USA - California. Judge Andrew Sweet sentenced Joseph Naso, 79, White, to death

Marin County Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet sentenced Joseph Naso, 79, White, to death following the Sept. 17 (see) jury’s recommendation. Naso was convicted on Aug. 20 of killing 4 women with double initials in their names between 1977 and 1994. Naso was arrested in Reno in 2010 after probation officers searched his home in connection with an unrelated gun conviction. Naso was charged with killing 4 prostitutes whose names have double 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. The so-called "Alphabet murders" got its name from the fact that each of the girls' first and last names started with the same letter and that each body was found in a town that had a name starting with the same letter as each girl's name. Naso is also considered a "person of interest" in 3 “Alphabet Murders” that occurred in New York. The New York victims were young girls, who were also raped: Carmen Colon, 10, (1971, not the California victim of the same name); Wanda Walkowicz, 11 (1973); and Michelle Maenza, 11 (1973). Naso was also suspect in several other unsolved murders.