The story of Charles NG, martial artist turned serial killer

When it comes to martial artists, there’s often a stereotype that they’re stoic and calm individuals. The idea here is that they get their ego beaten out of them as a beginner and eventually go on to achieve mastery – both in a physical and mental sense. This thought process isn’t as common with modern martial arts such as MMA, but it’s certainly found in traditional martial arts.

However, not every martial artist is a perfect human being. In fact, this stereotype can often be massively wrong. Step forward Charles Ng – a psychotic serial killer who was obsessed with martial arts.

Over the years, Ng called himself a ‘ninja warrior’ and claimed that he was also a ‘natural born fighter’ as a kid, he was also meant to be obsessed with martial arts before his father shut him down and forced him to focus on his studies.

In later years, Ng would fight in the Viet Nam was where he served as a US marine. Here, he would have partaken in MCMAP training which is designed to teach marines about hand-to-hand combat. During MCMAP training, knife fighting, boxing, and other combat styles are taught. Undoubtedly, teaching someone these techniques can be dangerous if they’re used for the wrong reasons. This is exactly what happened with Charles Ng.

During his time in the marines, Ng would befriend a man named Leonard Lake. Together, they went on to hunt, rape, torture, and murder over 10 victims, with more potentially unsolved cases at the same time.

Whilst we won’t go into Ng’s crimes in graphic detail, he also serves as an example of how learning martial arts can be used negatively. Not all martial artists do good in the world and some, evil people simply shouldn’t be armed with tools to hurt others.

On a positive note, it’s fair to say that most martial artists are good people. Generally speaking, most people benefit from training and improve both mentally and physically. At the same time, if we’re honest and realistic then the world can sometimes be a dark and brutal place. The story of Charles Ng should serve as a reference that martial arts aren’t always beneficial for society.