Timesuck with Dan Cummins - Short Suck #21 - The Servant Girl Annihilator aka The Midnight Assassin

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Today I'm sharing the little known Servant Girl Annihilator murders. A series of crimes just as shocking as the crimes of London's Jack the Ripper murders, but occurred three years earlier, in Austin, Texas. Who kept dragging woman after woman from their beds and killing them with an ax? For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com

Welcome to another edition of Time Suck Short Sucks. Dan Cummins and today I will be sharing the story of the Servant Girl Annihilator. Sounds like the title of a B-horror movie. But the Annihilator was all too real. From December of 1884 to December of 1885, three years before Jack the Ripper terrorized women in the Whitechapel area of London, a serial killer who had come to be known as both the servant girl Annihilator and the Midnight Assassin absolutely terrorized young women in Austin, Texas. As the name suggests, most of the victims were servants who worked for wealthy families.

In almost every case, they were bludgeoned with an axe as they slept, and in most cases dragged out of their beds and raped before the killer fled the crime scene as well. Would law enforcement, working without any of the modern forensic tools detectives now have at their disposal, such as DNA evidence, fingerprints, security camera footage, blood splatter analysis, and more, be able to find out who was the Midnight Marauder, the servant girl Annihilator, and put them behind bars. Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her, but I wanted to love my mother. I have a dream. I plead not guilty right now. Your only chance is to leave with us. Out of eight known Annihilator victims, five were African-American women and one was an African-American girl who was only 11 years old. The attack spanned almost exactly a full year.

The first victim was killed on December 30th, 1884 and the final two victims, who were both white women, were bludgeoned to death in separate incidents just an hour apart on Christmas Eve 1885. I'm noting the race of the victims because race did matter a lot to the people of Austin back in 1885 and affected the investigation. Though more progressive than the rest of Texas was at the time, as it remains today, the murder of black women was not taken nearly as seriously as the murder of white women in Austin, and law enforcement increased their efforts substantially in the wake of those

final two murders. When all of these murders occurred, Austin was an up-and-coming city. In an interview for the PBS show History Detectives, Detective Wes Cohen said, The Austin Statesman paints a picture of a capital city coming of age, with an opera house, three colleges, and a new capital building under construction. Austin's economy was booming, and its citizens were shaping a more integrated vision for the South just 20 years after the Civil War. There was a thriving community of freed men

who were in the emerging middle class, who were living side by side with their white neighbors. But there was a swelling undercurrent of vice and violence too. According to Texas Monthly, a magazine based in Austin, which I think does some of the best investigative journalism and storytelling in the country by the way, always happy when we come across them as a source. Just 20 years earlier Austin was a rustic cow town with less than 5,000

people where it wasn't uncommon to see livestock in the streets. By 1885, the year of all but one of the murders, Austin was now a modern city with over 20,000 residents. They rode in streetcars, used the brand new invention of the telephone, and the city had a plethora of restaurants, a theater, and many other modern amenities. Austin also had two daily newspapers that reported daily, The Democratic Statesman and the Austin Statesman, and both these papers and many others throughout Texas were writing a lot about the servant girl annihilator murders. Murders, excuse me, murders that were particularly savage and disturbing. Women were being attacked in their beds, even if they slept in that bed with their husband, boyfriend, or children. And they were being raped before being beaten to death with an axe or some

other blunt object. Or perhaps raped immediately after their deaths or as they were dying. The black residents of Austin were particularly disturbed by the servant girl murders, murders that heightened existing racial tensions and led directly to several incidents of police brutality. While the first murder assigned to the midnight assassin occurred December 30, 1884, it's possible if not almost certain that the killer had struck before then. There were at least four previous non-fatal incidents where black women had been brutally attacked while they slept. Back in July of 1884 two young black women in separate incidents had been stabbed in the face as they

slept. Can you imagine that? Having a knife or some other sharp instrument used on you as the world's worst alarm clock to wake up out of a dead sleep to a stab in the face. Feeling very, very lucky right now to have a not had that life experience. Also, sometimes I am still so tired when my alarm goes off, particularly at this dark and dreary time of year in Northern Idaho, that I feel like even if somebody did stab me in the face, I might say something like just five more minutes.

Just stab me again in five more minutes, please. Just not quite ready to get up, but please don't stab me in the face to wake me up to find out how I actually react. Let's not test this theory. Seriously, it's such a crazy thing to just ever happen to anyone. The local police, for reasons that are unclear, did not think these two attacks were connected at the time. And neither woman was able to identify her attacker, who ran off after stabbing them in the face while they were asleep. Then the following month in August of 1884 another young black woman was hit on the head with an iron bar as she slept. Again the police did not connect

his attack to either of the two previous attacks and again the attacker ran off after bashing this poor woman. You'll see these early attacks were tests if they were in fact you know carried out by the same person like they were were finding out what they could get away with, figuring out exactly what their dark fantasy was. So were the police, who were white, taking these attacks on black women, women who all worked as servants to white employers, much in the same way black slaves had worked for white masters just 20 years earlier, very seriously? Most do not seem to think that they were.

Three months later, in November of 1884, a fourth young black servant woman was assaulted while she slept. No specific details are listed about this particular attack. According to J.R. Galloway, author of The Servant Girl Murders, and creator of The Servant Girl Murders website, this incident was documented in police reports but didn't make the local papers. Yet again, this violent crime not connected by authorities to previous violent crimes. And maybe these crimes weren't connected. Or maybe they were committed by a future serial killer who was escalating in their violence

as is so often the case. We know that now, but back then the term serial killer was still nearly a century away from being coined in the English language. So to be fair to those law enforcement officers, they weren't thinking about serial killers at all back then because it just wasn't something that literally anyone thought about. It was a foreign concept to think that some sicko just wanted to go around town bashing women in the head while they slept. The first of the servant girl murders occurred at the tail end of 1884.

