The Serial Killings of 1885
Sometimes an event so horrific takes place at a location that it makes an imprint, and no matter what occupies that space in future years, the home is never happy, or the business never really thrives.
Through time, the memory of the violent event is lost, but the residual energy that remains can be felt and effects us, though we don’t know why.
In certain nondescript locations in downtown Austin such as parking lots and parking garages where there were once neighborhoods, a residual energy shouts of blood spilled and justice unresolved.
From December 30 1884 until December 24 1885 six women, one girl and one man were brutally murdered. The murderer was never found. Except for old Texas newspapers on microfilm and the microfilm from out of town papers such as San Francisco and New York City, all recorded documentation of the murders was destroyed. Some person or persons systematically culled through all city documents and eliminated any reference to murders that put the relatively small town of Austin Texas on the map.
A Killer’s Profile – The Victims’ Connections
He was strong. In the early morning hours on the way to his victim’s house, he picked up a hand ax, easy to find in those days. He entered the bedroom, hit any possible witnesses on the head with the ax, then bludgeoned the victim in the head, dragged her outside, cut her face and raped her. After each murder, the city blood hounds arrived. Why the killings began, we can only guess. Why they stopped is just as much a mystery.
Following each slaying, someone was arrested. Whether they just looked guilty or had a tenuous relationship with the victim, it didn’t matter. The arrests gave Austin’s residents the impression that the local law enforcement was doing their job and handling the atrocities aggressively.
Each victim was a cook or related in some way to a cook. In the case of Mary Ramey, her mother was a cook. In the case of Mrs. Hancock, her daughter was a cook. Three instruments were used: an ax, a knife and a long thin steel or iron pin.
Twice the attacker would be seen. In both instances, it was by children, whom he never harmed. In fact, in the case of Elizabeth Shelly he changed his pattern to accommodate the presence of children. He did, though, kill Mary Ramey who was 11 years old. It is possible that she looked older for her age.
Austin would change irrevocably following this year of 1885. The reality of these senseless brutal murders would be for many years impressed upon this small town in Texas.
THE MURDERS
December 30,1884 – Mollie Smith
The murder of Mollie Smith took place on Wednesday morning, December 30, 1884 at 901 West 6th Street , known then as Pecan Street.
Between 3 and 4am, a Mr. Chalmers was awakened by banging and yelling at his front door. A neighbor and Mollie’s common law husband, Walter Spencer, was shouting that someone had tried to kill him. Rising quickly, Chalmers lit the oil lamp, turned the flame up and lifted the light to see the extent of Mr. Spencer’s injuries. He saw four cuts on his Spencer’s face and a puncture wound beneath his eye. It was discovered later that the puncture had broken through the bone beneath Spencer’s eye.
Dazed, Mr. Spencer could not tell what had happened to him. When asked where Mollie was, he did not know. The last time he had seen her was before falling asleep.
One can easily imagine what Mr. Chalmers was thinking. Had Walter Spencer been drinking, gotten into a fight, and was now too drunk to know what was going on? Surely, there was an easy explanation for this strange situation. Never would he have imagined the horror that had taken place the previous hour, right next door.
Mr. Chalmers called a hackney and sent Mr. Spencer to the home of Dr. Steiner, who lived at 304 Fannin Street. Spencer’s wounds were treated and a piece of bone fragments removed from inside of his eye. After his visit to the doctor Mr. Spencer took another hackney to his brother and sister’s house on 1511 Brazos Street. He told them what had happened and then, truly dazed and sick, fell asleep.
Mr. Chalmers did not live in the house next door to Mollie and Walter; he was visiting his sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Hall. Mr. Hall was an insurance agent with an office at 812 Congress Avenue. The Halls and Mollie lived next door to each other on opposite corners. The road set between their homes was one block west of the iron bridge that spanned Shoal Creek.
Mr. Spencer had just begun a steady relationship with Mollie. In fact, he had recently moved from a home he shared with his brother and sister to live with Mollie. She had been employed as the Hall’s cook for one month. Mollie was not a native Austinite; she had lived only one year in the Capitol City, having relocated from Waco. She was in her mid-20’s.
When the sun began to rise, the Hall household began to stir and at 9am they went to Mollie’s house to investigate because it was getting late and no one had seen her. They found a broken mirror and much of the furniture knocked over.
Blood was everywhere including on an ax which lay next to her bed.
