APwi 11/25 1941 Chainsaw Murder By LINDA DEUTSCH Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP

APwi 11/25 1941 Chainsaw Murder

   By LINDA DEUTSCH Associated Press Writer

   LOS  ANGELES  (AP)  -- A California State University professor
who told authorities  three  different  stories  about  a  grisly
slaying  was  ordered  to stand trial on charges that he murdered
and dismembered the body of a teen-ager with a chain saw.

   Municipal Court Judge David Horwitz  said  the  facts  of  the
crime  outlined  in a three-day preliminary hearing were "heinous
and atrocious," and provided  sufficient  evidence  to  hold  Max
Bernard Franc for trial.

   Franc,  58,  formerly  of De Pere, Wis., who was identified by
one witness by the ill-fitting gray hairpiece he wears, showed no
reaction Tuesday to the judge's ruling.

   The prosecutor has contended that Franc, who taught  political
science  and  public  administration  at the Fresno campus of the
university, killed the youth at his West Hollywood apartment in a
homosexual rage, then dismembered the body with  a  rented  chain
saw.

   Parts  of  the  body  were  found scattered 200 miles apart in
Fresno and Valencia.

   The victim, Tracy Leroy Nute, 17, has  been  identified  as  a
homeless runaway who worked as a homosexual prostutite.

   Horwitz  upheld  one  special  circumstance  charge that could
bring Franc the death penalty if convicted.  That  count  alleges
that Franc robbed Nute before killing him.

   The  prosecution's  final  pieces  of  evidence  Tuesday  were
transcripts of Franc's  tape-recorded  statements  to  detectives
after his arrest in August.

   In  the  tapes,  Franc  gave  a  rambling,  sometimes confused
account of his actions the day of the murder.

   At first, he claimed he rented a chain saw to cut up the  body
of a  dog  he  had  accidentally  killed.   Later, he changed the
story, saying that a friend of his, Terry Adams, dismembered  the
dead  dog because it belonged to an organized crime figure and he
feared retribution  if  the  death  was  discovered.    But  when
detectives  told  him that humn blood had been found on the chain
saw, the transcripts showed that he changed his story  again  and
admitted  seeing  Nute  killed although he denied that he did it.
Again, he blamed Terry Adams.

   Deputy District Attorney Sterling Norris said  Adams  has  not
been found and he now believes such a person never existed.

   "Our theory at the present time is that Terry Adams is a straw
man,"  said Norris. "It's very common for suspects to put forward
a straw man to  explain  being  near  a  murder  but  not  having
committed it.

   "...He  totally  made  him  up," Norris said. "That's our best
belief as of now, that Terry Adams is a fictitious figure."

   Franc was arrested Aug. 29 after blood and bits of flesh  were
found  in  the  innerworkings  of the chain saw he had rented and
returned.   Blood  residue  also  was  found  in  his  apartment.
According  to  Frank's  statements,  both Nute and the mysterious
Terry Adams came to his apartment the day of the  killing  and  a
fight began.   He said that Nute pulled a knife on Adams who then
shot him with a gun belonging to Franc.

   "Suddenly I realized that Terry had a gun in my hand -- a  gun
in his hand," Frank was quoted as saying in the transcript.

   "A  gun  in  his  hand?"  asked sheriff's investigator Stanley
Allen White.

   "Yeah.  That sounds like a slip, doesn't it?    Ha,  ha,  ha,"
Franc was quoted as saying.

   He then told how Adams shot Nute in the abdomen.

   "He  was  like  whining;  he  was  making noises," said Franc.
"...And then I think to shut him up, Terry shot him in the head."

   He said the man then dragged the dead body into the bathroom .

   "I just felt like vomiting," Franc said.  "...And  Terry  kept
saying don't worry, this is just a body, you know it's not a real
person anymore," the transcript said.

   Franc  said  he left the apartment for a few hours and when he
returned, "The body had partly been cut up."

   When he protested and threatened to  call  the  police,  Franc
said  Adams told him: "We'll just...sprinkle these pieces around,
you know, and nobody'll ever be able to figure out who the corpse
was," the transcript said.

   "I guess that was the crime of  mine,"  said  Franc.  "I  went
along with the idea, you know."

   His  account  of  why he rented the chain saw and how the body
parts were scattered was confused, and the interview  ended  with
White telling Franc he did not believe his story.

   "I  don't  think  you're  totally  telling me the truth, and I
think it's  going  to  hurt  you  in  the  long  run,"  said  the
investigator.

   "Well, there's...I don't know what else to do," Franc replied.

   During  his  interviews, Franc admitted that Nute owed him $40
which he asked for and received $10.

   Judge Horwitz said that statement was sufficient to uphold the
special circumstance charge of robbery.