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Between 1884 and 1885, a shadowy figure terrorized the city, breaking into homes, dragging women from their beds, and leaving behind scenes so brutal that even hardened reporters became physically ill. The press dubbed him the Servant Girl Annihilator—some later called him the Midnight Assassin or even speculated he was Jack the Ripper before London.

In this two-part special, we peel back the layers of history: the booming city of Austin in the 1880s, the gruesome series of axe murders that left eight dead and eight injured, the suspects who stood trial, and the theories that still linger nearly 140 years later. Was the killer a local cook with a violent streak? A transient who slipped away to Europe? Or a murderer whose crimes connect Texas to one of the most infamous cases in history?

Join Arlene and Leah as we explore one of America’s earliest and most chilling serial murder cases—a story of terror, hysteria, and mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

Capital Murder: The Servant Girl Annihilator’s Reign of Terror
Revisiting the Austin Axe Murders
Autopsy Report for Susan Hancock (1885)
New Documents Reveal Details in Servant Girl Murders
Austin’s Servant Girl Annihilator: A Chilling Tale of Horror
The Axe Murderer Who Killed Servants—and Was Never Caught
Hell Broke Loose
The Midnight Assassin
Servant Girl Annihilator Terrorized Austin in the 1880s
The Servant Girl Annihilator
The Servant Girl Murders
The Axeman of Austin
1885 Newspaper Archives on the Austin Axe Murders
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