WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 I want you to just close your eyes for a second 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:04.500 and picture a classic dusty American frontier 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.059 town. Oh, yeah. You know, the exact image, right? 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:10.179 The air is dry. There are horses hitched outside 00:00:10.179 --> 00:00:13.359 a local saloon. And right there, tacked to the 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:15.599 weathered wood of the town's post office wall, 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:19.940 is a piece of rough paper. And at the top, printed 00:00:19.940 --> 00:00:22.859 in bold, unmistakable, heavy block letters, is 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:26.160 a single word, wanted. It is an incredibly evocative 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:28.120 image, honestly, and one that operates almost 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:31.219 like a universal shorthand today. That visual 00:00:31.219 --> 00:00:33.799 is practically baked into our cultural DNA at 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:36.439 this point. It really is. And, well, welcome 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:38.340 to today's Deep Dive, where we are taking that 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:40.640 exact image and completely honest at how it actually 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:42.859 works. Right. Our mission today is exploring 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:46.079 a single surprisingly deep source, which is the 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:49.579 Wikipedia page on the wanted poster. Yeah. And 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:51.770 it's a great source. It is because what we are 00:00:51.770 --> 00:00:55.049 going to do is trace how this seemingly outdated 00:00:55.049 --> 00:00:57.310 piece of frontier memorabilia, something you've 00:00:57.310 --> 00:00:59.270 definitely seen in old Western movies or, you 00:00:59.270 --> 00:01:01.810 know, maybe on a modern highway billboard, how 00:01:01.810 --> 00:01:05.170 it evolved into a highly sophisticated, high 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:08.409 tech and even geopolitical tool for modern law 00:01:08.409 --> 00:01:11.079 enforcement. and the media. The mechanics of 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:13.180 how that evolution happened, and specifically 00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:16.680 the timeline of it, is full of details that completely 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:19.299 upend what we assume about how authorities communicate 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:23.060 with the public. It's basically a master class 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:25.400 in behavioral psychology and logistics. Yeah, 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.920 there's some major paradigm shifts in here. Because 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.579 when you strip away the cowboy aesthetic, the 00:01:30.579 --> 00:01:33.200 historical wanted poster... is essentially the 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.719 world's original analog form of crowdsourcing. 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:37.719 Oh, that's a perfect way to put it. Right, like 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:39.659 long before the internet, before social media, 00:01:39.739 --> 00:01:42.040 before amber alerts on our cell phones, this 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:45.040 was how a central authority blasted a message 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:47.719 out to the masses to solve a problem they simply 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.359 didn't have the manpower to solve alone. Exactly. 00:01:50.420 --> 00:01:53.299 They needed the public size. But to understand 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:57.549 how we got from that dusty town square to modern 00:01:57.549 --> 00:02:00.109 digital manhunts, we first need to look at the 00:02:00.109 --> 00:02:03.510 physical anatomy of the poster itself. And we 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:05.829 need to uncover a logistical detail about when 00:02:05.829 --> 00:02:09.129 the FBI actually updated their printing technology, 00:02:09.830 --> 00:02:11.669 because that completely caught me off guard. 00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:13.629 Yeah, let's start with the physical object, because 00:02:13.629 --> 00:02:16.550 the anatomy of a classic wanted poster is remarkably 00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:19.129 consistent by design. You have a central image. 00:02:19.669 --> 00:02:21.870 Historically, that would be a photograph if law 00:02:21.870 --> 00:02:24.169 enforcement was lucky enough to have one, or 00:02:24.169 --> 00:02:26.629 a facial composite produced by the police. Right, 00:02:26.789 --> 00:02:29.569 a sketch. Exactly. Below that, you have a physical 00:02:29.569 --> 00:02:32.090 description of the fugitive, a detailed description 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:33.789 of the specific crime they are alleged to have 00:02:33.789 --> 00:02:36.610 committed, and crucially, a set monetary reward. 00:02:36.930 --> 00:02:39.530 And historically, these were strategically placed 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:42.110 where foot traffic was highest. We're talking 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:44.629 post offices, district offices, public venues. 