September 3, 2024 • 32 mins
Experience the chilling tale of the Atlanta Ripper, and uncover why his gruesome crimes have been shrouded in obscurity. Listen as we recount the harrowing story of Emma Lou Sharpe, who survived a brutal attack and provided crucial details to the police after her mother, Lena, was found murdered. We explore the social and racial tensions of early 1900s Atlanta—a city grappling with its Confederate past and rapid industrial growth—shedding light on the city's darker corners where the Ripper roamed.
Join seasoned journalist and acclaimed author Carole Townsend, as she examines how the murders of so many women went unnoticed by newspapers and law enforcement alike, until the crimes could no longer be ignored. Drawing on sources including books and newspaper articles, we’ll piece together why these crimes remain lesser-known, and delve into the historical context that allowed such terror to persist. Don't miss an opportunity to learn about and understand a critical and shadowy part of Atlanta's history.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carole Townsend (00:07):
We've all heard the chilling stories of
London's Jack the Ripper, butdid you know that Atlanta had a
ripper of her own?
Sit with me a while and I'lltell you a haunting story about
the South that most people havenever heard.
Here in the South, we love ourstories.
(00:40):
We begin in childhood huddledaround campfires, whispering of
things best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated Southern history
for more than 20 years and Ibelieve it has to do with this
(01:02):
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth and shame and courage and,
make no mistake, there is evil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
(01:23):
out of reach that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe.
And the best place for tellingtales about such things is the
comfort and safety of an oldfront porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
(01:45):
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction and I'llturn on the light.
You're going to want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
(02:05):
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised.
(02:31):
On July 1st 1911, 20-year-oldEmma Lou Sharp nervously
fidgeted as she sat on the couchin her modest home on Hanover
Street in Atlanta, georgia.
She was waiting for her mother,lena, to return from the market
.
She had been gone a long time,much longer than she usually was
when doing the shopping, andEmma Lou was getting nervous.
It was late and it was dark.
(02:51):
There were evil goings-on inthe dark Atlanta streets these
days and despite the growingvigilance of the black community
, the evil persisted.
You see, as far back as 1911and, many would argue, 1909,
there was a lunatic prowling thestreets of the city.
(03:13):
He had a thirst for blood,violence and cruelty and he had
an appetite for attractiveAfrican American women.
In fact, by mid-1911, a womanin the black community in
Atlanta would have been foolishto venture outside in the dark
of night and all alone.
(03:34):
You see, just three weeksbefore Emma Lou struck out to
find her mother, that hot Julyevening, the body of Addie Watts
, a neighbor of the Sharps hadbeen found close to the Southern
Railway, her head caved in by acoupling pin from a train.
(03:54):
Still finally able to wait nolonger, emma Lou left the safety
of her house, letting thescreen door squeak and slam
behind her as she quickly walkeddown the front steps.
Off the porch, she set out tofind her mother.
The night air was warm, heavyand wet, typical for a deep
(04:16):
south summer, and the streetswere all but deserted.
African American women had beenwarned to stay home or to only
go out in groups, and certainlyto stay inside during the dark
hours of the night.
As Emmalou walked toward themarket, her steps quickened.
So did her heartbeat.
(04:36):
She felt very exposed, but herfear for her mother was
compelling.
Before she ever reached themarket, emmalou was approached
by a tall, broad-shoulderedblack man.
He wore a wide-brimmed hat and,in spite of his size, moved
(04:58):
with the stealth of a cat.
He asked Emmalou how she wasfeeling that evening.
She answered that she was fine,but the man's presence made her
nervous, so she attempted towalk around him.
Don't be afraid, I never hurtgirls like you, he said to her,
and then began viciouslystabbing her in the back.
(05:19):
The man turned and fled asquickly as he appeared,
disappearing into the shadows ofa dark alley.
Emmalou later recalled hearingthe man laughing maniacally as
he ran away.
Ironically, lena lay just beyondthe scene of her own daughter's
(05:40):
stabbing.
The two major Atlantanewspapers at the time were the
journal and the Constitution.
While each paper reported thedetails of the crime that night
was slight variation, the endresult was the same Lena lay
dead in the street with herthroat cut so viciously that she
(06:03):
was nearly decapitated.
But Emma Lou regainedconsciousness long enough to run
screaming from the gruesomescene.
Miraculously, she survived theattack and was able to describe
her assailant to police officers.
