The Servant Girl Annihilator

Austin, TX 1885 - A fiendish killer stalks the night, cleaving the skulls of women with his axe and dragging them from their beds into a darkness filled with knives and terror. As the nation's first serial killer, this guy inspired some poetic prose. Also, we dive into the toe-curling history of the Texas prison system.

Sources:

• Hollandsworth, Skip (4/5/2016). Esquire.com, How Police Failed to Find America's First Serial Killer.
• Henley, Lauren & Dell'Omo, Augusta. 15 Minute History, Episode 102: The "Servant Girl Annihilator". Liberal Arts Development Studio. 1/17/2018
• Psencik, Katey (11/7/2014). Kvue.com, The Servant Girl Annihilator: Austin's oldest unsolved murder case.
• Vatomsky, Sonya (4/25/2017). Mentalfloss.com, How the 'Servant Girl Annihilator' Terrorized 1880s Austin.
• Bueche, Shelley (10/10/2018) The horrifying history of Austin's infamous Servant Girl Annihilator
• ServantGirlMurders.com
• Citydata.com, Austin, TX crime statistics
• Walker, Donald R. TSHAonline.org, Convict Lease System.
• Texas State Library And Archives Commission, TSL.Texas.gov. Fear, Force, and Leather - The Texas Prison System's First Hundred Years, 1848-1948
• Ariens, Michael. (2011) Lone Star Law: A Legal History of Texas. Lubbock, TX. Texas Tech University Press.