Servant Girl Annihilator

Servant Girl Annihilator
December 1885 newspaper headline relating to the Servant Girl Annihilator
Other names	The Austin Axe Murderer
Details
Victims	8 known victims
Span of killings	December 30, 1884–December 24, 1885
Country	USA
State(s)	Texas

A serial killer, who became known as the Servant Girl Annihilator, preyed upon the city of Austin, Texas, during the years 1884 and 1885. The killer's name originated with the writer O. Henry.

The series of eight axe murders was referred to by contemporary sources as the Servant Girl Murders.

The December 26, 1885, issue of The New York Times reported that the "murders were committed by some cunning madman, who is insane on the subject of killing women."

The murders represent an early example of a serial killer operating in the United States, three years before the Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel. In her book, Jack the Ripper: The American Connection, author Shirley Harrison asserted that the Texas killer and Jack the Ripper were one and the same man, namely James Maybrick.

According to author Philip Sugden in The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, the conjecture that all the murders were committed by the same man originated in October, 1888, when an editor with the Atlanta Constitution proposed this conjecture, following the murders of Stride and Eddowes by Jack the Ripper.

According to Texas Monthly, seven women (five black, two white) and one black man were murdered. Additionally, six women and two men were seriously injured.

All the victims were attacked indoors while asleep in their beds. Five of the women were dragged, unconscious but still alive, and killed outdoors. Three of the women were severely mutilated while outdoors.

All the victims were posed in a similar manner. Six of the murdered women had a "sharp object" inserted into their ears.

The series of murders ended with the killing of two white women, Eula Phillips, age 17, and Susan Hancock - who was attacked while sleeping in the bed of her 16-year-old daughter on the night of 24 December 1885.

Only one of those arrested, James Phillips, was convicted. He was found guilty of murdering his wife but the conviction was later overturned.