Yesterday, we learned that David Mitchell—the 42-year-old homeless "drifter" accused of raping a 73-year-old woman in Central Park on Wednesday—had allegedly previously bragged to a former girlfriend about getting away with murdering two other older women. Now, Mitchell's brother says that it wasn't exactly his brother who committed all those crimes, but rather "Johnny," his brother's other personality: “He was diagnosed when he was 14 years old, and it got really bad in his 20s,” brother Joseph Mitchell told the Post.
“He says that Johnny comes out," he added. "I first met Johnny when I was 22 years old. He broke my back. He hit me with a brick. That was the first time I met him, and I never seen him since. Guess you all met Johnny out there in New York." He noted that their mother also had split personality disorder: “She was in a wheelchair and very weak, but when Rae came out, she could hop out of her wheelchair. But my mother could control it better than David.”
Joseph admitted the family was the black sheep of Jenkinjones, West Virginia: “People didn’t like us, so we moved from house to house. People would burn our houses down, so we would move. We’d go to school and fight; we’d go to the store and fight.” Neighbor Wayne Mitchell, no relation to the suspect, previously said locals started buying guns to protect themselves last year after Mitchell was let out of prison. Joseph agrees that his brother shouldn't try to come home: “He got out of jail, and I told him not to come here because everyone wants to kill him. They’re scared to death of him."
A 46-year-old Jekinjones resident told the News that Mitchell killed dogs and cats as a child: “I guess he figured that was a thrill and so he figured when he got 18 why not try something bigger. He would actually hang them from trees and stuff. He was evil.” She also recalled an incident in which Mitchell harassed locals with an ax: “We were walking around the school and he chased us with an ax. At the time, we didn’t think nothing of it. We was [sic] kids and we thought it may be a joke. Now I look back I think, ‘God, what was his intentions?’ ” Tammy Hunley summed it up: “He was bad news,” she said. “The best thing to do was keep your distance from him because he was bad.”
Mitchell has been charged with predatory sexual assault, rape, criminal sex act and robbery assault for the recent Central Park attack; he previously confessed to raping and killing an 83-year-old West Virginian woman over two decades ago, allegedly bragged about killing another woman, and served eight years in prison for attempting to kidnap an ex-girlfriend.
