Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / How Serial Killer Joseph Naso's House Looked Like "Something Out of Silence of the Lambs”

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How Serial Killer Joseph Naso's House Looked Like "Something Out of Silence of the Lambs” · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Can imagine this. It's a seemingly ordinary April morning on
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twenty ten. You've got a probation officer out in Black Springs, Nevada,
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doing a routine check. Just a modest home right tucked
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away in a small community north of Reno. Was completely normal.
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You wouldn't think twice.
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Speaker 2: About it, not at all, just another house on the block.
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Speaker 1: But inside that well unassuming residents, something was waiting, something
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so profoundly disturbing. It apparently left seasoned investigators just shake
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into their core, revealing horrors far beyond anything they could
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have possibly anticipated. A scene that really sticks with you.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. It was a scene that almost immediately drew these
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really chilling, visceral comparisons to well, a cultural touchstone of
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cinematic terror, right, Yeah, Buffalo Bill's House of Horrors, from
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the Silence of the Lambs, that's the one. Yeah, the
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deceptive normalcy, the macarb artifacts inside, the just sheer depravity
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of it all. It just conjured up those images of
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that infamous fictional lair. It became almost like a shorthand,
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you know, for the kind of unspeakable horror they were
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walking into.
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Speaker 1: So today we're doing a deep dive into this real
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life nightmare Joseph Naso, a man whose life on the
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surface seemed totally unremarkable, but underneath unimaginable depravity. We're going
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to try and get beyond the headlines, really understand the
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anatomy of this monster, if you will, explore how a
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seemingly ordinary life could possibly harbor such darkness.
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Speaker 2: Right, And our mission here is really to unpack the
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unsettling details they actually found in Nasso's home and to
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explore those disturbing parallels to the silence of Lambs, not
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just like superficially, but using it as a lens maybe
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to understand the psychology behind his crimes. Yeah s, and
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figure out how these crucial discoveries finally unravel the horrific
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acts of a serial killer, how they linked him to well,
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multiple murders stretching back decades.
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Speaker 1: You really do think these kinds of horrors are confined
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to fiction, don't you to like thrill or novel or
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the big screen?
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Speaker 2: You hope so.
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Speaker 1: But as we journey through this material, you'll see just
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how chillingly close reality can sometimes get, even to the
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most grotesque stuff you see in movies. So let's unpack this.
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Let's explore the unsettling truth behind Joseph Nasso. Okay, So
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to really grasp the shock of what was found, I
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think we first need to understand the man himself. Who
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exactly was Joseph Noasso? Before all this broke on paper,
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you know, just looking at the records. He was seventy
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six years old at the time, a former freelance photographer,
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an Air Force veteran, living what looked like a quiet,
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pretty unremarkable life up in Reno. Not the kind of
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person who typically raises alarms.
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Speaker 2: And that's the terrifying part, isn't it. The genius of
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the disguise, This seemingly ordinary facade hid this profoundly dark secret,
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and ironically it was hinted at by his probation status.
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He was on probation, but for what seemed like a
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minor offense, petty theft, specifically stealing women's lingerie.
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Speaker 1: Right lingerie detail always.
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Speaker 2: Struck me exactly, And what's crucial here is recognizing that
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while it seemed insignificant, maybe just shoplifting, this act was
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actually a deeply disturbing precursor. It was a glimpse into
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his well perverse inclinations. It wasn't just random theft. It
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was driven by a specific unusual fetish, a compulsive need
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that really foreshadowed the escalation of his darker desires.
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Speaker 1: So that seemingly small detail, often maybe overlooked in initial reports,
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was actually a profound indicator of his true nature and
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the trajectory of his hidden life.
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Speaker 2: I think. So. It points to a specific paraphilia, a
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pattern that was already established, and.
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Speaker 1: That seemingly minor offense, the lingerie theft, yeah, ultimately led
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to the crucial moment, didn't it The moment that unraveled everything. Yeah,
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the routine probation check conducted by that Pearle officer April
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twenty ten at his home there in Black Springs. It
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turned volatile really really quickly.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't just you know, oh, you can't come in
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right now.
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Speaker 1: It escalated right into a full blown conference, immediately signaling
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something was seriously wrong.
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Speaker 2: Indeed, Naso was apparently verbally aggressive, fiercely resisting any inspection
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of his home. It's completely shutting down.
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Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: His adamant refusal immediately raised huge red flags for the officer.
