Prior to the Jack the Ripper murders, a similar case in Austin, Texas, beginning in 1884 and culminating in 1886, occurred. Some thought the two incidents were connected.

It started with scare tactics. During one of the first incidents a ghostly man appeared at the foot of the bed of a potential victim, then disappeared. During ensuing events the culprit attacked various maids sometimes hitting them over the head, at other times shooting through the window. A Swedish girl was hit in the back by a bullet, missing vital organs. But then the attacks got more gruesome. Molly Smith, a cook and maid, was hacked to death with an axe, but her paramour, Walter Spencer, survived. The authorities concentrated their investigators on the black population, until two white socialites were murdered with an hour of each other.

An insane asylum existed outside Austin, with a building for the criminally insane. Author Skip Hollandsworth devotes a chapter to the progressive treatment of the inmates. For instance a wall was torn down and replaced by a four foot barrier. The inmates were treated humanely for that time in American history when most insane asylums were horror shows. But Hollandsworth and the police didn't seem to think it was worth the effort to talk to the supervisor until about a hundred pages into the book. The authorities were convinced it was a black man or a black gang committing the atrocities, and several were hauled in for questioning. But all had alibis or there was no evidence.

In my opinion Hollandworth spends too much time trying to make a connection between Austin and Jack the Ripper. For instance one of the Jack the Ripper suspects attended the New Orleans Exhibition at the same time as the attacks and murders.

There is one very intriguing clue. The killer went barefoot. The police had a bloody footprint they used to eliminate or confirm suspects. Nobody matched. Hollansworth offers up some intriguing suspects that I would have have pursued had I been the police. One was a fifteen year old boy who later killed his wife and family. There's another connection. He found the axe that dispatched Mrs. Hancock, one of the socialites. Hollandsworth eliminates him because family members insisted he was an upstanding young man prior to the death of his father. Another likely suspect is the son-in-law of Dr. Ashley Denton the supervisor of the insane asylum who was abruptly committed to a nearby sanitarium. Hollandsworth never clearly explains why Dr. Givens was never a serious suspect.

Hollandsworth does an excellent job describing the Austin of the 1880's. It was a city on the rise. The University of Texas was built there as was a new capital building and a fancy three-story hotel. Electric lights were a new convenience in 1880. After the socialites were murdered the residents were afraid to go to bed at night. The city invested thousands to purchase arc lights, a few of which still exist to this day.

Gradually the murders were forgotten. The reason they're not well-known is because the city and the people made a concerted effort to make sure they were never mentioned, not even in historical accounts. No one was ever convicted of the murders, although twelve men, mostly blacks, were pegged as suspects.  

Dave Schwinghammer's Fargo-esque murder mystery/ghost story, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available on Authorsden.com and at Amazon.com new and used. Thank you for your consideration.