25-year-old Molly Smith was killed at her home at the corner of West 6th and Bowie streets. Molly, another young black woman born in Virginia in 1857. By the 1870s, she had relocated to Texas and she had moved from Waco to Austin in the early 1880s. When she died, she left behind a ten year old son named George. And historical records do not say what happened to him after his mother died, but he likely continued staying with a family with the last name

of Rogers who he was living with for an unknown period of time before his mother died. Molly was unmarried to the time of her murder but not alone. She lived with her boyfriend Walter Spencer behind her employer's house. A month prior to her death she had taken a new job working as a servant doing cleaning and cooking for the family of another man named Walter, Walter Hall. And on the night before New Year's Eve, December 30th, 1884, Molly's boyfriend Walter Spencer was violently woken from his sleep by an axe blow to his face. And again, holy shit, what a way to wake up.

Dead asleep one second, in incredible pain and terror and shock and just panic after taking a fucking axe to the face the next. How do you survive that? It is amazing how strong the human skull is. By the time Walter dared to pull his hands away from the new just gaping bleeding wound on his face, he could see that his attacker was gone. His bedroom was in disarray and his girl Molly no longer sleeping beside him. There was blood all over their bedroom on the floor, walls and ceiling, bloody handprints on the doorframe. There was also Walter's

bloody axe which the killer had left behind after using. Walter began to scream and cry out for help and Molly's employer, the other Walter, Walter Hall, heard him and rushed across his property, found him, heard that Molly was missing, then followed a trail of blood that led to an outhouse. And there he found the dead body of Molly Smith in the snow, with a quote, gaping hole in her head. Her nightdress had been torn to shreds and the way she was posed strongly suggested she had been raped. But her rapist, the man who had attacked both her and her boyfriend, had vanished. A man named William Lem Brooks, a former romantic partner of Molly's, was soon arrested as a suspect, but he had a solid alibi.

Lem was released after it was confirmed he'd attended a party, some sort of ball, until 4 a.m. on the night of the murder. While it's possible that he could have left the ball, committed the murder, then returned to the festivities without anyone noticing, highly unlikely. Based on the amount of blood found at the crime scene, the killer would have, you know, very probably just been completely covered in blood, which means he would have had to have either changed clothes and washed up after killing before returning to the ball or taken the clothes he had worn to the ball off before the killing, then put those clothes

back on when he was done after washing up, then returned to the ball. Not impossible, but again very unlikely. Especially back in the days when a quick hot shower was not an accessible option for almost anyone. Nevertheless, an inquest was held to determine if Brooks should go to trial. The coroner's jury, which consisted of six white men, Brooks was black, met on New Year's Day, spent the next several days listening to witnesses and theories, and the jury concluded that while Lem Brooks had the theoretical means and theoretical motive to kill Molly, there just was not nearly enough evidence to try him and so he was released. And then soon another killing would make it look even less likely that Lem was the killer,

when a victim he had no relationship with turned up dead in the same manner as Molly. Just over four months later, on May 7th, 1885, 30-year-old Eliza Shelley, another young black woman working as a servant, was killed inside her home in the corner of East 3rd Street and San Jacinto Boulevard. Eliza had been born in Texas in 1857. She was married, but her husband, like excuse me, but her husband Ike Shelley was imprisoned at the time of her death. She was working like the previous victim as a cook and a maid. She worked for Dr. Lucien B. Johnson, former state legislator

at the time of her death. The Austin statesman described Eliza as an excellent woman and Dr. Johnson's wife also said she was a woman of good character. She was living, also like the previous victim, on the property of her employer. She lived in a cabin just outside her employer's home as was extremely common at the time for servants. And also like the previous victim, the midnight assassin attacked her in her sleep. Her body was found on the floor of her bedroom near her two youngest children who were both unharmed and on the bed. It appeared she had been attacked while in the same room as all three of her kids who slept in the same room as her, adding to the tragedy of this murder.

Local newspapers described a gruesome crime scene noting how Eliza's head was, quote, nearly cleaved in two by an axe. Mrs. Johnson, the doctor's wife, had heard screams coming from Eliza's cabin on the night of the murder and sent her niece to go check things out. Her niece ran back with horrifying news. Now Dr. Johnson ran to the cabin. He found Eliza dead on the floor with a gaping bloody wound over her right eye, likely done with a heavy and sharp instrument, such as, of course, an axe. She had been again dragged from her bed. Her body had been found with her nightdress pulled up.

Just like with the previous victim, it was strongly assumed that she had been raped either directly prior to being murdered while she was dying or directly afterwards. Is it weird to say I strongly hope she was she was raped afterwards? I mean obviously I would like her to have never been raped at all or murdered but if I had to choose, just like if I had to choose if I was raped before or after being murdered Definitely picking after once I'm dead once I'm dead. You can't even rape me actually because I'm just gonna give consent ahead of time Just to just to the whole world. I am a hundred percent Okay with you just doing whatever you want to my body once I am for sure one hundred percent

Definitely can't come back dead. Just please be sure. If you start fucking me and I wake up, I'm gonna definitely try and kill you. But I won't try and rape you back, because that sounds horrifying. And I'm really getting away from this topic and just adding unnecessary trauma to this already horrific subject.

Refocusing. No murder weapon was left at the scene of Eliza Shelley's murder, but there were large bare footprints that appeared to have been left by the killer. One of Eliza's sons, no age listed but clearly old enough to effectively communicate, and that poor child, said the killer shoved him in a corner, threw a blanket over him, and ordered him to stay still and be quiet.

He soon fell asleep and had no idea what happened until the next morning. And if you're wondering, how the fuck could he just fall asleep as his mom is being raped and murdered just a few feet away? I was also wondering that. He did not fall asleep because he was bored. He wasn't under the blanket like, oh my god, hurry up. I'm so tired. How long is she gonna keep screaming? No, her son was not also a psychopath. Strongly assumed that he was drugged. A local dentist reported that chloroform had been stolen from his home directly prior to his mother's murder. Lies of two other younger children who were also sleeping in the bed with her and were found in bed could not give any additional information. My god, what a fucking insane thing to witness as a kid.

