WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.740 Okay, I want you to picture a scene with me. 00:00:01.940 --> 00:00:05.419 It's incredibly mundane. It's Sunday, June 2nd, 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:09.800 1985. We're in South San Francisco. It's overcast, 00:00:10.060 --> 00:00:12.859 you know, typical Bay Area weather, just gray 00:00:12.859 --> 00:00:16.280 and cool. And we're inside a lumber and hardware 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.190 store. You know that smell sawdust, metal, the 00:00:19.190 --> 00:00:21.670 smell of treated wood? Oh yeah. It's the backdrop 00:00:21.670 --> 00:00:24.269 of American domesticity. Yeah. A place where, 00:00:24.289 --> 00:00:26.230 you know, your biggest problem is usually figuring 00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:28.589 out what size screw you need. Exactly. It is 00:00:28.589 --> 00:00:30.289 the definition of a low -stakes environment. 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:33.289 People are pushing carts, buying plywood, maybe 00:00:33.289 --> 00:00:36.219 planning a deck renovation. It's just... Normal. 00:00:36.219 --> 00:00:38.100 Totally normal. And in the middle of this completely 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:41.179 ordinary scene, a man walks in. He doesn't look 00:00:41.179 --> 00:00:43.740 like much. He wanders the aisles. He picks up 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:45.899 a vice. Just a standard workbench vice, right? 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:48.200 Heavy piece of metal. Yeah, gripping tool. And 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:50.439 then he just walks out, bypasses the registers. 00:00:51.100 --> 00:00:53.579 Doesn't pay. And that's I mean, that is the absolute 00:00:53.579 --> 00:00:56.140 definition of a petty crime. Shoplifting is seventy 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:58.280 five dollar item. It happens thousands of times 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:00.140 a day. Yeah, right. Usually it's a slap on the 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:02.020 wrist. You get banned from the store. But this 00:01:02.020 --> 00:01:03.920 time it's different. The employees stop him. 00:01:04.019 --> 00:01:07.379 The police arrive. And suddenly this guy, he 00:01:07.379 --> 00:01:09.659 starts to panic. He tries to pay for it. Right. 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:12.019 Yeah. He's pulling out cash, trying to just make 00:01:12.019 --> 00:01:14.280 it all go away. Turn back the clock five minutes. 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:17.450 But it's too late. The officers are there and 00:01:17.450 --> 00:01:20.709 right there in that concrete parking lot over 00:01:20.709 --> 00:01:24.430 a stolen piece of hardware. One of the darkest, 00:01:24.689 --> 00:01:27.950 most twisted stories in American criminal history 00:01:27.950 --> 00:01:31.390 just begins to unravel. Because that man isn't 00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:34.849 just some shoplifter. No, he is Leonard Lake. 00:01:34.969 --> 00:01:37.370 And sewn into the collar of his shirt, resting 00:01:37.370 --> 00:01:40.409 right against his neck, is a cyanide pill. It's 00:01:40.409 --> 00:01:42.370 the ultimate example of what criminologists call 00:01:42.370 --> 00:01:44.489 the banality of the catch. You have this massive, 00:01:44.510 --> 00:01:47.230 complex criminal enterprise, years of planning, 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:50.239 horrific execution. And it's not brought down 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:52.540 by some brilliant detective. No red string on 00:01:52.540 --> 00:01:55.420 a corkboard. No. It's a broken taillight, a parking 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:57.439 violation, or in this case, a shoplift advice. 00:01:57.819 --> 00:02:00.040 It just shows how fragile these double lives 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.400 really are. The disconnect between the mastermind 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:06.340 persona and the reckless reality. And that is 00:02:06.340 --> 00:02:08.840 exactly what we are unpacking today. We are doing 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:12.800 a deep dive into the Miranda murders, the horrific, 00:02:12.979 --> 00:02:15.979 sprawling crimes of Leonard Lake and his partner, 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:19.180 Charles Eng. And it's a lot. We're talking survivalist 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:22.620 bunkers, a chilling obsession with a 1960s novel, 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:27.400 stolen identities, and a literal dungeon hidden 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.699 in the quiet California foothills. Yeah, and 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:31.860 we have a tremendous amount of material to get 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:33.960 through. We're pulling from comprehensive records 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:37.219 on Lake. legal transcripts, recovered journals 00:02:37.219 --> 00:02:40.819 that are just a window into a deteriorating mind. 00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:44.139 And we even have some very recent updates. Forensic 00:02:44.139 --> 00:02:46.259 identifications of victims that came through 00:02:46.259 --> 00:02:48.599 as recently as 2025. That's a key point. The 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:50.719 story feels like history, but it's not over. 00:02:50.900 --> 00:02:52.900 The science is still catching up to the crime, 00:02:52.979 --> 00:02:55.139 you know, 40 years later. So our mission today 00:02:55.139 --> 00:02:57.439 is to try and understand the why. How does a 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:59.680 smart kid from San Francisco turn into a man 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:01.780 who builds a torture bunker? And how does a sort 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:05.759 of generic survivalist obsession morph into this 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.639 specific deadly collecting fantasy? That word 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:10.360 collecting, that's the whole thing, isn't it? 00:03:10.419 --> 00:03:12.020 That's the pivot point. It wasn't just about 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:14.979 killing. It was about possession. It's a disturbing 00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:17.219 psychology, but we have to look at it to understand 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:20.159 how they operated for so long. It's about viewing 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:24.259 the world and the people in it as... It just 00:03:24.259 --> 00:03:26.219 feels impossible. You hear the scale of what 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:29.080 they did, kidnapping entire families, the number 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:31.319 of victims. You think, how did nobody notice? 