Voices from Death Row

by Kelly Banaski

  He eventually told me that he thought he may have been stopped if hed gotten better treatment at the time of his first offense. He also thought if he'd not been labeled a sex offender, and simply been given instruction and clarification of sex, he would have stopped. His ideas and feelings toward sex were confusing for him early in life when he was touched inappropriately by a doctor at a young age, as well as a series of other, not necessarily unusual sexual experiences but some that affected him in an usual way.

  Both he and I share views on the social construct and its ability to make people into criminals. I asked him if he felt this was true to any extent in his own life. In his return letter he answered with a “yes” and a “no.” As stated on his blog, he isn't into what he called “the blame game”. Like me, he said, he recognized that there are significant societal influences on everyone’s behavior, not just criminals, that are commonly dismissed, if even recognized at all. He explained that he did believe these social influences played a role in his life’s path. At the same time, he went on, he believed that we are all individually and collectively responsible for what we do and he didn’t believe anyone should be blamed at all. He feels understanding the difference is critical especially if we ever hope to come to an understanding that can prevent this sort of insanity from destroying our world entirely. He told me that he feels responsibility comes from recognizing how our choices affect our world. Blame is just a means to avoid something else in our lives. Even if we only blame ourselves, according to Jett, we’re only making an excuse to not be responsible. He feels saying, “it’s my fault” doesn’t solve anything, and usually ends up being an excuse to continue some destructive behavior because if I’m a “bad person” then it is expected that I will do “bad things,” so I do.

  This line of thought fascinated me, so I asked him if there were any specific instances where you can see how society had a hand in his crimes. He answered with a large print - Absolutely! He could do it so often, and so obviously that for a long time he just assumed everyone could see it too and only pretended not to. This gave him good reason to blame society for everything he did. He gave the example how he was sent to prison as a “naïve pretty boy,” to be repeatedly raped, and how he was systematically “brainwashed” into believing that his natural sexual curiosity as a young teen was “psychotic” and “sick”, and how even after he got out of prison and tried his best to fit in, he was officially stigmatized and frequently ostracized due to state sanctioned discriminatory social practices. He said he understood that it all sounds like excuses to other people and in the end, that is all they are.

  He spoke so much of not placing blame and accepting his punishment but also of how societal views made him into something he wasn’t. It is maddening to hear someone admit their crimes and guilt and also shun it at the same time. Years behind bars can give you a different perspective on life and so I asked him if he hoped to leave a legacy or anything to be remembered after his execution. He said that answer was simple.

  “I wish that my life somehow contributes, even if only in a small way, to the evolution of a better, and more enlightened world. My only hope is that I leave this world knowing that I am deeply and unconditionally loved by at least one person other than my own mother.”

  We talked about prison life consistently and I asked if he thought there was anything that could be done to help prison be the rehabilitative place it is supposed to be. He explained how in his experience, education has made a serious change in many prisons in relation to violence and recidivism. Not surprisingly, he has become familiar with constitutional laws relating to prisoners and a knowledgeable opinion on violence and how it's perpetuated by the government in prison. He believes prisoners only have a limited set of the same rights of our other Americans guaranteed by the “Bill of Rights” in our constitution. He explained that phrases like, “limited due process” and “significant loss of liberty interest” are used to define and refer to the limited rights of prisoners and when you treat a class of people as “less important” than everyone else, and you do so by legal decree, then you shouldn’t be too surprised when that class develops no respect for laws. He referred to laws in most European countries, where he said they learned the hard way what human rights are and why it is so important that they be applied equally to everybody. In those countries, he said, the prisoners have the same full rights as any other citizen. And they consequently retain many of the privileges that are routinely stripped from American prisoners, such as computer and web access, which let the prisoners continue to feel a part of society, instead of an enemy. There are no prisoner’s rights, only human rights, he told me, and that he thinks in the U.S. we have clearly forgotten, or perhaps never learned, what that means.

  Joseph Duncan may have turned out differently had he not had so many run-ins with pedophiles and abuse himself as a child. Or maybe not, if pedophilia is a biological response in some people, as he believes, he may not have a choice in his desires, but he had a choice in his response to the societal refusal to understand his kind. As angry as he was that the world could not accept him for what he is, his victims should not have paid the price. He agrees.

  His one resounding point is that communication is the key to everything. Had his mother been capable of effective communication when he pulled down that first little boy's pants, things may have been different for him. If there were more open communication in prisons, perhaps there would be less reoffending criminals. In his view, limiting inmates' access to the outside world and the free people in their lives is counter-productive in light of how beneficial visitation alone is in reducing recidivism.

  In one of the last letters I wrote to him, I asked for any information that would set the world on its ear, make people stand up and listen to his plight, but he was not hopeful. He said while he could trace back casual circumstances that led to his crimes, he still questions the underlying and hidden causes.

  He told me he sees in many layers at once and only on the top layer were his crimes caused by things in his life and the real cause ‘runs deep in his soul and is tied inextricably to the connectedness between all of us’.

  No man is an island and no murderer or rapist ever acts alone. I suspect you understand this and that is the only reason I tell you.

