Welcome to the 25th episode of Wild Society!

Beginning on Dec. 30, 1884, nighttime brought a sense of dread to the residents of the budding city of Austin, Texas. A killer was stalking the streets late at night, picking locks on cabins and homes, sneaking inside and using knives and axes to kill. In many of the cases, others were seriously wounded but survived. The killer earned the moniker, the Servant Girl Annihilator, as many of his victims were staff members at residences across Austin. But just as the city was on the brink of chaos, the killings mysteriously stopped. But why?

In the early 1900’s men were practically required to wear a hat anytime they left the house. Just as fashion can still be today, there were many styles and many “rules” to be followed. In the early 20th century the most seriously followed fashion rule was that of not wearing your straw hat after September 15th. Eventually, if you were caught in public wearing your straw hat after this arbitrary date, you weren’t just subject to ridicule, your hat was fair game to be knocked off and stomped on in the street by any passerby. By 1922 this came to head with the infamous New York Straw Hat Riots.

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Bird Song by Sherree Chamberlain


Servant Girl Annihilator Sources:

• Texas Monthly
• Servant Girl Murders
• Mental Floss
• KVUE
• Ranker

Straw Hat Riot Sources:

• Ripleys
• New York Times
• New York Times
• Wikipedia