When cold case detective Ken Mains got information from a Death Row inmate that could help solve a number of cold cases, he was understandably apprehensive at first. Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer looks into how Mains worked with now-released Bill Noguera to get more answers for victims’ families when it came to the actions of Joe Naso.
Caution: This interview includes details of some real murders that may be triggering for some.
Naso had been found guilty of some murders, but not all of them. Yet, when it came to questions, he always said that he was innocent. It didn’t matter that he was on Death Row—he refused to give any answers about the women he killed. It was only when Noguera befriended him in prison that he spilled the beans.
From there, Noguera was able to risk his life to get the details and pass on that information to someone who could help follow the clues and get answers. Ken Mains was that man, and we chatted with Mains about the process of getting the initial letter and working through 10 years of notes.
Precinct TV: You’ve had a huge career in law enforcement, but what was it about cold cases that made you get into that line of work after you retired?
Ken Mains: That’s a good question. I would say that mysteries in general have always intrigued me, even as a child growing up watching Unsolved Mysteries. It just translated right becoming a police officer and a detective working on cold cases and then retiring. It’s all I’ve ever strived to do, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Quite honestly, it’s the only thing I’ve ever really been good at, so that’s why I continue to do it.
PTV: What’s it like working with the victims’ families? It’s not always possible to get all the answers, but often, it’s the closure they’ve needed.
KM: It’s very emotional. It’s always emotional when you deal with the family members, and you’re bringing up trauma they’ve suppressed for, in this case, 50 years.
You get a lot of confusion with them. At first they run the gamut of emotion: sadness, release, happiness, anger. It’s my job to just stay there and let it all bounce off me and take from the victims’ families whatever they want to give, because they’ve been through enough. If I can help them, that’s what I’ll do. It’s never easy, but I feel that it’s my responsibility to do so. They deserve to know.
PTV: Let’s look into this case specifically with Bill coming to you with the information that he had. What was it like for you to find out maybe there was someone on the inside who could help?
KM: I was very trepidatious. That would be a good word. I was very standoffish. I’ve dealt with prisoners my entire career, and there’s usually an angle they want to play. It could be extra commissary, extra free time, or get out early. Whatever it is, I expected that from Bill, but I never got that from Bill. What I got was somebody who was generally trying to make amends for his actions. He came off very credible to me.
I vetted him, and there was nobody I found that spoke ill of him, and that was very surprising to me. HE was respected even by the prison guards in San Quentin.
PTV: I was going to ask if there was a vetting process, because you wouldn’t have known him from Adam in the prison.
KM: Yes, that was my very first step, to vet Bill himself. Who he was, what he was in prison for. He killed his girlfriend’s mom that I found out, but the guards there had behavioral records. That was the first thing I checked, and that checked out clean. The second thing I had to do was vet the information. The guy could be clean, but the information could be dirty. It might not be truthful.
PTV: Right.
KM: He provided information straight out of Naso’s mouth. The murder of a girl from Berkeley. There were very specific details in there, such as the girl answered a modeling ad, she met him at a restaurant that had a unique name to it, she rode a bike and changed her bike up. These were all observations that Naso made, and because of those small details, I was able to match them up with Lynn Ruth Connes, and everything aligned. The information was solid, credible.
PTV: There were 10 years of notes to work through from Bill. What was that process like to piece together the information?
KM: It was a very tedious process. The whole process took about three years of investigating.
PTV: Wow!
KM: I enjoyed it. It wasn’t something that somebody forced me to do. It’s just that I love to do it. I sat down every day, every night, and just pulled information from notes and put a couple of pieces together. People get overwhelmed or overstimulated by a lot of information, but you just got to deduce possibilities, probabilities, and the suspect and victims just pop out.
PTV: There’s always the fear that investigators will try to force the pieces to fit a certain agenda, but I know you didn’t do that. So, how did you go about to ensure the puzzle pieces fit?
KM: There had to be a multitude of puzzle pieces that went together. It couldn’t just be one thing. When I was investigating Charlotte Cook’s murder, little things kept coming together. She had double initials, she was found strangled with an article of her own clothing and that suited Naso, she had an expensive jacket that fit Naso. There were just little things that kept adding up, but I wasn’t ready to say for sure until I found Miami Court located next to MacArthur where Naso had a shop.
A paper article said she was visiting her sister. That was the only piece of information Naso would give. When the total evidence fit, then I was willing to say I was confident. Only then would I go to the victim’s family. I wouldn’t put the victim’s family through that trauma unless I was really sure, and in three of these cases, I was extremely confident.
PTV: Was there ever a point in the middle of the night that you suddenly got a moment of clarity about something?
KM: Not in the middle of the night, but it does come to me in stages. Usually, what happens in the middle of the night is that I can’t sleep because I’m continually trying to make those puzzle pieces fit. I think that’s what makes a good detective. There are a lot of other good detectives out there like me who can’t turn it off. You’re making dinner, you’re shopping, you’re continually thinking about the case.
PTV: I want to finish up by asking you about Bill, as he would have been terrified of repercussions if someone found out what he was doing. Was there anything you could do to protect him?
KM: Not much, to be honest with you. I do recall that when every conversation I had with Bill ended, I would end it by saying “stay safe.” It was a constant worry for me if something happened to him. How would I feel? How would that affect me going forward?
I knew Bill wanted to take the risk. He was respected by the other inmates. I do believe some people knew what he was doing in there, and those people, they didn’t really care. They didn’t like Joe Naso because he was just a pain in everybody’s butt. They liked Bill, and they let him do his thing.
NOTE: We’ll have an interview with Bill Noguera coming up to go more into this.
Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer airs it’s second and final part on Saturday, Sept. 20 on Oxygen True Crime.
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