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:34.500 But then you see how he got caught stealing a 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:37.060 vice. And it's almost laughable if it wasn't 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:39.400 so tragic. And that's the paradox of Leonard 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.280 Lake. Yeah. On one hand, you've got this meticulous, 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:44.719 paranoid survivalist planning for the end of 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:47.000 the world, building structures to outlast a nuclear 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.479 winter. Right. And on the other, you have a man 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:51.740 reckless enough to draw police attention over 00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:55.479 a minor theft. It suggests just a massive compartmentalization 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:58.340 in his brain. He could function in society, present 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:01.080 a face to the world, all while building a literal 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.319 hell on earth in his backyard. So let's rewind. 00:04:03.419 --> 00:04:05.539 Let's go back to the blueprint. Before the bunker, 00:04:05.699 --> 00:04:07.860 before Charles Ng, before this whole Miranda 00:04:07.860 --> 00:04:10.680 plan, who was Leonard Lake? Okay, so Leonard 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:13.099 Lake was born in 1945 right here in San Francisco. 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:16.750 And if you look at his file... On paper, his 00:04:16.750 --> 00:04:19.370 early life has those classic markers of instability, 00:04:19.649 --> 00:04:22.829 but also flashes of really high intelligence. 00:04:23.069 --> 00:04:24.970 His parents divorced when he was young. Yeah, 00:04:24.990 --> 00:04:27.110 six years old, which was less common back then. 00:04:27.209 --> 00:04:29.410 He was raised mostly by his grandmother. And 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:31.709 from what I read in the source material, the 00:04:31.709 --> 00:04:34.689 grandmother's influence was, let's just call 00:04:34.689 --> 00:04:36.490 it complicated. It wasn't exactly a nurturing 00:04:36.490 --> 00:04:39.269 environment. To say the least, it appears she 00:04:39.269 --> 00:04:42.240 actually encouraged some of his... his early 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:44.839 voyeuristic tendencies. There were reports that 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:47.740 he had an obsession with nudity, with photographing 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:50.259 his sisters, and instead of this being a moment 00:04:50.259 --> 00:04:52.300 for, you know, correction or therapy. He was 00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:54.720 just brighted off. Or even enabled by her. But 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.519 there's one specific detail from his childhood 00:04:56.519 --> 00:04:59.199 that just stands out to me. It's a forensic warning 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:02.579 sign that is flashing neon red. I think I know 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:04.259 what you're going to say. It's the mice. The 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:06.759 mice. Exactly. A lot of kids who grow up to be 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:08.959 violent have a history of harming animals. It's 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:11.160 part of the McDonald triad. But Lake didn't just, 00:05:11.220 --> 00:05:14.339 you know, kill me with physical force. He dissolved 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:16.980 them in chemicals. That is incredibly specific. 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:19.959 And honestly, it's terrifyingly clinical. Clinical 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:22.939 is the perfect word. Most children. Even those 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:25.819 with violent tendencies act out of rage or maybe 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:29.060 curiosity about physical reaction, hitting, throwing 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:31.939 something. Yeah. But dissolving a mouse in chemicals, 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:34.319 that implies a desire to make the object disappear 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:36.660 completely. It's erasure. It's not just about 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:39.139 death. It's about erasure. It foreshadows the 00:05:39.139 --> 00:05:41.699 exact method he would use decades later to dispose 00:05:41.699 --> 00:05:44.600 of human remains. It shows this. Yeah. Detachment 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:46.680 from the suffering of a living thing. He's using 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:48.959 it purely as organic matter to be processed. 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:51.600 He was refining a process, not just acting out. 