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California alphabet murders

On April 11, 2011, 77-year-old Joseph Naso, a New York native who lived in Rochester in the 1970s, was arrested in Reno, Nevada, for four murders in California dating back to 1977. The California murder victims, like the New York victims, had double initials: Roxene Roggasch, Pamela Parsons, Tracy Tofoya, and Carmen Colon (a different woman from the Rochester, NY victim.) All four women are described by authorities as prostitutes. Naso is also considered a "person of interest" in the New York Alphabet Murders.

In his preliminary hearing in Marin County, CA, on January 12, 2012, his alleged "rape diary" was entered into evidence. It mentioned the death of a girl in the "Buffalo woods," a possible allusion to Upstate New York. Naso was a professional photographer who traveled between New York and California extensively for decades.

On June 18, 2013, Naso was tried for the murder of the 4 California alphabet murder victims. On August 20, 2013, Naso was convicted by a Marin County jury of the murders.

Photographer, 79, convicted of four brutal murders of women decades ago - after he journaled about raping, murdering, and photographing them as 'his art'

• Joseph Naso, 79, killed four women between the 1970s and 1990s

• Diary excerpts show how he stalked and sexually assaulted his victims and then photographed them in sexual poses alongside mannequin parts

• 'Double initial killer': He could now face the death penalty for killing the four prostitutes whose first and last names all began with the same letters

• Police believe he's connected to at least six other murders

DailyMail.co.uk

August 21, 2013

A former photographer was convicted Tuesday of murdering four young California women decades ago after a two-month trial in which prosecutors called him a remorseless serial killer who preyed on young prostitutes.

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.

The so-called Double Initial Murderer, so named because his victims' first and last names all began with the same letter, did not visibly react when his damning verdict was read.

The jury of six men and six women will reconvene Sept. 4 to determine if Naso gets the death penalty.

All the victims were found dumped in rural Northern California locations. Roggasch's body was found in Marin County and was the reason Naso's trial was held in the historical Marin Civic Center designed by noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Colon was found in Contra Costa County and the other two victims in Yuba County.

Naso was arrested in 2010 after probation officers visiting his Reno, Nev., home in connection with an unrelated gun conviction discovered numerous photographs of nude women posed in unnatural positions who appeared dead or unconscious with mannequin parts and lingerie strewn about nearby.

According to KNTV, he told the cops it was his art.

Graphic entries from Naso's journal that detailed how the killer stalked and raped his victims were read in court during the closing arguments.

Naso wrote descriptions of rapes and sexual assaults in the journal as far back as the 1950s, Marin County prosecutor Rosemary Slote said as she read from the journal's pages.

Naso drugged and photographed his unconscious victims then strangled them and disposed of their naked bodies.

In entry after entry, Naso wrote how he would stalk and approach a woman, offer her a ride home and then 'put it to her', often in his car.

One read: 'Girl in north Buffalo woods. She was real pretty. Had to knock her out first.'

Investigators said they also found a ‘List of 10’ that Naso had scrawled with descriptions of 10 women, including references prosecutors believe described the four victims he was charged with killing.

Investigators believe Naso could be responsible for as many as six more murders and authorities are exploring Naso's connections to several unsolved murders.

The six additional women on the list have not been identified, but authorities continue to investigate any possible connections to Naso.

Naso acted as his own attorney and told jurors during his closing arguments that he often hired prostitutes to photograph in exotic poses and enjoyed off-beat art.

But as he smiled, always wearing a suit and tie, he insisted he was no killer.

Nonetheless, the balding Naso, who often seemed befuddled and repeated himself during his rambling closing arguments, struggled to explain away some of the most persuasive evidence against him.

Naso's DNA was found on the pantyhose Roggasch was wearing when her body was found. His ex-wife's DNA was found on pantyhose wrapped around Roggasch's neck.

Naso told the jury that the evidence only showed he had had sex with Roggasch. He said there was no proof that he killed her and that prosecutors had no way of knowing who put the pantyhose around her neck.

Legal analysts said that Naso made a mistake representing himself, even if he boasted at one point that ‘I think I'm doing quite well’ during his closing arguments, which consumed all day Friday and half of Monday.

‘He's bright,’ said attorney Brian Kanel, who watched some of the trial. ‘But not that bright.’

Another legal observer agreed.

Steven Clark, a former prosecutor now in private practice, said a good defense attorney would have hired a DNA expert to at least try to throw some doubt on how the evidence was gathered, stored and processed to undermine the prosecution's strongest argument.

‘The prosecution did have a challenging case because it happened so long ago,’ Clark said. ‘Why Mr. Naso chose to focus on the things he focused on is beyond me. I'm not sure what his plan was.’

Even if Naso is sentenced to death, it is unlikely he will be executed. There are 725 inmates already on California's Death Row and executions have been on hold since 2006, when a federal judge ordered an overhaul of California's execution protocol. It will take at least another year for prison officials to properly adopt the state's new single-drug execution method and have it cleared by the judge.

During his trial, he showed the jury dozens of photographs he took of weddings, landscapes and family members along with what he called 'glamour' or 'cheesecake' photographs of nude women. He said he never forced any of them to do anything.

Prosecutors, however, claimed he kept a list of his victims and mementos of his crimes.

Closing arguments were delayed briefly as the court investigated a truck bearing the words 'Joseph Naso killed my sister' that was parked in the jury lot.

A district attorney's inspector and Naso's private detective looked into the matter and concluded no contact was made with jurors.

JOURNAL ENTRIES REVEAL GRUESOME INSIGHT INTO THE MIND OF SERIAL KILLER JOSEPH NASO

Graphic diary entries that detail how Naso stalked and raped his victims were read out in court during the closing arguments of his trial.

