Joseph Naso, 79, was found guilty last month in the so-called "Alphabet" killings of Roxene Roggasch, Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tafoya. Naso's habit of diligently recording every attack has given detectives a bewilderingly large source of leads as they attempt to piece together the picture of his suspected crimes. He is also charged with two Yuba County murders for the deaths of Pamela Parsons, 38, and Tracey Tafoya, 31. Naso mentioned Healdsburg in a hand-written list detectives found at his Reno, Nev., home among photographs Naso took of women who appeared dead or unconscious, according to court testimony.. The more he tried to defend himself, laugh at witnesses and display abusive outbursts at the prosecution attorneys and the judge, the further he sank in the opinion of everyone around him highlighting more than anything else, that he was guilty of these crimes. Probation officer Roger Jacobs was the first witness called at the preliminary hearing in the murder trial of Joseph Naso, 78. The prosecution is alleging that Naso met the women while he was working as a self-employed photographer. Wake up to the day's most important news. Sentencing Joseph Naso to death row in August 2016, Judge Sweet told him You being in the world Mr Naso, has made this world a worse place. In List of 10, C.L. In 1993, Parson's body was found in Yuba City near where Naso was living at the time, the documents show. if anything squared the Murderpedia project stay alive. An elderly man, Joseph Naso Joe to everyone but the justice system knew as much as he unlocked the gate and let the officer in. Attached to the cuttings was a picture of one of the victims in nylons and a garter belt. The first letters of the victims' first and last names gave rise to suspect's "Double Initial" nickname. "I wish Icould remember better," she said. Her body was found in 1977 dumped near Lagunitas, naked with a pair of nylon stockings wrapped tightly around her neck. Scott Sonner / AP In this file photo from April 12, 2011, the home of Joseph Naso is seen in Reno. Swinney has used narrative to walk through each murder and provide an insight into these terrible events from the viewpoint of each victim. Many of the modern surnames in the dictionary can be traced back to Britain and Ireland. His high opinion of himself, his belief he was above everyone else and the lengths he went to in order to obtain control and power over the women he killed are a testament to this mans personality. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. [4], Nevada parole and probation authorities arrested Naso in April 2010. Naso was on probation in 2009 following a conviction for felony larceny in California. The glare is very distracting, he said. She told apreliminary hearing earlier this year that her former husband once told her he had given her something to knock her out and that twice in the summer of 1976 she believed she was drugged and sexually assaulted. The other six women mentioned in the diary remained unidentified. plans and enthusiasm Their marriage lasted for 18 years, but after the divorce Naso continued visiting his ex-wife who lived in the Bay Area. The whole thing is disgusting and I don't see any relevance at all," he said. Time Catches Up with a Serial Killer YouTube Naso was sentenced to death in 2013 and currently sits on California's death row. There are six men and six women on the jury panel and nine alternate jurors. The Joseph Naso, 78, is on trial in Marin County for the killings of four women in Northern. Two decades ago she had an almost year-long relationship with Naso in which he would ask her to act dead while he photographed her. This is his best book."-- Gregg Olsen, NY Times Best Selling Author A narcissistic professional photographer lived a dangerous double life as a serial killer. "DNA testing was done during which the DNA of Judith Naso was found on the panty hose around her neck," wrote Ryan Petersen, a Marin County sheriff's investigator. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. At one point he denounced what he called Detective Brown's "obsession" with his photographs and lifestyle, professing outrage at the invasion of privacy of the women in the pictures. Hunting down an elusive killer led two women into a dark layer of the internet where anonymity allows for threats and intimidation to be unleashed. Jurors deliberated for about eight hours over two days in Marin County Superior Court before finding Joseph Naso, 79, guilty of slaying the four women with alliterative names: Roxene Roggasch in 1977, Carmen Colon in 1978, Pamela Parsons in 1993 and Tracy Tafoya in 1994. Court documents state that Naso had photographed Parsons. Joseph Naso was born on January 7, 1934 in Rochester, New York. Joseph Naso listens to Chief Deputy Public Defender David Brown Brown replied: "I call it a rape journal because, in it, you write things such as: 'I had to rape her. Jurors had recommended the death penalty. In the midst of the clutter lay a single sheet of paper with a handwritten list of numbers up to 10. The policeman began with the bedrooms. We will pull up every cold case," he said. Joseph Naso is a repulsive individual who displays all the traits of a true narcissist. The diary would come to form acentral part of the case against Naso, but there was more. Before he gave his opening statements, he expressed displeasure to Judge Andrew Sweet with the courtroom projector he would use to show his photography. Naso was a freelance photographer who raped and strangled to death at least six women in California. Naso would also get his lover so drunk she would pass out, and then he'd take more photographs. In the afternoon, Naso told the jury he is innocent, arguing there is no evidence linking him to the four homicides, and showed a variety of his photography, including multiple snapshots of naked or half-naked women, to the jury. His high opinion of himself, his belief he was above everyone else and the lengths he went to in order to obtain control and power over the women he killed are a testament to this man's personality. He searched through dresser drawers packed with women's clothing, which seemed odd as there were no signs of anyone else living in the house. But when the writings and photographs found in his house are referred to, the old man becomes agitated. The comments by Joseph Naso, 78, came during a preliminary hearing Tuesday in his murder trial. Everything was done by consent, Naso insisted. 