(06:23):
Emma Lou's recollection of thecircumstances of the murder of
her mother and her own stabbingprovided the first clues in
identifying the vicious killerwho became known as the Atlanta
Ripper, named for London'ssadistic Jack the Ripper because
of the brutal stabbings ofwomen.
The Atlanta Ripper was actuallymore prolific than London's
(06:43):
Ripper, at least that's theassumption.
So why do so few people knowabout the killing spree, and why
do I use the word assumption?
Well, to understand the case ofthe Atlanta Ripper, we must
(07:07):
first understand the time andplace of his reign of terror.
Atlanta in the early 1900s was acity groaning with the labor
pains of post-Civil War growth.
The South had been laid bareand poverty was rampant
throughout much of the region.
Hatred and mistrust oftenboiled over during this period,
(07:28):
with the African Americanpopulation growing rapidly and
with white Southerners stilllicking their wounds and
resenting the death of an era inwhich agriculture, mainly
cotton, was king.
The defeat of the ConfederateArmy, even decades later,
reinforced the hatred thatSouthern whites felt for Blacks.
(07:48):
Northern infiltration intoAtlanta was seen as salt being
ground into an already raw,gaping wound.
Still, businesses thrived inthe city, with railroads
crisscrossing in the very heartof Atlanta, thrived in the city,
with railroads crisscrossing inthe very heart of Atlanta.
(08:08):
Many of those businesses wererun by the brash carpetbaggers
from the North and AfricanAmericans flocked to the capital
of Georgia for industrialemployment.
The burgeoning population ofthe young, bustling city made
many in the white communitynervous and angrier.
It felt like insult was beingadded to injury.
Surprisingly, marketing of thebusy new city painted Atlanta as
(08:35):
a city in which racial tensionno longer existed.
Morehouse College, spelmanCollege and Morris Brown College
were relatively new butrespected institutions of higher
learning then, and they remainso today.
The reality in the early 1900s,however, was that nothing could
(08:57):
have been further from the truth.
Racial tension was palpable andin the heat of the summer of
1906, the city of Atlanta was apressure cooker.
As a result of the crushingdefeat of the war, the sweeping
change that followed and a hotlycontested gubernatorial race,
(09:18):
turmoil and conflict inevitablyerupted in violence.
With the 1906 Atlanta RaceMassacre, several white women
were allegedly attacked by gangsof black men during this time.
Adding to the tension, toughJim Crow laws turned up the heat
throughout the South and, overthe span of just a few days in
(09:40):
September, white mobs murdereddozens of black Atlantans and
injured many more.
In the midst of this carnage,or perhaps as a result of it, a
butcher was born.
The case of the Atlanta Ripperis one cloaked in mystery,
(10:03):
uncertainty and confusion.
There are several reasons forthis, which we'll get to in a
moment, but most researchersacknowledge the fact that 15,
and probably as many as 20 womenwere brutally slain in the city
between the years of 1909 and1914.
The killings were carried outwith such brutality and
(10:26):
disregard for the humanity ofthe victims that many of the
more lurid crime scene detailswere never disclosed to the
public.
What we do know is that each ofthe Ripper's victims was
African American.
Each of them was attractive andneatly dressed and most had a
measure of education.
Each of them was attractive andneatly dressed and most had a
(10:47):
measure of education.
Many of them worked ashousehold servants for moneyed
families in the Atlanta area,which meant that they walked to
and from work every day in theearly morning hours and in late
evenings alone.
Others of them were prostitutes, women who worked in dangerous,
(11:09):
vulnerable solitude during thesame lonely, bleak hours.
Interestingly, while theRipper's victims were never
raped, there was a sadisticsexual edge to the killings.
The Ripper's first murder,according to many accounts, was
believed to have been committedon April 5, 1909.
(11:29):
The woman's name was Della Reedand her lifeless body was found
on a trash pile that verymorning.
The uncertainty I just referredto with regard to the exact
number of Ripper murders is theresult of a general lack of
interest by the two majorwhite-owned Atlanta newspapers.
(11:50):
That statement soundspreposterous in 2024, but you
see, the slayings of women blackwomen at that were simply not
considered newsworthy at thetime.
