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| The Five Points area of Atlanta, 1911 (photo source: georgiainfo.com) |
Atlanta wanted to project itself as being racially tolerant, touting Morris Brown, Atlanta University and Atlanta Baptist as some of the best "black" schools in the nation. Black-owned businesses were also cropping up, lending credence to the idea of a New South.
However, the majority of the city's minority residents, rather than having their own business, worked long hours at menial jobs, doing manual labor, and living in the less-desirable areas of Reynoldstown and Pittsburg.
Five years earlier, in 1906, 40 black men had died as a result of a rampage in which a mob of white men had run rampant through the city after unsubstantiated reports of four white women being assaulted by black men. The tension, and the ugliness of the riot, was still very much alive in Atlanta.
Segregation was law at the time. Blacks could not walk through "white" parks; they could not eat in "white" restaurants; they could not drink in "white" bars; they could not drink from "white" water fountains; and they could not be buried in "white" cemeteries. Accordingly, the city's white residents actively took steps to keep their white-only neighborhoods white. In July of 1911, white residents of Ashby Street held a meeting in which they debated ways to keep blacks out, after four black families had moved in.
And so it wasn't surprising that when the murder spree started, the press and authorities gave it little concern.
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| (photo source: American Hauntings) |
The Assaults and Murders
It's not possible to say with certainty exactly when the crime spree started and absolutely who the first victim was but on Monday, October 3, 1910, 23-year-old Maggie Brook's body was found at the intersection of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad Track and Hill Street. A cook, Maggie's skull had been fractured.
On Saturday, January 22, 1911, 35-year-old Rosa Trice had the left side of her skull nearly completely crushed, her jaw stabbed and her throat cut so viciously that her head was nearly severed from her neck. After being killed, the perpetrator drug her body some 75 yards from her house on Gardner Street in the Pittsburg neighborhood before abandoning it there, where it was discovered. Two hours after her body was found, her husband was arrested for her murder but released the following night for lack of evidence. The Atlanta Constitution reported her murder, including the grisly details of her killing.
On Sunday, February 19, 1911, the body of an unidentified black female was discovered in some woods by the West Point Belt Car Line, just outside the city limits. She was estimated to be 25 years old and her head had been crushed. Beer bottles had been scattered around her body. It was suspected she had been killed either on Friday, February 17, or Saturday, February 18.
On Sunday morning, May 28, 1911, the body of Mary "Belle" Walker was found just 25 yards from her home on Garibaldi Street. A cook working in a private home on Cooper Street, Belle was found by her sister when she failed to return home from work the night before. Her throat had been cut in a jagged fashion. The Atlanta Constitution duly reported the crime in their May 29 edition on page 7, noting that a "Negro woman" had been killed and there were no clues.
In the early morning of Thursday, June 15, 1911, Addie Watts, a resident of 30 Selman Street, was found in some shrubbery at Krogg and DeKalb Streets, close to the Southern Railway. Authorities believed she had first been hit in the head with a brick or a coupling pin from a train before her killer had stabbed at her skull with a coupling pin and then slit her throat. After she had been killed, she was dragged into the bushes near the tracks.
It was only after Addie Watts was discovered that the local papers began to speculate that there may have been a lone, solitary killer preying on the city's young black women. On June 16, 1911, the day after the Watts killing, The Atlanta Journal ran a headline questioning whether a "black butcher" was at work in the city. It was this brief article (only four paragraphs) that first linked the Atlanta murders to those that occurred in London in the autumn of 1888, where five prostitutes were brutally stabbed to death and mutilated by the infamous Jack the Ripper. According to the article, the police were advancing the theory that "Atlanta has an insane criminal, something on the order of the famed Jack the Ripper." The competing Atlanta Constitution, however, was still holding firm that the killings were isolated, unrelated incidents.
On Saturday, June 24, 1911, Lizzie Watkins, a resident of West Oakland Street, became the next victim. She was found around 11 a.m. the following day at White and Lawson Streets. Like Addie Watts, she was found in a clump of bushes. Also like Addie Watts, Lizzie's throat had been cut and her body had been dragged to where it was found after the fatal injury.
Following the Lizzie Watkins murder, the crimes were (finally) moved to the front page of The Atlanta Journal. The similarities between the victims and murders was pointed out, as was the fact that for five Saturdays in a row, young black or biracial women had been murdered. Through these reports, the public found out for the first time that in each case, it appeared the women were choked into unconsciousness before they were assaulted and killed and that the victims had been mutilated in the same areas of their bodies. Although not specified in the newspaper reports at the time due to the "delicate" nature, like London's Jack the Ripper's victims, Atlanta's Ripper victims were not raped but their injuries appeared sexual in nature. Also like the British Ripper, Atlanta reporters claimed that the local killer had some type of anatomical knowledge.
The Role of the Media and Race
When the killings commenced in Atlanta, the media was fairly silent on them because the victims weren't white. Even after it was obvious that the city had a killer on its hands, the reports were often buried in the back sections and seemed little more than titillation for the publication's readers. The victims were often described as "negresses," "mulattos," and "octoroons." Even when The Atlanta Journal ran a headline questioning whether there was "a black butcher" in their midst in June of 1911, the article itself was a paltry four paragraphs. Four paragraphs, when some of the city's population was under siege by a human predator or predators.
