The guy who put Bangor on the map has been bumped off as Maine’s most internationally famous person amid claims one of his books inspired school shootings.
Actors Anna Kendrick of Portland and Patrick Dempsey of Lewiston, along with Bill Belichick’s flame Jordon Hudson of Hancock and college b-baller phenom Cooper Flagg of Newport are among the Mainers now considered more en vogue than Stephen King.
All because of a book he wrote called “Rage,” which allegedly first inspired a school shooter who killed three, followed by other school shooters over the past 20 years who blamed King for their murderous rampages.
Unfortunately, now that King is the target of the anti-gun fanatics, he’s played into their hands by ordering his publisher never to reprint “Rage,” late editions of which have been pulled off the shelves.
King actually wrote the novel – a story about a student shooting his algebra teacher in a fit of rage – more than 50 years ago when he was in high school under a pseudonym.
But now the anti-gun lobbyists need a convenient foil since blaming guns didn’t work, so they’ve targeted Maine’s legendary writer’s alleged violence-inducing classic.
Bumped from No. 1 as Maine’s most famous export, King now has to look up to a woman named Rachel Anne Accurso of Biddeford, popularly known as “Ms. Rachel.”
Rachel, who has surpassed King globally as Maine’s hottest talent, is a YouTube video creator known for her wildly popular baby-learning content.
The news of King’s dethroning came from the website Famous Birthdays and its popularity poll.
The site, which uses its own algorithm to track and rank celebrity “clout,” currently lists Rachel as the No. 1 most famous person born in Maine.
“We know that ‘fame’ is completely subjective, so we’d love to hear what you think,” reported i95rocks.com, which just posted the troubling news for the author of Carrie, Pet Cemetary and The Shining.
King was actually born in Portland but later settled in a huge old creepy Bangor mansion with an iron gate around it.
The news that he’s dropped several notches in fame broke big on TikTok, which, if you think about it, kind of explains that King is a dinosaur with the Internet crowd.
After all, when King’s career blossomed people actually read books.
In fact, one of those readers who picked up a copy of “Rage” was allegedly inspired by the novel’s narrative to shoot up a school in 1997, killing three. Several shooters since then have also mentioned having read the book.
Cue the anti-gun crowd.
But rather than fight back against the gun haters, King went supine, directing his team to kill the book forever.
So having lost a round on blaming guns for school violence rather than on the perpetrators, firearms opponents will notch their belt for this ingenious campaign.
After all, they’ll celebrate any win, no matter how slight or insane.
A TikTok video announcing the king of horror’s precipitous drop in the polls, uploaded by user ‘munchkym’ on May 4th, has racked up half a million views.
In the video, the user asks, “Has anyone else realized that the most famous person from Maine is no longer Stephen King?”
That would be harmless Stephen King, blamed for school shootings.
What a horror show.