A 19 year old boy who was walking around barefoot near the crime was soon arrested but his footprint did not match the ones found at the crime scene and so he was released. He also was not covered in blood. Another suspect was a black man who had previously dated and lived with Eliza. She and this man had recently gotten into an argument and so he was arrested but then he was released also due to a lack of evidence of domestic violence and his footprint also did not match the ones found at the crime scene. Next murder occurs just two weeks later. On May 23rd, 1885, 30-year-old Irene Cross, another black mother, another servant, murdered inside her home at the corner of Linden Street and East 3rd.

Irene had been born in Mississippi in 1847. By 1870, she and her husband, Haywood Cross, were living in Austin with their nine-year-old son, Washington. Irene was widowed by 1880, per census records, and she lived with her now-grown son and her eight-year-old nephew, Douglas Brown. At the time of her death, Irene was living in a small building in the yard

of a 53-year-old widow named Mrs. Whitman, who lived with her son, Charles. Mrs. Whitman who lived with her son Charles. Mrs. Whitman was her employer. The building Irene lived in had been divided into two very small apartments. Irene's 13 year old nephew lived in one and she and her adult son Washington lived in the other. Washington in his early 20s now. And just like with previous victims Irene had been attacked while she slept. On the night of May 23rd Irene was sleeping alone in her apartment. Her son Washington was out that night, but her nephew Douglas was home next door.

Irene had left her door unlocked as she usually did because Washington often came home late. Douglas had left his unit unlocked as well. Irene was attacked after the killer curiously snuck first into the room where Douglas was sleeping before entering her room. The man told Douglas not to scream because he was not going to hurt him and he didn't. Then he snuck into Irene's room. He came back out a few minutes later holding a large bloody pocket knife. Before that Douglas heard him yell at Irene to stop screaming before he quickly and brutally attacked her with that knife. Man, in addition to poor Irene, this poor 13 year old kid, the guilt he must have carried, wishing he would have done something to try and help his aunt. Irene was somehow able to fight this man off before she died, and she ran

outside screaming, which woke up the residents of the house where Mrs. Whitman lived. According to sources, Irene had been, quote, terribly stabbed, but was still alive when the police and reporters arrived. According to an article by the Austin Statesman, the woman's right arm was nearly cut in two from a gash over six inches long. A cruel cut extended over halfway around her head, commencing just above the right eye. It looked as if the intention had been to scalp her. She was moaning and writhing in pain. What a nightmare.

The reporter asked her, do you know who did this? She couldn't speak but she was able to shake her head, no. Her nephew Douglas described the killer as a quote big chunky Negro man barefooted with his pants rolled up. But he was not able to provide a name. He didn't recognize his aunt's killer and law enforcement was not able to find any suspects. So still no one has any idea who has been carrying out these attacks, rapes, and murders after the third woman is killed.

A month later, the midnight assassin strikes again. One of the most abhorrent murders took place on August 30th, 1885, when 11-year-old Mary Ramey and her mother Rebecca both attacked in their sleep. Man, 11 years old, the age of a fifth or sixth grader. Mary and Rebecca had once lived in a family owned grocery store on East Pecan Street, a business owned by their relative Edward Carrington and one of the first black owned businesses in all of Austin actually. Mary was not Rebecca's only child.

She also had an older brother and a sister who did not live with her any longer. At the time of the attacks, Rebecca was working as a servant for a man named Valentine Weed. Valentine Weed you could say. I mean it's spelled like Valentine. It's a weird name right? Valentine Weed. Sounds like either a weed dispensary or a weird combo store. That's partially a weed dispensary, partially a lingerie shop or sex toy store or something in that vein. Which actually sounds like a fucking awesome combo. Let's get those let's get those going. Mr. We lived on East Cedar Street and Rebecca and her daughter Mary lived in a small building on his property.

According to the Austin American statesman, Rebecca had gone to bed around 9 p.m. On August 30th. She would recall hearing the clock strike both 10 and 11 p.m. but remembered nothing more until she was woken up later by a doctor. She'd been knocked unconscious by a blunt instrument in her sleep, probably an axe, or actually possibly not an axe. Excuse me. I'm jumping ahead of myself. I'm going off notes and I am wrong. It was not an axe, I don't think. You'll see here in a second. Her young daughter Mary sadly dragged to a backyard outhouse Stabbed through the ear with an iron rod iron rod probably is what was used to

knock her mother unconscious and And then she was sadly raped. It's a fucking brutal killer Such a young victim to die like that my god Please came to the property with bloodhounds. They followed a set of bare, bloody footprints. Again, more bare, bloody footprints. Always bare feet with this weirdo. From the yard to some nearby stables. And a young black man named Tom Allen, 23 year old, who drove one of the city's water carts, was arrested after he was found hiding in the hayloft in this stable.

His footprints were compared to the footprints in the sand and quote they fitted to a hair. Tom was unable to provide an alibi as well after 2 a.m. on August 30th. He would undergo a thorough examination by a doctor now who then tell local papers that he was definitely not the killer. The doctor felt that he was incapable of raping the girl based on quote certain physical incapabilities. And I wish I had more details about this Tom Allen fella because he because he sure sounds a quick read like a very likely suspect I don't know what the doctor was doing to test him trying to jerk him off or something and he couldn't get hard he's like doc

could have done it I tried jerking him off he wasn't able to get a wreck so you know he definitely can't get a wreck I don't know what the hell is going on there I will say though he was not suspected in any of the other murders And there's no mention of him being found covered in blood or blood being found in the hayloft where he was located Considering the nature of the attacks. He was suspected of committing. No price. You had a lot of blood on him on his clothes Again, this murder and the additional attack on Rebecca are not connected to the previous murders despite, you know having Almost the exact same MO.