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.379 So he's a smart kid, obviously deeply troubled, 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:56.819 obsessed with photography and chemicals. Then, 00:05:56.939 --> 00:05:59.199 like a lot of young men in the mid -60s, he joins 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.100 the military. Right. He enlisted in the Marines 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:05.160 in 1964, served two tours in Vietnam. And his 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:07.100 role is interesting. He was a radar electronics 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:10.439 technician. So not frontline infantry. Not necessarily, 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.459 no. But he was in the thick of the war zone, 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.620 dealing with high -tech equipment. He was looking 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:19.439 at blips on a screen. Which feeds back into that 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:21.339 detachment, doesn't it? Dealing with abstract 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:25.319 threats rather than faces. Exactly. And the military 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:27.279 structure seemed to hold him together, for a 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:30.420 while at least. The Marines provide a very rigid 00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:33.259 external skeleton for your life. You're told 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:36.279 when to wake up, what to wear, what to do. For 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:39.139 someone with a chaotic internal world, that structure 00:06:39.139 --> 00:06:41.779 can be a lifesaver. Until it breaks. And for 00:06:41.779 --> 00:06:44.860 Lake, it broke. Hard. He had a breakdown. He 00:06:44.860 --> 00:06:47.139 was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. 00:06:47.689 --> 00:06:49.790 Now, I want to pause here because this gets misunderstood 00:06:49.790 --> 00:06:52.290 a lot. For you listening, it's important not 00:06:52.290 --> 00:06:54.970 to confuse this with schizophrenia. Right. Schizophrenia 00:06:54.970 --> 00:06:57.649 involves hallucinations, hearing voices, losing 00:06:57.649 --> 00:07:00.310 touch with reality in a sensory way. Correct. 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:02.910 Schizoid personality disorder is different. It's 00:07:02.910 --> 00:07:04.990 characterized by a profound lack of interest 00:07:04.990 --> 00:07:07.589 in social relationships, a tendency towards a 00:07:07.589 --> 00:07:10.370 solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional 00:07:10.370 --> 00:07:13.189 coldness. People with this disorder often live 00:07:13.189 --> 00:07:14.910 deep inside their own heads. They build their 00:07:14.910 --> 00:07:17.589 own worlds. Exactly. They build elaborate fantasy 00:07:17.589 --> 00:07:21.029 worlds because the real world and real people. 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:24.079 hold no interest or warmth for them, which sounds 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:26.680 exactly like the profile of a guy who would later 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:28.899 want to go live in a bunker and create his own 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:31.160 reality. Precisely. It fits the trajectory perfectly. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:33.459 So he has what's called a delusional breakdown 00:07:33.459 --> 00:07:36.819 in Da Nang and gets a medical discharge in 1971. 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:39.920 So now you have a man returning from Vietnam, 00:07:40.220 --> 00:07:43.120 already predisposed to this detachment, now stripped 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:45.319 of that military structure, and he's entering 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:48.439 civilian life in the chaotic early 70s. And where 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:51.430 does a guy like that go? In the early 70s Bay 00:07:51.430 --> 00:07:53.730 Area, he drifts into the hippie scene, which 00:07:53.730 --> 00:07:56.310 that feels like a contradiction. It does seem 00:07:56.310 --> 00:07:58.470 odd, right? The rigid marine entering the free 00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:01.889 love, flower power movement. But Lick was a chameleon. 00:08:02.269 --> 00:08:04.370 He briefly attended San Jose State, but dropped 00:08:04.370 --> 00:08:08.269 out. He moved to a commune. But even there, his 00:08:08.269 --> 00:08:10.269 darkness leaked out. He wasn't there for the 00:08:10.269 --> 00:08:12.170 peace and love. No, he was there for the indulgence. 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:14.470 His first marriage collapsed because his wife 00:08:14.470 --> 00:08:17.089 found out he was making, let's call them extreme 00:08:17.089 --> 00:08:21.170 amateur movies. Bondage. Sadomasochism. So it 00:08:21.170 --> 00:08:23.089 wasn't about free love. It was about control. 00:08:23.569 --> 00:08:26.170 Always. And this is where we see the transition 00:08:26.170 --> 00:08:29.389 into his survivalist phase. He moves to Greenfield 00:08:29.389 --> 00:08:32.450 Ranch, which is this massive back -to -the -land 00:08:32.450 --> 00:08:34.919 settlement near Ukiah. He lived there for eight 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:37.159 years. This is where he marries his second wife, 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:40.500 Claralyn Cricket -Balas. And she seemed to tolerate 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:43.720 or even participate in his fantasies. But the 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.379 real turning point here seems to be his paranoia. 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:49.059 He wasn't just living off the grid. He was preparing 00:08:49.059 --> 00:08:52.399 for nuclear war. The bunker mentality completely 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:54.860 took over. You have to remember the era, early 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:58.220 80s, the Cold War is freezing over again. Lake 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:00.580 became convinced a nuclear holocaust was imminent. 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.399 He actually started building a massive bunker 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:06.059 on the commune property. But the owner stopped 00:09:06.059 --> 00:09:08.179 him. Yeah, the property owner eventually shut 00:09:08.179 --> 00:09:10.440 it down, but the architecture of his mind was 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:12.559 already set. He wanted a place where he could 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:14.860 survive, but more importantly, a place where 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.019 he was the absolute ruler. And this brings us 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:18.940 to the book. We cannot tell this story without 00:09:18.940 --> 00:09:22.250 talking about The Collector. Yes. John Fowle's 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:25.909 1963 novel, The Collector. I cannot overstate 00:09:25.909 --> 00:09:27.870 how important this book is to understanding Leonard 00:09:27.870 --> 00:09:31.250 Lake. In the novel, a lonely, socially awkward 00:09:31.250 --> 00:09:34.549 man wins the lottery. He buys a remote house. 