The Killing Jar - Based on a True Story

by Gloria Nixon-John, Robert "Skip" Noelker (Contributor)

The Killing Jar is based on the true story of Ted Lynch (his fictitious name), one of the youngest Americans to be charged with a capital crime and sentenced to death. In 1978 in the insular hollows of Eastern Kentucky, neighbors know that Ted is being starved, living in squalor and being verbally abused by his fanatically religious mother. But instead of intervening they make his plight grist for the local gossip mill. Ted’s teachers are aware that this straight-A student is growing strange and using drugs and alcohol to cope, but they do little to change the situation. It isn’t until fifteen-year-old Ted murders his seven-year-old neighbor that anyone pays much attention to the abhorrent conditions under which he has been living. The resulting swirl of anger and desire for vengeance, along with moral indignation and blind religiosity of the community, turn Ted’s first trial into a circus. With a weak court-appointed attorney representing him and a corrupt judge as overseer, Ted is found guilty and sentenced to death at the age of sixteen. While spending nine years of his young life in the foreboding Kentucky State Penitentiary, known as “The Castle of Cumberland”, Ted makes friends with the men on the row. Among them is a notorious rapist and murderer who becomes Ted’s closest friend, remarkably showing him a kindness that he has never experienced before. With poor psychological help on the inside, Ted’s delusions fester. There is little hope until the defense team of Glenda and Devon McKnight, together with psychologist Robert Newport, becomes involved. They are determined to save the life of this troubled and mentally ill young man, but can they convince a jury of Ted’s insanity? Co-authored by Ted’s psychologist, this telling looks at the circumstances, the pathology, the warning signs, and the trigger of a heartbreaking and senseless tragedy compounded by the ignorance of a community bent on blind revenge.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

340 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2012

About the author

Gloria Nixon-John earned an M.A. in Communications from Wayne State University in Detroit and her Ph.D. at Michigan State University. Gloria is a Red Cedar Writing Project Teacher Consultant. She has published essays, poems, short fiction and pedagogical articles and chapters for teachers, and chapters in a variety of texts for children and young adults. Among her credits is a chapter in Writers in the Classroom (ed. Ruth Nathan), and The Women of Country Music (ed. Charles Wolfe and James Akenson), an excerpt from her memoir entitled Learning From Lady Chatterley appears in Turns (ed CoCo Harris). Gloria has worked with InsideOut, Literary Arts Project in Detroit and has served The Theodore Roethke House as a grant writer and oral historian. She has also worked as oral historian for the Marshal Fredricks Sculpture Museum in Saginaw Michigan. She enjoys time with her family, time in her garden, and time with her horses, dogs and cats.

Reviews

[Jeanine]

I read 66% of this book and gave up on it so I will not rate it. Page after page of handwritten letters which were largely unreadable in ebook format; hardly any focus on Ted and the actual crime and subsequent retrial - I gave up.

[Giddy Girlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I downloaded this as a free Kindle book and I still can't give this book a high rating. This is very clearly a self-published book with no professional editing help. Typos, grammar mistakes, and formatting problems are all over the place. Just for starters, the names used in the book's description are not the same that are used in the book. It should also be noted that this is posted on Amazon as a memoir when it is NOT; it is a fictional account based on a real person.

Aside from the technical issues with editing, this book needs a story editor -- what was the point that the authors were trying to make? Ostensibly, this book was about Ted Lynch, a 15 year old boy who murdered a neighbor while suffering a psychotic break. But really it was just the vehicle to tell the story of the psychiatrist who was a hero amongst men. You may think that sounds sarcastic, but there are PAGES AND PAGES dedicated to every description of him - every time he is asked a question, you get a soliloquy about his thought process and how his grandfather influenced him to be a good man and how he's not a good husband because he's obsessed with the Lynch case and wants justice for this boy because he was so abused/neglected. Oh brother! I was rolling my eyes as I read it and didn't realize that the psychiatrist is the one who co-wrote the book. Yikes.

The writing about Ted himself and his experiences was more interesting. It's too bad that most of it was fictional -- the authors do not have access to Ted's records and he did not collaborate with them on the writing of this book. There are chapters dedicated to his time both in and out of prison and the world "as he sees it", which would be without psychiatric medication, which were very interesting. Too bad it was all conjecture.

Others have also noted that many pages are either court transcripts or newspaper articles. The formatting on these pages, in particular, is pretty bad and by posting back-to-back articles from newspapers, the information is repeated again and again in quick succession. I have to wonder why the authors included the articles -- complete with bylines -- when these are fiction? Ted Lynch does not exist, so did the authors create these newspaper articles to fill in the book? Or did they edit actual newspapers with their fictitious character names? That's clearly plagiarizing and is illegal, so I hope for their sake they did not do that.

