Leonard John Fraser was born in 1951 in Ingham, Queensland. When he was six years old, his family moved to Sydney in 1957. 

Fraser left school during the 1960s. At the age of 15, in 1966, he was sentenced to 12 months in a boys' home for stealing. This marked the beginning of a long criminal career. Over the next several years, Fraser was frequently in and out of jail for various crimes, mainly involving theft.

Leonard John Fraser was a notorious Australian serial killer. Before his life sentence on September 7, 2000, for the abduction, rape, and murder of a 9-year-old girl named Keyra Steinhardt in Rockhampton, Queensland, Fraser had already spent almost 20 of the preceding 22 years in prison. He was jailed for raping several women, including a terminally ill cancer patient he had lived with in early 1997. Police later charged him with four murders after finding various trophies in his flat, such as ponytails from three different women that didn’t match any of his known victims.

Fraser initially confessed to five murders to avoid the general prison population, but one of those supposed victims, 14-year-old Natasha Ryan, was found alive. She had been living secretly with her boyfriend for five years after being reported missing. Despite this clear inconsistency, Fraser’s defense did not request a mistrial or object to the prosecution using his confession, which included the false claim about Ryan, for the cases of three other victims whose remains were discovered. The Ryan 'murder' was also supported by testimony from a fellow prisoner who said Fraser drew detailed maps of where her body could be found. The judge in the case, Justice Brian Ambrose, criticized the media for commenting on the value of confessions made under duress or to other prisoners, which might have influenced the trial.

In June 2003, Fraser received three indefinite prison terms for the murders of Beverley Leggo and Sylvia Benedetti and the manslaughter of Julie Turner in the Rockhampton area in 1998 and 1999. The judge at his trial described Fraser as a sexual predator who was a threat to the community and his fellow inmates. 

Fraser was held at the Wolston Correctional Centre. After complaining of chest pains, he was taken to a secure section of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Woolloongabba on December 26, 2006. He died of a heart attack on January 1, 2007.