We haven't heard much lately about the case of suspected serial killer Joseph Naso -- who's in jail in Marin County for the murders, spanning three decades, of four California women who all had double initials, Roxene Roggasch, Pamela Parsons, Carmen Colon, and Tracy Tafoya. (There is also talk that Naso could be fingered for the unsolved Alphabet Murders in the early 70s in New York, which followed a similar pattern, and which also spookily included a victim by the name of Carmen Colon.) But you'll recall that when news of the case first broke and Naso first appeared in court, he decided, like any sane 77-year-old with a million dollars in the bank who's accused of murder, to represent himself. Well, now he seems to be regretting that choice, although he's still not the most clear and decisive of speakers in a court room. more ›

Suspected serial killer Joseph Naso, who's acting as his own attorney in a trial that's ongoing at Marin County Superior Court after being arrested in April in connection with the deaths of multiple women spanning decades, may have his work cut out for himself when it comes to his defense. Not only was Naso's DNA (and that of his wife) found on two of the victims he's suspected of killing, but a probation search of Naso's home found a list of ten women in ten different locations, four of whom were the victims. They also found multiple photographs of these women and press clippings related to the murders in Naso's safety deposit box. more ›

Thaddeus Iorizzo and Margaret Prisco, a couple from upstate New York who briefly moved to San Francisco in 1981 when they were in their early 20s, tell of their experience with having Joseph Naso as their neighbor at 18th and Oakwood in the Mission thirty years ago. Naso, who is suspected of killing at least four Northern Californian women during the '70s through the '90s, was dubbed by the couple as "Crazy Joe," due to his odd behavior and "freaky vibe." more ›

Joseph Naso, age 77, was arrested earlier this week for a probation violation in South Lake Tahoe and transferred to Marin County Jail where he's suspected in the killings of four northern California women between the 70s and the 90s. All these women had double initials, the same first- and last-name initials, and this pattern is eerily similar to what were called the Alphabet Murders in Rochester, New York in the early 70s (and which inspired the 2008 movie The Alphabet Killer). Two of the alleged victims even shared the same name -- a Carmen Colon was killed in New York in 1971, and another Carmen Colon was killed in Contra Costa County in 1978, and Naso is suspected of at least the latter killing. For some reason the connection between these double-initial murders and the Alphabet Murders had not publicly been made before. more ›

Locally-born and widely-loved actor/writer/artist/scholar James Franco will be adding "director" to his resume when he shoots his himself (with a camera, we mean) in an adaptation of Philip Carlo's true-crime book The Night Stalker about the titular serial killer Richard Ramirez. more ›

Richard Ramirez (AKA The Night Stalker, AKA the man who had the single most profoundly negative impact on the life of your SFist editor when he was just a wee lad during the summer of 1985) is a suspect in a 1984 San Francisco homicide, according to CBS 5. "Police said a DNA match identified Ramirez as the suspect." more ›

We all laughed at Deborah Perez. We all chuckled when she (and her batshit insane lawyers) held a press conference at the SF Chronicle building to announce, among other things, that Perez helped write the Zodiac Killer's letters, stitch his masks, and go with him on his murder sojourns. We chortled when she said that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the famous killer. We were all, 'duuuude, what?' when claims came out that Perez might have thought at one time that she was JFK's biological daughter. more ›

The Bay Area serial killer who murdered Bay Area residents in the late 1960s and 1970s, leaving behind bizarre letters, has been identified, or so says a private investigatory group. The team, formed by now deceased San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli, is comprised of "investigators and forensic experts." According to Edward Lozzi, the group's spokesman, the team will announce the killer's name, support their claim "with forensic evidence, including cryptology and handwriting analysis, along with new information from law enforcement investigations and murder accomplice evidence." What's most surprising about their alleged discovery is that the Zodiac Killer (or "Killers") targeted their victims. "The murders were not random. They were definitely people who were targeted ... This is an entirely new direction," said Lozzi. A noon news conference will be held today with the official announcement. more ›

Timecapsule: January 7, 1898 more ›