The Midnight Assassin

Is it possible that Jack the Ripper spoke with a Texas twang? Hollandsworth, an executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine, revisits a largely forgotten period in American history when the city of Austin, TX, was rocked by a series of brutal murders, most involving young black servant girls. In the mid-1880s, as Austin was in the middle of an incredible growth spurt and proclaiming itself as one of the best cities to live in the United States, horribly mutilated women's bodies were being found. Vigilantes began roaming the streets and virtually every African American male was suspect. The city seemed on the verge of a bloody race riot and newspapers nationwide were filled with blaring headlines about "ghouls," "fiends," and "blood-thirsty monsters." And then the killings stopped. A few years later, the Ripper murders took place in London and some considered the possibility that the Austin killer had moved to a new location. Narrator Clint Jordan does an outstanding job of keeping this suspenseful real-life thriller going to the last chapter.