In 2010, an unknown serial killer was apprehended. What started out as a probation violation, soon turned into a full-scale investigation when police in Reno, Nevada discovered Joseph Naso’s “List of 10”.
Joseph Naso was born on January 7th, 1934, in Rochester, New York. Not much is known about his childhood, or early adulthood, other than at one point, he served in the U.S. Air Force.
In 1958, Naso was charged with assault and attempted rape in the area of East Rochester. A 21-year-old woman managed to escape him, and report him to police.
She told them that they’d met at a dance. Then, on the evening of April 24th, the woman was waiting for the bus when Naso pulled up, asking if she wanted a ride. The woman got in the car, where Naso proceeded to drive them to park, where he pulled over and attacked the woman.
After his arrest, Naso plead guilty, and was sentenced to 2 to 5 years in prison. The sentence was then suspended, and Naso was placed on 5 years of probation.
Naso was charged once more while in Rochester, but police ran him out of town instead of making him face any kind of sentence or disciplinary action.
After being run out of New York, Naso headed west. Out there, he met and married his wife, Judith. During this time, Naso styled himself as a “professional” photographer, often offering his services to women. Naso had a type – he preferred photographing women in hosiery, wearing high heels.
Judith divorced Naso after 18 years of marriage, though the two remained in close contact for the sake of their son, Charles, after the divorce.
When Charles, who had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia, was in the care of his mother, Naso would take the opportunity to travel back to Rochester. Despite being run out of town, he had friends and family there that he would visit regularly.
During one such visit, 3 young girls were found around the Rochester area. They had been sexually assaulted, and murdered. The murders gained many different titles, though most recognize them as the Double Initial Murders. They were referred to as the Double Initial Murders due to the fact that each the first letter of the first name and last name of the girls matched – Carmen Colón, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Maenza.
When he wasn’t travelling, Naso took various classes in various colleges around the San Francisco area in the 1970s. In the 1980s, he lived in Piedmont, California, then moved to Sacramento between 1999 and 2003, before finally settling in Reno, Nevada.
Naso had a long history of petty crimes, such as petty theft and shoplifting, which he committed right up until 2010. In every place he lived, Naso exhibited reclusive, odd behaviour. In Reno, his neighbours knew him as “Crazy Joe”.
In 2008, Naso was convicted of theft at the age of 74, and was sentenced to probation. In April of 2010, he came under police scrutiny when they were tipped off that he was selling ammunition at flea markets, and fairs. As this was a violation of his probation, a routine check was then issued on his home.
During this check, police were horrified at the state of his home. They found it in abysmal condition – there were piles upon piles of objects strewn all over, and rotting meat had been left out on the kitchen counter. It looked like the home of a hoarder.
While circulating around the mess, police found bullets inside the home, confirming that Naso was in violation of his probation conditions. He was promptly arrested.
As Naso was being transported for intake, officers continued to search his home. They never anticipated the magnitude of what they would find.
Naso had stored dozens of bankers boxes in his home. The boxes were full of photographs, journals, newspaper clippings, roughly $150,000 in cash, an various froms of identification, taken from several women.
In viewing the photos, the officers searching Naso’s home were shocked, and disgusted. The photos showcased women in various states of undress, usually wearing some kind of hosiery, and high heels. This, though, was not the most concerning part.
What concerned police most was that most of the women in the photos appeared to be completely unconscious – or dead.
Along with the photos, officers also found volumes, upon volumes, upon volumes of journals. The journals themselves weren’t dated like a day book, or diary. They appeared more like someone scribbling something down as they remembered it. While the amount of journals by themselves was overwhelming, their contents were even more shocking than the photographs.
For a long time, Naso had been recounting tales of the women he had attacked, sexually assaulted, and killed. The earliest incident had been dated in the 1950s, in Rochester, New York. The journals also included what would become the infamous “List of 10” – which is exactly what it sounds like. A horrific list of 10 women Naso had killed.
Six of those women have been identified.
On January 10th, 1977, the body of 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch was found near Fairfax, California. When she was found, police noted four pairs of nylons on her. Two pairs were wrapped around her neck, while a third pair was found stuffed in her mouth. Roxene was found wearing the fouth pair, which also, apparently, contained semen stains.
22-year-old Carmen Lorraine Colón was found on August 13th, 1978. She was found just a few miles from where Roxene had been located, between Crockett and Port Costa, along the Carquinez Scenic Highway. Nail clippings, which appeared to contain skin cells underneath, were taken during autopsy.
