Before Jack the Ripper: The Savage Crimes of the Servant Girl Annihilator

INTRO

Hey everyone. Welcome back. 

On December 30, 1884, the residents of the bustling town of Austin, Texas prepared for the new year. In the midst of making resolutions and preparing for the next night’s festivities, the community remained blissfully unaware that a murderer was lurking in the shadows. On West Pecan Street, twenty-five year old Mollie Smith had settled in for the night, no doubt exhausted from her day working as a cook. Little did Mollie know she would not make it to see 1885. 

Over the course of a year, the city of Austin lived in fear as newspapers carried stories of horrific murders. The individual later known as the Servant Girl Annihilator is believed to have murdered eight people in Austin before stopping suddenly. Although sometimes classified as the first American serial killer, the story of the Servant Girl Annihilator remains largely unknown. 

So this week, I am diving into the Servant Girl Annihilator. What happened? What is the connection to Jack the Ripper? And why isn’t this story more well known?

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

This episode, dear listeners, is definitely on the darker side and contains themes of sexual assault and pretty horrific violent acts. Consider this my listener’s warning and feel free to skip this week if you need to. And with that, let’s begin. 

In 1884, the city of Austin, Texas was still very much in the making. Counting less than 5,000 residents during the Civil War, by the 1880s Austin had tripled their population. Serving as the state’s capitol, Austin was beginning to blossom and counted an opera house and three universities in addition to a new capitol building, which was still a few months away from breaking ground. One of the most violent southern states during Reconstruction, Texas Democrats had successfully wiped out the meager gains made by Republicans a decade earlier and enjoyed firm control over the legislature. Although some freedmen lived among their white neighbors, local residents had largely begun living in segregated communities, and racial violence was still an all too frequent reality. Some local Black families had managed to enter the middle class, but there were still several members of the community who had to work long hours and Black women often found work inside white homes as domestics or cooks. 

Such was the life of Mollie Smith who, at just 25 years old, was to become the first victim of the killer later called the Servant Girl Annihilator. Just before midnight on December 30, 1884, Mollie was asleep in her bed when she was suddenly and violently attacked. The unknown assailant’s weapon of choice was an ax, which was discovered with Mollie’s body the next morning. Not only had Mollie suffered a gash to her head, she was also stabbed repeatedly with wounds to her chest, abdomen, legs, and arms. It was clear from the scene that this was an act of rage, plain and simple. But who could have been so angry as to inflict this much damage on a single person? 

Mollie had been living with a boyfriend at the time - something outside the norms of the era. When local law enforcement arrived, they discovered him at the scene - knocked unconscious. In an era before DNA evidence and criminal profiling, authorities were unprepared to launch a serious investigation. Although Austin police were used to crime, a murder of this devastation and brutality was something officers had not experienced. Operating with just 12 officers, Austin’s police department also had scant resources to dedicate to trying to learn the identity of a nameless, faceless killer. Thus, their investigation - as limited as it was - went nowhere and no one was arrested in connection with Mollie’s death. 

The murder seemed to be a singular incident until five months later when another woman - Eliza Shelley - was discovered on May 8th, 1885. Like Mollie, Eliza had worked as a cook for a prominent local family - a former state legislator in fact. Eliza was also found with a massive wound to her head, where an ax had struck her so hard it almost split her head in two. Perhaps a signal of escalation, Eliza’s examination also showed that she had likely been sexually assaulted, likely with a firepoker. Unlike Mollie’s death, however, there were witnesses to Eliza’s murder - her own children. No doubt traumatized by the events, the children were unable to provide any information to authorities who again were ill equipped to handle such an investigation. 

Just a few weeks later yet another domestic worker, Irene Cross, was stabbed multiple times including a massive head wound that looked as if she had been scalped. There is some conflicting information regarding just how severe Irene’s injuries were, with one report indicating she was still alive when she was discovered, and another indicating that the killer had carved into her chest to remove her heart. Either way, it was clear that the person or people responsible for the murders was growing increasingly violent. Yet, it was the next attack that I find most grotesque and one that I think will be hard for you, dear listener. 

In September, just a few months after the murders of Irene Cross and Eliza Shelley, 11 year old Mary Ramey was discovered in the pre-dawn hours brutally murdered with clear signs of sexual assault. Her mother, Rebecca, had been employed as a cook for the Weed family and had been knocked unconscious during the attack. Like Mollie the year before, Mary was dragged from her bed and was discovered near a backyard wash house. The murder of an 11 year old girl sparked outrage among the community who demanded that the authorities do more to try to solve these murders and prevent future loss of life. Local newspaper entered the fray, with some calling for establishing vigilante committees aimed at executing community justice. 

Without much evidence to go on, police initially suspected that the murders were at the hands of a dangerous gang of men. In post-Reconstruction Texas the suspected mob was thought to be comprised of black men. Exploring all potential theories, some investigators thought that perhaps the motivation for the crimes was religious in nature. Some of the women killed were living with men who were not their husbands - or perhaps had children out of wedlock. Could the killer, some speculated, be targeting these women specifically for living in quote unquote sin? Hundreds of black men were rounded up for questioning about the murders – with little to no evidence to indicate any of them were involved. These men were kept captive - held in local jail cells until authorities could speak with them to clear their name. Some men later testified that police had attempted to force a confession out of them by beating them or threatening to hang them unless they talked. 

As investigators tried in vain to capture the person responsible, the killer struck again - this time murdering Gracie Vance and her boyfriend Orange Washington in late September, 1885. The couple lived together in a small little home rented by Washington. Like the other victims, Gracie worked as a domestic, though it is believed she worked as a servant and not a cook. And following a disturbing pattern, her body was moved after death, just like the other victims, where her head was beaten with an ax so badly that the remains were described in the local paper as looking like jelly. 

