The Atlanta Ripper

Summary

Morbid Podcast: The Atlanta Ripper

Hosts: Ash Kelley & Alaina Urquhart
Date: December 15, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Ash and Alaina dive into the disturbing, largely forgotten story of the Atlanta Ripper—a serial killer (or possibly killers) who terrorized Atlanta’s Black community in the early 20th century, brutally murdering dozens of Black women. The hosts interweave serious research with their signature levity, contextualizing the murders within Atlanta’s post-Civil War racial tensions and the impact of media and police neglect. This is a heavy episode, rich in social history and loss, but told with Morbid’s trademark candor and camaraderie.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Atlanta After the Civil War

• Migration and Resentment:

  • Black populations in Atlanta increased rapidly post-war (from under 10k to 35k by 1900) due to new opportunities and the rise of rich Black enclaves like Sweet Auburn (16:03–16:34).
  • Racial tensions remained high—culminating in the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, when thousands of white men and boys killed or terrorized Black Atlantans after local papers lied about assaults by Black men (17:48–19:38).

• Impact:

  • After the massacre, any hope of racial integration was obliterated, generating profound community trauma (20:23–20:39).

2. Media Sensationalism and Systemic Neglect

• The “Ripper” Moniker:
  • The idea borrowed heavily from Jack the Ripper hysteria, with the term "Ripper" applied whenever brutal, unsolved murders occurred, often ignoring crucial differences or context (13:05 onward, 29:32–29:56).
  • White-owned Atlanta newspapers frequently minimized, ignored, or mischaracterized the killings of Black women, rarely naming victims or offering follow-up (33:01–33:32).
  • Only when the killings drew the attention of national outlets (e.g., New York Times) did Atlanta’s own press and police feel pressure to act (41:23–42:02).

3. Chronology and Details of the Murders

• Early Cases:

  • Della Reed (1909) and several others were early possible victims. Many had varying causes of death, some shot, some bludgeoned, not all fitting the eventual Ripper pattern (27:23–29:56).

• Canonical Victims:

  • The first murder generally attributed to the Atlanta Ripper: Rosa Trice, Jan 26, 1911—bludgeoned, throat slashed (30:31–30:47).
  • Subsequent victims included Mary Bell Walker, Addie Watts, Lizzie Watkins, each found with skulls crushed and throats slashed, often after leaving work at night (31:56, 32:36, 36:49).

• Eyewitness Breakthrough – Emma Lou Sharp:

  • On July 2, 1911, Emma Lou Sharp survived a vicious attack that killed her mother, Lena Sharp. She described her assailant as a “well-dressed Black man…giant, well over six feet in height, tremendous breadth of shoulders and exceptionally strong and sinewy arms.” (39:04)
  • “Don’t be afraid. I never hurt girls like you,” the killer told Emma Lou—right before stabbing and slashing her violently (37:57–38:06).

• Patterns and Shifting MO:

  • Most victims attacked Saturday nights after work, suggesting a killer’s structured routine (43:06–43:20).
  • In later attacks, the killer sometimes took victims’ shoes, a detail that remains unexplained (45:47, 69:41).

4. Law Enforcement and Racism

• Lack of Police Action:

  • Police and newspapers either ignored or intentionally downplayed the danger to Atlanta’s Black community, contributing to the killer’s ability to operate for years (32:38–34:52).
  • Investigations often saw “strong circumstantial evidence” against various Black men—Henry Huff, Todd Henderson, Lawton Brown—but all were eventually acquitted; the killings continued while they were in custody (47:14–53:01, 63:01–66:19).

• Blaming Victims, Not Police:

  • Police blamed the Black community for not helping to solve the crimes:
    • "We won't get to the bottom of this thing until we get some help from the... black community... These murders are being committed among the lower class... ignorant, brutal beasts that know nothing else." —Unnamed Detective (56:20)
  • Ash's reaction: “I really hope that guy choked and died.” (57:02)

• Community Action:

  • The Black community was proactive, warning women, raising reward money, and holding mass meetings, while the city’s leadership and police failed them (58:36–59:19).

5. Unsolved Status and Legacy

• Too Many Murders, Too Little Evidence:

  • Over two dozen murders ultimately ascribed to the Ripper, but by the mid-1910s, evidence was so thin and definitions so vague that most could never be conclusively solved (67:02–67:56).

• Press and Police Conveniently Assigning Blame:

  • The Ripper legend grew to absorb many unrelated deaths—sometimes actually committed by abusive husbands or boyfriends, not a serial killer, muddying the waters further (63:01–68:11).

• Enduring Mystery:

  • Despite public outrage and eyewitnesses like Emma Lou, the racial prejudices and institutional failures of the time meant the case remains unsolved. Most of Atlanta’s murdered Black women never received justice or even recognition.
  • “Because of people's lack of humanity, this case isn't solved.” —Ash (70:05)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Era’s Racism and Violence:

  • “Anything that's labeled a massacre should horrify you.” —Alaina (17:47)
  • “One unnamed detective told reporters: 'We won't get to the bottom of this thing until we get some help from the black community… ignorant, brutal beasts that know nothing else.'” —Alaina [reading] (56:20)
  • “Not only is that the most racist thing ever, but also he's literally saying… we can’t solve this because the citizens who are being terrorized are not solving it for us.” —Alaina (57:05)
  • “How sad is it that they couldn't even have faith in their police force?... Do you want me to take a crack at it?” —Ash (55:20)

• Brutality of the Crimes:

  • “Her throat had been slashed. It severed the jugular vein.” —Elena, describing Rosa Trice (30:36)
  • “As Emma Lou slumped to the ground… she watched… as this man went back to her mother… and started slashing at her before finally slashing the knife across her throat from one side to the other several times.” —Alaina (38:05)

• Emma Lou’s Eyewitness Account:

  • "Don't be afraid. I never hurt girls like you." —Attacker, via Emma Lou (37:57)
  • “According to Emma Lou, the killer was a 'well dressed black man…well over six feet in height, tremendous breadth of shoulders and exceptionally strong and sinewy arms.'” —Alaina (39:04)

• On Police Incompetence:

  • “In their rush to show…progress…Atlanta's police arrested two men who vaguely matched the description…held them both for the same crimes…just shove them in front of a jury and…you guys decide who did it, A or B. Which is like, that's literally your job.” —Alaina (51:58)

• Harsh Realities:

  • “That goes what? Same way. Hello?” —Ash, mocking police logic (57:44)
  • “Because of people's lack of humanity, this case isn't solved.” —Ash (70:05)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------|---------------| | 11:26 | Content begins: Episode’s case, trigger warnings | | 13:05 | Jack the Ripper context / Atlanta’s “Ripper” | | 16:02 | Atlanta’s post-war growth/racial climate | | 17:48–20:39 | 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre | | 29:32 | Origins of the “Ripper” moniker, early cases | | 31:56 | Mary Bell Walker’s murder & victimization pattern | | 36:49 | Lizzie Watkins & press’s weak response | | 37:13 | Emma Lou Sharp’s attack: eyewitness account | | 41:23–42:02 | National media attention, pressure on police | | 43:06 | Saturday night murder pattern | | 47:14 | Arrests of suspects based on “circumstantial” evidence | | 51:58–53:16 | Police’s bungled, performative arrests | | 54:52 | Near-fatal attack on Ellen Maddox details | | 56:20 | Police blame the Black community for the crimes | | 58:36–59:19 | Black community’s response, city’s deflection | | 63:01–66:19 | Lawton Brown’s flawed confession, acquittal, confusion on “canonical” victims | | 67:02–68:11 | Press/police expand Ripper category, legacy of confusion | | 70:05 | Reflection on racism as cause for lack of justice |

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Tone & Noteworthy Moments

• Hosts’ Banter:
  • The episode opens and closes with relatable, humorous banter about their personal lives and running gags, but the body is focused and compassionate, especially regarding victims (02:15–11:26, 70:25 onward).
  • Despite the grave subject, Alaina and Ash manage to keep moments of brisk energy and empathy, acknowledging their own discomfort while persistently refocusing on the historical and social failures that doomed the case.
  • Occasional lightness (“I think you guys are suspicious.” —Ash, 47:21) contrasts with harsh reality, but never trivializes the victims or broader issues.

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Final Reflections

• The Atlanta Ripper case remains a tragic testament to the fatal consequences of racism and institutional neglect.
• With dozens of brutal, linked murders and surviving witnesses, this case could have been solved with better police work and genuine care for Black lives.
• The legacy of these unsolved murders lingers, a ghost of what might have been if communities had been valued equally.
• As Alaina puts it: “We don’t know who committed those murders, and which ones are even the work of the same person…It’s a result from zero effort being put into any of these cases.” (68:29–70:05)

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Random Fun Fact (Levity Break)

• Did you know? The word LEGO is derived from the Danish “leg godt” (play well), and in Latin can mean “putting together.” (70:59)

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Highly recommended for true crime aficionados interested in the intersection of race, media, and justice in America’s past. The episode is both sobering and engaging, capturing the injustices of the era with compassion and insight.