00:02:44.770 --> 00:02:46.710 A local bulletin board, basically. Well, yeah. 00:02:47.289 --> 00:02:49.590 And the look of it, that specific aesthetic, 00:02:50.110 --> 00:02:53.280 is heavily tied to the American frontier. The 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.199 distinct wood type typography used at the time 00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:59.139 is a huge part of why it feels so iconic to us 00:02:59.139 --> 00:03:01.659 now. But there's a practical reason for that, 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:03.400 right? Like, they weren't just trying to make 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:05.539 it look cool for a movie poster. Far from it. 00:03:05.659 --> 00:03:08.439 No, wood type was a purely functional necessity. 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:10.900 I mean, in the 19th century, if you wanted to 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:14.360 print letters large enough to be read from horseback 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:16.819 or, say, across a dusty street. Which you'd need 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:20.319 to do. Right. Metal type of that size would be 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:22.960 incredibly heavy. It would be expensive and just 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:25.340 super difficult for a small town printer to manage. 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:27.099 Oh, I hadn't even thought of the weight of the 00:03:27.099 --> 00:03:29.849 metal. Yeah. Carved wood blocks were cheap, they 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:32.449 were highly durable, and a local printer could 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:34.629 easily swap the letters in and out on the press. 00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:37.370 It was rugged technology for a rugged environment. 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:40.949 That makes so much sense. And a prime historical 00:03:40.949 --> 00:03:43.169 example of this early format that our source 00:03:43.169 --> 00:03:45.469 mentions is the poster printed for John Wilkes 00:03:45.469 --> 00:03:47.930 Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 00:03:48.169 --> 00:03:50.789 Which is actually a perfect transition point 00:03:50.789 --> 00:03:53.849 in this history. The Booth poster featured photographs 00:03:53.849 --> 00:03:56.310 of Booth and his accomplices, but because photo 00:03:56.310 --> 00:03:58.250 -mechanical reproduction wasn't widespread yet, 00:03:58.449 --> 00:04:00.270 they couldn't just print the photo onto the paper. 00:04:00.370 --> 00:04:03.430 Right. Those photos were often actual photographic 00:04:03.430 --> 00:04:06.349 prints physically pasted onto the paper broadsides 00:04:06.349 --> 00:04:09.750 alongside a detailed description and a massive 00:04:09.750 --> 00:04:13.530 reward. Wow. It was a laborious process designed 00:04:13.530 --> 00:04:16.600 to catch the eye instantly. But if we track the 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:18.980 visual evolution of these posters forward, we 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:21.980 hit a detail that is incredibly counterintuitive. 00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:24.180 Okay, yes, this is the part. For over a century, 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:26.420 the vast majority of these posters were printed 00:04:26.420 --> 00:04:28.639 strictly in black and white. Which makes total 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:31.920 sense for the 1800s. Of course. But the FBI did 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.339 not start routinely using color photographs in 00:04:34.339 --> 00:04:37.300 their printed posters until 2009. Okay, I got 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:39.740 so stuck on this detail in our notes. 2009 for 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:42.160 color printing. Yep, 2009. Wait, so let me unpack 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:45.310 this. By then, we all had smartphones in our 00:04:45.310 --> 00:04:48.670 pockets. The first iPhone came out in 2007. We 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:51.209 had smartphones before the FBI decided to use 00:04:51.209 --> 00:04:54.050 a color printer for their physical -wanted posters. 00:04:54.850 --> 00:04:57.029 Was the Bureau just hopelessly behind the times, 00:04:57.250 --> 00:04:59.069 or is there an actual mechanical reason they 00:04:59.069 --> 00:05:01.230 held out on black and white for so long? It wasn't 00:05:01.230 --> 00:05:03.569 about being behind the times at all. It was actually 00:05:03.569 --> 00:05:06.889 about absolute standardization across a highly 00:05:06.889 --> 00:05:09.509 fragmented system. OK. If you think about the 00:05:09.509 --> 00:05:12.269 sheer volume of posters the FBI had to distribute 00:05:12.269 --> 00:05:15.569 across thousands of post offices, banks, and 00:05:15.569 --> 00:05:19.009 local police precincts nationwide, color introduces 00:05:19.009 --> 00:05:21.870 friction. Now who's still? Well, if the FBI issues 00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:24.430 a pristine color poster, but a local sheriff 00:05:24.430 --> 00:05:26.910 in rural Texas only has a cheap black and white 00:05:26.910 --> 00:05:29.629 copier to run off 500 duplicates for the county. 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.220 the resulting image quality degrades significantly. 