The Bone-Chilling Story Of The First Serial Killer In Austin, Texas Will Haunt Your Dreams

By 4:00 p.m., local merchants began shutting down their incandescent lights, locking doors to their shops behind them as they too headed home from their exhausting day.

By midnight, Austin was eerily quiet as police officers walked the city streets making sure the local brothels occupants were behaving.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the sounds of running hoof beats torn down the main street. The man on the horse was out of breath, but began shouting "Susan Hancock has been chopped to pieces, her head completely cut off."

News spread quickly throughout the town. Two doctors, several policemen and numerous male residents, guns in hand, rushed toward the home of the murdered woman. It was a gruesome sight. Everyone was organizing a manhunt for the killer. Before a plan was in place, another horseman rode up screaming "Eula Phillips is dead, she’s been hacked up with an ax." It was surreal. More men began coming out of their houses carrying weapons of all types hoping to find this elusive murderer.

By 5:00 a.m., the town had canceled Christmas and every able-bodied man was expected to help find this madman before another victim was claimed. Hundreds of people gathered on Congress Street to divide into groups, men were deputized on the spot. No stone was left unturned while searching for this vicious killer. Days passed, and then months turned into years. Over the first year, over 400 men were arrested on suspicions, but had to be let go when no proof existed.

Sheriffs and crime specialist from other towns came in to help. They began piecing together other crime scenes which had taken place earlier that year before these two women were murdered. There had been a spree of vicious killings of six servants, five females, and one male. Police were convinced it was the women who were targeted and the man was collateral damage. The newspapers had dubbed the killer as "Servant Girl Annihilator." The way they were murdered was almost exactly like the ones being investigated now. No one had connected these crimes before. On December 31, 1884 brutal stabbings, axing and demented tortures has occurred. After investigations were made, it was assumed it was a "negro" problem and the murders stopped as fast as they began.

To date, this case has been believed to be Texas’ first serial murder, and many believe the first serial murder in the U.S.A.

The killer had obviously left a sea of blood behind and somehow escaped never to be seen again. The case remains open today. Legend has it, three years later; he moved to Europe and began the heinous acts of gruesome murders in London and was dubbed as "Jack the Ripper." But who exactly was this perpetrator? One can only speculate…