Transcript

[Ash]

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[Elena]

Hey weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash and this is Morbid.

[Ash]

My name's kind of like onomatopoeia. Do you know what I mean? Ash?

[Elena]

Ash it is a little bit.

[Ash]

Can't you hear that?

[Elena]

My kids love that word. I know.

[Ash]

I was playing hide and go seek with one of them the other day and we were hiding in a cloth closet and she just kept going on the monopia on the monopoeia and I was like shut the up.

[Elena]

You're gonna get us, get us caught.

[Ash]

And then the other kids just like stopped seeking us yeah.

[Elena]

That they do that a lot. Yeah. Playing. Playing hide and seek with my children is really a risk that you. You take.

[Ash]

You know, also, one of them is so good that it's, like, dangerous, actually, because I'm like, we may never find her.

[Elena]

Yeah. There's times when I'm like, I should put a little. Little jingle bell apple air tag on.

[Ash]

Her so that I'm going, cat, you're going, mom.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

I'm like, oh, jingle bell.

[Elena]

A little jingle bell on her.

[Ash]

We can also lay out a saucer of milk for her, like, or we.

[Elena]

Could just give her her little bracelet with the apple air tag on it.

[Ash]

Oh, also, speaking of cats, thank you so much, everybody, for helping me with the tips about, like, ceramic bowls and all that for feline acne. We do all of that, and he still has feline acne.

[Elena]

He's just got really persistent acne.

[Ash]

And now he's on prednisone and ointment.

[Elena]

And liquids and all that stuff.

[Ash]

It's really great. It's awesome. She showed me a clip from the office this morning.

[Elena]

She was explaining that she was like, you know, and now Remy needs, like, this ointment twice a day, and he's on this and he's on that. And I immediately thought of the part in the office where Angela has Dwight go to, like, you know, take care of her cat, Sparkles. And she's like. She just. She's like, well, he's diabetic, so you have to roll the insulin. Don't shake it, and you have to put the ointment at the base of. And then Dwight just, like, murders the cat.

[Ash]

Yeah. That's crazy.

[Elena]

I immediately thought about it, and I had to show her the clip because that's just who I am as a person.

[Ash]

And honestly, that's who I am.

[Elena]

I'm Angela.

[Ash]

Also, you're going to hear two old episodes on Christmas. Like, we're rerunning Elena's favorite episodes the week of Christmas. In one of those episodes, you'll hear me say that I don't like cats. I need to remind all of us that people grow, and I don't want to hear it. Okay? I just needed to get that out.

[Elena]

It's true. It's fine.

[Ash]

I'm gonna get so many messages like, hey, you, one time you said you hated cats, and now you have three. Do you hurt them?

[Elena]

Yeah, that is precisely what's going to happen. And I don't. It's just that.

[Ash]

Do you know how much money I spent for them to shave Remy's chin and give me all kinds of ointments and prednisone. They shaved my cat's chin.

[Elena]

She's become that person that sits there and says, let me just show you a couple pictures of my cats. So she loves those cats.

[Ash]

Yeah, I love them so much. That's what I mean.

[Elena]

Like, don't you become that person since then, this. That episode. Yeah. You could message me.

[Ash]

Nice stuff, but don't. Don't be like, oh, my God.

[Elena]

Yeah, just don't. Don't get mad at me.

[Ash]

You probably will still, but I just wanted to.

[Elena]

Some people will, but you know.

[Ash]

And you know what? Listener.

[Elena]

Weirdo.

[Ash]

Listening. It's not you.

[Elena]

It's not you. You. You know, it's not you. It's not you.

[Ash]

You know, you're not the problem. It's not you.

[Elena]

You're not the problem. It's not. But there are problems, and it's not.

[Ash]

You, and you're not them.

[Elena]

You listening right now. Whatever you are, you are not the problem.

[Ash]

Unless it's one of you.

[Elena]

Unless you are the problem.

[Ash]

Anyway, I just really wanted to get that all out. What's up with you, Red?

[Elena]

Big Red? What is up with you, Big Red?

[Ash]

It's almost your fucking birthday.

[Elena]

It is almost my birthday.

[Ash]

I know what we're doing, and I.

[Elena]

Have no idea what we're doing. This is fun. It's a fun thing.

[Ash]

I'm drunk on Pala.

[Elena]

I'm drunk on Pala. And you know what? And it's the end of the year. I always, like. I always loved the end of the year. Cause I love a fresh slate. Yeah, I agree. And I think there's a lot of cool stuff that's happening next year.

[Ash]

Yeah, there is fun stuff happening next year.

[Elena]

That's really good stuff. I mean, January pops off with another ghost concert. So I am. Oh, when are you going for this? It's at the end of January.

[Ash]

Oh, damn. But, yeah, okay, I'll be there.

[Elena]

I love that in Connecticut. Hell, yeah, Connecticut. Cannot wait. Let's go. Deb is coming to this one, which I'm really excited. Her first ghost concert.

[Ash]

I cannot wait to see photos of that night. I'm gonna die. She's purely video of Deborah.

[Elena]

Deb. Deborah is a real one because she's like, well, you love ghosts so much, and I've heard some of their songs, and I like them.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

So I want to go because you love it so much, and I want to go where you love things.

[Ash]

Deb is a quintessential best friend.

[Elena]

She really Is. Yes. Like just out About Deb. Deb, she rides hard. She does. And so that's gonna be fun. And then there's a bunch of other really cool stuff.

[Ash]

There's so much fun stuff.

[Elena]

Some things we really can't say right now, but there's cool stuff.

[Ash]

But you'll see.

[Elena]

And speaking of awesome stuff, did you see our fucking awesome billboard in Times motherfucking Square?

[Ash]

A giant billboard that Sirius was so nice. And they paused the billboard for us.

[Elena]

They paused it for five minutes so we could take pictures.

[Ash]

We never had that experience in the past.

[Elena]

Never been offered that.

[Ash]

We just had to watch it flick by really quick and we were like, hey, it's so cool that we have one, but. Oh, where'd it go?

[Elena]

Yeah, wait another 45 minutes.

[Ash]

We got to experience.

[Elena]

We got to literally sit there, like, look at it, stare at it, take picies, really take in the moment. It. It like, was such a different experience, cuz you got to like take in the entirety of it. Yeah, it was. And with Sam and Colby. Yes. So that was fun.

[Ash]

No, it was really fun. And that was just really cool of them to do. We love being at Sirius. We do.

[Elena]

It's been so lovely. And that was just great. So we hope you guys dug that episode. If you haven't listened to it yet, make sure you watch Sam and Colby's video of our investigation and then listen to our episode for the debrief. It's like a really fun little, you know, meal and dessert platter.

[Ash]

Yeah, it's like. It's like going to watch a movie at the Lux level.

[Elena]

Yeah, there you go. Just serving it up, you know.

[Ash]

Remember that? I haven't done that in a long time.

[Elena]

I haven't either, actually, because I haven't been to like, the actual movie theater. No.

[Ash]

I think the last time I was at the movie theater, I saw Wicked at like the old Wicked. I still haven't seen Part two.

[Elena]

Oh, yeah, I'm a little wicked out. I didn't want to say it because I'm always that person. That's okay.

[Ash]

I'll say. I think it's an incredible like. And I've never seen the play. I want to see the play.

[Elena]

Oh, sorry.

[Ash]

So I don't even know what happens in Part two, but I just need a minute.

[Elena]

Yeah, I think that. Yeah, I just. I think I just needed a minute. But you know, my kids love it, so I think it brings me to a little better of a place with it. But yeah, it really was all encompassing for a while.

[Ash]

It Just became like it was the zeitgeist for a while.

[Elena]

Yeah. Like the press tour.

[Ash]

It was crazy.

[Elena]

Was a lot. And you thought you could get away with it, but you go scrolling on TikTok and it's like your entire TikTok feed if you just say the word wicked, which I don't know if you guys know, but we live in Massachusetts, and we use the word wicked all.

[Ash]

The fucking time, 100 times a day.

[Elena]

That was wicked bad. That was wicked scary. I'm wicked, man. Yeah, exactly. And every time you say it, your phone is like, oh, wicked. You want to see wicked videos?

[Ash]

You want to talk to Ariana? You want to talk to Cynthia?

[Elena]

Like. Like. I don't. I'm sorry. Not right now.

[Ash]

Right now I'm tired.

[Elena]

Tired. Okay.

[Ash]

And then all I could hear, which is, like, the most incredible note. But I'm jealous. I can't do. Is.

