In contrast to the more grounded and thorough reporting of the local murders, none of the 11 articles concerning out of state murders received follow up articles. Their average length comes out to 178 words per article. This average is skewed heavily by the inclusion of the dataset’s longest article which is 574 words long, including an entire speech by the brother of a murder victim who believed the state had arrested the wrong man and who wished to beg the public to reconsider their growing hatred of the accused. When this article is removed as an outlier, the average length for an out of state article concerning a murder falls to 142 words per article. What these articles lack in length they pick up in shock value. Out of state articles were more likely to contain multiple fatalities, or in one instance the deranged ramblings of a German who claims to have been coerced into committing a ritual sacrifice at a synagogue. Of the 11 out of state murders, over half were printed as front-page news, likely in an attempt to sell more papers with provocative and shocking stories, such as the shooting of a pair of nuns in New York.

Out Of State Excessive Violence

Out Of State Tragedy and Drama

Note that these two articles did not see print on the front page, but the third. This reflects that the audience of 1902 found violence and gore more compelling than the tragedy of a doomed romance or the impassioned pleas of a grieving reverend.