Big Lurch, Antron Singleton rips open Tynisha Ysais's chest and eats part of her lung and face as a result of smoking PCP

OK so totally irrelevant to my work but this is something I found whilst researching cannibalism for my latest brief, I'm still reading about it hours later! lol it happened in 2002 but this is the first time I have heard about it and it's just shocking cause you associate this kind of psycho s*** with white males between the ages of 21 and 36 or whatever the statistic goes, in fact you rarely come across a black serial killer at all, you may get gun crime, gang crime, drug crime, theft etc with them but you never hear of a black serial killer or murderer in the context of being a psycho killer, ie: ripping people up and eating them etc, you might hear of a gang shooting or stabbing but that's as gross as it gets, the sole aim is to wipe their enemy out, only rarely do you hear of it going a bit further such as a face being smashed in etc in extreme revenge cases, and don't get me wrong I am not condoning any of these acts, I am just stating that in general you associate the sickest most lurid and grotesque crimes with white men within a certain age group, just look at FBI profiling and you'll see the pattern.

Of course I have heard of a few strange cases involving black people, such as a mother who killed her child and then tried to eat him after decapitating him and cutting his stomach open, this women was extremely poor and uneducated and also mentally insane, another case like this involves a hispanic women who did get to partially eat her son before being caught, she too had mental problems and was uneducated, authorities were aware of her health problems but failed to do anything about it.

Again when I found out about this upcoming black rapper committing such a heinous and sick crime I was doubly shocked! Ok so rappers tend to rap about killing, sex, drugs, violence etc, but cannibalism? there may be expressions such as "tear your face off" but I seriously doubt it is meant literally, the authorities are having a field day with this one claiming that rap music is some how responsible for this act, which I find preposterous! The guy had been smoking PCP for 5 days straight, (or just the night before I have read various accounts so not sure which is the accurate one) a drug I knew nothing about but have since reading about "BIG LURCH" a.k.a. Antron Singleton discovered alot more about. It is basically a very strong hallucinatory drug that people are smoking with weed more and more to increase the effect of weed/marijuana. PCP is also known as angel dust, (oh I do remember having known about it before, in the film "friday" in the scene where Chris Tucker smokes some and then thinks he is a chicken, I never understood why at the time, guess I do now! so that could bring on a whole new discussion about drug use being made 'funny' in films and on TV but I won't start that one right now.) supergrass and killer weed.

Here is some information on PCP from a government website:

PCP. The use of PCP as an approved anesthetic in humans was discontinued in 1965 because patients often became agitated, delusional, and irrational while recovering from its anesthetic effects. PCP is a “dissociative drug,” meaning that it distorts perceptions of sight and sound and produces feelings of detachment (dissociation) from the environment and self. First introduced as a street drug in the 1960s, PCP quickly gained a reputation as a drug that could cause bad reactions and was not worth the risk. However, some abusers continue to use PCP due to the feelings of strength, power, and invulnerability as well as a numbing effect on the mind that PCP can induce. Among the adverse psychological effects reported are—

• Symptoms that mimic schizophrenia, such as delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, disordered thinking, and a sensation of distance from one’s environment.
  
• Mood disturbances: Approximately 50 percent of individuals brought to emergency rooms because of PCP-induced problems—related to use within the past 48 hours—report significant elevations in anxiety symptoms.⁴
  
• People who have abused PCP for long periods of time have reported memory loss, difficulties with speech and thinking, depression, and weight loss. These symptoms can persist up to one year after stopping PCP abuse.
  
• Addiction: PCP is addictive—its repeated abuse can lead to craving and compulsive PCP-seeking behavior, despite severe adverse consequences.