[Elena]

That note how she is.

[Ash]

I'm not taking away from the talent because the talent is, like, unmatched, and I love it.

[Elena]

It's just. I. It was just. I think it's a lot all at once. Sometimes it's the marketing.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

That can get to be too much sometimes. They don't know when to stop. But. But I. I'm not going to be.

[Ash]

Able to avoid spoilers for a long time, so I do need to go.

[Elena]

See the second part because I want to hear your thoughts. Yeah. Because we've seen. John and I have seen the musical a bunch of times. We both love it. And then we took the girls to see it, like, a couple years ago.

[Ash]

And they keep almost ruining it for me. And then they're like, oh, wait, tt hasn't seen it.

[Elena]

TT hasn't seen it.

[Ash]

They, like, catch themselves live. I'm like, I'm actually very impressed with your. Really? To hold that back.

[Elena]

They hold back spoilers. They do. But, yeah. The Cynthia Erivo's note in Defying Gravity. I remember going into this thinking, like, I'm a little scared because I'm just, like, really partial to Idina Menzel hitting that note. Adele. Can anyone hit it? Like, Adele Dazeem. I don't.

[Ash]

And Cynthia Revo literally said, hold my beer.

[Elena]

And she said, I can.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And I said, respect. She said, watch this immediately.

[Ash]

I. I just have to.

[Elena]

I just saw you being like that. Her no good deed is by far the most amazing thing in the world. Like, see? And we haven't seen it.

[Ash]

I don't even know what that means.

[Elena]

Well, we're gonna know what it is. So no good Deed killed it, apparently.

[Ash]

Let's go.

[Elena]

We'll watch it after this. Don't worry about it. No, we're gonna watch it, but Cynthia Riva's voice is insane. All right, so I think we should get into this story. It's massive trigger warning for this story. Lots of racism just abound here. It's a rough one, but it's an important story to tell because it's also unsolved. Oh. And even though it is from the early 1900s, I think it's. I don't think anything.

[Ash]

Not the 1900s.

[Elena]

Not to hear. I know.

[Ash]

You just sounded like a young.

[Elena]

A young. No, this is like 1906. So it's actually like 1900s. Yeah, it's. We're talking about the Atlanta Ripper case.

[Ash]

I've heard of this case, but I don't know all the details.

[Elena]

It's. I truly believe. Just like the Jack the Ripper case, which we will mention in this a lot, because it really kind of came off the back of that. Oh, I think it can be solved.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

I really don't think that any case is, like, fully out of the realm of being solved. It's just how you approach it, I feel. There's always something. It's always one little, like, string to.

[Ash]

Pull, and technology is crazy.

[Elena]

Exactly. And in this one in particular, I'm going to be quoting, like, a lot of investigators who were wildly racist, and I'm going to be quoting a lot of newspapers which were racist, and they use language which I will not be using. Good. Because I am a white person who does not use that language. So I will change that language so that I don't have to say something that is completely inappropriate and something that does not align with my love beliefs. So just so you know that. So I'll tell you. I'll say, like, here they said something gnarly, but I'm going to say this. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, just. So the context is there, because I don't want to erase the fact that this was wildly racist.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

But I'm just not going to say certain words because. Icky. But yeah. So, yeah, just trigger warning. All of that is in here. It's a rough one. All right, so in 1888. Let's go back there for a minute. That's a familiar year.

[Ash]

Yep.

[Elena]

1888. Jack the Ripper. Remember that guy?

[Ash]

I do.

[Elena]

He terrorized the Whitechapel neighborhood of London's East End.

[Ash]

He did.

[Elena]

We've talked about him a few times. He honestly introduced the idea kind of to the world of a human who kills out of a compulsive need and won't stop until they're either caught or die. The Ripper killings in Whitechapel ended by the close of 1988. It was a pretty quick spree, but the concept of, like, a Ripper killer has lived on and on.

[Ash]

Yeah, we've covered a few.

[Elena]

Yeah. And for more than a century, has at various times been attributed to unidentified killers who commit, like, really brutal, gruesome murders.

[Ash]

They.

[Elena]

They tend to get the Ripper moniker. I get.

[Ash]

I'm thinking of the Chicago Ripper.

[Elena]

Exactly. Like, there's always those that pop. During the second decade of the 20th century, an unidentified serial killer was believed to have operated in Atlanta, Georgia, over here in the US brutally killing at least 20 black women. Now, due to the similarities between the Whitechapel victims and the victims in Atlanta, the Georgia press dubbed their killer the Atlanta Ripper, an anonymous monster whose presence literally held the city's black population in a grip of fear. For a period of roughly five years, the Atlanta Ripper killed with regularity on the city streets, slashing, mutilating, and otherwise brutalizing the bodies of the women that they killed, despite having at least six viable suspects. Wow. Investigators were never able to conclusively identify who the Atlanta Ripper was. And the murders are solved. Yeah. And the city at this point was boiling over with racial tensions and civil war resentment, even. Because that's the time period we're in.

[Ash]

Oh, yeah.

[Elena]

The Atlanta Ripper became also kind of a convenient scapegoat for domestic violence and racially motivated murders. Yeah. Which may have undermined investigators abilities to solve the crimes. At the time, there was just so much shit going on.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

And so much racism. Now in the wake of the American civil War, the reconstruction effort across the American south was focused largely on the cities which had been completely devastated to near completion by the union army. Nearing the war's end. In Georgia, a lot of the state's reconstruction was focusing on rebuilding Atlanta in particular. It was the largest city in the state. It had been kind of the economic and social hub. They wanted to get that back on track.

[Ash]

I was so hoping you'd say the word hub. I love hub.

[Elena]

It is a hub. You know, I like when things are hubs.

[Ash]

I love being a hub.

[Elena]

It feels good. Yeah, I like being a hub.

[Ash]

I'm not a hub. Well, maybe I am a hub for something.

[Elena]

Maybe you're a hub.

[Ash]

I don't really. I don't want to be a hub.

[Elena]

You're a Hub. For emotional support.

[Ash]

My God.

[Elena]

Thanks for me, Hub.

[Ash]

This morning, Elena told me I can't die because she wouldn't go on. And I said, that's a lot of pressure.

[Elena]

I said, you literally, like, don't take risks. Like, be. Be safe. Yeah, exactly.

[Ash]

I said, no risks.

[Elena]

No risks. So the economic shift from agricultural work to industrial and intellectual labor meant that anyone needing steady employment, which included the large number of now newly freed enslaved people, migrated to cities in search of work. This migration led to major increases in city populations, and in Atlanta alone, the population of black citizens rose from less than 10,000 just after the war to around 35,000 by 1900.

[Ash]

That's actually insane.

[Elena]

Significant growth. So this huge increase of black atlantans were. Was directly related to the educational and economic opportunities that simply couldn't be found elsewhere. But a secondary thing that made this migration happen was the community and social networks that arose from the population increase. By the end of the 19th century, black enclaves like sweet auburn and the west end had become like havens for black businesses, academics, and activists that would become very essential to the civil rights movement of the early to mid 20th century. So this all kind of led to further growth and further progress. Despite this progress and stability, though, Atlanta, like a lot of southern regions, would remain mostly segregated for many decades after the civil war, and resentment was still a regular part of life. Yeah. The tension between black advancement and white resentment for that came to a head in 1906 when an event known as the atlanta race massacre laid bare the disparity between black and white existence in atlanta. I mean, anything that's labeled a massacre.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Should horrify you. Hoping to capitalize on the growing fears of, you know, what was being touted as black on white crime at the time, a number of atlanta newspapers, which I've already preface people up, published articles in the fall of 1906 that magnified or simply made the up examples of black residents attacking white residents. Just lies.

[Ash]

That's nice.

[Elena]

On September 22, two Atlanta newspapers published articles claiming that four white women had been sexually assaulted by black men. Now, we've seen this happen before. Nope. Causing the racial tensions to simply boil over. This is something I'm sure you're thinking. Emmett till. Yep. And by the way, later, that was already known to be a complete fucking lie.

[Ash]

Yup.

[Elena]

Like, that kid was brutalized, tortured, and murdered for no other reason besides him being a little black boy. Yup. At the end, like, period. So this should already make your senses go up, especially in this time period and in this place.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

So following that publication, white men and boys began assembling in mobs across Atlanta with estimates ranging between 10,000 to 15,000 of them patrolling the streets. That many white men. These. I'm saying these angry mobs besieged black neighborhoods. Like all these enclaves I just talked about destroying black owned businesses, attacking black men at random, pulling them from streetcars, chasing them down the street. By the end of the night on September 22nd, this is horrifying. The end of the night, an estimated 25 to 30 black men had been killed by these mobs, with countless others terrorized or injured just because of these articles.

