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Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 10:22 pm: | 
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I have been researching the Austin TX murders of 1885 and I have seen a number of references to the fact that the purported killer was eye-witnessed very clearly. I can't find this eye-witness description and would be very grateful to anyone who could supply the description or point me in the direction of an article that contains the description.
Best Regards
Gary |
Tracy Hardin
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 2:40 am: |
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not sure if this helps or not but this is what i found...
http://www.texasmonthly.com/mag/issues/2000-07-01/feature5.php?748551457 |
Gary Weatherhead
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, March 27, 2003 - 11:54 pm: |
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Tracy
Many thanks for the lead, I'll have a post up soon about the murders.
Thanks again for your time and trouble.
All The Best
Gary |
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 346
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 04, 2003 - 2:06 pm: |
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I have seen frequent refernces to the Austin murders of 1884/85 and have found an article with a lengthy resume of them. Hope it's of use:
The News (Frederick, Maryland)
20 November 1888
AMERICA'S WHITECHAPEL
It is Austin, Tex. - A Most Remarkable Series of Crimes
Among them is the following from Austin, Tex: The horrible series of murders which occurred about this town during the year 1885 are still mysteries. They were considered the most shocking in the annals of this country's crimes, and were the more so considering the advanced state of civilization of the region in which they occurred.
The first victim of the Austin was Mollie Smith, a colored servant, whose body was found Dec.25,1884. Her body had been hacked and gashed from head to footwith an ax, and so cut to pieces that it would not hold together when it was put into a coffin. Her remains were found about one hundred yards away from her home, whither they had been dragged.
On the night of May 7, 1885, Lizzie Shelley, another colored domestic, was butchered in the same horrible manner. She was dragged from her bed into the open air. Both women had been killed on bright moonlight nights.
The people of Austin were shocked, but attributed the murders to freaks of jealousy of disappointed lovers. But more was to follow.
One day in the next June another colored servant, Irene Cross, was found cut to pieces. This crime was different from the two preceding, in that the body was not removed from the woman's room. There were evidences to show that the villain or maniac who did the deed had become frightened and fled hastily.
The colored population of Austin became frantic. They said the murders were the work of witches.
Rebecca Ramey and her 12 year old daughter Masy, both colored servants of Mr. V.O. Weed, were the next to suffer.
Every citizen now joined in a cry for a searching investigation. Bloodhounds were put on the scent and two negroes were thus trailed and captured, but were able to prove their innocence.
On the night of Sept. 29 Orange Washington and Mrs. Gracie Vance, colored, who lived together as man and wife, were killed, the former in his room, while the latter's brains were beaten out not far from the house. The woman was assaulted.
On the same night Lucinda Boddy and Patsey Gibson, mulatto girls, who lived a short distance from Washington's cabin, were beaten with sandbags and were assaulted. No ax was used this time.
Soon after Alice Davis was cut up. She was of the same class, and her death struck terror to the hearts of everyone, which was increased still more when, on Christmas night, 1885, two white women were dragged from their beds and killed with the deadly ax, one of them having been taken from the side of her husband, who was hit in the head.
It was a bright moonlight night, and there was no clew left. No outcry was raised, and ther same cunning was shown in this midnight assassination as in all the others.
Bloodhounds were again brought into service, and every available means was quickly utilized to find the murderer, but with no satisfactory results.
Every theory active and imaginative minds could devise was well ventilated and discussed. The one generally believed and the most probable was that a maniac was at large - a maniac with the cunning of a devil and the cruelty of a hundred of them.
Men were arrested and charged with the crimes, but they were always able to clear themselves.
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 181
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 04, 2003 - 6:34 pm: |
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Hi Chris.
Thanks for posting the article. I wonder if more attention would have been paid to this case nationwide if the victims were not, for the most part, "colored/coloured"?
All The Best
Gary |
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 349
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 8:53 am: |
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Gary
I found this account of the murders of 29 September which says not only was the attacker seen but a suspect was arrested. It is from the Atchison Daily Globe of 30 September 1885.
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Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 350
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 9:03 am: |
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Hi gary
Here is a fuller account of the same murders. From the Waukesha Freeman of 1 October 1885
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 187
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 9:37 am: |
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Many Thanks Chris
This may be the mention of the killer(s) that was alluded to in another source and which I have been trying to track down for some time.
