Chain-Saw Case : Murder Victim Called a Troubled, Naive Youth

The 18-year-old youth murdered and then dismembered with a chain saw, allegedly by Fresno professor Max Bernard Franc, was described by his mother in Kansas City, Mo., as “a sentimental kid” who had a troubled childhood.

Judy Nute said her son, Tracy Leroy Nute, had problems with the law, “but nothing that any rowdy teen-ager wouldn’t have gotten into.” She said he had spent much of his time in juvenile homes when she became unable to handle him and that gave him the itch to travel.

Tracy Nute came to Southern California last spring, anxious to become an actor. Police said he apparently became a male prostitute instead.

His head and torso were found in rural Madera County last week. He had been shot in the head. His severed arms and legs were discovered in Valencia.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling Norris told reporters Wednesday that the motive for the crime was believed to be “homosexual rage (and) robbery.”

Franc, 57, a well-regarded political science professor at California State University, Fresno, maintained a small apartment in West Hollywood. He has been on a sabbatical.

On Wednesday, he was charged with murder with special circumstances because some of the young man’s belongings were allegedly stolen. He has denied killing Nute and will be arraigned next Wednesday in Municipal Court.

Franc has contended that it was another man who returned to a Hollywood equipment yard the bloody chain saw Franc had rented for $41 a day.

Norris said Thursday that police still have found no indication that any other man was involved.

In Kansas City, the victim’s mother said she had no idea what he had been involved in here, recalling that he called her “a couple of days before this happened” and that he had assured her he was fine and “living in Palm Springs.” She described her son as “naive.”

A counselor at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Los Angeles, where the youth had gone for help several times, agreed with the mother’s assessment and also called Nute “gullible.”