Racism, sadly, was still alive and well in Atlanta and it was reflected in media's attitude and somewhat ambivalent reporting on the case. Even when the murder of Lena Sharpe and attack on Emma Lou Sharpe was recounted in the press, it was mentioned that "the problem of help is becoming serious." In other words, it wasn't just an emergency that women were being killed; it was also an emergency that the wealthier (i.e., and white) residents of the area were losing their help.
The same article also reported that the "murder of Negroes by Negroes are frequent enough on Saturday nights" when whiskey was flowing freely. And while it is true that copious consumption of alcohol can certainly lead to altercations, the reporting made it appear that these kinds of crimes, in the poorer areas, was to be expected.
In July of 1911, following the murder of Mary Yeldell, it was the black churches that put together a reward for information on the killer. It was also the black community that demanded that the Atlanta Police Department find black detectives to solve the case, whether it be because they felt the white officers were not giving a hundred percent because the victims were black or because they felt black detectives might winnow out more information in the black community.
Despite the black community requesting the local police to assign black detectives to the case, there was outrage that only black men had been arrested for the murders. There were accusations that these arrests reeked of racism; surely, white men were capable of murder, too.
However, in looking at the facts and considering the era in which these murders took place, the Atlanta Ripper was almost certainly a black male - and there was more than one killer. Even when not considering Emma Lou Sharpe's description of the man who stabbed her and most certainly killed her mother, it would have been difficult for a white man to move so freely and relatively unnoticed through black neighborhoods. Once the killings started, any unknown person, and especially a Caucasian, would have been met with wary glances or outright defense. Since the Ripper was able to continue to kill undetected, even after the city was on alert, he was almost definitely a black man.
The location of the bodies, nearly always found by a railroad track or something to do with the railroad, had to have meaning. It's possible that the Ripper worked for the railroad and didn't stray far from the area he was familiar with. As the trains would run in and out of Atlanta, usually on the weekends, it's also possible that the Ripper was not an Atlanta resident at all but simply came into town with the train. His schedule may have changed, which resulted in the murders going from Saturday nights to the beginning of the week.
Almost certainly the Atlanta Ripper's motive is much the same as England's Jack the Ripper: a deep and abiding hatred, and possibly fear, of women. Black women could have been chosen simply because they were easier for him to approach, due to segregation at the time. As many of them were also biracial, he could also have had a prejudice and hatred toward them.
The police were in a no-win situation. Oftentimes they arrived at the crime scene, or body dump site, after dozens of others had trudged through the area to view the body, potentially moving or destroying evidence. With each subsequent murder, patrols were beefed up but since the Ripper seemingly had no particular pattern for how he chose his victims and then struck, the PD was at a serious disadvantage. When they did make an arrest, they were met with criticism and accused of making those arrests because they were racist. Even the Atlanta Constitution, which had devoted little space in reporting the crimes, chastised the police department for its inability to solve the very crimes they seemed reluctant to give wide berth to. Atlanta's mayor also got into the act, throwing shade on the police by claiming he couldn't understand why they were "unable to cope with the situation." It seems like the anger that should have been directed at the killer was instead projected to the police department.
On Sunday morning, May 28, 1911, the body of Mary "Belle" Walker was found just 25 yards from her home on Garibaldi Street. A cook working in a private home on Cooper Street, Belle was found by her sister when she failed to return home from work the night before. Her throat had been cut in a jagged fashion. The Atlanta Constitution duly reported the crime in their May 29 edition on page 7, noting that a "Negro woman" had been killed and there were no clues.
In the early morning of Thursday, June 15, 1911, Addie Watts, a resident of 30 Selman Street, was found in some shrubbery at Krogg and DeKalb Streets, close to the Southern Railway. Authorities believed she had first been hit in the head with a brick or a coupling pin from a train before her killer had stabbed at her skull with a coupling pin and then slit her throat. After she had been killed, she was dragged into the bushes near the tracks.
It was only after Addie Watts was discovered that the local papers began to speculate that there may have been a lone, solitary killer preying on the city's young black women. On June 16, 1911, the day after the Watts killing, The Atlanta Journal ran a headline questioning whether a "black butcher" was at work in the city. It was this brief article (only four paragraphs) that first linked the Atlanta murders to those that occurred in London in the autumn of 1888, where five prostitutes were brutally stabbed to death and mutilated by the infamous Jack the Ripper. According to the article, the police were advancing the theory that "Atlanta has an insane criminal, something on the order of the famed Jack the Ripper." The competing Atlanta Constitution, however, was still holding firm that the killings were isolated, unrelated incidents.
On Saturday, June 24, 1911, Lizzie Watkins, a resident of West Oakland Street, became the next victim. She was found around 11 a.m. the following day at White and Lawson Streets. Like Addie Watts, she was found in a clump of bushes. Also like Addie Watts, Lizzie's throat had been cut and her body had been dragged to where it was found after the fatal injury.
Following the Lizzie Watkins murder, the crimes were (finally) moved to the front page of The Atlanta Journal. The similarities between the victims and murders was pointed out, as was the fact that for five Saturdays in a row, young black or biracial women had been murdered. Through these reports, the public found out for the first time that in each case, it appeared the women were choked into unconsciousness before they were assaulted and killed and that the victims had been mutilated in the same areas of their bodies. Although not specified in the newspaper reports at the time due to the "delicate" nature, like London's Jack the Ripper's victims, Atlanta's Ripper victims were not raped but their injuries appeared sexual in nature. Also like the British Ripper, Atlanta reporters claimed that the local killer had some type of anatomical knowledge.