Naso, 79, wrote descriptions of rapes and sexual assaults in the journal as far back as the 1950s, Marin County prosecutor Rosemary Slote said as she read from the journal's pages.

The lawyer said they contain accounts of Naso approaching women and offering them a ride home.

After a girl got into his car, Naso writes that he would 'put it on her.'

Prosecutors found a 'list of 10' girls they say was a roster of the serial killer's victims.

The victims coincided with locations, including Cleveland, Kansas City, Buffalo, Rochester, Wichita, Berkeley, and even London.

'Outside the front door I overpowered her and ravaged her,' read one entry set in London, the Marin Independent Journal reported. 'I couldn't help myself.'

Another read: 'Girl in north Buffalo woods. She was real pretty. Had to knock her out first.'

Diary Of Joseph Naso, Alleged Serial Killer, Speaks Of Rape And Sexual Assault

HuffingtonPost.com

August 14, 2013

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- A California prosecutor on Wednesday read from the diary of a former photographer that authorities say showed how the man charged with killing four women stalked and approached victims.

Marin County prosecutor Rosemary Slote read from the diary of Joseph Naso during closing arguments at his trial. She said the entries date back to the 1950s and give descriptions of rape and sexual assault, the Marin Independent Journal reported.

Prosecutors have called some 70 witnesses during the two-month trial as they sought to prove that Naso, a former commercial photographer from Reno, Nev., drugged and photographed victims before strangling them.

The 79-year-old Naso is acting as his own attorney and is scheduled to give his closing argument on Friday. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Numerous entries in the diary contained scrawled accounts of approaching women and offering them a ride home.

"Outside the front door I overpowered her and ravaged her," read one entry set in London. "I couldn't help myself."

Other passages described incidents in Cleveland, Kansas City, Buffalo, Rochester, N.Y., Wichita, Kan., and Berkeley, Calif.

Naso has pleaded not guilty to the murders of four prostitutes, all of whom had matching first and last initials. He also is being investigated as a potential suspect in several unsolved killings.

Naso called five witnesses in his defense and has been admonished several times by the judge for his behavior.

Naso was arrested after a routine check by probation officers of his Reno home turned up numerous photographs of unconscious women in various states of undress. Investigators also discovered DNA matching Naso's profile on at least one victim, Roxene Roggasch.

Naso characterized the photographs as his art and said all of his "models" were willing participants.

He showed the jury dozens of photographs he took of weddings, landscapes and family members along with what he called "glamour" or "cheesecake" photographs of nude women. He said he never forced any of them to do anything.

Prosecutors, however, claimed he kept a list of his victims and mementos of his crimes.

Naso is charged with killing Roggasch in 1977, Carmen Colon in 1978, Pamela Parsons in 1993 and Tracy Tafoya in 1994.

Closing arguments were delayed briefly as the court investigated a truck bearing the words "Joseph Naso killed my sister" that was parked in the jury lot.

A district attorney's inspector and Naso's private detective looked into the matter and concluded no contact was made with jurors.

Suspected Serial Killer Joseph Naso Rests His Case

If Naso is convicted, the jury will then decide after a separate trial whether he should get the death penalty.

By Bay City News

Saturday, Aug 10, 2013

Joseph Naso, the former self-employed models photographer who is charged with the murders of four prostitutes in three counties between 1977 and 1994, elected not to testify at his trial in Marin County Superior Court and rested his case.

Naso, 79, of Reno, who is representing himself in the death penalty case, called seven witnesses, including one of his former models, a photographer, a former Marin County sheriff's detective, a man he knew from a Berkeley flea market in the 1980s and a Novato artist and sculptor.

None of the defense's testimony today regarded the DNA evidence the prosecution claims links Naso to the murder of 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch of Oakland whose body was found on Jan. 11, 1977, off the side of a road near Fairfax.

The prosecution claims Naso's wife's DNA was found a pair of pantyhose that was wrapped around Roggasch's neck, and semen from two males, one of them likely Naso, were found on another pair of pantyhose on her body.

Other evidence includes photographs found in Naso's home of women in lingerie who appeared dead or unconscious, and a handwritten "list of 10" prosecutors say includes references to the four murdered women and the off-road locations where Naso left their bodies.

The other three victims are Carmen Colon, 22, an East bay resident whose body was found in Contra Costa County on Aug. 15, 1978; Pamela Parsons, 38, of Yuba County, whose body was found on Sept. 19, 1993 in Yuba County; and Tracey Tafoya, 31, whose body was found on Aug. 14, 1994 in Yuba County.

The prosecution believes the women were strangled. Naso has said he liked photographing women in erotic, "pin-up and cheesecake poses."

He said at his preliminary hearing last year that he did photograph Parsons, but he had nothing to do with her murder. He called Novato "fine art nudes" artist and sculptor Peter Keresztury, 73, as a witness today to testify about other pin-up and cheesecake artists and photographers, including Alberto Vargas whose erotic drawings of women appeared in Playboy magazine.

Naso sought to compare his photographs to the photos and drawings by those earlier artists. When shown the photos that were taken from Naso's home, however, Keresztury told Deputy District Attorney Dori Ahana none of Naso's photos were like Vargas' drawings. Keresztury said Naso's photos were "too explicit and sensual and not pleasing."

Naso said he never claimed is photos were of Vargas' caliber. He said he took pictures of his girlfriends, but the photos Ahana showed Keresztury "were like pictures of people sitting on a toilet." "You're not letting me show all my photos.

This is why I'm sitting here on trial for my photography," Naso said. Jurors will return for instructions by Judge Andrew Sweet and closing arguments by the prosecution on Wednesday.

Naso's advisory counsel, Deputy Public Defender Pedro Oliveros, said Naso's closing statement will likely be on Friday. Ahana and Deputy District Attorney Rosemary Slote called 70 witnesses since the trial started in June.