[Ash]

It's, like, unthinkable. And the fact that it wasn't even true.

[Elena]

Yeah. Makes it a million times. Or that's the thing. They had, like. No, like, some of these things were.

[Ash]

I'm sure they were conflated.

[Elena]

I was going to say they were either exaggerated or made up of these articles. Like, they ranged in that. Despite the governor having mobilized state troops to quell the chaos, with local police and fire departments supporting their efforts, the violence continued into the next day, finally coming to an end on September 25, a few days later. It's unknown how many black Atlantans died during the massacre, but for many among the community, the violence obliterated any hope that they could successfully integrate with or be welcomed by their white neighbors. Like, this was clear. Absolutely. At this point. Like, this is not happening.

[Ash]

And it's like, you don't fucking want.

[Elena]

To at that point. How can you ever trust that this would never happen again? Right. And some left the city bound for safer locations at this point around the US and others just retreated into those enclaves that they had already built a community in.

[Ash]

Yeah, like safe havens.

[Elena]

Yeah. So the shocking displays of racism, cruelty, and violence of the 1906 massacre left the majority of black Atlantans in a constant state of hypervigilance. At this point, they were fearful for their safety. Safety for their friends, their neighbors, their families. But it also affirmed the feeling that a lot had about what was going on here, that there was two separate Atlantas here. And this literal and figurative segregation would become a pretty critical piece of the Atlanta Ripper murders and the new south as it moved into the 21st century. In the late 19th century, as Americans were struggling with this, like, post war, just like, racial tensions and violence and just like uncertainty and resentment and, yeah, shittiness. Things were.

[Ash]

Things weren't solved.

[Elena]

No, they were not. They weren't solved. They weren't solid. They weren't feeling Good news of a vicious killer in London was now making its way to the States. We know, Jack. The shocking crimes of Jack the Ripper started dominating the American headlines too. And by the early 1900s, Jack the Ripper had become kind of a household name. And the concept was looming pretty large in the minds of a lot of people. A lot of readers were fascinated by this mystery or just terrified by the brutality of the whole thing. And it's unlikely that many of them recognized the role that like class stratification and racial tensions were gonna have in this whole thing. Yeah, but Jack the Ripper's victims were believed to be like, we know, sex workers. That was their occupation. And believed to be what people called women of very low social status.

[Ash]

Yeah, that was the big class thing.

[Elena]

Women that I'm sure Jack the Ripper assumed would be missed by very few people. And it's a population of women who were frequently victimized and rarely saw justice out of it. And in simple terms, one of the reasons that Jack the Ripper's identity still remains a mystery to this day.

[Ash]

It is still a fucking mystery. Don't get her started.

[Elena]

Don't get me started.

[Ash]

Don't send her that article that said they solved it. They did not.

[Elena]

And she will stay talking to you.

[Ash]

About mitochondrial DNA for seven years.

[Elena]

It's true. I will.

[Ash]

And that's not a bad thing.

[Elena]

No, it's not. But go back to the Tobias Forge episode when we talk about Skeleta and.

[Ash]

Or the ELISA one or the Kelly one.

[Elena]

We put it in there too.

[Ash]

Either one of those. Go to both of them. Specifically the ELISA one that we just did. The Jack harbor stuff was fascinating.

[Elena]

It's true. So there you go. If you want to know more about that.

[Ash]

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[Elena]

But the reason why it still remains a mystery.

[Ash]

To this day and is unsolved is.

[Elena]

Kind of similar to what Atlanta was going through. He existed in two separate Londons, one for the wealthy middle class and one for the poor and destitute. The fact that his victims were from a lower social class, that was not an accident. It's not like he just wandered in there and was like, well, I'll just do this. Yeah. They were likely chosen because, among other things, it was unlikely that London police would work very hard to solve the murders. Right.

[Ash]

Because they consider that a quote unquote, high risk job.

[Elena]

Yeah. And they are less than. And it's a major factor in this case, the Atlanta Ripper case as well. Yeah.

[Ash]

It sounds like it would be.

[Elena]

Because violence against black men and women had become such a common occurrence in Atlanta following the 1906 massacre. It's actually difficult to pinpoint exactly when these Ripper murders began. Some believe it began with the murder of 29 year old Della Reed on April 5, 1909.

[Ash]

Such a pretty name. Della. Della Reed.

[Elena]

Isn't that like. It just. It's pretty.

[Ash]

It flows.

[Elena]

Yeah. Della's brutalized body was found in a trash pile. That's a trash pile on Rankin Street. She died from what is only known. Known and, like, recorded as a pulmonary hemorrhage. Okay, so they don't, like, they don't know exactly what occurred that led up to this, but she was in a trash pile. Like, she was clearly killed.

[Ash]

You also have to wonder how much effort was put into finding your actual cause of death.

[Elena]

Now, a few months later, in September, the body of an unidentified, still to this day, black woman was discovered in Peachtree Creek, also murdered. By the end of the year, the murders had picked up in frequency. Bodies were being discovered at a rate of1.1 per month at least. Wow. In the weeks and months that followed, more bodies were discovered. Estella Baldwin was discovered in March dead from a, quote, concussion of the brain. In April, it was Georgia Brown. She was shot by an unknown assailant. The next day, it was Maddie Smith, also shot by someone unknown. The following month, the bodies of Lavinia Austin, Frances Lamkin and Eliza Griggs were all found within days of one another. Wow. All shot to death.

[Ash]

Oh, these are all very different causes of death.

[Elena]

It sounds like, that's a lot of them. So all of them, or all of them except the first. Estella Baldwin and Della Reed have at least gunshot wounds. Yeah. Della Reed, we don't know.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Because it's pulmonary hemorrhage, so I have no idea. And again, this is from 1906, like 1909. So it's not that advanced. Yeah. And we have Estella Baldwin, who is dead from a concussion of the brain, which to me sounds like blunt force trauma. So we have some different. And also, none of these also go with the Ripper moniker.

[Ash]

Exactly.

[Elena]

Because usually that's when we think of a Ripper and we think of, like, stabbing and mutilation. Mutilation. So again, like, you just pointed out the differences in the manner of deaths here. It's pretty unlikely that all these were done by the same person, but they're attributed a lot of times to this.

[Ash]

Interesting.

[Elena]

But with the 1906 massacre so fresh in everyone's memories, the frequency and brutality with which black women were killed in the streets of Atlanta only contributed to the apprehension and terror felt throughout the entire community. Also, the legend of Jack the Ripper was just continuing to permeate the United States media. And the similarities in, you know, like, gender and manner of death and, like, the victim profiles were what led a lot of people to think this is a Ripper killer. Okay, so the first murder that's, like, really attributed like those. Those first ones that I mentioned are, like, sometimes attributed. This one's like, the one that's generally attributed to the Atlanta Ripper is 35 year old Rosa Trice. Her body was discovered a short distance from her home on January 26, 1911. Her body was found near the Southern Railway tracks. Her head had been beaten badly with a blunt instrument fracturing her skull and jawbone.

[Ash]

Oh, God.

[Elena]

And her throat had been slashed. It was. It severed the jugular vein.

[Ash]

Oh, fuck.

[Elena]

Police arrested Rosa's husband John for the murder, but he was released a few days later when investigators and the coroner's inquest failed to find any evidence connecting him to his wife's murder.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Now, less than a month later, on February 19, the Ripper had killed again. This next victim was a young black woman whose throat was cut and her skull was bashed in as well. Same exact thing. The discovery of another body in the woods having suffered the exact same wounds as the first victim seemed evidence that this might be the start of something. Yeah. But after the second body was found, no new murders were found in March and April. So it seemed like. Okay, Those happened very quickly, but maybe that was just a coincidence. But on the morning of May 28, the body of Mary Bell Walker was discovered on Garibaldi Street. Mary had left the home of her employer the evening before after a long day of work. But she never arrived home that night. The next morning, when her sister realized that she hadn't returned, she set out to look for her. But she didn't have to look far. Mary's body was discovered in an unused field just 25 yards from her home. 25 yards. That's not very far at all. Her throat had been cut with what the press described as, quote, a jagged edge.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

But there was no additional clues as to who killed her. A coroner's inquest was held the next day, but without any evidence or information about her death, nothing really came of it.

[Ash]

That's so sad.

[Elena]

Investigators and community members barely had time to react or even respond to Mary Bell Walker's death. When the killer had struck again. On June 15, the body of Addie Watts was discovered by the Southern Railway. Her skull was bashed in first with a brick them with a railroad coupling pin. Oh, my God. And her throat was deeply slashed. As in many of the other cases, two local men were arrested for the murder, but both were let go a short time later because there was just lack of evidence connecting them to the crime.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Now, it's important to note that despite several murders that could be attributed to the same killer, the Atlanta press was. And again, at this time of high racial tensions, white owned, white controlled, they had yet to address the murders in any meaningful way.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

Despite the fact that, like, it seems like this is a serial killer.

