Morbid - The Atlanta Ripper

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

During the second decade of the twentieth century, an unidentified serial killer was believed to have operated in Atlanta, Georgia, brutally killing at least twenty Black woman. Due to the similarities between the Whitechapel victims and the victims in Atlanta, the Georgia press dubbed their killer “the Atlanta Ripper,” an anonymous monster whose presence held the city’s Black population in a grip of fear. For a period of roughly five years, the Atlanta Ripper killed with regularity on the city streets, slashing, mutilating, and otherwise brutalizing the bodies of the women they killed. Despite having at least six viable suspects, investigators were never able to conclusively identify the Atlanta Ripper and the murders remain unsolved.ReferencesAtlanta Constitution . 1912. "Negro woman slain; suspect arrested." Atlanta Constitution, January 21: 5.Atlanta Constitution. 1912. "Jack the Ripper believed to be a modern Bluebeard with 12 wives as victims." Atlanta Constitution , August 11: 1.Atlanta Journal. 1910. "Deaths." Atlanta Constitution, April 5: 10.—. 1911. "Antoher negress killed; black butcher at work?" Atlanta Journal, June 16: 14.—. 1911. "Black 'Jack the Ripper' slays another negress." Atlanta Journal, July 2: 7.—. 1911. "Has 'Jack the Ripper' fallen into dragnet?" Atlanta Journal, July 13: 4.—. 1912. "Jack the Ripper caught at last, say detectives." Atlanta Journal, August 10: 1.—. 1911. "'Jack the Ripper' foiled in 8th attempt Saturday." Atlanta Journal, July 9: 3.—. 1912. "Negro woman murdered just outside the city." Atlanta Journal, April 8: 20.—. 1911. "One of the Ripper crimes is no longer a mystery." Atlanta Journal, August 4: 11.—. 1911. "Rosa Trice foully murdered." Atlanta Journal, January 23: 9.—. 1911. "Will "Jack the Ripper" claim eight victim this Saturday?" Atlanta Journal, July 8: 8.—. 1911. "Young negro is held for 'Ripper's' crime." Atlanta Journal, July 12: 17.Constitution, Atlanta. 1911. "Negro woman killed; no clew to slayer." Atlanta Constitution , May 29: 7.Franklin Evening Star. 1912. "Nineteenth horrid crime of Atlanta's Jack the Ripper." Franklin Evening Star, April 9: 2.New York Times. 1911. "Eight victims now of Atlanta Ripper." New York Times, July 3: 3.—. 1906. "Rioting goes on, despite troops." New York Times, September 24: 1.Wells, Jeffrey. 2010. The Atlanta Ripper: The Unsolved Case of the Gate City's Most Infamous Murders. Cheltenham, UK: The History Press. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. My name's kind of like automatopoeia. Do you know what I mean? Ash, Ash. It is a little bit. Can you hear that? My kids love that word. I know. I was playing hide and go seek with one of them the other day. And we were hiding in a closet and she just kept going, Onamonopoeia. And I was like, shut the fuck up. You're going to get us caught. Get us caught. And then the other kids just like stopped seeking us. Yeah, that they do that a lot. Yeah. Playing hide and seek with my children is really a risk that you take.

Also, one of them is so good that it's like dangerous actually because I'm like, we may never find her. Yeah, there's times when I'm like I should put a little, little apple air tag on her. I'm going cat, you're going mom. Yeah. I'm like, a jingle bell. A little jingle bell on her.

We can also lay out a sauce. serve milk for her. Or we could just give her a little bracelet with the apple air tag on it. Oh, also speaking of cats, thank you so much everybody for helping me with the tips about like ceramic bowls and all that for feline acne. We do all of that and he still has veline acne. He's just got really persistent acne. And now he's on prednisone and ointment and liquids and all that stuff. It's really great. It's awesome. She showed me a clip from the office this morning. She was explaining that she was like, you know, and now Remy needs like this ointment twice a day and he's on this and he's on that. And I immediately thought of the part in the office where Angela has Dwight go to like, you know, take care of her cat sparkles.

And she's like, she just, she's like, well, he's diabetic. So you have to roll the insulin. Don't shake it. You have to put the ointment at the base of his tail. And then Dwight just like murders the cat. Yeah, that's crazy. I immediately thought about it. it and I had to show her the clip because that's just who I am as a person.

And honestly, that's who I am. I'm Angela. Also, you're going to hear two old episodes on Christmas. Like, we're rerunning Elena's favorite episodes, the week of Christmas. In one of those episodes, you'll hear me say that I don't like cats. I need to remind all of us that people grow and I don't want to hear it. Okay? I just needed to get that out.

It's true. It's fine. I'm going to get so many messages like, like, ew, one time you three, do you hurt them? That is precisely what's going to happen. And I don't. It's just that she loves your cats. Do you know how much money I spent for them to shave Remy's chin and give me all kinds of ointments and prednisone? They shaved my cat's chin.

She's become that person that sits there and says, let me just show you a couple of pictures of my cats. So she loves those cats. Yeah, I love them so much. That's what I mean. Don't you become that person since that episode. You can message me nice stuff, but don't be like, oh my God! Yeah. Just don't get mad at her.

You probably will still, but I just wanted to say it. Some people will. And you know what, listener, weirdo listening? It's not you. It's not you. It's not you. You know, you know. You're not the problem.

It's not you. You're not the problem. It's not you. But there are problems. And it's not you. And you're not the. You listening right now. You're not the problem.

Unless it's one of you. Unless you are the problem. Anyway, I just really wanted to get that all out. What's up with you, Red? Big Red. What is up with me? Big Redd, it's almost. your fucking birthday. It is almost my birthday. I know what we're doing. And I have no idea what we're doing. That's

fun. That's a fun thing. I'm drunk on Pala. I'm drunk on Pala. And you know what? And it's the end of the year. I always like, I always love the end of the year because I love a fresh slate. Yeah, I agree. And I think there's a lot of cool stuff that's happening next year. Yeah, there is fun stuff happening next year. There's some really good stuff. I mean, January pops off with another ghost concert. So I Oh, when are you going? For this. It's at the end of January. Oh, damn. But yeah, okay. I'll be there.

I love that. In Connecticut. Hell yeah. Connecticut. Cannot wait. Let's go. And Debbie's going for that. Deb-Dub.

Deb-deb is coming to this one, which I'm really excited. Her first ghost concert. I cannot wait to see photos of that night. I'm going to die. She's purely going. Please take video of Deborah. Deborah is a real one because she's like, well, you love ghosts so much. And I've heard some of their songs and I like them.

Yeah. So I want to go. Because you love it so much, and I want to go where you love things. Deb is a quintessential best friend. She really is. Yes. Like, just know that about Deb, Deb, Deb. She rides hard.

