Key Insights

How many women did Joseph Naso kill?

As chronicled in Death Row Confidential, death row prisoner William Noguera wrote to private investigator Ken Mains in 2022, saying he had detailed notes from his prison yard conversations in which Naso allegedly talked about killing multiple women.

Following a trail that started with Noguera’s information, authorities came to believe that Charlotte Cook, 19, was No. 5 on Naso’s list: “Girl from Miami near Down Peninsula.” Her body was found on Jan. 4, 1974, at the bottom of a cliff at Thornton Beach in Daly City, known as the “Gateway to the Peninsula.” (The Oxygen series showed how Mains concluded that Miami referred to a street in Oakland, not the Florida city as first assumed.)

But Naso’s “biggest secret,” Noguera said in a recorded call with Mains, played in the series, was that he claimed to be much more prolific than authorities suspected.

The list of 10 “‘is not all my kills,” Naso said, according to Noguera. “‘It’s just my favorites. The truth is, I killed 26 women.’

Naso has never been charged with any other murders since his 2013 conviction for killing Colon, Parsons, Roggasch, and Tafoya.