Once again, The Atlanta Constitution was behind the eight ball. Although it reported the most recent murder, the Constitution incorrectly opined that Lizzie Watkins' death was due to cocaine and whiskey.
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| July 4, 1911 article from The Daily Mail (photo source: JTR Forums) |
The first possible break or lead in the case came on Saturday, July 1, 1911 with the murder of 40-year-old Lena Sharpe. The Sharpe case is notable not only for the eyewitness encounter but also for two varying versions of what happened.
In the second version, as reported by The Atlanta Journal, Lena and Emma Lou were walking together to the store when the black man, who had been hiding, blocked their path and struck Lena in the head with a brick. Lena fell to the ground and the man began slashing at Emma Lou, never uttering a word. Emma Lou ran from the scene, screaming, but fainted due to blood loss. It was then that the killer cut Lena's throat so severely that her head was nearly severed from her body. He returned to Emma Lou, who had regained consciousness and saw him standing over her with a bloody knife. Only the sound of feet running toward them sent the killer scurrying for cover.
Whichever version was accurate, Lena Sharpe was indeed killed -- and very nearly decapitated -- with her body found by the Seaboard railroad tracks, and Emma Lou Sharpe was stabbed. The Atlanta Journal reported she was unlikely to live but it seems that she did indeed survive her wounds. She also got a good look at the man who stabbed her and quite probably murdered her mother.
In the first version, as reported by The Atlanta Constitution, Lena told her 20-year-old daughter, Emma Lou, that she was walking to the market. When Lena had not returned to the Sharpe home on Hanover Street within an hour, Emma Lou headed toward the market in search of her mother. As the Sharpes' neighbor, Addie Watts, had been killed only two weeks prior, Emma Lou was frightened to learn that her mother never arrived at her destination. She was walking back toward the family home when she was confronted by a tall black man in a wide-brimmed black hat who asked her, "How do you feel this evening?" Feeling apprehensive, she moved past him, and he responded with, "Don't worry. I never hurt girls like you." Emma Lou was then stabbed in the back while the man ran off, laughing. She screamed, alerting a group of neighbors who came to her assistance. While Emma Lou survived, her mother did not. Lena Sharpe's body was found shortly after her daughter's attack, with her head in a pool of blood and her throat cut.
In the second version, as reported by The Atlanta Journal, Lena and Emma Lou were walking together to the store when the black man, who had been hiding, blocked their path and struck Lena in the head with a brick. Lena fell to the ground and the man began slashing at Emma Lou, never uttering a word. Emma Lou ran from the scene, screaming, but fainted due to blood loss. It was then that the killer cut Lena's throat so severely that her head was nearly severed from her body. He returned to Emma Lou, who had regained consciousness and saw him standing over her with a bloody knife. Only the sound of feet running toward them sent the killer scurrying for cover.
Whichever version was accurate, Lena Sharpe was indeed killed -- and very nearly decapitated -- with her body found by the Seaboard railroad tracks, and Emma Lou Sharpe was stabbed. The Atlanta Journal reported she was unlikely to live but it seems that she did indeed survive her wounds. She also got a good look at the man who stabbed her and quite probably murdered her mother.
Detectives working the case almost immediately deduced that the same man who had stabbed Emma Lou had killed her mother and had gone so far as to connect that same man to the murder of their neighbor, Addie Watts, and the other victims.
The Sharpe assaults and murder prompted The Atlanta Constitution to declare by July 4 that the Jack the Ripper theory had now been given further "substance." The same article also reported that "while the ordinary Negro murder attracts little attention, the police department was . . . expecting a repetition of the long series of crimes which have baffled every effort of the detectives." A $25 reward was offered by undertaker L. L. Lee for the capture of the man who killed Lena Sharpe. Mr. Lee also requested that other black business owners open their wallets to increase the reward fund, making it more enticing and, hopefully, encourage residents to assist the police and bring the guilty party to justice.
Coroner Paul Donehoo stated that the killings were the work of the same man; i.e., a single killer. The city held its breath as another weekend approached; The Atlanta Journal headlined: "Will Jack the Ripper Claim Eighth Victim This Saturday?" An unnamed policeman was quoted as saying the killer would take another victim Saturday before midnight.
The unnamed policeman was right -- and wrong. On Saturday, July 8, 1911, 22-year-old Mary Yeldell left the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Selcer on Fourth Street, where she was employed as a cook. Walking by an alley, she heard a whistle and stopped. A large black man, tall and well built, was moving toward her, as she later said, with a cat-like tread. She screamed and ran back to the Selcer house, where Mr. Selcer grabbed his revolver and headed for the alley. The man, surprisingly, was still there. When Mr. Selcer ordered him to raise his hands or be shot, the man ran down the alley. The police were called but turned up nothing.
If, like Emma Lou Sharpe, Mary Yeldell had come face to face with the Atlanta Ripper, she had been fortunate enough to not only survive but survive without injuries. The Yeldell incident appeared to have broken the Saturday night streak but the Ripper wasn't done yet.
The Sharpe assaults and murder prompted The Atlanta Constitution to declare by July 4 that the Jack the Ripper theory had now been given further "substance." The same article also reported that "while the ordinary Negro murder attracts little attention, the police department was . . . expecting a repetition of the long series of crimes which have baffled every effort of the detectives." A $25 reward was offered by undertaker L. L. Lee for the capture of the man who killed Lena Sharpe. Mr. Lee also requested that other black business owners open their wallets to increase the reward fund, making it more enticing and, hopefully, encourage residents to assist the police and bring the guilty party to justice.