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:34.660 Exactly. Contrast is completely lost. It turns 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:37.519 into a gray smudge. Ah. So it's about making 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:39.920 sure the image survives the reproduction process 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:43.339 at the lowest possible level of technology. Precisely. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.079 Black and white printing was faster, it was vastly 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.899 cheaper, and significantly easier to reproduce 00:05:48.899 --> 00:05:51.680 at local levels without losing the distinct facial 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:53.639 features of the fugitive. which is the whole 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.199 point of the poster. Right. For decades, the 00:05:56.199 --> 00:05:59.540 priority was reach and reliability, not high 00:05:59.540 --> 00:06:02.220 resolution. They needed the face in front of 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:05.079 as many eyes as possible, knowing those posters 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:07.779 would be photocopied and faxed a dozen times 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:10.399 over. Fax machines. Yeah. Right. You can't fax 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:12.939 a color photo effectively. Exactly. It wasn't 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:15.819 until the digital age truly forced their hand 00:06:15.819 --> 00:06:19.000 and high quality color printing became ubiquitously 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.660 cheap at literally every local precinct that 00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:24.110 they made the effect. switch. That changes the 00:06:24.110 --> 00:06:26.910 perspective for me. It's not a lack of technology. 00:06:26.990 --> 00:06:29.089 It's designing for the lowest common denominator 00:06:29.089 --> 00:06:32.089 to ensure the system doesn't break. Right. But 00:06:32.089 --> 00:06:33.509 of course a poster is just a piece of paper. 00:06:33.569 --> 00:06:35.610 You can print millions of them perfectly, but 00:06:35.610 --> 00:06:37.569 without a reason for the public to actually stop, 00:06:37.670 --> 00:06:40.430 read, and care. It's just wallpaper. It's invisible. 00:06:40.670 --> 00:06:43.449 Exactly. The real engine driving this entire 00:06:43.449 --> 00:06:46.550 system isn't the ink. It's the economics. The 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:49.060 bounty. The incentive structure is what makes 00:06:49.060 --> 00:06:51.480 the poster actually function in the real world. 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:53.620 Yeah, this is where the whole concept of the 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:57.699 bounty comes in. These rewards were meticulously 00:06:57.699 --> 00:07:00.660 designed to incentivize citizens to do one of 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:03.480 two things. Either provide information that leads 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:06.500 to an arrest, or in some historical and even 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:08.980 modern cases, catch the criminal themselves. 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:11.180 And when you look at modern iterations, we aren't 00:07:11.180 --> 00:07:13.300 just talking about a few hundred bucks anymore. 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.879 No, not at all. The scale of modern bounties 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:19.620 is staggering. Our source notes a 10 million 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:22.220 U .S. dollar reward for someone like El Chapito. 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.500 10 million dollars. That is life -changing money. 00:07:25.699 --> 00:07:28.300 And with stakes that high, modern posters have 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:30.819 evolved to provide more than just a face. They 00:07:30.819 --> 00:07:33.300 now routinely include fingerprints to aid in 00:07:33.300 --> 00:07:35.319 definitive identification. Because if a government 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:37.709 is handing over 10 million dollars... They need 00:07:37.709 --> 00:07:40.350 absolute proof of identity. Exactly. And this 00:07:40.350 --> 00:07:42.910 financial incentive was so historically powerful 00:07:42.910 --> 00:07:45.949 that created an entirely new profession. Bounty 00:07:45.949 --> 00:07:48.750 hunters. Right. These are individuals who literally 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:51.269 make a living chasing down wanted individuals 00:07:51.269 --> 00:07:53.410 to collect these rewards. Which brings us to 00:07:53.410 --> 00:07:55.610 perhaps the most famous phrase associated with 00:07:55.610 --> 00:07:57.829 this entire topic. One I think we really need 00:07:57.829 --> 00:08:00.689 to clarify for you, the listener, the phrase, 00:08:00.870 --> 00:08:04.750 dead or alive. Ah, yes. The classic trope. When 00:08:04.750 --> 00:08:07.069 you hear that phrase, You probably immediately 00:08:07.069 --> 00:08:10.750 think of the Wild West, a lawless land where 00:08:10.750 --> 00:08:12.949 a local sheriff is basically giving the public 00:08:12.949 --> 00:08:15.810 a license to kill. And the phrase literally meant 00:08:15.810 --> 00:08:17.569 the reward would be paid whether you brought 00:08:17.569 --> 00:08:20.110 the person in breathing or brought in their corpse. 