00:09:35.110 --> 00:09:37.870 And he builds a specially designed cellar to 00:09:37.870 --> 00:09:40.470 hold a woman he's obsessed with captive. He treats 00:09:40.470 --> 00:09:42.549 her like a butterfly in a collection. Exactly. 00:09:42.690 --> 00:09:45.490 He feeds her, clothes her, but keeps her trapped. 00:09:45.669 --> 00:09:48.590 And Lake didn't just read this book. He internalized 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:51.049 it. He wanted to live it. It became his script. 00:09:51.269 --> 00:09:53.950 It became his literal script for reality. He 00:09:53.950 --> 00:09:55.669 wanted to be the main character, Frederick Clegg. 00:09:55.769 --> 00:09:58.519 He called his plan Operation Miranda. named after 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:01.399 the victim in the book, Miranda Gray. He wasn't 00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:03.279 just fantasizing about violence in a general 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:05.059 sense. He was fantasizing about the specific 00:10:05.059 --> 00:10:07.519 scenario of holding women captive in a prepared 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:10.440 space. He wanted to make the fiction real. He 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.460 wanted to be the collector. It's just terrifying 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:14.419 to think that a piece of fiction could provide 00:10:14.419 --> 00:10:16.659 the structural framework for real -world horror. 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:19.340 So, okay, he has the fantasy, he has the survivalist 00:10:19.340 --> 00:10:23.259 skills, but he's still just one guy until 1980. 00:10:23.620 --> 00:10:25.960 Enter Charles Nang. And this is the partnership 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:28.419 that turns a dangerous man into a lethal one. 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:31.820 How do they even meet? Most sources point to 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:34.860 a survivalist magazine ad around 1980 or 1981. 00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:38.159 Lake was managing a motel at the time, the fellow 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:41.340 motel. Eng was a fugitive. A fugitive from what? 00:10:41.539 --> 00:10:43.399 He was a former Marine from Hong Kong who had 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:45.860 escaped military prison. He had a weapons theft 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.259 conviction. So you have two former Marines, both 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:50.480 with criminal inclinations, both feeling like 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.679 outsiders, both obsessed with weapons, a match 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:55.860 made in hell. And the dynamic was immediate. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:58.879 Aang looked up to Lake. He described him as a 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:01.720 brotherly, fatherly figure. Lake was older, the 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:04.299 visionary, the mastermind. Aang was the willing 00:11:04.299 --> 00:11:07.179 student, the muscle, the apprentice. Lake had 00:11:07.179 --> 00:11:09.539 the philosophy. Aang had the kinetic energy. 00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:12.600 It's that dangerous synergy. Maybe alone, Lake 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:14.259 would have just stayed a weird guy in the woods 00:11:14.259 --> 00:11:16.220 with dark fantasies. Maybe Aang would have just 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:18.879 been a petty thief. But together... Together, 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:21.720 they validated each other. Lake provided the 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:24.440 intellectual justification. The Miranda concept. 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:28.259 The survivalist logic. Eng provided the enthusiasm 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:31.419 and the lack of inhibition. A classic folia due 00:11:31.419 --> 00:11:34.240 situation. A shared madness. They escalated each 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:37.039 other. Eng wanted to impress Lake and Lake wanted 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:39.620 an audience for his genius. And escalate they 00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:42.820 did. In 1982, they both get busted on weapons 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:45.200 charges. Right. Eng gets sent back to prison. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:49.279 But Lake, he skips bail. He goes underground. 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:51.779 This is where he truly disappears. Completely. 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:55.539 He adopts alias as Alan Dre, Tom Myers. He moves 00:11:55.539 --> 00:11:58.000 to a remote cabin in Willsieville, a property 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.360 owned by his in -laws. And because he's alone 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:02.940 again and on the run, he starts building. He 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:05.120 builds the dungeon. And he explicitly describes 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.659 it as a dungeon in his journals. It was a cinderblock 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:10.039 structure right next to the cabin. From the outside, 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:11.899 maybe it looks like a shed, a root cellar, or 00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:14.779 a pump house. Inside, it was a prison. He installed 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:16.899 a one -way mirror. He soundproofed it. He built 00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:19.000 a cell. He was building the set for his movie. 00:12:19.370 --> 00:12:22.509 And in 1984, N gets released and rejoins him. 00:12:22.590 --> 00:12:24.309 And that's when the nightmare really begins. 00:12:25.190 --> 00:12:27.470 But before we get to the strangers they targeted, 00:12:27.649 --> 00:12:29.350 there's something darker we need to discuss. 