California serial killer Charles Ng (pronounced "Eng") committed some of the most shocking crimes of the late twentieth century. Over a nine month period in 1984 and 1985, Ng and an accomplice ran a cottage of horrors in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Men, women, and even infants who happened into their midst were raped, tortured, and slain, their corpses burned and laid in shallow graves. In all, eleven people were killed. Authorities took almost fifteen years to bring the Hong Kong immigrant to trial in 1999. In one of California's costliest criminal trials, jurors watched video tape footage of the crimes being committed before convicting Ng and recommending the death sentence.

In trouble since his days as a foreign student in the 1970s, Ng led a checkered life. He failed college, faked his way into the U.S. Marines, and was charged with stealing weapons. Escaping twice from captivity, he was...