She does. And so that's going to be fun. And then there's a bunch of other really cool stuff. There's so much fun stuff. Some things we really can't say right now, but there's cool stuff. But you'll see. And speaking of awesome stuff, did you see our fucking awesome billboard in times? We got a giant billboard.

That. Sirius was so nice. and they paused the billboard for us. They paused it for five minutes so we could take pictures. We never had that experience in the past. Never been offered that. We just had to watch it.

Flick by really quick. And we were like, hey, it's so cool that we have one. But oh, where to go? Yeah. Wait another 45 minutes. This one, we got to experience. We got to literally sit there, like, look at it, stare at it. Take pickies.

Really taken the moment. It was such a different experience because you got to like take in the entirety of it. Yeah. And with Sam and Colby. Yes. So that was fun. No, it was really fun.

And that was just really cool of them to do. We love being at Sirius. We do. It's been. The best. And that was just great. So we hope you guys dug that episode. If you haven't listened to it yet, make sure you watch Sam and Colby's video of our investigation and then listen to our episode for the debrief.

It's like a really fun little, you know, meal and dessert platter. Yeah. It's like going. it's like going to watch a movie at the lux level. Yeah, there you go. Just serving it up, you know? Remember that? I haven't done that in a long time.

I haven't either, actually. Because I haven't been to like the actual movie theater. No, I can't. I think the last time I was at the movie theater, I saw Wicked at a, like the old Wicked. I still haven't seen part two. Oh, yeah. I'm a little wicked it out. I didn't want to say it because I'm always that person.

That's okay. I'll say crazy shit. I think. I'm just. It's an incredible, like, I've never seen the play. I want to see the play. Oh, so good. So I don't even know what happens in part two, but I just need a minute. Yeah, I think that, yeah, I just, I think I just needed a minute. But, you know, my kids love it. So I think it brings me to a little better of a place with it. But yeah, it really was all encompassing for a while.

It just became like, it was the zeitgeist for a while. Yeah, like the press tour. It was crazy. It was a lot. And you thought you could get away with it, but you go scrolling on TikTok and it's like, entire TikTok feed if you just say the word wicked, which I don't know if you guys know, but we live in Massachusetts and we use the word wicked all the fucking time, a hundred times a day. Wicked Pisa. That was wicked bad. That was wicked scary. I'm wicked man.

Yeah, exactly. And every time you say it, your phone is like, oh, wicked, you want to see wicked videos? You want to talk to Ariana? You want to talk to Cynthia? Like, I don't. I'm sorry. Not right now. Not right now.

I'm tired. I'm tired. Okay. And then all I could hear, which is like the most incredible note, but I'm jealous I can't do is, oh, wow. That note. She is, I'm not taking away from the talent because the talent is like unmatched. And I love it. It's just, I, it was just, I think it's a lot all at once. Sometimes it's the marketing that can get to be too much sometimes. They don't know when to stop. But, but I'm not going to be able to avoid spoilers for a long time. So I do need to go see the second part.

You do, because I want to hear your thoughts. Yeah. Because we've seen, John and I have seen the musical a bunch of times. We both love it. And then we took the girls to see it like a couple of years ago. And they keep almost ruining it for me. And then they're like, oh, wait, Titi hasn't seen it. Titi hasn't seen it. They like catch themselves live. I'm like, I'm actually very impressed with your ability to hold that back. They hold back spoilers. They do. But yeah, the Cynthia Riebo's note in defying gravity, I remember going into this thinking like, I'm a little scared because I'm just like really partial to Adina Mansell hitting that note. Adel DeLzeam. Can anyone hit it like Adel DeLisem? I don't. I'll think.

Sheariebel literally said hold my beer. And she said, I can. Yeah. And I said, respect. She said, watch this. Immediately. I just have to say that her no good deed is by far the most amazing thing in the world. See, and we haven't seen it.

I don't even know what that means. Well, we're going to know what it is. So no good deed killed it apparently. Let's go. We'll watch it after this. Don't worry about it. No, we're going to watch it. But Cynthia Riva's voice isn't seen.

All right. So I think we should get into this story. It's massive trigger warning for this story. Lots of racism. Just abound here. It's a rough one, but it's an important story to tell because it's also unsolved. Oh. And even though it is from the early 1900s, I think it's, I don't think anything is.

Not the 1900s. I know. You just sounded like a young, a youth. No, this is like 1906, so it's actually like 1900s. Yeah, it's, we're talking about the Atlanta Ripper case. I've heard of this case, but I don't know all the details. I truly believe, just like the Jack the Ripper case, which we will mention in this a lot, because it really kind of came off the back of that.

Oh. I think it can be solved. Yeah. I really don't think that any case is like fully out of the realm of being solved. just how you approach it. There's always something. There's only one little, like, string to pull. And technology is crazy.

Exactly. And in this one in particular, I'm going to be quoting, like, a lot of investigators who were wildly racist. And I'm going to be quoting a lot of newspapers, which were wildly racist. And they use language, which I will not be using. Good. Because I am a white person who does not use. use that language. Great. So I will change that language so that I don't have to say something

that is completely inappropriate and something that does not align with my love beliefs. So just so you know that. So I'll tell you, I'll say like here, they said something gnarly, but I'm going to say this. Yeah, yeah. So you know, just so the context is there, because I don't want to erase the fact that this was wildly racist. Yeah. But I'm just not going to say certain words, because itchy. But yeah, so yeah, yeah, just trigger warning. All of that is here. It's a rough one. All right. So in 1888, let's go back there for a minute. That's a familiar year. Yep. 1888. Jack the Ripper. Remember that guy? I do. He terrorized the Whitechapel neighborhood of London's East End. He did. We've talked about him a few times. He honestly introduced the idea,

kind of to the world of a human who kills out of a compulsive need and won't stop until they're either caught or die. The Ripper killings in Whitechapel ended by the close of 1988. It was a pretty quick spree. But the concept of like a Ripper killer has lived on and on. Yeah, we've covered a few. Yeah. And for more than a century has at various times been attributed to unidentified killers who commit like really brutal, gruesome murders. They, they tend to get the Ripper moniker. I'm thinking of the Chicago Ripper. Exactly. Like there's always those that pop up. During the second decade of the 20th century, an unidentified serial killer was believed to have operated in Atlanta, Georgia, over here in the U.S., brutally

killing at least 20 black women. Now, due to the similarities between the White Chapel victims and the victims in Atlanta, the Georgia press dubbed their killer, the Atlanta Ripper. An anonymous monster whose presence literally held the city's black population in a grip of fear. For a period of roughly five years, the Atlanta Ripper killed with regularity on the city's streets, slashing, mutilating, and otherwise brutalizing the bodies of the women that they killed. Despite having at least six viable suspects, investigators were never able to conclusively identify who the Atlanta Ripper was. And the murders are in minding. Yeah. And the city at this point was boiling over with racial tensions and civil war resentment even, because that's the time period we're in.