00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:32.409 The betrayal. This is what chills me the most. 00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:34.750 When we think of serial killers, we usually think 00:12:34.750 --> 00:12:38.090 of stranger danger. But Lake began by devouring 00:12:38.090 --> 00:12:40.289 his own family and friends. Let's talk about 00:12:40.289 --> 00:12:43.830 his brother, Donald. Donald Stephen Lake. Leonard's 00:12:43.830 --> 00:12:46.549 younger brother. Donald had been hit by a train 00:12:46.549 --> 00:12:49.919 as a child and was mentally disabled. And Leonard, 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:53.720 he resented him deeply. He felt Donald had leeched 00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:56.100 their mother's attention away from him. He actually 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.259 used that word. He used that word in his journals. 00:12:58.379 --> 00:13:02.220 Leech. That word again. Dehumanization. Viewing 00:13:02.220 --> 00:13:04.500 a person as a parasite. So what happened to him? 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:07.740 In December 1982, Leonard lures Donald to a so 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.460 -called house -sitting job. Donald vanishes. 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:13.190 But Leonard doesn't just kill him. He becomes 00:13:13.190 --> 00:13:15.610 him. He steals his identity. He starts cashing 00:13:15.610 --> 00:13:18.190 Donald disability checks. He forges letters to 00:13:18.190 --> 00:13:20.090 their mother claiming Donald moved to Reno to 00:13:20.090 --> 00:13:22.750 live with drug dealers. Think about the cruelty 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:25.450 of that. Well, that's just, that's evil. It is. 00:13:25.610 --> 00:13:28.190 Not only do you kill the son, but you make the 00:13:28.190 --> 00:13:30.529 mother believe he abandoned her for a life of 00:13:30.529 --> 00:13:32.990 crime. It wasn't a crime of passion. It was a 00:13:32.990 --> 00:13:35.750 resource acquisition. He needed money and a cover 00:13:35.750 --> 00:13:38.129 identity, and his brother was just a resource 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:40.330 to be harvested. And he didn't stop there. He 00:13:40.330 --> 00:13:42.509 did the same thing to his best friend. Charles 00:13:42.509 --> 00:13:45.169 Gunnar. This was the best man at Lake's wedding. 00:13:45.289 --> 00:13:48.629 They had history. In 1983, Lake invites him on 00:13:48.629 --> 00:13:50.750 a road trip to Vegas. Hey, let's go have some 00:13:50.750 --> 00:13:53.000 fun. Lake comes back alone, driving Gunnar's 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:54.820 car, claiming Gunnar ran off with a woman. And 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:57.399 then Lake literally becomes Charles Gunnar. People 00:13:57.399 --> 00:14:00.100 in the town of Willsieville knew Leonard Lake 00:14:00.100 --> 00:14:02.860 as Charles Gunnar. He lived under his best friend's 00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:05.700 name, spent his money, used his reputation as 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:08.860 a solid guy. It's a level of cold pragmatism 00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:11.480 that is hard to comprehend. He wiped out the 00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:13.840 people who trusted him most because they were 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:16.860 useful to his survival plan. It's predatory in 00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:19.659 the most literal sense. So by 1984, he has the 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:21.980 bunker. He has the stolen identities. He has 00:14:21.980 --> 00:14:24.480 the accomplice in Charles Ng. The trap is set. 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:26.580 Let's look at the Willsieville horror itself. 00:14:26.899 --> 00:14:29.360 What was their modus operandi? It was brutal 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:31.580 and systematic. They would target people, sometimes 00:14:31.580 --> 00:14:33.580 lone individuals, sometimes entire families. 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:36.799 The pattern was distinct based on gender and 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:40.419 age. Men and infants were usually killed almost 00:14:40.419 --> 00:14:42.679 immediately. Why? They were seen as threats to 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:45.460 the operation or, you know, burdens on their 00:14:45.460 --> 00:14:47.779 resources. But the women? The women were the 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:50.340 target of the Miranda fantasy. They were subjected 00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:52.500 to enslavement. They were kept in that bunker, 00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:55.580 tortured, raped, and forced to act out Lake's 00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:58.340 script. They were told they had to earn their 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:01.159 survival by pleasing their captors. And the disposal 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:03.220 method. We talked about the mice earlier. Descaled 00:15:03.220 --> 00:15:06.000 it up. They built a large incinerator on the 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.539 property. They would burn the bodies and then 00:15:08.539 --> 00:15:10.860 take the remaining bone fragments and crush them 00:15:10.860 --> 00:15:12.980 manually. They would dump the dust and chips 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:16.360 into the hillside. When police finally excavated 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:19.240 the site, they found over 40 pounds of bone fragments. 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:21.779 40 pounds? Just piles of dust. Let's put names 00:15:21.779 --> 00:15:23.620 to these victims. And this is where the timeline 00:15:23.620 --> 00:15:25.360 gets interesting. Because even though we are 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.820 looking back from 2026, some of these names were 00:15:28.820 --> 00:15:31.990 mysteries until very, very recently. Right. Let's 00:15:31.990 --> 00:15:35.669 start with the Dubs family in 1984. Harvey, Debra, 00:15:35.830 --> 00:15:38.429 and their one -year -old son, Sean. A whole family. 