  *The Rind Study is a study titled “A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples”. It was published in the APA’s Psychological Bulletin in 1998 (Vol. 124, No. 1, pp. 22-53) by Bruce Rind of the Department of Psychology at Temple University, Philip Tromovich of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and Robert Bauserman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. It studied the effects of sexual contact between adults and minors. Some of the findings were said to have been neutral or positive and the results were not always psychologically damaging. A huge controversy developed worldwide over these study findings.

  Joseph Naso

  Joseph Naso, or Crazy Joe as his friends and colleaques called him, is an 83-year-old man sitting on death row with just as much evil in his heart as any young man half his age or twice his stature. He was sentenced to death in California on November 22, 2013, for the murders of six women. He remains a suspect in several others.

  Joseph Naso was born in New York in 1934 in the frigid month of January. He led an average life, spending some time in the Air Force from 1953 to 1957 and eventually meeting his wife, Judith, to whom he was married for 17 years, in 1962. They had two sons, Charles and David. They had a social life and went out to nightclubs on occasion. Throughout the years, however, Judith had a sneaking suspicion something was wrong in her marriage and with her husband. They had stayed in a hotel after a late night out away from home in the summer of 1976. Joseph often gave his wife what he called vitamins to prevent her from getting a headache while they had their cocktails. On this particular night, she recalled waking up from a deep sleep in the hotel and finding two strange men on the bed
with her and her husband in the room. The men quickly left the room when she began to stir and no real explanation was given. She felt as though she may have been sexually assaulted. That same summer, she recalled waking in her own bed to find a homeless vet her husband had brought home lying on top of her.

  The Nasos divorced in 1980 and Joseph was living in California. Living and going to college in the Mission District of San Francisco, he found work as a freelance photographer and rambled through various California towns in the 70s and 80s. The area is well-known among artists and has always served as a gathering place for those with artistic dreams and abilities. Young and old, hipsters, hippies, gangsters and peacemakers all combine in one of America’s most famous social melting pots. Crazy Joe could blend in with the scenery in the Mission District where everyone was different and nothing was out of the ordinary because nothing was ordinary. He had a series of arrests dating back to his teens and lasting into his 70’s for petty crimes such as shoplifting. The Mission District was the perfect place for him at that moment in his life.

  Neighbors and associates recall a strange man with loud outbursts and bizarre proclivities. He drank a lot and had a penchant for fighting. He acquired the nickname Crazy Joe from those who dared to get acquainted. Visitors often found photos he had taken of nude women, some prostitutes, strewn about the house. One neighbor reported a chance meeting at the apartment complex garbage dump where he found Naso depositing bunches of violent and graphic pornographic images. [xi]

  Roxene Roggasch, an 18-year-old prostitute from Oakland, California, was found dead on White’s Hill off St. Francis Drake Boulevard near Fairfax in 1977. She was found with pantyhose stuffed in her mouth and around the outside of her mouth. She also had a pair on inside out and another around her neck.

  Carmen Colon was 22 years old and living in a San Francisco apartment when her body turned up along the Carquinez Scenic Highway near Port Costa in Contra Costa County on August 15, 1978. She is also said to have worked as a prostitute. Her body was too badly decomposed to determine the cause of death.

  The body of sometime prostitute Tracy Tafoya, 31, was found near Marysville Cemetery in Yuba County on August 14, 1994. She had been strangled.

  The body of thirty-eight-year-old Pamela Parson of Linda in Yuba County was found on September 19, 1993. She had been strangled to death.

  Investigations on all the women stalled, but detectives tried to keep it ongoing and relevant with evidence stored away for future reference.

  In 1994, Joseph packed his bags and relocated to Reno, Nevada. He brought his illustrious petty crime career with him and was placed on Nevada Department of Public Safety (DPS) Parole and Probation (P&P) on July 15, 2009. He continued to work as a photographer and live alone. It was during a routine home visit from Department of Public Safety/Parole and Probation Officer Wes Jackson on April 13, 2010, when all his secrets began to tumble into the light. As the interview was taking place, Mr. Jackson observed an ashtray with ammunition inside of it. Next to it lay an advertisement for a gun for sale. As Officer Jackson looked around the room, he saw female mannequin parts and lingerie. Initially, Naso had refused to open the locked bedroom doors in the back of the house but, when forced to, it revealed a full mannequin dressed in a red dress, piles of rotting food and garbage. The garage held suitcases full of women’s underwear and lingerie. Behind a refrigerator in the garage was a box of knives and guns. Naso could not own a gun or ammunition as per terms of his probation and he was arrested. [xii]

  During the search of his home after his arrest, authorities found photographs of women partially undressed or nude and who appeared to be dead, Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tafoya among them. Further search turned up logs and diaries of attacks on women as well as a list of ten women he would like to kill. He had titled it List of 10 , and it detailed ten women he knew, four of whom prosecutors believe were already dead by his hand. It also gave burial directions and other small details.[xiii]

  Joseph Naso was booked on murder charges in Marin County, California on April 11, 2011. The journals detailed lurid sexual acts, rapes and sexual assaults dating back to the 1950s. Most depict instances of Naso approaching women, usually prostitutes, and offering them a ride home, where, as he described, he would give it to them.

