:13.380 running on the tarmac. They wanted him out of 00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:16.779 their country. So 1991, he finally lands back 00:22:16.779 --> 00:22:19.440 in California. We're ready for trial. Justice 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:23.490 is served, right? Finally. Size. If only. If 00:22:23.490 --> 00:22:25.849 you thought the Canadian delay was bad, welcome 00:22:25.849 --> 00:22:28.369 to the California legal system of the 1990s. 00:22:28.390 --> 00:22:30.910 The pretrial phase for Charles Ang lasted another 00:22:30.910 --> 00:22:33.470 seven years. Seven years. How do you delay a 00:22:33.470 --> 00:22:35.890 trial for seven years when the evidence is literally 00:22:35.890 --> 00:22:38.369 on videotape? You weaponize the system against 00:22:38.369 --> 00:22:41.789 itself. Charles Ang decided that if he couldn't 00:22:41.789 --> 00:22:43.789 be free, he would be a complete and utter nightmare 00:22:43.789 --> 00:22:46.150 for the state of California. He engaged in what 00:22:46.150 --> 00:22:48.559 I call paper terrorism. Walk us through this. 00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:50.660 What exactly did he do? First, he went through 00:22:50.660 --> 00:22:52.799 lawyers like they were tissues. He went through 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:55.279 10 different court -appointed attorneys. He would 00:22:55.279 --> 00:22:57.359 work with them for six months or so. Then he'd 00:22:57.359 --> 00:22:59.720 fire them, claim they were incompetent, and then 00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:02.200 he would sue them for malpractice. And every 00:23:02.200 --> 00:23:04.259 time he gets a new lawyer, the clock completely 00:23:04.259 --> 00:23:06.779 resets because the new lawyer has to read thousands 00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:08.940 and thousands of pages of evidence from scratch. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:12.079 Precisely. It's a brilliant delay tactic. Then, 00:23:12.099 --> 00:23:14.799 when he wasn't firing his lawyers, he was filing 00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:17.039 endless motions about his prison conditions. 00:23:17.500 --> 00:23:20.720 He sued over the food temperature. He sued because 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:23.779 he wanted stronger reading glasses. And the most 00:23:23.779 --> 00:23:27.019 infamous one. He filed a formal legal complaint. 00:23:27.500 --> 00:23:30.039 asserting his constitutional right to practice 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:32.980 origami in his cell. Origami. Paper folding. 00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:36.900 You are not serious. 100%. He argued that denying 00:23:36.900 --> 00:23:39.299 him the paper to fold cranes was a violation 00:23:39.299 --> 00:23:42.180 of his rights. All while, by the way, he was 00:23:42.180 --> 00:23:44.640 also being caught hiding escape maps and fake 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:48.000 IDs in his cell at Folsom Prison. So the prison 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:50.079 would clamp down and then he'd sue them for clamping 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:52.160 down. It sounds completely absurd, but it's actually 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.259 a very effective strategy to just exhaust the 00:23:54.259 --> 00:23:57.279 other side. It worked. The judge, at his wit's 00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:59.380 end, eventually allowed Nang to represent himself. 00:23:59.859 --> 00:24:02.240 That added another year of delays while he researched 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.799 his own case. The trial didn't actually start 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:08.000 until late 1998, 13 years after the crimes were 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:10.460 discovered. And the cost. I mentioned $20 million 00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:12.400 earlier. That sounds like a made -up number. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:14.960 That was the official estimate at the time. It 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:17.359 was the most expensive trial in California history, 00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:20.819 surpassing even the O .J. Simpson trial. And 00:24:20.819 --> 00:24:24.160 O .J. had a... dream team of high -priced private 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:27.180 lawyers. Eng was costing the state that money. