This season, the ever-lovable Evan Peters will be portraying Jimmy Darling, who presumably has no relation to the London Darlings. Jimmy, as we can see from the promo shoots, suffers from ectrodactyly or missing fingers (maybe toes?) and syndactyly, causing what digits he has to be fused together. One of the more famous individuals with ectrodactyly was Grady Stiles who went by the stage name Lobster Boy. Stiles was the sixth in a family line that had ectrodactyly. Stiles was a known alcoholic and abusive towards his family. In fact, he murdered his daughters fiancé on the evening before their wedding in 1978. He wasnt sent to prison and no state facility had resources to care for a person with ectrodactyly, so he was released on 15 years probation. He stopped drinking for a short time, but soon returned to his drunken ways. His wife claimed that he became more abusive and eventually she hired another circus performer to execute Stiles. He was shot three times in the back of the head on 29 November 1992. If this is any kind of foreshadowing, this season wont end well for Jimmy Darling. There you have it, the real freaks behind the story. Some did well for themselves, some were treated poorly and others were just simply forgotten. The real sideshow is the fact that the circus doesnt come to town anymore; it just comes to your television.