Where was Mollie? A neighbor was the first to find her, sprawled in the shadows between the back fence and the outhouse with most of her clothing missing. She had been outraged and there was a hole on the side of her head that went through her skull and pierced her brain. The trail of blood, more obvious now, led back to her bedroom door.
As news of the murder spread, city residents were appalled. This was the foulest deed Austin had ever seen. Such pointless violence had never occurred in Austin’s history.
Spencer would later testify: “It was sometime between 9 and 10 o’clock at night Tuesday night that I went to Mollie’s room. She complained of being sick and asked me if I felt sorry for her. She also asked me to wake her up early the next morning. I don’t remember anything else that happened until I woke and found myself hurt. I don’t know who did it, but it wasn’t Mollie. I thought someone had killed me. Mollie was not in the room and I never knew her anymore. I went around in front of the house and woke Mr. Chalmers, and told him what had happened.”
Walter Spencer was arrested for the murder of Mollie Smith. William Brooks, a man Mollie had once dated in Waco, was also apprehended. Both were found not guilty and set free.
May 7, 1885 – Elizabeth Shelly
Four months and seven days after the murder of Mollie Smith, 30-year old Elizabeth Shelly was found on the floor of her bedroom with a two inch long gash over her right eye cutting through the cranium and exposing brain matter. A deep round hole was discovered just over her ear and another between her eyes, both penetrating her brain. In the room with Elizabeth, her three children slept. They were unharmed and had slept through the horror.
The theory is that the murderer entered the room, knew who he was looking for and went straight to Elizabeth hitting her on the head and knocking her unconscious. Moving her to the floor, he then calmly inflicted the other injuries before raping her. Before leaving, he carefully wrapped her body in a blanket from the bed and again in a quilt he had removed from her trunk. Presumably this was done so that the children would not see her bloody body when they awoke. In the sand outside of Elizabeth’s residence which stood near the corner of San Jacinto and 3rd. Street (today a parking lot that belongs to the Whitley Company), bare footprints were found going to and from the house. They were described as short and broad.
All that day and into the night and even the following day people from all over the city crowded around the house. Morbid curiosity encouraged them to look at the spot where the horrific murder had taken place. Much of the discussion of onlookers must have centered on the lackadaisical response of the authorities. Even though the alarm was raised at 6am, the City Marshal did not arrive at the scene of the attack until after 11 o’clock, nearly six hours after the information had been sent out by Dr. Johnson.
On May 8th 1885 the front page of the Austin Daily Statesman read:
ANOTHER WOMAN MURDERED IN THE NIGHT BY SOME UNKNOWN ASSASSIN, BENT ON PLUNDER. ANOTHER NIGHT OF DEVILRY IN THE CRIMSON CATALOG OF CRIME
The newspaper account of the crime follows:
“When Dr. L.B. Johnson, a well known citizen of the city, went to market yesterday morning at 6 am, his usual time, he had no idea of the terrible tragedy that had been enacted on his own premises.
The doctor lives in a cottage on the corner of San Jacinto and Cypress Streets in the southern part of the city, the Central Railroad track being immediately in front of the house. Behind his house was the home of Elizabeth Shelly and her 3 children. The woman was employed by Dr. Johnson’s family as a cook and had been in the service of the family for a long time.
On returning home he observed an unusual commotion. His wife met him in front and exclaimed “I believe Elizabeth Shelly has been murdered!” And it was so. Dr. Johnson’s wife had sent her young niece to see where Elizabeth was. The child came back pale and excited, she had only taken a brief look in the room, but a glance revealed such an awful sight that the child dared not enter, but ran quickly back. Her aunt had the same experience.
Hearing what the others had seen, Dr. Johnson ran around to the back of his house and pushed the door open to view a most ghastly sight. Stretched out on the floor with a gaping wound over her right eye, fully 2 inches long and nearly that wide. It was done with some sharp instrument, probably with a hatchet. There were several minor wounds that must have been done with some other weapon. There was a deep round hole just over her ear, and another between the eyes. The pillows were saturated in blood and the room was in great disorder.”
May 23, 1885 – Irene Cross
Twenty days after Elizabeth Shelley was murdered, not long after midnight, the killer struck again. Irene’s house was behind Mrs. Whitman’s on the northeast corner of San Jacinto and 17th Street, just north of Scholz’s Beer Garden. Her house had two rooms. In one room slept her young nephew and in the other, Irene and her grown son. The son was out that night and she had left the door unlocked for him.
