Disclaimer: The story contains description of crime that some readers might find distressing. Please proceed with caution.
The California Board of Parole Hearings rescinded their offer of parole to Leslie Closner, who had killed his girlfriend and was sentenced to 25 years life in prison as he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1988. Closner not only killed his girlfriend but also raped her dead body and bit off her both nipples.
As mentioned in a parole review document obtained by PEOPLE, “On Oct. 16, 1987, Closner and his girlfriend Jan Ferguson checked into a motel for her daughter’s wedding. The couple got into a fight when Closner shoved Ferguson onto the floor and strangled her to death.”
View this post on Instagram
Moreover, after he killed her, he moved her body and ripped her clothes and raped her. After that he fled the motel but remembered that he had forgotten his purse back in the room. He came back for it and yet again raped his girlfriend’s deadbody and this time also bit off both her nipples, and fled again.
However, he surrendered to the Oregon police two days after that and eventually pleaded guilty to first degree murder. As reported by PEOPLE, “In a 2018 decision to deny Closner parole, former California Governor Jerry Brown wrote that this wasn’t Closner’s first aggressive crime. During Closner and Ferguson’s five year relationship, he allegedly inflicted repeated emotional and physical abuse on her.”
He seemed to be obsessed with her as during a short span, when they were separated, he followed her like a stalker “to the point of obsessing over her.” Closner himself told the board during the parole hearing, “I was really obsessed with her, and this obsession was sexual, um, and it just — it spiraled into even more and more heightened tension between us.”
Leslie Closner, sentenced to 25 years to life for first-degree murder in 1988, had his parole grant rescinded on June 10, 2025, after the brutal murder and mutilation of his girlfriend.
byu/Peeecee7896 inCaliforniaTrueCrime
It should be noted here that Closner had a history of intimate partner violence as he strangled his ex-wife to the point of almost killing her and that relationship ended in divorce. His ex-wife also got a restraining order against him.
While denying Closner’s parole Brown wrote that the man had no idea how violent he was and how his character could affect people around him. When he was asked the reason behind committing such heinous acts, Closner said to the parole board, “My view is that I was dealing with some, you know, negative core issues that extend back from early childhood and in relationship with my mother.”
During a parole interview, he also mentioned that he believed that his violent tendencies came from his abusive childhood and the fact that he had seen his mother naked. In 2014, a psychologist said that Closner’s tone and voice changed when he spoke about his mother as he spoke “sometimes with anger and sometimes with a lustful voice.”
The psychologist also added that at one point of the interview he “seemed to become sexually excited as he described watching his mother undress.”
Based on Closner’s behavior and the way he presented himself in front of the parole board, Former Governor Brown decided that it was dangerous to release him as he would pose an immense threat to society.
