Suspect's Childhood Neighbors Baffled by Slayings in Atlanta

"Definitely the joker," said Charles Franklin Jr., one of Nichols' closest childhood friends.

But there was another side to the 33-year-old man accused of carrying out a deadly, two-day shooting spree in Atlanta.

"It was like 'nobody messes with him,' " Franklin recalled Saturday. "Don't get me wrong. He wasn't a bully. But he lifted weights, and he was a pretty big guy. He had a background in the martial arts, and that, combined with his size, made people leave him alone. He never had to show any aggression."

Franklin said he was stunned when his friend's face flashed across a television screen after the shootings in the Atlanta area. He could not imagine the Brian Nichols he grew up with taking the lives of a judge, a court reporter, one deputy police officer and a U.S. Immigration and Customs agent and committing a string of other violent crimes.

What made no sense to Franklin, a Baptist minister, was how Nichols had veered away from the solid, stable upbringing they shared in the Ednor Gardens section of Baltimore.

"Our parents pretty much raised us to respect others, to excel and to achieve in life," said Franklin, who grew up 10 houses away from Nichols in a middle-class neighborhood where kids played together, laughed and crashed on each other's sofas.

The two were in the popular clique at Cardinal Gibbons High School, Franklin said. Both played varsity football -- Franklin as a wide receiver and Nichols as a lineman. They acted up, Franklin said, but came home to parents who imbued them with strong values and high aspirations.

"We could talk to any parent," Franklin said. "Their doors were always open. They told us the sky was the limit, that we could do anything we set out to do. All of us had those things instilled in us, to be achievers, to be successful. And we were all driven to those purposes.

"So what we don't understand is at what point did whatever change in his life?" Franklin said. "The whole community, everyone is talking about it. We don't understand it."

Nichols' mother, Clathera, is a retired Internal Revenue Service worker. His father, Gene, was an entrepreneur, friends said. They raised their sons in Maryland, sending them to private schools and to college. Brian Nichols' brother Mark became a barber in Plantation, Fla.