If you haven’t checked out Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer, you need to spend this morning (or afternoon) catching up on the first two episodes. Oxygen Tru Crime’s four-part docuseries, which is told over two weeks, brings us the story of how Ken Mains and Bill Noguera worked together to get more answers for victims’ families.
Caution: There are some details of real cases and events that could be triggering to some.
Noguera was on Death Row at the time, facing consequences of a crime he committed at the age of 18. He still doesn’t make excuses for his actions, holding himself accountable and focusing on doing what he can to make the world a little better. That means helping to solve cold cases, and one was to find more victims of Joe Naso, a man who was in his cell on Death Row for a number of years.
In fact, Noguera had 10 years of confessions from Naso, which he shared with cold case detective Ken Mains. The rest seems like history, but what was it really like for Noguera?
Precinct TV: I find your own story fascinating and important to hear, because you’ve always held yourself accountable for your actions. Why was that important to you?
Bill Noguera: That’s the part of taking responsibility when a person commits a crime. I believe, wholeheartedly, that person should take accountability, and that’s part of my growth. I was a very young boy when this happened. I was 18 years old, and I don’t think I understood the consequences of those actions.
When I started to understand those, which took time, I first and foremost had to rehabilitate myself, or at least, change my perspective, my core values. I had to accept responsibility for my actions and the consequences that came. It’s those consequences that lead us to what I’m doing today, because you can’t pay a debt for taking a life, and that’s exactly what I did. So, for the rest of my life, I will live my life trying to make it better for someone else. In this case, it’s victims’ families.
PTV: I was going to ask why you make an effort to expose other people.
BN: That’s just part of the consequence. I want to help victims’ families, and if I have to expose a serial killer who has no redemptive qualities to give those families what they’ve thought, I’ll give them what they’re looking for. I have been around more serial killers than anybody ever has on Earth, and I understand their brains. I understand that serial killers have no remorse. They have no redemptive qualities, and I’m not really worried about it. I couldn’t care less if they don’t like it.
I went into this with the intention to expose them and to help victims’ families. That’s been my motivation from the very beginning. This was about learning about this particular type of killer, not just Joe Naso himself, but all serial killers in general. That’s what I’ve been doing for 30+ years, learning and understanding them. The ultimate goal is giving a family’s finalization and solving these cold cases.
PTV: Let’s talk about Joe Naso, who is the focus of Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer. At what point did you realize that he was telling you the truth? He stayed silent for so long.
BN: I put him in a very different position. He’d isolated himself for 19 years because of his attitude. I made him dependent on me for protection. He depended on me to get things, and he depended on me to give him affirmation for his art form. When he began to talk to me, the one thing that I did that no one really had the time for was to ask the same question six months later, two years later.
When I began to ask the same questions over a period of four to five years, and the answers were consistent, I knew he was telling the truth. I can read people like no one else can, and I knew what he wanted. He was looking for a kindred spirit, someone that’s like-minded, and I put on that mask for him in order to talk.
PTV: Did you choose Ken, or did your lawyer suggest him? If you chose him, why?
BN: I had heard of Ken’s work in cold cases. I had gone to several investigators, and they required a large sum of money. Some of them wanted $10,000 up front, and I couldn’t afford that. When I couldn’t find anybody, I started looking deeper, and I found Ken Mains. I sent him an email, and he immediately responded.
You could tell that he was interested in what I was interested in, the victims’ families. He told me he would take this on pro bono, and from there, it was just basically the easiest thing to get into. He was very focused on the victims’ families. We just really hit it off well, and the results were undeniable.
PTV: I spoke with Ken, and he said his first question about you was what your angle was. He said there wasn’t one.
BN: Well, I did have an angle, and it was the families. Some people say, “You’re looking for redemption.” I’m not, because that’s a selfish act. If I’m looking for redemption, that means I’m doing this for me. If someone says, “That’s a pretty good guy. He’s doing the right thing,” then I appreciate it, but the only angle is how to bring the information that these families have needed for so long.
I read an article years ago about a child that disappeared, and the mother was in tears just wanting to know what happened to her child. I can’t tell you why that just grabbed my soul, but that has been the guiding light for me since I started this.
PTV: Was there ever any fear that your 10 years of notes wouldn’t be taken seriously by Ken?