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It transformed what should have been a routine check into
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well an emergency situation.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 2: This intense resistance forced the officer to you know, take
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decisive action, ended up handcuffing Nasso calling for backup. This
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desperate attempt to keep them out, that was the first
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real crack in his carefully constructed world, his world of
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secrecy and deception. It's like the masks started to slip
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right there, exactly the point where his meticulously maintained facade
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just began to crumble, exposing the horror he'd guarded apparently
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for decades. His aggression wasn't just defiance, you know, it
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sounds like the raw panic of a man whose fantasy
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world was about to be ripped open.
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Speaker 1: And from the outside, his place really was just the
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picture of unassuming normalcy, totally unremarkable. To weigh in, that
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small community north of Reno looked completely ordinary. Yeah, you
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literally wouldn't look twice driving past, just another.
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Speaker 2: House, blending right in. But the second authorities stepped inside,
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all that normalcy just vanished poof.
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Speaker 1: Okay, they were.
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Speaker 2: Met with a scene that Yuba Tounty Sheriff Wendell Anderson
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described as and this is a quote more emotionally disturbing
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than most cases I've ever seen.
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Speaker 1: Wow, from a season sheriff. That's saying something.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this wasn't just like a messy house or hoarding.
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It was a curated nightmare. And what's particularly striking here
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again is how much this echoes the deceptive normalcy of
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Buffalo Bill's house in the silence of the lambs right right,
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the creepy Victorian house, Yeah, where unspeakable horror lay hidden
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behind this conventional, almost quaint exterior. Both homes were seemingly
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designed to blend in to lull any observer into a
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false sense of.
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Speaker 1: Security, effectively masking the truly monstrous activities having inside exactly.
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Speaker 2: The contrast between the mundane outside and the disturbing inside
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wasn't just stark. It felt like a deliberate choice, a
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way to avoid detection, almost perfect camouflage for that kind
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of depravity.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so they're inside now, Yeah, what was the immediate
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visual shock? It wasn't just mess you said.
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Speaker 2: No, It was a very specific, macabre collection female mannequins.
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Speaker 1: Mannequins, Okay, not just.
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Speaker 2: One or two, a collection placed strategically around the home,
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almost like this perverse display. Silent witnesses.
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Speaker 1: Maybe creepy, yeah, but were they just like store mannequins.
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Speaker 2: Oh, far from it. These weren't ordinary display figures. They
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were elaborately dressed, mostly in lingerie, with full hair makeup,
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and some were even found hanging hanging, Yeah, hanging from
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their necks with pantyhose.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god.
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Speaker 2: The meticulous detail in how they were presented was apparently
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as chilling as the poses themselves. Investigators noted they weren't
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just randomly arranged. They were staged almost as if, you know,
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representing specific scenarios or maybe acting as stand ins for
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as victims.
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Speaker 1: Wow, and that I mean that immediate brings to mind
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Buffalo Bill's basement workshop, doesn't it instantly with his mannequins,
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the sewing machine, the grotesque creation's part of his whole
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twisted transformation thing exactly.
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Speaker 2: The parallel suggests this deep psychological fixation on control, on
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reducing women to mere objects to be manipulated and posed
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according to some perverse fantasy.
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Speaker 1: So this meticulous arrangement, some even pose like victims of strangulation.
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What does that really tell us about nas so psyche?
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It suggests this profound perverse fascination with control, right objectification,
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a chilling mimicry of life that just speaks volumes about
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how deeply disturbed you must have been.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's not just about possession. It feels like it's
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about creating and manipulating an image, exerting that ultimate.
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Speaker 1: Power, like playing god with these figures.
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Speaker 2: In a way. Yeah, the Mannikins were proxies, silent actors,
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and his private horror show, allowing him to endlessly reenact
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maybe perfect his twisted fantasies. But the discoveries they didn't
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stop there, not by a long shot, okay. Investigators then
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uncovered thousands.
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Speaker 1: Of photographs thousands, yeah.
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Speaker 2: And estimating two hundred and fifty different women in these photos,
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many of whom appeared dead or unconscious oh wownd meticulously
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posed again, often in lingerie.
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Speaker 1: And these weren't just random snapshots.
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Speaker 2: No, no, not haphazardly taken in haste. They were carefully composed, developed, preserved.
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It hinted at a long history of this horrific activity,
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like a decades long chronicle of his crimes.
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Speaker 1: An archive of horror pretty much.
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Speaker 2: The sheer volume. The methodical nature of this archive, it
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suggested this compulsive need to document every detail, turning his
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victims into permanent, albeit lifeless subjects for his camera, and.
