麻豆传媒

Dedicated readers of The Outlook newspaper may know that every week, we feature a retrospective piece called 鈥楽tored Stories鈥� in which we highlight news points from the pages of this newspaper that date back as far as 100 years ago.

It鈥檚 something that runs specifically in the print edition, so if you鈥檙e curious about checking it out, better hit the newsstand each week or call us for a subscription!

*shameless plugging disengaged*

Now you have to realize that as far back as 100 years ago, The Outlook was a very, very different newspaper.聽 I mean, heck, we鈥檙e literally talking about two different centuries here!聽 The front page contained very few to no photographs, just long blocks of text with the intention of jamming as many articles on the front as humanly possible.聽 On top of that, unlike today where our sole focus is giving you local news about local events and happenings, the paper contained news articles and tidbits from all over the province and even across the country.

So it just so happened that as I was writing this week鈥檚 鈥楽tored Stories鈥�, I came across a very grisly and descriptive story that appeared in The Outlook 100 years ago this week.聽 Apparently, a man from Moose Jaw named William Bromley, an employee of the Dominion Express Company at the time, had just absolutely snapped on one particular night while his wife was out for the evening attending a 鈥減icture show鈥�.聽 Bromley had apparently become so irritated and incensed at his children making so much excessive noise that he took a razor and actually murdered all five of them.聽 I swear, I鈥檓 not making some sick joke!聽 I鈥檒l show you the article myself if you come by the office!

I鈥檝e written 鈥楽tored Stories鈥� for the last few years so I eventually realized that it wasn鈥檛 entirely uncommon to read about someone tragically drowning in the South Saskatchewan River back in those days, but an account of a father going ballistic and slaughtering his own children?聽 In OUR newspaper?!?聽 That definitely got my attention.

But it got me to thinking about some of the more alarming stories that I myself have had to write in my 11.5 years here.聽 The landscape may have been a little more like the Wild West 100 years ago, but we鈥檙e not exactly immune to shock, tragedy or controversy at times these days, either.聽 In our biz, that鈥檚 what鈥檚 called 鈥榟ard news鈥�; those 鈥榖reaking news鈥� articles that put a jolt up your spine for a while as everyone gets caught up in the emotion of it all.

For example:

The Broderick murder:聽 During the middle of the night back in March 2010 in the sleepy village of Broderick, Brigitt Blanchard took a steak knife and violently attacked her boyfriend, Rick Murphy.聽 Rick tragically died from his injuries, which included 22 wounds in total, with more than half of them in and around his skull.聽 The death shook up this entire community and Murphy鈥檚 funeral was the definition of what happens when a grieving family has friends, neighbors, and even complete strangers to lean on in the hardest of times.

I don鈥檛 mind telling you that Blanchard鈥檚 trial one year later really tested me as a reporter because I felt I was doing some kind of balancing act.聽 I was compelled to tell the facts as I heard them in a court of law, yet I also felt a need to 鈥榗ushion the verbal blow鈥� so to speak because I was writing about a family that I knew and who I knew was still grieving very hard and dealing with a world of heartache.

I think the hardest thing I witnessed during that trial was Rick Murphy鈥檚 dear friend Ken take to the stand and proceed to break down multiple times during questioning.聽 The heartbreaker was Ken鈥檚 revelation to the court room that he had actually been awakened by the sound of Rick screaming in the dead of the night, but had thought nothing of it.聽 My heart just broke for the guy, but I still jotted down notes and quotes to use.聽 I鈥檝e never felt like more of a robot in this job, and from that point on I made a vow to inject more humanity into my writing.聽 Hopefully, readers have seen that humanity.

Sometimes the hard news gets hard to write.聽 It鈥檚 even harder to write when you鈥檙e someone who may know the people involved.

But we write it because you deserve to know what鈥檚 happening; good, bad, or ugly.聽

As for the once-sane William Bromley?聽 The article says he was being kept at a Regina jail until his trial in November.聽 I guess we鈥檒l all have to wait until I鈥檓 writing 鈥楽tored Stories鈥� for that month to see if there was any update on the trial of Ole Razor Bill.

For this week, that鈥檚 been the Ruttle Report.