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:30.460 The security, the transport, the public defenders, 00:24:30.819 --> 00:24:33.640 the court costs, housing witnesses for years. 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:36.940 It bled the system completely dry. But finally, 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:40.160 in 1998, they are in a courtroom in Orange County. 00:24:40.259 --> 00:24:42.960 The venue was changed because he, I assume, couldn't 00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:44.980 get a fair trial in Northern California. Correct. 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:47.819 And the prosecution's case was, as you'd expect, 00:24:48.059 --> 00:24:50.480 overwhelming. They had the bones, they had the 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:52.480 victim's items from the cabin, they had the murder 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:54.480 weapon, and of course they had the tapes. So 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.920 the defense strategy was, predictably, it was 00:24:56.920 --> 00:24:59.119 all Leonard Lake's fault. The dependent personality 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:01.940 defense, they brought in psychiatric experts 00:25:01.940 --> 00:25:04.140 to say that Charles Ng was a psychological infant, 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:06.500 that he was totally dominated by the charismatic, 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:10.480 evil Leonard Lake. They argued he was just mirroring 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:12.960 Lake to survive. The whole defense was, I just 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:14.960 did what Daddy Lake told me to do. Which brings 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:16.500 us right back to the video tapes, because if 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:18.759 you watch those tapes, that whole defense just... 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:23.000 It evaporates in seconds. It does. But Nang made 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.740 a fatal egotistical error. He insisted on taking 00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:29.259 the stand in his own defense. Always a bad idea 00:25:29.259 --> 00:25:31.660 in a murder trial, especially this one. A terrible 00:25:31.660 --> 00:25:34.980 idea. But by taking the stand, he opened the 00:25:34.980 --> 00:25:37.039 door for the prosecution to introduce evidence 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:40.519 they had been holding back, specifically a series 00:25:40.519 --> 00:25:44.299 of cartoons. Cartoons he drew? Yes. While he 00:25:44.299 --> 00:25:46.480 was delaying the trial for all those years, sitting 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:49.589 in his cell, He was drawing these little cartoons, 00:25:50.109 --> 00:25:52.490 stick thighs and caricatures, and they weren't 00:25:52.490 --> 00:25:55.349 funny. They were depictions of his victims. He 00:25:55.349 --> 00:25:57.549 drew them hanging on the wall of his cell like 00:25:57.549 --> 00:25:59.390 trophies. He was drawing the people he killed. 00:25:59.509 --> 00:26:02.269 It showed the jury, in the most graphic way possible, 00:26:02.509 --> 00:26:04.809 that he wasn't traumatized by the memories. He 00:26:04.809 --> 00:26:07.230 was reveling in them. He was keeping his victims 00:26:07.230 --> 00:26:09.890 as trophies in his mind. It just destroyed the 00:26:09.890 --> 00:26:12.450 scared little victim narrative instantly. And 00:26:12.450 --> 00:26:14.789 there was the jury tampering incident, too. This 00:26:14.789 --> 00:26:17.329 story just gets crazier. Brass and disbelief. 00:26:18.389 --> 00:26:21.789 It's like a bad movie script. Eng somehow, from 00:26:21.789 --> 00:26:24.049 prison, managed to get the home phone number 00:26:24.049 --> 00:26:28.009 of one of the jurors. And he called her. At home. 00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:32.029 From jail. What was the goal there? Intimidation. 00:26:32.289 --> 00:26:34.759 Bribes. To cause a mistrial. He knew that if 00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:37.200 a juror is contacted by the defendant, the whole 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:39.519 trial usually has to be scrapped and restarted 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:41.819 from zero. He wanted to reset the clock again, 00:26:41.980 --> 00:26:44.299 go for another few years of delays. Did it work? 