13, 2011. Swinney is published by RJ Parker Publishing and is available at Amazon. Naso said he wore women's pantyhose because of a skin condition on his leg. Thats the way I talk. I saw numerous photographs of women in various unnatural positions, said Jacobs, who supervised Nasos probation for the Nevada Department of Public Safety. If Naso has spent more than half a century committing the appalling crimes the authorities now suspect he is responsible for, there is also evidence he could have been stopped early on. The search turned up a separate stash of notebooks written years later. She showed jurors photographs of the victims' bodies, all of which were found along rural roads. Though the home has been vacant for one year, neighbors say . While there is some repetition within this writing, List of 10 is a very readable book that is difficult to put down once started. The probable cause statement, used to hold Naso in jail after a warrantless arrest, was unsealed after a coalition of media groups led by The Associated Press challenged a judge's decision to seal them at his arraignment. Serial killing suspect Joseph Naso kept a numbered list of 10 women, including four prostitutes he is charged with killing, plus photos and news clippings, court documents reveal. The documents also revealed that DNA collected from fingernail clippings of Colon could also tie Naso to her murder. Naso, however, was ruled out of that case when DNA found on Californian victims was not matched to the DNA found on a Rochester victim's body.[6]. The victim's headless body was found by a gardener in Foss Creek behind the Simi Winery. "Well, you did tell me shortly after we married that you were charged with rape," she replied. In the latter half of the book the focus shifts to Joseph Naso being taken into custody and the slow wheels of justice beginning to turn for him to pay for the brutal crimes he committed against these women. While searching his home, authorities discovered a handwritten diary in which Naso listed ten unnamed women with geographical locations. Joseph Naso, 77, was arrested Monday by Marin County, California, detectives following his release from the El Dorado County jail, also in California, where he had been in custody over the past . IE 11 is not supported. [3] His acquaintances nicknamed him "Crazy Joe" for his behavior. List of 10: The True Story of Serial Killer Joseph Naso is the result of this work and it provides a well-researched, and gripping account of the damage one man has done to numerous lives. Datasets available include LCSH, BIBFRAME, LC Name Authorities, LC Classification, MARC codes, PREMIS vocabularies, ISO language codes, and more. By Jessica Mullins, Editor, San Rafael Patch. In the middle of the door was a small flap, of the kind typically found on prison cells so food and other items can be passed through. His presentation of the facts in this case supported by the narratives surrounding the murder of each of Nasos victims provides an insightful look at the real damage that this man has done, not only to his victims but to their families and everyone who loved them. She was No. The police listed all four victims as prostitutes. Appeal-Democrat file photo A popular True Crime duo that investigates. during that same time Swinney has used his knowledge of Nasos attitudes, his personality, and known behaviors to provide a worked example of what happened with each young woman in each of the murders. He liked to record what he had done and had been doing all his adult life with a now bulging record of awful contents that horrified the jury members who had to listen to it during his trial. While he was speaking to the jury, Naso would at times digress, such as an instance when he told a story to the jury he said wasnt related to the case. The story, from decades ago, was about a female driving a car with two young children who picked Naso up on the East Coast at 1 a.m. in the morning when he was hitchhiking and drove him to Seattle in two days and two nights. Naso listened as Marin County prosecutor Dori Ahana and Brown detailed dozens of sexual and violent photographs of women seized from his home, objecting at times to the relevance. Yet there are reasons for caution. , This website uses cookies. Its loose talk I use, he said. In 1980, a 22-year-old woman named Sheila Shepherd from Saratoga Springs in New York state was found strangled and naked in her bed. Another double-initial killing. He was also found to be in possession of newspaper articles about the killings of two of the other women. His crimes spanned between 1977 to 1994 and the California man is now sentenced to death. Joseph Naso is suspected of killing Pamela Ruth Parsons in 1993 and Tracy Tafoya in 1994. Others read more as instruction manuals for the carefully planned and prolonged deaths of individually named women yet to be captured. When Does Medical Malpractice Become a Criminal Case? Investigators were looking into other unidentified references on Naso's macabre list. 2 on his list, referred to as "Girl near Port Costa.". Probation officer Roger Jacobs, who found the photos in a search of Naso's home, was the first witness called at the hearing. He'd focus his rage on prostitutes mostly. This is a powerful book that does not sensationalize Joseph Naso; rather it reveals in harrowing detail the depraved individual that he is. Joseph Naso who is now 78 was found with detailed notes and photographs of the woman he brutally raped and killed during