American Horror Story: How Every Freak Show Character Died

Only a few of American Horror Story: Freak Show’s characters make it out alive, with the rest being subjected to brutal deaths. From Jessica Lange’s Elsa Mars to the beloved Ma Petite, American Horror Story: Freak Show‘s character deaths are truly horrific. Following American Horror Story: Coven, season 4 tells the story of one of the last remaining freak show troupes in 1952’s Juniper, Florida. Juniper is also facing the threats of a serial killer clown, a sadistic and spoiled local boy, and con artists who want to murder or capture the performers before selling them to the Morbidity Museum.

Alongside many unnamed figures who are murdered by Freak Show‘s Twisty the Clown, Dandy Mott, and a few of the freak show performers, the majority of the American Horror Story season 4 characters find themselves as the targets of Juniper’s murder streak. The only major Freak Show characters who survive the massacres are Jimmy Darling (Evan Peters), Bette and Dot (Sarah Paulson), Desiree (Angela Bassett), and, though unconfirmed, Stanley (Dennis O’Hare), who either engaged in the murders or had to watch the slaughters of their friends and family. In a high body count for American Horror Story, season 4’s Freak Show featured the deaths of a staggering 20 main and recurring characters.

Ethel Darling

Played By Kathy Bates

The second Kathy Bates character in American Horror Story was Ethel Darling, the bearded lady of Elsa’s troupe. The mother to Jimmy Darling, AKA Lobster Boy, Ethel battled an addiction to alcohol before Elsa recruited her, where she would later serve as the second-in-command to Jessica Lange’s Freak Show character. Ethel was easily one of the most likable Freak Show characters, and had just as tragic a backstory as many of them, which included throwing out her husband, Dell, after she caught him trying to kill their infant son.

Ethel was diagnosed with cirrhosis and only given six months to live, but this wouldn’t end up being the way she died. In “Blood Bath,” Ethel confronts Elsa about her loyalty to the “freaks,” during which Elsa fatally stabs Ethel in the eye in episode 8, “Blood Bath”. Elsa and Stanley then conspire to cover up the murder by suggesting she was decapitated in a car accident. Her death was particularly tragic due to how much Ethel trusted Elsa and how loyal she’d been over the years, making the fact she eventually died at Elsa’s hands especially heartbreaking.

Ma Petite

Played By Jyoti Amge

Now considered one of the saddest deaths in all of American Horror Story, the sweet Mahadevi Patel, AKA Ma Petite, was brutally murdered by Dell in Freak Show. Stanley desired to sell Ma Petite to the museum, but Maggie couldn’t go through with the murder. However, Dell, AKA The Strongman, ends up doing this disturbing job for Stanley, as he tricks her into thinking he has simply bought her a new dress before snapping her neck as he smothers her to death.

The other American Horror Story: Freak Show characters had been led to believe that Ma Petite was killed by a wild animal, but Dell eventually confessed to his crime. The death of Ma Petite was especially hard to watch for a variety of reasons. Not only was she an American Horror story character it was almost impossible to dislike, she was also among the most innocent and vulnerable in the show. Knowing she didn’t make it out of Freak Show alive was hard for many viewers to swallow, as she was one character many hoped she would still be alive by the end.

Meep

Played By Benjamin Woolf

Much like Ma Petite, the death of Meep (whose stage name was “Meep the Geek”), was especially brutal since the character was both more-or-less innocent and also incapable of defending himself — even though his stage act was biting the heads off of live animals. When a police officer comes to investigate Bette and Dot for murder in Freak Show episode 1 Evan Peters’ character Jimmy Darling plants the badge in Dell’s trailer and leaves an anonymous tip for the authorities to cover their tracks.

Unfortunately, Dell finds the badge and places it under Meep’s bedroll. Meep is then taken by the police and threatened by inmates in his cell, where the frightened American Horror Story season 4 character attempts to hide in a corner. The next morning, Meep’s body is dropped off in a bag by a truck that quickly speeds off, revealing that the other prisoners had beaten him to death even though he was innocent.