00:08:20.709 --> 00:08:22.810 It indicated the target was officially declared 00:08:22.810 --> 00:08:25.750 an outlaw. And we should definitely define outlaw 00:08:25.750 --> 00:08:28.230 here in its literal historical sense. It meant 00:08:28.230 --> 00:08:30.350 the person was deemed outside the protection 00:08:30.350 --> 00:08:32.529 of the law, therefore it was permissible to kill 00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:35.090 them or permissible if they violently resisted 00:08:35.090 --> 00:08:36.929 arrest. But here's where it gets really interesting 00:08:36.929 --> 00:08:40.110 to me because the trope we see in movies is that 00:08:40.110 --> 00:08:42.409 dead or alive was a government decree, right? 00:08:42.450 --> 00:08:44.629 Like the ultimate state sanctioned punishment 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:47.809 handed down by a judge or a sheriff. But our 00:08:47.809 --> 00:08:49.909 sources say the reality is entirely different. 00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:53.690 Most official issuers of wanted posters, actual 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:56.309 law enforcement agencies, strongly preferred 00:08:56.309 --> 00:08:58.610 the target to be taken alive. They absolutely 00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:01.440 had to. I mean... The justice system requires 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:04.139 a living defendant to function properly. Right. 00:09:04.179 --> 00:09:06.019 You can't put a dead person on trial. Exactly. 00:09:06.259 --> 00:09:09.379 A dead suspect cannot be interrogated for information 00:09:09.379 --> 00:09:12.100 about accomplices, they cannot be put on trial 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:14.360 to demonstrate the effectiveness of the law to 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:17.559 the public, and they do not provide the necessary 00:09:17.559 --> 00:09:21.279 legal closure to the victims or the state. Okay, 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:24.759 so law enforcement was very rarely the entropy 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:27.419 slapping dead or alive on a poster. Very rarely. 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:29.320 So if it wasn't the government who was putting 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:32.799 those words in bold woodblock type, it was actually 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:35.539 private organizations using extreme measures 00:09:35.539 --> 00:09:38.320 to protect their bottom line. Right. It's essentially 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:40.879 corporate frontier justice. We're talking about 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:43.220 railroad companies, stagecoach lines, private 00:09:43.220 --> 00:09:46.039 banks. If you are continually robbing their trains 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:48.360 and costing them money, They didn't care about 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:50.639 a fair trial. They just wanted the problem eliminated, 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:53.100 and they had the capital to pay for it. It was 00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:56.460 a brutal private sector solution to a security 00:09:56.460 --> 00:09:58.820 problem. And if we look at the psychology of 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:01.799 this... Putting a price tag on a human being, 00:10:02.379 --> 00:10:05.980 especially a dead or alive price tag funded by 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:09.019 a massive corporation, fundamentally shifts the 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:11.159 behavior of the general public. It really does. 00:10:11.419 --> 00:10:13.960 It transforms citizens from passive observers 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:16.740 of crime into active participants in a manhunt. 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:19.940 You are essentially deputizing the population 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.860 through capitalism. It changes the person looking 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:25.899 at the poster from a bystander who might call 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:27.940 the police, into an opportunist who might go 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:30.100 buy a rifle. It completely weaponizes public 00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:32.500 attention, but as effective as that was, that 00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:34.860 paper system had a fatal flaw. Right, the speed 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:37.899 of travel. This system of crowd -sourced justice 00:10:37.899 --> 00:10:40.860 driven by financial incentives was highly localized 00:10:40.860 --> 00:10:42.960 for over a century. If you had to physically 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.580 walk into a post office or a train station, stop 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:48.100 and read the poster. But if a fugitive gets on 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:50.950 a train, or later gets in a car. They are moving 00:10:50.950 --> 00:10:53.049 faster than the mail coach can deliver the paper 00:10:53.049 --> 00:10:55.269 posters to the next town. The target audience 00:10:55.269 --> 00:10:57.440 is stationary, but the criminal is mobile. And 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:00.240 that necessity for speed is exactly what forces 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.899 the leap to the digital era. Law enforcement 00:11:02.899 --> 00:11:04.980 figured out how to take this exact same incentive 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:07.820 structure and put it on absolute steroids using 00:11:07.820 --> 00:11:10.340 modern infrastructure. This is a massive paradigm 00:11:10.340 --> 00:11:13.620 shift. In 2007, the FBI piloted a new program. