Chapter 22: The Outlaw Couple
Author: Yue Shang Xintou
I wonder, if I were to shut down The Messenger Newspaper and start selling coffee, would the pattern formed by the Mark also change into the shape of coffee?
Carrying a cup of hot coffee, Colin sat down at his desk, his mind wandering.
Of course, the idea of shutting down the Newspaper Agency and switching careers to sell coffee was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration.
But changing the composition of The Messenger Newspaper, shifting its content away from hatred for Hoover, had become a pressing issue for Colin.
However, if he were to change the current situation…
What kind of reporting direction should he choose as The Messenger Newspaper's next focus?
Especially considering the unique nature of Faith, Colin felt a bit lost for a moment.
...
Clack, clack—
Rhythmic keystrokes echoed continuously within the Messenger Newspaper.
Typesetters of this era were essentially manual laborers. To finish the layout for The Messenger Newspaper before the weekly publication date, Old John didn't have much time to spare.
However, Old John, working hard at the typesetting machine, would never have dreamed of it.
At this very moment, his boss, Colin, was actually thinking about once again changing the established journalistic direction of The Messenger Newspaper.
Using methods like Hate Marketing, establishing an object of hatred, and dividing the audience…
The Newspaper Agency had finally started to see some success. The Messenger Newspaper's distribution sales had risen from a low of a few hundred to a thousand copies to about seven thousand. Especially with the spread of the ballad, last week's newspaper distribution almost broke the ten-thousand mark.
It set the all-time highest distribution record for The Messenger Newspaper.
To this day, Old John could still recall the sight of the old rotary printing press smoking.
It was a scene he had never witnessed since he started working for The Messenger Newspaper.
It also represented the popularity of The Messenger Newspaper.
For a small, local paper like The Messenger Newspaper, this was already an incredible achievement, especially during a unique period like The Great Depression.
It was foreseeable that as soon as Colin proposed the idea of changing The Messenger Newspaper's reporting…
Old John would absolutely be the first to jump out and object.
Even though he was the one who initially thought the content was too ruthless.
...
"...Winthrop Kellogg, an associate professor at Indiana University and a renowned zoologist, has halted a five-year animal experiment. It is reported that Winthrop Kellogg began a reverse experiment nine months ago with the goal of testing—if an animal infant is raised by humans, would its intelligence and habits become closer to that of a human?"
"To complete this experiment, Winthrop Kellogg personally selected a 7.5-month-old female chimpanzee from a zoo, named her 'Gua,' and raised her alongside his 10-month-old son, Donald, as siblings."
"Throughout the experiment, Winthrop Kellogg strictly adhered to experimental protocols. From the first day 'Gua' arrived at his home, he and his wife, Luella, began meticulously measuring various data points: the two children's weight, blood pressure, height, etc., and testing their natural reactions to external stimuli..."
At his desk, Colin flipped through the old newspaper before him, trying to find some direction for inspiration.
Unfortunately,
The vast majority of the news content in the old newspaper was of no help to him.
Shifting his gaze from the report on the chimpanzee adoption experiment, Colin turned the pages of the newspaper, continuing to read.
"Bonnie and Clyde—An Unprecedented Fugitive Couple!"
"...According to information provided by the police, at least four small business and bank robberies are connected to this Outlaw Couple. They are extremely dangerous criminals with a history of repeated prison escapes. Any member of the public who discovers their whereabouts should not act rashly..."
The Outlaw Couple—Bonnie and Clyde
Many newspapers published wanted reports about this couple.
As a case that emerged during The Great Depression, the story of "Bonnie and Clyde" was propagated by the mass media and imbued with an artificial significance. In 1967, their story was even made into a film titled 'The Outlaw Couple,' which specifically recounted how Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met and fell in love during The Great Depression, teamed up to rob and kill, got involved with gangs, and were imprisoned and escaped multiple times.
However, from Colin's perspective, he understood very clearly.
The so-called 'exploits' of "Bonnie and Clyde" were actually an amplified effect created by media sensationalism, giving them a public image that far exceeded their actual capabilities.
After Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were gunned down by the police, the scene of their deaths even attracted a massive crowd of onlookers. Fanatics tried to take anything they could from Bonnie and Clyde's bodies as souvenirs. Someone took a corner of Bonnie's blood-soaked dress, while another collected a lock of her hair.
According to the coroner's description, the scene was chaotic when he arrived, with someone even attempting to cut off Clyde's ear.
And when their bodies were sent back to Dallas, the news of their deaths caused a sensation across the country.
A few hours later, tens of thousands of people flocked to the small town, which had a population of only 2,000, wanting to get a glimpse of the remains of the legendary Outlaw Couple. This caused the price of beer at local bars to nearly double, with a bottle that usually sold for 15 cents now going for 25 cents.
Evidently, the act of flocking to a spectacle is the same everywhere, at home and abroad.
In fact, in some respects, people overseas were even more fanatical and frenzied about it.
Of course, the reports on "Bonnie and Clyde" were not Colin's main focus.
In fact, as far as he knew, this Outlaw Couple's 'career' didn't last very long. The media's rush to report on them actually became their death knell.
In 1934, just two years after the reports came out, the fugitive couple were finally caught and shot to death.
Even in death, they couldn't be buried together as they had wished, but were interred separately in two different cemeteries.
On the contrary, what he was concerned with was the amplifying effect the media had on the entire affair.
During The Great Depression, people had limited channels for obtaining information.
Besides television and radio, there were printed newspapers. In fact, due to the wealth gap, the most common source of news for the majority of the lower and middle classes were newspaper reports.
It was precisely because of this that the power of mass media propagation grew to an unprecedented extent during this era.
In fact, for the people of this period, especially the homeless and the unemployed, the most common way to pass the time was by reading news and books in the library.
Even if their main purpose for being in the library was for the warm environment that offered shelter from the wind and rain.
(end of chapter)