Coroner Paul Donehoo stated that the killings were the work of the same man; i.e., a single killer. The city held its breath as another weekend approached; The Atlanta Journal headlined: "Will Jack the Ripper Claim Eighth Victim This Saturday?" An unnamed policeman was quoted as saying the killer would take another victim Saturday before midnight.
The unnamed policeman was right -- and wrong. On Saturday, July 8, 1911, 22-year-old Mary Yeldell left the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Selcer on Fourth Street, where she was employed as a cook. Walking by an alley, she heard a whistle and stopped. A large black man, tall and well built, was moving toward her, as she later said, with a cat-like tread. She screamed and ran back to the Selcer house, where Mr. Selcer grabbed his revolver and headed for the alley. The man, surprisingly, was still there. When Mr. Selcer ordered him to raise his hands or be shot, the man ran down the alley. The police were called but turned up nothing.
If, like Emma Lou Sharpe, Mary Yeldell had come face to face with the Atlanta Ripper, she had been fortunate enough to not only survive but survive without injuries. The Yeldell incident appeared to have broken the Saturday night streak but the Ripper wasn't done yet.
On Sunday, July 9, a meeting was held at the First Congregational Church in Atlanta where the church's pastor, Henry Hugh Proctor, along with other black leaders in the community, asked that every black resident in Atlanta use his or her resources to locate the killer. While asking its black residents to cooperate fully with the police, the community also began requesting the police force to hire black detectives to assist in the hunt. Due to the segregation that was present in the city, Reverend Proctor and others believed that black detectives would receive more cooperation from black community members, as well as being less invasive.
On Tuesday morning, July 11, 1911, a workman by the name of Will Broglin discovered some loose dirt on his normal route to work. Sensing distress, he followed the disturbance to a blood trail in the road at Atlanta Avenue and Martin Street, near the new Orme Street sewer. He found the body of Sadie Holley, who worked at a local laundry, in a small gulley, where it had lain since the previous night. Sadie's skull had been fractured with a large stone, after which she was dragged roughly 15 feet and her throat slashed ear to ear so violently, she was nearly decapitated. Her shoes had been cut from her feet and a comb from her hair was found next to the bloody rock used to bludgeon her. The soft dirt by her body indicated her killer's route of escape.
There was a brief glimmer of hope when 27-year-old laborer Henry Huff was arrested on July 11, less than 24 hours after Sadie Holley's body was found, at his home on Brotherton Street. Huff reportedly had been the last person seen with Holley and possessed trousers with a bloodstain on them, dirt up to the knee and scratches on his arms. A cabman by the name of Will Williams claimed that Huff and Holley had been in his cab, quarreling, before he let them off near where the murder took place. Huff, however, was only held on suspicion.
On Tuesday morning, July 11, 1911, a workman by the name of Will Broglin discovered some loose dirt on his normal route to work. Sensing distress, he followed the disturbance to a blood trail in the road at Atlanta Avenue and Martin Street, near the new Orme Street sewer. He found the body of Sadie Holley, who worked at a local laundry, in a small gulley, where it had lain since the previous night. Sadie's skull had been fractured with a large stone, after which she was dragged roughly 15 feet and her throat slashed ear to ear so violently, she was nearly decapitated. Her shoes had been cut from her feet and a comb from her hair was found next to the bloody rock used to bludgeon her. The soft dirt by her body indicated her killer's route of escape.
An estimated 100 onlookers were at the crime scene within 20 minutes of the body discovery. By the time the coroner arrived, the crowd had swelled to some 500, leading to a general sense of hysteria. The victim count was increasing but the police seemed no closer to apprehending the suspect.
Sadie Holley received the dubious honor of being the first murder victim of the Ripper to make the front page of The Atlanta Constitution, which stated "Reign of Crime Grips Atlanta" and "Negro Women Slain, and No Arrests are Made." The Constitution, which had been slow to accept that Atlanta had a serial killer on its hands, now made up for lost time by recounting the killings that had taken place over the previous year and insinuating they were all committed by the same individual.
There was a brief glimmer of hope when 27-year-old laborer Henry Huff was arrested on July 11, less than 24 hours after Sadie Holley's body was found, at his home on Brotherton Street. Huff reportedly had been the last person seen with Holley and possessed trousers with a bloodstain on them, dirt up to the knee and scratches on his arms. A cabman by the name of Will Williams claimed that Huff and Holley had been in his cab, quarreling, before he let them off near where the murder took place. Huff, however, was only held on suspicion.
Not long after picking up Huff, police picked up 35-year-old Todd Henderson at a saloon on Decatur Street after a man claimed that Henderson had been seen with Sadie Holley in a drug store on the night of her murder not far from the scene. Emma Lou Sharpe was brought into the station to listen to Henderson's voice; according to The Atlanta Constitution, she "shrank back" upon hearing him. Although Emma Lou's identification was not considered solid or absolute, the lady herself told reporters that Henderson was "the man," and if not, she would be badly mistaken. For his part, Henderson was quoted as saying that if he were the Ripper, he would have begun on his wife, as she gave him lots of trouble.
Police, however, grew more suspicious of Henderson after he asserted to detectives that he had not owned a pocketknife or a razor in over a year and they found that on the morning after Sadie Holley's murder he had dropped off a razor to a barber to be sharpened.
