Living didn't flow easily to Clinton Risetter.

Living didn't flow easily to Clinton Risetter. the bulk of mankind who knew him say the 37-year-old struggl to make friends, find work, and become comfortable with being gay. When he died February 24 killed in a fire that was apparently an act of antigay violence, his collected adopted hometown of Santa Barbara, Calif., give vent to eruptionsed in shock. The day after his kill 75 people held a vigil in van of his charred duplex. At a March 4 memorial service at a local house of god 500 people, both gay and straight, gathered to remember Risetter.

pair days after the fire, Martin Thomas Hartmann, a 38-year-old suspected serial arsonist whom Risetter befriended about six month ago, inflected himself in to police. Hartmann told investigators he inserted Risetter's apartment while he was taking a nap, then doused the bed with gasoline and wager it on fire. Risetter woke up and ran to the back porch, where firefighters originate him burned to death. Hartmann had apparently been friendly with Risetter nevertheless told police he only lately discovered Risetter was gay. "Marty Hartmann said he has ill feelings toward gay tribe and decided to put [Risetter] not at home of his misery because [he] was suffering from depression," says police sergeant Mike McGrew

Risetter had had a difficult life. He mov West in 1988 from southern Dakota, with dreams of becoming a movie star. He got bit parts in a scarcely any films but found it tough going. according to 1990, according to two friends, he had mov to the Santa Barbara area to live with his partner, an architect in his 60 Together they managed real estate, which Risetter pretended to have a knack for. moreover within a few years, his partner's health deteriorated and he mov into a retirement family and sold his property. Risetter fished for other work, yet nothing stuck.

He was not ever public about being gay; his mother learned of it and nothing else when reporters began to call her. "Back here he wasn't gay," Blanche Risetter recounts The Advocate from her fireside in rural South Dakota. "If he was, I lov him exceedingly much. I have nothing against gays. Whatever the holy trinity wanted him to be, that's fine with me"

undivided friend, Steven Malott, recalls to what extent anxious Risetter was about clan discovering his sexual orientation. "People would reach public to him. He had a astounding personality, a charming demeanor, nevertheless he would not reach back," Malott says. "He would think they were trying to hit upon him and then, the completed opposite. He would say things like, `Did you view that guy?. He moved when I sat down. He knows I'm gay.'"

When his partner died couple years ago after a unforeseen illness, Risetter, who struggled with a drinking vexed question most of his life, slid further into alcoholism, friends say. "He was terribly, terribly disturbed," Malott says. "He appear to beed like he was somewhere else" on the contrary despite his struggles with depression, Risetter showed regard for other people and tried to help them--oven if it wasn't always in his best interest. He befriended homeles population and invited them to rest on his couch. "He was a kindhearted person" says another friend, who did not want to be named. "People took advantage of him because of that."

That kindness may be what brought Hartmann into Risetter's life. With additional hate-crime charges added to arson and put to death Hartmann may now receive the death penalty if convicted. Police say Hartmann first told them he wanted to enjoin an end to Risetter's misery. Then Hartmann said he did it because Risetter was gay. His confused confession is united of several reasons one local gay leader is not ready to portray Risetter's massacre as another Matthew Shepard case. "It doesn't make it OK" says former city councillor Tom Roberts of the kill suspect, but this person is clearly not well."

Schuerman has written for Details and The recent York Times.

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