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.360 They took the traditional wanted poster and started 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.360 posting them on electronic billboards in 23 cities. 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:21.940 Right. Instead of woodblock type, we're talking 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:24.960 glowing LEDs towering over the interstate. The 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:27.379 core advantage here is instantaneous posting 00:11:27.379 --> 00:11:29.940 in public view across the entire United States. 00:11:30.419 --> 00:11:32.059 If someone was on the run in New York and authorities 00:11:32.059 --> 00:11:34.419 suspect they are driving west, their face can 00:11:34.419 --> 00:11:37.759 be illuminated on a massive screen in Ohio before 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:39.759 the fugitive even crosses the state line. The 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:41.480 poster finally moves faster than the Kremlin. 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:44.419 Exactly. And by 2014, the data showed the FBI 00:11:44.419 --> 00:11:47.820 claimed access to over 5 ,200 of these digital 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:51.080 billboards across the U .S. 5 ,200 billboards. 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:54.200 But I want you the listener, to think about your 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:56.399 own commute this morning. You're merging onto 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.000 the highway, you're driving 70 miles an hour, 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:01.080 you're listening to music or maybe this deep 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:04.200 dive. When you digitize these posters and put 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:07.940 them on 5 ,200 highway billboards, does it actually 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:10.259 make them more effective? It's a valid question. 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:12.860 Right. Or do we just tune them out as part of 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:15.679 our daily visually cluttered commute? It's like 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:17.820 they turn the entire U .S. interstate system 00:12:17.820 --> 00:12:20.639 into the town square's bulletin board. But is 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:23.259 anyone actually looking? Well, the data suggests 00:12:23.259 --> 00:12:25.299 they absolutely are looking, and the mechanism 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:28.340 behind why it works is fascinating. The FBI reported 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:32.000 that by 2014, 53 cases had been solved as a direct 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.960 result of digital billboard publicity. Wow. 53 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.600 direct cases. Right. And that doesn't even count 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:39.899 the many others solved through the Bureau's overall 00:12:39.899 --> 00:12:41.840 publicity efforts that included those billboards 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:44.139 or the modern posters widely published all over 00:12:44.139 --> 00:12:46.299 the internet. So the hit rate is actually there. 00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:49.929 But how? If I'm driving 70 miles an hour, I have 00:12:49.929 --> 00:12:52.649 maybe two seconds to process that image. It comes 00:12:52.649 --> 00:12:55.269 down to sheer logistical power and a shift from 00:12:55.269 --> 00:12:58.070 pull to push mechanics. Okay, explain that. So 00:12:58.070 --> 00:13:01.370 the old paper way relied on pull. You had to 00:13:01.370 --> 00:13:03.990 rely on a citizen actively deciding to walk into 00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:07.169 a specific district office, stopping and pulling 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:09.110 the information into their brain by reading the 00:13:09.110 --> 00:13:12.570 board. Right. The digital highway uses push mechanics. 00:13:12.970 --> 00:13:15.870 You are projecting the fugitive's face. instantly 00:13:15.870 --> 00:13:18.669 and massively, directly into the daily routines 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:21.629 of millions of people. You don't need them to 00:13:21.629 --> 00:13:24.090 seek out the poster. You put the poster in a 00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:26.549 place they cannot possibly avoid seeing it. It's 00:13:26.549 --> 00:13:28.909 a numbers game. Exactly. If 10 million people 00:13:28.909 --> 00:13:31.110 drive past a billboard in a major metropolitan 00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:34.070 area during rush hour, you don't need all of 00:13:34.070 --> 00:13:36.669 them to care. You just need one person who happens 00:13:36.669 --> 00:13:38.909 to recognize the face and, you know, remembers 00:13:38.909 --> 00:13:42.389 that bounty money. It is the ultimate hyper accelerated 00:13:42.389 --> 00:13:45.629 evolution of that 19th century crowd sourcing. 