Oh, yeah. The Atlanta Ripper became also kind of a convenient scapegoat for domestic violence and racially motivated murders. Yeah. Which may have undermined investigators' abilities to solve the crimes at the time. Mm-hmm. There was just so much shit going on.

Yeah. And so much racism. Now, in the wake of the American Civil War, the reconstruction effort across the American South was focused largely on the cities, which had been completely devastated to near completion by the Union Army nearing the war's end.

In Georgia, a lot of the state's reconstruction was focusing on rebuilding Atlanta in particular. It was the largest city in the state. It had been kind of the economic and social hub. They wanted to get that back on track. I was so hoping you'd say the word hub. I love hub. It is a hub.

I like when things are hubs. I love being a hub. I'm not a hub. Well, maybe I am a hub for something. Maybe you're a hub. I don't really, I don't want to be a hub. You're a hub for emotional support. Oh my God, thanks.

For me. My hub. This wording Elena told me I can't die because she wouldn't go on. And I said, that's a lot of pressure. Listen, you literally, like, don't take risks. Yeah, okay. Like, be safe. Yeah, exactly.

No risks. No risks. So the economic shift from agricultural work to industrial and intellectual labor meant that anyone needing steady employment, which included the large number of now newly freed enslaved people, migrated to cities in search of work. This migration led to major increases in city populations. And in Atlanta alone, the population of black citizens rose from less than 10,000, just after the war to around 35,000 by 1900.

That's actually insane. Significant growth. So this huge increase of Black Atlantins was directly related to the educational and economic opportunities that simply couldn't be found elsewhere. But a secondary thing that made this migration happen was the community and social networks that arose from the population increase. By the end of the 19th century, black enclaves like Sweet Auburn. and the West End had become

havens for black businesses, academics and activists that would become very essential to the civil rights movement of the early to mid-20th century. So this all kind of led to further growth and further progress. Despite this progress and stability, though,

Atlanta, like a lot of southern regions, would remain mostly segregated for many decades after the Civil War. And resentment was still a regular part of life. Yeah. The tension between black advancement and white resentment for that came to a head in 1906 when an event known as the Atlanta race massacre laid bare the disparity between black and white

existence in Atlanta. I mean, anything that's labeled a massacre. Yeah. Should horrify you. Hoping to capitalize on the growing fears of, you know, what was being touted as black on white crime. the time. A number of Atlanta newspapers, which I've already preface, rileding people up, published articles in the fall of 1906 that magnified or simply

made the fuck up examples of black residents attacking white residents. Just lies. That's nice. On September 22nd, two Atlanta newspapers published articles claiming that four white women had been sexually assaulted by black men. Now, we've seen this happen before. Yep. causing the racial tensions to simply boil over. This is something I'm sure you're thinking, Emmett Till. Yep. And by the way, later, that was already known to be a complete fucking lie.

Yep. Like that kid was brutalized, tortured, and murdered for no other reason besides him being a little black boy. Yep. The end. Period. So this should already make your senses go up, especially in this time period and in this place. Yeah.

So following that publication, white men and boys began assembling in mobs across Atlanta, with estimates raging between 10,000 to 15,000 of them patrolling the streets. That many white men? These, I'm saying, these angry mobs besieged black neighborhoods, like all these enclaves I just talked about, destroying black owned businesses, attacking black men at random, pulling them from streetcars, chasing them down the street. By the end of the night on September 22nd, this is horrifying, the end of the night, an estimated 25 to 30 black men had been killed by these mobs, with countless others terrorized or injured. Just because of these articles.

It's like unthinkable. And the fact that it wasn't even true. Yeah. Makes it a million times worse. Or that's the thing they had like no, like some of these things were. I'm sure they were conflated. I was going to say they were either exaggerated or made up all these articles. Like they ranged.

in that. Despite the governor having mobilized state troops to quell the chaos with local police and fire departments supporting their efforts, the violence continued into the next day, finally coming to an end on September 25th a few days later. It's unknown how many black Atlantins died during the massacre, but for many among the community, the violence obliterated any hope that they could successfully integrate with or be welcomed by their white neighbors. Like this was clear. Absolutely. Like, this is not happening.

And it's like, you don't fucking want to at that point. How can you ever trust that this would never happen again? Right. And some left the city bound for safer locations at this point around the U.S. And others just retreated into those enclaves that they had already built a community. Yeah, like safe havens. Yeah. So the shocking displays of racism, cruelty, and violence of the 1906 massacre left the majority of Black Atlantins

in a constant state of hypervigilance at this way. They were fearful for their safety, safety for their friends, their neighbors, their families. But it also affirmed the feeling that a lot had about what was going on here, that there was two separate Atlantis here. And this literal and figurative segregation would become a pretty critical piece of the Atlanta Ripper murders and the New South as it moved into the 21st century. In the late 19th century, as Americans were struggling with this post-war, just like racial tensions and violence.

and just like uncertainty and resentment and yeah shittiness things were things weren't solved no they were not they weren't solved they weren't solid they weren't feeling good news of a vicious killer in london was now making its way to the states we know jack the shocking crimes of jack the ripper started dominating the american headlines too and by the early 1900s jack the ripper had become kind of a household name and the concept was looming pretty large in the minds of a lot of people A lot of readers were fascinated by this mystery or just terrified by the brutality of the whole thing. And it's unlikely that many of them recognize the role that like class stratification and racial tensions we're going to have in this whole thing. Yeah. But Jack the Ripper's victims were believed to be, like we know, sex workers, that was their occupation and believed to be what people called women of very low social status. Yeah, that was the big class thing. Women that I'm sure Jack the Ripper assumed would be missed by very few people.

And it's a population of women who are frequently victimized and rarely saw justice out of it. And in simple terms, one of the reasons that Jack the Ripper's identity still remains a mystery to this day. It is still a fucking mystery. Don't get her started. Don't get me started. Don't send her that article that said they solved it. They did not. And she will start talking to you about mitochondrial DNA for seven years.

It's true, I will. And that's not a bad thing. No, it's not. But go back to the Tobias Forge episode when we talk about Skeleta and Or the Elyza one. Or the Elyza one. We put it in there too. Either one of those. Go to both of them. Great episodes. The one that we just did. The job of her stuff was fascinating. It's true. So there you go. If you want to know more about that. But the reason why it still remains a mystery to this day.

And is unsolved. It's kind of similar to what Atlanta was going through. He existed in two separate London's, one for the wealthy middle class and one for the poor and destitute. The fact that his victims were from a lower social class, that was not an accident. It's not like he just wandered in there and was like, well, I'll just do this. They were likely chosen because, among other things, it was unlikely that London police would work very hard to solve the murders. Right, because they consider that, I quote, unquote, high risk job. Yeah, and they are less than. And it's a major factor in this case, the Atlanta Ripper case as well. Yeah, it sounds like it would be.