If Naso is convicted, the jury will then decide after a separate trial whether he should get the death penalty.

Alleged serial killer on trial linked to skull found in Nevada County

By Nicole Baptista and Coleen Bidwill - TheUnion.com

August 5, 2013

It might have been difficult to find a bigger Bob Dylan fan than Sara Dylan. Not his former wife, but a fan so devoted the woman legally changed her name and hitchhiked worldwide to follow his tours.

But for Dylan, born Renee Shapiro, her curtain call came early.

Through the help of her biological mother’s DNA, police in 1998 were able to match her DNA to a skull found in Nevada County. She was last seen alive at a Bob Dylan concert in Hawaii in 1992.

The startling revelations came to light at the first day of the trial of alleged serial killer Joseph Naso, which is currently under way in Marin County.

Naso, 79, was formally charged with the murders of Tracy Tafoya, 31, who was found in 1994 in Marysville in Yuba County, Carmen Colon, 22, who was discovered in Port Costa in Contra Costa County in 1978, Roxene Roggasch 18, of Oakland, who was found in Fairfax in 1977, and Pamela Parsons, 38, who was discovered in Yuba County in 1993.

On that first day of the trial, which began in mid-June, Marin County Deputy District Attorney Rosemary Slote mentioned Dylan during her opening statements while a “List of 10” flashed across a large screen for the court to see.

One by one, she underlined five descriptions with a red line and announced who they presumed each person to be.

While prosecutors presume Dylan is the No. 8 entry “girl in Woodland, Nevada County” from Naso’s “List of 10,” a hand-written note listing descriptions relating to victims, they did not formally charge him for her death.

The skull was discovered to be Dylan’s only around six months ago, and putting forth charges would mean enduring another preliminary hearing, which would push back the trial.

Dylan’s passport and driver’s license were also found in a safe deposit box in Reno, belonging to Naso, whose trial began June 17 at Marin County Superior Court.

Despite a quick gasp in the courtroom after the first post-mortem photo, silence hung in the air through photos of the victims, both before and after their deaths, half-naked women in nylons and lingerie and close-up entries of Naso’s “rape journal.”

Marin County Public Defender Pedro Oliveros is serving as Naso’s advisory counsel and occasionally turned and quickly glanced at the screen. But for Naso, in a dark suit and blue tie, his eyes rarely faltered from Slote and Deputy District Attorney Dori Ahana, with his hands crossed on the table.

He never once looked back.

Slote graphically detailed the accounts in each woman’s murder, all of which were cold cases until Naso’s arrest in 2010.

Defense opener

“This case is about me, my life,” Naso said, facing a jury of 21, attempting to tell his side of the story. “I am not the monster that killed these women. I don’t do that. I date . . . I dance . . . but I don’t kill people.”

Naso, who is representing himself, said he took a course in business law in college, “did well in previous civil proceedings” and “did his homework.”

He referred to the prosecution’s opening statements as a “character assassination,” saying, “I want to tell you about myself, who I really am.

“[The prosecution] doesn’t even have circumstantial evidence,” Naso added.

In regard to the four women being prostitutes, Naso said, “I have no issue with prostitutes. I have a high regard for prostitutes. There may be prostitutes in this courtroom.

“There is no evidence that I dated any of these prostitutes or evidence that I was with them the last time they were seen alive,” Naso said.

He also claimed that the DNA linking him to that found on Roggasch’s pantyhose is not his. “It’s a theory.”

“There is no evidence that I am familiar with Marin County or I was ever seen in Marin County,” he said. Roggasch’s body was found in Fairfax, Slote said.

Naso only admitted knowing Pamela Parsons, who modeled for him once. “I’m sorry about her demise, but I didn’t do it,” he said.

He said he picked her up on the side of the road and took her to his house. She offered sex, he said, but he only took “glamour pictures,” Naso said.

“She was alive when she came in and alive when she left,” Naso said

Naso also admitted to two “sexual incidents” — one in 1958 in which he was charged with second-degree assault and sentenced to probation and another in 1961, which was dropped due to lack of evidence, he said.

His “rape journal” isn’t proof of his actions, Naso said.

“That’s the way I talk. I have brain sex,” he said. “When I say I picked up a nice broad and raped her, it had nothing to do with forcible rape. I’ve never had any complaints with any of my dates except for the two.

“There is nothing in my journal about killing,” he said. “The prosecution is based on opinions, theories and so-called experts’ testimony.”

Naso spent three hours talking about his passion and talent for photography, his years in the service and the thousands of subjects he’s photographed over the years, including the weddings for “three sisters of the same family.”

He attempted to relate his friendly nature to the jury by recalling an elderly woman he’d met at the Berkeley Flea Market, where he frequently sold various items, who asked him to drive her to Colusa.

He agreed and once brought his son along, always sleeping in the car while she stayed in a hotel during each of their multiple trips, he said.

“Her name was Marla, and she told me that Yuba City was where all the action is,” Naso said. “I bought a house there for $65,000.”

He also mentioned his disabled son, whom he described as having a “horrible affliction.”

Naso displayed more than 50 photographs, ranging from family portraits to “sexy” images of women in lingerie.

“I was always interested in girly magazines as a boy even,” Naso said.

The case

The Nevada Department of Public Safety charged Naso with four counts of murder, crimes of sexual assault, rape, violation of parole, possession of firearms and identification theft after two searches of his Nevada home in April and May of 2010.

“Naso lived alone … in Reno and was on felony probation for theft in El Dorado County,” Slote said.

Due to the California Nevada Interstate Compact Agreement, which allows officers to conduct spontaneous checks in both states, officer Wesley Jackson showed up at Naso’s house and conducted a random search.

“The house was cluttered and the bedrooms were locked from the outside,” Slote said.

