There
is a daily newspaper in the small Georgia town of Harlan’s Mill called, imaginatively
enough, the Harlan’s Mill Daily (established
1832, the same year as the founding of the town). The Daily normally had
very little of note to report. It just wasn’t all that interesting that old
farmer Molton’s milk cow gave birth to a white calf with brown spots. Occasionally,
the Daily would report something mildly interesting: a tourism bus stopping in
town for the day or Mayor Harlan having a gala (most residents of the Mill
could not tell you what this was). Even more occasionally there would be a
report of something actually stimulating, like the time they filmed several
scenes for a major Motion Picture (the people of the Mill still called them
that, Motion Pictures), nearby. A few of the townsfolk had even gotten to walk
through the background on camera as extras. But practically never news of real
import. In fact, one could read the Daily
for years and never encounter a single piece of actual hard news. But on July
5, 1986 the Daily managed to do
something it had never accomplished before or since; it sold out.
On
July 5, 1986 the Daily reported that
Sheriff William Dell, father of little Thomas Dell, had locked two dozen
townsfolk in his little jailhouse, doused it with gasoline, locked himself in
with them and burned it to the ground, roasting all twenty-five of them like
Thanksgiving turkeys.
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