Pearl House Hotel and Restaurant
Pearson, Abe
Pease, Elisha
Pease, Julia
Pecan Street
Pennybacker, Anna
Persinger, Harvey
Petmecky’s, J. C., Gunsmiths
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (1876)
Phillips, Adelia
Phillips, Eula
adultery accusations vs.
background of
burial of
ghost stories on
great-niece on
murder of
Phillips, James, Sr.
Phillips, Jimmy
accused of murder
appeal and dismissal and
moves to Georgetown
trial of
Phillips, Sophie
Phillips, Tom
Phillips Family Band
Philp, Kenward
Pinkerton, Allen
Pinkerton, Matt
Pinkerton, William
Pinkerton & Co. United States Detective Agency
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
Platt, Joseph
Platt, Radcliff
Plummer, Ike
Poe, Edgar Allan
Pomeroy, Jesse
Pope, J. H.
Porter, William Sydney (later O. Henry)
Prade’s ice-cream shop
Pressler’s beer garden
Proper Star Saloon
Psychopathia Sexualis (Krafft-Ebing)
Pulitzer, Joseph
Radam’s Horticultural Emporium
Radam’s Microbe Killer
Railroad Forger and the Detectives, The (book)
Ramey, Mary
Ramey, Rebecca
Ravy’s Grocery
Reagan, John H.
Reconstruction
“Report of the Mayor, The” (Robertson)
Robertson, James (district attorney)
Robertson, John W. (mayor)
New Year’s Day speech
Pinkertons and
reelected
State of the City address
Robertson, Sophronia
Robinson, John R.
Rogers, Andrew
Rolling Stone (humor magazine)
Ross, Jack
Ross, Sul
saloons
ordered closed at midnight
Sunday laws and
San Antonio
murder of Patti Scott in
Thompson shootout in
San Antonio Daily Express
San Antonio Express
San Antonio Light
San Antonio Times
Sand Hill dances
San Francisco Examiner
Schmidt, Mrs.
Scholz Garten beer hall
Schoolherr, L., & Brothers
Scotland Yard
Scott, Patti
Scott, William
segregation
Senter, Fred
Seventeenth Amendment
Seventh Ward
Shands, Edward
Sheeks, James
Shelley, Eliza
son witnesses murder of
Shelley, Mary
Shelley, Nathan
Shelley, William D. (clerk)
Shelley, William (husband of Eliza)
Simon and Bellenson’s restaurant
Singer Sewing Machine office
slavery
Slick, Joe
Smith, Mollie
autopsy of
Brooks arrest and
burial of
inquest on
murder of
Spencer trial and
Snipes, Monroe Martin
Southern Exposition (Louisville, 1883)
Southern Hotel
Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone
Spencer, Walter
interview with
Smith murder witnessed by
trial of
Spitzka, Dr. Charles Edward
Stacy and Baker’s newsstand
Stamps, Henry
Stanley, Madame
Star, Belle
State Lunatic Asylum (later Austin State Hospital)
St. Clair, Ida
St. David’s Episcopal Church
Steiner, Dr. Ralph
Stephens, Lombard
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stewart, Joseph
St. Louis Republican
Stoddard, Dr. C. B.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The (Stevenson)
streetlamps
gas
replaced by arc lamps
Stride, Elizabeth “Long Liz”
Stuart Seminary
Sullivan, John L.
Sunday laws
Swain, Walter (son)
Swain, William J.
Eula Phillips and
Swearingen, Dr. Richard
Swedish immigrants
Sweet, Alexander
syphilis
Tallichet, Henri
Taranaki Herald
Taylor, Abner
Temple Times
Tempy, Aunt
Terrell, Alexander
Texas
becomes 28th state in union
end of slavery in
governor’s races in
independence celebrations in
New Orleans World’s Fair and
war of independence
Texas, Republic of
Texas Army
Texas Court of Appeals
Texas Court Reporter
Texas Day (April 21)
Texas German and English Academy
Texas Medical Association
Texas Monthly
Texas Rangers
Texas Semi-Centennial Organizing Committee
Texas state capitol building
cornerstone
opening ceremony
Texas State Dental Association
Texas State Grange
Texas state legislature
“Texas Vendetta, The” (Philp)
Texas Vorwaerts
Thomas, Ambrose
Thompson, Ben
Thompson, George
Thompson, James
Thorp, Robert
Tillotson College and Normal Institute
Tobin, Dr. J. J.
Tobin, Mae
Townsend, Oliver
Travis County Courthouse “the Castle”
Travis County grand jury
Travis Light Artillery
Trigg, Jonathan
Turner Hall
Twain, Mark
Union Army
U.S. Cavalry
U.S. Constitution
U.S. Marshal’s Office
University of Edinburgh
University of Texas
shootings of 1966
Vance, Gracie
Variety Theatre
Verne, Jules
Victoria, Queen of England
vigilance committees
Von Rosenberg, Justice of the Peace
Waco Daily Examiner
Waco Daily Express
Walker, Judge
Wallace, Henry
Wallace, Lew
Walton, William
Warde, Frederick
Warren, Sir Charles
Washington, Orange
Watkins, Genie
Weed, Mrs.