Naso later claimed that only one bedroom was locked but that his master bedroom was open.

A plastic container of ammunition and knives were found. A bullet and a small advertisement for the sale of a gun were also found in his pocket. All violated his parole, Slote said.

Officer Robert Jacobs was called to the scene and discovered Naso’s “List of 10” and soon arrested Naso for probation violations. The list was believed to label places where women’s bodies were discarded and later discovered.

Police seized more than $152,000 in cash, weapons, women’s clothing, newspaper clippings, mannequin legs, dolls, bullets, a $30,000 coin collection, knives, 5,000 photographs — and what Richard Brown, lead investigator with the Nevada Department of Public Safety, called a “rape journal.”

Many of the photographs found in Naso’s possession are believed to be of unconscious or deceased women, according to Brown.

During the preliminary hearing in January 2012, he described the dark bruising and prominent veins on some victims as “marbling” — a part of the decomposition process.

The search warrant also led to the discovery of the “rape journal,” which contains graphic depictions of sexual assault.

One was labeled “Rochester 1958” and described “picking up a gorgeous chick at a bus stop,” where he “headed for the cemetery and started to kiss and molest her.”

He went on to write: “I had to force her down and hold her skirt up . . . her girdle down . . . it was hard work.”

Naso was arrested for the woman’s rape in 1958.

The journal entries are explicitly violent and graphic. He ends the note with: “To this day I love her. I wish I could have married her.”

Another entry described offering a young girl a ride home in 1961. It reads: “She fell for it . . . I forced her down on the back seat. . . . She was scared.”

He was also arrested for that incident, though the case never came to fruition.

Helen French’s name was also noted in the “rape journal.” Naso allegedly attempted to rape French during a photo session in the 1980s. French will be testifying in the Marin County trial.

Naso refers to his journal as a “dream diary,” detailing his fantasies. He also said the word rape was written loosely, “how guys talk.”

Police also located two safety deposit box keys in his upper dresser drawer.

Naso was recorded after his arrest asking his ex-wife to tell their son to break into his home and remove the keys before police found them, Slote said. The audio will be played for the jury, which is made up of more women than men.

The US Bank and Wells Fargo safety deposit boxes contained a small black purse, personal documentation of other women, passports, driver’s licenses, newspaper articles and more.

Naso lived in close proximity to all the victims at the time of their murder.

Though Naso will not be formally charged with Dylan’s murder, she is one of many cold cases that authorities across the country revisited after Naso’s arrest.

The four women all have both first and last names beginning with the same letter; Dylan is the only link so far that differs.

Nicole Baptista is editor of the Novato Advance.

Joseph Naso Trial: Serial Murder Suspect Gives Own Opening Statement

June 17, 2013

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- Joseph Naso, serving as his own attorney in his trial for the decades-old killings of four women, used his opening statement to give jurors a thorough personal history, replete with childhood photos, saying he is not the "monster" prosecutors have made him out to be.

The 79-year-old defendant's opening statement Monday came after prosecutors spent the morning showing graphic images of the four women's bodies discovered in Northern California, leading some jurors to wipe away tears.

Naso, wearing a dark suit and spectacles, rose after Marin County prosecutor Rosemary Slote had called him a "serial rapist and murderer."

"I've been waiting two years and two months for this day, to tell my side of the story," Naso told the panel.

"I'm not the monster they say killed these women," he said. "I don't kill people and there's no evidence of that in my writings and photography."

Naso has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the slayings of four women – all prostitutes with the same first and last initials: 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch in 1977; 22-year-old Carmen Colon in 1978; 38-year-old Pamela Parsons in 1993; and 31-year-old Tracy Tafoya in 1994.

Whether the "double initials" in each victim's name was a coincidence or a plan, investigators have not said. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and were expected to start calling witnesses Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Naso drugged and photographed his unconscious victims, then strangled them and dumped their naked bodies in rural areas.

Slote read from sections of a diary found at Naso's home that detailed rapes of women.

In a 1961 entry, the journal describes a man picking a girl up and raping her in a car in the Berkeley Hills. Other entries made vague references to victims in this case.

Naso was arrested at the time on suspicion of assault, but he said he was never charged. Prosecutors say the woman named in that entry will testify about the incident.

Authorities around the country have also looked at Naso as a suspect in cold cases.

Marin County prosecutors have built a significant case against Naso.

Investigators discovered DNA matching Naso's profile on at least one victim, Roggasch, and a partial DNA match from material collected from under the fingernails of Colon.

Naso said he plans to challenge that, saying the DNA is inconclusive.

Also discovered were photographs – including images of at least one of the victims in the case – of women who appeared dead or unconscious and what prosecutors called a "rape journal" during a search of Naso's Reno, Nev., house.

Naso characterized the photographs as his art and said all of his "models" were willing participants.

He showed the jury dozens of photographs he took of weddings, landscapes and family members along with what he called "glamour" or "cheesecake" photographs of nude women. He said he never forced any of them to do anything.

But prosecutors say Naso kept a list of his victims, and mementos of his alleged killings.

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 victims in this case.

Slote also said she believed investigators had identified a fifth woman on the list: No. 8, "Girl in Woodland (Nevada County)." Slote said she believed No. 8 is a reference to a missing girl named Sara Dylan.

Dylan's passport was found in Naso's safe deposit box, along with news clippings covering the slayings of Parsons and Tafoya, which Naso had laminated with photographs he had taken of each woman, and $152,400 in cash.

Naso told the jury that he had collected obituaries "ever since I was a boy."

A skull found in Nevada County held DNA matching Dylan's mother's profile, Slote said.

Naso is not charged with Dylan's murder, but the jury heard evidence about her case as prosecutors sought to tie Naso's list to more cold cases.

