Mission Statement:
To endeavor to bring to all residents of the Five States the most current and important news from across the entire Five States region. Never yellow, the Five States Herald vows to serve only the people of the Five States, from New Austin to Lemoyne, free of charge now and forever.
Justice Served?
By Sofia Kathleen Fairfield – Lead Correspondent
This morning I stood at the gallows in Guiteau Square watch a life end. Last week I was sure a prostitute called Maggie would be the big crime case this year. I was mistaken.
I witnessed the hanging of a Polish woman, Christine Pilsudski. Guilty of murdering a girl years ago. She had lingered in prison for years, I couldn’t explain why. She had no friends and was often assumed to be a member of the Night Folk. She never proclaimed innocence.
The execution was carried out, perhaps notable it was a woman, but its happened before. She hanged for 30 minutes before they cut her down. A sad end, but justice served. Until it wasn’t.
As they placed her body onto a coffin, either to be buried or used for medical science, she suddenly arose! Several workers screamed and panicked, a pandemonium began. Police tried to maintain composure but didn’t know what to do.
As of this writing Christine Pilsudski is recovering in a hospital. She can speak a few words but there is clear damage done to the neck. How she survived remains unclear. Perhaps most pressingly, legal officials have no idea if they will hang her again.
One official looked through the recorded history of hangings and only found one comparison, a Scottish woman in 1724 called Half Hanged Maggie who was hanged and survived. She was let go since under Scottish law, the sentence had been carried out.
Uncharted legal waters. All at the drop of a hat. Wild times.
Doppelganger in Tumbleweed? Woman claims to have killed her own double
By Alois Burditt
A most extraordinary and deeply unsettling occurrence has been reported in Tumbleweed this week, where a local cowpoke claims to have been assaulted by a woman bearing an exact resemblance to herself. According to the survivor, she had just departed the town stable after having her horse groomed when she was approached by a stranger dressed in precisely the same garments and possessing, by her account, an identical face and figure. What began as a bewildering encounter soon descended into violence when the two women became embroiled in a vicious fistfight, ending with the alleged impostor lying dead. “I have no twin. Not even a cousin that looks like me,” the surviving woman declared. “This was not natural.” The circumstances surrounding the confrontation remain uncertain, and authorities have offered no satisfactory explanation for the remarkable resemblance between the combatants. With the season turning toward its darker months, certain superstitious residents have suggested that the veil separating the world of the living from realms unknown grows thinner, permitting spirits, demons, or creatures from other worlds to wander among ordinary men. Whether the deceased was indeed some unnatural imitation, a remarkably unfortunate lookalike, or merely the invention of a troubled imagination remains a matter of considerable speculation. Sheriff Sam Freeman has reportedly taken an interest in the affair, though the practical difficulties of investigating a murder in which the accused and the deceased allegedly possess the same appearance ought not be underestimated. There remains, however, one particularly disagreeable possibility which few townspeople seem eager to entertain: if two identical women entered that struggle, and only one emerged alive, by what means can anyone be certain that the survivor is the original?
Hunter shot dead in Ambarino wilderness after startling traveler
By Caylen V. Hornby
A most unfortunate shooting in the wilderness of Ambarino has left one hunter dead and a traveler in custody this week, following what authorities are presently investigating as a possible case of fatal misjudgment. The traveler, reportedly well acquainted with the dangers of the northern country, had established a modest campfire beside the trail for the purposes of preparing a meal and warming themselves against the bitter mountain air. Their peaceful respite was abruptly interrupted when a hunter emerged without warning from the surrounding brush, prompting the startled traveler to draw and discharge their firearm, killing the unfortunate fellow. “I had not heard him, nor sensed him, nor even smelled him,” the traveler later declared, maintaining that the shot had been fired entirely out of fright. Upon realizing the dreadful consequence of their action, the traveler placed the wounded man upon their horse and hastened toward the nearest settlement, apparently entertaining the naive hope that medical assistance might yet preserve his life. The hunter, however, was already beyond earthly aid. Rather than receiving the assistance they had anticipated, the traveler was promptly arrested and remains in custody while authorities endeavor to determine whether the killing was an accident born of panic or an act of criminal recklessness.
Illegal moonshine market flourishes in Blackwater as federal agents arrive too late
By Nick McCrary
An extraordinary display of public disregard for federal liquor regulations unfolded in Blackwater this week, where several enterprising cowpokes established an unauthorized market for homemade spirits along the city’s public thoroughfares. The men erected small tables laden with jugs of moonshine, offering generous samples to curious passersby before selling their wares to an apparently enthusiastic clientele. The impromptu marketplace soon attracted the displeasure of a local saloon proprietor, who complained that the unlicensed competition was making a considerable dent in his legitimate trade. When the matter was brought before Chief of Police Oswald Dunbar, however, the city’s highest lawman declined to intervene. “There is no law against selling one’s wares on public roads,” the Chief explained, “if federal laws were broken, well, that is for the feds to enforce.” Whether this interpretation will satisfy federal authorities remains doubtful, though it certainly pleased the assembled merchants, whose questionable merchandise sold with remarkable swiftness. By the time the last jug had changed hands, the makeshift stalls were dismantled and their proprietors had vanished into the ordinary bustle of Blackwater commerce. Several days afterward, federal revenue agents arrived in the city, reportedly intending to investigate the unlawful sale of untaxed spirits. Their inquiries, however, produced little more than frustration. Not a single table, jug, or trace of the illicit marketplace remained, and the townspeople displayed a most remarkable collective failure of recollection.
