| “ | No one sees True Night – what's really there in the dark. It's not that they can't see, they simply don't. They feel an elemental force that scares them into the deepest reaches of their minds, but they refuse to see the actual source. Something watching them just out of their reach. Something cold and frightening. Something inhuman. | ” |
— McHale's initial monologue
| ||
Jonny "Jon" McHale is a psychotic serial-turned-spree killer, one-time mass murderer, and vigilante who appears in True Night.
Background
An acclaimed comic book artist and writer, whose best work was a series entitled Blue (which involved a female android attending a futuristic high school), Jonny lived in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Vickie Wright. One night, in May 2007, the couple went out to the store. While on their way home, Vickie revealed to Jonny that she was pregnant. After Vickie told him that if the baby was a boy they should name it after him, Jonny, overjoyed, proposed to Vickie. While doing so, the two were ambushed by a gang called the 23rd Street Killers. Jonny offered Glen Hill, the gang's leader, all the money he had on hand, only to be taunted. After Glen mockingly told Vickie to accept Jonny's marriage proposal, the gang leader stated to Jonny "You're not gonna wanna miss this" before having some of his minions grab Vickie. Forced to watch as Vickie was gang-raped and tortured to death, Jonny ended up being sliced across the stomach and left for dead by the gang.
Miraculously, Jonny was found in time and saved, but was left deeply traumatized by the attack. As a result, Jonny's mind quickly degenerated and he began suffering from a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Six months after Vickie's death, as a result, Jonny suffered a psychotic break and began going out at night in search of members of the 23rd Street Killers, brutally slaughtering any members he came across using a katana and dual scimitars, eventually killing five in less than two weeks. After committing the murders, Jonny only had vague and warped memories, in which he viewed himself as a hooded vigilante named True Night and the gang members that he killed as werewolf-like beasts, which he detailed exactly in his drawings. He also ended up living in a lower-income transient apartment, most likely losing his old home following the attack and subsequent hospitalization.
True Night
A day after violently killing two more TSK members, Jonny is visited by his agent, Bobby Kim, who he has been out of touch with for two months. Bobby takes note of the True Night drawings (which he is both impressed and disturbed by). Much to Bobby's shock, Jonny tells him that he is quitting work on Blue in favor of True Night. With some difficulty, Bobby manages to convince Jonny to attend a comic book signing at a local store and, on the way, they get stuck in a traffic jam and pass the scene of Jonny's latest murders. However, Jonny is too bothered by headaches to notice the grisly scene nearby. Arriving at the store, Jonny undergoes a psychotic episode due to his fans' flashing cameras and runs outside to call Vickie's phone, only to get her voice-mail. he then runs onto the street, where he is hit by a car. Dazed and spiraling, Jonny attacks the car's driver when he and his wife got out to see if he is alright, nearly choking the man to death before taking off again when the driver's wife begins screaming at him.
Whilst running, he stumbles onto the scene of last night's double homicide and bumps into Rossi, who points out the leg injury Jonny sustained in the car accident, which Jonny has already forgotten about. Before Jonny and Rossi can talk further, Bobby appears and the two leave, with Bobby realizing there is something seriously wrong with his friend during the ride to Jonny's apartment; Jonny has begun talking about Vickie as if she was still alive, saying he has been calling her nonstop and can only get her voice-mail. Once back in his apartment, Jonny fires Bobby, calls Vickie's phone again (only to hear her voice-mail again) and trashes his apartment in rage. The following night, Jonny goes out again and attacks the TSK lair, Glen Hill's suburban home. Killing two gang members outside, Jonny enters the house, kills another four and sustains a gunshot wound in the process, abducts Glen, and flees. Jonny takes him to a secluded location, ties Glen to a chair, shows the gang leader his face, and repeats his line "You're not gonna wanna miss this" before killing him, leaving the body, as well as his hooded sweater and twin scimitars, at the scene.
Returning home, Jonny draws his recent kills before breaking into the apartment of his elderly neighbor Helen Trestle, believing that Vickie was on the fire escape and is now in Helen's place. Angrily lashing out at Helen when she claims to have no idea what he is talking about, Jonny goes back to his apartment and completely trashes it before the authorities barge in, having discovered that he is the killer they are looking for. On the way to an interrogation room, Jonny notices the comic store owner, his fans, the driver he attempted to kill, and Bobby all in the police station, having been the ones who reported his erratic and violent behavior. Jonny tries to tell Morgan that the arrest is a mistake and Bobby might just be angry. However, Morgan replies that he is not and asks if Jonny wants a lawyer, but he refuses. While being interviewed by Rossi, Hotch, Prentiss, and a police detective, Jonny, after being reminded of Vickie's death, his stay in the hospital, seeing Glen Hill's mugshot, and all the evidence they have against him flies into a rage before breaking down, remembering everything. Restrained by the police, after partially breaking the table he was handcuffed to, Jonny reveals where Glen's body is.