There is no indication that any of the five other women referred to on the list have been identified, but prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing.

Joseph Naso Trial: Opening Remarks Scheduled For Accused Murderer

By Jason Dearen - HuffingtonPost.com

June 17, 2013

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Serial murder suspect Joseph Naso delivered an hours-long personal history Monday replete with childhood photos, as he launched his defense, denied the decades-old slayings of four women and claimed he is not the "monster" prosecutors have made him out to be.

The 79-year-old defendant's opening statement came after prosecutors spent the morning showing the jury graphic images of the four women's bodies discovered in Northern California, leading some on the panel to wipe tears from their eyes.

Naso, wearing a dark suit and spectacles, rose after Marin County prosecutor Rosemary Slote had called him a "serial rapist and murderer" and said he was anxious to tell his side.

"I've been waiting two years and two months for this day, to tell my side of the story," Naso told the panel.

"I'm not the monster they say killed these women," he said. "I don't kill people and there's no evidence of that in my writings and photography."

Naso, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the slayings of four women – all prostitutes with matching initials: 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch in 1977; 22-year-old Carmen Colon in 1978; 38-year-old Pamela Parsons in 1993; and 31-year-old Tracy Tafoya in 1994.

Whether the "double initials" in each victim's name was a coincidence or a plan, investigators have not said. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors say Naso drugged and photographed his unconscious victims, then strangled them and dumped their naked bodies in rural areas.

Slote read from sections of a diary found at Naso's home that detailed rapes of women.

In a 1961 entry, the journal describes a man picking a girl up and raping her in a car in the Berkeley Hills. Other entries made vague references to victims in this case.

Naso was arrested at the time on suspicion of assault, but he said he was never charged. Prosecutors say the woman named in that entry will testify about the incident.

Authorities around the country have also looked at Naso as a suspect in cold cases.

Marin County prosecutors have built a significant case against Naso.

Investigators discovered DNA matching Naso's profile on at least one victim, Roggasch, and a partial DNA match from material collected from under the fingernails of Colon.

Naso said he plans to challenge that, saying the DNA is inconclusive.

Also discovered were photographs – including images of at least one of the victims in the case – of women who appeared dead or unconscious and what prosecutors called a "rape journal" during a search of Naso's Reno, Nev., house.

Naso characterized the photographs as his art and said all of his "models" were willing participants.

He showed the jury on Monday dozens of photographs he took of weddings, landscapes and family pictures along with what he called "glamour" or "cheesecake" photographs of nude women. He said he never forced any of them to do anything.

But prosecutors say Naso kept a list of his victims, and mementos of his alleged killings.

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 victims in this case.

Slote also said she believed investigators had identified a fifth woman on the list: No. 8, "Girl in Woodland (Nevada County)." Slote said she believed No. 8 is a reference to a missing girl named Sara Dylan.

Dylan's passport was found in Naso's safe deposit box, along with news clippings covering the slayings of Parsons and Tafoya, which Naso had laminated with photographs he had taken of each woman, and $152,400 in cash.

Naso told the jury that he had collected obituaries "ever since I was a boy."

A skull found in Nevada County held DNA matching Dylan's mother's profile, Slote said.

Naso is not charged with Dylan's murder, but the jury heard evidence about her case as prosecutors sought to tie Naso's list to more cold cases.

There is no indication that any of the five other women referred to on the list have been identified, but prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing.

  

Woman says accused serial killer Joseph Naso sexually assaulted her in 1961

Sfexaminer.com

March 23, 2012

A 74-year-old woman who says she was raped in California over 50 years ago by the man accused of the serial "Alphabet Murders" could become a key witness in his trial, but said police at the time treated her as if she were to blame.

If the woman is called to testify in the trial of Joseph Naso, 78, who is accused of killing two Northern California prostitutes in the 1970s and two more in the 1990s, her testimony could help prosecutors show he has displayed a long pattern of sexual violence.

The woman now lives in the Midwest, but she was a student in Berkeley when she told police there in 1961 that a man -- who authorities have identified as Naso -- picked her up at a bus stop and raped her. She said police at the time suggested she was just trying to make her boyfriend jealous.

"It was different at that time," the woman told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because she had not told her family of the ordeal. "It was still your own fault."

The woman, who at the time was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, said in dealing with police she felt alone and like she was the one they were accusing.

But she said that an investigator for the Marin County district attorney's office called in June and said he believed her 1961 assailant was Naso. She also was mentioned in court last month, when Naso and prosecutors were conferring about the exchange of evidence and Naso said he could not find a copy of the police report linked to the suspected rape case.

Naso, who has admitted a penchant for photographing women in nylons and high heels but denies killing anyone, is representing himself in the case. The serial killings have been dubbed the "Alphabet Murders," because of the alliteration of the women's first and last names.

Rosemary Slote, a deputy district attorney prosecuting Naso, said his record showed a 1961 Berkeley rape arrest, and confirmed prosecutors were considering calling the woman as a witness, but that also hinged on if the judge would allow it.

"If he was committing rapes in 1961 and over the years, it is relevant," she told Reuters. A trial date has not yet been set.

HOSTILE POLICE

The woman, whose name lacks alliteration, said that on the day she was assaulted, at age 24, she had worked in Oakland and was waiting for a bus to return home when a stranger offered her a ride, which she accepted against her better judgment.

"I was just sitting naively at a bus stop," she said. "I knew lots of women in that era who were hitchhiking. I would never do that."

The woman said she got the license plate number of the car and told police. She remembered two officers later interrogated her about the rape in a tiny room. "'You were just trying to make your boyfriend jealous,'" she said police told her.

"They talked to him, and the only thing I knew was that he left town," the woman said.

Because of changes in sentencing laws, it is unclear how long Naso might have served in prison had he been charged with rape and convicted in the early 1960s, said Evan Lee, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings who has been following the Naso case.

