Leonard Lake
American serial killer (1945–1985)
Leonard Thomas Lake, also known as The Sex Slave Killer and Leonard Hill and a variety of other aliases, was an American survivalist and serial killer. He raped, tortured, and murdered at least eleven and perhaps up to twenty-five victims with his accomplice Charles Ng. They held victims at a remote cabin near Wilseyville, California, 150 miles (240 km) east of San Francisco, between 1983 and 1985. Lake was never convicted of murder, as he took cyanide pills soon after his arrest on shoplifting charges and died four days later. Lake was not identified as a murder suspect until investigation after his death.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Leonard Lake” is american serial killer (1945–1985). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Leonard, Lake and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american serial killer (1945–1985)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1983 and 1985.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Leonard Lake”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Leonard Lake primary sources, Leonard Lake archive and Leonard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leonard Lake”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Leonard Lake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.