Excerpts from Leonard Lake's Journal

Leonard Lake, who allegedly helped plot and execute the 12 murders for which Charles Ng is standing trial, kept a diary in which the mundane details of his life were recorded alongside his plan to turn women into sexual slaves.

The journal was mentioned during opening statements when Ng's trial began Monday. Ng's defense team has said it plans to use the document to prove Ng was a bystander in the serial murders, while Lake, who committed suicide shortly after his arrest in June 1985, did the killings.

Prosecutors have indicated they may introduce portions of the journal to demonstrate Ng's involvement in at least one of the slayings. Ng's trial
was recessed yesterday because a juror was sick.

The diary -- more than a hundred pages of typed and hand-written entries made in 1983 and 1984 -- provides a portrait of an obsessive individual who did not consider himself subject to society's legal or moral strictures.

``I am a dangerous person,'' Lake wrote. ``Society would be worried if they knew that I existed and what I was up to.''

In a series of entries, he recalls how he and Ng stalked and murdered Paul Cosner, a San Francisco auto broker who is one of the 12 people Ng is charged with killing.

Throughout the document, Lake demonstrates his obsession with the sexual subjugation of women. Yet the journal is also remarkable for its near-lack of emotional content.

Lake's descriptions of how he selected and stalked potential sexual slaves, built a bondage cell to imprison them and planned and committed murder is just as flat as when he recounts doing his laundry, shopping or watching television reruns.

``This book is really more of a log,'' he wrote in early 1983. ``With few exceptions, the reader will not find any great thoughts or deep studies within (it). . . . The depth of my sins are not recorded.''

In some entries, Lake discusses his ``ops'' -- criminal operations such as stealing marijuana from rural pot plantations, selling the drug to raise money for his sexual slavery scheme and targeting ``betas,'' Lake's code word for potential homicide victims.

Some sections concern Lake's ``Miranda Project,'' a sexual slavery scheme inspired by John Fowles' thriller ``The Collector.'' The female protagonist of Fowles' book is a woman named Miranda who is kidnapped and held as a bondage slave by a sexual psychopath.

On Feb. 19, 1983, Lake wrote: `` `The Collector,' ah, `The Collector.' Has it really been 20 years I have carried this fantasy?''

In an entry early in 1984, Lake describes his work in constructing a bondage cell at his rural hideaway near Wilseyville in Calaveras County.

``1983 was the year of Miranda,'' he wrote. ``Started (and abandoned) in Humboldt County and restarted here. M is a serious underground construction meant to: 1) Provide a physical setting for my sexual fantasies. 2) Provide physical security for myself and my possessions. 3) Provide limited protection from nuclear fallout.''

He concludes the passage by writing that how the chamber will work as a bondage cell ``is unknown until the facility is operational and something happens.`

In some of the most chilling entries, Lake appears to dispassionately describe how he and Ng picked Cosner as the target of a Nov. 2, 1984, abduction and murder.

Cosner's body has never been found, but investigators believe he was abducted, possibly from his Marina District home, and shot to death. Lake was driving Cosner's Honda at the time of his arrest in South San Francisco, and some of the missing man's personal effects -- including bank and credit cards -- were found in Wilseyville.

``25 Oct.,'' Lake wrote. ``Slow day. Went to SF . . . Considering new operation. Loot, ID, vehicles, beta (murder victim). Unfortunately, will need Charlie.''

After checking on an ad Cosner had run offering a 1980 Honda Prelude, Lake wrote: ``31 Oct. Nothing day. Spent day making calls and checking out potential ops. New Beta. Honda Prelude with owner that could pass for me.

``1 Nov. Nothing day. Called Beta and arranged to pay him $500 tomorrow night. To meet Charlie tomorrow noon and make plans.

``2 Nov. Met Charlie. Performed op. Met resistance for first time, Unsuccessful in obtaining credit card or bank codes. Drove to country for completion. Canceled Charlie's running debt to me.''

Two entries after his description of the ``Beta op'' on the owner of the Honda Prelude, Lake's diary reverts to his daily activities, as if the incident had never occurred.

``4 Nov.,'' he wrote. ``Spent whole day cleaning house and putting my stuff away. Laundry, shopping, basic coming home stuff. (It is) good to be home.''


 

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