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Speaker 1: Sheriff Anderson noted a specific detail, right, a recurring thing
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in these photos.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is particularly unsettling. He noted that women were
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often dressed in stockings with seams up the back.
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Speaker 1: Seemed stockings, Such a specific detail, right.
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Speaker 2: This obsessive attention to such a minute detail, This almost
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ritualistic documentation. Again, it paralleled Buffalo Bill's methodical approach capturing
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their transformations, recording his twisted art.
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Speaker 1: It's like a signature. Yeah, perverse calling card. That must
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have been deeply disturbing for the investigators to piece together.
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Mm hmm.
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Speaker 2: And if we connect this to the bigger picture NASA's background,
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remember freelance.
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Speaker 1: Photographer right door to door soliciting.
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Speaker 2: Exactly that likely gave him this twisted sense of power
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and crucially access over his subjects. This profession, which usually
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involves trust, creative collaboration, he perverted it into a tool
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for exploitation and control. He was essentially vetting potential victims
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under the guise of professional work.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's chilling.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it set the stage for these horrific acts and
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his profound need for this twisted form of artistic expression.
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Where his subjects weren't collaborators. They were victims to be
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manipulated and documented in his macabre portfolio.
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Speaker 1: So he wasn't killing he was creating this permanent, morbid gallery.
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Speaker 2: Of his crimes, a visible extension of his psychopathy.
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Speaker 1: Seems so okay. Beyond the visual horrors the Mannikins, the
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photos you mentioned, the physical layout of the house itself
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raised alarms.
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Speaker 2: Yes, even before processing all the evidence, the house itself
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felt wrong. Investigators discovered two rooms that locked, but locked
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from the outside.
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Speaker 1: Locked from the outside, that's unambiguous.
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Speaker 2: It immediately suggested a space specifically designed to imprison victims.
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It's a stark, undeniable indicator of premeditation, of prolonged confinement.
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And again the parallel, it's strikingly similar to Buffalo Bill's
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infamous basement pit, right where he kept his victims captive,
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controlling their movements, their lives before while before the end.
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Speaker 1: So the architecture itself, these locked rooms weren't just part
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of the house. They were tools in his method.
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Speaker 2: Instrumental tools, it seems, providing secure locations where he could
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enact his fantasies without interruption, without any possibility to escape
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for the victim.
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Speaker 1: And adding to this, sense of dread.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the windows right, the home had boarded up windows,
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not just you know, for privacy, but almost like an
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intentional ceiling off from the outside.
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Speaker 1: World, creating this total isolation.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. It heightened the sense of isolation, of secrecy, creating
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an environment where unspeakable crimes could go completely unnoticed, unheard,
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Much like Buffalo Bill's secluded maybe soundproofed layer in the film.
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Speaker 1: The house wasn't just a setting. It was like an accomplice.
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Speaker 2: Built to conceal terror, a fortress for his hidden depravity.
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It transformed a suburban home into this private dungeon, totally
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cut off from prying eyes or ears.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, as if the mannekins, the photos, the locked rooms
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weren't enough. Maybe the most chilling fine of all was
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this handwritten diary Oh Yes, later famously dubbed the List
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of Tentions.
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Speaker 2: The name itself is awful, it is, and the contents
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were even more disturbing. This diary meticulously cataloged ten unnamed women,
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unnamed mostly unnamed, described alongside specific geographical locations like a
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girl from Miami near down Peninsula. Cryptic descriptions. Okay, but
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it wasn't just a list. In isolation, combined with newspaper
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clippings about missing and murdered women, clippings found in his
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safety deposit box. It served as this grim trophy collection,
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a chilling testament to his crimes that he chose to preserve.
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This wasn't just some forgotten note. It was a deliberate,
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almost ceremonial record, meticulously cross referenced with real world disappearances.
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Speaker 1: Underscoring his methodical nature again and that profound detachment exactly.
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Speaker 2: It functioned like a perverse memoir, a chronological record of
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his heinous acts.
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Speaker 1: This reminds me again of Buffalo Bill's signature right the
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death's head hawk moth inserted into victim's throats, a macabre
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symbol of his obsession with metamorphosis transformation. But Nasso's list
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a literal, handwritten tallly of human lives. It had this
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even more terrifying, almost administrative dimension to it. It wasn't symbolic,
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it was factual, a ledger of victims.
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Speaker 2: And this dimension was amplified potentially by a really shocking
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claim that came out later. Allegedly, Naso confessed something to
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a fellow inmate, William Nogerra.
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Speaker 1: Okay, what did he supposedly say.
