ROME, Wisc. — Local law enforcement officials claim to have arrested two suspects in a series of brutal slayings that have terrorized this sleepy rural town.

Dean Winchester, 28, and his brother Sam, 23, were taken into custody Saturday night by sheriff’s deputies after allegedly being discovered standing over the body of the latest victim in a string of bizarre killings. Since early last week, four residents of Rome have been found choked to death in their homes by their own severed tongues. The brothers had previously told several witnesses, including the local librarian, that they were passing through town on their way to visit an old friend in Smallville, Kansas.

Department sources say no physical evidence was found linking the brothers to the killings. However, a search of the trunk of their 1967 Chevrolet Impala turned up numerous rifles, shotguns, pistols, hunting knives, a machete, a 30-pound bag of salt, and a cassette tape of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.”

“These boys have cooked up some cockeyed theory about the ghost of a dead mime doing the killings,” Sherriff Jimmy Brock told reporters. “I’ll admit, it wouldn’t be the strangest thing to happen here, but I think we can safely consider more earthly suspects in this case.”

In the past two decades, Rome has hosted a number of unusual crimes, including a string of murders in which victims were found in their freezers, the violent deaths of two former city mayors, and the spontaneous combustion of a third.

Curiously, a mostly female crowd has gathered outside the local sherriff’s department to agitate for the Winchester brothers’ release. “They’re too pretty to serve time!” said local waitress Dinah McDonald. “And if you can’t release them, can you at least have them make out?”