Servant Girl Annihilator

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According to Texas Monthly, the killer murdered seven women (five black, two white) and one black man. Additionally, the killer seriously injured six women and two men.{{Cite book|last=Rockefeller|first=J. D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0K7UCwAAQBAJ&q=six+woman+and+two+men+were+injured+by+Servant+Girl+Annihilator&pg=PT3|title=America's 14 Worst Serial Killers|date=2016|publisher=J.D. Rockefeller|isbn=978-1-5306-1924-5|language=en}}

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.{{cite book|first=Skip|last=Hollandsworth|title=The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer|date=5 April 2016|publisher=Henry Holt & Company|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-805-09767-2|page=100}}

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 December 24, 1885. Moses Hancock was accused of killing his wife, but was acquitted shortly afterwards.{{cite book |last1=Cawthorne |first1=Nigel |title=The Mammoth Book of Killers at Large |date=2011 |publisher=C & R Crime |location=United Kingdom |isbn=9780786719747 |pages=54}}

Only one of those arrested, James Phillips, husband of Eula Phillips, was convicted. Witnesses testified that he repeatedly said he would kill Eula if he ever found her to be unfaithful, and that he was prone to violent outbursts.{{Cite web |title=1886 Trial of James Phillips: Court Transcript of Eula Phillips' Murder |url=https://ngctours.com/statevjimmy |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=Nitty Gritty City Tours of Austin |language=en-US}} He was found guilty of murdering his wife but the conviction was later overturned.

London authorities questioned several American cowboys, one of whom (according to the authors of Jack the Ripper, A to Z) was possibly Buck Taylor, a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.{{cite book |first1=Paul |last1=Begg |first2=Martin |last2=Fido |first3=Keith |last3=Skinner |title=Jack the Ripper, A to Z |publisher=John Blake Publishing |location=London, England|year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84454-797-5}} Taylor was born in Fredericksburg, Texas,{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Don |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qvU4Lq8NAcC&q=%22buck+taylor%22+buffalo+bill+fredericksburg&pg=PA306 |title=The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, Oklahoma|year=1979 |page=306 |isbn=0-8061-1537-8}} about 70 miles west of Austin.

According to a front-page article in The New York Times of December 26, 1885, 400 men were arrested during the course of the year. According to the Texas Monthly, powerful elected officials refused to believe that one man, or one group of men, was responsible for all the murders.

The African-American community and some practitioners of voodoo believed the killer was a white man who had magic powers that enabled him to become invisible, as no dogs outside or in fenced yards adjacent to locations where murders occurred were heard to bark or raise any alarm.

The series of murders stopped when additional police officers were hired, rewards were offered, and citizens formed a vigilance committee to patrol the streets at night.{{cite web |last=Ramsland |first=Katherine |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/servant_girl/8.html |title=Servant Girl Annihilator |work=truTV Crime Library}} Contemporary newspapers reported that the murderer(s) had apparently fled the area, as no more murders were officially attributed to the killer by the authorities.

• Mollie Smith, 25, was murdered the night of December 30, 1884. Walter Spencer was seriously wounded.
• Clara Strand and Christine Martenson, two Swedish servant girls, were seriously wounded the night of March 19, 1885.
• Eliza Shelly was murdered the night of May 6, 1885.
• Irene Cross was murdered by a man with a knife on the night of May 22, 1885.
• Clara Dick was seriously wounded in August 1885.{{Cite web|url=https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/09/28/the-servant-girl-annihilator/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217203117/https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/09/28/the-servant-girl-annihilator/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 17, 2020|title=True Crime Society - The Servant Girl Annihilator|date=2019-09-29|website=True Crime Society|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-01}}
• Mary Ramey, 11, was murdered the night of August 30, 1885. Her mother, Rebecca Ramey, was seriously wounded.
• Gracie Vance and her boyfriend, Orange Washington, were murdered on the night of September 28, 1885.The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer {{ISBN|978-0-805-09767-2}} p. 120
• Susan Hancock was murdered the night of December 24, 1885.
• Eula Phillips was murdered the night of December 24, 1885.