[Ash]

Shocking from where we sit today, but, like, sadly not shocking for the taste of it.

[Elena]

Exactly. No. And in fact, while the deaths were clearly described and investigated as murders, the papers rarely gave more than a few lines to the stories, offered little or no follow up, and in some cases, didn't even bother to find out the name of the victim.

[Ash]

Are you kidding me?

[Elena]

Yep.

[Ash]

These women had their lit, like, their.

[Elena]

Throats literally slashed open, skulls bashed in.

[Ash]

And you can't even bother to print their name. And, like, respect.

[Elena]

Now, while the concept of a serial killer was still not quite defined at all in the minds of most Americans.

[Ash]

It took a long time for that to happen.

[Elena]

Thanks to Jack the Ripper, the public had come to understand that it was entirely possible for one person to be responsible for seemingly random murders. Like, that was becoming a thing that people were like, oh, yeah. But throughout late 1910 and 1911. Few, if any, public figures or institutions had voiced any concern that such a thing could be happening in Atlanta's black community, despite the fact that it clearly was.

[Ash]

And it's like, not only are you not respecting these women who lost their lives in such a brutal manner, you're also not paying any regard for this community to, like, be on the lookout.

[Elena]

And be vigilant and be safe, and.

[Ash]

You know what I mean?

[Elena]

Yeah. That's the thing.

[Ash]

That's your responsibility, literally.

[Elena]

And that's all they need is some like to be informed. But they don't.

[Ash]

People didn't want that. Yeah, they don't want. They don't want people to be on the lookout.

[Elena]

Nope. Because they want them to be safe. Horrifying.

[Ash]

It's a horrifying concept.

[Elena]

Now, the failure of the press to fully acknowledge the alarming rate of murder in Atlanta is not only one of the reasons the killing spree went on for so long, but also one of the reasons why the Atlanta Ripper case. Case is still pretty unknown to this day. Not just the killer, the case itself is pretty.

[Ash]

It's a name that I've heard before for sure, but I really don't know.

[Elena]

A lot about it. It's really here today, kind of like one of those that just under the.

[Ash]

Rug, which is crazy. You've only told me a few of the killings so far, and it's like. And it's so awful.

[Elena]

But just one day after Addie Watts's murder, the Atlanta Journal finally wrote about the alarming trend and the potential for having a serial killer. They didn't call it that in their midst, the Journal article states, on account of the number of recent murders of. They say something different. Black women, quote, police advance the theory that Atlanta has an insane criminal. Something on the order of the famed Jack the Ripper, which also. The famed Jack the Ripper. Have you ever heard of the term infamous? Notorious?

[Ash]

Like what?

[Elena]

Like famed. That gives him, like, spotlight. Despite this, other newspapers, however, remained less thorough in their coverage. According to Jeffrey Wells, the Journal's main competition, the Atlanta Constitution, quote, still reported the death of Watts, as it had the other murders, as isolated incidents with no connection and certainly no mention of a serial killer.

[Ash]

It's, like, weird that we mentioned the exact same thing last week and the week before that and the week before that.

[Elena]

Yeah, and it's the same same manner of death. So the noticeable discrepancy between how the papers covered the murders continued a few weeks later when the body of Lizzie Watkins was discovered in the brush at the corner of White and Lawson Streets on June 27. She was killed the same exact way as the other victims. According to Wells, The Atlanta Journal, quote, gave front page attention to the city's newest arch criminal, going so far as to begin examining the similarities between the murders. The Atlanta Constitution, on the other hand, continued their trend of sparse coverage. And he said only this time and managed to add its own spin, citing that it was certain the death was the result of alcohol or drugs.

[Ash]

Her throat.

[Elena]

I'm sorry. Yeah. And what is this? So all of them. Oh, okay. Okay.

[Ash]

For sure.

[Elena]

While many among the press and police had speculated that the murders were committed by a killer similar to Jack the Ripper, there had yet to be any evidence or witness that could tie the cases together, which is hard. This changed on July 2, when the Ripper struck again, but left an eyewitness.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

On the Evening of the second, 40 year old Lena Sharp and her 20 year old daughter, Em. Emma Lou.

[Ash]

Shut the up. I love a double name like that.

[Elena]

So cute, Emma. Really cute. They left their home for the market to do some shopping together. As they made their way back home, a man stepped out from the bushes on Seaboard Avenue, not far from the Sharp house. The man greeted the two women, and before they could respond, he raised a brick high above his head and brought it down hard on Lena's skull, dropping her to the ground.

[Ash]

And she's with her daughter?

[Elena]

Yep. Emma Lou attempted to run, making it only a few steps before she was grabbed from behind. And he said, don't be afraid. I never hurt girls like you.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

Before driving a knife deeply into her back and slashing at her wildly.

[Ash]

What the.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Emma Lou.

[Elena]

Emma Lou.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

As Emma Lou slumped to the ground, bleeding profusely now from these wounds, she watched helplessly as this man went back to her mother, who was laying unconscious on the ground a few feet away, and started slashing at her before finally slashing the knife across her throat from one side to the other several. Several times.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

The man then went back to Emma Lou, intending to kill her as well, but then heard the sound of running footsteps and he hovered over her for several seconds and then ran off into the darkness. And people came to Emma Lou's rescue.

[Ash]

That is the scariest I've ever heard.

[Elena]

And for him to say, don't be afraid. I never hurt girls like you. And before stabbing and slashing her like what? What the. The.

[Ash]

That isn't.

[Elena]

I don't even know. I don't even know now. Emma Lou Sharp suffered very serious Injuries and required multiple surgeries, but she was still able to give police a description of her attacker.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

According to Emma Lou, the killer was a, quote, well dressed black man who she described as a, quote, giant. Well over six feet in height. Wow. With tremendous breadth of shoulders and exceptionally strong and sinewy arms. Sinew, that's like a, like, fibrous tissue that connects, like bone to bone or muscle to bone. It's like fibers. Okay. So I think, like. I don't know if she means gangly or like. Yeah. So the. An article in the Atlanta Journal noted, while the ordinary. And I won't say that murder attracts little attention, the police department was upon the alert last night, doubtfully expecting a repetition of the long series of crimes which have baffled every effort of the detectives. Okay.

[Ash]

Now, these newspaper headlines are insane.

[Elena]

They're wild.

[Ash]

Like.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

While the regular murder of a black person isn't cause for alarm.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

All right. Yeah. Now, Lena Sharp's murder and Emma Lou's description of the killer finally only gave Atlanta investigators something to work with in their investigation, with one detective declaring it's the work of the same man. And there seems to be little doubt that the fellow has tried a double crime on a single night. Which also is a little Jack the Rippery. It is the double event, except with Jack the ripper, it wasn't really planned. I won't go into it. I don't think it was planned. I think it was. He fucked up and then he had to satisfy. Yeah, he's a completionist.

[Ash]

I think that's a widely held belief.

[Elena]

I think so, too. But while the latest attack seemed to confirm the suspicions of many that it was the same man, it also elevated the story in the eyes of the press. Right. The Atlanta journal expanded their coverage, and even their rivals, the Atlanta Constitution, who seemed to suck at all this, could no longer ignore the story. But that wasn't all. News of the killer had also begun to spread to other states. A few days later, papers from as far away as New York were reporting on, quote, Atlanta's Jack the ripper, Noting the inability of local investigators to stop the murders and the toll it was taking on the city's black community. The New York Times reported tonight there are a few black women on the street, and black cooks and housemaids are refusing to work after dark in cases where they have any distance to go to their homes afterwards. So while the national press coverage had an undeniably racist tone. Yup. It cemented two important things in the public's eye. First, that there was a, quote, madman as methodical and cunning as Jack the Ripper operating in Atlanta's black community. And second, that investigators seemed either uninterested or completely incapable of doing literally anything to stop it. Yeah. And in truth, the murders were hardly ingenious or cunning. Like that's. They're not like. Like Jack the Ripper is not ingenious or he's pretty cunning. Like in pretty quick and pretty like does it under the COVID of darkness and all that. This really wasn't that.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Atlanta's white police force didn't prioritize solving violent crimes when they were committed against non white people. That's just the way it is. Fortunately, the expanded press coverage did put some pressure on investigators, though, to the extent that a serious effort was mounted to identify and catch the killer before he could kill again. Okay. Not because they felt like it was like morally something that they should do, but because they felt pressure from. Now the national press. Right. Kind of roasting them for it. Unfortunately, he would take several more lives before this killing spree came to an end. Within a few days, investigators had developed a basic profile for the man they believed to be the killer, but were careful not to attribute all the women killed in Atlanta that year to the Ripper. Coroner Paul Donahue told reporters, while a number of black women have been killed in the city, the work of the Ripper seems unmistakable. According to Paul, a peculiarity.