00:13:45.909 --> 00:13:47.889 You have basically turned the entire commuting 00:13:47.889 --> 00:13:50.769 public into a passive surveillance network. That 00:13:50.769 --> 00:13:53.470 is wild to think about. We've gone from paper 00:13:53.470 --> 00:13:57.230 on a wooden wall to pixels on a digital billboard. 00:13:57.529 --> 00:13:59.409 But what really stood out in this exploration 00:13:59.409 --> 00:14:02.950 is how the visual of the wanted poster has become 00:14:02.950 --> 00:14:06.330 so universally understood, so deeply embedded 00:14:06.330 --> 00:14:08.730 in our collective consciousness as a symbol of 00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:11.950 ultimate guilt that it has completely transcended 00:14:11.950 --> 00:14:14.070 law enforcement entirely. Oh, absolutely. It's 00:14:14.070 --> 00:14:16.090 no longer just a tool for police to catch bank 00:14:16.090 --> 00:14:18.509 robbers. It's become a highly effective weapon 00:14:18.509 --> 00:14:20.610 for the media. And this is where the discussion 00:14:20.610 --> 00:14:24.610 moves from local true crime into global geopolitics. 00:14:24.610 --> 00:14:26.909 Right. Because the imagery of the American Wild 00:14:26.909 --> 00:14:30.080 West is so potent. Media sources around the world 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:33.159 have co -opted the poster format to cast prominent 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:37.539 global figures as Wild West criminals. It operates 00:14:37.539 --> 00:14:39.980 as a remarkably effective form of propaganda. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:42.120 We have two incredibly striking examples of this 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:44.500 from our sources decades apart. I want to be 00:14:44.500 --> 00:14:46.580 clear here. We aren't endorsing any specific 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:49.179 geopolitical viewpoints, but rather impartially 00:14:49.179 --> 00:14:52.580 reporting on how the media utilizes this visual 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:54.960 shortcut when the stakes are global. Right. It's 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.379 about the media strategy. Exactly. So the first 00:14:57.379 --> 00:15:00.720 example takes us back to September 4, 1939, the 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:03.500 very beginning of World War II. The British newspaper, 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:06.659 The Daily Mirror, published an edition that cast 00:15:06.659 --> 00:15:10.259 Adolf Hitler as a reckless criminal who was wanted 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:12.940 dead or alive. Think about the semiotics of that 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:15.779 for a second. A British paper using a deeply 00:15:15.779 --> 00:15:18.779 American frontier trope to describe a European 00:15:18.779 --> 00:15:21.639 dictator. Right. The symbol of the wanted poster 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:24.360 is so strong it completely bypasses national 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.759 borders. It transcends cultural boundaries. And 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:28.779 we saw the exact same mechanism used much more 00:15:28.779 --> 00:15:31.600 recently. In 2001, the New York Post did a very 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.019 similar global search cover for Osama bin Laden. 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:36.919 What's fascinating about that instance is the 00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:39.480 timing. It happened shortly after President George 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:42.519 W. Bush explicitly referenced the trope himself, 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:44.639 publicly stating, and I quote, and there's an 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:47.059 old poster out West that I recall that said wanted, 00:15:47.259 --> 00:15:49.740 dead, or alive. Which practically hands the media 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:52.259 the framing on a silver platter. Seriously. But 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:54.759 if we analyze why this works so well, it's basically 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:56.840 an act of stripping away political legitimacy. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:59.320 How do you mean? Well, using a wanted poster 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:02.120 for a geopolitical conflict immediately simplifies 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:05.879 a vastly complex war. Geopolitics is messy. It 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:09.299 involves treaties, historical grievances, nuanced 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:11.419 statecraft things that are difficult for the 00:16:11.419 --> 00:16:14.460 average citizen to fully grasp on a daily basis. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.799 Is overwhelming. Exactly. But a wanted poster. 00:16:17.960 --> 00:16:21.080 Everyone understands a wanted poster. Yes. It 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:24.580 instantly reduces a massive, complex global conflict 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:27.769 into a clear, digestible narrative. Right. It 00:16:27.769 --> 00:16:29.870 takes a foreign head of state or a global leader 00:16:29.870 --> 00:16:32.289 and visually reduces them to the status of a 00:16:32.289 --> 00:16:34.809 common street thug or a train robber. Wow. It 00:16:34.809 --> 00:16:36.889 utilizes the psychological weight of the Wild 00:16:36.889 --> 00:16:39.129 West, that primal need for justice order and 00:16:39.129 --> 00:16:41.889 capturing the bad guy, to bypass intellectual 00:16:41.889 --> 00:16:43.970 debate and unite the public behind a single, 00:16:44.269 --> 00:16:46.769 easily identifiable target. It is incredible. 