JOURNAL ENTRIES

Journals found in Naso's home in Reno, Nevada, detail suspected sexual assaults as far back as the 1950s, according to court documents. In one 1958 instance, he wrote that police told him to "get out of town."

During a hearing in January, Naso said his journal entries had been misconstrued. "I sometimes use the term 'rape' to mean I scored, I made out," he said.

Authorities said they began investigating Naso in connection with the Northern California slayings of four women after a 2010 search of his Reno home by probation officers turned up evidence tying him to the 1977 slaying of Roxene Roggasch.

The 18-year-old's body was found in a rural area near the Marin County town of Fairfax, and police say DNA from her pantyhose was matched to Naso.

Investigators also linked Naso to the murder of 22-year-old Carmen Colon, whose body was found in 1978 near the Northern California community of Port Costa. He also is charged in the 1993 killing of Pamela Parsons, 38, and the 1994 murder of Tracy Tafoya, both in Yuba County, California. All four women were prostitutes, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Naso listed each of those four women they believe he killed on a handwritten roster of 10 women and locations, nine in northern California and one in Florida. Investigations are continuing into the other women on the list.

Looking for DNA evidence, an investigator asked the woman who reported the 1961 rape if she still had the clothes she wore that day. She was wearing her favorite skirt and thought she might have saved it, though the suspected rapist broke the zipper.

"I couldn't find it," she told the investigator. "It was 50 years ago, after all."

  

The Case of the Double Initial Murders

BY Tricia Romano - TruTV.com

An Odd History

If it weren't for his sticky fingers, perhaps no one would know Joseph Naso's name.

In 1995, Naso, a freelance photographer, strolled into an Oakland, Calif., department store and attempted to shoplift 30 pairs of women's underwear. Later, it would become clear, he had already had an odd history of petty crimes. It seemed absurd that a man in his sixties—Naso was then nearly a senior citizen—would be arrested for shoplifting, a crime normally associated with juvenile delinquents. Indeed, just a year earlier, he'd been nabbed for a similar crime, in Yuba City, Calif. His sticky-fingered habit continued long after that incident: In 2003, he was arrested again for shoplifting at the local Food Co in Sacramento before he moved from California to Nevada.

In 2009, he was at it yet again, caught stealing at a Raley's grocery store in South Lake Tahoe. He was put on probation.

He had an assigned parole office, Wes Jackson, and if it weren't for an unannounced home visit, perhaps Joseph Naso's alleged other life, one far more sordid and scary than shoplifting panties, may never have been discovered.

Police soon believed the Naso was not just an eccentric older man living in Reno, Nev., nor even one described variously as a bellicose drunk or a strange man with a temper. It is now believed that he was a serial killer, killing four women and, authorities suspect, maybe even more.

Joseph Naso never stayed in one place for long. Born in Rochester, N.Y., in 1934, Naso served in the Air Force in the 1950s. He met his first wife, Judith, and got married and had a son, Charles. His son developed schizophrenia, and Naso would spend his later years caring for him.

After 18 years of marriage, Naso and Judith divorced, but he frequently visited her afterwards in the east Bay Area where she lived, checking in on her from time-to-time.

After the divorce, Naso moved around the west coast, living in the Bay Area and San Francisco, as well as Nevada. When he lived in California, he took classes at community colleges in Oakland in the mid-1970s, and in the 1980s, he lived in San Francisco, in the Mission District. He was jailed on another petty theft in 1994, in Sutter County near Yuba City. He lived in Sacramento from 1999 to 2003. By 2003, he had moved to Yuba City. He moved to Reno in 2004.

Naso's whereabouts would later prove to be important. It was discovered that he was in the general vicinity of his alleged victims.

Victims

On January 10, 1977, five-foot two-inch, Roxene Roggasch was found dead, dumped near Fairfax, Calif. After receiving an anonymous phone call, the police drove to the road where the tipster's car had stalled and found the petite, freckled redhead buried facedown underneath some desert brush. Panty hose were wrapped around her neck, and her feet were bound. Police concluded she'd been dead for less than a day.

At first, the police looked to the most obvious solution. As Roggasch had been suspected of working as a prostitute, although her family denied any knowledge of that, police looked closely at a man who was alleged to have been a pimp in the area who was accused of assault by a woman who had claimed to have worked with Roggasch. But when that didn't pan out, the trail and the case went cold. Roggasch was just 18 years old.

The next year, another young woman was found dead. In 1978, Carmen Colon was found in Port Costa, 30 miles away. She was only 22 years old.

Then there was a lull in the killings connected to Naso; it wasn't until over 15 years later that another woman was murdered whom authorities later linked to Naso. Pamela Parsons, 38, a waitress who worked not very far from where Naso lived, was found dead in Yuba County; a year later, Tracy Tafoya, 31, was found dead, also in Yuba County. She had been drugged, raped, and tossed in a cemetery. It was estimated that she had been dead a week before her body was found. According to ABC News 10, Naso lived on Cooper Avenue in Yuba City during this time.

In all cases, the women were found strangled, and dumped naked in rural areas. They all reportedly either had problems with drugs and alcohol or they were prostitutes.

"His particular thing was possible prostitutes, strangulation and dumping the bodies in rural areas." San Anselmo Detective Julie Gorwood told the Marysville, Calif., Appeal-Democrat.

The most chilling similarity among the victims, though, was their unique names. All four women who were killed had alliterative initials: Their first and last name began with the same letter. This detail further piqued the interest of investigators because a few years earlier, another string of murders had occurred in Rochester, N.Y., where Naso was born, and those victims had also had the same first letters of the first and last name. Those murders had been dubbed the Double Initial killings or the Alphabet Murders.