It was only when the number ofmurders could no longer be
ignored and panic spread likewildfire throughout the
(12:12):
African-American community thatthe Atlanta Journal and the
Atlanta Constitution, newspapersand law enforcement alike had
to begin reporting andinvestigating the atrocities and
eventually call the murdererwhat he was a serial killer.
(12:34):
Still, investigations into theRipper's slayings were stifled
by not just the indifference ofthe media but also by some of
the black religious leaders inAtlanta.
Reverend HH, proctor of theBlack First Congregational
Church said this to hiscongregants in his sermon titled
Hand of God as Seen in Work ofthe Ripper, and I quote but this
(13:02):
bloody hand points to the sinsof the colored people themselves
.
Our churches are doing goodwork, but they are not doing
enough.
They do not sufficiently relatetheir efforts to actual life.
They've been getting peopleready to die when they should
have been preparing them to live.
The best preparation for thenext world is to live right in
(13:24):
this one.
Our churches are notprogressive enough.
Shut up six days a week, thepeople pass by them onto the
places that are prepared forthem, because the places for
evil are never shut.
End quote Even leaders in thecommunities under siege pointed
(13:50):
the finger at the perceived lackof morality and right living
among their own citizens.
With all of this blame andconfusion swirling in the
background, the Ripper continuedhis bloody work.
He was quick and cunning andbrutal, murdering most of his
(14:11):
victims without ever being seenor heard by witnesses or likely
by the victims themselves,choosing lonely out-of-the-way
sites, usually near train tracks, to satisfy his lust for fear,
control and violence.
And he moved unnoticed throughthe Black communities of Atlanta
(14:34):
.
And he moved unnoticed throughthe black communities of Atlanta
, that is, until he attacked butfailed to kill Emmalou Sharp.
Just a week after he murderedand brutally stabbed Lena and
Emmalou, the Ripper struck again.
20-year-old Mary Yeldell, whoworked for William Seltzer, was
(14:56):
walking back to her own home inthe late evening of July 8th,
but just half a block from heremployer's residence she heard
someone whistling from theshadows Turning.
She saw a quote large, verydark-skinned black man walking
toward her.
Quote large, very dark-skinnedblack man walking toward her.
She ran and he began chasingher, slashing wildly at her
(15:20):
clothes.
Mary just barely made it backto her employer's house, crying,
screaming in terror, beggingfor his protection.
Mr Seltzer ran outsidebrandishing a pistol and
pointing it at her attacker, butthe man deftly ducked into the
(15:44):
evening shadows and fled thescene.
Again he had failed and againone of the Ripper's victims
described him to police and toreporters.
Two days later, a group of menworking on Atlanta Avenue
noticed a trail of blood thatled to a nearby ditch.
The men followed the trail,finding the body of Sadie Hawley
(16:04):
.
At the end of it, her head hadbeen bashed in with a two-pound
rock.
We know this because the rockwas found nearby, covered in
blood.
Sadie's throat had been deeplyslashed and, oddly enough, her
shoes had been cut from her feetand taken, presumably by her
killer.
(16:25):
Though Sadie fell eighth in thelist of identified Ripper
murders, hers was the firstmurder to be reported on the
front page of the newspaper.
This madman could no longer beignored or explained away.
The press and the police, withurging from leaders of the Black
community, took notice.
(16:45):
The murders were being reportedand while that fact alone
indicated both concern andprogress, the media and law
enforcement alike were not quiteready to recognize a pattern in
these killings.
The murders and those to comewere often attributed to
domestic violence.
(17:06):
Others blamed the nature ofAfrican Americans themselves for
the brutal killings.
Listen to this unnameddetective's take on the reason.
Police couldn't seem to solvethe mystery.
In an Atlanta Constitutionarticle dated November 23, 1911,
(17:26):
an Atlanta PD detective wasquoted as saying.
These murders are beingcommitted by the lower class of
Negroes, ignorant, brutal beaststhat know nothing else.
Their acquaintances are afraidto talk, but if there was a
little money slipped to them wecould find out valuable clues.
That same detective went on tosay that the practice of paying
(17:52):
for information was a common oneamong law enforcement agencies,
but there was no money for suchpractices in the Atlanta agency
.
Eventually, and in desperation,the police department issued a
call for the hiring of quoteblack detectives in the hopes
that they would be able tosolicit clues and information
(18:15):
from the black community.
By mid-1911, the murders hadbecome so frequent that members
of the business community beganto take notice.
