| The Alphabet Killer | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Unknown identity |
| Also known as | The Double Initial Killer |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 3 |
| Span of killings | November 16, 1971–November 26, 1973 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Rochester, New York |
| Date apprehended | Unapprehended |
The so-called "Alphabet murders" (also known as the "double initial murders") took place in the early 1970s in the Rochester, New York area; three young girls were raped and strangled. The case got its name from the fact that each of the three girls' first and last names started with the same letters (Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Maenza) and that each body was found in a town that had a name starting with the same letter as the girl's name (Colon in Churchville, Walkowicz in Webster and Maenza in Macedon).
While hundreds of people were questioned, the killer was never caught. One man, considered to be a "person of interest" in the case (he committed suicide six weeks after the last of the murders), was cleared in 2007 by DNA testing.[2] In the case of Carmen Colon, her uncle was also considered a suspect until his suicide in 1991.[3]
Another suspect was Kenneth Bianchi, who at the time was an ice-cream vendor in Rochester, vending from sites close to the first two murder scenes. He was a Rochester native who later moved to Los Angeles, and with his cousin Angelo Buono committed the Hillside Strangler murders between 1977 and 1978.[4] Bianchi was never charged with the alphabet murders, and he has repeatedly tried to have investigators officially clear him from suspicion; however, there is circumstantial evidence that his car was seen at two murder scenes. Bianchi has denied committing the murders, and has also attempted to get his name removed from the police investigators' lists in Rochester. He remains under suspicion.
In 2001, the Discovery Channel aired a program revisiting the murders.[5] A 2008 film called The Alphabet Killer was very loosely based on the murders.[6] In 2010, a book called Alphabet Killer: The True Story of the Double Initial Murders was released by author Cheri Farnsworth, detailing the actual events, from the time they occurred through to the present. [7][8] On April 1, 2011, the AMC network aired a short-form documentary regarding the murders titled Countdown to The Killing: The Alphabet Murders.[9]
On April 11, 2011, 77-year-old Joseph Naso, a New York native who lived in Rochester in the 1970s, was arrested in Reno, Nevada, for four murders in California dating back to 1977. His alleged victims were named Roxene Roggash, Pamela Parsons, Tracy Tofoya, and Carmen Colon (not the one listed in Rochester, but another person of the same name). All four women are described by authorities as prostitutes.[10][11] Naso is being looked at as a "person of interest" in the Alphabet Murders in New York. Naso was a professional photographer who traveled between New York and California extensively for decades. [12] [13] [14][10][11]