A Statesman reporter heard of the attack soon after it happened and accompanied Officer Brown to the scene. He reported in the third-person style typical of Victorian journalists:
“Familiar as he was with repulsive sights, the reporter could not help being horrified at the ghastly object that met his view. The woman’s right arm was nearly cut in two, from a gash over six inches long. A cruel cut extended over half way around her head, commencing just above the right eye. It looked as if the intention was to scalp her. She was moaning and writhing in pain.”
The reporter asked the nephew what happened and the nephew said the intruder was “a big chunky Negro man, barefooted and with his pants rolled up. He had on a brown hat, and a ragged coat.” The man came into the nephew’s room and when the youngster began to cry out, the man told him not to scream, as he had no intention of hurting him. The man then went into his aunt’s room, and in a few minutes rushed out.
Out of all the women Irene was not raped. She was able to fend off her attacker and scream loudly enough that he quickly abandoned his intent. Irene died from her wounds later that night and was buried the next day at Oakwood Cemetery.
August 30, 1885 – Mary Ramey
Mary Ramey was the fourth and youngest victim. Between approximately 4 and 5 am on the morning of September 1st the killer entered the home of Rebecca and Mary Ramey (sometimes spelled Raney). Immediately, Rebecca was “sand-bagged” with a hand axe, leaving her with a gash about 3 ½ inches long above her right eye, a fractured skull, and no memory of what happened to her. The killer then turned to 11 year old Mary. Of all the victims she was the only one he did not have to hit with an axe in order to subdue. Dragged from the room, she was taken to the wash house. A sharp-pointed instrument was inserted through both of her ears, penetrating her brain.
Mr. Weed awakened suddenly because he thought he heard something in the yard. He roused his wife beside him, exclaiming that he had heard a “strange and unnatural noise.” “It was probably a dog,” she responded. There came another sound and Mr. Weed jumped from his bed and got his double-barreled shotgun.
The events of the morning soon became evident. Entering Rebecca’s home, he found her bloodied and semi-conscious with no idea of what happened.
Mr. Weed noticed that Mary was missing. It did not take him long to find her lying on the wash house floor, a small pool of blood beneath her head, and the obvious signs of having been brutally “outraged.” He yelled to his neighbors to come out because two people had been murdered. One neighbor was told to stand by the back gate and not allow anyone in or out. Mr. Weed quickly saddled his horse and rode to the home of Police Sergeant Chenneville across from the Capitol. Fifteen minutes later, they were at the scene of the crime with the entire pack of city hounds.
In the meantime, Dr. Swearingen had arrived and was found sitting in the wash house talking softly to Mary. He remained with her until she died one hour later.
After returning to his home, Mr. Weed noticed the pool of blood beneath Mary’s head was now much larger than when he left, leading him to believe that the crime had been committed just before she was found. Barefoot prints were discovered on the ground around Rebecca’s house, in Mr. Weed’s yard, through the alley and all the way to Mr. Evan’s stable down the street. The dogs kept their noses to the ground all the way to the stable where they lost the scent. Again the killer had escaped.
Rebecca and Mary’s home was behind Weed’s Stables at the corner of San Jacinto and East Cedar Street. Today it is a parking area for the Railyard Condominiums.
September 28, 1885 – Gracie Vance & Orange Washington
Gracie Vance and Orange Washington had lived together as a couple for quite some time.
They were not formally married, but everyone treated then as such. Gracie was often referred to as Gracie Washington. On the night of September 28 Gracie and Orange had invited 2 women to spend the night as guests in their house. They were friends of Gracie and the three of them often spent time together. One of the women was Lucinda, nicknamed Cindy, who lived and worked a few houses up the street. She was employed by J.B. Taylor who, according to the 1885 City Directory in 1885 was a “vegetable dealer.” The second woman, Patsy Gibbons, lived a bit further north on Whitis Avenue and was employed as Dr. Graves cook.
When the killer entered the house, he was surprised to find two additional women sleeping in the room with Gracie and Orange. Or had he been stalking Gracie and was prepared? Either way he proceeded to give Lucinda and Patsy a blow to the right side of their heads leaving a gash 3 ½ inches long on both of their foreheads. The Austin Daily Statesman called the wounds “lacerated and incised.” Both injuries went through the skin exposing and fracturing the skull. Lucinda would eventually heal. Patsy’s injury, on the other hand, caused brain matter to seep through the broken bone creating permanent brain damage. Orange Washington must have awakened and sat up during the two other attacks because he received a blow to the top of his head, rather than on the right side as the other two had. His wound exposed the bone and fractured his skull as well. But in this instance, he was hit with such force he was killed instantly.
