Wanted! For Murder — Her Careless Talk Costs Lives
Styled as a wanted poster, this image accuses an unnamed, glamorous woman of 'murder' for indiscreet conversation, superimposing drowning soldiers behind her. A single social lapse is framed as directly and solely causal for deaths at sea, and the blame is gendered onto one civilian rather than distributed across command, weather, or enemy action.
A 1942 U.S. government home-front security poster, with a photograph by Victor Keppler, distributed for the issuing agencies by the Office of War Information. Styled as a wanted poster, it accuses an unnamed, glamorous woman of murder for careless talk, with drowning soldiers superimposed behind her and the line "Her careless talk costs lives". The public is asked to guard its conversation. Fear appeal, card stacking and scapegoating show in one social lapse framed as solely causal and the blame placed on one civilian.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. government home-front security campaign; photograph by Victor Keppler
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Security and surveillance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 25, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Photo: Victor Keppler. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (1941-1945).
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
WANTED! FOR MURDER Her careless talk costs lives [illegible — small printer's credit, bottom left] Distributed for the issuing agencies by the Office of War Information
A photographer's signature ('Victor Keppler') is written in cursive across the lower-left corner of the photograph itself; it is credited in this entry's license/notes fields rather than transcribed here as body text. A small printed line at the bottom-left of the poster (likely a printing-office credit, matching the style of the bottom-right 'Distributed for the issuing agencies...' line) is too small and low-contrast in this scan to read with confidence.
