PRISON HEART ATTACK CLAIMS LIFE OF MAN GUILTY OF GRISLY SLAYING.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

A university professor convicted in the death and chain-saw dismemberment of a teen-age male prostitute whose limbs were found in Valencia a decade ago has died in prison of a heart attack, a prison spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Max B. Franc, serving a 25-year sentence, died Sept. 18 of a heart attack, said Sylvia Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Corcoran State Prison. He was 68.

Frank, a former California State University, Fresno, political science professor, had been serving time for the 1987 slaying of Tracy Leroy Nute, 18, who authorities said worked as a prostitute in West Hollywood.

Nute's body was cut up with a chain saw. His arms and parts of his legs were found off McBean Parkway near the Golden State Freeway, his head and torso left in a field near Madera, more than 200 miles north and only miles from the university where Franc taught.

Franc, then 58, was arrested after police learned he had rented a chain saw that was returned with blood and bits of flesh in its inner workings.

He had been on the Fresno State political science staff since 1969 and taught public administration.

Nute was shot in August 1987 in an apartment rented by Franc, who was on sabbatical. Nute was a runaway from Kansas City, Mo., who came to California to be a movie star and wound up working as a prostitute.