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The supposed news story reproduced above about a Rambo Granny taking the law into her own hands is a fanciful tale of imagined revenge and nothing more. It originated as a 20 October 1998 article published in the Weekly World News, an entertainment tabloid (now a web site) whose stock in trade is the fantastically fictional. Grambo exists only in our hearts and inboxes. Although some may cherish her story anyway, it's an unlikely tale of vigilante justice in which a police spokesman is characterized as admiring of someone who stalked and shot two people. As righteous as the fictional Grambo's cause might have been, the moment a crime victim or one of her sympathizers takes matters into her own hands, that person becomes a criminal engaged in illegal activity. Police would not be baffled about what to do with such a person: they'd arrest her and let the legal system sort out what charges to lay against her and how to punish her. Okay, so we can't believe the story. Many of us still want to, though. Fake or real, Grambo is perceived as a hero. In a world populated by bad guys seemingly always getting away with one horrible act after another, we need to believe that at least someone somewhere stood up to the wrongs, took matters into her own hands, and dealt out some much-needed justice, even if it was of the street variety. Popular culture is filled with instances of the wronged being denied protection by the authorities and having to right the world on their own because that theme plays into both what we hold as true deep in our hearts (criminals escape justice through legal loopholes) and what we wish for (justice being meted out to these miscreants anyway). It's no accident that this work of fiction features two adult male rapists (which one immediately pictures as strong, overpowering creeps), a teenage girl victim, and a frail little old lady of 81 years (a retired library worker, at that). The contrast makes for a more thrilling tale, and the cheers over David's toppling Goliath become louder and more enthusiastic.
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