Early Life - Leonard Lake

Leonard Lake was born on October 29th, 1945, in San Francisco . He was the first of three children, brother to Elgin Leonard Lake and Gloria May Williams. 

[picture of Leonard Lake from IMDb]

When he was six years old, his parents had a rough divorce which left him with mother(who got remarried), his two siblings, and two half-sisters. 

Leonard Lake was reportedly a "bright child"(?), but he soon became overly obsessed with pornography at a very young age. 

This obsession only continued and grew as Lake habitually photographed his sisters naked, which was also encouraged by his grandmother(!?). His eerie interests expanded, as he became invested in dissolving dead mice in chemicals... which would influence the way he would dispose of human corpses(not so subtle foreshadowing). 

After high school, Leonard Lake enlisted himself into the Marine Corps in 1964. His time of service did not last long, as it was there that he was first diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. He was admitted to receive psychotherapy but received his medical discharge in 1971. 

He then enrolled in university at San Jose State University, but dropped out after one semester after becoming involved with a hippie group. It was during this time that Leonard lived a semi-normal life, as he got married to his first wife Karen Lee in 1969, even though they got divorced because she discovered that Lake was directing and participating in pornographic films that involved sadomasochism. 

It was following this that he moved to Northern California where he settles in 5,600 acre settlement for the following 8 years.. where the nightmare he created began. 

He also married Claralyn Balazs during this time, who ended up being subjected to his tortures later on even after their divorce. 

Leonard was sneaky, however, as during these moves and different chapters in his life he never stuck to one identity. Here is a list of some names that he identified as... some of which are names of his victims.

Leonard Hill

Leonard Blake
Alan Drey
Tom Meyers
Jim Bright
Ted White
Steve
Charles Gunnar
Donald Lake
Randy Jacobsen
Robin Stapley

Paul Cosner

[list pulled from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Lake]