According to a July 2000 article in the Texas Monthly, there was an eyewitness who claimed to have seen the murderer, but reported contradictory information to the police.

The killer was variously reported to have been white or dark-complexioned; or a "yellow man" wearing lampblack to conceal his skin color; or a man wearing a Mother Hubbard style dress; or a man wearing a slouch hat; or a man wearing a hat and a white rag that covered the lower part of his face.

There were also reports that the killer worked with an accomplice, or belonged to a gang of murderers.

On July 15, 2014, the PBS TV show History Detectives aired an episode on the killings. Using a combination of historical research and modern techniques, including psychological and geographic profiling, they identified a suspect: Nathan Elgin, a 19-year-old African-American cook.

Elgin worked in close proximity to the crime scenes and was missing his little toe, which was similar to a footprint believed to have been left by the killer. In February 1886, shortly after the last murder, Elgin was shot and killed by police while he was attempting to assault a girl with a knife.{{Cite web|url=http://www.servantgirlmurders.com/the-servant-girl-annihilator/|title=The Servant Girl Annihilator – Nathan Elgin – A Criminology {{pipe}} The Servant Girl Murders Austin, Texas 1885|website=www.servantgirlmurders.com}}

William Sydney Porter, better known as the short story writer O. Henry, was living in Austin at the time of the murders. Porter coined the term "Servant Girl Annihilators" in a May 10, 1885, letter addressed to his friend Dave Hall and later included in his anthology Rolling Stones: "Town is fearfully dull," wrote Porter, "except for the frequent raids of the Servant Girl Annihilators, who make things lively in the dull hours of the night...." However, no contemporary newspaper or published source referred to the murderer(s) as "The Servant Girl Annihilator."

In 2000, Steven Saylor published the novel A Twist at the End, which closely reconstructed the murders and the ensuing trials, with young William Sydney Porter playing a fictional role. The novel was published in the United Kingdom (as Honour the Dead) and has been translated into Portuguese and Hungarian.

Episode 6 (2015) of the podcast Tanis, a mystery/suspense docudrama, is titled "The Servant Girl Annihilator." It suggests a connection between the killings and the mysteries central to the podcast's ongoing story.

In 2022, The Drag Audio Production House published a four-part podcast, [https://thedragaudio.com/show/devilish-deeds/ "Devilish Deeds"], a nonfiction series about the murders. It explored the victims' deaths and the theories surrounding the killer or killers.

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
• List of serial killers in the United States

• {{Cite book|last= Franscell|first= Ron|title= Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Texas|year= 2010|publisher= Guildford Press|location= Guildford, Connecticut| isbn= 978-0-762-75965-1}}
• {{Cite book|last= Hollandsworth|first= Skip|title= The Midnight Assassin|year= 2016|publisher= Henry Holt and Co.|location= New York, NY| isbn= 9780805097672}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite news |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86064205/1885-09-29/ed-1/seq-1/ |title=Austin still the field of the Midnight Assassin. Two horrible murders in one night |department=Records of Crime |newspaper=Fort Worth Daily Gazette |date=September 29, 1885}}
• [http://www.servantgirlmurders.com/#/page/330 The Servant Girl Annihilator - Nathan Elgin - A Criminology]
• [https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Navigation/Community/Arcadia-and-THP-Blog/October-2018/Macabre-Monday-The-Case-of-the-Servant-Girl-Annih Macabre Monday The Case of the Servant Girl Annihilator]

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Category:19th-century American criminals

Category:African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement

Category:African-American history of Texas

Category:American murderers of children

Category:Axe murder

Category:Fugitives wanted by the United States

Category:Violence against women in Texas

Category:Serial killers from Texas

Category:Stabbing attacks in the United States

Category:Unidentified American serial killers

Category:Unsolved murders in the United States

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:Femicide