Posted on 05/19/2006 10:09:52 PM PDT by SmithL
Andrew Martinez, the South Bay man who gained national notoriety as the ``Naked Guy'' when he insisted on walking around nude in Berkeley in the early 1990s, has died, the apparent victim of suicide.
Martinez, 33, died early Thursday after he was discovered unconscious in his cell at the Santa Clara County main jail.
He was found lying under the covers on his cell bunk, with a plastic bag tied around his head, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Valley Medical Center.
Martinez, who had been in custody since Jan. 10, was last seen alive at 11 p.m. Wednesday by an officer making regular checks on inmates, Cursi said. The officer was called back to Martinez's cell at 11:19 p.m. when other prisoners reported hearing unusual sounds.
``He was in a maximum security area, where checks are made hourly,'' Cursi said. ``He was a high level security inmate because he had a history of assaultive behavior.''
Martinez, who was in the cell by himself, had been charged with two counts of battery and one count of assault with a deadly weapon, all felonies.
When he garnered headlines in 1992 and 1993, he was known as a gentle 6-foot-4 man who liked to attend class at the University of California at Berkeley in the buff.
Martinez grew up in Cupertino, where as a junior high school student, he refused to wear Nikes, Reeboks or designer clothes like other classmates, according to a relative in a 1992 interview.
He took his first nude walk about two years earlier along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. In the fall of 1992, he organized a ``Nude-In'' on UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza against repressive clothing. It landed him appearances on a number of television talk and news shows. He was nude on most of the shows; on the ``Montel Williams,'' he wore a bikini brief.
It was when Martinez lengthened his strolls in the nude to the streets of Berkeley that the city famous as a haven for free expression adopted its first anti public nudity ordinance. And Martinez was the first to test it, being arrested on campus on Aug. 28, 1993.
Earlier that year, he was expelled from UC after school officials rewrote the campus dress code to ban nudity.
Martinez was identified by the Santa Clara County coroner's office on Friday afternoon. A family member who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that he was the man once known as the ``Naked Guy.''
The sheriff's office is investigating to confirm that Martinez's death was a suicide. It would be the first in the county jails this year. Two inmates killed themselves while in custody last year.
The bag Martinez apparently tied around his head was a see-through plastic bag used by inmates to carry their possessions when they are moved around at the jail, Cursi said.
``I'm sure they'll look at that,'' Cursi said, ``although I don't know what kind of alternative there would be.''
Cursi said Martinez ``had contact a couple of weeks ago with mental health'' but declined to provide any details. Martinez had not been under a suicide watch.
``It's unfortunate,'' Cursi said. ``It's unfortunate anytime there is a death.''
My guess is this guy was a time-bomb but the left-crazy Berkely environs prevented him from getting the help he needed.
OH, I think that really marks him as a nutter. I'm not the slightest bit surprised that he came to a bad end.
Not answered as far as I could read..... where did he get the bag in a solitary high security cell?
Autoerotic asphyxiation?
``I'm sure they'll look at that,'' Cursi said, ``although I don't know what kind of alternative there would be.''
An alternative would be to provide them with a bag while they are escorted through the jail and then retrieve the bag from them after they are finished using it.
Jailhouse suicide is a serious problem. Often people wake up in jail (particularly after a drug or alcohol induced bender) and are in a state of hopeless despair. For most people, things aren't really as bad as they seem but at the time it feels things couldn't possibly be any worse.
Yes, I've woken up in jail a couple of times. I know how it feels.
California is minus one worthless piece of trash.Another is driving down Interstate 5 right now to take his place.
When can we expect you?
;^P
Beware, beware, beware of the naked man
Won't somebody please help the naked man
--Randy Newman
I shouted "Don't Look, Ethel" but it was too late,...
Ray Stevens
Gee, he's mentally ill? What a shock.
3rd para from the end:
"The bag Martinez apparently tied around his head was a see-through plastic bag used by inmates to carry their possessions when they are moved around at the jail, Cursi said."
The Naked and the Dead
Man. That's just messed up.
Okay. About as much "Courage" as liberals denouncing McCarthy, Nixon and the War.
They seem to be big on this "courage" thing as long is it doesn't mean anything good for the country or for society.
Have the authorities every hear of mesh bags?
I was thinking the same thing, if you read between the lines. They wouldn't come out and say it directly in the article, of coursee.
"Interesting. He turned out not to be Mr. Harmless Happy-Go-Lucky Liberal, as he was portrayed in the media."
Yep. A guy with serious mental and behavioral problems. Just some quirky, good hearted nudist to the media.
You need to watch this:
http://www.break.com/index/streakernews.html
The funniest thing about it is not that he streaks in front of the camera, is is that he does so, ripping one as he runs by, and the camera guy doesn't miss a beat! It is a riot!
That would be WAAAAY to judgemental.
"They seem to be big on this "courage" thing as long is it doesn't mean anything good for the country or for society."
They haven't a CLUE what courage is. The person just equated being a raving lunatic to having courage.
Analogous to, "Charlie Manson had a lot of courage to show up in the courtroom with that swatika tattoed on his forehead."
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