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Speaker 2: Nigera claimed Naso told him that this list, the list
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of ten, only represented his top ten murders, his top
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ten Yeah, out of a staggering total, Naso allegedly claimed
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of twenty six.
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Speaker 1: Victims, twenty six. Wow.
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Speaker 2: If that claim is true, it just underscores the unimaginable
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scale of his depravity. It transforms what was already a
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grim tally into just a horrifying fraction of his true
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scope of violence, pushing.
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Speaker 1: The boundaries of comprehension, really suggesting this much larger, possibly
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undiscovered trail of.
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Speaker 2: Victims for investigators. Nogur's information, while obviously coming from a
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questionable source another inmate, it offered this terrifying glimpse into
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the true potential extent of Naso's crimes over the years.
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Speaker 1: And there was another detail tied into this alleged wider count.
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Wasn't there something about a coin collection?
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Speaker 2: Yes, another deeply disturbing detail the discovery of a coin collection. Zifically,
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it contained twenty six gold.
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Speaker 1: Heads, twenty six, the same number Nogera claimed.
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Speaker 2: That's chilling, exactly. No. Gera, the inmate who corresponded with Nasso,
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claimed these corns represented Naso's trophies, one for each of
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his alleged twenty six victims. Each gold head a symbolic tally,
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a stark reminder of a life taken, a physical manifestation.
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Speaker 1: Of his conquests, and this echoes you mentioned the real
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life inspiration for Buffalo bill Ed guyin Geen notoriously kept
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bones and skin as keepsakes from his victims. For killers
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like Naso and Gun, these items are more than just souvenirs.
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They're potent symbols of power of control, and it means
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to relive the act, right, to visually quantify their monstrous achievements.
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It speaks to this profound need to make their actions concrete,
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to hold onto a piece of the ultimate control they
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exerted over another human life.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly so.
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Speaker 1: The meticulous preservation of all these items, the diary, the photos,
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the coins, all found in NASA's home, it suggested this
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ritualistic need to relive his crimes. This wasn't just random
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violent It was a carefully orchestrated process, a trait we
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see often in fictional and tragically real life serial killers.
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It raises that important question, what profound, twisted, psychological need
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do these trophies actually fulfill for a killer like this.
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Is it about power, memory, some darker personal gratification.
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Speaker 2: Well, it's likely a complex interplay of several psychological drivers.
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For many serial offenders, these trophies serve multiple purposes. They
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definitely allow for fancy re enactment, right where the killer
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can relive the act and the feeling of power associated
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with it. They also function as tangible proof of their actions,
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solidifying their distorted sense of accomplishment, their identity as a predator.
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Speaker 1: Right like proof to themselves.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, And furthermore, they represent ultimate control, a continued dominion
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over the victim, even long after death. This curated collection
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wasn't just evidence. It was Naso's personal museum of depravity.
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Speaker 1: Wow, a private space where he could continuously engage with
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his violent fantasies, maybe perpetuating the cycle of his crimes
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in his own mind exactly.
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Speaker 2: This methodical collection, in criminal profiling terms, is often called
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a signature aspect. It reveals the specific psychological needs a
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killer fulfills, beyond the mere act of murder itself.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's circle back to the Silence of the Lambs comparison.
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You said it wasn't just media sensationalism.
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Speaker 2: No, not at all.
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Speaker 1: It came directly from the investigators themselves, people on the
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ground seeing it firsthand.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely that Vanity Fair journalist Rachel Doads, she explicitly noted
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that one detective described Noso's home as quote, something out
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of Silence of the Lambs. Right, This reference wasn't just
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some hyperbolic flourish for the press. It was rooted in
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both the stark visual elements, the mannekins, the organized depravity,
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the locked rooms, and the profound psychological horror that just
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permeated every corner of that house.
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Speaker 1: So the film provided like a ready made vocabulary for
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the unspeakable.
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Speaker 2: Pretty much a cultural touchstone that allowed these seasoned officers
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to articulate the unique, terrifying nature of what they'd found.
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It was more than just a visual similarity. It was
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an echo of a specific kind of methodical, psychologically driven
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evil that Silence of the Lambs had portrayed so vividly and.
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Speaker 1: In the film. Buffalo Bill's House is such a character itself,
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isn't it a labyrinth of horror? With that basement workshop,
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the sewing machines, more mannequins, and of course the infamous
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pit where he holds Catherine Martin right.
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Speaker 2: It's a space designed for a singular, monstrous purpose, reflecting
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his inner torment and obsession and.