The killings caught theattention of business owners
because they caused and againI'm quoting an intensified
servant problem.
(18:35):
In other words, the murders andthe understandable hysteria
that they stirred were affectingthe ability of Atlanta
businesses to function and toprosper.
The inability of businessmen todepend on their domestic and
industrial workforce amped upinterest in both news and in law
(18:57):
enforcement, turning up theheat even higher.
During this terrifying murderspree, a rash of robberies and
burglaries aimed at whites actedas gasoline on an already
raging wildfire.
Hatred and mistrust ballooned,and they further divided the
white and black communities at atime when the cooperation of
(19:20):
the entire community wasdesperately needed.
While these political, racialand business conundrums muddied
the waters surrounding themystery of the Atlanta Ripper,
the body count continued to grow.
At the end of August, mary AnnDuncan was found lying on the
(19:41):
railroad tracks west of Atlanta,her throat cut and her shoes
missing.
A few days later, ellen Maddoxwas walking home from work when
she was brutally attacked, herhead and face smashed with a
rock.
Unbelievably, she lived longenough to talk with police, but
(20:02):
she succumbed to her injuriesshortly thereafter.
On the evening of October 21stthat same year, the body of Eva
Florence was found stabbed inthe throat, her head bashed.
On November 10th, minnie Wisewas found dumped on a trash heap
, her throat cut and her headcrushed in with a blunt object.
(20:25):
But listen to this Minnie'sright index finger was sliced
off at the joint A clean cut.
This was new.
On the morning of November 21st, the body of Mary Putnam, still
(20:50):
warm, was found lying in aditch and buried under loose
dirt.
Her skull had been crushed andher throat slashed.
And there was yet another newmutilation not previously seen
in these murders Mary's breastwas slashed open and her heart
had been ripped from her bodyand laid beside her.
(21:13):
Was the Ripper's bloodlustescalating or, as some in the
press and police opined, wasthis murder spree simply the
actions of several perpetrators?
Was there a serial killer loosein the young city?
Or had the madness of the dayspiraled into a wild climate of
the wholesale murder of blackwomen for any reason?
(21:36):
As the number of killings rose,arrests were being made.
During the mayhem, a laborernamed Henry Huff was arrested
for Sadie's murder.
A cab driver claimed to haveseen the two together in his
taxi the night she was killed.
Later that same night, huff wasallegedly found with blood and
(22:01):
dirt on his pants.
He was arrested and indictedfor the murder of Sadie, but no
one seriously believed that hewas responsible for all of the
Ripper murders.
Some police reports indicatethat law enforcement officers
weren't even convinced of hisinvolvement in Sadie's murder.
(22:22):
Shortly after Huff's arrest, aman named Todd Henderson was
arrested for the Ripper murders,and Emma Lou Sharp thought he
was the man she saw the night ofher mother's murder and her own
stabbing, but as it turned outlater, she really couldn't be
sure.
Later a third suspect wasarrested.
(22:43):
His name was John Daniel, andhe was indicted alongside Henry
Huff for Sadie Holly's murder.
The police lacked confidencethat any of these men was
responsible for the Rippermurders and, as it turns out,
their lack of confidence waswarranted.
While all three men were stillin custody, mary Ann Duncan was
(23:07):
murdered, and the killingscontinued.
Just a couple of weeks afterMary Putnam was found so
brutally slain, a young womannamed Zila Favors was murdered
on her own front porch.
This was in early December.
She had been stabbed multipletimes and witnesses reported
(23:30):
seeing her talking to a largeblack man near her home about an
hour before she was murdered.
The Ripper was clearly still onthe loose, despite the three
arrests.
Murders of young black womencontinued into 1912, but the
first few of those werereportedly the result of
(23:51):
domestic violence.
In fact, through mid-Februaryseveral Ripper-like murders were
committed, but they were allattributed to domestic partners,
and just a month later a FultonCounty grand jury issued the
opinion that the Atlanta Ripperwas simply a myth.
Up to that point, there were 16murders attributed to that myth
(24:16):
.
Now, by the FBI's definition,serial killers share common
traits they're sensation-seeking, they lack guilt and remorse,
they're impulsive, they have aneed for control and they engage
in predatory behavior.
They hunt victims that sharerace, gender and physical
(24:43):
characteristics.
Does any of this sound familiarto you?
Because it does to me.
