I was acting crazy in North America, and all the crazy people there took it seriously.

Chapter 100 The Sun cries foul and throws out a dirty bomb
The Prohibition Board is in an uproar!
The American public opinion arena is in an uproar!
When the Mississippi Herald first revealed Prince's double life, most people's first reaction was disbelief, followed by anger.

"It's fake! This must be a forgery!"

After the initial shock, staunch Prohibition supporters angrily waved newspapers, shouting, "How dare they slander a fallen hero! Media, have some decency! Let the deceased rest in peace!"

But then a flood of evidence came in.

Newspapers across Mississippi received the anonymously sent evidence and rushed to publish it.

First came the photo of Prince grinning with his hands on his hips at his own bootlegging den—the “prohibition prince” in the photo wasn’t wearing the crisp uniform from the previously reported photos, but rather overalls stained with alcohol, standing in front of a pile of rum barrels and grinning broadly.

Next is his signed agreement with bootleggers to split profits, including a comparison with his publicly signed agreement.

The final, fatal blow came from a deep investigation by Mississippi police, who unearthed a box of US dollars in Prince's backyard!
"The initial count exceeds $100,000," the sheriff told the newspaper, "equivalent to more than a hundred years' salary for an Prohibition detective!"

Okay, the evidence is irrefutable!
Even if he wasn't a bootlegging merchant or bootlegging dealer, he definitely accepted bribes!
The whole of America was in uproar!

Those who had prayed for Prince in church, those temperance activists who had marched with his picture, those ordinary housewives who had shed tears for him on the radio—all felt blatantly deceived and humiliated.

"We're actually shedding tears for a bootlegging dealer who takes bribes while pretending to be a hero?"

Their feelings were all wasted!
Those who were most heartfelt in mourning for the "heroes" before are now furious!

Anger needs a target.

Soon, people's anger turned to the two most conspicuous targets.

The Prohibition Bureau was the first to be targeted.

It's utterly ridiculous that they recruited a bootlegger as a prohibition agent and then hailed him as a "hero"?
Calling them trash is an insult to trash!

In Washington, the Prohibition Bureau headquarters was besieged, and angry crowds burned Prince's photos outside the bureau's gates; Capitol Hill also received bundles of protest letters demanding a thorough investigation into Prohibition Bureau corruption.

Another target was The Sun.

"How dare you haile such a scoundrel as a 'hero of the ages'?" The reader's letter section was flooded with angry questions. "Where is your shame?"

The phone lines were ringing non-stop with complaints and protests, forcing operators to unplug the cables to get some peace and quiet.

Immediately, both the Prohibition Board and The Sun were engulfed in a storm of condemnation!

The Sun is alright; it's not like it hasn't been criticized before, and this time it even has people sharing the blame!
The Prohibition Bureau was completely overwhelmed!

The proposal to increase funding was predictably rejected, and a new round of internal investigations ensued, even jeopardizing the position of the newly appointed commissioner, Robert!

……

In Mississippi, Hughie, who was increasingly displaying the demeanor of a Black leader, looked at the media and the American public (mostly white) who were in disarray and nodded with satisfaction.

Prince's identity was, of course, revealed by him.

Although the unexpected arrival of the "Atlantic Liberty" disrupted his original plans, he couldn't let this scoundrel go to hell with the halo of "hero"!

Now, looking at mainstream white society, Prohibition, and the media, he is caught in a vortex of self-doubt and anger, feeling a sense of vengeful pleasure.

But that wasn't enough; he had more ammunition.

...Huey's ammunition caused an uproar in the Sun's editorial department!
It's often said that American media doesn't have an overt censorship body that dictates what content can and cannot be published, but the media seems to have an invisible line in their minds, knowing what should and shouldn't be published.

That makes sense.

The editors at The Sun knew that, under normal circumstances, what Huey sent shouldn't have been published.

Content about white people using violence against black people is too detrimental to the unity of the United States! Content that is detrimental to the unity of the United States should certainly not be published.

“But isn’t this an abnormal situation?” Logan waved his arms. “We at The Sun are so wronged! The Prohibition Bureau’s own ‘star agent’ is actually a bootlegger, and they didn’t even know it, so how would our newspaper know?”

He said with righteous indignation, "Now the whole of America is criticizing us for 'fraud,' so shouldn't we atone for our sins and let the public know that we were also badly deceived? Even if the truth is uncomfortable."

—After seeing the anonymous information that Prince was a perpetrator of the “Tulsa Massacre,” Logan was 99 percent certain that it was related to Hughie.

He didn't know Hughie's plan, but that didn't stop him from giving it a push.

"Besides, did you see what the sender said? He's not just sending it to us. So many newspapers have been proven wrong before, can you be sure they won't send it?"

Logan's last sentence silenced all objections.

The following day, The Sun published an apology written by Logan himself.

The article begins by solemnly stating that although this is largely the fault of the Prohibition Board, and we were unaware that they were so incompetent as to provide completely false information (Prohibition Board: Are you being polite?), we have misled our readers and feel deeply uneasy.

Then, the author shifts focus: "The best way to atone is not to apologize, but to reveal the whole truth."

"To make amends for the mistake, our reporter recently made a concerted effort to thoroughly investigate Prince's past experiences, and now the results of the investigation are being made public."

The subsequent two editions detailed the events known as the "Tulsa Massacre," and included numerous before-and-after photos—including images of Black residents shot and lying dead in the streets; photos of Black residents' shops burned down; and photos of Black residents returning to the ruins of their homes and weeping.

One of them is a blurry photo, but Prince's face is still recognizable. He is smiling in the photo, participating in the atrocities!

It forms a stark and striking contrast with the previous photo!

Logan concluded by expressing deep reflection, stating that placing such a thug—no, a demon—on the hero list was an insult to countless true heroes in America, and that the Prohibition Bureau deserved a mention here.

I can't help but ask, how exactly did they manage to elevate such a devil to the status of a star agent?

Well, it's said that the Commissioner of Prohibition publicly hurled insults at the Sun for a full fifteen minutes after seeing this issue of the newspaper!

This demonstrates the power of this "dirty bomb"!

In any case, the governments of Oklahoma and Tulsa also broke through their defenses immediately.

If you're going to cry foul, then cry foul. Why did you have to resort to such a shocking tactic to expose the ugly side of white people?

The Mississippi state government was also in a bind.

How can they prevent Prince from being dug up and desecrated?

……

(End of this chapter)