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.490 An infant. Gone in an instant. They were trying 00:15:41.490 --> 00:15:43.549 to sell some video equipment. Two men rang their 00:15:43.549 --> 00:15:45.710 doorbell. Debra was on the phone with a friend 00:15:45.710 --> 00:15:48.590 and said, I have to go. Two men are here. That 00:15:48.590 --> 00:15:51.100 was the last time anyone heard from them. Lake 00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:53.500 and Eng wiped out the entire family just to steal 00:15:53.500 --> 00:15:55.700 their video cameras and recorders. And the irony 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:58.879 is just sickening. It is. They used that stolen 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:00.940 equipment, the equipment they murdered a family 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:03.519 for, to film their torture sessions with future 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:06.639 victims. It connects the crimes in this gruesome 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:08.710 technological loop. Then there's the Bond and 00:16:08.710 --> 00:16:12.269 Stapley group in 1985. This was bold. Very bold. 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:14.950 Lonnie Bond, his girlfriend Brenda O 'Connor, 00:16:15.090 --> 00:16:17.529 their baby Lonnie Jr., and their friend Robin 00:16:17.529 --> 00:16:19.370 Stapley. They were actually living on the same 00:16:19.370 --> 00:16:21.889 property near Lake. They were neighbors. They 00:16:21.889 --> 00:16:24.049 were right there. Right there. They likely saw 00:16:24.049 --> 00:16:26.269 too much, or maybe Lake just got tired of them 00:16:26.269 --> 00:16:28.669 being around. They all vanished. And this is 00:16:28.669 --> 00:16:31.169 where the recent updates really matter. For decades, 00:16:31.269 --> 00:16:33.529 we knew they were likely victims, but forensic 00:16:33.529 --> 00:16:35.830 confirmation was difficult because of, you know, 00:16:35.850 --> 00:16:38.980 the bone crushing. Right. But in 2025, just last 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:43.039 year in our timeline, advanced DNA analysis finally 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.080 positively identified Brenda O 'Connor's remains 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.460 among those fragments. 40 years. It took 40 years 00:16:49.460 --> 00:16:52.080 to give her family that final scientific confirmation. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:55.740 And another one, Reginald Fisbee. Reggie. He 00:16:55.740 --> 00:16:58.340 disappeared in 1984. His remains were actually 00:16:58.340 --> 00:17:01.279 found back in 1985. He's the only fairly complete 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:03.899 skeleton found, but he wasn't identified. He 00:17:03.899 --> 00:17:06.359 was known as Calaveras John Doe for 40 years. 00:17:06.539 --> 00:17:10.039 Wow. And then in January 2025, genetic genealogy 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:12.160 gave him his name back. It's amazing what the 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.460 science can do now. Genetic genealogy is such 00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:16.519 a game changer. Basically, they take the DNA, 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:18.940 find distant cousins in public databases, and 00:17:18.940 --> 00:17:21.259 build the family tree backwards, right? Exactly. 00:17:21.380 --> 00:17:23.279 It's reverse engineering and identity. It's what 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:25.079 caught the Golden State Killer, and now it's 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:26.640 closing the book on the Miranda murders victims. 00:17:27.309 --> 00:17:30.049 It reminds us that these bone fragments were 00:17:30.049 --> 00:17:34.109 people. Reggie was 29. He had a life. He had 00:17:34.109 --> 00:17:36.250 people who missed him. It's good to remember 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:39.029 them as people, not just statistics. But back 00:17:39.029 --> 00:17:41.950 in 1985, Lake and Eng were operating with total 00:17:41.950 --> 00:17:44.450 impunity. They were killing people over cars, 00:17:44.609 --> 00:17:46.589 over video equipment, or just because they were 00:17:46.589 --> 00:17:49.309 there. Like Paul Kosner. He was selling a car, 00:17:49.430 --> 00:17:52.509 a 1980 Honda Prelude. He went to show it to a 00:17:52.509 --> 00:17:55.529 weird buyer in San Francisco. He told his girlfriend 00:17:55.529 --> 00:17:57.630 where he was going. He was never seen again. 00:17:58.029 --> 00:18:01.269 And that car, that car is the linchpin. This 00:18:01.269 --> 00:18:03.230 brings us right back to the beginning, the vice 00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:06.470 incident. June 2nd, 1985. It all comes crashing 00:18:06.470 --> 00:18:08.769 down. Charles Ng enters that lumber store in 00:18:08.769 --> 00:18:11.609 South San Francisco. He steals the vice. He runs 00:18:11.609 --> 00:18:13.609 out, throws it in the trunk of a car and flees. 00:18:13.670 --> 00:18:16.049 And Leonard Lake is just left holding the bag. 00:18:16.289 --> 00:18:18.569 Lake tries to play it cool. He offers to pay 00:18:18.569 --> 00:18:21.039 for the vice, but the police arrive. They ask 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:23.599 for ID. He hands them a driver's license with 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:26.119 the name Robin Scott Stapley. The man he had 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:28.680 murdered, his neighbor. Exactly. But the police 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:31.299 officer looks at the photo, looks at Lake and 00:18:31.299 --> 00:18:35.019 realizes, this isn't you. The discrepancy is 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:39.599 obvious. Stapley was younger. Lake was 39. So 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:42.440 they check the car. It's a 1980 Honda Prelude. 00:18:42.740 --> 00:18:46.319 Paul Cosner's car. The VIN belongs to Paul Cosner. 00:18:46.589 --> 00:18:48.710 The license plate screwed onto it belongs to 00:18:48.710 --> 00:18:51.250 Lonnie Bond. It's a Frankenstein car. A Frankenstein 00:18:51.250 --> 00:18:54.730 car driven by a man with a stolen identity with 00:18:54.730 --> 00:18:57.690 a stolen vice in the trunk. And inside the trunk, 00:18:57.789 --> 00:19:00.210 they find a gun with a silencer. And the silencer 00:19:00.210 --> 00:19:01.809 changes everything. That's not a shoplifting 00:19:01.809 --> 00:19:04.630 tool. That's a hitman's tool. Exactly. That elevates 00:19:04.630 --> 00:19:07.150 it immediately from petty theft to major felony. 00:19:07.490 --> 00:19:09.529 They arrest him. They bring him to the station. 00:19:09.690 --> 00:19:11.630 And this is where Lake makes his final move. 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:13.730 They put him in an interrogation room. They give 00:19:13.730 --> 00:19:15.529 him a glass of water and some paper to write 00:19:15.529 --> 00:19:17.289 his statement. And he doesn't wait for a lawyer. 