Whether by listening to podcasts, binging on documentaries, or just loitering on a street corner waiting for some shit to go down, lots of folks are super into true crime these days. However, this isn't anything new. People have always loved a good murder story, which is why the past is filled with jackholes trying to make a quick buck off of other people's morbid curiosity. As a result, there has been true crime merchandising so messed up that it makes our Zodiac Killer collector mugs seem normal by comparison. For example ...
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People Learned About Jack The Ripper From Shitty Comics
Before he was the subject of the world's worst museum, people got their information on Jack the Ripper the old-fashioned way: newspapers. But in ye olden days, plenty of people didn't read no good, so lower-class tabloids often presented the stories of the day in the form of elaborate and often very inaccurate illustrations. And the most infamous tabloid of all was The Illustrated Police News, London's premier source for news about monkey duels ...
Illustrated Police NewsWhich is still only our second-favorite duel they managed to feature.
... or saucy tales of ladies in bathing suits getting their proto-feminism on:
Illustrated Police NewsWow, the creeps of yesteryear were dapper as hell.
Illustrated Police News was such a titan of fabrication and gossip that it was once voted the "worst newspaper" in Britain (The Sun didn't exist yet). The paper was also at the height of its popularity during the Jack the Ripper murders, meaning that way too many people learned about one of the most horrific killing sprees of all time through what looks like the kind of comic strips that wouldn't even make the funny pages of a suburban gazette.
Illustrated Police NewsIn fairness, you want to cut right to the chase when you’re competing with ape duels for readers' attentions.
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