Honestly, this book needs a lot of help and in its current form (Sept. 23, 2014) it is not worth reading. It is disjointed and poorly formatted and there is no real 'story' here. I could write more, but I am not editing this book for free - I am merely trying to advise potential readers that this book isn't what it seems (not memoir, not quite true crime) and the content is often difficult due to poor editing.

[Annette M Guerriero Nishimoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

**SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER**

Today's review is on The Killing Jar by Gloria Nixon-John & Robert "Skip" Noelker

The Killing Jar is a poignant retelling of the life of Todd Ice, once the youngest person on death row in the United States.

Raised with an overbearing and controlling mother who not only pushed him to be perfect in everything he did, she also criticized and ridiculed him while his father passively sat by and let it happen. After years of this abuse, Ice; who is Ted Lynch in the book, suffers from a psychotic break.

In 1978, Lynch (Ice) is tried for the brutal beating and murder of a 7 year-old neighbor and the beating/attempted murder of her mother. Even with the compelling evidence provided by Psychologists, in which Lynch's (Ice) diagnoses of Schizophrenia is presented, he is found guilty and sentenced to death.

Later in 1983, the US Supreme Court reversed his conviction and death sentence, and in 1986 he is retried. His new lawyers present new evidence that Lynch (Ice) was psychotic at the time of the crimes. They were able to prove that there was mental illness/insanity on both sides of his family, and in view of this, the jury convicted him of the lesser offense of manslaughter during extreme emotional disturbance.

Though this new ruling was a "win" for Lynch (Ice) and his lawyers, he still did not receive the necessary psychological treatment he so desperately needed. Shunned by his family and hated by many in his community, Lynch (Ice) continued to spin further down, even turning on those who had helped him.

You WILL NOT be able to put this book down AT ALL! And hopefully it will make you stop and think about the long road our society still has to go when it comes to mental illness and the treatment of those suffering from them.

I found myself struggling with my own emotions while reading The Killing Jar. I often found myself going from anger, to sadness, to pride in my profession, to despair in the lack of treatment that this young boy growing up in prison did not receive. This is one book that will have lasting effects on any reader, and by far should have the highest rating on anyone's scale.


5+ stars
Available at Amazon

Annette M G Nishimoto, P.C.
Professional Counselor

[Wonderkell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
I have to say that whilst I enjoyed this book, finding it fascinating and horrifying at the same time, I also had some real issues with the structure of the book.
The characters themselves were really well drawn. It would have been so easy to sensationalise this story, but at no point in time does that happen. I really, really felt for Ted. At no point did I dislike him, in fact I think, being a survivor of child abuse myself, I identified with him in many ways. I also felt very strongly for the victims of the crime and for the people that tried so hard to help Ted. This is definitely the book's strongest point.
Where I had issues is with the book's structure. Quite often court reporting and testimony was used to try to further the story and help give it more authenticity as a true account. I felt that this actually ended up hindering the book. Often the accounts and articles were written in a very disjointed way. I'm not sure if this is actually how they were originally written or if it was poor transposition into the book. Either way they were often jarring to read and took me out of the story. There is also the matter of no dates being put on the court reports and articles. I found the time structure of the book hard to follow. I don't like to have to stop and work out where I am in terms of dates etc., again it jars me out of the story. I think actually providing dates on these might have helped avoid the problem.
I think that, overall, this is a good book and I admire the authors for their efforts to tell Ted's story in such a unique and sympathetic manner. Its horrific to think that this is the way a mentally ill yet dangerous person was treated and so very sad for all concerned.

[Lorri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is hard to believe that parents would starve their children and treat them so badly, but unfortunately it does happen. Not only does it make you wonder what the neighbors are thinking when they don't report what they see, but what the children would have been like if they had grown up in a home with loving parents. It's truly sad that a teenager kills another person, especially a small child. And to think it may have been prevented if someone had stood up and said something and got him help. Mental illness is devastating, not only for the person suffering from it, but for their families and those close to them. My sister-in-law had bi-polar, so I have some experience with the actions of a mentally ill person. It left me thinking about the death penalty and rehabilitation and how to go about it...

I received a copy in exchange for my honest opinion

[denise]

Killing jar

to much Dr reports, a lot of un-necessary boring extras just to make book longer. did not enjoy this book, thought it would never end. Will not buy another book from this author. not well written for understanding.

[Willa Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

While a work of fiction, its story is all too familiar. The horror of how society fails children living with abuse, and the terrible consequences that can follow, ring true. Prison does not and cannot adequately treat mental illness.

[Chicozconstructiondesign Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad tragedy for all involved.. Based on true story.

[Theresa Perfetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Well written, great story, on my list of favorite reads.