Iron rod instead of an axe, but other than that. Papers reported that the police and the general public, or at least the white general public, felt that the murders were the result of various black men, each connected to a murder victim in some way, you know, personally as opposed to just one fucking psycho repeating the same kind of murder on multiple women that he didn't necessarily know. I bet black women and girls living in Austin connected the fuck out of these murders and were terrified. And the murders continued. And before I share details of the next murder, time for today's mid-show sponsor break. If you don't want to hear these ads, you can sign up for our Patreon, become a spacer for $5 a month,

help us donate to our charities, get the entire catalog ad free and more. And now let's return to Austin in 1885 when the servant girl annihilator strikes again. A month after the rape and murder of little 11 year old Mary Ramey on September 28th 1885 20 year old Gracie Vance is killed at her home on the corner of San Antonio and West 24 streets. Another young black woman, another servant, another victim killed at her home on the corner of San Antonio and West 24 streets Another young black woman another servant another victim killed at a crossroads as well These intersections would have made for an easier escape with the killer being able to take off in multiple directions I have to think that might have played a part in how he chose his victims Where they lived how easy it was to get away from their residents

Gracie was born in Texas in 1865. She was once married to a railroad worker. At the time of her death, Gracie was working for an attorney named Major W.D. Dunham. She and her partner, Orange Washington, lived in a shanty behind his house. Orange Washington. Sounds like the name of a deliciously refreshing crafted cocktail. Yes, I'll take another orange Washington. Mm refreshing She he was originally from Virginia his family had moved to Texas in 1870 and he'd worked on a farm before he moved to the city at the time of Gracie's murder He was working for a local builder named Michael Butler and orange. He did have a light and refreshing name was not a light and refreshing dude

According to author J. R. Galloway. He and Gracie fought often and he could be incredibly ridiculously violent. As in, Orange was said to frequently whip Gracie. Fucking what? Literally whipped her. That is, that's wild. Two nights before Gracie's murder on September 26, Orange and Gracie had gotten into an argument loud enough that it was overheard by Gracie's boss, Major Dunham. And on the night of her murder, there were four people in Gracie's small cabin. Besides her and Orange,

the other occupants were Lucinda Boddy, a friend of Gracie's, and Patsy Gibson, a relationship not specified. Authorities later determined that the attacker entered the cabin through a window. Gracie woke up and screamed when someone grabbed her. Orange jumped up from the bed to try and protect her, then fell right back down when he suffered an axe blow to the skull.

The intruder then knocked Gracie down, presumably knocking her unconscious, and proceeded to swing the axe at Lucinda next, who he bashed hard enough in the head to fracture her skull and send bone fragments into her brain. This guy was like Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds with an axe. Just consistently connecting on home run swings he's taking on these people. Patsy Gibson is quickly hit next with the axe right in the damn face. With her unconscious the attacker returns now to Lucinda who he rapes as she loses consciousness with three other people wounded but still alive right next to him.

And details like that make me think that most or all of these murders must have been the work of a serial killer. At least the ax ones. As opposed to the work of multiple people, as some have suspected. I just don't think a copycat killer jumping into their first murder is gonna have the stomach to rape someone directly after axing four people in the fucking head. To rape them after they've been bashed bloody in front of the three other people they've attacked who have gonna have the stomach to rape someone directly after axing four people in the fucking head. To rape them after they've been bashed bloody in front of the three other people they've attacked who have bloody head wounds. That's a lot of gore.

That's beyond intense. I would think based on studying so many serial killers for almost a decade now that someone new to murder is going to panic in this situation and either quickly finish everyone off with more ax blows and then just skedaddle out of there or just flee right away or Or at least kill everyone, excuse me, but the rape victim before fleeing. This definitely feels like the bloodbath of an experienced and you know highly sexually motivated serial killer who's really getting off on all this gore. The Midnight Assassin after raping Lucinda returns to Gracie, pulls the seriously wounded woman into some bushes near a stable. She fought her killer before she too is raped and then seriously wounded woman into some bushes near a stable.

She fought her killer before she too is raped and then bludgeoned to death with a brick. Her face was, quote, pulverized with a rock. Man, this maniac snuck into a house with four people inside, beat the shit out of all four of them with an axe, then raped two of them without ever waking up anyone in the house next door where Gracie's boss Major Dunham lived with his family. A family who lived close enough to have overheard an argument in Gracie's house between her and Orange just two nights earlier. How was that possible? Directly following Gracie's murder, rape and axe attack, victim Lucinda Boddy regained consciousness and somehow managed to get up and grab a lantern. She saw Orange dead on the floor, then saw a stranger in the room, almost certainly her

attacker, who shouted, don't look at me! In a panic she threw her lantern at him and ran and it was her screaming that finally alerted Major Dunham who then ran out of his house and discovered the carnage. According to author Clayton Stapleton, who wrote an article on these murders in 2005 for the now-defunct website WhatWasThen.com, Major Dunham saw Lucinda fighting with the man and Dunham heard her scream, we're all dead. According to author D.W. Skrabenek, who published a book on all this titled The Servant Girl Annihilators in 2014,

Lucinda yelled something more specific. She yelled, we are all killed and Doc Woods did it. According to Stapleton's account, Lucinda yelled that the man she was fighting was the killer, then lost consciousness again during the struggle and the killer fled. When Major Dunham entered the cabin following this, he found two bodies, then walked around the property and found Gracie's body. Gracie was holding a gold watch that did not belong to her, which was attached to a chain on her arm, doesn't seem that they ever found out who owned that watch. And a horse was found, saddled and tied in the stable as if the killer was going to

steal it before he was interrupted. Lucinda Boddy and Patsy Gibson would somehow survive this axe rampage. Not so light and refreshing Orange Washington would die the next day from his head wound. Two potential suspects were Doc Woods, the man Lucinda identified, and a man named Oliver Townsend, who was friends with Doc Woods. Both were black men. Lucinda's identification was considered reliable because she was the one who saw the killer face to face.

The only one who has seen him and lived so far. Doc also had a history of harassing Gracie. And when the police found Doc, he was wearing a bloody shirt, which of course made him look just like a little teensy bit completely guilty as hell. Lucinda would later testify that it was him before Justice Thomas F. Purnell. As printed in the September 29th, 1885 edition of the Fort Worth Daily Gazette, Lucinda Boddy testified that on the night of the murder, Doc Woods came to the window. She had been having dengue fever and was aroused at night by an intolerable

thirst. She got up and struck a light. She said that she saw Doc Woods standing at the window on the outside. Doc shouted to her, put down that light goddamn you or I'll kill you. She threw the light to the floor, ran out of the house. Before she ran out, however, she saw Orange Washington and Patsy and they were bloody. She said the doc had on dark brown duck pantaloons. She swore positively that doc was there. She saw him plainly was well acquainted with him.