In typical form, Gracie’s body was dragged from the house, in this case through the window rather than the door, and behind the stables. There she was outraged. The killer must have carried more than an ax because she had cuts and gashes on the right side and front of her face. The incisions ranged from one to three inches long. Her skull was not fractured. A bloody brick was found next to her head. A watch chain with a small silver open face was found wrapped around her arm.
Unlike the other horrors, on this night, Lucinda regained consciousness and in a daze lit a kerosene lamp.
The first thing that registered in her mind was the blood all over the room. The second thing that caught her attention was the man standing in the room. She recognized him. It was Doc Woods. “Don’t do it, Doc,” she exclaimed. “God damn you, don’t look at me,” he shouted before he jumped though the window on the west side of the house. Lucinda then ran to the closest neighbor Mr. Dunham. She found him awake and standing on the porch because he had already heard the disruption.
The neighbors were alerted. Within twenty minutes Mr. Duff and Mr. Dunham were in the yard with Patsy. Sgt. Chenneville and Officer O’Connor were on horses in front of the house with another neighbor Mr. Hotchkiss. Three doctors were on their way. At this point, a neighbor yelled from her second story window that someone was running from the stables heading west. Immediately, they gave chase, only to allow another escape.
Following these murders a citizen’s committee lead by A.I. Woolridge offered a $3000 reward to whoever found the murderer.
Austin Daily Statesman
October 1, 1885
In Front Of The Jury Of Inquest Mr. Dunham Testifies:
I live at 2400 San Marcos Street. I knew Orange Washington and Gracie Vance or Washington. They lived together as man and wife.
I was awakened by a noise. I heard someone passing my window going in the direction of the house occupied by these people. From the noises I took these people to be Gracie Vance and Orange Washington. They were laughing and talking and I heard them enter the house. I dropped off to sleep and was awakened by another noise in their house.
I took my gun and went to my back door. I heard 2 blows and a voice saying, “Don’t hurt me.” I said, “Stop the noise.” The noise ceased, I then heard a gasping voice as if the mouth of the speaker was muffled. I waited a little while and hearing no further noise I locked my door and went back to bed again. I think I was asleep or nearly so, when I heard the breaking of a glass, as though a whole window had been shattered, and a woman screaming and running past my window. I took my gun and went to the front door and heard the sounds of blows outside of my yard. I think they were from 6 to 10 feet from the northwest corner of my fence on the outside.
I could not see them immediately I said ‘Stop that or I’ll shoot” or words to that effect. The struggling ceased immediately, the girl Lucinda ran through the gate, directly to me and I heard the steps of someone running north on San Marcos street, as well as I could judge.
As the girl came to me she said “My God, Mr. Dunham everyone has been killed.” She was in her nightclothes, which were bloody. I asked her if she was hurt, she said, “No, but my friends are all dead and Doc Woods did it.”
On September 29, 1885, according to the Austin Daily Statesman, Doc Woods stated
that he was at Mr. Baird’s farm, which is 8 miles outside of Austin that Sunday night and Monday morning. He claimed that he did not leave there until the city officers brought him to the jail. Mr. Baird testified that Doc was at his place at 10 pm. Sunday night and 4 am Monday morning, at which time Doc was awakened by Mr. Baird. They ate breakfast and went to work. Other residents on the farm witnessed the presence of Doc Woods as well. He could not prove though where he was between the hours of 4am and 10pm. To the Austin Daily Statesman, Doc said that he had only met Gracie Vance and Orange Washington six months earlier and was not well acquainted with them. This statement contradicted a statement made by Lucinda that Doc Woods had stopped by Gracie’s house a few days prior to the murders and asked if he could spend the night.
The paper stated, “Within the last few days, however, very serious doubts have been entertained as to the guilt of Woods.” This statement refers to Wood’s advanced stage of syphilis. Not only did it explain the bloody clothes he was wearing, but local doctors claimed that there was no way he could have outraged a woman. Another point that favored Doc Wood’s innocence were the witnesses who saw him on the farm three hours before the perpetration of the crime that took place 8 miles away. He was released.
