Hidden in Plain Sight: How Joseph Naso Killed for 50 Years Undetected

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In 2010, a probation check in Nevada uncovered something prosecutors would later call a road

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map to murder, a handwritten list, 10 women, 10 locations, and one man who had been hiding

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in plain sight for decades.

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[Music]

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You know that neighbor that seems completely normal.

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The one that waves from his driveway.

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Maybe complaints about the weather if you talk to him

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lives a pretty unremarkable life, right?

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Joseph Nesso was that guy.

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Born in Rochester, New York in 1934, he did all the regular things, served in the Air Force,

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got married, had a sunny cared for in his later years, worked as a freelance photographer.

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In the 1970s, he took classes at San Francisco colleges, moved around California,

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like a lot of people did, and eventually ended up in Reno, Nevada.

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His neighbors knew him as "crazy Joe" because he was a little odd.

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Maybe eccentric is a better word, the kind of quirky you roll your eyes at rather than worry about.

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Here's what makes this story so terrifying.

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While Nesso was living this completely kind of ordinary life,

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he was documenting something that would eventually reveal him as one of America's most prolific serial killers.

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According to a handwritten record, Nesso kept himself.

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His first sexual assault happened in 1950 when he was just 16 years old,

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so we're talking about someone who started victimizing women as a teenager and continued for nearly five decades.

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Five decades of abuse.

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In 1958, he was convicted of rape in Rochester, New York.

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Now, this is where things get really messed up.

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Instead of going to prison for a significant amount of time,

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investigators allegedly told him, "Get out of town, pack up and leave."

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That's your consequence for rape. Just get out of here.

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This decision might have been one of the most catastrophic mistakes in criminal history.

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Psychologists talk about how avoiding real consequences can create a sense of invincibility in offenders.

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If you can walk away from a rape conviction with basically a warning,

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what does that tell you about how seriously society takes your crimes?

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The rapes continued through 1998, possibly into the 2000s,

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all meticulously logged in his records.

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For almost 50 years, this man was assaulting women while maintaining the appearance

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of a regular guy with a regular life.

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Nesso earned the nickname "The Double Initial Killer" because four of his confirmed victims had

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first and last names starting with the same letter.

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Law enforcement started noticing this pattern and it became his signature.

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His method was calculated and horrifying.

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Prosecutors later proved that Nesso would drug his victims,

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photographed them while they were unconscious or after he killed them,

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strangled them with ligatures like nylon stockings,

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then dumped their bodies in rural areas of Northern California.

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The evidence against him was overwhelming.

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Take Roxine Rogache's case.

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His DNA was found on the pantyhose she was wearing.

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His ex-wife's DNA was on a pair wrapped around her neck,

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and this wasn't circumstantial evidence.

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This was direct physical evidence placing him at the scene of murder.

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But what really sets Nesso apart is his compulsive need to collect things.

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When police searched his home, they found hundreds of thousands of photographs of women.

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Many appeared unconscious, drugged, or dead,

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posed in lingerie next to mannequin parts.

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He also kept obituaries, newspaper clippings about missing women,

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and personal items belonging to his victims.

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Of course, you know, criminologists call these trophies,

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and they serve a specific psychological purpose.

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They allow killers to relive their violent acts

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and maintain psychological control over their victims even after death.

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For Nesso, killing was just a part of a larger ritualized process of dominance and fantasy.

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Let me tell you about some of the lives Nesso destroyed,

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some of the women whose lives he took.

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I mentioned Roxine Rogache.

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She was 18 years old when she was found strangled near Fairfax, California in 1977.

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The DNA evidence connecting Nesso for her murder is undeniable.

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Carmen Colone, she was 22, discovered dead along the Carcunas,

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scenic highway in 1978, and here's an interesting detail about her case.

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She shares a name with a victim from the Rochester Alphabet murders,

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a completely different case where Nesso was actually considered a person of interest.

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Cherelia Patterson, 56, washed ashore in Marin County in 1981.

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Nesso was the prime suspect back then because he managed the building where she lived,

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but the case went cold for 30 years.

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Sarah Dillon was born Renee Shapiro.

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She was a huge Bob Dylan fan who was last seen heading to a concert in 1992.

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Her passport and ID were found in Nesso's safety deposit box,

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along with a note about the concert date.

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Pamela Parsons, 38, worked as a waitress and was found dead in Yuba County in 1993.

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Nesso actually admitted to photographing her and kept newspaper clippings about her disappearance.

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There's Tracy Tafoya, 31, found dead in Yuba County near the Mary'sville cemetery in 1994.

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Nesso's personal log mentioned being with a woman named Tracy on the day she disappeared.

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The gap between Nesso's four convictions and the estimated six to 26 victims

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shows you how serial killer investigations really work.

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Courts can only convict based on evidence that meets legal standards.

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The personal records found in his possession suggest his actual crimes were way more extensive,

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but you gotta have the evidence.

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And I know you've seen some of the biggest cases in history get solved by pure accident.

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In 2010, Nesso was on probation for petty theft when he violated his parole by having ammunition.

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During the routine search of his Reno home, authorities found what one prosecutor called

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a treasure trove of evidence. The most important discovery was sitting right on his kitchen table.

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A handwritten list of 10 women with geographical locations.

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Investigators immediately realized this could be the road map to connect Nesso with cold cases

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going back for decades. What happened next was pretty amazing. The list gave them specific targets

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for DNA analysis of evidence that was over 30 years old and had been stored at room temperature.