And this could not be, excuse me, could not be mistaken. So this incident marked the first time an eyewitness could identify at least one of the culprits. Another witness reported that he had overheard Oliver Townsend, that friend of Doc's also threatening to kill Gracie shortly before she was killed. And a lot of dirtbags. A lot of dirtbag dudes in this suck. Now Oliver and Doc will be arrested and charged with these attacks and we will check in with their trial later. Clearly Doc Woods has become the prime suspect

in these killings by far. Jumping head two months to November, while Doc and Oliver remain in jail, the police are now looking at Walter Spencer, the boyfriend to the first murder victim, Molly Smith. Walter was arrested on November 21st after he was indicted for her murder even though he himself had been hit in the face with an axe the night of Molly's murder. The prosecution argued that Molly had hit him with that axe and that he had wrestled it away from her and attacked and killed her. Walter's trial started on December 8th, 1885 and after just three days he was acquitted of murder. The final so-called servant girl murders will occur December 24th, 1885.

But they weren't servants and they weren't young black women. And I should also note Doc Woods, Oliver Townsend, still in jail. When these killings occurred, maybe I just said that. Interesting that these murders of young black women with an axe stop once they're behind bars. Makes me wonder if these final two murders of white women who were not servants were committed by people trying to get away with murder and being able to blame the midnight sasson for what they did as others have also speculated.

On December 24th, 1885, two different white women killed in what was thought to be a safe area of Austin. The first victim was 45-year-old Susan Hancock, killed inside her home at the corner of Brazos Street and East Second Street, another intersection. And Susan was born in Alabama in 1840. Sorry, I got a little, I had to pause there. Every time I hear Brazos now, I think of Steve Martin's character in Only Murders in the Building. Or Only Murders in the Building.

I can never remember if it's Only Murders in the Building or Only Murderers in the Building. Anyway, this is a character that talks a lot about being on a TV show called Brazos. Sorry. Susan was born in Alabama in 1840. She married a carpenter named Moses from North Carolina in 1868 by 187070 they were living near Brenham, Texas and they had a daughter named Lena.

Susan and her husband next moved to Waco where they had another daughter named Ida. They settled in Austin in 1885. Moses most likely moved for work because Austin was experienced in a construction boom at the time. The Hancock's were a well-respected family and Sue was described in a newspaper as one of the most refined ladies in Austin. On the night of Christmas Eve, Susan and Moses were alone in the house. Their daughters were at a Christmas party and the couple were sleeping in separate rooms which was normal for them and not at all uncommon for married couples at the time. Susan was sleeping in her daughter's bed when she was like the previous victims

attacked with an axe then carried out to the backyard. Moses was woken up by the disturbance, ran outside where he said he saw a male figure standing over his wife. He said he threw a brick at the man, a man he could not see clearly in the dark, and the man did not retaliate and instead jumped a fence and fled into an alley. Moses ran around the house to cut him off, but the guy had taken off in a different direction, headed towards Congress Avenue. Moses ran around the house to cut him off but the guy had taken off in a different direction headed towards Congress Avenue. Moses returned found his wife's dead body. Her head had been split open by an axe but she had somehow clung to life but she would never regain consciousness dying before or dying on December 28th 1885. Her killer was not given the chance to rape her and if this

was actually the work of a serial killer and not a copycat killer, maybe that's why he killed again that same night. The second victim was a young 17-year-old mother named Yula Phillips, killed in her home at San Jacinto Boulevard near its intersection with East 8th Street. Yula was born April 22, 1868. Her maiden name was Yula Burditt. The Burditts were some of the earliest settlers of Travis County, the county in which Austin is located, and had a history of farming and ranching

in the area. Eula's mother filed for divorce from her father in late 1882, then he died before the trial. Less than a month after her mother died in January of 1883, 15-year-old Eula married 21-year-old James Phillips Jr. They moved in with his parents on 8th Street, formerly called Hickory Street. This is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city at the time. Eula got pregnant later that year and her son Thomas was born in January of 1884. Despite living in one of the best parts of town, despite having a healthy baby boy, Eula's life was very far from ideal. Her husband James was a violent alcoholic.

Are you amazed as I am that there was just like just every story. Like the peripheral characters. Every story we talk about you know about like a serial killer whatever. There are so many peripheral characters that are also just pieces of shit. It just makes me wonder like what is the percentage in the world of people who are just fucking dirtbags. Just like fucking women beaters, rapists, fucking, ah, just pieces of shit. My God. Yeah, her husband James was a violent alcoholic who did beat her. Family and friends later testified that James once threw a cup at Yula, chased her with a knife on another occasion. On yet another occasion, Yula hid from James at her sister's home for several days because she was afraid he was going to kill her. In another incident, James got so angry at Yula and his own sister one night that they both ran out of the house screaming for help.

In January of 1885 James and Yula moved into a farm in Williamson County owned by George McCutcheon. He was a friend of Yula's father. McCutcheon's wife had died in March. Yula was pregnant with her husband's second child later that year and she was not thrilled about that. She asked a friend of hers to buy her some chamomile flowers, extract of cottonwood, ergot. The combination was thought to induce an abortion. Seems that concoction worked as she did not have a second child. James and Yula returned to Austin in October of 1885.

Yula was still unhappy with their marriage and sometimes slept in the parlor. James wasn't working and was suspicious that his wife was having an affair and his suspicions were correct. Eula was having an affair with a 27 year old man named John Dickinson who was a secretary of the Capitol Commission overseeing the construction of the State Capitol building. Eula left James in November of 1885 taking her son with her. She spent a week with a black sex worker named Fannie Whipple and continued to see Dickinson. Fanny WHIPPLE! Sorry, had to do that. She stayed with Whipple for a week before she moved into the home of Mae Tobin.