One by one, murders with thesame signs of those attributed
to the Atlanta Ripper continuedas the year 1914 was coming to a
(25:07):
close.
However, so it seemed, was theRipper's reign of terror.
Sadly, the circumstances thatswirled around these murders
that some say actually began in1909, hindered any chance at
real resolution.
Was the city of Atlanta, withthe surrounding climate of
(25:27):
growth, hatred, mistrust andindifference, gripped in the
hysteria of unbridled massslayings committed by several
killers?
Or was there indeed a loneAfrican-American man with
bloodlust and a hatred of hisown responsible for the killings
?
In total, there were six menarrested for the Ripper murders.
None of them was ever convictedof being the dreaded serial
(25:51):
killer.
We will likely never know theanswer to the question of
whether the Atlanta Ripper was alone madman or a collection of
murderers, but we can learn fromthat terrible time and those
vicious killings.
Until relatively recently,behavioral science told us that
(26:11):
serial killers were likely whitemales in their mid-20s to
mid-30s.
But was Atlanta's Ripper realand if so, could his killings be
seen as a pattern that couldhave expanded the definition of
a serial killer much earlier.
Within the past 50 years,several African American serial
(26:34):
killers have been identified,arrested and convicted in the
United States, including theinfamous Mrs Bluebeard, also
known as Roberta Elder, whosevictims lived in Atlanta and in
Northeast Georgia, where sheherself is currently buried.
We now know that serial killingis bound to neither race nor to
(26:58):
gender.
Was the same person followingthe same modus operandi over
this five-year period 115 yearsago?
Or were the murders in Atlantaduring that five-year span the
work of several copycat killerswho knew that their horrible
deeds would be attributed to theAtlanta Ripper himself?
(27:23):
Evidence and witnesses are longgone now, but there is something
I would like to do before webring this story to a close.
The victims of the AtlantaRipper were too often not even
named in newspaper and policereports 115 years ago.
Those in power did not deem thewomen or their names important.
(27:45):
For that reason, I would liketo share the names of the women
who have been identified asvictims of the Atlanta Ripper,
who have been identified asvictims of the Atlanta Ripper.
They were, after all, daughters, mothers, wives and sisters.
To the best of my ability,their names are listed here in
(28:05):
the order of their attacks DellaReed, in September 1909,
another unidentified woman,estella Baldwin, georgia Brown,
maddie Smith, lavinia Osten,sarah Dukes, frances Lampkin,
(28:30):
eliza Griggs, maggie Brooks,rosa Trice, lucinda McNeil, in
February 1911, an unidentifiedwoman, rosa Rivers, bell Walker,
addie Watts, sophie Jackson,lizzy Watkins, lena Sharp, emma
(28:55):
Lou Sharp, mary Eldell, sadieHolly, mary Ann Duncan, minnie
Wise, eva Florence, november1911, an unidentified woman,
zella Favors, pearl Williams,ida Slade, alice Owens, mary
(29:19):
Kate Sledge, marietta Logan,august 1912, an unidentified
woman, 1912 and unidentifiedwoman, laura Smith, martha
(29:40):
ruffian, july 1914.
To unidentified women MaryRowland in 1915, lucy far and
two unidentified women 1917.
Unidentified woman.
1918, another unidentifiedwoman and, in that same year,
laura Blackwell and ChattyWorsham.
Oh, one more thing.
(30:03):
I'd be remiss in not tellingyou that in 1913, a man was
arrested and charged with therape and murder of 13-year-old
Mary Fagan, an employee in thepencil factory run by a man
named Leo Frank.
Frank had come down south torun the factory and was the last
(30:27):
person Mary is assumed to haveseen just before her ruthless
attack.
Interestingly though, four menhad been arrested and
subsequently released for thecrime.
The last man who was arrestedwas convicted because of two
poorly worded notes found nearMary's small body.
(30:47):
The notes were supposedlywritten by Mary herself and they
claimed that a long, tall, slimblack Negro had done the deed.
In fact, the notes had beencomposed by the short, stocky
African-American factory janitor.
(31:18):
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at
caroltownsoncom.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
(31:39):
friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
anywhere you listen.
My team and I used thesesources in researching the story
of the Atlanta Ripper.
(31:59):
The Atlanta Ripper the unsolvedcase of the Gate City's most
infamous murders, by JeffreyWells, published by the History
Press, the Atlanta Constitution,july 12, 1911 newspaper article
, and the ATL Vault.