Twisty The Clown

Played By John Carroll Lynch

One of the most iconic characters in American Horror Story: Freak Show is Twisty the clown, who was so popular that he went on to return to the show in later seasons. While undeniably terrifying, Twisty did have something of a tragic backstory that made his death the final note in an unbelievably sad tale rather than the moment of justice that fictional serial killers meeting their demise usually is. Prior to becoming the killer clown, Twisty was a children’s entertainer who, following the death of his mother, attempted to take his own life with a shotgun. This failed, and left his face permanently disfigured.

After being driven out of a carnival for false rumors, Twisty went on a killing spree in which he abducted young children and murdered their parents. One night, Twisty and Dandy work together to hold a magic show, where the clown tells his story to Edward Mordrake before the spirit deems him a damned soul and stabs Twisty to death. Twisty’s ghost then joined Edward’s group of curious spirits. After dying in American Horror Story: Freak Show, Twisty appeared posthumously in AHS: Cult and American Horror Stories.

Dora

Played By Patti LaBelle

One of the character deaths in American Horror Story: Freak Show that doesn’t involve any members of the titular traveling carnival is that of Patti LaBelle’s Dora Brown. Dora is the maid of the wealthy Gloria and Dandy Mott in American Horror Story: Freak Show, who dies at the wrath of the serial killer Dandy. She’s one of the earlier character deaths in American Horror Story: Freak Show, meeting her end in episode 4, “Edward Mordrake”.

After she discovers Dandy’s murderous secrets of dissected animal parts, Dandy threatens to kill her, but she says he doesn’t have the guts to do so. The next morning, Dandy returns wearing Twisty the Clown’s mask, where Dora once again says she’s not afraid of him. However, as Dora tries to walk away, Dandy slashes Dora’s neck with a knife, leaving her to bleed out on the tiles.

Andy

Played By Matt Bomer

Matt Bomer’s American Horror Story season 4 character is Andy, who is revealed to be the secret lover of Dell. While Bomer has played several characters in American Horror Story, and while Andy in Freak Show is less integral to the season’s plot than, for example, Donovan in American Horror Story: Hotel, his death scene was still integral for setting the tone of the season.

Matt Bomer’s Freak Show character Andy is a male sex worker who’s regularly visited by Dell. Andy is later paid by Dandy Mott to go to Twisty the Clown’s abandoned bus, where Finn Wittrock’s character attempts to stab and murder him. Andy continues to live through much of the process of Dandy dismembering him, but eventually succumbs to the serial killer’s cruel actions and is dissolved in acid.

Gloria Mott

Played By Frances Conroy

Portrayed by frequent AHS actress Frances Conroy, Gloria Mott is the mother to the spoiled and sadistic Dandy Mott. She’s an incredibly complex character, just like many played by Conroy in the show, and her death in American Horror Story: Freak Show also lives up to the series veteran’s other appearances. After recognizing her son’s murderous streak and seeing a therapist about her situation with Dandy, Gloria attempts to get Finn Wittrock’s AHS: Freak Show character to also see a psychiatrist under the pretense of testing his intelligence.

However, Dandy becomes angered by her secret plans and blames her for his actions. As Dandy holds a revolver to his own head, Gloria attempts to stop him by saying she could never live without him. In response to this, Dandy turns the revolver on his mother, adding to the many Freak Show character deaths. It’s an important moment for the show, as it reveals just how callous and sadistic Dandy truly is.

Regina

Played By Gabourey Sidibe

After the Motts’ maid, Dora, has been missing, her daughter Regina (AHS: Coven’s Gabourey Sidibe) arrives to question Gloria and Dandy. Unfortunately for her, however, this excursion in episode 9, “Tupperware Party Massacre”, would also make the moment she became another death caused by Dandy in American Horror Story: Freak Show. Regina arrives at Dandy’s home and says she’s gone to the police, after which he admits to murdering Dora and Gloria but suggests he has no intention to kill Regina.

When Regina returns later with an investigator, AHS‘s Dandy Mott tells the officer he’ll give him $1 million if he gets rid of Regina and stops pursuing Dora’s case. The investigator immediately agrees by firing a bullet into Regina’s forehead and killing her, whereafter he helps Dandy Moss bury the American Horror Story season 4 character’s body.

Salty

Played By Christopher Neiman

One of the saddest deaths in American Horror Story: Freak Show is that of Salty, played by Christopher Neiman. However, while it’s another tragic passing featuring one of the few innocent characters in the show, it’s also noteworthy because it came about from natural causes rather than (as it the case with most other deaths in AHS season 4) murder.