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Speaker 1: The psychological horror of the film. It stems not just
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from the pit itself, but from Buffalo Bill's twisted desire
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to transform himself.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, by creating that grotesque woman suit.
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Speaker 1: Which involves meticulous planning, this perverse artistry, and just monstrous
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detachment from human life. Yea, all driven by that profound
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identity disorder.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. He wasn't just killing, he was constructing an identity
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stitch by stitch from the flesh of others. That deep
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psychological drive, that need for control and transformation is what
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makes him so terrifying. And it's where the parallels with
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Naso become really quite profound.
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Speaker 1: And it's striking how Naso's background as a photographer, as
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we discussed, gave him that sense of power over subjects
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their images mm hmm, seemingly setting the stage for the murders,
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like his professional identity just morphed into his predatory one,
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a way to scout and capture victims first on film,
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then for real.
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Speaker 2: Precisely the staged photographs, the collection of mannequin's in Naso's home.
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They reflect a strikingly similar need for control and that
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twisted form of artistic expression. Just like Buffalo Bill meticulously
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worked on his grotesqua creations, Naso curated his gruesome gallery,
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each image, each mannikin a testament to his absolute dominance
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over his victims.
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Speaker 1: It echoes Buffalo Bill's meticular obsession with transforming, manipulating, ultimately
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possessing his victims even in death.
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Speaker 2: Yes, this isn't just about committing murder. It's about the
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post mortem ritual, the artifice, the desire to create a lasting,
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distorted monument to their power. Both killers seem to have
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found profound perverse satisfaction in this elaborate, controlled expression of
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their inner worlds.
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Speaker 1: And the psychological horror, as you mentioned, was amplified by
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how normal NASA's home looked from the outside.
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Speaker 2: Yes, that deceptive normalcy wasn't.
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Speaker 1: Some remote creepy mansion. It was a suburban house that
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blended right in, which makes the horrors inside even more shocking.
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Speaker 2: Somehow, indeed, like Buffalo Bill's unassuming Victorian home in Periopolis, Pennsylvania,
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which side note you can actually rent now.
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Speaker 1: Oh seriously, that's grim.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, But like that house, Naso's residence and black Springs
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blended seamlessly into its surroundings, expertly concealing the atrocities within.
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This juxtaposition of the ordinary and the horrific is such
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a hallmark of the silence of the lambs. The terror
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isn't far, It's right next door, hidden behind that veneer
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of mundane life.
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Speaker 1: It forces you to confront the idea that evil can
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exist in the most unexpected places. Makes your own sense
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of security feel.
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Speaker 2: Fragile, exactly, And this mundane camouflage is often a deliberate
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tactic by predators like this, a psychological defense mechanism allowing
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them to operate undetected for years decades.
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Speaker 1: Even Nice's home, with the boarded up windows, those locked rooms,
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it cultivated a similar sense of dread, didn't It as
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if the house itself was a silent, complicit character.
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Speaker 2: In his crimes, ceiling off the horror from the world.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't just a structure. It felt like an
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active participant in the concealment, a fortress of depravity designed
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to facilitate his dark fantasies and their methods.
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Speaker 2: Their hunting methods also bore disturbing similarities. The methodical nature
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of Naso's crimes echoed Buffalo Bill's calculated approach. Nasso earned
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those chilling monikers remember the alphabet killer or double initial killer.
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Speaker 1: Right because he targeted victims whose first and last names
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began with the same letter.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Roxy and Roguash, Carmen Colon. This wasn't random violence.
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It was a deliberate, almost ritualistic selection process, demonstrating extreme
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control and a very distinct psychological signature.
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Speaker 1: That pattern, while maybe ultimately helping investigators, also highlights just
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how structured his predation was and his known victims You
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mentioned Roxin, Roguash, Carmen Colon, also Pamela Parsons, Tracy Dafoya.
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They were often vulnerable women, aren't they?
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Speaker 2: Yes, often involved in sex work, perhaps struggling with addiction,
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or living on the fringes of society, individuals who might
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be less likely to be immediately reported missing.
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Speaker 1: And his method was drugging, raping, strangling, then dubbing their
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bodies in rural areas, discarding them, trying to erase their existence.
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Speaker 2: This modus operandi bears striking similarities to Buffalo Bill's tactic,
21:51
doesn't it? Luring women by pretending to be injured or
21:54
in distress needing.
21:55
Speaker 1: Help, right, the cast on the arm trick.
21:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, only to incapacitate and kidnap them. Both killers exploited
22:03
their victims vulnerabilities, using deception a false sense of security
22:07
to gain trust before enacting their violent fantasies.