The Atlanta Ripper Terrorizesthe City.
100-plus Years Ago, by TimDarnell.
We've all heard the chilling stories of
London's Jack the Ripper, butdid you know that Atlanta had a
ripper of her own?
Sit with me a while and I'lltell you a haunting story about
the South that most people havenever heard.
Here in the South, we love ourstories.
(00:40):
We begin in childhood huddledaround campfires, whispering of
things best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated Southern history
for more than 20 years and Ibelieve it has to do with this
(01:02):
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth and shame and courage and,
make no mistake, there is evil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
(01:23):
out of reach that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe.
And the best place for tellingtales about such things is the
comfort and safety of an oldfront porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
(01:45):
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction and I'llturn on the light.
You're going to want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
(02:05):
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised.
(02:31):
On July 1st 1911, 20-year-oldEmma Lou Sharp nervously
fidgeted as she sat on the couchin her modest home on Hanover
Street in Atlanta, georgia.
She was waiting for her mother,lena, to return from the market
.
She had been gone a long time,much longer than she usually was
when doing the shopping, andEmma Lou was getting nervous.
It was late and it was dark.
(02:51):
There were evil goings-on inthe dark Atlanta streets these
days and despite the growingvigilance of the black community
, the evil persisted.
You see, as far back as 1911and, many would argue, 1909,
there was a lunatic prowling thestreets of the city.
(03:13):
He had a thirst for blood,violence and cruelty and he had
an appetite for attractiveAfrican American women.
In fact, by mid-1911, a womanin the black community in
Atlanta would have been foolishto venture outside in the dark
of night and all alone.
(03:34):
You see, just three weeksbefore Emma Lou struck out to
find her mother, that hot Julyevening, the body of Addie Watts
, a neighbor of the Sharps hadbeen found close to the Southern
Railway, her head caved in by acoupling pin from a train.
(03:54):
Still finally able to wait nolonger, emma Lou left the safety
of her house, letting thescreen door squeak and slam
behind her as she quickly walkeddown the front steps.
Off the porch, she set out tofind her mother.
The night air was warm, heavyand wet, typical for a deep
(04:16):
south summer, and the streetswere all but deserted.
African American women had beenwarned to stay home or to only
go out in groups, and certainlyto stay inside during the dark
hours of the night.
As Emmalou walked toward themarket, her steps quickened.
So did her heartbeat.
(04:36):
She felt very exposed, but herfear for her mother was
compelling.
Before she ever reached themarket, emmalou was approached
by a tall, broad-shoulderedblack man.
He wore a wide-brimmed hat and,in spite of his size, moved
(04:58):
with the stealth of a cat.
He asked Emmalou how she wasfeeling that evening.
She answered that she was fine,but the man's presence made her
nervous, so she attempted towalk around him.
Don't be afraid, I never hurtgirls like you, he said to her,
and then began viciouslystabbing her in the back.
(05:19):
The man turned and fled asquickly as he appeared,
disappearing into the shadows ofa dark alley.
Emmalou later recalled hearingthe man laughing maniacally as
he ran away.
Ironically, lena lay just beyondthe scene of her own daughter's
(05:40):
stabbing.
The two major Atlantanewspapers at the time were the
journal and the Constitution.
While each paper reported thedetails of the crime that night
was slight variation, the endresult was the same Lena lay
dead in the street with herthroat cut so viciously that she
(06:03):
was nearly decapitated.
But Emma Lou regainedconsciousness long enough to run
screaming from the gruesomescene.
Miraculously, she survived theattack and was able to describe
her assailant to police officers.
(06:23):
Emma Lou's recollection of thecircumstances of the murder of
her mother and her own stabbingprovided the first clues in
identifying the vicious killerwho became known as the Atlanta
Ripper, named for London'ssadistic Jack the Ripper because
of the brutal stabbings ofwomen.
The Atlanta Ripper was actuallymore prolific than London's
(06:43):
Ripper, at least that's theassumption.
So why do so few people knowabout the killing spree, and why
do I use the word assumption?
Well, to understand the case ofthe Atlanta Ripper, we must
(07:07):
first understand the time andplace of his reign of terror.
Atlanta in the early 1900s was acity groaning with the labor
pains of post-Civil War growth.
The South had been laid bareand poverty was rampant
throughout much of the region.