Supernatural attackers reported in Butcher Creek, though evidence suggests otherwise
By Van R. Seldon
Strange business has once again found its way into Butcher Creek, that miserable little settlement tucked away in the wooded hills of Roanoke Ridge, where several passing cowpokes claim to have encountered creatures possessing strength and endurance beyond the natural limits of man. According to their accounts, the travelers were set upon without warning by a band of hideous figures, some masked and others bearing grotesque markings upon their flesh, who attacked with a ferocity the cowpokes could scarcely describe. The commotion reportedly caught the inhabitants of Butcher Creek quite unprepared, though anyone acquainted with that peculiar community might reasonably wonder what manner of disturbance could surprise its residents. Nevertheless, the travelers rallied the frightened townsfolk, organized a respectable defense, and succeeded in driving back their mysterious assailants after a violent engagement that left several of the supposed creatures dead.
Subsequent investigation, however, has produced precious little to support the extraordinary allegations of supernatural strength. Examination of the bodies revealed that the alleged monsters were, in fact, human beings, albeit ones bearing extensive scars, crude painted markings, and, in several instances, frightening masks evidently intended to lend them a more unnatural appearance. Their identities and motives remain unknown, and investigators have yet to establish why such men would descend upon an isolated settlement in this peculiar fashion. As for the claims of superhuman strength and unnatural endurance, these could not be independently verified, owing principally to the inconvenient circumstance that every specimen available for examination was quite thoroughly dead. One might reasonably conclude that their celebrated resistance to mortal injury has been somewhat overstated. The residents of Butcher Creek, meanwhile, have declined either to confirm or deny the travelers’ accounts, meeting inquiries with their customary mixture of suspicion, silence, and thoroughly unhelpful staring.
Murder aboard Saint Denis train as eccentric gunman strikes again
By Aloysius Levron
A most dreadful act of indiscriminate murder has been committed upon a passenger train approaching Saint Denis this week, with the notorious fugitive Baltasar Villaseñor, better known throughout the Five States as the Eccentric Gunman, identified by several witnesses as the apparent perpetrator. The train was making its customary passage through the Lemoyne wilderness when a succession of pistol shots rang out above the steady clatter of its wheels. With each report, another passenger collapsed, struck by a bullet seemingly delivered from nowhere. Panic rapidly seized the carriages as terrified travelers threw themselves beneath their seats, while armed railway guards hurried through the train in desperate search of the assailant. Their efforts proved fruitless, for no gunman could be discovered aboard. Only afterward did several witnesses provide a most disturbing explanation: a strangely dressed man, sporting the peculiar half-mustache associated with Villaseñor, had been observed standing atop a roadside wagon as the train passed, smoke curling from the barrel of his revolver.
If these accounts are to be believed, Villaseñor discharged his weapon into the moving train with scarcely any apparent effort to select or even observe his targets, yet his bullets nevertheless found human flesh with horrifying regularity. The revolver in question is believed to be the infamous Dead Man’s Gun, a weapon acquired following the killing of the celebrated Blackwater Trick Shooter and now surrounded by the extraordinary legend that it never misses. The victims have not yet been identified, and authorities have offered no satisfactory explanation for why these particular passengers were struck.
This latest atrocity represents a grave and alarming departure from the fugitive’s previously established conduct. Villaseñor has long demonstrated a murderous fascination with accomplished gunfighters, seeking confrontations that he evidently considers honorable contests, however questionable their legality. His earlier killing aboard a train approaching Saint Denis, in which an armed opponent fell from the carriage roof following a confrontation, was sufficiently troubling. Yet the present slaughter bears none of the pretenses of a duel. These were ordinary passengers, afforded neither warning nor opportunity to defend themselves, murdered for reasons presently beyond comprehension. Villaseñor escaped before lawmen could respond.
Mysterious creature reportedly sighted across the Five States
By Frederick Vannesse
A most unsettling collection of reports has emerged from across the Five States, where witnesses claim to have encountered a monstrous creature that walks upright upon two legs, much like a man, yet bears an appearance altogether unnatural. Descriptions vary considerably, though nearly every account mentions a dreadful, piercing howl said to cut through the very soul of whoever hears it. Certain Native tribes have long told stories of beings bearing some resemblance to this supposed monstrosity, with names such as the Wendigo, the Leshy, and the Skinwalker now circulating among frightened settlers. Whatever its true nature, the creature is reportedly capable of imitating human voices and mannerisms, luring unsuspecting travelers into a false sense of security before revealing its murderous intentions.
Naturally, such extraordinary claims have attracted both considerable skepticism and no shortage of armed enthusiasm. Several experienced hunters have publicly vowed to track down and destroy the beast, declaring that no creature, natural or otherwise, ought to roam the countryside terrorizing honest folk. Yet despite the growing number of alleged sightings, no reliable tracks, remains, or other physical evidence have been produced, and the considerable distances separating these encounters raise questions as to whether a single creature could reasonably account for them all. Some suggest an undiscovered animal, others a particularly cunning madman or woman, while the more superstitious insist that something ancient and wicked has awakened in the wilderness. Whatever the truth, the hunters remain determined to claim their prize. Their first difficulty, of course, shall be finding something to shoot.