Because violence against black men and women have become such a common occurrence in Atlanta following the 1906 massacre, it's actually difficult to pinpoint exactly when these Ripper murders began. Some believe it began with the murder of 29-year-old Della Reed on April 5th, 1909. Oh, it's such a pretty name, Della. Delaide, isn't that like it just, it's pretty? It flows, yeah. Della's brutalized body was found in a trash pile. That's a trash pile on Rankin Street. she died from what is only known and recorded as a pulmonary hemorrhage.

Okay. So they don't know exactly what occurred that led up to this, but she was in a trash pile, like she was clearly killed. You also have to wonder how much effort was put into finding out her actual cause of death. Now a few months later in September, the body of an unidentified, still to this day, black woman, was discovered in Peachtree Creek, also murdered. By the end of the year, the murders had picked up in frequency. Bodies were being discovered at a rate of one per month at least.

Wow. In the weeks and months that followed, more bodies were discovered. Estella Baldwin was discovered in March, dead from a, quote, concussion of the brain. In April, it was Georgia Brown. She was shot by an unknown assailant. The next day, it was Maddie Smith, also shot by someone unknown. The following month, the bodies of Lavinia Austin, Francis Lampkin, and Eliza Griggs were all found within days of one another.

Wow. All shot to death. Oh. These are all very different causes of death, it sounds like. That's a lot of them. So all of them, except the first Estella Baldwin and Della Reed have at least gunshot wounds. Yeah. Della Reed, we don't know.

Yeah. Because it's pulmonary hemorrhage, so I have no idea. And again, this is from 1906, like 1909, so it's records are not great. Yeah. And we have Estella Baldwin who is dead from a concussion of the brain, which to me sounds like blood force trauma. Yeah. So we have some different. And also none of these also go with the Ripper.

Yeah, exactly. Because usually that's when we think of a Ripper, and we think of like stabbing. And mutilation. You know, mutilation. So again, like you just pointed out, the differences in the manner of deaths here, it's pretty unlikely that all these were done by the same person. but they're attributed a lot of times to this. Interesting. But with the 1906 massacre,

so fresh in everyone's memories, the frequency and brutality with which black women were killed in the streets of Atlanta only contributed to the apprehension and terror felt throughout the entire community. Also, the legend of Jack the Ripper was just continuing to permeate

the United States media and the similarities in, you know, like gender and manner of death and like the victim profiles were what led a lot of people to think this is a Ripper killer. Okay. So the first murder that's like really attributed, like those first ones that I mentioned are like sometimes attributed.

This one's like the one that's generally attributed to the Atlanta Ripper is 35-year-old Rosa Trice. Her body was discovered a short distance from her home on January 26, 1911. Her body was found near the Southern Railway tracks. Her head had been beaten badly with a blunt instrument, fracturing her skull and jawbone. Oh, God. And her throat had been slashed.

It severed the jugular vein. Oh, fuck. Police arrested Rosa's husband, John, for the murder. But he was released a few days later when investigators and the coroner's inquest failed to find any evidence connecting him to his wife's murder. Yeah.

Now, less than a month later, on February 19th, the Ripper had killed again. This next victim was a young black woman whose throat was cut and her skull was bashed in as well, same exact thing. the discovery of another body in the woods having suffered the exact same wounds as the first victim seemed evidence that this might be the start of something yeah but after the second body was found no new murders were found in march and april so it seemed like okay those happened very quickly

but maybe maybe that was just a coincidence but on the morning of may 28th the body of mary bell walker was discovered on Garibaldi Street. Mary had left the home of her employer the evening before after a long day of work, but she never arrived home that night. The next morning, when her sister realized that she hadn't returned, she set out to look for her, but she didn't have to look far. Mary's body was discovered in an unused field, just 25 yards from her home. Oh, wow.

That's not very far at all. Her throat had been cut with what the press described as, quote, a jagged edge. But there was no additional clues as to who killed her. A coroner's inquest was held the next day, but without any evidence or information about her death, nothing really came of it. That's so sad. Investigators and community members barely had time to react

or even respond to Mary Bell Walker's death when the killer had struck again. On June 15th, the body of Addie Watts was discovered by the Southern Railway. Her skull was bashed in first with a brick, then with a railroad coupling pin. Oh, my God. And her throat was deeply slashed.

As in many of the other cases, two local men were arrested for the murder, but both were let go a short time later because there was just lack of evidence connecting to this crime. Yeah. Now, it's important to note that despite several murders that could be attributed to the same killer, the Atlanta press was, and again, at this time of high racial tensions, white-owned, white-controlled, they had yet to address. the murders in any meaningful way. Wow. Despite the fact that, like, it seems like this is a serial killer. Shocking from where we sit today, but, like, sadly not shocking for the time period. No.

And in fact, while the deaths were clearly described and investigated as murders, the papers rarely gave more than a few lines to the stories, offered little or no follow-up, and in some cases didn't even bother to find out the name of the victim. Are you fucking kidding me? Yep. these women had their like their throats literally slash-token. Skulls bashed in. And you can't even bother to print their name and like respect.

Now, while the concept of a serial killer was still not quite defined at all in the minds of most Americans, it took a long time for that to happen. Thanks to Jack the Ripper, the public had come to understand that it was entirely possible for one person to be responsible for seemingly random murders. Like that was becoming a thing that people were like, oh, fuck. Yeah. But throughout late 1910 and 1911, few, if any, public figures or institutions had voiced any concern that such a thing could be happening in Atlanta's black community, despite the fact that it clearly was. And it's like, not only are you not respecting these women who lost their lives in such a brutal manner, you're also not paying any regard for this community to like be on the lookout and be vigilant and be safe and, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's the thing.

That's your responsibility. Literally, and that's all they need is like to be informed. But they don't care. People didn't want that back then. They don't care. They don't want them to be on the lookout. Nope, because they don't want them to be safe. Horrifying. It's a horrifying concept.

Now the failure of the press to fully acknowledge the alarming rate of murder in Atlanta is not only one of the reasons the killing spree went on for so long, but also one of the reasons why the Atlanta Ripper case is still pretty unknown to this day, not just the killer. The case itself is pretty... It's a name that I've heard before for sure, but I really don't know a lot about it until sitting here today. Kind of like one of those that just under the rug.

Which is crazy. You've only told me a few of the killing so far, and it's like... And it's so awful. But just one day after Addy Watts's murder, the Atlanta Journal finally wrote about the alarming trend and the potential for having a serial killer, they didn't call it that, in their midst.

The journal article states, on account of the number of recent murders of, they say something different, black women. Quote, police advance the theory that Atlanta has an insane criminal, something on the order of the famed Jack the Ripper. Not the famed. The famed Jack the Ripper. Have you ever heard of the term infamous, notorious?

Like, what? Like famed? That gives him like spotlight. Despite this, other newspapers, however, remained less thorough in their coverage. According Jeffrey Wells, the journal's main competition, the Atlantic Constitution, quote, still reported the death of Watts as it had the other murders, as isolated incidents with no connection and certainly no mention of a serial killer.

