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An unlikely duo set out to determine the true breadth of Joseph Naso’s crimes in ’s Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer: a former FBI investigator and cold case detective, and an inmate once on death row.
The pair worked in perfect tandem as investigator Ken Mains tried to identify more of California serial killer Naso’s potential victims using clues gleaned from William “Bill” Noguera, who spent time with Naso while both were on death row at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, near San Francisco.
Noguera spent hours talking with Naso in the prison yard about his heinous crimes, then returned to his cell and wrote down every detail that he could remember in the hopes of one day being able to help the families of other victims find out what happened to their loved ones.
But to make any real progress in the case, Noguera needed help from an investigator on the outside — and that’s where Mains came in.
Throughout Death Row Confidential, the unconventional partners worked together as they tried to identify one potential victim after another, in an effort to give families the closure they desperately need. But just where is Noguera today?
Why was William “Bill” Noguera on death row?
As a teenager, Noguera killed his girlfriend’s mother.
“I committed a terrible crime when I was 18 years old, no justification, no excuse, but I did it,” Noguera told Death Row Confidential producers. “There’s nothing I can do to change that, but I can change the future.”
What happened to Bill Noguera?
In a surprise twist in the final episode of Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer, viewers learned that Noguera was released on parole after spending 42 years behind bars, most of that time on death row.
The development was made possible after a judge ruled in 2022 that Noguera’s murder conviction had been partially based on false testimony, and changed his sentence from death to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Death Row Confidential captured the moment Noguera told Mains he had been granted a meeting in front of the California Department of Corrections parole board.
“I’m shaking because this is something I’ve never expected,” Noguera said in a video call from prison.
Noguera got the chance to plead his case to a parole board on June 18, 2025 and was unanimously granted parole. He was released from prison just weeks later on July 2, 2025 and returned to his hometown in Southern California to be near his sister.
After Noguera briefly took some time to unwind after his release from prison, he and Mains were committed to get back to work to try to identify more of Naso’s potential victims.
“Now that Bill is out of prison, there’s no barriers anymore,” Mains said on Death Row Confidential. “It’s you know, cold case cop and the convict, it’s crazy. That combination right there, I think, is gonna put a hurt in a lot of cold cases.”
