During the great depression President FDR had all the speedfreaks rounded up and given jobs as clowns. Most of them were violently insane and unemployable even by the shoddiest of circuses. The few that survived, many died playing tag on the new Interstate, made their way across country and were last seen in New Mexico.
Several years later about a dozen where spotted living in the jungles of Belize. They lived simply off the land like an ancient tribe though they still wore full clown regalia. An archaeologist that tried to infiltrate and study the group died after being forced to eat several pounds of confetti mixed with ayahuasca. A short AP article about the incident was picked up by several American newspapers and is often pointed to as the creation of the Batman villain The Joker.
