Macy searched through news clippings and trade presses and also gained information from the Muse family.
MUSE BROTHERS SERIES
She was given permission to write a series of news articles about Willie and George after the latter of the two brothers died in 2001 and Saunders approved of Macy's plans to write a book about the brothers in late 2013. Macy approached Saunders but was initially rebuffed due to the number of people that tried to invade the men's privacy with "rude" questions. She was told that it was "the best story in town" but that no one had been able to get the complete story due to the protectiveness of the Muse family. Macy learned about the Muses in the 1980s, when she began working for The Roanoke Times. The book also details Macy's work at finding information about the two brothers and gaining the trust of their niece Nancy Saunders, who cared for Willie until his death. George died in 1972 and Willie died in 2001. George and Willie resumed performing for the circus in the late 1920s, when they finally received pay for their work. Harriet successfully sued Ringling Brothers for the treatment of George and Willie. She eventually found the two boys working for the Ringling Brothers Circus and their family was reunited. The two boys were told that their mother Harriet was dead – a lie, as their mother was still alive and was constantly searching for them. George and Willie were prevented from contacting their family by their manager, who kept them as modern day slaves, since they were unpaid.
They performed for years as sideshow attractions where they were cruelly exploited and frequently portrayed as savages from another country or Martians.
MUSE BROTHERS SKIN
In the book, Macy notes that it was possible that the children were sent to the circus by their mother, as their albino skin made it unlikely that they would survive long as sharecroppers, but that "if you ask me in my heart, I'm gonna go with story". The two brothers were both albinos, a feature that Willie claimed prompted a circus man to abduct the two children in 1899 while they worked in a field. George and Willie Muse are two brothers growing up in Truevine, part of a sharecropping family that live in a tobacco farming community near Roanoke, Virginia.
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