22:10
Speaker 1: They didn't just attack. They manipulated, groomed, isolated their victims,
22:15
gaining entry into their lives, however briefly before brutally ending them.
22:19
Speaker 2: The premeditation, the predatory grooming. It's chillingly parallel. It reveals
22:24
a calculated approach to victims, selection, and execution. Naso's targeting
22:28
of vulnerable women also speaks to a classic serial killer profile,
22:32
doesn't it. Offenders often seek out those who are less
22:35
likely to be immediately missed or vigorously searched for. It
22:38
gives them more time to commit their atrocities and dispose
22:40
of evidence.
22:41
Speaker 1: Okay, so the discoveries within Naso's home were undeniably pivotal.
22:44
Speaker 2: Then, oh, absolutely pivotal.
22:46
Speaker 1: They weren't just pieces of evidence, they were the threads
22:49
that finally allowed investigators to link into the murders of
22:52
at least six women with those strong suspicions of many.
22:56
Speaker 2: More mm hmm. Without those fines, the cases might have
22:59
remained cold, forever, buried under decades of mystery.
23:03
Speaker 1: Right. So, in twenty thirteen, he was convicted of four.
23:05
Speaker 2: Murders, yes, those of Roxine Ragosh, Carmen Colan, Pamela Parsons,
23:10
and Tracy Dafoya, And that conviction was based directly on
23:14
the overwhelming evidence found in his home, the photos, the diary,
23:17
the newspaper clippings he'd saved. Prosecutors also introduced compelling evidence
23:22
linking him to two other murders, shir Leah Patten and
23:24
Sarah Dillon, even though he wasn't formally charged with those
23:27
specific crimes in that trial.
23:29
Speaker 1: So the home was like a Rosetta stone for his debravity.
23:32
Speaker 2: Exactly, a meticulously kept archive of his heinous acts that
23:36
ultimately became his undoing. It's actually quite rare for a
23:39
killer's compulsion to document their crimes to become the very
23:43
key that solves them.
23:44
Speaker 1: And among those crucial pieces of evidence, that infamous list
23:47
of ten became a central focus, not just a curiosity,
23:51
but a literal roadmap to his victims, offering these tantalizing
23:55
clues to decades old cold cases, right, and.
23:58
Speaker 2: Cold case detective Ken May worked very closely with that
24:01
death row inmate William Noghera, the one Nasa supposedly confessed to,
24:06
exactly the one who met Nasso at San Quentin. No
24:09
Gera claimed Nasso confessed to killing twenty six women total,
24:12
with the list of ten representing his favorites favorites.
24:16
Speaker 1: What a disturbing concept.
24:18
Speaker 2: Truly, and it raises that important question for us, doesn't it?
24:21
How much can you really trust information from a source
24:24
like that one convicted murderer talking about another.
24:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tricky territory.
24:28
Speaker 2: And yet in this case, how absolutely critical and instrumental
24:32
was that information in unraveling decades of crime? For investigators,
24:36
it's always a tightrope walk. You have to corroborate every detail,
24:40
but you can't just ignore a lead, no matter how
24:42
unsavory its origin.
24:44
Speaker 1: And no Gera's information, despite the source, was undeniably crucial
24:48
in breaking open some of these cases, right.
24:50
Speaker 2: It seems so. It directly helped identify Charlotte Cook as
24:54
the girl from Miami near Down Peninsula from the list
24:56
description exactly a victim explicitly on Naso's list, whose body
25:01
was found strangled at Thornton Beach way back in nineteen
25:04
seventy four.
25:05
Speaker 1: Wow, nineteen seventy four. That's an incredibly cold case nearly
25:09
forty years old, solved at least in part by this
25:13
unlikely source.
25:14
Speaker 2: The specificity of the geographical description in Naso's diary, combined
25:17
with Nogera's tip, allowed investigators to make that definitive match.
25:21
It's quite remarkable, and.
25:23
Speaker 1: The investigation also linked Naso to another murder, one initially
25:26
attributed to someone.
25:27
Speaker 2: Else, Yes, the murder of Pamela Lambson. Initially it was
25:30
thought she might have been a victim of another notorious
25:33
serial killer, Rodney.
25:34
Speaker 1: Al Kala, the dating game killer, that's him.
25:37
Speaker 2: But based on NASA's alleged confession to no Guerrera, investigators
25:41
were able to reevaluate and link Lamson's murder to Nasso instead.
25:45
This reattribution of a decade's old murder is highly unusual.
