Boy who killed girl: 'I did her a favor' - Teenager denies video game inspired him to slay friend

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | December 12, 2003

[yonif]

Though an alleged teen killer claims a popular violent video game had nothing to do with his murdering a young girl, the victims father and others are convinced Grand Theft Auto III inspired the boy to bludgeon and stab his friend to death.

Dustin Lynch's mug shot

Dustin Lynch allegedly stabbed JoLynn Mishne in the side with kitchen knife after bashing her with a bedpost. Her father, Mickey, found her in a pool of blood on her bed with a pile of clothes heaped on top of her.

The then-15-year-old Lynch, a runaway, had been staying with the Mishnes in Medina, Ohio, for about a week after JoLynn, a high-school junior, begged her father to let him stay with the family, the Cleveland Scene weekly reports.

During his week's stay with the Mishnes in the fall of 2002, Lynch reportedly played the video game GTA III for hours at a time. It is a violent crime fantasy in which players earn rewards for assaults, carjackings, and murder, the Scene reports. The game has been highly successful, winning numerous game-of-the-year honors and becoming the best-selling game of 2001.

The violent nature of the game and critics' contention that youthful players act out what they see has fingered GTA III in the Lynch case.

'Grand Theft Auto Vice City' sizzles with violence (Rockstar Games)

In October, attorney and activist Jack Thompson filed a $246 million lawsuit against Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., GTA III designers Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart, in connection with a Tennessee case in which two teenage stepbrothers killed one person and injured another by shooting rifles at passing motorists, the Scene reported. The teens claimed GTA III as inspiration.

"I think the video game industry is about as evil as any entity in America is," Thompson told the paper. "I'm out to take their money from them – and it's blood money, in some of these instances – and give it to the people who have been harmed by them."

Thompson contacted JoLynn's father, Mickey Mishne, upon hearing about the girl's murder. After learning about the game and recalling Lynch's behavior, Mishne became convinced the boy was inspired by GTA III. Lynch's favorite GTA III murder weapon reportedly was the baseball bat.

Mishne likely will be a part of a civil suit targeting GTA III.

"We are on a crusade," he told the paper. "We'd like to see everybody who has one of the [games] turn them in, like they do with rifles and pistols. We want to put them out of business."

Dustin Lynch, sitting in jail awaiting his murder trial, recently responded to several written questions from the Scene.

When asked why he killed JoLynn, Lynch responded, "I killed JoLynn for my own personal satisfaction. I yearn to see blood, it's a need or an addiction and also a fetish. I'm just obsessed with it all."

Though Lynch could possibly benefit from claiming he was a victim of the video game, he is denying that's the case.

"Old man Mishne and whomever else believes that GTA III influenced me to brutaly [sic] kill JoLynn ... they are all idiots!" Lynch wrote to the Scene. "I killed JoLynn Mishne for my own personal satisfaction, not because of a video game," adding that he "did her a favor and satisfied all my needs while doing it!"

Lynch, now 17, claims to have begun thinking about murder at an early age: "Ever since I was 6 years old, I've wanted to kill someone," he wrote. The teen claims to have killed 35 people, though there is no evidence backing up his assertion.

The alleged killer is scheduled to face trial as an adult on Jan. 12 and faces up to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

"The only people I care about is Adolf Hitler and myself! Heil the fuehrer! Hitler is God!" he wrote to the paper.

The young man says he's not afraid of prison, hoping to get his high-school diploma and write a book while there.

"I might be small, but I know how to handle my business," he writes. "I'm a 'Lynch,' it runs through [our] blood. Just like jail!"

Lynch claims he'd like to be executed eventually.

"When my book is complete and I'm ready, I'm going to kill someone else so that I can get the death penalty. I took so many lives and I'm just curious to know what it's like to be dead. Is there an 'after life'? etc. I want to die by lethal injection. I think that is better than any other method (ex. – killing myself, or by some horrible death). …"

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports Lynch's mother, Jerrilyn Thomas, says in the past two months, her son has attempted suicide at the jail, refused to cooperate with his attorney, wrote incriminating letters to Mickey Mishne and stopped communicating with her.

Asked if he was disturbed, Lynch wrote to the Scene: "I AM NOT DISTURBED AT ALL! Like I said, I have certain needs, desires and a fetish. Cutting myself is a fetish. I feel so powerful when I do it, kind of like I'm on coke. Each slice I take is like hooting another line! I'm fascinated by the sight of blood, and when I'm locked up the way I am the only blood I can get is my own."

[AppyPappy]

movies that made them do it.

I think you are confusing the issue. The issue is not "making them do it"; it's "influencing them". Cigarette commercials were not banned because they made people smoke. They were banned because the government thought they influenced people towards smoking. Companies spend BILLIONS to influence people. We should be surprised when it works. A person rarely kills without any form of influence. It may be drugs or alcohol or an argument or their upfetchins or any number of factors.

[baseballfanjm]

Silly me, spelling "alcohol" with an extra "h". Thanks for pointing my errors out.