[Ash]

So he's so hard to say.

[Elena]

It's so hard to say concerning the crimes is that all of his victims have met their deaths on a Saturday night.

[Ash]

Night. Interesting.

[Elena]

Which is a clue. Absolutely. Leading police to believe it was only a matter of days before the killer struck again. Okay. That should also give you a little bit of a clue. Like he's working during the week. Yep. He works on these days. Like maybe he doesn't.

[Ash]

You know, he's doing something on Sundays.

[Elena]

He can't do these things. Investigators theory that the killer only took victims on Saturday held true, at least for the short term. On Saturday, July 8, Mary Yeldell left the home of her employer, Wm. Selker, around 8:30pm and headed home after a very long day of work. Mary had only went about a block or so when she heard a whistle as she passed by a dark alley. And stopping to see who was trying to get her attention, she watched as a, quote, large, well built black man, which is exactly the description from the last one, emerged from the darkness and walked towards her. Mary screamed and ran back to her employer's Home, where she told her employer what happened. Selker grabbed his revolver and ran to the spot where Mary had seen the man and was just surprised to find that the man was still standing in the alley. Oh. So he raised his pistol and demanded that this guy raise his hands. But instead, the man quickly turned and, quote, ran like a flash down the alley and into the vacant lot, where Selker lost sight of him.

[Ash]

That's so freaky.

[Elena]

He was just standing there waiting and.

[Ash]

Ran like a flash.

[Elena]

Yeah. When he returned to his house, Selker phoned the police, and both he and Mary gave descriptions of her would be assailant, who investigators believe was the same man responsible for the other deaths.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

It's also like, of note, like, these women, a lot of them are just coming home from, like, a long fucking day of work.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

They're exhausted and they're running into this fucker. Like, that sucks.

[Ash]

It does. It's awful.

[Elena]

If the killer had been following some compulsion to kill on Saturdays, or if there was a reason he killed on Saturdays, he ignored that. In the case of the next victim, I also wonder if he started to realize he was possibly released somehow or leaked that he only killed on Saturdays. And he said, well, I have to switch that up. On the morning of Tuesday, July 11, Will Broglan was on his way to work as a laborer when he came upon what appeared to be signs of a considerable scuffle having taken place sometime earlier. There were deep drag marks in the soft dirt. So he followed the marks and eventually discovered the body of Sadie Holly. Like the others, Sadie's skull had been crushed with a large rock, and her throat was sliced from one side to the other. Unlike the others, though, it looked like the killer had taken Sadie's shoes. What? Which is, like, a strange little side quest. Had he?

[Ash]

Or, like, had somebody else, perhaps. You know what I mean?

[Elena]

Since her body was. Yeah.

[Ash]

Out there, maybe somebody needed shoes.

[Elena]

Maybe was being weird. Perhaps. Maybe he took him, though. Now, the discovery of yet another body so soon after the attempted attack on Mary Yeldo set off alarms not only within Atlanta's black community, but within the other populations as well. Having already begun covering the story, now finally, like, in earnest, the press started tracing the murders back and discovered that the Ripper killings likely began for far earlier than anyone had previously thought. Oh, at least as far back as Rosa Trice's murder in January, because, remember, before, they weren't even considering them. Also, the realization prompted a new round of outrage from Atlantans, all wanting to know why the murders hadn't been connected until now, and demanding to know what the police were gonna fucking do about it. One reporter wrote, the police department has nothing to say in explanation of its inability thus far to cope with the situation. Yikes. In the meantime, the black community are holding mass meetings and are appealing to the governor, the mayor, and the law loving citizens to help them in capturing the guilty party. So they're doing the work, of course, basically. Now, given the newly applied pressure and all the growing outrage that was happening, it's likely no coincidence that just one day after Sadie Holly's murder, police arrested 27 year old Henry Huffman.

[Ash]

Just out of nowhere. They're like, oh my God. Found him.

[Elena]

Yeah. And held him as a, quote, suspicious character in the death of Holly.

[Ash]

Look, I think you guys are suspicious.

[Elena]

I think so too. Now, according to investigators, there was, quote, strong circumstantial evidence against Huff, including the fact that he was known to have a romantic relationship with Sadie, had been seen with her on the night of her murder, was seen late that evening wearing bloody clothes and had a wound on his head which he claimed to have received in a pool room fight.

[Ash]

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[Elena]

Won'T make you panic.

[Ash]

We're talking way less than the other brands charge. So if you have a fashionist on your list, Quint is the place to go. If I'm on your list, Quint is the place to go. I'm a big, big fan of the Mongolian cashmere sweaters and I also love to pair them with the silk skirts. You do a little tie in the sweater, a little silk skirt, little boot. Oh, good to go. And you pair that with a jacket. Honey, you're living. You're gorgeous, you're beautiful. Find gifts so good that you'll want to keep them with quince. Go to quince.commorbid for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.commorbid to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.commorbid struggling to see up close make.

[Elena]

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[Ash]

Learn [e-mail] this show is sponsored by BetterHelp. The holidays are coming up and that is a stressful time of year. You have to balance family expectations. Sometimes you're traveling. Traveling is always stressful and especially now. Honey, you're just trying to make everything perfect and that's a lot of pressure. It can be super easy to forget to take care of yourself in between all of that, but that's why BetterHelp is encouraging you to rewrite your traditions this season by making time for you. Incorporating therapy into your new or even your existing traditions can help you slow down and take care of yourself during what can be a joyful but sometimes hectic and lonely time of year. The holidays look really different for everybody. Maybe it's baking your aunt's sweet potato pie or starting something new like a quiet night in with friends. Therapy can be one of those new traditions too. Better Help gives you space to pause, reflect and feel more grounded. They match you with a licensed therapist based on your goals, your preferences, and if it's not the right fit, don't worry, you can switch therapists at any time. With over 30, 000 therapists and more than 5 million people served, BetterHelp helps people close the year with clarity instead of chaos. This December, start a new tradition by taking care of you. Our listeners get 10 off at betterhelp.com morbid that's betterhelp H-E-L-P.com morbid.

[Elena]

Now despite their certainty that Huff was Sadie's killer, just one day later, police arrested Todd Henderson on suspicion of being the Atlanta Ripper. Okay, Like Huff, Todd Henderson was also black and vaguely fit the description of the killer as given by Emma Loose Sharp and investigators claim to have, quote, strong circumstantial evidence connecting him to the crimes. Okay, in his statement to the press, Sgt. Lanford told reporters while he believes Henderson to be the Ripper and guilty of several murders, if not all of the crimes attributed to attributed to the fiend, he nonetheless found the evidence against Huff so compelling that he, quote, thought best to have him before the jury as well. So, like, just pick so in simple terms, in their rush to show that, like hey, Nope. We got it. We're not. We. We got it. We know who it is. We've been working on this. We are not incapable. We are not. Not caring about this. Like, here we go. We got it. Progress. In the rush to do that, Atlanta's police arrested two men who vaguely matched the description of the killer and held them both for the same crimes. Determining it was best to just. Just shove them in front of a jury and be like, you guys decide who did it, A or B. Which is like, that's literally your job. Yeah, that's literally your job.

[Ash]

Yeah. You can't put that on the jury.

[Elena]

So for a time, the residents of Atlanta breathed easy, believing that the Ripper's killing spree had come to an end.

[Ash]

Too simple.

[Elena]

Maybe one of these guys did it.

[Ash]

Too simple.

[Elena]

In fact, following Sadie's murder in July, there was a six week stretch of times that there was no murders.

[Ash]

That's actually a pretty long time.

[Elena]

Which did lead many to believe that whether it was tough or Henderson, the real killer, had been caught, one of them was it. Huff was indicted by a grand jury in early August for the murder of Sadie Holly. With investigators announcing, quote, at least one of the Ripper crimes is no longer a mystery. For the evidence against Henry Huff is so conclusive that there is no doubt that he will be convicted of the murder of Sadie Holly.

[Ash]

That's a bit of a stretch. I'm like, I think we have circumstantial evidence, but.

[Elena]

And unfortunately, the jury didn't agree with that. The evidence against Hough was all that compelling.

[Ash]

I'm actually surprised.

[Elena]

And he was eventually acquitted. That's murder.

[Ash]

But I'm actually truly shocked by that.

[Elena]

Now, ultimately, Henry Huff would be one of several black men arrested on, quote, strong circumstantial evidence that they were the Atlanta Ripper.

[Ash]

That was apparently not so strong.

