21 April 1912
Dreaded Ripper of Atlanta Takes His Weekly Toll
The twentieth victim of Jack the Ripper, the maniacal murderer who has baffled the police of Atlanta Ga. for almost a year, was discovered this week. The body, that of a pretty octoroon evidently about 15 years old, was found floating in the Chattahoochee river. The girl's throat had been cut and the body otherwise badly mutilated - slashed with the peculiar markings the Ripper has used on all his victims. A string, with a key attached, was tied tightly around the girl's neck.
The career of the mysterious Ripper, who has averaged one victim a week for the last month, always on Saturday nights, has led to redoubled vigilance on the part of the police, but no trace of the wholesale murderer has been discovered. He evidently works alone, and his victims are always mulatto girls. He always cuts their throats with some sharp instrument, probably a razor, and then mutilates portions of their bodies.
The operations of the unknown fanatic has frightened the negro population of Atlanta to such an extent that many of the women have entirely quit such work as will take them out late at night. In fact there is scarcely a negro woman who will venture out alone after dark.