In the mid-seventies in Rochester, N.Y., three pre-teens were killed. Like Naso's alleged victims, the three girls had first and last names that started with the same letter. One of them, Carmen Colon, even had the same name as one of Naso's alleged victims. When Naso's arrest was made public, the cold case detectives in New York cracked open their old files to see if anything squared up. But it was determined that though there was a similarity in the names of the victims, little else was the same. For one thing, the women connected to the Naso case, were much older and were mostly prostitutes. The victims in the original "double initial killings," were young. Colon, Michelle Maenza, Wanda Walcowicz were all between 10 and 12 years old. That they were from the same area where Naso had lived for a spell, and during that same time period he was back visiting relatives, seemed to be a coincidence. Police ruled Naso out when DNA from the California killings didn't match the DNA left on Walcowicz.

Crazy Joe

Joseph Naso does not break from the roll of oddballs and loners who comprise the overwhelming majority of serial killer suspects. Neighbors painted a picture of a paranoid, hot-tempered man who kept to himself and never said hello. Whether Naso is found guilty or not, he was the picture-perfect cliché of a serial killer, a recluse who outdid other recluses.

"He was just a weirdo," one neighbor told the Contra Costa Times. "We kept away from him. He made my hair stand on end."

"I never really seen the guy," a woman named Summer who lived near him in Nevada added. "He'd drive his pickup to his backyard and never would say hi. We know all the neighbors here, except him."

Gwendolyn Friend was a neighbor of Naso's ex-wife Judith. Even though he would frequently visit his ex-wife, the Contra Costa Times wrote, Friend "thought he was odd because he would never look her in the eye when they spoke."

Still, being odd and weird doesn't mean that someone is a murderer, she said. "That was strange, but never in my wildest dreams did I think he would pop up on TV as a serial killer," Friend told the paper.

In San Francisco, he was remembered vividly by his neighbors. "It was in his eyes," Sergio Rangel told the San Francisco Chronicle, who uncovered Naso's alleged stalking of a couple in a building he lived in.

"He was older, his hair had turned white, but you can't forget a guy like him. He was berserk," said Rangel. "He was a very lonely man," Rangel said. "When Joe drank, he became bellicose. I gave him a few dollars every now then, not because I liked him, but because I didn't want him to get mad at me."

His behavior earned him the nickname "Crazy Joe."

Bondage and Ladies' Lingerie

During the early 1980s, Margaret Prisco and Thaddeus Iorizzo became all-too-familiar with their downstairs neighbor. Though they had limited contact with Naso, Iorizzo told the San Francisco Chronicle: "Each time I crossed paths with him, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up," Iorizzo said. "You'd get a real creepy feeling. He was pure evil. I'd say to myself, 'Stay away from this guy. He's nuts.'"

Iorizzo told the paper about one of his limited encounters, an occurrence that would seem prescient and meaningful later on, as evidence in the case mounted. He'd come across Naso when he was taking out the trash. Naso's trash caught his eye: pornographic magazines featuring women in bondage, being tied up or tortured. Naso, caught red-handed, denied they were his.

In fact, it was through Naso's collection of photographs and diaries seized by the police during the pretrial phase that alerted Iorizzo and Prisco to Naso's chilling alleged interest in Prisco. Naso had kept a list: on it were ten women. Four of those women were among the victims. One of the names was Margaret Prisco's.

Prisco, now 53, told the AP: "It's disconcerting. When you're that age, living in San Francisco, you don't have your guard up and thinking that someone is after you." She was lucky; she might have avoided a violent fate.

In the course of their investigation, police found thousands of photographs of women in lingerie. The most creepy aspect of this discovery was that the women had been photographed to look dead. In the photos, it was not clear if the women were actually lifeless or unconscious. In some cases, they were photographed wearing bondage gear. Naso's photos stemmed from shots in the sixties to more current years. In all, police said that there were over 4,000 images found in the freelance photographer's home.

Naso, who had been arrested for stealing women's lingerie, seemed to have a long-standing fixation on lingerie and bondage. After Naso's arrest was announced, another woman, Royce Talkington, came forward and told Fox Reno News that she had worked beside him at a swap meet. There, she said, he had arrived with a brown van, and sold women's lingerie out of the back of the van. He had invited her to model some of the lingerie. She told the TV station: "And I said no way; stay away from me. I don't want anything to do with you anymore because it really triggered something inside that said danger danger stay away from this guy."

Attempt at Normality Gone Awry

In 1998, Naso began dating Mildred Gardner. She was eleven years older than he was, and wealthy. But even though they seemed to have a great relationship in some ways, Gardner said in court documents that Naso "was sneaky."

In the court documents in which Gardner successfully requested a restraining order against Naso, Gardner revealed that Naso had lied to her about money she had lent him. She had given him $10,000 to purchase a van to be used by both of them but later learned he put the title in his name only. And later, when his son was ill, he had wanted to buy a house near the hospital where his son was staying and convinced Gardner to pay $7,000 toward a house they were supposed to share together. Again, she told the court, Naso had duped her and put the title in his name only.

"I gave Mr. Naso $17,000 because I thought he was going to marry me and the house and the van would belong to both of us. He did not tell me that he had been arrested for many crimes, including swindling. He did not tell me he was putting the house and van in his own name. I would not have given him any of this money if I had known the truth."

And Naso's temper began to be revealed. She said that she had become afraid of him. "Mr. Naso started demanding, very angrily, that I get back everything I ever gave anyone. He would not let up. He forced me to give him a .38 caliber snub-nose revolver which he still has."

After becoming more suspicious, she and her family paid for a private investigator to research him and discovered that he had a criminal history. After that, all bets were off. "I am not going to Sacramento to live with him. I'm afraid he will become violent when he finds out."