It's like weird that we mentioned the exact same thing last week, and the week before that, and the week before that. Yeah, and it's the same manner of death. So the noticeable discrepancy between how the papers covered the murders continued a few weeks later when the body of Lizzie Watkins was discovered in the brush at the corner of White and Lawson's, streets on June 27th. She was killed the same exact way as the other victims. According to Wells, the Atlanta Journal, quote, gave front page attention to the city's newest arch-criminal, going so far as

to begin examining the similarities between the murders. The Atlanta Constitution, on the other hand, continued their trend of sparse coverage. And he said, only this time, and managed to add its own spin, citing that it was certain the death was the result of alcohol or drugs. Um, her throat was washed open. Yeah. And what? Is this? So all of them?

Oh, okay. Okay. For sure. While many among the press and police had speculated that the murders were committed by a killer similar to Jack the Ripper, there had yet to be any evidence or witness that could tie the cases together, which is hard. This changed on July 2nd when the Ripper struck again, but left an eyewitness. Oh, fuck.

On the evening of the second, 40-year-old Lena Sharp and her 20-year-old, old daughter, Emma Lou. Shut the fuck up. I love a double name like that. It's so cute. That's really cute. They left their home for the market to do some shopping together. As they made their way back home, a man stepped out from the bushes on Seaboard Avenue, not far from the sharp house.

The man greeted the two women, and before they could respond, he raised a brick high above his head and brought it down hard on Lena's skull, dropping her to the ground. And she's with her daughter. Yep. Emma Lou attempted to run, making it only a few steps before she was grabbed from behind, and he said, don't be afraid, I never hurt girls like you. Oh. Before driving a knife deeply into her back and slashing at her wildly.

What the fuck? Yeah. Emoloo? Emma Lou. Oh. As Emolu slumped to the ground, bleeding profusely now from these wounds, she watched helplessly as this man went back to her mother, who was laying unconscious on the ground a few feet away,

and started slashing at her before finally slashing the knife across her throat from one side to the other several times. Oh my God. The man then went back to Emma Lou intending to kill her as well, but then heard the sound of running footsteps and he hovered over her for several seconds

and then ran off into the darkness and people came to Emileu's rescue. That is the scariest shit I've ever fucking heard. And for him to say, don't be afraid I never hurt girls like you and before stabbing and slashing her? Like, what? What the fuck?

That isn't... I don't even know. I don't even know. Now, Emma Lou Sharp suffered very serious injuries and required multiple surgeries, but she was still able to give police a description of her attacker. Wow.

According to Emma Lou, the killer was a, quote, well-dressed black man, who she described as a, quote, giant well over six feet in height. Wow. With tremendous breadth of shoulders and exceptionally strong and sinewy arms. That's like a, like, fibrous tissue that connects, like, bone to bone or muscle to bone.

It's like fibers. Okay. So I think, like, I don't know if she means, like, gangly or like, yeah. So an article in the Atlanta Journal noted, while the ordinary, and I won't say that, murder, attracts little attention. The police department was upon the alert last night. doubtfully expecting a repetition of the long series of crimes which have baffled every effort of the detectives.

Okay. These newspaper headlines are insane. They're wild. Like, while the regular murder of the black person isn't caused for alarm. Yeah. Oh, all right. Yeah. Now, Lena Sharpe's murder and Emma Loo's description of the killer finally only gave Atlanta

investigators something to work with in their investigation. With one detective declaring, it's the work of the same man. and there seems to be little doubt that the fellow has tried a double crime on a single night, which also is a little Jack the Rippery. It is, yeah. The double event, except with Jack the Ripper. It wasn't really planned. I won't go into it.

I don't think it was planned. I think it was he fucked up and then he had to satisfy. Yeah, he's a completionist. I think that's a widely held belief for sure. I think so too. But while the latest attacks seemed to confirm the suspicions of many that it was the same man, it also elevated the story in the eyes of the press. Right.

The Atlanta Journal, expanded their coverage, and even their rivals, the Atlanta Constitution, who seemed to suck at all this, could no longer ignore the story, but that wasn't all. News of the killer had also begun to spread to other states. A few days later, papers from as far away as New York were reporting on, quote, Atlanta's Jack the Ripper, noting the inability of local investigators to stop the murders and the toll it was taking on the city's black community. The New York Times reported, Tonight there are a few black women on the street And black cooks and housemaids Are refusing to work after dark In cases where they have any distance

To go to their homes afterwards. So while the national press coverage Had an undeniably racist tone It cemented two important things in the public's eye. First, that there was a quote, Madman as methodical and cunning as Jack the Ripper, operating in Atlanta's black community. And second, that investigators seemed either uninterested

or completely incapable of doing literally anything to stop it. And in truth, the murders were hardly ingenious or cunning. Like, they're not like, like, Jack the Ripper is not ingenious or cunning. He's pretty cunning, though. He's kind of, like, and pretty quick and pretty, like, does it under the cover of darkness and all that. This really wasn't that. Yeah.

Atlanta's white police force didn't prioritize solving violent crime. when they were committed against non-white people. That's just the way it is. Fortunately, the expanded press coverage did put some pressure on investigators, though, to the extent that a serious effort was mounted to identify and catch the killer before he could kill again.

Not because they felt like it was morally something that they should do, but because they felt presser from now the national press, kind of roasting them for it. Unfortunately, he would take several more lives before this killing three came to an end. Within a few days, investigators had developed a basic profile for the man they believe to be the killer, but we're careful not to attribute all the women killed in Atlanta that year to the Ripper.

Coroner Paul Donahue told reporters, while a number of black women have been killed in the city, the work of the Ripper seems unmistakable. According to Paul, a peculiarity... It's so hard to say. It's so hard to say concerning the crimes, is that all of his victims have met their death on a Saturday night. Interesting. Which is a clue. Absolutely.

That's a big clue. Leading police to believe it was only a matter of days before the killer struck again. That should also give you a little bit of a clue like he's working during the week. Yep. He works on these days. Like maybe he doesn't, you know, he's doing something on Sundays. He can't do these things. Investigators theory that the killer only took victims on Saturday held true, at least for the short term.

On Saturday, July 8th, Mary Yeldell left the home of her employer, W.M. Selker, around 830. p.m. and headed home after a very long day of work. Mary had only went about a block or so when she heard a whistle as she passed by a dark alley. And stopping to see who was trying to get her attention, she watched as a quote, large, well-built black man, which is exactly the description from the last one, emerged from the darkness and walked towards her. Mary screamed and ran back to her employer's home, where she told her employer what happened. Selker grabbed his revolver and ran to the spot where Mary had seen the man and was just surprised to find that the man was still standing in the alley. So he raised his pistol and demanded that this guy raised his hands.

