Twisty was literally dropped on his head as a baby, resulting in minor mental disability. He left Jupiter in 1943 to work as a clown with Rusty Westchester's Traveling Carnival. Jealous of his popularity, the carnival freaks (led by two cruel dwarfs) spread a lie that he was molesting children. He was no longer able to find work as a clown (though this didn't stop him from wearing the costume and makeup) and he returned to Jupiter to build novelties from garbage scrap Upon his return to Jupiter, he found that his alcoholic mother had died. Efforts to sell his "whirligigs" to the local toy store were met first with disinterest and then fear at his crazed desperation and rage against the rumors of his past. Despondent, he blew off his lower jaw with a shotgun in an attempted suicide. To cover up his horrible facial disfigurement, he began wearing a wide-grinned prosthetic mask. He then decided, in his own "special" way, to make the children love him again by keeping them "safe" from their parents