How Berkeley's 'Naked Guy' met a tragic end On the East Bay

Andrew Martinez "The Naked Guy" appears at a hearing on Cal Campus to see if he will be expelled on 12/1/92. Deanne Fitzmaurice/The Chronicle Ran on: 08-22-2006 Luis Andrew Martinez became known as the &quo;Naked Guy&quo; for attending Cal classes in the buff. Ran on: 08-22-2006 less Andrew Martinez "The Naked Guy" appears at a hearing on Cal Campus to see if he will be expelled on 12/1/92. Deanne Fitzmaurice/The Chronicle Ran on: 08-22-2006 Luis Andrew Martinez became known as the ... more Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close How Berkeley's 'Naked Guy' met a tragic end 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

As an education reporter working from a basement office in Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in the fall of 1992, I remember when "Naked Guy" began showing up for class wearing nothing but a G-string covering his private parts.

Tall, lean, muscular and low-key, Luis Andrew Martinez, 20, became an overnight media sensation.

The press aptly dubbed him Naked Guy and converged on campus to devour another only-in-Berkeley story.

While the moniker that made Martinez famous is probably unavoidable, he may also be remembered as the man who forced law enforcement officials in Santa Clara County to address serious suicide attempts in a serious manner.

There was nothing to suggest that trouble that would befall the handsome, well-spoken young man, and for about two months, he was a hot topic of conversation in Berkeley and well beyond.

In published interviews, Martinez said his decision to go nude was an attempt to illustrate that people have the right to "define normalcy in their own terms."

"The Naked Guy thing didn't bother me because I knew there was a lot of thought behind it and he meant well," said his mother, Esther Krenn, said Monday.

What bothered her, she said, was his expulsion from Cal. "I didn't agree that it was a cause worth being expelled from school."

Fourteen years later, in May 2006 - a lifetime after the limelight faded - Martinez, a diagnosed schizophrenic, committed suicide while in the Santa Clara County Jail awaiting trial.

Monday, Krenn won a $1 million settlement that includes mandated policy changes in Santa Clara County requiring family notification in the event of a suicide attempt. Her son had attempted suicide two weeks before he died.

As a Berkeley student, Martinez's decision to go nude was viewed as controversial, unconventional perhaps, but not "crazy" by local norms. There were no nagging questions about whether Martinez's actions were a sign of something more troubling than an individual lifestyle choice - the story was just too good.

At one point during the Naked Guy craze, a nude local theater troupe dubbed the X-Plicit Players held a nude, non-sexual touching exhibition at the entrance to Sproul Plaza in support of Martinez. When they invited the crowd to join, one local homeless denizen started to disrobe until students watching the bizarre scene launched a counter-demonstration for the man to keep his clothes on. A couple of members of the nude theater troupe were arrested a few minutes later, after a Berkeley police officer saw what he deemed to be illegal sexual contact.

For Martinez, the following two months were a flurry of media interviews, talk-show appearances, a photo spread in Playgirl magazine and a host of commercial offers, including a backpacking commercial. For Krenn, her son's 15 minutes in the national spotlight - albeit in the raw - were part of his college experience and little else.

After he left school, Martinez remained in Berkeley for the next five years, spending his time writing, studying judo and occasionally appearing at speaking engagements in the area. It was around that time there was a palpable change in Martinez, his mother said.

"There was something wrong. Even though other people didn't know, we knew," she said. "I told him it was time to come home, let things get back to normal."

But even as Martinez reunited with his loved ones, played tennis with his mom and went on camping trips with his family, his emotional state began to decline, slowly at first. "Ninety percent of the time, he was normal, but things got worse as the year wore on," Krenn said. By Christmas, Martinez was not himself. "He told me something was wrong - and he began to cry - and we both cried," said Krenn.

Martinez spent the next 10 years in and out of state mental facilities, until he was arrested for an assault in a halfway house. He spent the next 29 months in the county jail, where family members said his medications were not monitored and his mental illness was not adequately addressed or treated.

During his long illness, Martinez continued writing, and entrusted his mother with a manuscript filled with his thoughts on social justice - his reflections on personal choice and freedoms.

"As I read all the different articles that were written about him, I think people understood he was a cause-oriented person," Krenn said. "When he was in jail, he told me he thought it would be sad if all he was ever known for was being the Naked Guy."

Settlement: Santa Clara County will pay $1 million to settle a wrongful-death suit over the jailhouse suicide of the "Naked Guy." B4