[discostu]

God save us from the evils of "influence"! Please that's just a bogus way to soften it so that when study after study after study shows that video games DON'T cause violence you can still say "but it influenced them". Twisted murderous nuts will be twisted murderous nuts without video games, blaming the game is excuse-mongering for twisted murderous nuts. The game didn't make them do it, it didn't influence them into doing it, it had absoultely nothing to do with what they did, they made their own choices. Put the blame where it belongs and leave the games alone.

[Eagle Eye]

I confronted him over one of the school shootings in which he was getting invovled. I asked him where he was during all the mourning and memorial services, asked him where he was when the families needed comforting and other assistance, and where he was when there wasn't any money to make out of it. I was there, he wasn't.

He never answered.

[AppyPappy]

Like I said, just yet another mere coincidence.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

You've got to stop holding it in...

That's not what my wife keeps telling me. She thinks I'm a raving nutter when I start to go on about this kind of thing or the latest outrage from the SCOTUS.

But there are so many things to get pissed off about these days....and so little time.

[Xenalyte]

Guessing is good - I'd just like to know how much time we have before we wig out and start sprayin'.

[Chief_Joe]

This kid actually opening admits and takes responsiblity for killing this girl and everyone else involved still want to blame something else.
 

Yes this kid deserves to go to jail, BUT everyone else involved needs to be locked into an insane asylum for life.

I couldn't agree with you more. The father is especially to blame for this horrible outcome. He's the perfect example of metrosexual male: what kind of real man would allow 15-year-old Lynch, a runaway, to stay with his young daughter in her bedroom -for over a week no less. He's as much a danger to any of his other kids as Lynch is  as far as I'm concerned.

[discostu]

Not like you said. Simply unrelated. I know that's you're cute little line and it's stupid beyond belief and just goes to show that you have a tiny little mind that can't grasp the realities of bad people and how completely unrelated their behavior is to some stupid entertainment. Your crowd of excuse-mongers have been blaming everything in the world for the aberant behavior of stupid people for 25 years and you're ALWAYS WRONG, every single time. D&D doesn't make people satanists, heavy metal doesn't make people satanists, Rambo doesn't make people violent, Doom doesn't make people violent, Harry Potter doesn't make people witches, and GTA doesn't make people violent. And anybody that thinks otherwise is a freaking moron.

[AppyPappy]

that you have a tiny little mind

WHO ARE YOU SAYING HAS A TINY LITTLE...oh, mind. OK. Never mind. stupid git

[discostu]

You show it off by using the exact same canned reply every time somebody shows you why you're wrong. Whenever presented with FACTS that clearly show Jackass doesn't make kids light themselves on fire or GTA doesn't make morons kill their friend you're retort is the same, people might as well put "just a mere coincidence" in their post and save you the trouble. At least take the time to come up with more than one stupid condescending canned reply and alternate. The stupid git here is the clown that readily hands murderers a pre-fabricated excuse.

[AppyPappy]

You are no longer listening. You are just reacting. Have a GREAT day! :)

[discostu]

Listening to what? I've seen your "mere coincidence" reply for over a year. It was condescending and WRONG then and it's condescejnding and WRONG now. Put forth something worth listening to, end the canned condescension and actually put some thought into your posts. Of course if you do that you'll quickly see the truth, blaming external objects is jsut furthering the victim-culture that's at the heart of America's sickness. Try listening yourself, your canned reply shows you're afraid to listen and just write off everything that goes against your predetermined and wrongheaded view.

[sport]

Sad story.

Other than you have to be careful about what you let in your house, the only comment I have is that It was not my daughter. If it had been, I would be the one on trial.

One more comment. I would not have taken the little shit in no matter how much my daughter had begged.

Being a parent means having to say no. It mean sometimes having your child angry with you. [Clue: They get over it.]

My wife had two daughters when we married. They both were at an impressionable age[early teens]. One of them was friends with a girl that was writing to prison inmates. She asked if she could become a pen pal to an inmate. I told her no way. She pouted for a while. Later I explained why and she said that she was glad I told her no.

[Tribune7]

I thought that name sounded familiar. Sony Computer Entertain America has nothing to worry about.

[mountaineer]

Batman Jack rides again!

[SquirrelKing]

I hope charges are filed against the father

My thoughts exactly. Gee, dad, didnt you have a clue that this little turd had a few issues or did you just not have the balls to say no?

[Sloth]

During his week's stay with the Mishnes in the fall of 2002, Lynch reportedly played the video game GTA III for hours at a time... Lynch's favorite GTA III murder weapon reportedly was the baseball bat.

Sounds like the makers of GTA3 provided the Mishnes a valuable tool for recognizing Lynch's violent tendencies, and they ignored it.

[Sloth]

Your crowd of excuse-mongers have been blaming everything in the world for the aberant behavior of stupid people for 25 years and you're ALWAYS WRONG, every single time. D&D doesn't make people satanists, heavy metal doesn't make people satanists, Rambo doesn't make people violent, Doom doesn't make people violent, Harry Potter doesn't make people witches, and GTA doesn't make people violent. And anybody that thinks otherwise is a freaking moron.

Well said, and worth repeating.

[thegreatbeast]

""I think the video game industry is about as evil as any entity in America is," Thompson told the paper. "I'm out to take their money from them – and it's blood money, in some of these instances – and give it to the people who have been harmed by them." It's about the money, Stupid! Thompson just wants to 'wet his beak'.