The case against both Henderson and Huff were purely circumstantial but police turned them over to the prosecutor, thinking the grand jury would figure out which man to indict in Sadie Holley's murder.
Several days later, Governor Hoke Smith offered a $250 reward for the capture of the Atlanta Ripper.
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| (photo source: Catlick) |
On July 16, Reverend Proctor, who had asked Atlanta's residents to assist in finding the Ripper, preached to his congregation at the Black First Congregational Church that the "hand of God" was seen in the work of the Ripper and that the sins of the victims themselves were to blame.
On August 9, 1911, the grand jury indicted Henry Huff for the murder of Sadie Holley and a new suspect, a man by the name of John Daniel Huff (no relation to Henry Huff), in a related case, although the grand jury wouldn't say which one.
Despite the arrests, the Ripper's reign of terror on the streets of Atlanta continued.
On Thursday, August 31, 1911, more than six weeks after the ravaging of Sadie Holley, the body of 20-year-old Mary Ann Duncan was found in an area west of Atlanta called Blantown. Lying in between railroad tracks, Mary, like previous victims, had suffered a horrific throat wound, going from ear to ear. Like Sadie Holley, her shoes had been removed.
This newest slaying made the media and the police certain they had not arrested the real Ripper, despite the grand jury indictments.
On Sunday, October 22, 1911, the body of Eva Florence was found in a field at Rockwell and Elizabeth Streets. She had been killed the night before, beaten in the head and stabbed in the neck (but not slashed as the other victims.) Her brother, John Clowers, a waiter, posted a $100 reward with the police for the apprehension of the killer. The coroner's inquest found that a firearm had been discharged on Elizabeth Street shortly before or at the time of the Florence murder.
On Friday, November 10, 1911, Minnie Wise, described by the newspapers as a "comely mulatto girl" was found dead in an alley. She had been bludgeoned with a rock, dragged into a field on Connelly Street, where her throat was cut and then dragged 20 more feet to where she was discovered, near the corner of Georgia Avenue. Her right index finger had been hacked off at the middle joint and her shoes were missing. Minnie was found close to where two other victims had been murdered.
Early Tuesday morning, November 21, 1911, middle-aged Mary Putnam fell prey, being slashed to death. Her body was found around 7 a.m. in a ditch at Stewart Street and University Avenue, buried under some loose dirt. Her throat had been cut, her chest mutilated, and her heart was found lying next to her. Her autopsy would reveal she had also suffered a broken skull. As prints were seen in the dirt around Mary's corpse, police brought a bloodhound in to attempt to track her killer. The dog was able to follow the scent for about 200 yards before losing it. Mary had been a recent Atlanta transplant, having moved to the area to keep house for an elderly black man, who the police did not consider a suspect. More than 1,000 people viewed Mary's body at the undertakers, including Mary's stepson, Walter, who did not identify himself or his stepmother at the time but only after returning to work as an elevator operator, when he informed a passenger. Walter claimed he feared he would be arrested if he had spoken up any earlier. The coroner's inquest into the Putnam case revealed that, as in the Florence case, a firearm had been discharged around midnight.
On Friday, November 10, 1911, Minnie Wise, described by the newspapers as a "comely mulatto girl" was found dead in an alley. She had been bludgeoned with a rock, dragged into a field on Connelly Street, where her throat was cut and then dragged 20 more feet to where she was discovered, near the corner of Georgia Avenue. Her right index finger had been hacked off at the middle joint and her shoes were missing. Minnie was found close to where two other victims had been murdered.
Early Tuesday morning, November 21, 1911, middle-aged Mary Putnam fell prey, being slashed to death. Her body was found around 7 a.m. in a ditch at Stewart Street and University Avenue, buried under some loose dirt. Her throat had been cut, her chest mutilated, and her heart was found lying next to her. Her autopsy would reveal she had also suffered a broken skull. As prints were seen in the dirt around Mary's corpse, police brought a bloodhound in to attempt to track her killer. The dog was able to follow the scent for about 200 yards before losing it. Mary had been a recent Atlanta transplant, having moved to the area to keep house for an elderly black man, who the police did not consider a suspect. More than 1,000 people viewed Mary's body at the undertakers, including Mary's stepson, Walter, who did not identify himself or his stepmother at the time but only after returning to work as an elevator operator, when he informed a passenger. Walter claimed he feared he would be arrested if he had spoken up any earlier. The coroner's inquest into the Putnam case revealed that, as in the Florence case, a firearm had been discharged around midnight.
Following the Putnam homicide, an unnamed detective bemoaned to a reporter from The Constitution that the case would never be solved "until we get some help from the Negroes." He felt that the community knew who was committing the murders but were afraid to talk; if the city had the money, the community would be willing to offer up what it knew.
At Big Bethel Church pastors warned their female congregants about going out at night, while collecting $1,200 to go toward the reward for the Ripper's capture.
Henry Huff, who had been indicted for murdering Sadie Holley, was found not guilty by a Fulton County jury. During his trial, Sheriff Plennie Minor suggested that jealous black women were responsible for the slayings, not men at all. (This theory was roundly laughed at by the police officers and detectives.)
On Friday, January 19, 1912, Pearl Williams had her throat slashed. She was found the next morning in a vacant lot at Chestnut and West Fair, only a block from her home. Like so many others, Pearl had worked as a cook in a private home.
On Friday, January 19, 1912, Pearl Williams had her throat slashed. She was found the next morning in a vacant lot at Chestnut and West Fair, only a block from her home. Like so many others, Pearl had worked as a cook in a private home.