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Normally, that would degrade genetic material beyond use, but the contra-coast of county sheriff's

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crime lab managed to extract usable DNA from this old evidence. Even better, they found an

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extremely rare genetic marker in Nesso's DNA that matched the crime scenes. The list pointed

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them to bodies. The bodies provided the scientific proof they needed for convictions.

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Despite having a million dollars available for legal representation, Nesso made what every

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legal expert called a catastrophic decision. He decided to represent himself in court.

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His court behavior was described as befuddled and oinery. His defense strategy was amateur hour.

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Nesso admitted to photographing women, including some of his victims and to writing about rape

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in his journals. Then he tried to explain it away by claiming rape was loose talk for making out or

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having great sex. Pretty unbelievable. He presented dozens of his regular photography work to try to

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convince a jury that he was a legitimate artist. This approach had zero chance against the mountain

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of evidence prosecutors had assembled. An incompetent defense attorney would have hired DNA

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experts to challenge the forensic evidence. Instead, Nesso's narcissistic belief that he could outsmart

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everyone sealed his fate. After a two-month trial, the jury deliberated for eight hours before finding

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him guilty on four counts of first degree murder. He got the death sentence in November 2013,

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through California's moratorium on capital punishment, means he'll probably never actually be

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executed. And the story takes another dark turn. Joseph Nesso's ego wouldn't let the story end

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with his conviction. Over the past few years, documentaries have revealed that Nesso spent a decade

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confessing to a fellow death row inmate, William A. Nograera said that he actually killed 26 women.

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His fellow inmates kept detailed notes, 300 pages of them. So what triggered these confessions?

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Well, Nesso was furious when media reports attributed one of his murders to another serial killer,

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Rodney A. Cala, known as the dating game killer. His need for recognition and control over his

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reputation was so powerful that he told another prisoner's secrets he had never revealed to anyone

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else. Nograera, the person who he confessed to, was resinnanced to 25 years to life in the

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summer of 2024. Gave his notes to retired detective Kin Mains. Mains was able to verify some of the

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details, including a claim that Nesso posed as a photographer at the Oakland A's to lure victims.

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The baseball team. And one particularly disturbing discovery, Mains found a search warrant from Nesso's

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house that listed a collection of over 26 coins. He believes each coin represents one victim.

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The Joseph Nesso case shows us something really disturbing about how certain serial killers think.

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His compulsive documentation wasn't separate from his crimes. It was central to how he experienced

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and remembered his violence. Photographs, diary entries, and victim keepsakes weren't evidence he

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accidentally left behind. They were essential parts of his psychological satisfaction.

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He needed these items to relive his crimes and maintain his sense of power over the women he killed.

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What's really remarkable is how his ego became the key to understanding the full scope of his crimes.

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Decades of traditional police investigation couldn't get these confessions out of him,

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but one fellow inmate willing to listen to Nesso brag about his accomplishments,

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unlocked information that could connect him to cases across multiple states and decades.

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Recent documentaries suggest Nesso could be one of America's most prolific serial killers,

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active from the 1950s through the 1990s, while remaining largely undetected. His case shows how one

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predator can operate for decades by maintaining a facade of normalcy, while systematically documenting

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his own violence. The most haunting part, for nearly 50 years, this man was photographing women,

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living as someone's neighbor, someone's father, while methodically destroying lives. The list of 10

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wasn't where his crimes started. It was where his ability to hide them finally ended. Joseph

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Nesso. Crazy Joe, his story reminds us that the most dangerous people aren't always the most

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obvious monsters lurking in dark alleys. Sometimes they're the ones offering to take your picture.

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[Music]

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories. My name is Joe.

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Nice to meet you. Hope you're doing well today and thank you for listening to the podcast. If

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you're a new listener, hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. If you're an OG listener,

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as always, I love you forever. Please keep sharing this podcast with your friends and families. It

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makes more difference than you realize. You might think, "I'm just going to let these people know

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about this podcast that Joe does." I like it. Maybe they will. What you don't realize is when you share it

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with them, they listen. And then if they like it, they'll share it with other people. That's how

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successful podcasts work. This thing is already in like the top 1% of all podcasts. Thanks to you,

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but I'd kind of like to see it keep going. Do better, reach more people. And I hope you don't mind

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helping me do that. If you want to know more about the podcast, get in touch with me. You can go to

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10minutemerter.com. Here's an email from one of you that listens and went to the website. Hi, Joe.

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Are you a morning person or a night person when it comes to writing and recording? Do you find one time

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of day makes you better at telling these stories? Chris from Raleigh. And Chris, that's very close to where

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I was born, by the way. I appreciate the email and I'm neither one. Tbh, I wake up in the morning and

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I'm not in a bad mood, but I'm not also a morning person. I'm not chipper in the morning and I'm not

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like fully focused and motivated to do things immediately. My brain needs some caffeine to wake up.

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And then at night, I'm kind of in chill mode. That's when I'm watching these documentaries and

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I'll read some of the cases and I don't really write at night and I don't record at night very often.

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I do want to have to like my behind all record at night, but I feel like I sound better and you would

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never know it, but I feel like I would I sound better like midday. So that's when I tried to do the

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bulk of these episodes around that time. Well, lunch time and then like 6 p.m. And I've been asked

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that before if I'm a morning person or a night person and my answer is always the same, I'm like an

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11.30 a.m. kind of guy. That's my wheelhouse right there about 11.30. Chris again, hold North Carolina down,

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thank you for the email and I appreciate you listening and thank you for listening to 10 minute

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murder. I'll see you next time.

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[Music]