Servant Girl Annihilator

The Servant Girl Annihilator is the given name of a notorious serial killer or killers who terrorized Austin, Texas between 1884 and 1885.

It is thought that at least seven women, mostly servant girls, died at the hands of the killer, who typically dragged his victims from their beds and raped them before slashing or axing them to death. Several victims were stabbed by thin spike in the ears or the face. His first victim was Mollie Smith on New Year’s Eve, 1884.

Many people were arrested for the crimes, but none was convicted. The last killings were a year after the first, ending with the murder of two wealthy white women Eula Phillips and Sue Hancock in downtown Austin on December 24, 1885.

The crimes represented the first recorded serial killer in the US, three years before Jack the Ripper wreaked a far better-known series of crimes on London. Some have even attempted to prove that the Annihilator and Jack the Ripper were one and the same.