Here is another excerpt from an article written by Cecil Adams for straightdope.com, this covers the affects of PCP in some other cases and also mentions the case of big lurch:

Now, Jim. It's not like cannibalism is a frequent consequence of PCP use. Only one case has turned up that I know of, involving Antron Singleton, a would-be rapper using the stage name Big Lurch. In 2002, after he was found walking around Los Angeles naked and covered with blood, his roommate Tynisha Ysais, 21, was discovered dead on the floor of their apartment with her chest slashed open and her internal organs exposed. Pieces of her right lung, which had been removed from her body, appeared chewed and torn, and there were teeth marks on her face. Singleton's lawyer claimed his client had tucked into Ysais after a five-day PCP binge had made him psychotic. An insanity plea was rejected, and Singleton was sentenced to life in prison without parole; a similar incident soon found its way into an episode ofCSI.

Huh, you say. Sounds like PCP isn't the drug of choice when you're looking to get mellow. Maybe not, but PCP, known technically as phencyclidine and on the street as angel dust, horse tranquilizer, etc, has its defenders, or at least apologists, who say tales of homicidal rage are exaggerated and recall the hysteria surrounding cocaine, LSD, and marijuana in earlier eras. A riffle through the clippings offers evidence for both sides of the argument:

• Houston, a 21-year-old rising R & B star said to have been battling PCP use and mental problems, went to his hotel room while on tour in London in late January, ostensibly to read the Bible, and gouged out one of his eyes. His publicist denied reports that he had earlier attempted to jump from a 13th-floor window. PCP isn't mentioned in later accounts of the incident and the guy definitely had other issues, so this one can't be confidently pinned on the drug.
• According to the New York Daily News, in 2002 a 30-year-old Brooklyn mother killed her 7-year-old daughter while high on PCP, stabbing her more than 35 times and also repeatedly stabbing a neighbor who tried to intervene.
• In a 1980 special issue on PCP, the Journal of Psychedelic Drugsreported that, on the one hand, (1) some stories about PCP-induced dementia were demonstrably embroidered or otherwise unreliable--for example, Baltimore college dropout Charles Innes blinded himself while in jail after swallowing a canister of drugs, but there was no proof the stuff was PCP; (2) the vast majority of PCP experiences were nonviolent; (3) you could find eye gougings, superhuman strength, and whatnot attributed to drugs ranging from LSD to ergot; (4) PCP users took gobs of other drugs too; and (5) the one recreational drug indisputably linked to crime was alcohol. On the other hand, theJournal's contributors went on to say, PCP had played a role in plenty of stunningly senseless violence: (1) a 17-year-old boy made a sexual advance on a 14-year-old girl after both had smoked "superweed" (here meaning marijuana dosed with PCP); when she resisted, he concluded he was being attacked by a wild animal and strangled her; (2) a man cut off one of his partner's testicles at the latter's request while both were high on PCP; (3) one chronic PCP user "branded himself by burning a cross on his chest"; (4) a 38-year-old man smoked superweed, cut off the head of his dog, and attacked a stranger on the street with a razor; (5) high on PCP, a man waved down a car, shot and killed a passenger, then frolicked on the freeway firing in the air before being subdued; and (6) a 29-year-old man smoked a PCP "crystal joint," entered a pregnant woman's home, stabbed her, killing the fetus, killed her two-year-old child, and when found was running down the street with a knife, naked and bloody, yelling, "Hallelujah, I'm Jesus!"

PCP was studied in the 1950s as a human anesthetic but after reports of delusions, psychosis, and other side effects was restricted to veterinary use and eventually discontinued. It surfaced briefly as a recreational drug in San Francisco in 1967, reappeared in the 70s, and during the 80s became popular in urban black neighborhoods. The drug lost favor during the 90s but some reports indicate it surged with the new century, finding a market among a segment of clubgoers and ravers. It's described as dissociative, meaning users are more or less aware but feel oddly detached. Is PCP inherently dangerous? Given the continuing litany of horror stories after 40 years of street use, it seems clear this stuff is in a different league from LSD and other drugs with which it's often compared. The argument can be made that it unleashes violent outbursts mainly in people who were unstable to start with. But let's face it, much the same can be said of a gun.