Thanks Again
Gary |
Timsta
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, August 08, 2003 - 10:23 am: |
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Hello again all (haven't posted for such a long time, I'm sorry).
As you may know I actually live in Austin, where there are now guided walks of the 1885 murder sites.
Readers might be interested in the novel "A Twist in the End" by Steven Saylor, where he places the writer O.Henry (at the time resident in Austin, and still known as plain ole' William Sidney Porter) in the middle of the 'action', so to speak.
Porter is famously known for having dubbed the culprit(s) 'The Servant Girl Annihilators' in a letter to a friend - presumably the idea of a serial killer being quite alien at the time. (I think the sobriquet was applied after the second murder has been committed.)
Not to give away the 'twist in the end', but proceedings are much enlived by the presence of a rather ridiculous 'quack doctor' and his accomplice.
BTW, can't make Liverpool (my hometown too, Chris!) but will definitely be in Baltimore next year.
Regards
Timsta |
Christopher T George
Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 276
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 08, 2003 - 8:49 pm: |
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Hi, Timsta:
Very nice to hear from you again. I didn't know you were from Liverpool, lad, you should have told me... or maybe you did and I have forgotten! Thanks for the interesting information on O'Henry and the Austin servant girl murders of 1884-1885. I was glad to hear of the tours of the murder sites. I will have to take the tour when I am down your way.  Also interesting to hear that O'Henry in a letter dubbed the murderer(s) the "Servant Girl Annihilators." And I always thought SGA stood for Student Government Association!
All the best
Chris |
Nikki Hutchinson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 8:51 pm: |
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I'm curious to know if there are any physical descriptions of the black murdered victims anywhere. |
Nikki Hutchinson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, November 07, 2003 - 5:10 pm: |
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I recently inquired as to whether or not there were any articles specifically about the black murdered victims. I'm a playwright and am in the process of writing a stageplay about the murders. If anyone has any information about the victims (names of the families they worked for, anything on the girls' families, etc.), I would really like to see it. I'm also doing my own reseach about the women. Thanks. |
Nikki Hutchinson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, November 24, 2003 - 9:00 pm: |
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As I began my research on the 1884-1885 murders, I discovered that there were over 13 attacks on women during this period in addition to the women who were murdered. |
Ray Speer
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 8:01 pm: |
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I only now learned of the "Midnight Assassin" murders in Austin in 1884-1885.
Shirley Harrison made refernce to them in her new book, which features James Maybrick's familar portrait against the backdrop of the US flag.Ms. Harrison says that she cannot locate proof that Maybrick was not in Austin TX at the times of the "Midnight Assassin" murders, so she is speculating that Maybrick (if he was the Ripper) may have done in those victims.
In her book, Ms. Harrison gives no evidence to put Maybrick in Austin on the nights of any of the murders.More over, though grisly and horrible in their own right, the murders in Austin don't seem to share common characteristics with what happened in London three years later.
Is there any basis to attribute the Texas killing as the earlier work of JTR? So far, I've seen none. |
James Jeffrey Paul
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 9:39 pm: |
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Have any of you read the novel about these killings, A TWIST AT THE END? I read it, and was VERY disappointed. A totally disjointed and boring narrative, with a very ridiculous and pedestrian conclusion. Even if O. Henry was a major character in the book--although the author's attention kept wandering away from him! |
Samantha Abbott
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 5:43 pm: |
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My great-great-grandfather was V.O. Weed. He started the Weed-Corley funeral home, and two of the murdered girls worked for him. |
Nikki Hutchinson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, July 25, 2004 - 9:06 pm: |
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Samantha, that's very interesting that your ancestor employed two of the girls. I'm a playwright and looking for information on the William K. Hall family that employed Mollie Smith. I'm writing a play about Mollie. I had come across your ancestor's name: V.O. Weed. There seems to be some connection to the girls working for wealthy Austin families. Because, certainly there must have been servant girls who worked for "middle class" families and were not harmed. |
Tony Plohetski
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 5:41 pm: |
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I am a reporter with the Austin American-Statesman and am working on a story about folks who have a fascination with the Austin servant girl murders. Can anyone who fits the description please e-mail me at tplohetski@statesman.com?
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Emily B
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 1:44 pm: |
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I am not sure if any of you can help, but I am looking for information on the ghosts that roam around my home. I live in Austin TX. What sites would be useful? I always heard them as a child and now my child hears them. Any information would be helpful! |
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