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:45.940 Please tell me it didn't work. No, it didn't 00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:48.460 work. The judge was absolutely furious. He refused 00:26:48.460 --> 00:26:50.859 to declare a mistrial. Instead, he ordered a 00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:53.119 metal cage, a literal cage, to be built inside 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:56.190 the courtroom. During recesses and breaks, Eng 00:26:56.190 --> 00:26:58.089 was locked in the cage so he couldn't pass notes 00:26:58.089 --> 00:27:00.170 or try to make any more calls. A cage in the 00:27:00.170 --> 00:27:02.769 courtroom. So finally, after four months of this 00:27:02.769 --> 00:27:05.049 testimony, the jury gets the case. It took them 00:27:05.049 --> 00:27:07.289 a while. Several weeks of deliberation, actually. 00:27:07.349 --> 00:27:09.769 They're very thorough. But on February 24th, 00:27:09.769 --> 00:27:13.089 1999, the verdicts came down. Guilty. Guilty 00:27:13.089 --> 00:27:16.069 on 11 counts of first -degree murder. The Dubs 00:27:16.069 --> 00:27:18.670 family, the Bond family, Stapley, O 'Connor, 00:27:18.730 --> 00:27:20.990 all of them. But he was acquitted on one count, 00:27:21.049 --> 00:27:24.109 wasn't he? Yes. The murder of Paul Cosner. That 00:27:24.109 --> 00:27:26.009 seems strange to me. He was driving Cosner's 00:27:26.009 --> 00:27:29.309 car. He had all of Cosner's property. Why an 00:27:29.309 --> 00:27:31.390 acquittal on the murder charge itself? Because 00:27:31.390 --> 00:27:34.369 they never found Paul Cosner's body. The jury 00:27:34.369 --> 00:27:36.990 felt that while Eng clearly stole the car and 00:27:36.990 --> 00:27:39.470 was involved in his disappearance, the lack of 00:27:39.470 --> 00:27:41.849 a body created just enough reasonable bid out 00:27:41.849 --> 00:27:44.470 regarding the specific act of homicide for that 00:27:44.470 --> 00:27:47.549 one single count. It was a very rigorous jury. 00:27:47.670 --> 00:27:49.130 They didn't just rubber stamp everything the 00:27:49.130 --> 00:27:52.269 prosecution wanted. So we move to the sentencing 00:27:52.269 --> 00:27:55.109 phase. The jury recommends death. The judge agrees. 00:27:55.450 --> 00:27:58.049 And the judge, John Ryan, had a quote that I 00:27:58.049 --> 00:28:00.450 think summarizes the whole dependent personality 00:28:00.450 --> 00:28:02.710 debate perfectly. He did. He looked directly 00:28:02.710 --> 00:28:05.170 at Eng during sentencing and said, Mr. Eng was 00:28:05.170 --> 00:28:07.769 not under any duress, nor does the evidence support 00:28:07.769 --> 00:28:09.670 that he was under the domination of Leonard Lake. 00:28:09.809 --> 00:28:11.930 He validated what everyone saw in those tapes. 00:28:12.069 --> 00:28:14.970 This was a partnership of equals and evil. So 00:28:14.970 --> 00:28:18.869 1999, he gets the death penalty. It is now 2026. 00:28:19.230 --> 00:28:21.869 Charles Nang is still alive. He is. He's in his 00:28:21.869 --> 00:28:25.029 mid -60s now. He resides on death row at either 00:28:25.029 --> 00:28:27.190 the California Medical Facility or San Quentin, 00:28:27.289 --> 00:28:28.970 depending on where they move him for medical 00:28:28.970 --> 00:28:31.970 needs. Why? I mean, people listening might be 00:28:31.970 --> 00:28:34.109 asking, what was the point of the $20 million 00:28:34.109 --> 00:28:36.529 in the six -year extradition battle if he's just 00:28:36.529 --> 00:28:38.349 going to sit there for 30 years? And that's a 00:28:38.349 --> 00:28:40.569 fair question. It's really about California politics. 00:28:41.099 --> 00:28:43.059 There hasn't been an execution in the state of 00:28:43.059 --> 00:28:46.400 California since 2006. Governor Gavin Newsom 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.759 has placed a moratorium on the death penalty. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:52.839 So the entire death row population is essentially 00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:55.900 just aging out. Charles Ng will almost certainly 00:28:55.900 --> 00:28:58.579 die of natural causes before he ever faces lethal 00:28:58.579 --> 00:29:02.400 injection. It feels anticlimactic after everything. 