But instead, the man quickly turned and, quote, ran like a flash down the alley and into the vacant lot where Selker lost sight of him. That's so freaky. He was just standing there waiting. And ran like a flash. Yeah. When he returned to his house, Selker phoned the police and both he and Mary gave descriptions of her would-be assailant, who, Investigators believe was the same man responsible for the other deaths. Yeah.

It's also like of note, like these women, a lot of them are just coming home from like a long fucking day of work. Yeah, they're exhausted. And they're running into this fucker. Yeah. Like that sucks. It does. It's awful.

If the killer had been following some compulsion to kill on Saturdays or if there was a reason he killed on Saturdays, he ignored that in the case of the next victim. Ah. I also wonder if that was possibly released somehow. or leaked that he only killed on Saturdays, and he said, well, I have to switch that up. On the morning of Tuesday, July 11th, Will Broglin was on his way to work as a laborer

when he came upon what appeared to be signs of a considerable scuffle, having taken place sometime earlier. There were deep drag marks in the soft dirt, so he followed the marks and eventually discovered the body of Sadie Holly. Like the others, Sadie's skull had been crushed with a large rock, and her throat was slug.

from one side to the other. Unlike the others, though, it looked like the killer had taken Sadie's shoes. What? Which is like a strange little side quest. Had he or like had somebody else? Perhaps. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean. Yeah. Out there. Maybe somebody needed shoes. Maybe. Maybe he was being weird. Perhaps. Maybe he took him though. Now the discovery of yet another body so soon after the attempted attack on Mary Yeldo set off alarms, not only within Atlanta's black community, but within the other populations as well. Having already begun covering the story now finally, like, in earnest, the press started tracing the murders back and discovered that the Ripper killings likely began far earlier than anyone had previously thought.

Oh. As least as far back as Rosa Trice's murder in January, because remember before, they weren't even considering them. Also, the realization prompted a new round of outrage from Atlanta. all wanting to know why the murders hadn't been connected until now and demanding to know what the police were going to fucking do about it. One reporter wrote, The police department has nothing to say in explanation of its inability thus far to cope with the situation.

Yikes. In the meantime, the black community are holding mass meetings and are appealing to the governor, the mayor, and the law-loving citizens to help them in capturing the guilty party. So they're doing the work, of course. Basically. Now, given the newly appointed, applied pressure and all the growing outrage that was happening,

it's likely no coincidence that just one day after Sadie Holly's murder, police arrested 27-year-old Henry Huff. Just out of nowhere. They're like, oh my God, found him. Yeah. And held him as a, quote, suspicious character in the death of Holly. Look, I think you guys are suspicious. I think so, too.

Now, according to investigators, there was, quote, strong circumstantial evidence against Huff, including the fact that he was known to have a romantic relationship with Sadie, had been seen with her on the night of her murder, was seen late that evening wearing bloody clothes, and had a wound on his head, which she claimed to have received in a pool room fight. That is circumstantial evidence.

Now, despite their certainty that Huff was Sadie's killer, just one day later, police arrested Todd Henderson on suspicion of being the Atlanta Ripper. Like Huff, Todd Henderson was also black and vaguely fit the description of the killer, as given by Emma Luce Sharp. and investigators claim to have, quote, strong circumstantial evidence connecting him to the crimes.

Okay. In his statement to the press, Sergeant Landford told reporters, while he believes Henderson to be the Ripper and guilty of several murders, if not all of the crimes attributed to the fiend, he nonetheless found the evidence against Huff's so compelling that he, quote, thought best to have him before the jury as well.

So, like, just pick. So in simple terms, in their rush to show that, like, hey, nope, we got it. We're not, we got it. We know who it is. We've been working on this. We are not incapable. We are not not caring about this. Like, here we go. We got it. Progress. In the rush to do that, Atlanta's police arrested two men who vaguely matched the description of the killer and held them both for the same crimes, determining it was best to just shove them in front of a jury and be like, I don't know, you guys decide who did it. A or B. Which is like, that's literally your job. Yeah. That's literally your job. Yeah. That's literally your job. Yeah, you can't put that on the jury. So for a time, the residents of Atlanta breathed easy, believing that the Ripper's killing spree had come to an end.

Too simple. Maybe one of these guys did it. Too simple. In fact, following Sadie's murder in July, there was a six-week stretch of times that there was no murders. That's actually a pretty long time. Which did lead many to believe that whether it was Huff or Henderson, the real killer had been caught.

One of them was it. Huff was indicted by a grand jury in early August for the murder of Sadie Holly. with investigators announced saying, quote, at least one of the Ripper crimes is no longer a mystery. For the evidence against Henry Huff is so conclusive that there is no doubt that he will be convicted of the murder of Sadie Holly. That's a bit of a stretch. I'm like, I think we have circumstantial evidence, but...

And unfortunately, the jury didn't agree with that the evidence against Huff was all that compelling. I'm actually surprised. And he was eventually acquitted for Sadie's murder. But I'm actually truly shocked by that. Now, ultimately, Henry Huff would be one of several black men arrested on quote, strong circumstantial evidence that they were the Atlanta Ripper.

That was apparently not so strong. Yeah. Others included Todd Henderson, John Daniel, and Bud Wise, all of whom bore a slight resemblance to the man who attacked Emma, but otherwise had no connection to the murders and despite investigators' strong belief in their guilt would eventually be acquitted or simply released.

Wow. As in the case of Henry Huff, the timing of the arrests and indictments of the other suspects, comes after the public outcry over law enforcement's complete inability to catch the killer. Makes sense. It's possible that one or more of these arrests could have satiated the public demand for action,

had the killings not continued while Huff and the other suspects were in custody. That does present a problem. That presents a problem. On the morning of August 31st, nearly seven weeks since the last Ripper victim was discovered, the body of 20-year-old Mary Ann Duncan was discovered by the railroad tracks, just outside of Atlanta in a community known as Blan Town. Like Sadie Holly, Duncan's shoes had been removed.

Okay. And were nowhere to be found. Her throat had been slit from one side to the other. And a month later, Ellen Maddox, a cook for a family in Inman Park, was walking home from work when she was struck from behind with a blunt object. She lived.

Okay. The next day the papers reported on the assault, saying, quote, she was attacked from behind, her head almost crushed, and her face beat, out of all resemblance to a human being. Oh, wow.