Hatred and mistrust oftenboiled over during this period,
(07:28):
with the African Americanpopulation growing rapidly and
with white Southerners stilllicking their wounds and
resenting the death of an era inwhich agriculture, mainly
cotton, was king.
The defeat of the ConfederateArmy, even decades later,
reinforced the hatred thatSouthern whites felt for Blacks.
(07:48):
Northern infiltration intoAtlanta was seen as salt being
ground into an already raw,gaping wound.
Still, businesses thrived inthe city, with railroads
crisscrossing in the very heartof Atlanta, thrived in the city,
with railroads crisscrossing inthe very heart of Atlanta.
(08:08):
Many of those businesses wererun by the brash carpetbaggers
from the North and AfricanAmericans flocked to the capital
of Georgia for industrialemployment.
The burgeoning population ofthe young, bustling city made
many in the white communitynervous and angrier.
It felt like insult was beingadded to injury.
Surprisingly, marketing of thebusy new city painted Atlanta as
(08:35):
a city in which racial tensionno longer existed.
Morehouse College, spelmanCollege and Morris Brown College
were relatively new butrespected institutions of higher
learning then, and they remainso today.
The reality in the early 1900s,however, was that nothing could
(08:57):
have been further from the truth.
Racial tension was palpable andin the heat of the summer of
1906, the city of Atlanta was apressure cooker.
As a result of the crushingdefeat of the war, the sweeping
change that followed and a hotlycontested gubernatorial race,
(09:18):
turmoil and conflict inevitablyerupted in violence.
With the 1906 Atlanta RaceMassacre, several white women
were allegedly attacked by gangsof black men during this time.
Adding to the tension, toughJim Crow laws turned up the heat
throughout the South and, overthe span of just a few days in
(09:40):
September, white mobs murdereddozens of black Atlantans and
injured many more.
In the midst of this carnage,or perhaps as a result of it, a
butcher was born.
The case of the Atlanta Ripperis one cloaked in mystery,
(10:03):
uncertainty and confusion.
There are several reasons forthis, which we'll get to in a
moment, but most researchersacknowledge the fact that 15,
and probably as many as 20 womenwere brutally slain in the city
between the years of 1909 and1914.
The killings were carried outwith such brutality and
(10:26):
disregard for the humanity ofthe victims that many of the
more lurid crime scene detailswere never disclosed to the
public.
What we do know is that each ofthe Ripper's victims was
African American.
Each of them was attractive andneatly dressed and most had a
measure of education.
Each of them was attractive andneatly dressed and most had a
(10:47):
measure of education.
Many of them worked ashousehold servants for moneyed
families in the Atlanta area,which meant that they walked to
and from work every day in theearly morning hours and in late
evenings alone.
Others of them were prostitutes, women who worked in dangerous,
(11:09):
vulnerable solitude during thesame lonely, bleak hours.
Interestingly, while theRipper's victims were never
raped, there was a sadisticsexual edge to the killings.
The Ripper's first murder,according to many accounts, was
believed to have been committedon April 5, 1909.
(11:29):
The woman's name was Della Reedand her lifeless body was found
on a trash pile that verymorning.
The uncertainty I just referredto with regard to the exact
number of Ripper murders is theresult of a general lack of
interest by the two majorwhite-owned Atlanta newspapers.
(11:50):
That statement soundspreposterous in 2024, but you
see, the slayings of women blackwomen at that were simply not
considered newsworthy at thetime.
It was only when the number ofmurders could no longer be
ignored and panic spread likewildfire throughout the
(12:12):
African-American community thatthe Atlanta Journal and the
Atlanta Constitution, newspapersand law enforcement alike had
to begin reporting andinvestigating the atrocities and
eventually call the murdererwhat he was a serial killer.
(12:34):
Still, investigations into theRipper's slayings were stifled
by not just the indifference ofthe media but also by some of
the black religious leaders inAtlanta.
Reverend HH, proctor of theBlack First Congregational
Church said this to hiscongregants in his sermon titled
Hand of God as Seen in Work ofthe Ripper, and I quote but this
(13:02):
bloody hand points to the sinsof the colored people themselves
.
Our churches are doing goodwork, but they are not doing
enough.
They do not sufficiently relatetheir efforts to actual life.
They've been getting peopleready to die when they should
have been preparing them to live.
The best preparation for thenext world is to live right in
(13:24):
this one.