Again, the perpetrator went quiet for several months. But just when Austin residents thought they were safe from the whims of a violent mad man, he struck again. On December 24th, 1885 authorities would discover not one but two gruesome murder scenes. Breaking the established pattern, the next two victims did work in the domestic service and neither was a servant or a cook. The first discovery, Susan Hancock, was described as one of the quote “most refined ladies in Austin,” end quote and unlike the other victims thus far, Susan was white. Despite the change of race, the other elements of the crime scene mirrored the killer’s established pattern. Like other victims, Susan’s head had been nearly split open thanks to the blows of an ax and her body was discovered out in the open. As authorities were acclimating to the latest crime scene, they learned another body had been discovered. The eighth and what is believed to be the final victim was Eula Phillips, another well to do white woman. 

Unlike other victims, however, Eula was married. Her husband, Jimmy, was discovered in the couple’s home where Jimmy suffered a severe gash to the back of his head. Eula’s body was discovered thanks to the blood trail originating from her home to the alley outside where she was found. Like young Mary, Eula also displayed signs of sexual assault. 

The discovery of two bodies in one night - and two white women to boot - sent the local press into overdrive. Headlines included quote “A Bloody Christmas Eve. Shocking Butcheries At Austin. Another chapter of crime that makes the blood run cold,” end quote and quote “Hell broke loose,” end quote. Law enforcement was already facing some significant pressure to solve the case – having their failures splashed across the newspapers did not make their jobs any easier. And so they acted. Despite the fact that several other women had been killed in an eerily similar fashion, authorities quickly arrested Eula’s husband Jimmy for the murder of his wife. 

The couple had been married just a couple of years at the time of her death and shared a son, Thomas, born just a few months into their union. There are rumors that 15 year old Eula married then-24 year old Jimmy because of her pregnancy and that Jimmy struggled with alcoholism and was abusive. The trial attracted a lot of attention thanks in part to the defendant’s connections and rumors of Eula’s apparent sexual scandals. Journalists from across the country traveled to Austin to report on the trial and seemingly had very little qualms about reporting rumors which included everything from Eula was engaging in an affair or working as a prostitute behind her husband’s back and this was the true cause of the marital troubles. These rumors even seemed to infect local authorities who failed to connect Eula’s murder with the 7 others, despite the similarities in pattern. 

Phillips was eventually convicted based on footprint evidence presented by the prosecution. In an era before fingerprints, DNA, and hair fibers, there was little physical evidence that could be presented to prove a defendant's guilt. In the case of the Phillips murder trial, authorities had cut a piece of floorboard where the suspected killer left their mark in blood. This floorboard was then compared against a sample created with Phllips’ footprint. Despite reports that Phillips’ footprint appeared smaller, Phillips was initially convicted, only to be acquitted later on appeal. 

After 12 months of terror, the killings ceased and Eula Phillips is considered the last victim of the person dubbed The Servant Girl Annihilator. The crude moniker came from a short story author who lived in the Austin area during the murders. And despite authorities working tirelessly to track down the perpetrator, without forensic technology or a clear motive, The Servant Girl Annihilator eluded capture. So what is the tie in with Jack The Ripper? 

There are some who speculate that the Servant Girl Annihilator and Jack the Ripper are the same perpetrator. Those who subscribe to this theory point to the fact that there were frequent steamship routes between Liverpool and Austin, making an easy escape overseas plausible. London authorities also explored a potential American connection during their investigation, further fueling speculation that the two killers could be one. Both the Ripper and Annihilator chose victims that were seen as on the lower end of society - servants and cooks in Austin and sex workers in London. And believers also see similarities in the style of the crimes as both perpetrators mutilated their victims post mortem. Yet, for all the similarities, there are a few significant differences that undercut this theory. For one, the racial profile of the victims was different - most of the women killed in Austin were black, whereas every single victim in London was white. There is also a difference in preferred murder weapons - while the killer in Austin used knives post mortem, his initial instrument was an ax. It is possible that the killer evolved both in terms of victim profile and weapon preference, but most serial killers are not usually known to deviate. Of course, the truth of the matter is for the moment lost to history and we will likely never know whether the two series of murders are linked. 

The murders in Austin pre-date the crimes of H.H. Holmes by almost a decade. So why does Holmes still get the credit as America’s first documented serial killer? We can only speculate. There are some who point to the victims racial profile as one potential reason behind the relative anonymity of the case – the murder of black women received very little attention - something that remains an issue today - and they were not written about in the same glowing terms as their white counterparts - something that also remains an issue in 2025. There are also some who speculate that city officials worked hard to try to limit the coverage and exposure of the case in an effort to maintain a positive reputation for Austin. 

Between 1884 and 1885, six women, one man, and a young girl were murdered in Texas’ capitol city - victims of a killer whose identity remains unknown. At the time, the crimes shocked the city, but history soon moved on. Overshadowed by the later infamy of Jack the Ripper and H.H. Holmes, the Servant Girl Annihilator faded from national memory. A century later, we’re left with fragments: unanswered questions, unclaimed justice, and a story that history almost forgot.

And before I sign off today I want to welcome the newest member of the Patreon, Molly! Welcome to the club and I hope you enjoy the extra content. You too can get more history by joining the Patreon. There are tiers starting at just $3 per month where you can enjoy extra content including recorded book reviews and access to the bonus series, Civics & Cocktails. You can learn more about joining the Patreon - and other ways you can support the show, by visiting my website at www dot civics and coffee dot com. The website is also where you can see show notes, transcripts, and stream any episodes you may have missed. 

Thanks, peeps. I will see you next week.

OUTRO