Hey, hey, Susan Day, how many kids did you kill today？

The chant "Hey, hey, Susan Day, how many kids did you kill today?" is a central, recurring verbal weapon in Stephen King's Insomnia, a corrupted echo of the 1960s anti-Vietnam War protest cry "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" It first surfaces not in a political rally but in a moment of personal, violent madness, and it evolves into a key marker of Ed Deepneau's descent into homicidal paranoia, linking his private brutality to the public, political conflict over abortion in Derry.

Origin and First Utterance

The chant is first heard in July 1992, during a confrontation between Ed Deepneau and a heavyset man driving a pickup truck. Ralph Roberts, witnessing the scene from a distance, hears Ed screaming obscenities before the crash. As Ralph runs to intervene, Ed, in a state of wild-eyed fury, chants, "Hey, hey, Susan Day! How many kids did you kill today?" . The rhyme is jarringly childish, delivered in a "high, childlike voice" that makes Ralph's "forearms break out in goosebumps" . Ralph later struggles to place the source of the doggerel, recognizing it as a variation of the old LBJ chant but unable to immediately connect it to Ed . The memory of the chant, and Ed's voice, resurfaces in Ralph's mind when he sees a "WANTED FOR MURDER" poster of Susan Day in the window of Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes .

A Marker of Radicalization and Violence

The chant becomes a signature of Ed's radicalization, bridging his personal violence against his wife with the political violence of the anti-abortion movement. After Ed beats Helen Deepneau for signing a petition to bring Susan Day to Derry, Ralph recalls the chant, realizing that the Ed who attacked a stranger over a truckload of fertilizer is the same man who beat his wife over a petition . The slogan is later adopted by the pro-life group The Friends of Life. During a televised interview after a demonstration, Ed, now a public figure, uses the chant's logic to justify his actions, stating that the issue is not philosophical but practical, and that "rivers of blood run out of WomanCare" . The chant, once a private outburst, has become a public rallying cry, demonstrating how Ed's personal madness has been channeled into a political cause.

The Chant as a Supernatural Echo

The chant's significance extends beyond the political, becoming a supernatural echo of the forces manipulating Ed. Ralph, while confronting Ed after the beating, hears the chant in his mind, recognizing it as Ed's voice . This internal echo suggests that the chant is not just a slogan but a manifestation of the entity controlling Ed, the Crimson King. The rhyme's origin in a 1960s protest chant about the Vietnam War is twisted into a weapon against a feminist activist, reflecting the novel's theme of how the "Purpose" and the "Random" can corrupt human intentions. The chant's final, tragic resonance comes during the climax, as Ed, piloting a plane toward the Civic Center, is described as having a face that is both beautiful and terrible, a "highwayman" from a poem, and the chant is the last thing on his lips before he crashes, a final, mad declaration of his mission .

Thematic Significance: The Weaponization of Language

The chant "Hey, hey, Susan Day" functions as a powerful symbol of how language can be weaponized to dehumanize and incite violence. It transforms a complex political figure into a target for assassination, reducing her to a caricature of a "baby-killer." The slogan's evolution from a private, insane outburst to a public, political chant mirrors the novel's central conflict: the struggle between individual morality and the overwhelming, often destructive, forces of collective ideology and supernatural destiny. It is a verbal deathbag, a phrase that carries the weight of hatred and foreshadows the violence that engulfs Derry.