By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CLIFTON HEIGHTS - The house was supposed to be vacant. But Clara Young and Gerald Cash considered it theirs, inviting guests in with a note she wrote in marker on the tan siding beside the front door:

"Come On In Every Body, You Are Welcome!"

Though the three-story house on West McMillan Street was so dilapidated the city of Cincinnati was moving to condemn it, it was an upgrade for the homeless common-law husband and wife, together on Cincinnati's streets for almost a decade.

Young and Cash used to live under the Fifth Street viaduct downtown and were among five homeless people who sued the city and Hamilton County after work crews cleaned up their camp in 2001 and threw away their belongings.

The 44-year-old woman - who struggled with alcoholism - and the ex-Marine who talked a lot about 'Nam died Saturday night in the house that wasn't theirs.

They were victims of a fire police say was set by a man they may have invited in.

"They'd been together for a long time, helped each other and survived under very difficult circumstances," said Robert Newman, an attorney representing them in the federal lawsuit, which remains on appeal. "I hope this case will be some small legacy for them."

Homicide investigators wouldn't say whether Anthony Gilliam, 42, started a fire to try to keep warm or if they think he intended to hurt the couple.

Gilliam remained in jail Monday on charges of murder and aggravated arson. His bonds total $2.2 million. Court documents say he has no home.

Young's brother, Cecil, youth director at Delhi Christian Center in Sedamsville, said he at first didn't believe the homicide sergeant who arrived at church Sunday to tell him his sister was dead of smoke inhalation.

It couldn't be Clara, he thought, because the woman died in a house. Clara, he knew, didn't live in one. But the sergeant told him they'd matched her fingerprints.

Young was a free spirit, often taken in by her six siblings.

"After three or four days, you'd get up to go to the kitchen to get a pop and she'd be gone," her brother said. "And she'd call the next day and say, 'I'm downtown, everything's cool.' "

Linda Santana, her sister, said she "wanted her to have a big house with a big yard. But that's not Clara."

Their sister was never violent, never a loud, mean drunk. She didn't demand money, though she might ask for some change to buy a cigarette. She would get a little confused sometimes - a result, they think, of a head injury she suffered in a motorcycle accident in 1987.

She'd send cards on birthdays, but might not remember her own.

Her family doesn't know much about Cash. He told war stories and said he had a son.

Authorities haven't confirmed Cash's identity because they have not reached his family yet. But Young's family confirms that Cash and Young died together.

"He loved his country," Cecil Young said. "He always had a story about Vietnam.''

The city was in the process of trying to have the house condemned. It was structurally sound on the outside, but unsanitary and unsafe inside, inspectors said. Owner Richard Sciutto was fined twice, for a total of $1,500, for failing to comply with the city's order to barricade it and get a vacant building license, city spokeswoman Meg Olberding said.

On Aug. 20, inspectors found the place barricaded and vacant. The city never got any public complaints about the property, she said.

Young's family hopes the fire was an accident. If so, they'd like to see Gilliam get help, not prison.

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com