December 24, 1885 – Sue Hancock
The newspaper headline the day after Mrs. Sue Hancock was murdered read:
THE DEMONS HAVE TRASFERRED THEIR THIRST FOR BLOOD TO WHITE PEOPLE
Mr. and Mrs. Hancock slept in separate bedrooms in their house at 203 Water Street. Today, Water Street has been renamed Cesar Chavez. The location of the house is where the Four Seasons Hotel parking garage now stands.
On Christmas Eve night just after 11:00 pm, Mr. Hancock woke suddenly from a deep sleep with the feeling something was wrong. Wondering if the house was being robbed, he put on his pants and went to his wife’s room. There he found blood all over the bed and his wife was gone. He exited the back door of the house and found his wife lying in a pool of blood.
He began screaming to his neighbors to come over and he attempted to pick Sue up but instead sat down with her in his arms until his neighbor Mr. Percinger arrived and they carried her into the house. There they discovered she had been hit twice on her head with an ax that was found on the scene. Her skull was fractured and blood was oozing from both her mouth and ears.
The couple had two daughters who were at Christmas Eve parties. The Hancock couple had left the door unlocked, waiting for their return.
The Daily Statesman from December 25: “While still gathering notes, absolutely kneeling by the side of the evidently dying lady, a shrill voice from the study cried to the reporter that another murder had been committed in the second ward, on the premises of Mr. James Phillips.”
December 24, 1885 – Eula Phillips
Mrs. Phillips, the wife of a well known architect, living at No. 806 West Hickory Street, was awakened by the cries of her young grandson. Her son, James Phillips, with his wife and child, 18 months old, occupied a room across the hall. Mrs. Phillips, the mother, had been in her son’s room only an hour before. She lit the lamp and crossed the gallery porch adjoining the main house with an adjoining wing. As she answered the baby’s cries, a horrible sight met her gaze in her son and daughter-in-law’s room. The little boy, who had been sleeping between his parents, was standing up on the bed, his night clothes crimson with blood holding an apple and unharmed. The youngster’s father lay in a stupor with a gash in his head and neck. James’ wife, Eula was missing, her pillow bloody and the covers thrown back. A bloody trail was found leading on to the gallery, then through the back yard and next to the outbuildings. Eula’s lifeless body lay in a pool of blood, nude. Across her bosom was a heavy rail, pinning her arms down. She had been dead perhaps half an hour, struck in the forehead with an ax. The skull was broken an she had been outraged.
The elder Mr. Phillips was quoted in the Austin Daily Statesman that “while this most horrible crime was being committed everything was as silent as usual.” The paper continued, “No outcry seems to have been heard, so skillfully did the inhumane butcher or butchers carry out a crime worthy of the imps of hell.”
Within a few hours, Austinites faced the most somber Christmas morning they had ever experienced. A Christmas Day meeting was quickly summoned at the call of the Mayor. Gathering in the Hall of Representatives at the Texas Capitol, a diverse collection of race, occupations and levels of society assembled as equals in a common cause: find a way to stop the killings.
Governor John Ireland thought it would be a good idea to set off all the fire alarms after each murder. Then armed citizens should run from their houses and hold their positions on corners and in alleys so the killer could be trapped. Another suggestion was to have a curfew. No one allowed out after dark, and if they were, they would have to answer to the armed patrols set up every few blocks. Another idea was to illuminate the entire city with giant lights.
Who Was The Servant Girl Annihilator?
Moses Hancock, being detained as a witness before the jury of inquest, was prevented from being present at the interment of his murdered wife. Hancock was indicted but released on a minimal bail of five-hundred dollars which, it was stated, was almost “a presumption of innocence.” His trial began on May 30, 1887 and lasted four days. The verdict: not guilty.
James Phillips, Jr. was put on trial for the murder of Eula. He was found guilty of Eula’s death, but in November of 1886, the Court of Appeals in Smith County reversed the decision. There was also no evidence that either Hancock or Phillips were in any way connected with the deaths of the servant girls.
While it is doubtful that either of these men was responsible for the killing spree of 1885, it is equally dubious that two men, both of whom drank to excess, whose wives expressed dismay and fear for their safety, would commit copycat murders on the very same evening within a few hours of one another.
Was the killer apprehended for another crime? Did the public outcry for vigilance make it too dangerous to continue in Austin and he moved on? Was he himself the victim of disease or violence? The murderer was never named. No matter. When he breathed his last breath with blood on his soul waiting on the other side were seven angels. Did they meet him with mercy, or justice?
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