And she lived? She was rushed to the hospital. And despite the severity of her injuries, which were described right there, she was able to give a statement to police, but she never saw her assailant. Okay. Maddox, it turned out, was lucky. Before the end of the year, the bodies of Ava Florence, Minnie Wise, and Mary Putnam would also be discovered in locations across Atlanta, all under the same circumstances.

head beaten, throat slashed, all of it. So it sounds like he comes up from behind to throw you off. He takes them by surprise. Then goes. By late 1911, public outcry over the continued failure of law enforcement to catch or even identify the actual killer, as opposed to very convenient scapegoats that they were trying to shoehorn in here, had reached a fever pitch. As the public continued to put pressure on the city government, letters from concerned

citizens began arriving at City Hall with offers to help. catch the ripper. How sad is it that they couldn't even have faith in their police force? And they were like, hey, do you want me to take a crack at it? Literally the implication is that, well, investigators don't have the ability to. So why don't I help? Since you guys can't step aside. In response, Mayor Cortland Wynn published in an editorial in the city paper to say, among other things, Atlanta is known throughout the country as one of the most law-abiding cities of its size in the United States. And its police and detective departments are second to none. According to Wells, leaders, and this is why, according to Wells, leaders in the black community, used this time to renew their calls for help and for the hiring of black detectives to assist in bringing the murderers.

Because maybe black detectives would care. Yeah. For their part, investigators deflected responsibility and directed their anger at the black community for wanting it to be solved. They made strange and even racist comments to reporters suggesting. black residents were somehow responsible for catching the killer. Are you fucking kidding me? Mm-hmm. One unnamed, which convenient, one unnamed detective told reporters in late November

1911, we won't get to the bottom of this thing until we get some help from the, he said something else, but I'll say black community. Oh, honey. Yeah. Name them. He said these murders are being committed among the lower class of, he said something else, I'll say black people. The detective insisted, quote, ignorant,

brutal beasts that know nothing else. Their acquaintances are afraid to talk. But if there were a little money slip to them, we could find out invaluable clues. And I wager we would land the murders. This isn't something I say often, but I really hope that guy choked and died. I also hope he choked.

Cool. Choke, bitch. Yeah. That, not only is that the most racist thing ever, but also he's literally saying, the only reason we, the literal detectives, whose job description and paycheck is because we're supposed to be solving these.

We can't solve this because the citizens who are being terrorized are not solving it for us. That's literally what he's saying. He's saying the community that is being terrorized isn't solving it. Yeah. So we can't solve it. And that goes. Yeah. When white people are killed, we're also expected to solve the murder.

Of course. Of course. That goes same way. Hello. Like what? Now, overt. What a douche bag. Overt and wildly explicit and egregious racism aside, there's something uniquely reprehensible about blaming victims for the violence perpetrated against them. And implying they are also to blame for allowing the killings to continue.

Yeah. Like, you guys should have stopped this. We're busy. levels of depravity. Yeah. On the investigation side of this and also on, like, murder side and investigation side, the levels of depravity are no, no bounds. It just makes me wonder, like, how people can be so gross. Yeah. And suck so much. Like, I'm like, how are you such a hateful bitch? That's it. How are you so people? And how do you not realize how much you suck? Now, not surprisingly, the implication was entirely untrue. In fact, even before the press or lawn

enforcement had identified the murders as likely being the work of the same killer, Atlanta's black community had activated already and were working together to warn of the dangers posed to women on the streets. I'm sure. Following Mayor Wyn's editorial defending the police, leaders in the black community intensified their efforts to protect themselves and their families and community, advocating for better protections, raising money that could be offered as a reward for information leading to her to rest, like actually doing the physical work. How sad that they had to do that because nobody else would. Nobody else would.

They probably would have done it anyways because they literally had to. One announcement read, stay indoors and your lives will be saved. For venturing out at night moans only to invite this monster's ravages. But how sad is that, though, because so many people had to work into the night and then go home. And they were saying, you can't stay at work. Yeah. People have kids and families. Now, by January 1912, the Atlanta Press,

was reporting that at least 15 women had been killed by the Ripper. Yet investigators were no closer to catching this person than they were one year earlier when Rosa Trice's body was discovered. Worse yet, the murders continued almost as though they were on schedule. Really?

In January, the body of Pearl Williams was discovered in a field adjacent to Chestnut and West Fair Streets, just a few blocks from her home. That seems to be another thing. And what the Atlantic Constitution said was dead from a ghastly wound her throat.

Police arrested a man named Frank Harvey for the murder based on his having known the victim, having discovered wearing clothes with blood on them, and as having a, quote, sharp potato knife on him when he was arrested. It's unclear what became of him. Huh. Because he doesn't appear to have been convicted of Williams' death and nothing really came out of it. Disappears forever. It's very strange that so many people were walking home with blood on their clothes.

Yeah, that is a little weird. I do hate that. That is a little weird. On February 17th, the body of 17-year-old Alice Owens was discovered in a gully not far from the city limits. Her throat was cut, her body was mutilated. Alice's husband, Charlie, was quickly arrested for the murder. And despite insisting he was innocent, he was convicted of his wife's murder and sentenced to a life term and a chain gang. Whoa.

Now, it's here that the story of the Atlanta Ripper becomes more like nebulous. Okay. this is when it gets like a little like it has like a mythical quality to it at this point. Oh. Because in early April, the body of 18 year old Mary Cates was discovered in a field just beyond the city limits as well. The Atlanta Journal said murdered and mutilated after a hard struggle. Mary's throat had been cut. Her clothes were ripped to shreds from the killer.

And the killer had quote mutilated her body about the breast and below the waist, which is very Jack the River. Yep. In their description of the murder, the press added yet another detail to the increasingly, again, mythical description of the killer, noting that, quote, the mutilation of the girl's body was evidently done with a surgical instrument, and the slayer had some anatomical knowledge, as one of the organs was deftly removed. Interesting. Yeah. Now, in the months that followed, other bodies of young black women were discovered, some bearing similarity to the earlier Ripper victims, while, Others were a little less obvious to match up with the Ripper's preferred victim profile.

That last murder feels so disconnected from the other ones. It's literally Jack the Ripper. Yeah. Whereas the other ones like there's blunt force trauma. There's jagged long. Usually it's trauma to the head, throw cut. Right. And maybe like stabs and slashes.

Right. Yeah. But not like surgical level cuts. Yeah. Very strange. That's weird. That's why it takes on a little bit of you're like, that's not the same person. Is that?

Like what? And also as time passed, other bodies were discovered outside of Atlanta that bore the hallmarks of the Ripper and many that didn't. Okay. Like, after a bit of time, the press began ascribing the Ripper moniker to unsolved murders of young black women outside of Atlanta, regardless of whether there was any evidence or any kind of like similarities to the early Ripper ones. Like, it just kind of all got thrown into one pot. Yeah. You know, just liberally ascribing blame to an increasingly mythical and kind of legendary killer at this point became a problem for investigators when they did make an arrest in one of the cases in the summer of 1912. In August, police arrested Lawton Brown for the murder of Eva Florence,

one of the victims that was assigned to the Ripper in late 1911. The arrest was based largely on his having known the victim and his wife's statement that he'd been out on the night of the murder. And she'd discover him burning some of his clothes the next morning. That's suspicious. Pretty suspicious. After a lengthy interrogation, Brown confessed to the murder of Florence. According to Brown, he quote, he knew Florence had $3.50 and that he killed her for the money.