[Elena]

Others included Todd Henderson, John Daniel, and Bud Wise, all of whom bore a slight resemblance to the man who attacked Emma, but otherwise had no connection to the murders and despite investigators strong belief in their guilt, would eventually be acquitted or simply released.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

As in the case of Henry Huff, the timing of the arrests and indictments of the other suspects comes after the public outcry over law enforcement's complete inability to catch the killer.

[Ash]

Makes sense.

[Elena]

It's possible that one or more of these arrests could have satiated the public demand for action had the killings not continued while Huff and the other suspects were in custody.

[Ash]

That does present a problem.

[Elena]

That presents a problem. On the morning of August 31, nearly seven weeks since the last ripper victim was discovered. The body of 20 year old Mary Ann Duncan was discovered by the railroad tracks just outside of Atlanta in a community known as blantown. Like Sadie, Holly Duncan's shoes had been removed and were nowhere to be found. Her throat had been slit from one side to the other. And a month later, Ellen Maddox, a cook for a family in Inman park, was walking home from work when she was struck from behind with a blunt object. She lived. Okay. The next day, the papers reported on the assault saying, quote, she was attacked from behind, her head almost crushed and her face beat out of all resemblance to a human being. Oh, wow. And she lived. She was rushed to the hospital, and despite the severity of her injuries, which were described right there, she was able to give a statement to police, but she never saw her assailant. Assailant. Okay. Maddox, it turned out, was lucky. Before the end of the year, the bodies of Ava Florence, Minnie Wise, and Mary Putnam would also be discovered in locations across atlanta, all under the same circumstances. Head beaten, throat slashed, all of it.

[Ash]

So it sounds like he comes up from behind to throw you off.

[Elena]

He takes them by surprise, then goes. By late 1911, public outcry over the continued failure of law enforcement to catch or even identify the actual killer, as opposed to very convenient scapegoats that they were trying to shoehorn in here, had reached a fever pitch. As the public continued to put pressure on the city government, Letters from concerned citizens began arriving at city hall with offers to help catch the ripper.

[Ash]

How sad is it that they couldn't even have faith in their police force? And they were like, yeah, hey, do you want me to take a. Take a crack at it?

[Elena]

Literally, the implication is that, well, investigators don't have the ability to. So why don't I help since you.

[Ash]

Guys can't step aside?

[Elena]

In response, mayor cortland wynn published in an editorial in the city paper to say, among other things, Atlanta is known throughout the country as one of the most law abiding cities of its size in the United States. And its police and detective departments are second to none, according to wells leaders. And this is why, according to wells, leaders in the black community used this time to renew their calls for help and for the hiring of black detectives to assist in bringing the murderers.

[Ash]

Because maybe black detectives would care.

[Elena]

Yeah. For their part, investigators deflected responsibility and directed their anger at the black community.

[Ash]

For wanting it to be solved.

[Elena]

They made strange and even racist comments to reporters suggesting black residents were somehow responsible for catching the killer.

[Ash]

Are you kidding me?

[Elena]

One unnamed. Which convenient. One unnamed detective told reporters in late November 1911. We won't get to the bottom of this thing until we get some help from the. He said something else, but I'll say black community. Oh, honey. Yeah. Name them. He said these murders are being committed among the lower class of. He said something else. I'll say black people, the detective insisted, quote, ignorant, brutal beasts that know nothing else. Their acquaintances are afraid to talk. But if there were a little money slipped to them, we could find out invaluable clues, and I wager we would land the murders.

[Ash]

This isn't something I say often, but I really hope that guy choked and died.

[Elena]

I also hope he choked.

[Ash]

Cool.

[Elena]

Choke.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

That. Not only is that the most racist thing ever, but also he's literally saying the only reason we. The literal detectives whose job description and paycheck is because we're supposed to be solving these y. We can't solve this because the citizens who are being terrorized are not solving it for us. That's literally what they're saying, babe. He's saying the community that is being terrorized.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Isn't solving it. Yeah. So we can't solve it. Well, you know, that's on them.

[Ash]

Yeah. When white people are killed, we're also expected to solve the. The murders.

[Elena]

Of course. Yeah. Of course.

[Ash]

That goes what?

[Elena]

Same way.

[Ash]

Hello?

[Elena]

Like, what now? Overt.

[Ash]

What a douchebag.

[Elena]

Overt and wildly explicit and egregious racism aside, there's something uniquely reprehensible about blaming victims for the violence perpetrated against them and implying they are also to blame for allowing the killings to continue. Yeah.

[Ash]

Like, you guys should have stopped this like this. We're busy. The level.

[Elena]

Levels of depravity. Yeah. On the investigation side of this, and also on, like, murder side and investigation side, the levels of depravity are no. No bounds.

[Ash]

It just makes me wonder, like, how people can be so gross.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And suck so much. Like, I'm like, how are you such a hateful.

[Elena]

That's it.

[Ash]

How are you so people. And how do you not realize how.

[Elena]

Much you suck now, not surprisingly, the implication was entirely untrue. In fact, even before the press or law enforcement had identified the murders as likely being the work of the same killer, Atlanta's black community had activated already and were working together to warn of the dangers posed to women on the streets. I'm sure following Mayor Wynn's editorial defending the police, leaders in the black community intensified their efforts to protect themselves and their families. And community advocating for better protections, Raising money that could be offered as a reward for information leading to an arrest, like actually doing the physical work.

[Ash]

How sad that they had to do that because nobody else.

[Elena]

Nobody else would.

[Ash]

They probably would have done it anyways, because.

[Elena]

But they literally had community. One announcement read, stay indoors and your lives will be saved. For venturing out at night. Moans only to invite this monster's ravages.

[Ash]

But how sad is that, though, because so many people had to work into.

[Elena]

The night and then go home. And they were saying, like, stay at work.

[Ash]

Yeah, people have guilty families.

[Elena]

And now, by January 1912, the Atlanta Press was reporting that at least 15 women had been killed by the ripper.

[Ash]

Wow.

[Elena]

Yet investigators were no closer to catching this person than they were one year earlier when Rosa Trice's body was discovered. Worse yet, the murders continued almost as though they were on schedule, really. In January, the body of Pearl Williams was discovered in a field adjacent to Chestnut and Westfair streets just a few blocks from her home. That seems to be another thing. And what the Atlanta constitution said was dead from a ghastly wound in her throat. Police arrested a man named Frank Harvey for the murder based on his having known the victim, having been discovered wearing clothes with blood blood on them and as having a, quote, sharp potato knife on him when he was arrested. It's unclear what became of him.

[Ash]

Huh.

[Elena]

Because he doesn't appear to have been convicted of William's death. And nothing really came out of it.

[Ash]

Disappears. It's very strange that so many people were walking home with blood on their clothes.

[Elena]

Yeah, that is a little weird.

[Ash]

I do hate that.

[Elena]

That is a little weird. On February 17, the body of 17 year old Alice Owens was discovered in a gully not far from the city limits. Her throat was cut. Her body was mutilated. Alice's husband Charlie was quickly arrested for the murder. And despite insisting he was innocent, he was convicted of his wife's murder and sentenced to a life term in a chain gang. Whoa. Now it's here that the story of the Atlanta Ripper becomes more, like, nebulous.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

This is when it gets like a little like, it has like a mythical quality to it at this point. Oh. Because in early April, the body of 18 year old Mary Cates was discovered in a field just beyond the city limits as well, the Atlanta Journal said, murdered and mutilated after a hard struggle. Mary's throat had been cut. Her clothes were ripped to shreds from the killer, and the killer had, quote, mutilated her body about the breast and below the waist, which is very Jack the Ripper. Yep. In their description of the murder, the press added yet another detail to the increasingly again, mythical description of the killer, noting that, quote, the mutilation of the girl's body was evidently done with a surgical instrument, which. And the Slayer had some anatomical knowledge as one of the organs was deftly removed.

[Ash]

Interesting.

[Elena]

Yeah. Now, in the months that followed, other bodies of young black women were discovered, some bearing similarity to the earlier Ripper victims, while others were a little less obvious to match up with the Ripper's preferred victim profile.

[Ash]

That last murder feels so disconnected from.

[Elena]

It's literally Jack the Ripper.

[Ash]

Yeah. Whereas the other ones, like, there's blunt force trauma, there's jagged line.

[Elena]

Usually it's trauma to the head. Throat cut. Right. And some. And maybe, like, stabs and slashes, right? Yeah.

[Ash]

But not, like surgical level cuts.

[Elena]

Yeah. Very strange. That's weird. That's why it takes on a little bit of.

[Ash]

You're like, that's not the same person.

