FACT CHECK: Did The New York Daily News Publish An Article About A Woman Beheading Her Landlord With A Samurai Sword?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a screen grab of a New York Daily News article about a woman beheading her landlord with a samurai sword while shouting, “Long live Chairman Mao!”

Verdict: False

There is no record of the New York Daily News publishing the headline. The headline appears to have been superimposed onto a genuine article published in 2014.

Fact Check:

The Aug. 6 Facebook post shows a supposed New York Daily News article from February 2014 bearing the headline: “‘Long Live Chairman Mao!’ woman shouts as she decapitates her landlord with a Samurai Sword for raising her rent.” Accompanying the headline is an image of a woman’s mugshot.

The image, however, does not show a genuine article from the New York Daily News. Check Your Fact searched the newspaper’s website, but found no articles with a matching headline. A wider internet search for the headline likewise did not yield any results.

Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found the picture of the woman included in the purported article has been shared as a popular “Attractive Convict” meme, according to Know Your Meme(RELATED: Did The New York Times Publish An Article Claiming Donald Trump Died?)

The New York Daily News did, in fact, use the woman’s mugshot in a February 2014 article, but it was not about the murder of a landlord. The actual article, titled, “‘Hot mugshot’ woman sues website for using her DUI booking pic in ads,” explained how Meagan Simmons was suing a website for using her 2010 booking photo in advertisements without paying her.

The headline in the Facebook image appears to have been digitally superimposed over that article’s real headline. Robert York, the editor in chief of the New York Daily News confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact that the Facebook image does not show a genuine article.

“It appears you are correct that someone has repurposed one of web headlines to create something inaccurate,” York said.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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