Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer - Season 1 episode 1: A detailed case overview

Oxygen’s new docuseries, Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer, is scheduled to premiere this Saturday, September 13, 2025, with the case of Joseph Naso. The docuseries revisits his crimes and how it was solved with the help of Naso's fellow San Quentin inmate.

Convicted serial killer Joseph Naso, who was known as the “Alphabet Killer,” stunned the nation when his double life as a father, photographer, and community member unraveled to reveal a trail of brutal murders. He was sentenced to death in 2013 for killing four women. However, investigators have long suspected that he was responsible for many more murders.

It was Naso's fellow death row inmate, William Noguera, who turned into an unlikely investigator and spent years gaining Naso’s trust and uncovering chilling confessions that finally shed light on decades of unsolved murders. Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer explores in detail how Noguera managed to solve Naso's case.

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Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer explores the case of Joseph Naso

Joseph Naso was a former photographer who was sentenced to death in 2013 for the murders of four women. Oxygen’s upcoming documentary, Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer, which premieres on September 13, 2025, opens with Naso's case and how investigators discovered that he murdered as many as 26 women.

However, it was not the police investigators who discovered this. The revelation came from an unlikely source, Joseph Naso's fellow San Quentin death row inmate William Noguera. Convicted of a 1983 murder, Noguera spent more than a decade gaining Naso's trust while working in a prison disability program assisting elderly inmates.

Over time, their unusual relationship led to disturbing confessions that Noguera carefully documented. It suggested that Naso’s crimes could extend far beyond what was proven in court.

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Joseph Naso's crimes

According to Oxygen, before his arrest in 2011, Naso lived a seemingly ordinary life. He was a father of two, a Little League coach, and a school and family photographer. Behind this persona lay a darker truth.

When investigators searched Naso's belongings, they discovered that hidden among his possessions were photographs of women who appeared to be dead. They also found a handwritten “hit list” with ten cryptic descriptions, which was believed to represent murder victims.

In 2013, a Marin County jury convicted Naso of murdering four women: Roxene Roggasch, Carmen Colon, Pamela Parsons, and Tracy Tafoya. The crimes spanned from 1977 to 1994. Since each of his victims’ first and last names began with the same letter, Naso was dubbed the “Alphabet Killer.” Despite his conviction and death sentence, Joseph Naso continued to maintain his innocence.

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Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer: The role played by William Noguera in investigating Naso's crimes

According to Noguera, Naso told him that investigators had misinterpreted his “hit list.” The list, he allegedly said, represented his “top ten,” not the full scope of his murders.

Joseph Naso's case explored on Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer (Image via Getty)

Supporting this claim, Noguera pointed to items found in Naso’s home: a coin collection containing 26 gold heads. He believes these represented “trophies” symbolizing each of Naso’s victims, as reported by Oxygen.

Determined to preserve every detail, Noguera compiled a 300-page dossier filled with stories, clues, and partial confessions. He later entrusted the files to retired FBI task force investigator Ken Mains, who began investigating the claims pro bono.

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Other evidence revealed

Among the most haunting confessions that Noguera gathered was Naso’s account of luring a woman through a modeling advertisement, murdering her, and leaving her body beneath the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. The description closely aligned with the disappearance of Berkeley resident Lynn Ruth Connes in the 1970s.

Connes had responded to a modeling ad, and her bicycle was later discovered chained near the same bridge. With Noguera’s information, he and Mains have begun connecting Naso’s stories to unsolved cases like Connes’s.

Moreover, investigators also uncovered Naso’s disturbing diaries, which chronicled more than 100 sexual assaults dating back to the 1950s, many involving underage girls. With the new allegations, California authorities and the FBI started re-examining unsolved homicides that may fit Naso’s methods and timeline, according to Oxygen.

Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer explores in detail how Noguera conducted his investigations and gathered evidence that would solve more than twenty murder cases in California. This would potentially make Naso one of California’s most prolific killers.

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Catch Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer for more about the case on Saturday, September 13, 2025.