A death row inmate helps solve cold cases
In 2022, cold case detective and former FBI investigator Ken Mains received a letter from Bill Noguera, an inmate on death row at San Quentin prison. Noguera claimed to have information about a serial killer also housed there, Joseph Naso. Naso had been arrested in 2010 following a routine probation check, when police found photos and other evidence of several murders in his home. Among these was a list of ten unnamed women at specific locations.
Naso was tried and convicted for the murders of four women in 2013, and was sentenced to death. Others on the list remained unsolved. During his time on death row at San Quentin, he began to talk to Noguera about his crimes and confessed to over 20 murders.
Oxygen’s new multi-part series Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer follows Mains as he works with Noguera (who took copious notes about Naso’s confessions), along with detectives from the locations where Noguera claims Naso killed his victims, to solve these cold cases.
Cameras follow Mains as he attempts to connect the names on the list to information in Noguera’s notes. The documentary also provides a perspective not often seen in true crime: that of an inmate helping to solve several murders. It includes Noguera’s calls from death row and interviews with victims’ family members, who share their difficult experiences not knowing what happened to their loved ones.
Why did Noguera want to help solve these cases? Did the confessions lead to any convictions? Watch Death Row Confidential to find out. The series premieres on Oxygen on September 13 at 9 pm and will be available for streaming on Peacock at a later date.
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