SF Chronicle: Champion of nudity found dead in jail cell

[EFerrari]

Champion of nudity found dead in jail cell
'Naked Guy' won fame in Berkeley, challenged values


Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, May 21, 2006

The Naked Guy, whose au naturel jaunts through Berkeley spurred a nudity revolt in the early 1990s and earned him national fame, died in a San Jose jail cell, apparently of suicide.

While many chuckled at the exploits of Andrew Martinez, friends and family of the 33-year-old talked Saturday about a troubled man who struggled for years with mental illness.

"He was a person with tremendous gifts and charisma who could have been a great asset to our society, but instead I feel like society -- me included -- failed him," said Martinez's best friend, Bryan Schwartz, a civil rights lawyer in Washington, D.C. "It's such a waste."

After his days as the Naked Guy, Martinez spent the next decade bouncing among halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness and jail, but never getting comprehensive treatment, his family said. His life ended in an apparent suicide Thursday morning.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/21/NAKEDGUY.TMP

[ThomCat]

1. That's horrible. Mental Health services in this country

absolutely suck, and people who need them often end up outcasts because nobody knows how to help them.

I think we've lost someone who could have been important to progressive causes.

[EFerrari]

2. This story is common as corn. Jail, death, homelessness.

Whether you have a family or not.

[Blue_Tires]

3. very sad

i wonder whatever happened to him

[Jed Dilligan]

14. Same things that made him special destroyed him.

The price of non-conformity is death.

I wonder if like so many jailhouse "suicides" he beat himself to death...

[pezdespencer]

4. most prisons are full of mentally ill

but they get treated like regular prisoners and this is the result

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Unfortunately, so is the USA Administration

.
.
.

But they got MONEY

So they get to exploit the taxpayers,

And wage their illegal wars and genocide with impunity

It won't last,

But millions will die before they are done . .

(sigh)

[xchrom]

5. so sad.

i'm from the east bay -- and he was a wonderful part of the life here.

he will be missed.

[Ratty]

10. I was just thinking about him

What a bizarre coincidence. I hadn't really thought about him for years and then yesterday, there I was, remembering the Naked Guy. Picturing him sitting in some office in downtown Manhattan. Naked. I used to see him around campus, it was always cause for a bit of excitement: "OMG, I just saw the Naked Guy! And he was NAKED!!" He always said clothes were the great deceiver (or words to that effect) and when you deal with someone who's naked you're closer to dealing with the real person. Aside from the whole naked thing, he certainly didn't seem mentally ill to me. He was cogent, calm and articulate in my experience, limited though it was. What motivates somebody to take their personal convictions to such an extreme? I dunno, maybe that IS a sign of mental illness.

Although I admired him I think, a certain friend always mentioned how disgusting it would be to sit in the same chair in class right after him. I did have to give her that one.

[EFerrari]

18. People in the early years at college are still in the at risk

window for schizophrenia. When/ if they come down with it, being away from home makes it harder for them to be diagnosed because their families don't see it and no one around them knows what to expect from them.

That being said, it's not clear if Naked Guy's nudity had anything to do with it. He was a very sweet guy.

[EFerrari]

17. I went to Cal at the same time he did. What a terrible waste. n/t

[coffeenap]

7. Oh damn. This didn't need to happen.

:cry:

[WinkyDink]

8. This made the news? Is he some Missing White Girl, so often mocked herein?

[QC]

9. But this guy's from California!

That makes him more important than other people!

[Raine]

15. Not more important

just more interesting. :evilgrin:

[Ratty]

11. Well the source was a Bay Area newspaper

The Chronicle. Perhaps you object to it being posted in LBN. Only serious, sourced journalism in LBN, right?

[slackmaster]

13. He was very well known in Berkeley - I saw him once

I'd wager that millions of people either saw him personally or knew of him during his life.

I wonder whatever became of Orange Man.

[EFerrari]

19. Hey, Winky. four in 10 of the people you know are dealing

with serious mental illness in their families. Of those guys, 7 in 10 will have police contact.

Andrew's story is the template for what happens to too many of those folks. :(

[Raine]

12. This is sad

I remember him from back then, I hadn't thought of him for years. The guy seemed very intelligent, it's a shame it ended this way. :-(

[Toucano]

16. R.I.P. Andrew. n/t