Biography
Early Years
William A. Noguera was born in Los Angeles, California to immigrant Colombian parents. His education in the martial arts, visual arts, and behavioral sciences. Began at the age of 3, under his father’s stern and watchful eye. A hunter, martial artist, visual artist and machinist, who would become William’s first subject and behavioral model into the world of reading human habits, tendencies, and psychological make up, as a means to anticipate violence.
In 1972 at age 8, William won his first of many martial arts titles, and although his home life, when looked at from the outside, depicted a normal childhood. Nothing could be further from the truth. Often bullied, beat up, and the subject of racial discrimination by the other minorities. The worst abuse came from within his home where his mother and father waged a war against each other. Often abusing him and his sister both emotionally and physically.
During these developmental years, William honed his observational skills to read and avoid conflict with predatory gangs in his neighborhood, and began to outline a system to read human behavioral cues and habits.
Teen Years
1979 – Under the guidance of his father whom he both feared and worshipped. William at age 16 won the Hapkido Middle Weight and overall championship. Becoming the youngest to do so. But within weeks, his parents would divorce, and William rebelled. Without his fathers constant presence and ability to control him. He entered the underground fighting world, which would later become today’s MMA. He went undefeated but the use of anabolic steroids were becoming obvious. Often moody, with a hair-trigger temper. He experienced memory blackouts he referred to as “The red zone” because his vision would turn red and he had no memory of his actions.
By age 17, William was on a path that led him into the criminal underworld of high-end car theft where his observational skills to pinpoint habits, routines, and anticipate the behavior of those he studied gave him an extremely high success rate, and the attention of organized crime figures.
Arrest & Conviction
1983 – During an argument that turned deadly. William was arrested, tried and convicted of murder, then sentenced to death, and sent to San Quentin Prison where he was thrown into a rat infested cell. It was in that dark cell that he accepted responsibility for actions in the past, present and future. Placing him directly on a new path to rehabilitation by understanding his failures and fearless self-reflection that placed the power of redemption within his grasp.
Earning a Bachelors Degree in criminal justice, and expressing his visionary imagination. William was noticed by the art world where he would go on to become an internationally recognized visual artist. Exhibiting In Paris, New York, San Francisco, and at Elder Gallery Of Contemporary Art. He has been the subject of over 40 articles in publications such as Forbes, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Guardian.
Recognizing his potential to help. William selflessly gave to others in need through charitable organizations, and soon realized he could do more through education. Forming the first Youth Offender “Rehabilitation Through Education Group” on death row. William held lectures on the yard that taught accepting responsibility, self reflection, atonement, and owning your failures, which resonate in every walk of life. From the streets to the boardroom. Soon he would expand his lectures to MBA programs where he shared his eye-opening, thought-provoking narrative on ethics, professional conduct, prison life, the ramifications of destructive behavior, and the rewards of constructive rehabilitation.
Mindhunter
In 2013 the warden of San Quentin hires William to be the first Inmate Disabilities Assistant Worker on death row (IDAP). His assignment?
To provide care for the elderly prisoners on death row with disabilities on a special yard with an extremely high number of serial killer’s. It is on this yard, surrounded by some of the worst killers in history that William’s background, observational skills and ability to read criminals serve a higher purpose. Over the next decade, he forms relationships with serial killer’s with one end in mind. To learn everything he can about them, their subculture, habits, behavioral traits, reasoning, and their crimes in order to educate the public, and possibly bring closure to a victims family by solving a cold case
Author
In 2017 a Federal Court throws out William’s conviction and sentence. Calling it a “travesty of justice”, and orders him to be retried or release in 120 days. Unfortunately those 120 days have now eclipsed 5 years and he remains in a cell at San Quentin prison. Never straying from what he believes in about rehabilitation, education, and transformation no matter the circumstances.
In 2018 he released his memoir Escape Artist, and has finished 4 other books. The first which will be released in 2023, a true-crime portrait of one of the most depraved and vicious serial killers in history, and William uses his expertise on human behavior and serial killers to solve a number of cold case murders.
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