Ng was born in
Hong Kong, the son of a wealthy executive. As a child, he was harshly disciplined and
abused by his father. As a teenager, Ng was described as a troubled loner and was expelled from several schools. When he was arrested for shoplifting at age 15, his father sent him to Bentham Grammar
boarding school in
Lancashire,
England.Not long after arriving, he was expelled for stealing from other students and returned to Hong Kong.
Ng finally moved to the United States, where he entered
Notre Dame de Namur University in
Belmont, California. He dropped out after only one semester.
In early 1980, although not a
United States citizen, Ng enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps. Ng later revealed that with the help of a recruiting
sergeant, he provided fake papers stating he was born in
Bloomington, Indiana. After serving less than a year, he was
dishonorably discharged for the theft of heavy weaponry and
machine guns from
MCAS Kaneohe Bay. He was further charged with escape from confinement and attempted
desertion, though the desertion charge was dropped. Ng was convicted on the remaining charges and was sentenced to 14 years in a military prison. He was released in late 1982, when his sentence was
commuted.
Ng met
Leonard Lake in 1983. The two are believed to have murdered between 11 and 25 victims at Lake's ranch in Calaveras County, California. They filmed themselves raping and torturing their victims.
The crimes became known in 1985 when Lake committed suicide after being arrested and Ng was caught shoplifting at a hardware store. Police searched Lake's ranch and found human remains. Ng was identified as Lake's partner in crime.
Ng fled to
Calgary,
Alberta, where he was arrested by the
Calgary Police Service on June 6, 1985, after resisting arrest for shoplifting at
The Bay department store. Ng pointed a pistol at two security guards and, after a brief struggle, shot one of them in the hand. The guards managed to overpower him and held him in custody. Ng was charged and subsequently convicted of shoplifting,
felonious assault and possession of a
concealed firearm. He was sentenced to four and half years in a Canadian prison.
After a lengthy extradition battle with Canadian courts, Ng was handed over to U.S. authorities. He stood trial in 1998 on twelve counts of murder and was convicted on February 24, 1999, of eleven: six men, three women and two male infants. Ng's trial was lengthy and cost California approximately
$20 million. At the time, it was the most expensive trial in the state's history.
Since entering prison, Ng has taken up a correspondence course in art at the
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