In 1981, the body of 56-year-old Shariea Lefern Johnson was found washed up on shore, near the Naval Net Depot, in Tiburon, California. She’d recently moved to the San Francisco Bay area in search of a job. At the time, Naso managed the building complex in which Shariea was a resident. He was considered the prime suspect, but police never found enough evidence to officially arrest him for her murder.
Renee Shapiro, who later changed her name to Sarah Dylan, was on her day to a Bob Dylan concert in San Francisco when she met her demise in May of 1992. Her body was found near Nevada County, California,
A year later, in 1993, 38-year-old Pamela Ruth Parsons was found murdered in Yuba County, California, the same county Naso was living in at the time of her murder.
In 1994, 31-year-old Tracy Lynn McKinney Tafoya was also found sexually assaulted and murdered in Yuba County. Her body had been left new Marysville Cemetery.
Of the 10, 4 remain unidentified, with scarce descriptions of where, or who, they may be.
The journals helped investigator’s link Naso’s List of 10 to four women definitely, and two potentially. Joseph Naso was charged with the murders of Roxene Roggasch, Carmen Lorraine Colon, Pamela Ruth Parsons, and Tracy Lyn McKinney Tafoya on April 11th, 2011.
Prosecutors could not find enough evidence to charge Naso for the murders of Shariea Lefern Johnson or Sarah Dylan without a reasonable doubt.
While in prison, Judith paid her ex-husband a visit. During the visit, Naso asked her to ask their son, Charlie, to go to his house. There, Charlie would find keys to a safety deposit box. Naso wanted Charlie to retrieve the “personal items” within that box, and “keep them safe”.
Having recorded the conversation, police immediately set upon returning to Naso’s home (which was still being sorted through), and finding the keys.
Finding what they were looking for, police found more photos and pieces of identification inside box. Namely, they found Sarah Dylan’s driver’s license and passport. They also found a handwritten note, which included the date of the Bob Dylan concert Sarah had planned on attending.
At trial, the prosecutors did not hold back. They presented nearly everything they’d found in Naso’s home as evidence – from photos, to the journals, and the various pieces of identification. Their smoking gun – the infamous “List of 10”.
The jury heard the various, short, descriptions of the women Naso had attacked, and the locations where they were murdered, as well as other snippets from the journals Naso kept.
They were also presented with Judith’s DNA on a pair of nylons that had been found on Roxene’s body, indicating that Naso had used a pair of his wife’s hosiery to commit murder. To follow this, the prosecution introduced as evidence conclusive DNA that had been found under Carmen’s fingernails, which traced back to Joseph Naso.
Following this, prosecutors also swore in several survivors, who detailed surviving their attacks at the hands of Naso going back 20 to 30 years.
In a masterclass of poor decision making, Naso chose to represent himself at trial. He often appeared confused, and disgruntled, swearing at the jury, and making derogatory comments. He did not testify himself, but he did call 5 witnesses.
His only closing argument to the jury was that he did not harm the women he had been charged with murdering, and he was not a monster.
On August 20th, 2013, the jury convicted Joseph Naso of all four murders with which he’d been charged. On November 22nd, 2013, he was sentenced to death. As of September 2022, he still sits on Death Row.
As Naso’s crimes came to light, the press couldn’t help but notice a pattern – the first and last names of 4 of his victims had matching initials. Some couldn’t help but make the connection between these murders, and the Double Initial Murders in Rochester, New York, between 1971 and 1973.
Naso was known to be in the area at the time these murders occurred, and had been considered a suspect. Moreover, one of the victims in New York shared a name with one of Naso’s victims in California – Carmen Colón.
For all intents and purposes, it stood to reason that Naso was the perpetrator of these murders. However, DNA collected in New York did not match Naso’s DNA, exonerating him as a suspect of these murders once and for all.
Despite being proven innocent of the New York Double Initial Murders, Naso is still responsible for the murders of 10 women between 1977 and 1994. These likely are not the only murders he’s ever committed – these just seem to be his top 10.
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Sources:
Joseph Naso, a convicted serial killer, gets death – KCRA 3
Where is the Serial Killer Joseph Naso Now? – The Cinemaholic
Who is Joseph Naso? California serial killer kept ‘List of Ten’ rape diary and ‘trophy’ pics of his victims – Aharon Abhishek – Meaww.com
True Crime All the Time podcast – Joseph Naso “The Double Initial Killer”