00:19:17.509 --> 00:19:20.109 No. He writes a note. It basically says, I love 00:19:20.109 --> 00:19:22.470 my wife. I love my life. I am not going to jail. 00:19:22.630 --> 00:19:24.509 Right. He swallowed the cyanide pill he had sewn 00:19:24.509 --> 00:19:27.410 into his clothes. He starts convulsing. He denied 00:19:27.410 --> 00:19:30.130 them the satisfaction. It was the ultimate control 00:19:30.130 --> 00:19:33.029 freak move. He realized the game was up. He knew 00:19:33.029 --> 00:19:34.910 it was in that bunker. He knew he would never 00:19:34.910 --> 00:19:39.390 see freedom again. So he decided when his story 00:19:39.390 --> 00:19:42.509 ended, he died four days later. On June 6th, 00:19:42.509 --> 00:19:44.970 without ever saying a word about where the victims 00:19:44.970 --> 00:19:47.130 were. Leaving the police to figure it all out 00:19:47.130 --> 00:19:50.829 on their own and what they found. Well, let's 00:19:50.829 --> 00:19:53.250 go to Willsieville. Police traced a utility bill 00:19:53.250 --> 00:19:55.890 found in the glove box of that Honda back to 00:19:55.890 --> 00:19:58.230 the cabin in Willsieville. If he hadn't left 00:19:58.230 --> 00:20:00.150 that bill there, who knows how long it would 00:20:00.150 --> 00:20:02.809 have taken. When they arrived, it was like walking 00:20:02.809 --> 00:20:05.269 into a horror movie set. They found the trucks 00:20:05.269 --> 00:20:07.390 belonging to the victim's park there, hidden 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:10.009 under tarps. They found the cinderblock dungeon. 00:20:10.230 --> 00:20:12.220 And they found a map. A hand -drawn treasure 00:20:12.220 --> 00:20:14.960 map. It literally led them to buried five -gallon 00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:17.640 buckets. And inside those buckets wasn't gold. 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:20.940 It was the trophies. Bucket one, IDs, credit 00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:24.400 cards, personal effects of up to 25 people. Bucket 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:27.319 two, the journals and the videotapes. We have 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:29.099 to talk about the tapes. The M. Ladies tapes, 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:30.900 I've read transcripts of these, and they are 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:34.680 difficult to even describe. They are pure sadism. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:38.220 These tapes were crucial, though. Because remember, 00:20:38.599 --> 00:20:42.109 Lake is dead. Eng is on the run. These capes 00:20:42.109 --> 00:20:44.410 proved Eng wasn't just a bystander. What was 00:20:44.410 --> 00:20:47.269 on them? There is footage of Neng cutting the 00:20:47.269 --> 00:20:50.190 clothes off Brenda O 'Connor. He tells her, and 00:20:50.190 --> 00:20:51.809 I'm quoting this because it's important to see 00:20:51.809 --> 00:20:54.529 his nature, you can cry, it won't do any good, 00:20:54.650 --> 00:20:58.130 we are pretty cold -hearted. We. He. He implicated 00:20:58.130 --> 00:21:00.809 himself perfectly. There is footage of Lake lecturing 00:21:00.809 --> 00:21:02.849 Kathleen Allen, telling her exactly what the 00:21:02.849 --> 00:21:05.890 plan is, rape. torture, death, if she doesn't 00:21:05.890 --> 00:21:08.529 comply. They were documenting their own crimes 00:21:08.529 --> 00:21:10.750 as if they were making a home movie. They were 00:21:10.750 --> 00:21:12.750 performing for the camera and for each other. 00:21:12.829 --> 00:21:15.529 It just destroys any defense Eng could ever have. 00:21:15.890 --> 00:21:18.329 But speaking of Eng, where was he while Lake 00:21:18.329 --> 00:21:20.630 was swallowing cyanide? He was running. He made 00:21:20.630 --> 00:21:22.089 it all the way to Canada. And how did he get 00:21:22.089 --> 00:21:24.750 caught? Let me guess. You guessed it. Shoplifting. 00:21:24.910 --> 00:21:28.049 You have got to be kidding me. Again. July 6th, 00:21:28.049 --> 00:21:31.240 1985. Calgary, Alberta. He's caught stealing 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:34.019 grocery salmon, I believe. A security guard confronts 00:21:34.019 --> 00:21:36.400 him. Aang pulls a gun and shoots the guard in 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:39.380 the hand. But the guard and others tackle him. 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:44.680 So, twice, two times, this duo is brought down, 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:48.200 not by their horrific murders, but by petty theft. 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:50.720 It speaks to their arrogance. They thought they 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:53.400 were above the rules of society, big and small. 00:21:53.740 --> 00:21:56.039 They thought the laws of physics and the laws 00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:58.339 of man just didn't apply to them. But catching 00:21:58.339 --> 00:22:00.779 Eng was just the beginning of the legal nightmare. 00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:03.339 It was a saga. He fought extradition for six 00:22:03.339 --> 00:22:05.900 years. Canada generally doesn't extradite to 00:22:05.900 --> 00:22:08.140 countries with a death penalty. It was this massive 00:22:08.140 --> 00:22:10.779 diplomatic and legal tussle. He wasn't sent back 00:22:10.779 --> 00:22:13.900 to California until 1991. And even then, the 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:16.380 trial didn't happen immediately. Delay after 00:22:16.380 --> 00:22:19.500 delay after delay. He went through lawyers like 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:22.680 tissues. He tried to represent himself. He filed 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.920 endless motions about his eyewear, his food, 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:27.339 the temperature of the room. The trial didn't 00:22:27.339 --> 00:22:30.259 actually start until 1999, 14 years after the 00:22:30.259 --> 00:22:33.359 crimes. 14 years. And his defense? It was all 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:35.789 Leonard. He claimed he was just a subservient 00:22:35.789 --> 00:22:37.869 student terrified of Lake, forced to participate. 00:22:37.950 --> 00:22:40.069 He tried to paint himself as just another one 00:22:40.069 --> 00:22:42.829 of Lake's victims. The tapes killed that argument. 00:22:43.250 --> 00:22:46.009 You can't watch a man gleefully taunting a victim, 00:22:46.150 --> 00:22:49.150 smiling, participating in the torture, and believe 00:22:49.150 --> 00:22:51.970 he is a reluctant participant. The jury didn't 00:22:51.970 --> 00:22:54.789 buy it either. He was convicted of 11 counts 00:22:54.789 --> 00:22:57.220 of murder. There was a weird moment in the trial 00:22:57.220 --> 00:23:00.579 involving Lake's ex -wife, Clarilyn Balazs, right? 