Salty, a microcephalic performer, is one of AHS: Freak Show’s carnival characters, who was brought into the troupe as a companion and eventual husband to fan-favorite character Pepper. Unlike the rest of American Horror Story: Freak Show’s characters, Salty wasn’t murdered, as he died of a presumed stroke in his sleep. However, Stanley subsequently cut off Salty’s head and sold it to the museum.

Dell Toledo

Played By Michael Chiklis

Not all of the deaths in American Horror Story: Freak Show were tragic, shocking, or difficult to watch. Some were more than welcomed by many viewers, and there’s no better example of an AHS character who deserved their fate than Michael Chiklis’s Dell Toledo, the Strongman. The father to Jimmy Darling and ex-husband to Ethel, Dell is now married to Desiree and has a murderous criminal past.

In American Horror Story season 4, Dell Toledo is blackmailed by Stanley into murdering one of the other characters, with his first attempt being on Amazon Eve before actually killing Ma Petite. Freak Show’s Strongman later made an attempt on his own life by hanging, but was saved at the last minute by Desiree. Dell then confesses his crime of killing Ma Petite to Desiree, with Elsa Mars fatally shooting the AHS: Freak Show character in the head for revenge.

Maggie Esmeralda

Played By Emma Roberts

As a show, there are a few deaths in AHS that are almost morbidly funny in a bleak way, and Freak Show has one of these moments when Maggie is killed in episode 12, “Show Stoppers”. Emma Roberts’ second AHS character was Maggie Esmeralda, the assistant to Stanley who cons the freak show into believing she’s a fortune-teller. While the way she dies is so unexpected and farcical that it even prompts a chuckle from some viewers, it’s also a cathartic moment given the danger Maggie put the reast of the travelling troupe of performers in.

After beginning a romance with Dandy, Maggie hesitates to take the characters’ lives and sell them to the museum, eventually confessing the truth of her deceptions. Trying to redeem herself to Jimmy and the rest of the characters, Maggie volunteers to be sawed in half by Chester Creb (Neil Patrick Harris) for an illusion. However, the event proves to be no illusion at all, with Maggie actually dying from her body being severed in the show.

Paul

Played By Mat Fraser

American Horror Story: Freak Show’s Paul, AKA Paul the Illustrated Seal, is the first victim in Dandy’s massacre on the troupe. It’s a violent cdeath to be sure, though it is somewhat overshadowed since it takes place during an episode where multiple characters meet their end at the hand of Freak Show’s antagonist, Dany.

The secret lover of both Elsa and Penny, Paul’s relationship with the latter eventually leads to her being mutilated and turned into a “freak” by her own father. When Dandy Mott arrives to murder the troupe in AHS: Freak Show’s finale episode, Paul attempts to stand up to him, but this leads to Paul being Dandy’s first victim in the slaughter when he is shot and killed.

Toulouse

Played By Drew Rin Varick

AHS: Freak Show’s performer character Toulouse is another of Dandy’s victims in his cruel slaughter. Much like Paul the illustrated seal and the other deaths in episode 13, “Curtain Call”, the moment Drew Rin Varick’s character is killed is somewhat lost amidst the general violence and carnage of Dandy’s rampage.

The French ex-convict was shot in the head by Dandy Mott while he was drinking, taking the life of one of Jimmy’s close friends in the troupe. The next time Toulouse was seen in American Horror Story: Freak Show, he guided Jyoti Amge’s Ma Petite to meet Elsa in the afterlife’s performance.

Legless Suzi

Played By Rose Siggins

Legless Suzi is one of the American Horror Story: Freak Show characters in Fraulein Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities whose legs were amputated shortly after birth. Like a few of the other characters, Suzi has a criminal past of her own, as she stabbed and accidentally killed a man who got more attention than her for tap dancing.

She was a relatively minor character in the show, and her death during the Freak Show finale is one of several that didn’t have much impact on the narrative, but was instead part of a wider tapestry of bloodshed for the season’s closing act. Suzi died in American Horror Story: Freak Show when she was fatally shot by Dandy Mott.

