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Right now, memes featuring a supposed news paper article stating "SUICIDE WOMAN TALKS COP INTO JUMPING WITH HER!" are going around. For example:

Suicide Woman Talks Cop into Jumping with Her

More examples (not displayed as images to save space, original URLs credited, but some linked to SE imgur):

Is there any truth to this? Did someone really convince a police officer sent out to help them avoid suicide to commit suicide together?

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1 Answers1

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This story is from the October 25, 1994 issue of the Weekly World News, page 2: enter image description here

The Weekly World News had a reputation for posting outrageous stories made up from whole cloth.

While I cannot prove that this particular story is false, I can give you some context to show the level of journalistic standards held by this publication. This same issue also included such stories as:

  • 65-million-year-old lug nut discovered in Arizona!
  • Dad breaks croc's neck with his bare hands!
  • Security guard superglues burglar to wall!
  • Two bandits stick up the same bank at the same time!
  • Hot-blooded lady Bigfoot stalking farm worker!
  • Ancient writings reveal Egyptian pharaoh flew in alien spaceship!
  • Japan's secret plan to launch their junk cars into orbit
plasticinsect
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    How can you mention WWN stories and not include their most spectacularly successful invention, [Batboy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Boy_(character))? – barbecue Aug 04 '20 at 17:57
  • There happened to be no stories about Batboy in this particular issue. Otherwise I certainly would have including him on the list. – plasticinsect Aug 04 '20 at 18:02
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    Taking me back to my childhood. I don't think WWN *ever* intended to be journalistic. Only look like it, you know, for the lols. –  Aug 04 '20 at 18:02
  • @frеdsbend Their official position (at least at the time this story was published) was that their stories were factual, but I don't think they were trying very hard to convince anyone. I certainly never met anyone who actually took these stories seriously. – plasticinsect Aug 04 '20 at 18:19
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    covid-boredom now has me wanting to look into that "Hot-blooded lady Bigfoot" one – PoloHoleSet Aug 05 '20 at 13:15
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    WWN was to journalism what WWE is to sports. – barbecue Aug 05 '20 at 13:50
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    Now we'll need to post 7 more questions – stackzebra Aug 05 '20 at 18:15
  • Are there cold-blooded Bigfoots? I thought it was pretty much taken for granted that Bigfoot is a mammal. As for the two robbers one, it doesn't likely all that farfetched. – Acccumulation Aug 08 '20 at 19:21
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    @Acccumulation "Hot-blooded" is meant in the figurative sense here, meaning "lustful". The story about two robbers claimed that two independent bank robbers happened to show up to rob the same bank at exactly the same time, with each of them expecting to be the only robber there. That seems rather farfetched to me. – plasticinsect Aug 11 '20 at 21:44
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    @barbecue - Now how am i gonna get anything done. The related links on that page are "Fictional Characters invented in 1992", "Fictional Characters from West Virginia", and "Fictional Bats". That is some spicy reading material. – dgo Aug 18 '20 at 15:11
  • I bet the building depicted here is actually located in Manhattan. – Wrzlprmft Aug 13 '23 at 17:05
  • This good answer would be even more complete if it listed the spurious "eyeball scam" news that can be read in the bottom-right of the image. PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW ! – Evargalo Aug 21 '23 at 08:58
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    @Evargalo There were so many good examples to choose from! I had to pick and choose. The eyeball scam article is indeed outrageous, but I didn't choose it because the entire "story" is just a single 26-word sentence whose main purpose seems to be to fill up a small gap on the page. The WWN had a lot of those postage-stamp-sized articles before they moved to an all-web format. – plasticinsect Aug 21 '23 at 17:47