00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:04.059 Very strange. Yeah. She had immunity. She cooperated. 00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:06.279 She was expected to be a key witness about the 00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:09.299 property, about what she knew. But Ayn's lawyer 00:23:09.299 --> 00:23:12.599 just dismissed her. Didn't ask a single question. 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:14.680 Why would he do that? It remains one of the bizarre 00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:17.680 mysteries of the trial. What did she know that 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.460 they didn't want to risk bringing up? We'll never 00:23:19.460 --> 00:23:21.779 really know. It was a huge gamble that apparently 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:24.220 paid off for the defense in that small way. So 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:26.660 Eng gets the death penalty. He does. The judge 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:29.279 was clear. Eng was not under duress. He was a 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:31.720 willing participant. And where is he now? As 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:34.279 of our deep dive today, Charles Eng is still 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:36.539 on death row at the California Medical Facility. 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.980 But as many of you listening probably know, California 00:23:39.980 --> 00:23:42.660 has had a moratorium on execution since 2019. 00:23:43.299 --> 00:23:47.029 So he just sits there. decades later it's a frustrating 00:23:47.029 --> 00:23:50.829 end lake took the easy way out with a pill ang 00:23:50.829 --> 00:23:53.490 is living out his natural life albeit in prison 00:23:53.490 --> 00:23:55.789 it lacks the catharsis of justice doesn't it 00:23:55.789 --> 00:23:58.930 the family's waited decades for a trial and now 00:23:58.930 --> 00:24:00.630 they wait decades for a sentence that may never 00:24:00.630 --> 00:24:02.769 be carried out when you look back at this whole 00:24:02.769 --> 00:24:06.250 case just the whole sprawling mess of it what 00:24:06.250 --> 00:24:08.349 is the one thing that really sticks with you 00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:11.849 it's the duality on one side you have this grand 00:24:12.519 --> 00:24:15.799 evil literary fantasy, the collector, the Miranda 00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:18.839 plan, the bunker. It's so elaborate. And on the 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:20.819 other side, it's just two losers stealing tools 00:24:20.819 --> 00:24:23.160 and groceries. It strips away the myth of the 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:26.920 genius serial killer. Right. They weren't geniuses. 00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:29.920 They were cruel, broken men who got lucky that 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:31.700 nobody was paying attention until they were. 00:24:31.859 --> 00:24:34.220 That's a powerful point. We tend to mythologize 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:36.200 these figures, but really they're just pathetic. 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:39.160 Dangerous, but pathetic. So what does this all 00:24:39.160 --> 00:24:42.039 mean for us? For the listener. I think it's a 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:46.380 reminder to look closer. The weird neighbor building 00:24:46.380 --> 00:24:49.240 a blockhouse in the yard. The sudden disappearance 00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:52.380 of a co -worker that doesn't quite add up. These 00:24:52.380 --> 00:24:54.799 things happen in plain sight. People knew Lake 00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:57.119 was using Gunnar's name. People saw the bunker. 00:24:57.619 --> 00:24:59.799 But the dots weren't connected until the vice. 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:02.299 It forces you to question how much we really 00:25:02.299 --> 00:25:04.759 know about the people around us. And it highlights 00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:07.400 the persistence of truth. Those buckets buried 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:09.700 in the ground. Lake called them his treasure. 00:25:10.469 --> 00:25:13.349 He wanted them to be found. That brings me to 00:25:13.349 --> 00:25:15.130 our final thought, and this is something I want 00:25:15.130 --> 00:25:17.769 you, the listener, to really sit with. What's 00:25:17.769 --> 00:25:20.430 that? Lake buried those journals and tapes. He 00:25:20.430 --> 00:25:23.339 drew a map. Why? Because a collector wants his 00:25:23.339 --> 00:25:25.900 collection to be seen. Exactly. He committed 00:25:25.900 --> 00:25:28.220 suicide to escape prison, but he left the map 00:25:28.220 --> 00:25:30.500 because he didn't want his work to be forgotten. 00:25:30.740 --> 00:25:33.240 He wanted us to be talking about him 40 years 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:36.880 later. He wanted the infamy. In a way, by doing 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:39.000 this deep dive, are we giving him exactly what 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:41.720 he wanted, or are we stripping the power away 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:45.079 by exposing how small and pathetic he really 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:48.730 was? That is a very uncomfortable question. He 00:25:48.730 --> 00:25:52.029 curated his own legacy from the grave. He couldn't 00:25:52.029 --> 00:25:54.289 control his life, so he controlled the narrative 00:25:54.289 --> 00:25:57.970 of his death. Something to think about. He didn't 00:25:57.970 --> 00:25:59.990 plan on getting caught shoplifting, but he definitely 00:25:59.990 --> 00:26:01.910 planned on being remembered. It's a chilling 00:26:01.910 --> 00:26:04.769 legacy. That's it for this deep dive into the 00:26:04.769 --> 00:26:07.369 Miranda murders. It's a heavy one, but an important 00:26:07.369 --> 00:26:10.519 piece of history to understand. Absolutely. Knowledge 00:26:10.519 --> 00:26:12.599 is the only defense we have against this kind 00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:15.680 of darkness. Stay curious, stay safe, and we'll 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:17.500 catch you on the next deep dive.