May 12, 2017 ▸ People, True Crime

Episode 196: The Miranda Murders: Leonard Lake and Charles Ng

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we throw some True Crime at you and look at grizzly killings done by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng. Leonard Lake was born to a family that allegedly encouraged him to take naked photos of his sister and use them as pornography, and had a lifelong obsession with watching and being involved in the making of porno. His obsession with it cost him two wives. Through his childhood and adulthood, Lake was thief and a conman, and he was medically discharged from the military due to schizophrenic traits. He tried life as a college student and a hippy, but decided on serial killer.

Meanwhile, his cohort Charles Ng was born in Hong Kong and was said to have a very abusive father. Ng, like Lake, was a lifelong criminal. He was sent to a boarding school in England, but he was expelled for stealing. Later, he illegally joined the US Marines by lying about his nationality, and once there, he was convicted of stealing $11,000 worth of weaponry. While doing time for the weapons, he escaped and went on the run. This is where Lake and Ng finally met each other and became a duo of serial killers.

They both moved to a cabin that belonged to one of Lake’s ex-wives and turned it into a survival compound. They were obsessed with nuclear war, and in one of Lake’s diaries, he even said they need to start “Project Miranda” which was their plan to have a female sex slave to be with them to survive the nuclear apocalypse. Instead of one Miranda, however, they got several. They abducted men and women, families, even infants. Many were shot and killed. Others were raped and held in a cell for a while first.

All told, the police believe they duo was responsible for over 25 murders. What happened when the FBI arrested Ng and Lake? How did Ng manage to escape? How did Lake die of cyanide poisoning while in Federal Custody? Where did Ng run to, and why did it take the US over a decade to convince Canada to extradite him, even though he admitted to the bulk of the murders? Listen, laugh, learn.