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| (photo source: Alchetron) |
In March of 1912, according to The Constitution, the grand jury concluded that the Atlanta Ripper was a myth and each murder had been committed by a different man - the result of jealousy following "immoral conduct." How the grand jury reached this conclusion, though, was never explained.
On Monday, April 8, 1912, 18-year-old Mary Kates was discovered in an alley, her throat cut, and her body mutilated. Her clothing was found in a neat pile next to her body. The Leader, Lexington, Kentucky's local newspaper, reported the murder in their April 9 edition, noting that the mutilation on Mary was done by a surgical instrument and "the slayer had some anatomical knowledge."
On Monday morning, April 15, 1912, the body of an unidentified black female was discovered in the Chattahoochee River, by the Chattahoochee Brick Company and underneath the Southern Railway Bridge. Discovered by the chief engineer of the brick company, he and two of his men brought the body back to the Fulton County side of the river. Her throat had been slashed and around her neck was a string with a key tied very tightly to it. She was estimated to be 15 years old.
Also during that month of April, the body of an unidentified 19-year-old black female was found in a clump of bushes at the end of Pryor Street. She had been stabbed in the throat.
On Saturday, May 11, 1912 at 6 a.m., the body of an unidentified black female was discovered behind shrubbery at the corner of Atlanta Avenue and Fraser Street. She had been stabbed in the throat at least twice, with one wound going through her jugular vein. Her body had been dragged after death. At the time she was found, she had been dead for approximately six hours.
On August 10, 1912, Henry Brown aka Lawton Brown was arrested for killing Eva Florence in October of 1911. Brown's wife informed the authorities that he had come home on successive Saturdays, the same Saturdays that many killings had taken place, wearing bloody clothing. While being questioned, Brown reportedly revealed details of other crimes and police felt certain they had their man.
In October, Brown went to trial for Eva Florence's murder. A man by the name of John Rutherford testified that the police had chained Brown's arms and legs to a chair and struck him in the head until he confessed. Brown, while on the stand, testified that he suffered from "hallucinations." The jury acquitted him on October 18, feeling he would confess to anything under pressure.
On Tuesday, February 11, 1913, the body of a young black girl was found at Fair and Christian Streets. Estimated to be no more than 20 years old, the victim had suffered a cut to the face as well as terrible slashing to her throat and was badly bruised about the head and chest. The inquest determined that her slayer had stabbed her in the head until his knife broke, while holding her in a "vise-like grip." Based on the direction of a number of footprints found by her body, as well as the marks of a small rubber-tired buggy, police believed that the killer had returned to her body and turned it over, to verify that she was indeed dead. She had been wearing a blue corded suit, brown stockings and high-top patent leather boots.
In March of 1913, Laura Smith was found with her throat cut. She, like the others, was young, of mixed heritage and worked as a servant.
A year later, in March of 1914, firefighters found notes stuck to fireboxes throughout the city which threatened to "cut the throats of all Negro women" who were on the streets after a certain hour of the night. The newspapers attributed the notes to the Atlanta Ripper.
On Sunday, June 24, 1917, two boys picking blackberries early that morning discovered the partially concealed body of an unknown black woman just beyond the Atlanta and West Point Belt Line, 300 yards from Stewart Avenue. Her skull had been crushed and battered by a heavy and sharp instrument.
On Monday, October 1, 1917, schoolchildren discovered the body of an unidentified black female by the Clark University campus around 2:30 in the afternoon. The body was in a mud puddle with the head crushed and "numerous other marks of violence about her person." She was dressed in a black skirt and estimated to be between 30 and 35 years of age.
In November of 1917, Laura Blackwell, a scrubwoman at the Fulton County Superior Court, was killed by a blow or blows from an axe. Found in her home at 233 East Fair Street, Laura's head was crushed, her throat cut, and her clothing reportedly destroyed by fire. In March of 1918, John Brown went to trial and was sentenced to life in prison for killing her. Granted a new trial, Brown was convicted once again for Laura Blackwell's murder in 1920. As three other black women had been found with their bodies burned, or partially burned, before Laura Blackwell, it's possible that Brown was responsible for those killings as well.
On Thursday, April 30, 1918, the body of a 35-year-old black woman was found around 2 p.m. in a ditch in the woods near the Southern railway tracks, about a mile from Hapeville, by a farmer named R. P. Wood. The victim's skull had been fractured and her throat cut. At the time Wood, walking from his home to Hapeville, had discovered her, she had been dead for several hours.
On Sunday, March 10, 1918, the body of an "unidentified dark mulatto" was found at the top of a densely wooded hill above the West Point Belt Line Railroad in the vicinity of Grant Street by residents in the neighborhood. The victim was reported to be 5'6", weighing 130 pounds, and with hair slightly gray at the temple. She had been dead for roughly 24 hours when found, stabbed in the neck with a sharp instrument. The Atlanta Constitution reported that the ground around her body was "thickly coated" with blood and a small half-open penknife was found nearby.
On Sunday, March 16, 1919, Queen Esther Jackson was attacked and stabbed several times. She told police that she had stepped into her yard on East Harris Street for a drink of water from the hydrant when an unknown black male stepped from the darkness and stabbed her. Jackson died from her wounds on Tuesday morning, March 19, at Grady Hospital.
On Sunday, May 4, 1924, the body of an unidentified 25-year-old woman was found on the Southern Railroad tracks between Peyton Station and Chattahoochee Station. She had a knife wound to the temple and there was evidence that a fight or a scuffle had occurred before her murder.
