IMPRISONED SINGER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST MAD CUTTER

[A publicity poster of Rosalee Campbell for her third tour on the East Coast, dated 1871.]

New information has been revealed regarding the recent homunculi attack in Henshaw, Missouri, known as the Circus Massacre. Occurring last October, the Circus Massacre made headlines for being the largest act of violence linked to the now-disbanded Lily-White League, one of several post-Confederate organizations hosted in the South. As Northern Missouri lacks any particular political value, speculation around the attack’s motive abounded. Now, in the wake of an international scandal in the same town, and the nationwide manhunt for ‘Mad Cutter’ Victor Freestone and his co-conspirators, one of the ringleaders of the Circus Massacre has decided to speak.

“Freestone was the only reason we were even there,” Rosalee Campbell told our reporter. The singer and secret wizardess is currently being held without bail for charges of mass endangerment, attempted murder, concealing persons from arrest, and conspiracy against the government, which, under Grant’s punitive anti-Confederate laws, may lead to her imprisonment for fifty years. “We didn’t care about Henshaw or anything else in the area; the deaths there were accidental. Our seers saw his ability to manipulate flesh and sent us there to investigate. Then he killed Duke’s daughters and he set the other homunculi loose out of spite.” Her co-conspirator, performer Duke Morrison, has refused to speak to the public since his arrest and attempted suicide in early December. The New Marshal Initiative have claimed, without evidence, that his daughters were well-made homunculi and no human fatalities were suffered by the Lily-White League or their agents.

Ms. Campbell also had this to say about Matilda Walstead, a person of interest. “She’s a harlot, down to the core. Joined the circus at the last minute, spent most of the trip lusting over the other talent in tights, and then as soon as the Marshals showed up she was cozying up to the golem. You have to wonder how she convinced the NMI to take her in. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ran away with Freestone of her own volition. I’m sure he has something she craved enough to switch sides again.”

She went on to imply that Freestone had family ties to high-level Union spies during the Civil War, and that the Marshals may have hidden his presence because he himself was a rogue government agent. “His ability is not connected to wizardry. It’s something more twisted, from somewhere farther than England. Something the Union might be willing to harness. The truth is there if you’re willing to push past the clay to get it.”

“The New Marshal Initiative does not comment on ongoing investigations,” said Lt. Philip Mustard, representing the NMI. “Regarding government employees, there are no records of Victor Freestone having worked under the federal government in either of his two identities. Ms. Walstead’s hiring was done based on her heroic conduct during the Circus Massacre and contingent on her passing the qualification tests within four months, which she had almost completed before her disappearance. Additionally, any attempt to coerce information out of a government employee will be treated as a federal crime”. No comment was provided when we questioned whether the NMI can truly be trusted.