Daniel popowski
08/08/2021 12:11
Clarín.com
International
Updated 08/08/2021 12:11
He did not have a traumatic or violent childhood.
In fact, the relationship with his family could be defined as "normal".
But he was lonely, quiet for the rest;
he was far from attracting attention with his words.
But those who knew
Joseph Naso
forever - relatives, friends, neighbors - agreed on one description:
his gaze was capable of intimidating
, disturbing even the most relaxed person.
As introverted as he is haunting, his commanding and domineering personality earned him the nickname
"Crazy Joe
.
"
But his eyes hid more than a certain well-understood insanity within his personality.
Ultimately hiding who would become
"the murderer of the Alphabet"
, a sinister being,
a sexual predator obsessed with the name of his victims
.
Naso was born on January 7, 1934 in Rochester, New York (United States).
After a childhood and adolescence without major problems, he decided to
serve in the North American Air Force
.
The photographer's credential of Joseph Naso, the alphabet killer.
Photo: AP
In time the winds of love blew.
He met Judith, they got married and had little Charles
.
They lived in Nevada, where Naso worked as a freelance photographer.
For almost two decades they led a quiet but fighting life, because the couple's son suffered from mental problems.
Repeated episodes of violence resulting from the schizophrenia suffered by the first-born were undermined the couple with arguments.
The divorce came, but he was always at the foot of the canyon to take care of it.
Even
a tough legal battle awarded him legal guardianship
.
The next thirty years found Naso packing his bags frequently and moving from town to town.
After Nevada, he
lived in San Francisco and in the Bay Area, in Oakland, in Sutter County
.
He also got a roof over
Sacramento and Reno
.
Joseph Naso, in an old image from his personal archive.
Photo: AP
The exact locations of his whereabouts between the 1970s and 2004
are not minor data
.
In fact, they ended up being key pieces in the puzzle that placed him close to his victims in the savage killings he carried out.
Crimes and coincidences
January 10, 1977. The Police received an anonymous call alerting the discovery of a body near the city of Fairfax, in Virginia.
It is about
Roxene Roggasch
, a young redhead who apparently worked as a prostitute.
She was
naked, handcuffed, and stockings around her neck show signs of strangulation
.
Later it would be found that she was also brutally raped.
The investigation could not find his murderer.
Speculation pointed to his pimp, who had a solid alibi.
The case was diluted and ended up in an archived box.
Some of the victims of Joseph Naso, the sexual predator and murderer.
Photo: AP
A year and a half later, the death of another young woman triggered the Police alerts.
On August 13, 1978,
Carmen Colon
also appeared raped, beaten and strangled, a few kilometers from that body in 1977. A local agent working on another case came across the decomposing body on the highway that connects Crockett and Port Costa , California.
The following decade other victims were linked by the
killer's
modus operandi
.
A 56-year-old woman in the Bay Area, another on her way to a Bob Dylan concert
in San Francisco and never made it.
Both with the same signs of violence.
Investigators targeted the killer, but found no conclusive evidence of these.
It was the turn of
Pamela Parsons, a 38-year-old waitress
from Yuba County.
The woman's body was found in a nearby rural area in 1993: she had been drugged, raped, strangled and abandoned near the Marysville Cemetery.
He was 31 years old.
In these last two cases, Naso had recently moved to the Yuba area.
First and last name initials
The police began to create a profile on the alleged murderer: a man with a
predilection for prostitutes
, who used violence during sexual assaults and strangulation.
In addition, he left the corpses in rural or inaccessible areas.
"I am not a monster," said Naso, who never acknowledged the crimes.
Photo: AP
But in the middle of the analysis, something caught the attention of the researchers.
A detail that ceased to be such to gain importance: the curious
obsession with the name of its victims
.
Thus, both the initial of the name and the surname began with the same letter.
The memory of the detectives went back to another series of murders committed in the early 1970s by the so-called "Alphabet killer."
Interestingly, Naso lived in those places at that time.
The reference was to the murders of three girls between 1971 and 1973:
Carmen Colon, 10 years old;
and Wanda Walkowicz and Michelle Maenza, 11 years old
.
Although the victims were minors, there were similarities to those in California.
The murdered children of Rochester who could not link with Joseph Naso.
Photo: AP
Same initials in first and last name;
raped, suffocated and savagely killed;
and their bodies found in inhospitable places.
However, the DNA found on Walkowicz's body did not match Naso's.
Lingerie obsession, photos and a list
Naso's perversion went beyond the lyrics.
For example, women's lingerie had become another obsession of the murderer, who
stole sets of underwear in commercial premises
.
In 1994 he was arrested for stealing in Yuba and a year later he fell for taking 30 women's clothes in Oakland.
He also experienced similar situations in 2003 and 2009. After spending reasonable time in jail, he was released on parole.
Many photographs taken by Naso were key in the case.
Photo: AP
Nobody knew the double life of this
serial killer
.
And it was during a
surprise visit to his home from his probation guardian Wes Jackson
that the truth came out.
When inspecting the house as part of the routine, he found a gun and hidden boxes of bullets.
Naso was arrested for breaking the law.
And when they made a deeper exploration of the house, they got a huge and unexpected surprise.
“There were
more than 4,000 photographs
of women in their underwear.
Some
appeared passed out or dead,
"said Officer Ryan Petersen.
A sort of
personal diary
or list was another key finding in the case.
There he
described the victims one by one, and next to each one he wrote down geographic locations
.
The latter corresponded to the exact place where their bodies were later found.
Part of the diaries with descriptions and locations of the victims of Joseph Naso.
Photo: AP
Naso had for years recorded the attempted robberies, rapes and murders committed.
“The girl from North Buffalo was very pretty.
I had to knock her unconscious first, "he wrote on one of his pages reproduced by local media.
With all the evidence, the authorities were able to
formally charge Joseph Naso
with the murders of Roggasch, Colon, Parsons and Tafoya.
There was no conclusive evidence in the case of the three Rochester girls.
Nor was it possible to identify the rest of the women through the entries in the “personal diary”.
Trial and conviction
With almost 80 years Naso was subjected to a trial in 2011.
He chose not to hire an attorney and defend himself
.
He argued that he had previously represented himself in civil proceedings and that this time he wanted to collaborate to discover the truth, despite the risk of being
sentenced to the death penalty
.
Joseph Naso did not want a lawyer and defended himself at trial.
Photo: AP
Naso denied that the photographs found in his home represented women in "forced poses, slavery or dead."
He admitted, yes, some
"sexual incidents"
in the late 1970s, but he was emphatic in stating that he did not commit "forced rape" or murder.
“I feel compassion and remorse for anyone who passes away and for the people they leave behind, but
I did not commit these crimes.
I am not a monster,
"he said before those present in the courtroom during the trial, seeing that he banished the DNA analyzes that incriminated him, assuring that they had been deliberately placed.
On August 20, 2013, a popular jury found him
guilty of the four murders
.
And it was not until November 22 that the judge hearing the case,
Andrew Sweet, sentenced him to the maximum penalty
for his heinous crimes.
Naso was 79 years old.
Naso in prison gave an interview with an American medium.
TV Capture
During the reading of the verdict, the magistrate asserted: “You have made this world a worse place.
You are a ruthless predator, a pathologically unstable being, a bad and disturbed man ”.
Naso had a
rude reaction upon hearing the sentence
.
The judicial setback had been a lethal blow to those who believed they were unpunished.
He stared at the judge and whoever was there in the courtroom.
Again that disturbing, intimidating look appeared.
It was no wonder after becoming the oldest prisoner to reach death row in California.
With information from La Vanguardia, CBS San Francisco and RTVE
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