Joseph Naso | |
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![]() Inmate Mugshot | |
Born | Rochester, New York, U.S. | January 7, 1934
Other names | Crazy Joe The Double Initial Killer |
Spouse | Judith Naso (divorced) |
Conviction(s) | First degree murder with special circumstances (4 counts) Theft |
Criminal penalty | Death Penalty (de jure) |
Details | |
Victims | 6–10+ |
Span of crimes | January 10, 1977 –August 14, 1994 (Confirmed) |
Country | United States |
State(s) | California |
Date apprehended | April 11, 2011 |
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 four women. He was also implicated in the murders of other women.
Joseph Naso was born on January 7, 1934 [1] 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. [2]
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. [3] His acquaintances nicknamed him Crazy Joe for his behavior. [4]
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. [10] 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, Colon, Parsons, and Tafoya. The police listed all four victims as prostitutes. [11] 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. [8] 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 had lived there for a long time. 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]
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