Weed, Valentine Osborn “V. O.”
Weller, Dr. C. O.
Western Associated Press
Weyermann, Robert
Wheeless, Thomas
Whipple, Fannie
White, Harry
“Whitechapel Murders, The” (Spitzka)
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee
whites
relations with blacks
targeting of white women and
Whitman, Charles
Whitten, Martha Hotchkiss
Wild West Shows
Wilkie, Alexander
Williams, Abe
&
nbsp; Williams, Andrews
Wilson, William
women’s rights
Woodford Times of Essex
Woods, Dock
Woods, W. W.
Wooldridge, Alexander P.
World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893), murders
World’s Fair and Great International Exposition (Atlanta, 1881)
World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition (New Orleans, 1885)
World War II
Wounded Knee, Battle of
Wright, Judge A. S.
XIT cattle ranch
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank Stephen Rubin, the publisher of Henry Holt and Company, and Holt senior editor Serena Jones and associate editor Allison Adler for their thoughtful guidance and insight during the writing of this book. I also would like to thank my literary agent, David Hale Smith of Inkwell Management, for his enormous patience and encouragement.
I was first told about the Midnight Assassin in 1988 by Nicole Krizak, an Austin high school teacher who was working on a novel in which the Midnight Assassin moved to London to become Jack the Ripper. She generously shared with me the 1888 pamphlet she had found, printed in England, that detailed the London police detectives’ interest in the Austin killings. Steven Saylor, a well-regarded author who used the murders as the basis for his novel A Twist at the End (Simon & Schuster, 2000), was also more than happy to share his research with me. (Incidentally, in his novel, O. Henry solves the murders.)
Over the years, I have been influenced by the work of several “Austinologists”—the nickname I have given to those who are as obsessed with the Austin killings as the Ripperologists in England are obsessed with the Whitechapel murders. I’d particularly like to thank researcher Allan McCormack, J. R. Galloway, a University of Texas librarian who suspects the killer was Nathan Elgin, and D. W. Skrabanek, a professor at Austin Community College who has theorized that the killer could have been John Hancock, the attorney who was on the defense teams for both the Jimmy Phillips and Moses Hancock trials.
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of the librarians and archivists of the Austin History Center, located at the Austin Public Library. Nor could it have been written without the vast collection of historical newspapers that can be found at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas. (The newspaper collection alone contains more than 4,500 titles.) I am very grateful to Christy Moilanen, the archivist for the Travis County Archives. In June 2014, when just about everyone thought there was nothing more to learn about the killings, she saw some folded pages in the bottom of an unmarked box that turned out to be the original handwritten court transcripts and inquest reports of the Susan Hancock and Eula Phillips murder cases. I am indebted to Moilanen’s love of unmarked boxes.
Finally, all thanks to my wife, Shannon, who spent many years helping me go through historical collections at numerous libraries around Texas and in New York, looking for a clue—any clue—as to the Midnight Assassin’s identity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SKIP HOLLANDSWORTH is a journalist, screenwriter, and an executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine. In 2010, he won the National Magazine Award for feature writing. He lives in Texas with his wife and daughter. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
PROLOGUE
“A killer who gives to history a new story of crime.”
PART ONE
DECEMBER 1884–APRIL 1885
“Doctor Steiner reports a woman lying near Ravy’s.”
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
PART TWO
APRIL 1885–AUGUST 1885
“Who was it? Who did this to you?”
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
PART THREE
SEPTEMBER 1885–CHRISTMAS DAY 1885
“A woman has been chopped to pieces! It’s Mrs. Hancock! On Water Street!”
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PART FOUR
DECEMBER 26, 1885–JANUARY 1886
“The whole city is arming. If this thing is not stopped soon, several corpses will be swinging from the tree limbs.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
PART FIVE
FEBRUARY 1886–MAY 1888
“A prominent State officer and an active candidate for the Governorship of Texas … knows something about Eula Phillips’ murder.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
PART SIX
SEPTEMBER 1888–AUGUST 1996
“I would suggest that the same hand that committed the Whitechapel murders committed the Texas murders.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EPILOGUE
“If no one could catch the killer back when he was alive, what makes you think you can catch him now?”
NOTES AND SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
THE MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN. Copyright © 2015 by Walter Ned Hollandsworth. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design by David Shoemaker. Cover photograph © Wilkinson Ranch.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
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Hollandsworth, Skip.
The midnight assassin: panic, scandal, and the hunt for America’s first serial killer / Skip Hollandsworth.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8050-9767-2 (hardback)—ISBN 978-0-8050-9768-9 (electronic book)
1. Serial murders—Texas—Austin—History—19th century.
2. Serial murderers—Texas—Austin—History—19th century.
I. Title.
HV6534.A8H65 2016
364.152'32092—dc23 2015024689
First Edition: April 2016
The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer Page 33