On Friday night, September 5, 1924, the badly decomposed body of a 17-year-old girl had been discovered lying facedown in a vacant lot on Pryor Street, near the Southern Railroad. Her throat was slashed "from ear to ear." The Atlanta Constitution reported that three black women had been found with their throats slashed in the previous two weeks and in each instance, the shoes and stockings of the victims, as well as any jewelry, had been removed.
On Monday, September 8, 1924, The Atlanta Constitution printed "Another Ripper Victim Reported." The unidentified woman had been found on Sunday night on Stewart Avenue near Dill Avenue. The victim, estimated to be around 30 years of age, had a bullet wound to the head, her throat cut, and "terrible" slashes to her wrists and back, and had been dead for roughly 24 hours when she was found.
Eliminations
Although there were clearly many murders from 1910 through 1924, not all of them can conclusively be linked to the Atlanta Ripper. Some that were credited to the elusive killer(s) at the time were likely not his/theirs.
Lucinda McNeal, killed in her home on Friday, February 3, 1911 with a straight razor, was murdered by her husband Charles who, after a night of drinking, had cut her so badly he nearly decapitated her. He was caught immediately following the murder, as not only had witnesses given chase to him but while running from them and two police officers, he ran directly into another officer. Although the McNeal case was open and shut, as she was a black female murdered during the killing period of the Ripper, with her throat cut, she is sometimes mentioned as a potential victim.
In the case of Minnie Wise, murdered in November of 1911, she was married to a man known to be jealous of the attention the attractive Minnie got and had been heard to threaten to kill her. Police suspected that he may have decided to use the unsolved Ripper killings as a cover for his wife's murder.
On Monday, September 8, 1924, The Atlanta Constitution printed "Another Ripper Victim Reported." The unidentified woman had been found on Sunday night on Stewart Avenue near Dill Avenue. The victim, estimated to be around 30 years of age, had a bullet wound to the head, her throat cut, and "terrible" slashes to her wrists and back, and had been dead for roughly 24 hours when she was found.
Eliminations
Although there were clearly many murders from 1910 through 1924, not all of them can conclusively be linked to the Atlanta Ripper. Some that were credited to the elusive killer(s) at the time were likely not his/theirs.
Lucinda McNeal, killed in her home on Friday, February 3, 1911 with a straight razor, was murdered by her husband Charles who, after a night of drinking, had cut her so badly he nearly decapitated her. He was caught immediately following the murder, as not only had witnesses given chase to him but while running from them and two police officers, he ran directly into another officer. Although the McNeal case was open and shut, as she was a black female murdered during the killing period of the Ripper, with her throat cut, she is sometimes mentioned as a potential victim.
In the case of Minnie Wise, murdered in November of 1911, she was married to a man known to be jealous of the attention the attractive Minnie got and had been heard to threaten to kill her. Police suspected that he may have decided to use the unsolved Ripper killings as a cover for his wife's murder.
Ida Ferguson was killed on January 12, 1912. That same year, Lucky Elliott, who had been dating Ferguson and was known to be horribly jealous, was tried and convicted of her murder after his bloody knife was found by Ida's body. As he was convicted almost entirely on circumstantial evidence, the penalty was set as life imprisonment. Elliott's attorneys appealed his sentence to the Supreme Court but a new trial was denied.
Pearl Williams had her throat slashed on Friday, January 19, 1912, and her body discovered the following day in the middle of a vacant lot at the corner of Chestnut and West Fair. She had been on her way to her home on West Fair around 7 p.m., a block away from where she was murdered. Pearl had quarreled with a black man in the days before her murder. Presenting himself as an old acquaintance at the home where she worked, he was overheard stating that she had promised to marry him and if she did not, she would not marry anyone. Police arrested Frank Harvey the day after Pearl's murder; he was seen with her prior to her death (it's unknown if he was the man she quarreled with), was in possession of a large knife and had small bloodstains on his shirt. The following day, another suspect was arrested - 17-year-old Edgar Evans, who was picked up on Peters Street. Nothing else is known about Williams' murder or the arrests of Harvey and Evans.
Pearl Williams had her throat slashed on Friday, January 19, 1912, and her body discovered the following day in the middle of a vacant lot at the corner of Chestnut and West Fair. She had been on her way to her home on West Fair around 7 p.m., a block away from where she was murdered. Pearl had quarreled with a black man in the days before her murder. Presenting himself as an old acquaintance at the home where she worked, he was overheard stating that she had promised to marry him and if she did not, she would not marry anyone. Police arrested Frank Harvey the day after Pearl's murder; he was seen with her prior to her death (it's unknown if he was the man she quarreled with), was in possession of a large knife and had small bloodstains on his shirt. The following day, another suspect was arrested - 17-year-old Edgar Evans, who was picked up on Peters Street. Nothing else is known about Williams' murder or the arrests of Harvey and Evans.
Alacy Owens was murdered on February 15, 1912 but her husband, Charley, was arrested in short order, although the evidence against him was circumstantial. His first trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted after the second trial in late April of 1912 and given a life sentence. Interestingly, most newspaper accounts of the time reported that he had been sentenced for one of the "so-called Ripper murders committed in Atlanta during the last 18 months," without specifying it was that of his wife.
