Rosenkrantz Case Stirs Evidence of Empathy ---- and Prejudice : Killer Says He Has Helped Other Gay Youths in Jail and Through Letters

In a jail cell interview, Robert M. Rosenkrantz said Saturday that he has been helping other youths grapple with the problems of homosexuality since his arrest last year for the slaying of a schoolmate.

Rosenkrantz, who was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Steven Redman, said he has received and answered hundreds of letters from troubled homosexual youths.

He said he came to terms with his homosexuality only after being jailed for killing Redman, who with Rosenkrantz’s brother, Joey, 17, spied on Robert in an attempt to prove he was a homosexual. The two youths later told Robert’s parents.

Rosenkrantz’s attorney, Richard S. Plotin, arranged the interview for four reporters at the Hall of Justice Jail on the condition that no questions be asked about the shooting or the murder trial. Gabe Kruks, coordinator of an outreach program for homosexual teen-agers, who has been counseling Rosenkrantz, was present during the interview.

“It’s easier to talk about now,” Rosenkrantz said of his homosexuality. “Since people know, I don’t have anything to lose, really, where I am now. I wouldn’t say that I feel good, but it’s acceptance. . . . It was a major worry for many years and now it’s gone.”

‘Goes Through Same Thing’

He said, “It seems like every gay kid I talk to goes through the same exact thing.”

Rosenkrantz said the letters have helped him fight loneliness and fear during the nearly 11 months he has been incarcerated.

One bailiff said Rosenkrantz gets more mail than any of the other 1,736 inmates in the Hall of Justice jail.

Some of the letters have been “groupie letters, like a rock singer would get from people who just identified so strongly with my case . . . really lonely people,” Rosenkrantz said.

But most have been cries for help from troubled teen-agers who are in positions similar to the one Rosenkrantz was once in, he said.

Rosenkrantz said he advises that the homosexual teen-agers call the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in Hollywood, which operates a program called Temenos. Temenos sponsors a youth talk line and provides free counseling and other services to homosexual youths.

Rosenkrantz said the center helped him accept his homosexuality. Kruks and another center counselor contacted him in jail, he said, after reading about his case.

“Without them, there’s no way I would be sitting here talking. I was not able to say ‘I’m gay’ until I was in custody,” said Rosenkrantz. The soft-spoken youth was dressed in a baby-blue uniform that distinguishes homosexual prisoners, who are housed separately, from the rest of the inmate population.

“At the time that we first contacted Rob, he was completely isolated from the gay community . . . and suicidal,” said Kruks. He said Rob was given what amounted to “a crash course in gay identity. He had a head full of myths and stereotypes. . . . It broke the isolation for him. It made him realize there were many people who were suffering what he had been suffering.”

The letters from teen-agers--and even sympathetic heterosexual adults and parents of homosexual children--began pouring in late last summer, Rosenkrantz said. Some had read about his case in newspapers. Others had heard about it at the Hollywood center.

Rosenkrantz said he tries to help homosexual youths “realize that what they’re going through is completely normal; all the self-hatred, worries and fears are completely normal. There are probably kids on the next block going through the same thing.” He said he advises them to “talk to somebody.”

Shared One Letter

Rosenkrantz displayed a letter from one San Fernando Valley youth who later sought help from the gay and lesbian center.

“It was probably the first time in my life that I ever talked to another gay person,” the youth wrote. “Afterward, I felt very relieved and very good.”

Rosenkrantz said he has also tried to help homosexual youths he meets in the jail’s homosexual ward. Many have been arrested on prostitution or drug-related offenses, he said.

Rosenkrantz displayed a jubilant note from a runaway homosexual youth from Florida whom he met in jail. He said he advised the jailed youth to call his parents.

“His parents were so thrilled to hear from him, they didn’t care he was gay,” Rosenkrantz said. They sent him a ticket home and bought him a sports car.

But, he added, “I don’t recommend that kids come out necessarily unless they are secure and have friends to support them.”

Rosenkrantz said he has received no letters from Calabasas High School students, gay or otherwise.

Tells Prison Preference

Rosenkrantz, who is to be sentenced July 7, said he hopes to serve his term in the California Men’s Colony, the heavy- to medium-security prison just west of San Luis Obispo. He faces the possibility of a sentence of 17 years to life.

“I can get a job, have a radio and television, and you can wear your regular clothing,” he said. “You can buy food and have food sent in.”

He said he intends to take college correspondence courses while in prison and still hopes to become a lawyer.

Rosenkrantz said he received so much mail, “I was never able to keep up totally.” But to his surprise, he added, “I have not received any negative mail. Not one single piece.”