Joseph Naso

{{Infobox criminal

| name = Joseph Naso

| image = Joseph Naso (criminal).png

| image_size = 180px

| caption = Naso in 2013

| alt =

| birthname =

| alias = Crazy Joe
The Double Initial Killer

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1934|1|7}}

| birth_place = Rochester, New York, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| cause =

| victims = 6–10+

| country = United States

| states = California

| beginyear = January 10, 1977

| endyear = August 14, 1994

| apprehended = April 11, 2011

| conviction = First degree murder with special circumstances (4 counts)
Theft

| sentence = Death penalty (de jure)

| children =

| spouse = Judith Naso (divorced)

}}

Joseph Naso (born January 7, 1934), also known as Crazy Joe or the Double Initial Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist sentenced to death for the murders of at least four women.

Biography

Naso was born on January 7, 1934,{{cite news|url=http://www.marinij.com/crimebeat/ci_23966535/marin-prosecutors-link-killer-naso-tiburon-victim-1981|title=Marin prosecutors link killer Naso to Tiburon victim in 1981|publisher=Marin Independent Journal|date=August 28, 2013|first=Gary|last=Klien|accessdate=June 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026172333/http://www.marinij.com/crimebeat/ci_23966535/marin-prosecutors-link-killer-naso-tiburon-victim-1981|archive-date=October 26, 2014|url-status=dead}} in Rochester, New York. After serving in the United States Air Force in the 1950s, he met his first wife. Their marriage lasted for eighteen years, but after the divorce, Naso continued visiting his ex-wife, who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The couple had a son who later developed schizophrenia, and Naso spent his later years caring for him.{{cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/an-odd-history.html|title=The Case of the Double Initial Murders: An odd history|publisher=Crime Library|first=Tricia|last=Romano|accessdate=June 23, 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403050028/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/an-odd-history.html|archivedate=April 3, 2014}}

Naso took classes in various San Francisco colleges in the 1970s and lived in the Mission District of San Francisco and then in Piedmont, California, in the 1980s. He lived in Sacramento between 1999 and 2003 and finally settled in Reno, Nevada in 2004, where he was arrested in 2011. He worked as a freelance photographer and had a long history of petty crimes such as shoplifting, which he committed even in his mid-seventies.{{cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/an-odd-history.html|title=The Case of the Double Initial Murders: An odd history|publisher=Crime Library|first=Tricia|last=Romano|accessdate=June 23, 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403050028/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/an-odd-history.html|archivedate=April 3, 2014}} His acquaintances nicknamed him Crazy Joe for his behavior.{{cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/crazy-joe.html|title=The Case of the Double Initial Murders: Crazy Joe|publisher=Crime Library|first=Tricia|last=Romano|accessdate=June 23, 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140905015545/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/crazy-joe.html|archivedate=September 5, 2014}}

Victims

=Confirmed=

18-year-old Roxene Roggasch Ashby was found dead on January 10, 1977, her body dumped near Fairfax, California. She had been strangled.{{cite news|author=Henry K. Lee|url=https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Slaying-suspect-Joseph-Naso-kept-notes-on-victims-2367862.php|title=Slaying suspect Joseph Naso kept notes on victims|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=June 17, 2011|access-date=June 23, 2014}} Police estimated she was killed less than a day before. Police suspected that Roggasch had worked as a sex worker, but her family denied this.{{cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/victims.html|title=The Case of the Double Initial Murders: Victims|publisher=Crime Library|first=Tricia|last=Romano|accessdate=June 23, 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904004500/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/joseph-naso/victims.html|archivedate=September 4, 2014}}
Carmen Lorraine Colon, 22-year-old , 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. A Highway Patrol officer investigating reports of a cattle shooting found a decomposing nude body that had been dumped. The body was later identified as Colon's.
The body of Sharileea Patton, 56-year-old, washed ashore near the Naval Net Depot in Tiburon, California in January 1981. At the time of her death, she was a resident of the Bay Area looking for a job. Naso managed the residence where the woman used to live. He also took a photograph of the victim. He was considered the prime suspect by police in 1981 but gave the investigators only elusive answers and was not charged for the next thirty years.
Sara Dylan, a Bob Dylan groupie (born Renee Shapiro, she later changed her name to that of the singer's former wife), was last seen on her way to a Dylan concert at the Warfield theater in San Francisco in May 1992.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Joseph-Naso-accused-in-Dylan-fan-s-disappearance-2492547.php|title=Joseph Naso accused in Dylan fan's disappearance|work=San Francisco Chronicle|first=Justin|last=Berton|date=June 3, 2013|accessdate=June 26, 2014}} She was killed in or near Nevada County, California.
On September 19, 1993, the body of 38-year-old Pamela Ruth Parsons, a waitress, was found in Yuba County, California. Parsons worked near Cooper Avenue in Yuba City, where Naso lived at that time.
31-year-old Tracy Lynn Tafoya was found dead on August 14, 1994,{{cite news|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_24580867/marin-judge-sentences-joseph-naso-death-row-murders|title=Marin judge sentences Joseph Naso to death row for murders of six women|work=San Jose Mercury News|first=Gary|last=Klien|date=November 22, 2013|accessdate=June 23, 2014}} also in Yuba County. The killer drugged, raped, and strangled her and left the body near Marysville Cemetery. It has been estimated that a week passed before the body was found.