25:49
It really speaks to the power of new information, even
25:52
from a compromised source.
25:53
Speaker 1: If you connect that to the bigger picture, it just
25:56
shows the complex, sometimes serendipitous nature of cold case work, doesn't.
26:00
Speaker 2: It Absolutely where a seemingly minor detail or an unexpected
26:04
source can completely shift the understanding of a decade's old crime,
26:09
even reattributing it to a different killer.
26:11
Speaker 1: It's a testament to the persistent, painstaking work of cold
26:15
case detectives. They just relentlessly pursue any thread, however faint,
26:19
until justice is served, even if it means overcoming previous conclusions.
26:23
Speaker 2: M H.
26:24
Speaker 1: Now NASA's trial in twenty thirteen, that was something else entirely,
26:28
wasn't it, especially considering his age seventy nine at the time.
26:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was quite the spectacle.
26:32
Speaker 1: He chose to act as his own attorney, which often
26:35
seems like a disastrous move for defendants usually is, but
26:38
in his case it felt almost like a deliberate act
26:40
to exert control, even in the courtroom setting, and he
26:43
was reportedly refilling to himself in the third person.
26:46
Speaker 2: Yes, Naso did this. Masso did that, further distancing himself
26:49
from his actions, maybe portraying this profound sense of self
26:52
importance or detachment.
26:54
Speaker 1: And throughout the trial he displayed just this shocking lack
26:57
of remorse. Didn't he a cold detachment?
27:00
Speaker 2: Very much? So? It echoed again that infamous Hannibal lecter
27:04
character from Silence of the Lambs, known for his intellectual
27:08
arrogance and complete disregard for human suffering, his.
27:11
Speaker 1: Behavior barely he flipped off the jury at one point,
27:14
called the deputy da a whoror mmmmmm.
27:18
Speaker 2: It just underscored this profoundly narcissistic personality, a trait investigators
27:24
noted was so evident in his carefully curated collection of
27:27
trophies and photographs back at the house. Those weren't just
27:31
random items. They felt like extensions of his grandiose self perception,
27:35
his need for total control, even in a judicial setting
27:38
where he was literally fighting for his life.
27:41
Speaker 1: So representing himself was like a final, desperate act of control,
27:45
trying to dictate the narrative even as all the evidence
27:47
piled up against him.
27:48
Speaker 2: It certainly seems that way, a final performance perhaps.
27:50
Speaker 1: Okay, so the comparison to the Silence of the Lambs.
27:53
It resonated powerfully, didn't it, Not just with investigators trying
27:56
to articulate the horror right, but with the public media
28:00
outlets like Oxygen Vanity Fair. They drew on the film's
28:03
vivid imagery to convey the sheer terror in depravity of
28:07
Naso's crimes to a wider audience, solidifying that cultural.
28:10
Speaker 2: Parallel definitely, and the film itself, the Silence of the Lambs,
28:13
it had such a massive impact, won five Academy Awards,
28:17
grossed over two hundred and seventy million dollars worldwide. It
28:20
played a huge role in popularizing the image of the
28:24
serial killer as well, complex, intelligent, and deeply disturbed.
28:28
Speaker 1: Moving away from like the slasher villains, the claw handed
28:31
bogeyman of earlier horror.
28:32
Speaker 2: Films exactly, it grounded the terror in this chilling psychological
28:37
realism that the public hadn't really seen on that scale before.
28:40
It truly redefined the genre, presenting killers as disturbed individuals
28:44
driven by specific psychological pathologies, not just monsters or supernatural forces.
28:49
Speaker 1: And Naso's home, the mannequins, the thousands of photos, those
28:52
locked rooms. It chillingly fit this modern archetype, didn't it perfectly?
28:56
It blended the mundane reality of a suburban house with
28:59
the monster acts committed inside in a way that both
29:02
captivated and horrified audiences, blurring those lines between fiction and fact.
29:08
Speaker 2: It was like a tangible realization of the darkest fears.
29:11
Silence of the Lambs had brought to the screen psychologically.
29:14
Speaker 1: The parallels between Naso and Buffalo Bill seemed to highlight
29:17
this shared profound obsession with control and transformation.
29:21
Speaker 2: Mmmm Buffalo Bill's desire to literally become a woman through
29:26
that gruesome woman's suit that was famously inspired by real
29:30
life serial killers.
29:31
Speaker 1: Right like ed Gein Yeah and Gary Heidnick too Right.
