Firefly family

The Firefly family is a clan of loosely-related individuals who existed as brutal violent serial killers in the town of Ruggsville, Texas throughout the 1970s. Their actual surnames are unknown. They began using the "Firefly" alias at the suggestion of a man who called himself Otis B. Driftwood. All of the family members, including Otis, adopted aliases based upon film characters originally portrayed by comedian Groucho Marx. The Firefly name came from a character named Rufus T. Firefly from the 1933 fim Duck Soup.

The eldest member of the group was a man known affectionately as Grandpa Hugo. Very little is known about this individual, save that he is likely the father of Eve Wilson, who had since adopted the nickname Mother Firefly. It is believed that Grandpa Hugo may have had some connection to a psychotic surgeon named S. Quentin Quale, who carved himself legendary status under the pseudonym Doctor Satan. Some sources suggest that Hugo may have actually been Doctor Satan, while others assert that he masqueraded as him on occasion.

Eve Wilson, aka, Mother Firefly, was a former prostitute who had sired children through various fathers. One of these men, presumably named Rufus, gave her a son who was known as Rufus Firefly, Jr. (or RJ). Another man, Earl, who may have been Eve's common law husband, was the father of Tiny. When Tiny was a young boy, Earl suffered a psychotic break, poured gasoline on his son and set him on fire. Tiny survived, but suffered third degree burns over his entire body.

Around the year 1947, Eve Wilson was involved with a man named Johnny Lee "Cutter" Johns. Together they had a daughter named Vera-Ellen. Cutter stayed with Eve for some time to help her raise their child, but eventually separated from her to pursue his own ambitions. Cutter eventually became a local celebrity going by the name of Captain Spaulding (another Marx reference) and established a roadside attraction known as Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen. Vera-Ellen, nicknamed Baby remained at home and grew up with her half-siblings Rufus, Jr. and Tiny.

At some point in the mid 1960s, the family meant Otis B. Driftwood. Otis quickly became very close with Eve Wilson, Cutter and Baby. Insinuating himself into the family, he often bickered with Cutter over who should be the authoritative figure in the household. It was Otis who convinced the others to assume aliases based on Groucho Marx characters. Rumor has it that Otis and Vera-Ellen joined a cult worshiping Doctor Satan, but were later kicked out after Otis stabbed a cult leader to death.

By the 1970s, the Firefly family members had developed a depraved lifestyle which consisted of kidnapping, torture, mutilation and murder. As late as 1977, the Fireflys were responsible for the disappearances of more than seventy-five people, most of which were teenage girls.