Embarrassingly, Gardner had been convinced to take part in one of Naso's bondage photo shoots. One of the employees at the senior center where Naso and Gardner had met told the Marin Independent Journal that Naso had shown him a picture of Gardner in bondage gear.

"It didn't seem like something she'd do every day. She was not like that," the worker said. "I was speechless."

Naso was asked not to come back to the center.

Fighting the Government

For every nefarious action in Naso's life, though, he demonstrated that he could be fiercely protective. For years, he had struggled to take care of his son, but this relationship was complicated by his son's illness. In 1996 Naso himself had to get a restraining order because of his son's violent tendencies brought on by schizophrenia. Later, he dropped the order and became the legal guardian of Charles. Naso had a long running feud over the guardianship of Charles with Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services. The state argued that Charles should be living in a group home, and they alleged that the elder Naso gave his son alcohol and wasn't giving him his meds on time.

The fight over guardianship also led to a feud with the Social Security Administration when his son was placed under the jurisdiction of the state. He argued on keeping his son under his watch: The Associated Press reported that he wrote: "I've no social life. I do not indulge myself or seek pleasures. My mission in life, my time, and much of my expense revolves around trying to provide care and welfare for my son. (24/7)."

The San Jose Mercury News reported that in 2005 Naso countersued the Social Security Administration, alleging that they had defamed and slandered him by implying that he had drugged and given alcohol to his mentally ill son. He lost that case when it was thrown out, but while he didn't have the money from Social Security, he still had custody of his son, who was living with him when he was captured.

The AP report noted that a woman who had attended several group sessions with Naso in Yuba City said that Naso cared for his son very much. Roberta Fletcher, the president of the Yuba City chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill said: "He was very, very concerned about his son; that's what so strange about this."

Nabbed

If it weren't for his petty thefts, Naso might have never been found out. A chance visit on April 13, 2010, from his parole officer, Wes Jackson, turned his life upside down. On parole from his most recent shoplifting charge, Naso was subject to unannounced home-visits from his parole officer. What should have been routine turned into something else. Jackson noticed an ad for a gun and several rounds of ammunition tucked not-so-carefully away in an ashtray.

The ammunition was in clear violation of Naso's parole, which gave officers carte blanche to scour his home. He was arrested, jailed for probation violations and spent the next year incarcerated in a Nevada jail.

The police spent the year conducting interviews with neighbors and other people in the area. In the course of a multi-agency, multi-state investigation, police found a treasure trove of information, which led to his indictment for the murder of the four California women.

The day he was to be released from the Nevada jail in South Lake Tahoe, police arrested him on the murder charges, nearly a year to the date. He was transferred to Marin County, the site of the first victim, Roxene Roggasch.

In addition to the 4,000 photographs of women wearing bondage gear and lingerie, posed to look dead or unconscious, police also found diaries and safe deposit boxes. A list Naso wrote by hand is the key to their entire case.

In the statement of probable cause for arrests made without a warrant, Officer Ryan Petersen made several allegations against Naso.

"During a probation search of Joe Naso's residence in Reno, Nevada, he was found in possession of a handwritten list which had the reference to ten different women and ten different locations. The last entry on the list made reference to a girl from Marysville, with (cemetery) written next to it." Tracy Tafoya had been dumped next to the Marysville Cemetery, near Naso's home.

The statement of probable cause also notes that another woman, Carmen Colon, was dumped off Carquinez Scenic Drive, outside of Port Costa, Calif. Here, the evidence was possibly more damaging. "A partial, foreign DNA profile was obtained from Colon's fingernail clippings." Naso was included in the DNA profile as a possible match.

In the case of Pamela Parsons, who was found dead in Yuba County near Naso's workplace and home, the police cited photos of Parsons found in one of the safe deposit boxes and newspaper clippings regarding her death. "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." He sold photos he'd taken of Parsons at a flea market, only 1.5 miles from where her body was found. On the list, Parsons is listed as number #9: "Girl from Linda (Yuba County)."

Finally, the first victim, Roxene Roggasch was listed as #3 on his alleged hit list. She had been found in an area known as "White's Hill." A DNA test on the pantyhose left around her neck found DNA that matched Naso's ex-wife, Judith Naso.

Caught and in Court

On April 13, 2011, the white-haired Naso made his first court appearance and was charged with four counts of murder. Due to the special circumstances of the crimes, Naso may be eligible for the death penalty.

In subsequent appearances, Naso declined to hire an attorney, in part, because he didn't want to pay for one. He was denied a right to a court-appointed attorney when an accounting of his monetary worth showed that he had over $1 million in assets. He stated in court: "I've given this case a lot of thought, and I've been alone with myself for weeks. I've decided, looking at the big picture and everything I'm facing, that now I will represent myself." He added: "I want to be the first one and the only one to have discovery."

Besides, he argued, "I have represented myself in the past many times, mostly in civil proceedings and I've done well. I've prevailed."

Despite the judge's advice that he should get a lawyer since it could be a capital case, Naso continued ahead.

When the prosecution introduced the bondage images into evidence, Naso protested and made a strange statement in court during a routine plea hearing: "Nowhere in any of the four statements do they depict the names, descriptions, or intended fate. None of the photographs found depict the women shown in forced posing, forced bondage, or being deceased. All photographs of the women were posed under free will."

Since his initial appearances, Naso changed his mind and requested an attorney. Because his assets have been frozen by the state, though, he said he can't pay. $150,000 was then released, but the judge is ruling on whether or not he can get a publicly funded legal adviser. It probably didn't help that the information regarding the safe deposit boxes had been introduced into the record.

After weeks of not entering a plea, on May 27, 2011, Naso finally entered one: "Not guilty." With even the best lawyer on staff, it may prove hard work to convince the jury that Naso didn't kill the four women with the alliterative names.