29:34
Speaker 2: Heidnik also kept victims in confined spaces guin treated bodies
29:39
as grotesque trophies. This isn't just a fictional trope. It
29:42
has these very real, horrifying roots in the twisted psyches
29:46
of actual perpetrators. It reveals commonalities in extreme psychopathology. This
29:51
need for transformation often seems to stem from deep seated
29:55
identity issues, a desperate attempt to exert power over one's
29:58
own perceived deficiencies by completely subjugating others.
30:02
Speaker 1: And Naso's use of the mannequins those particulously staged photographs.
30:05
It suggested that strikingly similar need to possess and manipulate
30:09
his victims even long after their deaths. It wasn't enough
30:12
just to kill them, He needed to curate them, create
30:15
this perverse, frozen gallery of his crimes, forever under his.
30:18
Speaker 2: Dominions, solidifying his control, turning fleeting moments of violence into permanent,
30:24
replayable fantasies. It seems like it, and those.
30:26
Speaker 1: Boarded up windows, the locked rooms in his home, they
30:30
just further reinforced that idea of a private, impenetrable.
30:34
Speaker 2: World, a sanctuary for his darkest fantasies, where he.
30:37
Speaker 1: Could exercise absolute control over his captives, his macogue creations,
30:42
much like Buffalo Bill's isolated, terrifying basement.
30:45
Speaker 2: Exactly, it was a space designed for total domination, a
30:49
fortress of depravity that perfectly mirrored the psychological walls he
30:52
must have built around himself to live out these monstrous desires,
30:56
completely disconnected from conventional morality or basic human empathy.
31:00
Speaker 1: So Joseph Nasso's home in Black Springs, Nevada. It was
31:03
far more than just a residence. Will wow how much more?
31:06
It was a horrifying physical manifestation of his depravity, a
31:10
real life counterpart to the fictional horrors we've been discussing
31:13
from the Silence of the Lambs, a true chamber of horrors,
31:17
meticulously constructed, brought to life over decades.
31:20
Speaker 2: The mannequins hanging by panty hose, the thousands of photographs
31:24
of bound, seemingly lifeless women, the locked rooms, and that
31:28
chilling list of ten. It all paints this undeniable picture
31:33
of a killer whose methodical, ritualistic behavior truly rivaled that
31:37
of Buffalo Bill. The comparison wasn't an exaggeration. It felt
31:41
like a grimly accurate descriptor of the scene. It allowed
31:44
the public and maybe even the investigators themselves, to contextualize
31:47
something that was almost unimaginable.
31:50
Speaker 1: This deep dive really reveals how the line between reality
31:52
and night americn just blurs so completely, leaving this indelible
31:56
haunting mark on those who entered Naso's home and well
31:59
on public imagination too, forcing us to confront the darkest
32:03
aspects of human nature. It's a stark reminded that the
32:06
most terrifying stories often have their roots firmly planted in reality.
32:09
Speaker 2: And the legacy of Nasso's crimes, Much like the enduring
32:13
impact of the Silence of the Lambs lies in its
32:16
ability to confront us with those darkest depths of human depravity.
32:21
It forces us to acknowledge that monsters aren't just fictional constructs.
32:24
They can walk among us, hidden in plain sight. They're
32:27
seemingly ordinary lives concealing these unimaginable horrors.
32:32
Speaker 1: It's weird, isn't it. While Buffalo Bill's House has ironically
32:35
become this strange sort of tourist attraction.
32:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, the rental thing, it's bizarre.
32:39
Speaker 1: Complete with recreated pits and themed rooms for vacation rentals,
32:43
Naso's home remains this grim, haunting reminder of the real
32:47
world horrors that can actually inspire such fiction.
32:50
Speaker 2: Thanks, isn't it?
32:51
Speaker 1: How does fiction help us process these things? Or does
32:53
it sometimes obscure the truly terrifying realities that inspire it?
32:57
Does dramatization dilute the horror or maybe amplify it?
33:00
Speaker 2: That's a really interesting question. And as investigators continue to
33:04
unravel the full extent of Nasso's crimes, potentially linking him,
33:08
as Nogera claimed to as many as twenty six murders
33:11
across decades, this comparison to Silence of the Lamb serves
33:14
as this haunting, undeniable reminder that truth can indeed be
33:18
as terrifying, if not more so, than any fiction we
33:21
could ever possibly imagine.
33:22
Speaker 1: The search for the remaining names on his alleged list
33:24
of twenty six, if it exists, presumably continues a chilling
33:28
testament to the enduring impact of a monster finally unmasked.
33:31
Speaker 2: A deeply disturbing case, no question