Who Is Leonard Lake? Age, Biography and Wiki
As of 2025, Leonard Lake would have been 79 years old. However, he is primarily known for his criminal activities between 1978 and 1985. Lake and his accomplice Charles Ng were responsible for the abduction, torture, and murder of multiple victims in California. Lake's life ended in 1985, when he committed suicide while in custody, making it difficult for law enforcement to uncover the full extent of his crimes. The chilling details of his life story continue to be subjects of books, documentaries, and a deeper social discussion regarding the psychology of serial killers.
| Occupation | Serial Killers |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | October 29, 1945 |
| Age | 39 Years |
| Birth Place | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Scorpio |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 6 June, 1985 |
| Died Place | N/A |
Popularity
Leonard Lake's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
Leonard Lake was reported to be approximately 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) tall and had a weight of about 160 pounds (73 kg) during his active years. His physical appearance, though unremarkable, was not what made him infamous; rather, it was his extreme and violent behavior. Further details on his body measurements are largely obscured by the nature of his life and crimes.
* On July 11, 1984, Donald Albert Giulietti, 36, a radio personality from San Francisco, California was spending time in his apartment expecting a visitor. Giulietti was openly gay and lived with another man named Richard Carrazza. Giulietti placed a personal advertisement in a local newspaper offering to give oral sex to straight men.
That night a stranger knocked on the door and as soon as Giulietti opened the door, a man whipped out a pistol and shot him in the head at close range. Carrazza was also immediately shot in the chest. The individual fled and Carrazza called the police.
Carrazza, the only known survivor victim of Lake or Ng, would go on to identify Ng as the shooter.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
Details regarding Leonard Lake’s family life reveal that he had a troubled upbringing, which may have contributed to his later actions. Lake's relationship status is complex, as he was involved with a woman named Clara Ng, who played a part in his crimes. There are not many public insights regarding his dating life prior to his criminal activities, but his partnership with Ng was notorious and severely impacted the dynamics of his criminal operations.
Lake's parents divorced when he was 6, and her second marriage produced two half-sisters. The siblings moved in with their maternal grandmother after the divorce.
Net Worth and Salary
Leonard Lake's net worth was estimated to be negligible, especially given that he was engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life. There are no records of legitimate earnings or salaries during his lifetime, as his income would have been largely derived from illicit activities. His financial status is reflective of his criminal lifestyle rather than conventional career pursuits.
On June 2, 1985, Ng was caught shoplifting a vise from a hardware store in South San Francisco and fled the scene on foot, throwing the vise into the trunk of a brown Honda. Lake attempted to pay for the vise, but by then police had arrived.
Officers noticed that Lake bore no resemblance to the photo on his driver's license, which carried the name of Robin Scott Stapley, a San Diego man reported missing by his family several weeks earlier.
Lake was arrested after a gun equipped with a prohibited silencer was found in the trunk of his vehicle, a 1980 Honda Prelude, and was later positively identified via a fingerprint search. At the station, Lake was placed in an interrogation room where he was given a pen, paper, and a glass of water.
A short time later, a detective entered the room to conduct an interview and found Lake violently convulsing on the floor. The notepad contained a brief suicide note. At the hospital, it was determined that he swallowed cyanide pills that he had sewn into his clothes. Lake never regained consciousness and died four days later on June 6.
Career, Business and Investments
Lake's "career" was primarily marked by his criminal endeavors rather than legitimate employment. He often engaged in petty theft and illegal activities, leading to his eventual status as a serial killer. His partnership with Charles Ng was significant in furthering their criminal enterprise, which included kidnapping and murder. Unfortunately, due to the nature of his life, there were no legitimate business ventures or investments that contributed to his profile.
Leonard Thomas Lake (October 29, 1945 – June 6, 1985), also known as Leonard Hill and a variety of other aliases, was an American survivalist and serial killer.
During the mid-1980s, Lake and his accomplice, Hong Kong-born Charles Ng, raped, tortured and murdered an estimated eleven to twenty-five victims at a remote cabin near Wilseyville, California, 150 miles east of San Francisco.
Upon being arrested on unrelated charges in 1985, Lake swallowed cyanide pills that he had sewn into his clothing and died four days later. Human remains, videotapes and journals found at his cabin later confirmed Ng's involvement, and were used to convict Ng on eleven counts of capital murder.
Social Network
As a figure connected to high-profile crimes, Leonard Lake lacked a traditional social network in the way typical individuals might have. His interaction mainly involved other criminals and aberrant individuals. In contrast, he was also a subject of fascination for certain true crime communities, where discussions about his methods and psychology occur. However, his online presence, per se, remains non-existent and limited to discussions of his heinous acts.
They also found a hand-drawn "treasure map", leading them to two buried five-gallon buckets. One contained an envelope with names and identifications, suggesting that the total number of victims might have been as high as 25.
In the other bucket were Lake's handwritten journals for the years 1983 and 1984, and two videotapes documenting the torture of two of their victims. On one of the tapes, labeled "M-Ladies", Ng is seen telling victim Brenda O'Connor, as he cuts her shirt off with a knife, "You can cry and stuff, like the rest of them, but it won't do any good.
We are pretty … cold-hearted, so to speak." In another part of the tape, Kathleen Allen is seen seated in a chair, with Lake warning her, "If you don't go along with us, we'll probably take you into the bed, tie you down, rape you, shoot you, and bury you." In the other, Deborah Dubs is shown being assaulted so severely that she "could not have s
urvived".
Education
Leonard Lake's educational background is not well-documented. It is known that he attended high school, but any further education remains unclear. His early life experiences, including family dysfunction and military service, likely overshadowed any academic achievements. This lack of a robust educational foundation contributed to the trajectory that ultimately led him down a dark path.
After attending Balboa High School, Lake enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1964. He served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War as a radar electronics technician. During this period, Lake was first diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. After what was termed a "delusional breakdown" in Da Nang, Lake received psychotherapy and, in 1971, a medical discharge.
