Servant Girl Annihilator

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Dispression. More than seven decades before
the term serial killer was first used by

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investigators, the people of Austin,
Texas were terrorized by a string of murders.

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It was the mid eighteen eighties when
the first victim was found. She

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was twenty five year old Molly Smith, who worked as a cook, and

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she was murdered on the thirtieth of
December eighth, teen eighty four. Her

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body was discovered lying in the snow
next to an outhouse. The murder weapon

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was an axe, which had been
used to inflict deep wounds to Molly's entire

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body, leaving her in a pool
of blood. The wounds to her abdomen

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and torso would have caused her death
quickly. It was clear that her killer

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had been determined to end her life. Five months later, the body of

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a second woman was found with very
similar injuries. Eliza Shelley's axe wounds were

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so severe that her skull had been
almost split in two. Both Mollie and

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Eliza had been attacked while sleeping in
bed and then overpowered dragged outside where their

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bodies were left. When it became
clear that the killings were likely connected with

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the same murder weapon used, the
locals initially began to refer to the crimes

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as the Austin axe murders. Then
a letter from a well known writer was

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published where the killer was nicknamed the
Servant Girl Annihilator, and from that moment

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on that nickname stuck. Only days
after Eliza Shelley's murder, another servant girl

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was killed. Irene Cross was also
attacked with an axe, and one reporter

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who saw her body remarked that the
axe wounds to her head gave the appearance

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that she had been scalped. Throughout
June and July, there were no further

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attacks, but the residents of Austin
remained paranoid that a brutal killer was out

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on the prow. Then in August
there were three victims in quick succession,

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two servants, Clara Dick and Rebecca
Raymie, as well as Rebecca's young daughter,

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eleven year old Mary. While Mary
died from her wounds, both Clara

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and Rebecca managed to survive the attack. After the August killing spree, the

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paranoia in Austin grew. Neighborhood patrols
were increased, and the locals began staying

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inside after dark, closing their businesses
early, and increasing the protection around their

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houses, but these precautions didn't stop
the Servant Girl Annihilator from striking again.

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A young couple, Gracie Vance and
Orange Washington, were attacked with an axe

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while they were sleeping, and both
victims died from their injuries. The newspaper

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reported that Gracie's head had been almost
beaten into a jelly. The issue of

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the New York Times reported that the
crimes had been carried out by some cunning

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madman who was insane on the subject
of killing women. Despite the killer now

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being exclusively referred to as the Servant
Girl Annihilator, not all the victims had

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been servants, but they did all
have one thing in common. Up until

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this point, all of the victims
had been African American, but in December

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eighteen eighty five, with the Annihilator's
final two murders, that pattern changed.

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On Christmas Eve, two white women
were killed in quick succession, Sue Hancock

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and then seventeen year old Eula Phillips. Yula's husband, Jimmy Phillips, was

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also attacked, but he survived his
injuries. Initially, Sue and ULA's murders

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weren't believed to be connected. To
the other crimes, and both women's husbands

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were initially suspected of killing them.
The investigation into Jimmy Phillips even resulted in

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a conviction, but the guilty verdict
was later overturned when neither of the husbands

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were ultimately found guilty. The murderers
were then believed to be the work of

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the Servant Girl Annihilator. The news
that the killer appeared to be targeting a

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wider range of victims caused a widespread
panic, and citizens of Austin braced themselves

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for the next attack, but it
never came. After killing Sue and Ula,

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the Servant Girl Annihilator never struck again. During the investigation into the murders,

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more than four hundred different suspects were
questioned by investigators, but after all

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their interviews, all of them were
eventually released. Although there were reports of

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at least one eyewitness who claimed to
have seen the annihilator, the witness's description

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of the killer seemed to change every
time they spoke to the police. The

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eyewitness described the killers being both dark
skinned and light skinned, then claimed that

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he had worn a black pigment on
his face to hide his real skin color.

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On one occasion, the killer was
described as wearing a rag to hide

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the lower half of his face,
with a hat shielding his eyes, and

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on another occasion, the eyewitness insisted
that the annihilator had been wearing a dress.

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To this day, nobody has been
identified as the Servant Girl Annihilator,

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but several of the suspects are still
considered more likely to have been the culprit

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than the others. One of these
suspects was a nineteen year old African American

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cook named Nathan Elgin, who had
been apprehended drunkenly attempting to kidnap a girl

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from a saloon in the area.
It was early eighteen eighty six, shortly

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after the Annihilator's final murders. Nathan
had dragged the female victim out of the

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saloon and towards a house nearby,
but her screams alerted concerned onlookers, including

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the saloon's owner, Dick Rogers,
and a police officer, John Bracken.

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Officer Bracken followed Nathan into the house
and separated him from the girl, but

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Nathan refused to go quietly. When
he threatened the men with a knife,

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Officer Bracken shot him in self defense. The bullet lodged into Nathan's spine,

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causing paralysis of his legs. He
initially survived the wound, but passed away

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the following day. During his autopsy, doctors noticed a strange detail about the

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man. He had a missing toe
on his right foot, giving him a

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unique four toed footprint. The Servant
Girl annihilator was believed to have taken off

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his shoes to get in and out
of the houses without being caught, leaving

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behind several bare toed footprints in the
soil. Because he carried his victims from

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their beds, the additional weight had
deepened these footprints, allowing them to be

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clearly seen by investigators. At one
of the crime scenes, a footprint was

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found that seemed to match Nathan's right
foot, that right foot only having four

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toes. Nathan also had a history
of violently threatening others, including sending a

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letter to the sheriff which was later
described as reckless and bloodthirsty. He was

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familiar with the area and the local
servant community, giving him the knowledge he

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needed to break into sleeping quarters of
his victims, but apart from circumstantial evidence,

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there was nothing to prove that Nathan
was the annihilator. However, not

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everybody believed that all the murders could
have been committed by the same man.

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An article in the Texas Monthly reported
that several officials denied that the same purpose

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trader could have carried out all eight
murders. Meanwhile, many of the African

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Americans living in the area firmly believed
that a white man in possession of other

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worldly powers was responsible for the crimes. They believed that the killer may be

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able to use magic to hide in
plain sight, allowing him to enter an

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exit homes without being seen or heard. This theory was partially based on the

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fact that there had been pet dogs
in many of the yards where the murders

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had occurred, and none of them
were heard barking at the time the annihilator

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broke in. Whoever the servant girl
annihilator was, he may have felt forced

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to move to a different area or
stop killing altogether to avoid detection. Monetary

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rewards were being offered for any information
leading to the discovery of the killer's identity.

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Community groups were organizing patrols throughout the
nearby streets at night, and the

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local police force had even hired a
group of new officers to investigate the crimes.

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Their prominent suspect was a Malaysian cook
named Maurice, who worked in the

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same area. His workplace, the
Pearl House, was connected to several of

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the Annihilator's victims. At around the
same time that the killing stopped, Maurice

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moved away from Austin, spending some
time in New Orleans before settling in London,

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and whether it's a coincidence or not, another serial killer appeared in London

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around that same time, Jack the
Ripper, one of the most famous serial

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murderers in history. Although Maurice may
not have been either killer, the theory

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that the Servant Girl Annihilator went on
to become Jack the Ripper is a pretty

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popular one, and even during the
eighteen hundreds, several people made the connection

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between the crimes. The surviving victims
of the Servant Girl Annihilator never received any

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closure and lived the rest of their
lives knowing that the man who had tried

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to kill them had gotten away and
could still be out there.