Victims Outside of Atlanta
On March 28, 1913, The Augusta Chronicle reported that Otto Pague, a young white man, had been attacked around 1 a.m. on Broad Street in August, some 145 miles to the east of Atlanta. Pague had thrown his arm up to ward off the knife blow, which had laid his cheek open rather than his throat. He had reportedly lost three quarts of blood before he was found unconscious and rushed to a doctor, where he was stitched up. Once he regained consciousness, Pague told police he and a friend had been walking down Broad Street when he was attacked from behind by a black male who had lain in wait.
The Chronicle article mentions that a black woman by the name of Hattie Parkman had been attacked and nearly knifed to death only days prior to the attack on Pague.
On December 14, 1913, the Chronicle reported another attack, this time on 29-year-old Thomas Gordon, a black male, who had been found by a police officer near death around 1 a.m. on Marbury Street. Gordon died shortly after being placed on an operating table at Lamar Hospital, without making any statement on who had attacked him. Despite this, the paper asserted that the police considered the murder a matter of revenge.
On Wednesday, February 11, 1914, the body of 17-year-old Zeulla Crowell was fished out of the Chattahoochee River in Columbus after the girl had been missing for three weeks. Her skull had been fractured in three places by a blunt instrument.
Problems with the Coroner
Although not publicized for obvious reasons, the coroner, Paul Donehoo, was legally blind. While he had attended the Atlanta Law School and graduated in 1911, he never obtained a formal degree in medicine. Most coroners make their findings by visual inspection; in Donehoo's case, he had to rely on the verbal and written descriptions of others who may or may not have tainted views, missed evidence, or not understood what they were seeing.
To further complicate matters, Donehoo had stated unequivocally that the killings were the work of a single killer - which could have led the police officers and detectives to tunnel vision and attempt to connect cases that weren't actually connected.
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| (photo source: JTR Forums) |
The Role of the Media and Race
When the killings commenced in Atlanta, the media was fairly silent on them because the victims weren't white. Even after it was obvious that the city had a killer on its hands, the reports were often buried in the back sections and seemed little more than titillation for the publication's readers. The victims were often described as "negresses," "mulattos," and "octoroons." Even when The Atlanta Journal ran a headline questioning whether there was "a black butcher" in their midst in June of 1911, the article itself was a paltry four paragraphs. Four paragraphs, when some of the city's population was under siege by a human predator or predators.
Racism, sadly, was still alive and well in Atlanta and it was reflected in media's attitude and somewhat ambivalent reporting on the case. Even when the murder of Lena Sharpe and attack on Emma Lou Sharpe was recounted in the press, it was mentioned that "the problem of help is becoming serious." In other words, it wasn't just an emergency that women were being killed; it was also an emergency that the wealthier (i.e., and white) residents of the area were losing their help.
The same article also reported that the "murder of Negroes by Negroes are frequent enough on Saturday nights" when whiskey was flowing freely. And while it is true that copious consumption of alcohol can certainly lead to altercations, the reporting made it appear that these kinds of crimes, in the poorer areas, was to be expected.
In July of 1911, following the murder of Mary Yeldell, it was the black churches that put together a reward for information on the killer. It was also the black community that demanded that the Atlanta Police Department find black detectives to solve the case, whether it be because they felt the white officers were not giving a hundred percent because the victims were black or because they felt black detectives might winnow out more information in the black community.
Afterword
Despite the black community requesting the local police to assign black detectives to the case, there was outrage that only black men had been arrested for the murders. There were accusations that these arrests reeked of racism; surely, white men were capable of murder, too.
However, in looking at the facts and considering the era in which these murders took place, the Atlanta Ripper was almost certainly a black male - and there was more than one killer. Even when not considering Emma Lou Sharpe's description of the man who stabbed her and most certainly killed her mother, it would have been difficult for a white man to move so freely and relatively unnoticed through black neighborhoods. Once the killings started, any unknown person, and especially a Caucasian, would have been met with wary glances or outright defense. Since the Ripper was able to continue to kill undetected, even after the city was on alert, he was almost definitely a black man.
The location of the bodies, nearly always found by a railroad track or something to do with the railroad, had to have meaning. It's possible that the Ripper worked for the railroad and didn't stray far from the area he was familiar with. As the trains would run in and out of Atlanta, usually on the weekends, it's also possible that the Ripper was not an Atlanta resident at all but simply came into town with the train. His schedule may have changed, which resulted in the murders going from Saturday nights to the beginning of the week.
Almost certainly the Atlanta Ripper's motive is much the same as England's Jack the Ripper: a deep and abiding hatred, and possibly fear, of women. Black women could have been chosen simply because they were easier for him to approach, due to segregation at the time. As many of them were also biracial, he could also have had a prejudice and hatred toward them.
The police were in a no-win situation. Oftentimes they arrived at the crime scene, or body dump site, after dozens of others had trudged through the area to view the body, potentially moving or destroying evidence. With each subsequent murder, patrols were beefed up but since the Ripper seemingly had no particular pattern for how he chose his victims and then struck, the PD was at a serious disadvantage. When they did make an arrest, they were met with criticism and accused of making those arrests because they were racist. Even the Atlanta Constitution, which had devoted little space in reporting the crimes, chastised the police department for its inability to solve the very crimes they seemed reluctant to give wide berth to. Atlanta's mayor also got into the act, throwing shade on the police by claiming he couldn't understand why they were "unable to cope with the situation." It seems like the anger that should have been directed at the killer was instead projected to the police department.
To date, the Atlanta Ripper cases remain unsolved.
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| (photo source: American Hauntings) |
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