Mae Tobin was a so-called, or owned a so-called House of Assignation, House of Assignation, similar to a bordello on Congress Avenue. It was a hotel where people could pay by the hour. The quote, highest-priced sex workers in Austin went there to meet customers and the hotel was used by married men and women to have affairs. Eula saw Dickinson several times while staying there. She then left Tobin's house, went to stay with some relatives. Meanwhile, her husband James stopped drinking, got a job, promised not to hit her anymore, bought some furniture on credit in an attempt to win back his young wife.

And he and his sister Dorothy were then able to talk Eula into moving back in with James. And then within a few weeks of returning home, Eula Phillips is murdered. She was killed just an hour after the second to last midnight assassin victim, Sue Hancock. Her dead naked body was found lying in the dark alley

behind her father-in-law's house, a trail of blood led back to her bedroom. Like with most previous victims, her skull had been crushed by an axe. Unlike with other victims, heavy pieces of timber had been placed on her arms to keep her pinned down in a crucifixion-like pose. She had also been raped. A reporter for the Fort Worth Gazette wrote that Eula's face was turned upward in the dim moonlight with an expression of agony that death itself had not erased from the features. Damn. Our husband James had also been attacked. He was found in his bed with a gash from an axe on the back of his head. His son was next to him. The boy was unharmed sitting in a very bloody bed and randomly, uh, hold an apple.

His mother Eula was found by following a trail of blood from the bedroom to the alley. I think I just mentioned that but,. But like with the other cases, the killer had left behind bloody bare footprints on the wooden floorboards. Doing all this barefoot like a ghoul makes this all extra creepy to me. While the murder of black servants in Austin received some media coverage but instilled no sense of urgency in law enforcement or in the white residents of Austin to find the killer or connect to murders, the murders of two white women on the same night caused widespread outrage. Large lynch mobs formed almost immediately and began searching for the killer. The police ramped up their investigation considerably, launched a massive manhunt to find the killer. White residents

of Austin had previously assumed they were safe because the killer was strictly targeting black women. Now that safety is gone. I know one victim was a black man, but you know collateral damage After the Christmas Eve murders men raced around the city and a quote frenzy looking for the killer according to one reporter In the days that followed there were lines to buy guns in the city's weapons supplies all sold out On Christmas Day over 500 city and business leaders met to make a plan to stop the murders One idea was lighting the city at night with large lamps. 18th governor of Texas, John Ireland, suggested that fire alarms be set off after the next attack so that everyone could come out of their houses and help hunt the killer down together.

Not a bad plan. Former Confederate general suggested stationing men around the city's perimeter to prevent anyone from leaving and to track whoever might be trying to enter What the citizens of Austin's could what the citizens of Austin couldn't of course No, was that these were the final attacks the murders will have ended here with no explanation yet for months and months people still worried That a killer was living amongst them Especially since no one had been arrested for most of the murders Doc Woods Oliver Townsend They had just been charged with the murders of Gracie Vance and Orange Washington.

No other serious suspects have been identified for any of the other murders, and authorities were not able to connect Doc or Oliver to any of the other murders. The overall investigation had been troubled from the beginning, hindered by incompetence and a clash of egos, per the Texas Monthly. Grooms Lee had been selected as the police chief over a year earlier, and Lee was described in a Texas Monthly article as the confident but lackadaisical young son of a powerful politician. Alright, little bit of nepotism there. 1884, a group of aldermen tried to have him impeached because his officers

allegedly spent a lot more time at the area's saloons and brothels than they did doing their jobs. There were also rumors that some of the city's money was missing and the chief clerk at the police station fled town. There were even allegations that a few of these officers had been committing some robberies. So they sound pretty corrupt. Because the first victims were black women, again the police only focused on black men. As mentioned earlier, some black men were arrested on suspicion of murder simply because they were just walking around barefoot. The footprints would be compared, their footprints, to footprints left at crime scenes and if they

had the same size of foot they would be arrested. Other black men were arrested because they had a bad reputation, criminal pasts, even if there was no evidence connecting them to the murders. Hundreds of men would be questioned, dozens and dozens arrested. The murders negatively affected race relations in the city and the local papers did nothing to help that. One editorial piece in the Statesman claimed that the killer was a black man suffering from idleness and drink. And insinuated this was a typical of the race. The mayor of Austin ended up hiring a team of PIs, private investigators from Houston, to help out the police chief. There were disturbing

incidents of police brutality, such as one evening Chief Lee walked into the black elephant saloon, asked to see Alec Mack, a black man and a suspect in the Mary Raimi case, and a guy in his mid-30s with one of the longest rap sheets in the area. But not for, from what I can tell, violence to women. Mack was thrown to the ground, kicked, and a rope was then tied around his fucking neck. White man named Pres Hopkins saw all this happening, jumped in, did the right thing, stopped what was about to be a lynching. Mack was taken to jail where he was beaten for nine fucking days straight, and then ultimately released after he continued to refuse to let the police torture a confession out of him.

No evidence ever found that connected him to the murder of Mary Raimi or any of the other Midnight Assassin victims. A race in racial profiling continued after the Christmas Eve murders. By 1886, Austin had a new police chief now, James Lucy, former Texas Ranger. He added more officers to the force, instructed them to stop strangers, asked them what they were doing in town, and if their answer seemed off, they would be ordered to leave town. Citizens Committee offered a $3,000 reward for information and the governor of Texas offered an additional $300 reward. Women now are rarely leaving their homes at night.

Some homeowners purchased newly invented quote electric burglar alarms. Other people packed up and just plain moved out of the city. With no leads in the Christmas Eve cases, the final two murders and murders of white women, the police turned their suspicions towards the victims' husbands. James Phillips, husband of 17-year-old victim Eula Phillips, was arrested a week after Eula's death on January 1, 1886.

