No Kill, No Thrill

Plot

No Kill No Thrill by Darcy Henton and Greg Owens brings to light new information in the Charles Ng serial killer story.People who followed the headlines about mass murderer Ng and his mentor, Leonard Lake, know that Ng was caught in Canada and extradited to the United States. They also know that the Ng case represented the longest, most intricate, and most expensive international investigation and subsequent trial in North American history.What they dont really know is why. They dont know the Ng case essentially had to be tried first in Canada, which was initially against extraditing the serial killer to face the death penalty. They dont know the real story of the jailhouse stool pigeon who provided police with the hard evidence linking Ng to the California murders. Or of Ngs plans to kill federal prosecutors and scores of witnesses in California. Or of the RCMP officer seconded by the State of California to serve on the Ng task force.This information and other details never before revealed about Charles Ng and the case against him can be found in No Kill No Thrill, the first comprehensive and accurate account of Ngs homicidal exploits and his efforts to evade justice. No Kill No Thrill is penned by two crime journalists from Canada. It was there that Ng fought extradition for years and there that the police forces of two countries cooperated to build a case compelling enough to see Ng extradited, tried and convicted. Through extensive contacts in both countries, the authors provide the missing pieces of the Ng puzzle. They obtained, for instance, Ngs prison sketches in which he depicted his crimes. These drawings, never before published, were critical to Ngs conviction.The pair also reviewed hundreds of notes that Ng and fellow inmate Maurice Laberge passed back and forth while housed in adjoining Canadian prison cells. The notes contain startling revelations about Ngs character and his attitude toward his victims.California prosecutor Peter Smith contends that Laberges evidence was critical to securing multiple murder convictions against Ng. He believes Ng took the stand against his lawyers advice to refute Laberges allegations, and that act enabled California prosecutors to introduce further incriminating evidence and demonstrate that much of Ngs evidence was contradictory.In addition to extensively interviewing American investigators in San Francisco and San Andreas, the authors spent countless hours with the Canadian Mountie, Sgt. Raymond Munro, assigned to put together the case for Ngs extradition hearing. Munro, described in the book as the RCMPs version of Lt. Columbo, was subsequently seconded by the State of Californias Ng task force to assist in the criminal investigation.Laberge and Munro, and Ngs sketches and notes, merit only scant lines in previously published books on Ng, if they are mentioned at all.Written in the style of Truman Capotes In Cold Blood, No Kill No Thrill documents Charles Ngs and Leonard Lakes early lives and the traumas that set them on a deadly course. It contains information about Ngs childhood friends and examines police reports of his early encounters with the law in private schools in Hong Kong and Britain to paint a picture of a sociopath in the making.In addition to documenting a notorious serial murder case, No Kill No Thrill weaves the story of four fascinating charactersNg, Lake, Munro and Labergeand how they were drawn together in macabre circumstances.