Maggie Esmerelda

 Maggie Esmerelda  is a claimed fortune teller and partner in crime to Stanley. She is a main character in Freak Show portrayed by Emma Roberts. Initially she arrives at the Freak Show to make a profit but soon begins to rethink her intentions.

Background
Maggie was an orphan who, as a young girl, was forced to fend for herself and often relied on pick-pocketing to do so. She met Stanley in Kansas City in 1941 when he covered for her when she was caught stealing. He took her under his wing and trained her to be his partner in crime, refraining from any romantic relationship due to her young age and his closeted homosexuality. More than 10 years later he and Maggie took their con-artistry down to Jupiter, FL to try and make their fortune.

Personality and Appearance
Maggie had medium length blonde hair, usually styled in neat curls. She generally had a typical 50's style fashion sense with occasional bohemian influences, such as scarves or certain types of jewelry. Despite her obvious independence for a woman of the era, Maggie maintained her girlish glamour with make-up, purses, bows, etc.

Due to her experiences with persuasion and deception, Maggie suffered from a slightly skewed moral compass. Yet, despite her con-artist status, Maggie's personality was generally calm and friendly. She wasn't always the most morally sound individual, but she would never allow her corruption to extend to such heinous deeds as murder. Maggie was also extremely observant and was thus able to pick up on a person's subtleties that could aid her in giving them an accurate reading. She had a long-term goal to achieve a white-picket fence status but also had issues with the era's societal pressures of sacrificing her independence to do so.

Story
Maggie is shown with Stanley, both pretending to be medical connoisseurs, in the American Morbidity Museum. Maggie is disguised with a brown wig, and is going under the identity of a Miss Rothschild. When the owner of the museum discovers that they tried to fake the specimen they were trying to sell, saying it was the fetus of a Sasquatch, they deny that it is fake. The owner asks them to take it and leave, and as they are leaving, the tour guide stops them and tells them if they do find anything real, to bring it back and she would pay them for it. She then tells them of the few freak shows still left around, and they decide to go to the one "south Florida", implying they are going Jupiter.

As a taxi pulls up to the freak show while the Freaks are burying Meep, Jimmy follows it over to the road. Maggie appears from the cab, and Jimmy tells her they are closed. But she replies she is not here as a customer, but wants a job. Seeing that she seems normal, he dismisses her, but she tells him she is a fortune teller. He then takes her to Elsa, him telling her he thinks she is a legitimate teller. Elsa highly doubts it, and Maggie enters the room to talk to Elsa. She then puts her glass bowl onto the table, and tells Elsa of her future fame, and that a strange man will help her achieve this. Elsa, obviously craving the fame and falling for the act, hires Maggie into the show.

Jimmy and Maggie, later at night, are at a telephone booth. Maggie is in the phone booth, talking to Stanley, while Jimmy waits outside on his motorcycle. Maggie is talking to Stanley about how she doesn't think this is a good idea, saying that murder wasn't apart of her plan. He then reassures her no one will miss a Freak. She then hangs up, and goes outside, where a police car pulls up behind them. The officer immediately insults Jimmy, telling Maggie a good Christian girl like herself shouldn't be hanging around with people like that. Jimmy starts to get upset, but Maggie calms him down, and then makes them leave, Jimmy telling her it smells like pig shit anyways.

In "Bullseye" Stanley asks her to kill Jimmy, she rejects and says she will kill Ma Petite instead. At night, she carries Ma Petite to the a barn and puts her in a jar to drown her however, instead of killing her she takes her out catching fireflies and brings her back to a concerned Amazon Eve and Jimmy. After Eve and Ma Petite leave, she kisses Jimmy and proposes running away together.

In "Test of Strength", she sees Dell and Stanley and assures Stanley's safety by witnessing them go inside the tent. Later she and Jimmy are seen cuddling in their underwear and she brings up the running away together again.

In "Show Stoppers", Maggie tries to reconcile with Jimmy after his hands are cut off by Stanley. He doesn't accept her apology. Later, when Bette and Dot refuse to be sawed in half for Chester Creb's magic trick, Maggie volunteers. Chester hallucinates and sees Maggie as Lucy, Alice, and Marjorie and cuffs her feet together, making it impossible for her to escape. She is then sawed in half. When the freaks see her corpse, Chester says he can put her back together, but it doesn't work. Desiree then tells the freaks to bury her and steal her jewelry.