Most recently, Fenton appeared in West Roxbury District court to defend himself on charges of threatening his landlord's wife.

Fenton says he "is being cheated out of due process" and has been accused of violating a domestic relations charge that doesn't apply to him.

"They were trying to avoid going to Boston housing court," Fenton says.

In that case, a judge issued a one-year restraining order barring Fenton from returning to the room he rents at 22 Tappan Street in Roslindale.

Robert G. Newhook, who says Fenton was a "roommate" in his single-family dwelling, alleges that Fenton threatened his wife.

"He scared her and screamed at her and yelled at her," Newhook says. "He flew off the handle, so my wife was hiding from him in the house."

Newhook compares Fenton to a typically quiet man who one day "hacked up a whole family with an axe."

Fenton grew up in Medfield, a suburb 30 minutes south of Boston, and graduated from Boston University before serving in the Korean War.

When he returned from the Korean War, he opened a photography shop in Medfield and worked as a journalist for the Franklin Sentinel and the Milford Daily News.

Fenton says he became interested in "police corruption in Medfield" during his time as a journalist. He says his subsequent investigation led him to leave Medfield.

"I had my civil rights violated by the police," he says. "I wanted to get out of the community."

Fenton says that since leaving Medfield, he has not been able to hold a steady job. He has worked as a bus driver, freelance photographer and short-order cook.

Fenton also has been homeless since December, when he was barred from his Roslindale residence. He says he has spent the past for months "going from shelter to shelter."

"Shelters are deplorable," he says.

Fenton says his working-class background is an asset to his campaign.