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Message |
    
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 447
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - 11:42 am: | 
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This clipping from Williamsport Sunday Grit of 21 April 1912 gives details of the Atlanta series of killings - will post more if I find it.
The girl is described as an "octoroon" - any one know the meaning of this term please?
Chris
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Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2832
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - 11:51 am: |
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Hi Chris -
An octoroon is the pre-P.C. term for someone who was 1/8th black. I know that in New Orleans around turn of the century, "octoroons" were in high demand as prostitutes... they were considered by many to be more sexually appealing.
I'm not sure if the same was true in Atlanta at this time. But still the reference to a "pretty octoroon" may indicate that the victim was a prostitute.
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Ally
Detective Sergeant
Username: Ally
Post Number: 59
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - 11:52 am: |
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Hi Chris,
It means she was one-eighth black. Quadroon would be one-fourth. It's a holdover from the days of slavery when rights depended upon how much european vs black blood you had. |
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 448
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - 12:41 pm: |
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Hi Ally and Stephen
many thanks for the info - the only term I was acquainted with for one of mixed blood was mulatto, but not sure of exactmening of that
I presume there was a whole series of terms to describe mixed blood of varying degrees
regards
Chris |
Christopher T George
Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 314
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - 12:57 pm: |
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Hi, all:
As an aside, there was a well-known period melodrama by Irish-born American dramatist Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) called The Octoroon (1859), which was a stage adaptation of the novel The Quadroon by Mayne Reid (1856).
Boucicault's The Octoroon has been described as "the most well-crafted melodrama on the subject of slavery and racism in the mid-19th century. It combines local color from Louisiana, ethnic mixes, spectacle in the form of a burning steamboat, and a tragic heroine whose ancestry (a black great-grandparent) prevents her from marrying the man she loves." Something like Romeo and Juliet then! (From http://www.geocities.com/jeffreyrgaudia30/literature.htm)
I believe I remember the southern playwright Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) describing himself in a television interview as being an octoroon or one of the variations that implied he was part African American by ancestry.
All the best
Chris |
Kris Law
Detective Sergeant
Username: Kris
Post Number: 72
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 1:34 pm: |
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Mulatto is half black and half white. It means Mule in Spanish. Half horse, half donkey. |
Kris Law
Detective Sergeant
Username: Kris
Post Number: 73
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 1:35 pm: |
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Chris,
Did you find anything more about the Atlanta Ripper? Was he ever caught? |
Julia
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 11:15 pm: |
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Does anyone know where there might be more information about this Ripper? I have not heard this story, but if he were that prolific, averaging one murder per week, I would think there'd be some press somewhere.
Let's say for fun that JTR didn't stop, or commit suicide, or be locked up in an asylum post 1888. I am interested in trying to track his movements in the years after (and before) the London murders by finding similar killing sprees in other cities at other times. Has anyone done this? I guess 1912 might be a little late, but you never know.
Julia |
Charles Wikfield
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 - 2:36 am: |
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I don't think the atlanta ripper was ever caught. It'll take more time to that, if any... He was too sofisticated for his time.
BTW, see this funny site: http://spanishmule.port5.com/sitemap.html .
I found it amuzing and very spanish mule proffesional... |
Vinny
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 12:45 am: |
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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/04/172730.php
One victim who escape described him as African-American...
FWIW... |
Stanley D. Reid
Inspector
Username: Sreid
Post Number: 304
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2005 - 6:23 pm: |
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Hi all,
In the era, mulattos were also sometimes called "yellows". I'm not sure which would be the most insulting.
These crimes are sometimes confused with or connected to a series of 49 ax murders of racially mixed individuals in Texas and Louisiana at the same time. And those in turn to the New Orleans Ax Man of 1918-19 who preyed on whites. All of the crimes are unsolved.
Goodies, 
Stan
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