Okay. Well, it's entirely plausible that Brown did kill Florence for the money that he believed she possessed. The more he spoke to investigators, the more questionable his confession probably should have become. in addition to confessing to Florence's murder, he claimed to have witnessed the murders of several other Ripper victims, not as the killer or a participant, but as a spectator, who was, quote, merely passing by and chanced to see the crimes. What?

Which what? How would you even know that they were happening? With each day that passed, he offered a new information about his knowledge of the Ripper murders, but rather than becoming increasingly skeptical of the veracity of these claims, which they should have been, Investigators, who were very eager to close this case, interpreted his statements as further evidence of his guilt. Okay.

In fact, despite a city physician declaring Brown, quote, undoubtedly insane. Sounded like it. Detectives quickly set about building their case against him and enthusiastically declared they had, quote, gathered evidence which indicates strongly that Brown is the Jack the Ripper for whom the entire police department has been searching for an entire year. I don't know. And remember he's saying that most of these, he just happened upon while they were happening. Right. Like, what are the odds of that?

Like, come on. Pretty low. The majority of the case against Lawton Brown was based on a statement given to police by two women who both claimed to be his wife. He's a philanderer. One of them said, quote, that the whole time she had lived with him, she believed that he was the murderer. And it was a great relief to her that he was caught and was behind bars. Oh, wow. I mean, that must have been absolutely.

fucking terrifying. Yeah. Brown offered nothing in response to the claims or how he was related to these two women at all, which investigators took as evidence of fact rather than evidence of mental illness. Yeah. His trial began in October with investigators enthusiastically claiming they had caught the Ripper and they were certain he was going to be convicted. But just as in the cases of Huff, Henderson and the others who were accused of being the Ripper, the jury saw Brown for what he was. A mentally ill man whose claims and confessions were clearly unlawful.

unreliable. Right. Also, the defense offered at least one witness who, quote, testified that Brown had been forced into a partial confession by police and that he was prone to hallucinations and would confess to almost anything out of pressure. Oh, wow. That's so sad. Yeah. After a lengthy trial, the jury deliberated a pretty short amount of time and acquitted Lawton Brown of the murder charges. Wow. I did not see that going that way. And the murders continued into the following year and would go on for nearly a decade. A decade before they slowly petered out by the 1920s. The problem was, though, was that the press, and to a lesser extent, the police labeled like whatever they were labeling as a Ripper murder, it had become so vague and non-specific, I don't know why I couldn't say that, that by the mid-teens,

it was impossible to know whether the murders were committed by the same man who terrorized Atlanta between 1911 and 1913, or whether maybe it was a few different. people and these were not all connected, like which ones were part of. Like, Jack the Ripper has the canonical, you know, the series of murders, and that we can kind of rely on as being like, for sure. And there's so much evidence linking all of those murders to each other.

Yeah, there's a lot of evidence linking. And some people even question a couple of those, you know what I mean? Like, it happens. But this one didn't even, they had like a very loose, confusing set of canonical ones that they could attribute to him. Yeah. According to Wells, quote,

there were some events that were attributed to what would become the Atlanta Ripper that ended up not being the work of the Atlanta Ripper and ended up being the work of disgruntled husbands and boyfriends. Oh. Which, damn. Woof. In most cases, there was little to know evidence left behind

in the more than two dozen cases eventually ascribed to the Atlanta Ripper. In fact, the handful of suspects arrested and brought to trial for the crimes all were acquitted by white juries, which was wild, for lack of, evidence. That actually is wild because I didn't even think of the fact that it was not necessarily a jury of their peers. It was white juries, lack of evidence, which is a remarkable occurrence

given the racial tensions and just like what was going on in Atlanta at the time. Because how it tells you how little there was. Well, and it's like how many other stories have we heard where it's a jury of white people who are just like, yeah, they did it. Yeah, they did it. Sure. There's barely any evidence, but yeah. Yeah. So this is really, like you said, remarkable. So it's very interesting. And to this day, we don't know who committed those murders. How sad is that? And which ones are even the work of the same person? Well, honestly, it's a result from zero effort being put into any of these cases. Just hearing that one detective that summed it all up. How he talked about this, you're just like, got it. And feeling confident to talk to a reporter like that really does show

that the force's attitude at the time had to have been pretty similar. Ransom. And ranted. Yeah. Like, that's really sad because that could absolutely be a solved case. There was eyewitnesses. That's the thing. Those eyewitnesses definitely could have solved it. Yeah. And it seems to me like it is a serial killer situation because as we know, serial killers, there are like certain tenants that seem to be ring true with them where like they usually don't kill outside of their race. Right. It happens. That is absolutely happened. But it's rare. And this seems like we. could, this is a serial killer because it's like the same kind of victim profile that's happening here, you know, like, yeah, it's interesting all the sudden, black women and then like, like the throat and the, yeah, the throat being slashed, catching off guard. It seems like there's the same kind of modus operandi that's happening here. But then it is so strange that whoever this was, like started taking the shoes. I know, that's the other thing. Two of the women that we talked about if I remember,

right. Yeah, two that I could, that I could see. Interesting. Yeah. I don't know. what that's about. I think every murder that we talked about today is not necessarily. No, I think there's definitely a few that we talked about that are totally outside of the land. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's really, really awful that because of

people's lack of humanity, this case isn't solved. Yeah. And I think it could be. You never know. I'm just saying. You never know. Maybe somebody will revisit it someday and find a little connection. Yeah. Like you said, that little thread you start to pull. You just start to unravel. Exactly.

Wow, what a sad case. I know. Random fun fact. Oh, random fun fact. Hold on. We need one for this one for sure. Let's find a random fun fact. I hope you don't know this one.

I know. You knew the last one. What was it? Donora? Dan, Duran. Duryan fruit. Okay, hold on. That's not the fact for today.

Random fun fact, Jenner, A, Tor. Let's go. Oh, this is fun. The word Lego is formed from the Danish word, leg got which means play well in english in latin it means putting together oh i always wondered if lego was like because it's all capital so i wondered if it stood for something yeah you're right but it's just from a danish word i love that fun p i think um lego is like a uh i think they use it very specifically people who are very into legos because we watched lego master with the girls

wait what do you mean they use it like um they use it like um they use it it almost like a verb? Like I'm Legoing? Yeah, like, I think there's a, there's a specific, like, terminology that they, that they use, huh, I think. I might be wrong. You guys can tell me, uh, if you're Lego, if you're Lego lovers. Yeah. Um, because I remember I, I, like, noticed it and I was like, oh, that's interesting. That is interesting. Hmm. All right. So that's, that's a good one. Well, I like that. That's what I got for you today. So, uh, we hope we keep listening. And we hope you, keep it. Weird. Not so weird that you don't Lego some Legos and not be a racist.

Lego. Bye. Woo.