=Suspected=

On January 24, 1983, a gardener found a headless and partly decomposed body of an adult woman in Foss Creek behind Simi Winery in Healdsburg, California. Investigators later found a head during a search of the area. On April 28, 2011, her remains were exhumed to extract DNA. However, an identification has not been made and she is known only as the Sonoma County Jane Doe. Links between the victim and Naso were investigated because authorities found a "rape diary" belonging to Naso and one of the entries mentioned a "girl in Healdsburg."{{cite web |url=https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/961ufca.html |title=961UFCA - Unidentified Female |website=Doe Network |access-date=December 18, 2020}}
Naso was also a person of interest in the Rochester Alphabet murders case as four of his victims bore double initials, just as the Rochester murder victims, and Naso was a New York native who had lived in Rochester during the early 1970s.{{cite web | last = Dearen | first = Jason |author2=Scott Sonner | title = What's In a Name? It May Link Calif, NY Cold Cases | work = The Salem News | publisher = A.P. | date = April 13, 2011 | url = http://www.salemnews.com/nationalnews/x1240518430/Whats-in-a-name-It-may-link-Calif-NY-cold-cases | access-date = April 3, 2012}} One of the Rochester victims was named Carmen Colon.{{Cite web |date=2013-11-25 |title='Alphabet killer' Joseph Naso sentenced to death for decades-old |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alphabet-killer-joseph-naso-sentenced-to-death-for-decadesold-murders-of-four-women-8962978.html |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=The Independent |language=en}} DNA testing has confirmed Naso's DNA is not a match to the semen samples recovered from the body of victim Wanda Walkowicz.{{cite news|title=No Evidence Links Joseph Naso to Rochester's Double Initial Killings|url=https://eu.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/investigations/2011/05/09/no-evidence-links-joseph-naso-to-rochesters-double-initial-killings/77152328/|access-date=January 4, 2020|work=Democrat and Chronicle|date=May 8, 2011}}{{cite news|title=Joseph Naso Sentenced to Death for California's 'Alphabet Murders'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10469773/Joseph-Naso-sentenced-to-death-for-Californias-Alphabet-Murders.html|access-date=January 4, 2020|work=The Telegraph|date=November 23, 2013}}

Arrest, trial and conviction

Nevada parole and probation authorities arrested Naso in April 2010. While searching his home, authorities discovered a handwritten diary in which Naso listed ten unnamed women with geographical locations.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/26/alphabet-murderer|title=Has the alphabet murderer finally been caught?|last=McGreal|first=Chris|date=2012-05-26|work=The Observer|access-date=2017-10-05|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}} The diary excerpts showed how Naso stalked and sexually assaulted his victims and then photographed them in sexual poses alongside mannequin parts. On April 11, 2011, he was charged with the murders of Roggasch Ashby, Colon, Parsons, and Tafoya. The police listed all four victims as prostitutes.{{cite news|last=Dillon| first=Nancy|title = Joseph Naso, suspected serial killer, kept rape diary: authorities|work=New York Daily News|date=12 January 2012|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joseph-naso-suspected-serial-killer-rape-diary-authorities-article-1.1005103|access-date=June 23, 2012}} Later, prosecutors Dori Ahana and Rosemary Sloat introduced evidence identifying Patton and Dylan. On August 20, 2013, Naso was convicted by a Marin County jury of the murders. On November 22, 2013, a Marin County judge sentenced him to death for the murders.