the 1960s and 70s. Many of these girls were prostitutes, women Naso saw as easy prey. Their marriage lasted for 18 years, but after the divorce, Naso continued visiting his ex-wife, who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Matheson said she could not recall. Also during his opening statements, Naso said he has a loose terminology in his writing and day-to-day language and when he referred to raping someone it didnt have a literal meaning. He complains constantly about his treatment. Carmen Lorraine Colon, 22, was found on August 13, 1978, along Carquinez Scenic Highway, a road between Crockett and Port Costa, just thirty miles from the first victim's body. (Photo: Alan Dep, AP). Prosecutors have also said Naso kept news clippings of the slayings in a safety deposit box. Near the pile of photos in Naso's home - with mannequin parts and women's lingerie strewn about - investigators said they also found a "List of 10" he had scrawled with descriptions of 10 women, including four references prosecutors believe describe the slaying . After serving in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s, he met his first wife, Judith. Authorities say she was also a prostitute, and that prior to her death she had told her sister she was having her photos taken. Prosecutors have also said Naso kept news clippings of the slayings in a safety deposit box. Detective Richard Brown, who heads the Nevada investigation, said that the photo appears to be of a woman who is already dead. Between 1977 and 1994 Naso murdered six young women around the San Francisco Bay and northern California area, however, he is suspected of a further four murders and possibly many more. "In addition to the photos, numerous writings, logs and a calendar from 1993 detailing his daily activity related to Parsons were found inside his residence as well as additional photos of Pamela Parsons," Petersen wrote. Another suspect, an uncle of one of the murdered girls, also committed suicide and is now thought unlikely to be the murderer. A probation officer who searched the Nevada home of an alleged serial killer testified Tuesday that he found photographs of nude women posed in "unnatural positions" who appeared dead or unconsc. Authorities have said DNA evidence collected from her fingernails could tie Naso to her slaying. FILE - In this April 13, 2011 file photo, Joseph Naso appears in Marin County Superior Court during his arraignment on murder charges in San Rafael, Calif. On Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, Prosecutors are scheduled to begin presenting their case against Naso, the 78-year-old photographer charged with killing four northern California women with matching initials in the 1970s and 1990s. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Naso, dressed in a black suit and blue tie, sat expressionless as photographs of the victims were shown on large screens for the jury. The investigation is being led by detectives in Nevada, where Naso was living when he was arrested, but the evidence is taking them across the country, often led by a fragmentary clue which was little more than a reference to a county, a building or a cemetery. The piles of photographs, notebooks and a string of other evidence discovered in Naso's house point to a serial rapist who attacked women across the United States for more than half a century and who, in time, graduated to serial murder. On November 22, 2013, a Marin County judge sentenced him to death for the murders. Joseph Naso, 77, apparently alluded to all four victims on a handwritten list that referred to 10 women and 10 locations, a Marin County sheriff's investigator wrote in a document outlining. Had to rape her in my car on acold wintery night. 1958." In Days later, the police found a small stash of guns behind a fridge in the garage. Across the room the officer spotted a pair of mannequin legs turned upside down and fitted with nylon stockings. Joseph Naso is the man behind the death of six women who were murdered in cold blood. Naso Could be Eligble for the Death Penalty. the women connected to the Naso case, were much older and were Home Book Reviews List of 10: The True Story of Serial Killer Joseph Naso. After a childhood and adolescence without major problems, he decided to serve in the North American Air Force . They are also very different kinds of victims: schoolgirls in New York, prostitutes in California. killings," were young. Hundreds more pictures of naked women, who the police estimated ranged in age from 20 to 80, lay about what Naso called his art studio. (Marin Independent Journal, Robert Tong / AP Photo) Naso's home in Reno, Nevada, where police say they found a diary documenting the rapes and sexual assaults of underage girls and women alongside posed photographs of two murder victims. He was also implicated in the murders of other women. The police made little progress in investigating the murder. 2 on the list was "Girl near Port Costa," Jacobs said. It contained 66 photographs of women naked or in various states of undress, alongside various identification documents belonging to several women. Newly released documents show that Naso kept a handwritten list of 10 women along with photographs and news clippings related to the murders of the four victims for which he is charged. Joseph Naso. . Can A Crime Turn Into A Personal Injury Lawsuit? 9 on the list, called "Girl from Linda," for the town in Yuba County where she was born. Serial killing suspect Joseph Naso kept a numbered list of 10 women including the four prostitutes he is charged with killing and kept news clippings of the killings in a safety deposit box, authorities said in documents released Thursday that shed new light on the bizarre case. "This is my private work, my photography. the mid-seventies in Rochester, N.Y., three pre-teens were killed. Prosecutors have approached a 74-year-old woman who alleged that Naso was the man who raped her when she was a student in Berkeley, California, in 1961.