[Elena]

Is that like, what. And also, as time passed, other bodies were discovered outside of Atlanta that bore the hallmarks of the Ripper and many that didn't. Okay. Like, after a bit of time, the press began ascribing the Ripper moniker to unsolved murders of young black women outside of Atlanta. Regardless of whether there was any evidence or any kind of, like, similarities to the early Ripper ones. Like, it just kind of all got thrown into one pot.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

You know, just liberally ascribing blame to an increasingly mythical and kind of legendary killer at this point became a problem for investigators when they did make an arrest in one of the cases in the summer of 1912. In August, police arrested Lawton Brown for the murder of Eva Florence, one of the victims that was assigned to the ripper in late 1911. The arrest was based largely on his having known the victim and his wife's statement that he'd been out on the night of the murder. Okay. And she'd discover him burning some of his clothes the next morning.

[Ash]

That's suspicious.

[Elena]

Pretty suspicious. After a lengthy interrogation, Brown confessed to the murder of Florence. According to Brown, he, quote, he Knew Florence had $3 and 50 cents and that he killed her for the money. Okay. While it's entirely plausible that Brown did kill Florence for the money that he believed she possessed, the more he spoke to investigators, the more questionable his confession probably should have become. In addition to confessing to Florence's murder, he claimed to have witnessed the murders of several other Ripper Victims not as the killer or a participant, but as a spectator who was, quote, merely passing by in chance to see the crimes. What? Which. What.

[Ash]

How would you even know that they were happening?

[Elena]

With each day that passed, he offered new information about his knowledge of the Ripper murders. But rather than becoming increasingly skeptical of the veracity of these claims, which they should have been, investigators who were very eager to close this case interpreted his statements as further evidence of his guilt. Okay. In fact, despite a city physician declaring Brown, quote, undoubtedly insane.

[Ash]

Sounded like it.

[Elena]

Detectives quickly set about building their case against him and enthusiastically declared they had, quote, gathered evidence which indicates strongly that Brown is the Jack the Ripper for whom the entire police department has been searching for an entire year.

[Ash]

I don't know.

[Elena]

And remember, he's saying that most of these he just happened upon while they were happening.

[Ash]

Right.

[Elena]

Like, what are the odds of that? Like, come on.

[Ash]

Pretty low.

[Elena]

The majority of the case against Lawton Brown was based on a statement given to police by two women who both claimed to be his wife.

[Ash]

He's a philander.

[Elena]

One of them said, quote, that the whole time she had lived with him, she believed that he was the murderer, and it was a great relief to her that he was caught and was behind bars. Oh, wow.

[Ash]

I mean, that must have been absolutely terrifying.

[Elena]

Yeah. Brown offered nothing in response to the claims or how he was related to these two women at all, which investigators took as evidence of fact rather than evidence of mental illness.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

His trial began in October with investigators enthusiastically claiming they had caught the Ripper. And we were certain he was going to be convicted. But just as in the cases of Huff, Henderson and the others who were accused of being the Ripper, the jury saw Brown for what he was. A mentally ill man whose claims and confessions were clearly unreliable. Right. Also, the defense offered at least one witness who, quote, testified that Brown had been forced into a partial confession by police and that he was prone to hallucinations and would confess to almost anything out of pressure.

[Ash]

Oh, wow. That's so sad.

[Elena]

Yeah. After a lengthy trial, the jury deliberated a pretty short amount of time and acquitted Lawton Brown of the murder charges. Wow.

[Ash]

I did not see that going that way.

[Elena]

And the murders continued into the following year and would go on for nearly a decade. A decade before they slowly petered out by the 1920s. The problem was, though, was that the press and to a lesser extent, the police labeled, like what, Whatever they were labeling as a Ripper murder, it had become so vague and non specific. I don't know why I Couldn't say that. That by the mid teens it was impossible to know whether the murders were committed by the same man who terrorized Atlanta between 1911 and 1913, or whether maybe it was a few different people and these were not all connected. Like which ones were part of. Like Jack the Ripper has the canonical, you know.

[Ash]

Yes.

[Elena]

Series of murder. Of murders and that we can kind of rely on as being like, for sure.

[Ash]

And there's so much evidence linking.

[Elena]

Yeah, there's a lot of evidence linking. And some people even question a couple of those. You know what I mean? Like it happens. But this one didn't even. They had like a very loose, confusing set of canonical ones that they could attribute to him. Yeah. According to Wells, quote, there were some events that were attributed to what would become the Atlanta Ripper that ended up not being the work of the Atlanta Ripper and ended up being the work of disgruntled husbands and boyfriends. Oh. Which. Damn. Woof. In most cases, there was little to no evidence left behind in the more two, more than two dozen cases eventually ascribed to the Atlanta Ripper. In fact, the handful of suspects arrested and brought to trial for the crimes all were acquitted by white juries, which was wild for lack of evidence.

[Ash]

That actually is wild because I didn't.

[Elena]

Even think of the fact that it.

[Ash]

Was not necessarily a jury of their peers.

[Elena]

It was white juries lack of evidence, which is a remarkable occurrence given the racial tensions and just like what was going on in Atlanta at the time, because it tells you how little there.

[Ash]

Was when it's a common. Other stories have we heard where it's a jury of white people who are just like, yeah, they did it.

[Elena]

Yeah, they did it.

[Ash]

Sure, there's barely any evidence, but yeah.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So this is really, like you said, remarkable.

[Elena]

Very interesting. And to this day we don't know who committed those murders.

[Ash]

How sad is that?

[Elena]

And which ones are even the work of the same person.

[Ash]

Well, honestly, it's a result from zero effort being put into any of these cases.

[Elena]

Just hearing that one detective that summed it all up, how he talked about this, you're just like, got it.

[Ash]

And feeling. Feeling confident to talk to a reporter like that.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Really does show that the force's attitude at the time had to have been pretty similar.

[Elena]

Rancid and rancid. Yeah.

[Ash]

Like that's really sad because that could absolutely be a solved case. There was eyewitnesses.

[Elena]

That's the thing. Those eyewitnesses there definitely could have solved this. Yeah. And it seems to me like, it is a serial killer situation because as we know, serial killers, there are, like, certain tenants that seem to be ring true with them where, like, they usually don't kill outside of their race. Right. It happens. That is absolutely happened, but it's rare. And this seems like we could. This is a serial killer because it's like the same kind of victim profile that's happening here. You know, like.

[Ash]

Yeah, it's interesting. Black women and then like. Like the throat and the.

[Elena]

Yeah. The throat being slashed. Catch. Head. It seems like there's the same kind of. Of modus operandi that's happening here.

[Ash]

But then it is so strange that whoever this was, like, started taking the shoes.

[Elena]

I know. That's the other thing.

[Ash]

Two of the women that we talked.

[Elena]

About, if I remember. Yeah. Two that I could. That I could see.

[Ash]

Interesting.

[Elena]

Yeah. I don't know what that's about.

[Ash]

I think every murder that we talked about today is. Not necessarily.

[Elena]

No, I think there's definitely a few that we talked about that are totally.

[Ash]

Outside of, like, outliers. Yeah.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Wow. That's really, really awful that because of people's lack of humanity, this case isn't solved.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And I think it could be, you never know. Saying, you never know, maybe somebody will revisit it someday and find a little connection.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Like you said, that little thread you start to pull, you just start to unravel.

[Elena]

Exactly.

[Ash]

Wow, what a sad case.

[Elena]

I know.

[Ash]

Random fun.

[Elena]

Oh, random fun fact. Hold on. We need one for this one for sure.

[Ash]

Let's find a random fun fact. I hope you don't know this one.

[Elena]

I know you knew the last one.

[Ash]

What was it? Dinora.

[Elena]

Dan?

[Ash]

Durian.

[Elena]

Durian fruit.

[Ash]

Okay, but hold on, that's not the fact for today. Random fun fact. Jenner, a tour. Let's go. Oh, this is fun. The word LEGO is formed from the Danish word leg got, which means play well in English. In Latin, it means putting together.

[Elena]

Oh.

[Ash]

I always wondered if LEGO was like. Because it's all capital, so I wondered if it stood for something.

[Elena]

Yeah, you're right.

[Ash]

But it's just from a Danish word.

[Elena]

I love that. Fun. I think lego is like a. I think they. You. They use it very specifically. People who are very into Legos because we watched Lego Master with the girls. Wait, what do you mean they use it like, they use it almost like a verb.

[Ash]

Like, I'm legoing. Yeah.

[Elena]

Like, I think it's. There's a. There's a specific, like, terminology that they. That they use. Huh. I think I might be wrong. You guys can tell me if you're Lego, if you're Lego lovers. Yeah, Because I remember I. I, like, noticed it and I was like, oh, that's interesting.

[Ash]

That is interesting.

[Elena]

All right, so that's. That's a good one. Well, like that.

[Ash]

That's what I got for you today. So we hope you keep listening and.

[Elena]

We hope you keep it, but not.

[Ash]

So weird that you don't Lego some.

[Elena]

Legos and not be a racist Lego. Bye. Sa.

[Ash]

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