BN: Oh yeah! I think he was apprehensive at first. It took him 48 hours and the girl from Berkeley. We were both apprehensive. We didn’t know each other. I didn’t know ifhe was going to be legitimate with me, or if he was going to run to law enforcement and tell them what I knew, because that could put me in danger. I was in danger from the very beginning.
But as soon as he investigated, within 48 hours, he reached back out to me and said, “I have the girls’ name. I know it,” and he had two questions for me about the name of the restaurants and about the Berkeley Bard. He knew and I knew that he was the right guy. We knew that both of us were on this for the right reasons, and ever since then, whenever I said something, Ken goes after it because he knows where I’m coming from. We’re partners in this.
PTV: You said you were in danger from the beginning. What steps did you take to protect yourself?
BN: I had to return to the normal yard on the weekend, so I was in danger. When I walked into those yards, the measures I took were basically grounded in my reputation. I was already respected as a person you shouldn’t mess with. I had defended myself from some attacks before on such a brutal level that everybody just said to stay away from me.
One of the gang members asked me what I was doing in that yard, and I told him the truth. He helped to back me up, as he had a daughter who had been raped, but that all changed six months before I left. The politics began, and several guys began to push the issue to kill me. They said, “He didn’t kill a serial killer. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do.”
It happened about three days before I was transferred. I said I didn’t want to gout that day. That was the first time in 40 years I hadn’t gone outside. The following day, I didn’t go out either. I knew I was within three days of going to a different location. I wouldn’t be on Death Row.
That final day, one of the gang members I’d basically grown up with, smiled and said, “Don’t take it personal. It’s all business.” So, I got up and walked over to the bars he was on the other side of and said, “Then you won’t take it personal if I take off your head if you tried.” I knew at that point forward, there was a target on my chest everywhere. There was a hit for me, and that’s okay. I can live with that. That’s something that I knew from the beginning that at some point I would cross the bridge.
PTV: You’re no longer on Death Row. It’s so rare for that to happen, so what’s it like getting your life back, and what was the process for that to happen?
BN: It’s liberating. There’s a huge weight off my back, because when people want to kill you, it’s very stressful. Going to Corcoran State Prison, which was one of the most dangerous prisons in California, I had to have my eyes open and antenna up. Lucky for me, I got into a program there, and a judge subsequently ruled in my favor that the special circumstances of my case were untrue. I hadn’t done this for money.
He ruled I was a child. The girl that I was with, we were going to have our first child, and that child was unborn. They forced her into an abortion, and that’s the reason I lost my temper. He ruled that to be true, and he immediately gave me eligibility for parole. At the parole board hearing, they saw me fit the first time up, which is unheard of; actually, the first time every in history that it’s happened.
I was concerned, very nervous. In 2017, if you recall, a federal court ordered that I be released or retried, and that was taken away from me. So I was very apprehensive. I was very nervous. Those last five months in prison were probably the hardest time I’d ever done. I was going to get out or not, and I really wanted to come home. I wanted to see my mother before she passed away. My father passed in 2022, and I just felt that let everybody down.
PTV: So, now that you are out, what are you doing to continue this fight for victims’ families?
BN: Everything I can. Ken and I are continuing our investigations. We’re working on several cold cases. I’m going to continue bringing answers to victims’ families about what happened to their children. That’s never going to stop.
I have a podcast called Death Row Diaries, and I’m also putting up a new podcast called Dead Body Society. My Instagram and YouTube are both Dead Body Society, and my website is WilliamNoguera.com. There’s a free newsletter on there.
Of course, I have the book that all this is based on, Through the Lens of a Monster. I highly recommend it, and not just because it’s written by me. There is nothing like this book, because it gives the insight in how not to be the victims of serial killers. It really gives you a lot of insight of how these people think, and how they ultimately grab you.
PTV: I think that’s one of the reasons true crime remains so important, teaching you what not to do.
BN: Yeah, I always say at the end of my shows, “Be safe, and be aware of your surroundings. Your life can depend on it.” Pay attention to your instincts. I can’t teach a woman how to defend herself from a predator who’s a man that outweighs her by 60-100lbs. The best defense you have is that radar that everybody mistakes. If you feel something, pay attention. Look at your surroundings and make an assessment based on logic rather than thinking you’re a tough person and it’ll never happen, because that’s exactly what the predator wants.
The second part of Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer will air tonight, Saturday, Sept. 20 on Oxygen True Crime.
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