00:16:46.789 --> 00:16:48.690 It takes something as complicated as international 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.370 relations and distills it into the exact same 00:16:51.370 --> 00:16:53.629 emotional beat as a sheriff chasing an outlaw 00:16:53.629 --> 00:16:55.590 through the desert. Yep. When you see that bold 00:16:55.590 --> 00:16:58.129 font, your brain immediately categorizes the 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:00.210 person pictured as someone outside the protection 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.029 of the law. The media deeply understands this 00:17:03.029 --> 00:17:06.130 psychological shortcut, and politicians utilize 00:17:06.130 --> 00:17:09.289 it to frame conflicts in terms the public intuitively 00:17:09.289 --> 00:17:12.089 grasps. OK, this has been a phenomenal exploration. 00:17:12.829 --> 00:17:15.130 We set out to unpack the Wikipedia page of the 00:17:15.130 --> 00:17:17.569 wanted poster and look at the ground we've covered. 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:20.250 It's been quite a journey. We started with wood 00:17:20.250 --> 00:17:23.190 block type, tacked up in frontier post offices, 00:17:23.630 --> 00:17:26.349 learning why that rugged typography was a physical 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:29.430 necessity for early printers. We uncovered the 00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:31.589 logistical standardization that kept the FBI 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:34.109 printing these things in black and white all 00:17:34.109 --> 00:17:37.130 the way until 2009. Still blows my mind. Right. 00:17:37.289 --> 00:17:39.730 And we debunked the Hollywood dead or alive myth, 00:17:40.069 --> 00:17:42.490 realizing it was largely a tool of corporate 00:17:42.490 --> 00:17:44.829 frontier justice acting outside the government 00:17:44.829 --> 00:17:47.269 to protect their bottom line. And then we tracked 00:17:47.269 --> 00:17:51.150 its necessary evolution onto 5 ,200 digital billboards 00:17:51.150 --> 00:17:54.170 across the U .S. interstate system, shifting 00:17:54.170 --> 00:17:56.529 the mechanics of the manhunt from pulling citizens 00:17:56.529 --> 00:17:59.589 in to pushing the fugitives face out at 70 miles 00:17:59.589 --> 00:18:02.630 an hour. And finally, we analyze how that dusty 00:18:02.630 --> 00:18:05.210 piece of paper transformed into a geopolitical 00:18:05.210 --> 00:18:08.130 tool used on global newspaper covers to strip 00:18:08.130 --> 00:18:11.529 legitimacy from dictators and terrorists by tapping 00:18:11.529 --> 00:18:13.670 into our deep -seated cultural understanding 00:18:13.670 --> 00:18:16.690 of the Wild West. It's a lot of ground. So the 00:18:16.690 --> 00:18:18.730 next time you, the listener, are driving down 00:18:18.730 --> 00:18:20.789 the highway and you pass an electronic billboard 00:18:20.789 --> 00:18:23.730 flashing a face or the next time you hear a politician 00:18:23.730 --> 00:18:26.910 or a pundit invoke the phrase dead or alive, 00:18:27.549 --> 00:18:30.130 I want you to remember something. You are not 00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:33.039 just looking at an ad or a catchy phrase. you 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.200 are witnessing a centuries -old psychological 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:39.380 tool actively at work in the modern world. And 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:41.299 that actually brings up an important and perhaps 00:18:41.299 --> 00:18:43.759 slightly unsettling question about where this 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:46.740 goes next. Oh. Yeah. We've seen the poster move 00:18:46.740 --> 00:18:49.480 from the stationary post office to the fast -moving 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:52.140 digital highway and the internet. But with the 00:18:52.140 --> 00:18:54.440 rise of location tracking and instant notifications, 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:56.880 what happens when the wanted poster is no longer 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:59.200 something you happen to walk past or drive under, 00:18:59.539 --> 00:19:01.680 but a push notification sent directly to your 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.000 phone, because your GPS says you happen to be 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.200 standing within a one mile radius of a fugitive. 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:08.640 When the public square becomes our pocket, how 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:10.559 will that change the nature of the hunt? When 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:13.559 the poster finds you instead of you finding it, 00:19:14.099 --> 00:19:16.400 that is a chilling, brilliant thought to leave 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:18.500 on. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:21.339 deep dive into the source material today. Keep 00:19:21.339 --> 00:19:23.200 that image of the weathered paper on the wooden 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:25.539 wall in your mind, because as we've learned today, 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:28.960 the ink might fade, but the hunt never really 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:30.319 stops. Catch you next time.