00:29:02.660 --> 00:29:04.619 It is. But that's the reality of the system. 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:06.900 I think for the people involved, the victory 00:29:06.900 --> 00:29:09.339 wasn't the execution. The victory was stopping 00:29:09.339 --> 00:29:11.819 him. taking them off the board permanently. And 00:29:11.819 --> 00:29:13.980 giving the families an answer, even if it took 00:29:13.980 --> 00:29:17.019 14 years to get one. Yes, although we have to 00:29:17.019 --> 00:29:19.539 remember the mystery that remains. We mentioned 00:29:19.539 --> 00:29:22.640 the 25 potential victims. There are still families 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:25.359 out there. People whose loved ones disappeared 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:29.619 in the Sierra foothills in 1984 or 85 who never 00:29:29.619 --> 00:29:31.980 got a phone call. Right. There are likely bodies 00:29:31.980 --> 00:29:33.839 out there in those woods that were never found. 00:29:34.019 --> 00:29:36.339 That's a heavy thought. The map they found in 00:29:36.339 --> 00:29:39.230 the bunker. It was never fully decoded, was it? 00:29:39.329 --> 00:29:41.890 No, not completely. Some of the marks on the 00:29:41.890 --> 00:29:44.109 map matched the burial sites the bodies they 00:29:44.109 --> 00:29:46.589 found. Other marks pointed to locations where 00:29:46.589 --> 00:29:49.250 they dug and found absolutely nothing. Whether 00:29:49.250 --> 00:29:51.589 the bodies were moved or just fully decomposed, 00:29:51.609 --> 00:29:53.950 or if the marks were just Lake's fantasies, we 00:29:53.950 --> 00:29:56.910 will never know. Ning certainly isn't talking. 00:29:57.230 --> 00:29:59.509 You know, throughout this entire deep dive, I 00:29:59.509 --> 00:30:01.450 just keep coming back to the vice. The sheer 00:30:01.450 --> 00:30:04.190 pointless stupidity of it. It's the banality 00:30:04.190 --> 00:30:07.140 of evil in its purest, most undiluted form. But 00:30:07.140 --> 00:30:09.019 I also think about the partnership. You mentioned 00:30:09.019 --> 00:30:11.400 the folly I do. I want to leave our listeners 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:13.500 with a question about that. We like to think 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:15.859 of evil as this solitary thing, you know, the 00:30:15.859 --> 00:30:18.759 lone wolf killer. But this case shows that evil 00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:21.279 can be amplified by company. It's the chemical 00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:24.099 reaction. On his own, Leonard Lake might have 00:30:24.099 --> 00:30:26.160 just been a paranoid guy in a bunker who eventually 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:28.640 died of a heart attack at 60. And on his own, 00:30:28.740 --> 00:30:30.380 Charles Ning might have just been a lifelong 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:32.500 thief and a con artist who died in prison for 00:30:32.500 --> 00:30:34.759 robbery. But put them together. You get a death 00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:37.440 machine. A prolific killing team. It makes you 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:40.119 wonder how many other potential monsters are 00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:43.140 just walking around dormant, waiting for the 00:30:43.140 --> 00:30:46.700 right, or I guess... the wrong partner to unlock 00:30:46.700 --> 00:30:49.519 the absolute worst version of themselves. That 00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:51.619 is a terrifying thought, isn't it? The idea that 00:30:51.619 --> 00:30:54.119 any one of us might be one introduction away 00:30:54.119 --> 00:30:57.539 from becoming a monster or a victim. On that 00:30:57.539 --> 00:30:59.960 uplifting note, this has been the deep dive on 00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:02.440 Charles Vang. It's a story of a stolen vice, 00:31:02.660 --> 00:31:04.779 a can of salmon, and the darkness that hides 00:31:04.779 --> 00:31:07.160 in the California hills. And a reminder that 00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:10.400 sometimes the only thing that stops a truly genius 00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:14.140 criminal is his own compulsion to break the smallest 00:31:14.140 --> 00:31:16.359 rules. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you 00:31:16.359 --> 00:31:17.740 on the next one. Stay safe out there.