Penny

Played By Grace Gummer

Penny (Grace Gummer) began American Horror Story: Freak Show as the nurse at the local Juniper, Florida hospital, but was kidnapped and brought to the carnival by Elsa Mars. Elsa blackmailed her into staying with the troupe by threatening to release a video of her drug-fueled orgy with members of AHS season 4’s freak show.

Penny is later revealed to be in a relationship with Paul, but when she tries to move away from her father to be with him, her father mutilates her by giving her a forked tongue, shaving half of her hair, and tattooing her with scales. After being accepted as one of the troupe members, Penny is shot and killed by Dandy in Freak Show’s season finale.

Ima Wiggles

Played By Chrissy Metz

Barbara (This Is Us’ Chrissy Metz), AKA Ima Wiggles the Fat Lady, is brought into the group as a new star later in American Horror Story: Freak Show’s season. Jimmy ends up taking comfort in Ima after his mother Ethel dies and Emma Roberts’ character Maggie betrays him, with the two having a brief affair.

Ima was a sympathetic character in American Horror Story: Freak Show, and one it was easy for viewers to like. There are some who feel she should have had a more fitting ending, though only in the sense that she deserved her own dedicated death. Unfortunately though, like many of her fellow “freaks” in Elsa’s troupe, Ima is brutally shot in the head and killed by Dandy Mott during his final massacre.

Amazon Eve

Played By Erika Ervin

Amazon Eve is the considerably large woman in Elsa Mars’ Freak Show group, who is known for being a fierce protector of her fellow troupe members like Ma Petite. Eve quickly survives an attempt on her life by Dell, who she throws out of her trailer after beating him and eventually conspires to kill him once and for all. She’s definitely one of the more valiant and noble characters in Freak Show, though her vast strength and admirable personality traits aren’t enough to keep her alive until the end of the season.

Amazon Eve then becomes the final victim of Dandy Mott’s slaughter of Elsa’s troupe, as she attempts to overpower him in a trailer before he managed to get hold of his gun and shoot her leg. After immobilizing her, Eve died in American Horror Story season 4 when Dandy shot her in the head.

Lillian Hemmings

Played By Celia Weston

Lillian Hemmings is the curator at American Horror Story: Freak Show’s American Morbidity Museum, who is buying the bodies of the members of the troupe from Stanley for her exhibit. When Maggie and Desiree travel to the museum and see Ma Petite’s body and Jimmy’s hand, Maggie faints, whereafter Desiree proceeds to murder Lillian.

Lillian is killed by decapitation in American Horror Story: Freak Show, after which Desiree sends her head to Stanley. It’s one of the more satisfying deaths in AHS season 4. While Lillian wasn’t as central an antagonist as Dell or Dandy, she still represents everything wrong with the culture that forced the “freaks” of the carnival to band together to survive and live on the outskirts of society. For this reason, it was incredibly satisfying to see her killed off.

Dandy Mott

Played By Finn Wittrock

Of all the AHS season 4 deaths, few are as satisfying to witness as that of Dandy Mott, the sadistic, spoiled, and pampered member of the local elite who uses the travelling carnival as an outlet for his violent impulses. After brutally murdering the majority of the characters in American Horror Story: Freak Show, the torture is turned back on Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott.

Dandy killed all of the performers outside of Bette and Dot, who he wanted to marry; Jimmy, who wasn’t at the camp during the massacre; and Desiree, who escaped after Dandy killed Amazon Eve. As revenge, the twins, Jimmy, and Desiree kill Dandy by drugging him, chaining him in a water tank, and watching as he slowly drowns while the tank fills up with water.

Elsa Mars

Played By Jessica Lange

Elsa Mars was the final leading role of Jessica Lange in American Horror Story, although the actress would return for AHS: Apocalypse to reprise her role as Murder House’s Constance Langdon. Elsa Mars is the leader of the troupe in Freak Show; a talented singer who is secretly amputated below the knee on both legs. After the members of her troupe learn that she was responsible for killing Ethel and plotted to kill Bette and Dot, Elsa sells the freak show in order to move to Hollywood for a variety show.

Once Elsa’s career is ruined by her old German snuff film and she learns that her “family” in the freak show has been massacred, Elsa plans to take her own life by summoning Edward Mordrake on Halloween to claim her. Mordrake agrees to kill her but declares she doesn’t belong in his troupe, whereafter Elsa is reunited with the other murdered American Horror Story: Freak Show characters in the afterlife.