WANTED Poster of Susan Day

The WANTED Poster of Susan Day is a deliberately provocative piece of anti-abortion propaganda that first appears in the window of Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes, a junk shop on the corner of Witcham and Main in Derry. The poster features two unsmiling photographs of Susan Day—a full face on the left and a profile on the right, both set against a plain white background—styled to resemble official police mug shots. Across the top, in large black letters, are the words "WANTED FOR MURDER," and below the photographs, in red, the command "STAY OUT OF OUR CITY!" At the very bottom, a small line of print identifies the sponsor: "Paid for by the Maine LifeWatch Committee." The poster's design is intentionally unsettling, making the prominent feminist and abortion-rights advocate look as though she belongs on a post office wall or in a television docudrama about criminals.

Appearance and Context

Ralph Roberts first notices the poster in late August 1993, while walking past Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes on his way to Back Pages, a used bookstore and newsstand. The poster is new enough to lack the yellowing and flydirt that cover the other announcements in the window, and it covers roughly half of an older "PAT BUCHANAN FOR PRESIDENT" placard. The photographs stop Ralph in his tracks, but it is the woman's name that holds him: Susan Day. The poster triggers a buried memory of Ed Deepneau's chant from the previous summer—"Hey, hey, Susan Day, how many kids did you kill today?"—which Ralph had heard Ed scream during the road rage incident at the airport. This connection between the poster and Ed's violent outburst foreshadows the escalating conflict over WomanCare and the coming battle over Susan Day's scheduled speech in Derry.

Political and Social Significance

The poster is a product of the Maine LifeWatch Committee, an anti-abortion group aligned with the Friends of Life. It appears in the window of Dan Dalton's shop, Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes, and is part of a broader campaign to vilify Susan Day and discourage her from speaking in Derry. Hamilton Davenport, the proprietor of Back Pages, immediately recognizes the poster and expresses disgust, explaining that Dalton knows he has a petition to bring Susan Day to town sitting by his cash register. The poster's placement in a public window makes it a visible symbol of the deep divisions within the community, and its mock-wanted format deliberately conflates political activism with criminality. Ralph later sees a similar poster in the window of an empty storefront between the Rite Aid Pharmacy and Day Break, Sun Down, where someone has written "KILL THIS CUNT" in the dirt on the glass, with an arrow pointing at Susan Day's photograph. Joe Wyzer, the pharmacist, wipes away the message, but the graffiti underscores the poster's role in inciting real violence.

Connection to the Supernatural Conflict

The poster is not merely a piece of political propaganda; it is also a thread in the larger supernatural tapestry that Ralph and Lois Chasse are drawn into. The chant "Hey, hey, Susan Day, how many kids did you kill today?"—which Ralph first hears from Ed Deepneau during the airport incident—becomes a recurring motif, linking Ed's madness to the anti-abortion movement and, ultimately, to the influence of Atropos and the Crimson King. The poster's appearance in the window of Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes places it at the center of the escalating conflict between the Friends of Life and WomanCare, a conflict that culminates in Ed Deepneau's plan to crash a plane into the Civic Center during Susan Day's speech. The poster thus serves as a tangible reminder of the forces—both human and supernatural—that are converging on Derry, and of the stakes involved in the battle over life, death, and the future of the town.