Die for Me: The Terrifying True Story of the Charles Ng/Leonard Lake Torture Murders

By Don Lasseter

A chilling chapter in California crime history: the story of two notorious serial killers and the sensational trial that horrified the nation.
 
In 1985, two men were caught shoplifting in San Francisco. Charles Ng escaped, but Leonard Lake aroused suspicion—he was carrying someone else’s driver’s license. Four days after police took him into custody, Lake killed himself by swallowing a cyanide pill he had hidden in his clothes. Ng, meanwhile, had fled to Canada.
 
Police traced the car Lake was driving to a man who had disappeared a year earlier. They then followed a trail of evidence to a remote property in the Sierra Nevada foothills. What they found there shocked even seasoned veterans of the force.
 
Inspired by John Fowles’s novel The Collector, Lake and Ng had turned a hidden concrete bunker into a grisly den, where the two had indulged in an orgy of sex crimes, torture, and murder that claimed at least sixteen victims. Police found forty pounds of bones from men, women, and children buried in a nearby plot—and videotapes the killers had made of their unspeakable acts.
 
In Die for Me, true crime master Don Lasseter recounts the events surrounding their sensational crimes and capture, bringing readers face-to-face with pure evil.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9780786037933

Don Lasseter

Don Lasseter has written five true crime books for Pinnacle, plus sixteen magazine articles that were reprinted in Pinnacle's anthology books about murders. In addition to being a crime writer, Mr. Lasseter is a WWII historian who frequently lectures on the subject in schools, at service clubs, and for veteran's groups. He accompanies his talks with slide packages entitled "WWII, Then and Now," consisting of photos he took while actually retracing most major battles in Western Europe and in the South Pacific. Taking black and white combat photos with him, Mr. Lasseter laboriously searched for the exact spots on which the photographers stood, and shot the same scenes as they look today. He accumulated over 1500 such pictures associated with various battles including the Normandy invasion, Battle of the Bulge, crossing the Rhine, taking Berlin, and other major engagements. A native Californian, Mr. Lasseter resides in Orange County. He has served as guest lecturer in criminology classes at California State University, Fullerton. Hollywood history is Mr. Lasseter's third major interest. His personal library includes an extensive collection of movie books, and he takes pride in being able to name hundreds of old character actors whose faces are often seen in classic films. One day, Lasseter says, he will write books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the golden era of film production and the people involved. If you would like more information about his books or his interests in WWII or Old Hollywood, please feel free to write him at 1215 S. Beach Blvd. #323, PMB, Anaheim, CA 92804.

Reviews for Die for Me

[bookworm247_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was horrifying. I can't comprehend the evil of some people.This book is truly heartbreaking. What they do to their victims is terrible.

[NewschoolSeangray · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very well documented account of seriously horrible events. The writer managed to inform the reader without scandalising or emphasising the particularly gruesome elements. The part of the book about the trial is very well balanced and extremely infirmative.
It is a horrible story but a truly well written book. I feel the victims families have been given some comfort knowing that the story has been told in such a complete way.

[Ludvig Hoel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome book. Very detailed containing information you'll never see in a documentary. Finished it in two days.

[Sebastian Alexander · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Deathly boring. Not a single person is introduced without paragraphs upon paragraphs, if not entire chapters, dedicated to their life story beginning with how their parents met.

The culprits are arrested halfway through with the second half of the book consisting of trial coverage in the most excruciating detail. Punishment through dullness.