Because he was injured, he was kept at home under guard. 50-year-old Moses Hancock was arrested and charged with the murder of his 45-year-old wife Susan on January 27, 1886. Authorities alleged that both these men killed their wives and then staged the crimes to make it seem like this Austin serial killer had committed the murders. But of course, they didn't use the term serial killer. The district attorney believed that on the night of the murders, Moses went to the Iron Front Saloon and got drunk, then came home, attacked his wife Sue in a drunken rage because he thought she was going to leave him. The main evidence against him

was a letter written by Sue months before her murder. It was found in their house at the bottom of a box of fake flowers. She wrote that she loved him but couldn't handle his drinking any longer. In the Eula Phillips case, Hotel of Ill Repute owner Mary Tobin reported that Eula had went to her House of Assignation on the day of her her murder leaving just hours before she died. Did her husband James find out about her affair and kill her in a fit of jealous rage? James went to trial for murder May 24th 1886. The prosecution argued that Eula was afraid of James because he had discovered her affair and they said

that she had taken an axe into their bedroom the axe that would be used to kill her ironically to protect himself to protect herself from James and when James came into their bedroom in a rage she tried to defend herself wounded him with a blow to the head which only enraged him further he then grabbed the axe hit her hard enough to kill her immediately once she was dead he panicked then he tried to stage you know the scene tried to mimic the serial killer by dragging her to an alley and staging again this crime scene. Prosecutors called on a police sergeant who testified that a bloodhound sniffed Eula's body the night of the murder, then followed the killer's scent back into the house, then reared up on the bed where James was laying. The defense introduced the floorboards with bloody footprints on them that were removed from the Phillips home after the murder.

The defense asked James to take off his shoes, dip his bare foot in ink, and make a footprint for comparison. And now the case against James, who did have a history of being violent with Eula, took a hit. A detective measured his foot and found that it was smaller than the footprint found in the Phillips home. However, the prosecutor argued that if James was carrying Eula, his feet would have produced flatter prints due to the extra weight. So then James was asked to make another print on the board while carrying something to add to his weight, I assume, but it still didn't match. Mae Tobin, the owner of the hotel that largely functioned as a brothel, would testify at this trial. She testified that Eula met not one but four different men at her hotel on the night

of her murder. She was not just having an affair, she was also working as an escort. One of the men was John Dickinson, Secretary of the Capital Commission. Another was Benjamin Baker, the head of the state public education department, so some high-profile clients. Before the trial had been rumored that May Tobin had given the DA a list of names of all the men who had ever visited Eula at the hotel. One of the names on the list was allegedly William Swain, who was elected state comptroller, a person who oversees a company's costs or governments,

in 1882 and was reelected in 1884. He was on the path to becoming a governor and a lot was at stake for him. At trial, Tobin did not name William Swain though. There were rumors that she had taken a bribe for her silence. Tobin did testify that Eula came to the hotel at 11 p.m. on December 24th, but she didn't have a room available for her that night. She claimed she could not identify the man waiting for Eula in the carriage in front of the house. James' sister

Delia would later say that she was asked by prominent people in Austin to leave town so she couldn't tell the police what she knew about Eula's affairs. That's concerning. In the end, the foot not fitting the bloody footprint evidence, that evidence of the foot not fitting the bloody footprint was not convincing to the jury. James' history of violence, his motive to be enraged by his wife's infidelity was. And on May 29th, 1886, James Phillips was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to seven years in prison, which doesn't seem like very long. Moses Hancock went to trial for his wife Susan's murder in June of 1886. Two witnesses testified about how Moses drank

excessively and was frequently abusive. Susan's sister also testified that Moses cursed at Susan often when he was drunk. Prosecutors presented Susan's letter to Moses when she wrote, Dear husband, I have lived with you 18 years and have always tried to make you a good wife and help you all I could. I have loved you and followed you day and night. You won't quit whiskey and I am so nervous I can't stand it. You know it almost kills me for you to drink and Lena is almost crazy and will lose her mind.

If I was to do anything to disgrace you and our children, you would leave me. You would have quit me a long time ago. Your wife until death, Sue Hancock." Lena Hancock testified in her father's defense saying, Papa always treated mama kindly and never whipped us girls in our lives. A jury deliberated for two days could not reach a verdict. At the end of 1886, the Texas Court of Appeals ordered a new trial due to insufficient evidence. Prosecutors initially chose not to retry him but then Moses Hancock was rearrested and went to another trial, went to trial again, 1887, but he would be acquitted. And that same year James Phillips will win an appeal in the murder conviction of his

wife Eula and also be released. So what about Doc Woods and Oliver Townsend? Were one or both of them at least found guilty for the murder of Grace Vance, Gracie Vance, for the murder of her boyfriend Orange Washington? Lucinda Boddy had identified Doc, remember that as a rapist and attacker the night she was attacked along with Gracie, Orange and Patsy Gibson. Doc had a history of harassing Gracie. He threatened to kill her shortly before she died, as did his buddy, Oliver Townsend. And when the police found Doc shortly after Gracie's murder,

he was wearing a bloody shirt. Sounds like an open and shut case, but maybe not. On closer examination, the case against him and the case against Oliver, mostly based in association with Doc, it was suspected they worked together. It all fell apart. A doctor, Dr. Richard Graves, yes Dick Graves, one letter away from a Dick Graves, testified that Woods would often have blood on his shirts due to

his syphilitic condition. Apparently this dude had just open bleeding wounds on his chest, which sounds like a terrible affliction to live with, Jesus Christ. And Lucinda, the woman who identified him, suffered from a quote, addled mind. Addled before she was smashed in the head with an axe. Sounds like she had some type of cognitive impairment and it was proven that while sometimes she could recognize Doc, other times she had no idea who he was when he was standing right there, when she was looking at him. Adding to the confusion with Lucinda, Doc looked a lot like another suspect in Gracie's murder, a man named Glenn Drummer. And Lucinda would sometimes confuse Glenn with Doc. She would mix the two up.