(I also read about another black man taking PCP and then slicing off his face in segments and feeding it to his dogs, he even ripped his lips off! he survived due to the drugs in his system and when police pumped the dogs stomachs they found parts of his face and his lips, there are pictures of this on the internet, it's pretty gross)

I personally feel a bit sorry for this big Lurch, I know I am a sucker cause I always feel sorry for the bad guys in the movies when they get their comeuppance in the end, but I can't help but feel this man has just been thrown in jail to rot because of the fact that he is a black rapper, what if he was a white policeman instead? but the circumstances were exactly the same? would he have been given the same fate? or would he have got the help he needed?

I am not condoning what Antron Singleton has done, and smoking PCP was wreckless and stupid, he himself claims to have had mental issues on his own website, for example he says he saw a friend get killed in front of him prior to this and never got any kind of counseling for it, he should not have been smoking PCP, especially if he knew beforehand that he had 'problems' that could affect his behavior on the stuff even more.

It seems to me that he didn't know what he was doing, and does not seem to have any recollection of what he did, his website claims that there was a pitbull in the house that could have caused the injuries, although I'm sure that forensics are not stupid and would know the difference, plus human flesh that was not his own was found in his stomach? He didn't eat alot of her from the pictures I have seen, which makes you wonder well if it was truly an act of insane cannibalism surely he would have eaten more of her flesh? why would he want to eat a lung? then he was found wondering the streets naked, clearly messed up on the drugs.

or then again I could be wrong, he could be one of these rappers who shows little respect for women, raps about them being whores etc and then felt he was so above her that he could consume her, but it still doesn't make sense. Although he does come across as a bit egotistical from an interview on his webspace, claiming that the other rappers in his group were made successful from his 'gifts' and that this is the thanks he gets.

He never once apologizes for taking Tynisha's life, whether consciously or not- he still did it, he does however leave a message for the girls mother but all it seems to say is that the media etc will try and turn her against him, and something about love and god, but no apology, which I found odd.

Nor does he make any attempt at all really to address what happened on april 10th 2002.

There is also a contradiction, he says in a blog post that his attorney made up the part about him walking around naked on the street to make it appear as though he were mad, and also that he did not have any recollection of saying that the world was ending and he had to find the devil, that his attorney had again thrown that in to make him look insane, (like he'd need help)

yet on a fox news interview with Antron from his cell, he himself states that the last thought he can remember having in his head was that of the world ending and needing to find the devil and stop him. So it may be that he did say that but had no memory of it but was told he said it and decided to stick with it, but what IS clear to me just from reading his blog posts is that there is definitely something not right with his mentality, I do feel for him but at the end of the day he did commit this crime and cannot simply be allowed to walk free, I think he should be in a mental institute undergoing therapy for as long as it takes to get him the help he needs.

Oh he also states that he is beaten by guards in prison whilst cuffed, and reportedly has suffered spinal damage and a broken rib amongst other things, and has also been drugged up so that he gets confused with his story, whether this is true or not I do not know but would not be surprised, Michael Jackson also suffered sever abuse from police officials, police, prison guards- the majority of them are scum, they probably do their jobs because they are racist/prejudist and want to enslave and or carry out their own personal justice on said criminals.

I almost forgot, the record labels "stress free entertainment" and "black market activities" released his first solo album whilst he was in prison, the album is called: "It's all bad" and was released in 2004. The sickest thing in this whole case is the fact they they chose to use a picture of Big Lurch on the cover with a silver platter in his hand with a human SKULL on it! how insensitive and sick can you get? this is advertising at it's worst! and using something negative and upsetting such as a young womens murder to sell music! They are making it funny! and yes it is to a degree because we are very far removed from the whole thing, but when you put all fun and jokes aside, (there are plenty floating about due to the rarity and unusual nature of the case, not to mention it involving a 6"6 black rapper named big LURCH) and step back from the humorous undertones you can see how F***** up it is that they could release that image for the album cover considering the circumstances, to me this is almost as bad if not worse than the crime!

Anyway I have spent too much time on this already I have work to be doing! what do you think about the Big Lurch case?