Jonny tries to call Vickie while institutionalized.
Afterward, Jonny is placed in a psychiatric hospital, where he spends his time drawing Vickie (his walls covered in sketches of her) and he calls her number over and over again, just to hear her voice-mail. He closes the phone in frustration.
Profile
The unsub is a 25-year-old white male who lives within a one-mile radius of the crime scenes, which he may be drawn to. The amount of overkill present in the murders suggests that he is experiencing a post-traumatic form of a psychotic break, which would cause them to stand out; be quick to anger; and possibly be induced with short-term memory loss, blackouts, and hallucinations. He would have difficulty with communicating and would also possibly come to the crime scene to passively investigate police presence.
Over the course of the episode, Jonny devolved into a spree killer, as he was growing more psychotic, had begun claiming multiple victims and his already fairly brief cooling off period was growing shorter (killing two gang members in one night, and seven the next, six of them at the same time). Like most rampage killers, Jonny also showed severe disenchantment with life, screaming "Miracle?! You think living was a miracle?!" when Rossi reminds him of his near-death at the hands of the 23rd Street Killers.
Modus Operandi
"You're not gonna want to miss this."
-Jonny before murdering Glen Hill
Jonny targeted members of the 23rd Street Killers. He would wander back alleys aimlessly at night, waiting for them to present themselves. When they did, he would brutally and viciously slash and hack them to the point of dismemberment with a pair of scimitars. Over time, as his delusions began to worsen, Jonny started devolving, eventually actively hunting down gang members and claiming multiple victims at a time. While killing, Jonny saw himself as a cloaked vigilante named True Night and his victims as werewolf-like monsters. Despite having no memory of the murders after committing them, Jonny would sketch them perfectly in his drawings, likely in a subconscious manner.
His last victim, Glen Hill, was abducted from the 23rd Street Killer headquarters following Jonny's massacre there, taken to a secluded location, tied to a chair, and told "You're not gonna wanna miss this", the exact same thing Glen said to Johnny before attacking Vickie. He then disemboweled him, cut his arms off, and decapitated him with his scimitars. When he nearly murdered Jasper (the only person he attacked who wasn't a member of the 23rd Street Killers), Jonny manually strangled him with one arm.
Real-Life Comparison
Jonny is very similar to serial killer Pedro Rodrigues Filho in multiple ways. Both lost their fiancée to gang members and sought revenge by killing them, saw themselves as heroes by killing criminals, and hacked their victims to death with long bladed weapons.
Known Victims
- 2007:
- November 13-26: Five unnamed 23rd Street Killers members
- November 27: Two unnamed 23rd Street Killers members
- November 28:
- Jasper (attempted, but survived; was non-fatally strangled with his bare hands while undergoing a psychotic episode)
- Six unnamed 23rd Street Killers members (two killed outside the TSK headquarters, the other four killed inside)
- November 28-29: Glen Hill (leader of the 23rd Street Killers; abducted from the headquarters, disemboweled, severed his arms, and decapitated)
Notes
- Presumably due to his psychosis, Jonny had a high tolerance to pain, only noticing wounds he sustained to the leg and torso after they were pointed out to him, as well as surprising strength as he was able to break the interrogation table that he was handcuffed to (which is designed to specifically hold potentially violent suspects) without even seeming to notice, and requiring a number of strong and experienced men to restrain him. He was also violent enough to be capable of viciously hacking six strong men (at least one of whom was armed) to pieces at the same time, as well as abducting the seventh man, and emerge without a scratch except for a grazing gunshot wound, which didn't slow him down.
- This makes Jonny McHale the first of six unsubs the BAU have apprehended that displayed a high tolerance for pain. the next five being Vincent Rowlings ("The Big Wheel"), Rhett Walden ("Reflection of Desire"), Robert Adams ("Painless"), Trey Gordon ("In the Dark"), and Gabriel Merza ("Blue Angel").
- Also, all six unsubs only appear in one episode.
- Jonny is the third vigilante to appear in the series.
- He also has the highest body count of all the show's vigilantes.