So in the end, she was not even remotely a reliable witness. In October of 1886, Doc and Oliver are released after being held without bail for just over a year. Neither man ended up even being officially charged with anything. There just wasn't enough evidence to convict them. So if they didn't do it, who did? One detail that was kept from the public at the time that we know now was the fact that the barefoot killer anything. There just wasn't enough evidence to convict them. So if they didn't do it, who did? One detail that was kept from the public at the time that we know now was the fact that the barefoot killer was missing a toe in at least one murder as evidenced by crime scene footprints at the crime scene of 11-year-old Mary Ramey's death. And then on February 8th, 1886, the Austin police

responded to a violent incident at a saloon and coincidentally discovered another suspect. A black man had dragged a young black woman named Julia from the saloon to a nearby house. People could hear him beaten and cursing at her and she was screaming for help. Officer John Bracken responded to the scene with saloon keeper Dick Rogers and neighbor Claib Hawkins. At the end of the house, pulled the man off the young woman, took him into the front yard where a crowd had gathered of people from the saloon. Officer Bracken tried to handcuff him, but he fought back, hit the officer of the house, pulled the man off the young woman, took him into the front yard where a crowd had gathered of people from the saloon. Officer Bracken tried to handcuff him, but he fought back, hit the officer in the head,

knocked him to the ground. He then pushed the saloon keeper and neighbor back, brandished a knife, started waving it around, slashed into three men when someone in the crowd of onlookers fired a gun. Bracken then took out his own gun, shot and killed him. That man was identified as 20-year-old Nathan Elgin. Elgin did not die instantly, but he was paralyzed from a bullet lodged in his spine near his waist, died a few days later.

Tried to question him about Julia, but he revealed no reason for why he attacked her. Doctors noted and informed the police that Elgin was missing his right toe. So Elgin seemed like a prime suspect for at least Mary Raimi's murder, a murder that was an outlier to the other murders of young black women, right?

Because the victim was not a servant. She was a child and she was a child killed not with an axe but with an iron rod. So perhaps Nathan did commit that murder. Nathan Elgin, born in 1866, he was the fourth of five children. His family moved from Arkansas to Austin after the Civil War and lived in a Freedman's community known as Wheatville. Nathan was recorded in the 1880 census's community known as Wheatville. Nathan was recorded in the 1880 census.

His occupation was listed as servant. In the summer of 1881, Nathan was arrested for carrying a pistol and getting into a confrontation near the governor's mansion. He and another young man cursed at each other so loudly they woke up the neighborhood. That year, he sent a letter to a black deputy sheriff promising to whip, destroy, and kill him next time he saw him So a little bit of a temper perhaps one newspaper described Elgin as reckless and bloodthirsty in 1882 he married a woman named Sally wheat, but they did not live together

Interestingly Sally gave birth to their child on December 24th 1885 the day of the double and final midnight assassin murders Did the birth of his child lead him to stop killing? If, of course, he even was the servant girl annihilator. The servant girl murders case went cold as the months and years passed following the final two murders. After these trials, the city of Austin took measures to prevent future murders. After the trials of the suspects in the final two murders, arc lights were installed in certain neighborhoods, saloons and gambling dens were required to close at midnight, and there was a campaign to shut down bordellos and houses of assignations.

Moses Hancock and James Phillips both left Austin after their trials and appeals were over and done with. Records are unclear as to whether or not any of the other suspects stayed in the area or not. What is clear is that after Christmas Eve 1885 no more young women in Austin Texas, black or white, were being rudely woken from their slumber by a fucking axe to the face anymore. And women were not being dragged from their beds and raped and murdered in the fashion of the Midnight Assassin

either. Interesting that the case of the servant girl annihilator murders is far less known than the also unsolved Jack the Ripper's murders which occurred in the Whitechapel district of London less than three years later in 1888, despite a similar amount of brutality. Some have even speculated it was the same killer, but any evidence posited towards that assertion is so flimsy it's just not worth mentioning. Some members of Austin's African American community who were practitioners of voodoo believed that the killer was never caught because he was a white man who had powerful magic powers that enabled him to become invisible as no dogs outside or in fenced-in yards adjacent

to locations where murders occurred were allegedly heard to bark or raise any alarm. I doubt that explains the murders, but I thought it was worth mentioning because I am fascinated by Voodoo. So who did it? Was there just one servant girl annihilator or were there a few killers roaming the streets of Austin in 1884 and 1885? Did James Phillips and Moses Hancock get away with two murders or were they wrongfully accused? With so many potential suspects, over 400 men in total were officially questioned and a lack of evidence preservation, the case will most likely never be solved. Contemporary papers felt that after the increased law enforcement presence that followed the final two killings the killer or killers left town.

Sounds like a good as guess as any to me. But as far as I can tell no other US city underwent a series of similar axe murders in the coming years, which is weird. The axe man of New Orleans murders those wouldn't take place for another 33 years. Crazy to think that someone would want to kill these women in the way they were killed. Crazier maybe that they would kill these women, then just leave town and stop cold turkey and just never do it again. Maybe craziest of all to think

that there was no serial killer, but instead something much worse. A whole bunch of really, really shitty dudes who all hated women and girls so much they felt justified in taking an axe to them and raping them. I wish I had some resolution for this story, but unfortunately it's just not the case. Sometimes we're all left to wonder why for the rest of our lives. And that sucks. But it doesn't suck nearly as much as being woken up with an axe to the face. So if you're feeling a bit unsatisfied by the rest of our lives. That sucks. But it doesn't suck nearly as much as being woken up with an axe to the face. So if you're feeling a bit unsatisfied

by the end of this tale, let that be some small consolation for you. Let that be some small consolation just in general, you know, for you. If you're having a really fucking tough year, you have a really tough day, tough week, something terrible happened, just ask yourself, was it as bad as being woken up with an axe to the face? No? Maybe things aren't all that bad. And that's it for this edition of Time Suck Short Sucks. If you enjoyed this story, check out the rest of the Bad Magic catalog, beefier episodes of Time Suck every Monday at noon Pacific time. New episodes of the now long running paranormal podcast,

Scared to Death every Tuesday at midnight. Thank you to Olivia Lee for her initial research. I wish I wish this would have had resolution. Almost didn't do it because there wasn't any resolution. But it's still a fascinating tale to me. Thank you, Logan Keith, recording and uploading today's episode. Please go to badmagicproductions.com for all your bad magic needs. Have yourself a great weekend. Add Magic Productions