  Entries included:

  “Girl in north Buffalo woods. She was real pretty. Had to knock her out first.”

  "Outside the front door I overpowered her and ravaged her,"

  "I couldn't help myself."

  Authorities discovered two safety deposit boxes in which Naso kept $152,400 in cash, news clippings covering the murders of Parsons and Tafoya and other personal items from women. A calendar detailing Naso’s whereabouts during the times of the murders was also found. One notation on the calendar read:

  'Picked up a nice broad in (Marysville). 4pm. She came over for four hours. Took photographs. Nice legs. She ripped me off.'

  Naso requested to serve as his own lawyer during his trial despite having over a million dollars in assets when he was arrested, but he had a team of attorneys available to aid him in legal proceedings and processes. He denied all the charges in his opening statements saying, "I'm not the monster they say killed these women. I don't kill people and there's no evidence of that in my writings and photography." Time and again he reiterated that the charges against him were a hate crime of sorts, set in motion only to persecute him. [xiv]

  He pled not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the slayings of four prostitutes with the same first and last initials -- 18-year-old Roxene Roggasch in 1977; 22-year-old Carmen Colon in 1978; 38-year-old Pamela Parsons in 1993; and 31-year-old Tracy Tafoya in 1994. Prosecutors sought the death penalty.

  The trial was an unusual scene and a media dream come true. The prosecution revealed its stockpile of evidence found at the Naso home but also the results of DNA tests done on the victims' remaining evidence. DNA from Judith Naso, wife of Crazy Joe, was discovered on a pair of pantyhose found on the body of Roxene Roggasch. A letter also surfaced from Naso to his wife asking her to say she had lost or misplaced a pair of pantyhose. Another bit of DNA evidence from Carmen Colon’s fingernails nailed his coffin. It was a match to Naso. DNA evidence in this case was extremely powerful. Naso’s DNA contains an exceedingly rare allele. Alleles are variant forms of any given genes and do not usually cause any noticeable change. It is, however, extremely noticeable when studying a DNA profile. Naso’s DNA was easily identifiable at the crime scenes.

  Naso examined his own ex-wife, Judith, on the witness stand. She testified that she had not lost any of her pantyhose and that she did not remember ever leaving them anywhere. She also recalled the bleary, dream-like acts she woke up to with other men assaulting her. In his defense, he claimed the DNA evidence was inconclusive and his wife’s testimony proved nothing but an old woman’s hazy memory. The photographs, he claimed, were staged. The prosecution called over 70 witnesses during the two-month trial. Naso called five. He was repeatedly admonished by the judge for improper behavior.

  Jurors deliberated for eight hours over the course of two days. Joseph Naso was convicted in August of 2013. Still touting his innocence, Naso was enraged. He claimed the DNA evidence was planted and all photos were staged. He received death sentences in September of 2013 for three of the victims but life for Roggasch because there was no death penalty in California at the time of her murder. He railed at the media in the courtroom as well as the victims' families, tossing up his middle finger to punctuate his disapproval. He stood and saluted the judge and media on a few occasions causing bailiffs to prod him back into his seat. Families of the victims said in their statements to the court they did not want Naso to die, but to live a long life confined to a cell in prison. They got their wish. [xv]

  Joseph Naso remains a suspect in The Alphabet Murders that occurred in Rochester, New York, in the 1970s. Three young girls were found murdered, all with the same first and last initial, and
all found in a town name started with the same initial. Wanda Walkowicz was found in Webster. Michelle Maenza was found in Macedon. Carmen Colon was found in Churchville. Carmen Colon was also the name of one of Naso’s California victims. Naso is a Rochester native and would travel to the area frequently in the 70s to visit family. Some of his journal entries and list items are remarkably close to some of the NY victims as well. [xvi]

  Item number eight on one of the lists was captioned “girl in Woodland, Nevada County.” Sara Dylan is thought to be that girl. Some of her Bob Dylan trinkets and keepsakes were in Naso’s possession. Sara was born Renee Shapiro but so loved Bob Dylan she had legally changed her name and spent most of her time following his tour dates around the world. She disappeared on her way to a concert; her skull surfaced in Nevada County in 1992. It wasn’t until 2013 that DNA tests identified her remains. Sara Dylan’s passport was among the items found in Naso’s safety deposit box after his arrest. He also possessed her driver’s license and a Bob Dylan pin. Before his trial ended, Naso was linked to a sixth victim, Sharileea Patton, found in Marin County in 1981. She was a security guard, 56 years old, who had traveled to the Bay Area to look for work. She was strangled and then stuffed into two garbage bags. [xvii]

  I wrote to Joseph and asked for his help in writing this chapter. His letter arrived quickly, barely a week after I’d mailed my letter to him. His neat longhand was a surprise. I expected a senior’s shaky script. He talked at length about Tennessee, the state I live in, and his recollections of it. He told me of his favorite places. Then began a description of all the women he had known and dated in the state, describing them all with phrases such as a very fine lady and admirable. I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in word choice and sentence structure to the way my grandfather spoke. It felt both comforting and chilling.