Our churches are notprogressive enough.
Shut up six days a week, thepeople pass by them onto the
places that are prepared forthem, because the places for
evil are never shut.
End quote Even leaders in thecommunities under siege pointed
(13:50):
the finger at the perceived lackof morality and right living
among their own citizens.
With all of this blame andconfusion swirling in the
background, the Ripper continuedhis bloody work.
He was quick and cunning andbrutal, murdering most of his
(14:11):
victims without ever being seenor heard by witnesses or likely
by the victims themselves,choosing lonely out-of-the-way
sites, usually near train tracks, to satisfy his lust for fear,
control and violence.
And he moved unnoticed throughthe Black communities of Atlanta
(14:34):
.
And he moved unnoticed throughthe black communities of Atlanta
, that is, until he attacked butfailed to kill Emmalou Sharp.
Just a week after he murderedand brutally stabbed Lena and
Emmalou, the Ripper struck again.
20-year-old Mary Yeldell, whoworked for William Seltzer, was
(14:56):
walking back to her own home inthe late evening of July 8th,
but just half a block from heremployer's residence she heard
someone whistling from theshadows Turning.
She saw a quote large, verydark-skinned black man walking
toward her.
Quote large, very dark-skinnedblack man walking toward her.
She ran and he began chasingher, slashing wildly at her
(15:20):
clothes.
Mary just barely made it backto her employer's house, crying,
screaming in terror, beggingfor his protection.
Mr Seltzer ran outsidebrandishing a pistol and
pointing it at her attacker, butthe man deftly ducked into the
(15:44):
evening shadows and fled thescene.
Again he had failed and againone of the Ripper's victims
described him to police and toreporters.
Two days later, a group of menworking on Atlanta Avenue
noticed a trail of blood thatled to a nearby ditch.
The men followed the trail,finding the body of Sadie Hawley
(16:04):
.
At the end of it, her head hadbeen bashed in with a two-pound
rock.
We know this because the rockwas found nearby, covered in
blood.
Sadie's throat had been deeplyslashed and, oddly enough, her
shoes had been cut from her feetand taken, presumably by her
killer.
(16:25):
Though Sadie fell eighth in thelist of identified Ripper
murders, hers was the firstmurder to be reported on the
front page of the newspaper.
This madman could no longer beignored or explained away.
The press and the police, withurging from leaders of the Black
community, took notice.
(16:45):
The murders were being reportedand while that fact alone
indicated both concern andprogress, the media and law
enforcement alike were not quiteready to recognize a pattern in
these killings.
The murders and those to comewere often attributed to
domestic violence.
(17:06):
Others blamed the nature ofAfrican Americans themselves for
the brutal killings.
Listen to this unnameddetective's take on the reason.
Police couldn't seem to solvethe mystery.
In an Atlanta Constitutionarticle dated November 23, 1911,
(17:26):
an Atlanta PD detective wasquoted as saying.
These murders are beingcommitted by the lower class of
Negroes, ignorant, brutal beaststhat know nothing else.
Their acquaintances are afraidto talk, but if there was a
little money slipped to them wecould find out valuable clues.
That same detective went on tosay that the practice of paying
(17:52):
for information was a common oneamong law enforcement agencies,
but there was no money for suchpractices in the Atlanta agency
.
Eventually, and in desperation,the police department issued a
call for the hiring of quoteblack detectives in the hopes
that they would be able tosolicit clues and information
(18:15):
from the black community.
By mid-1911, the murders hadbecome so frequent that members
of the business community beganto take notice.
The killings caught theattention of business owners
because they caused and againI'm quoting an intensified
servant problem.
(18:35):
In other words, the murders andthe understandable hysteria
that they stirred were affectingthe ability of Atlanta
businesses to function and toprosper.
The inability of businessmen todepend on their domestic and
industrial workforce amped upinterest in both news and in law
(18:57):
enforcement, turning up theheat even higher.
During this terrifying murderspree, a rash of robberies and
burglaries aimed at whites actedas gasoline on an already
raging wildfire.
Hatred and mistrust ballooned,and they further divided the
white and black communities at atime when the cooperation of
(19:20):
the entire community wasdesperately needed.
While these political, racialand business conundrums muddied
the waters surrounding themystery of the Atlanta Ripper,
the body count continued to grow.
At the end of August, mary AnnDuncan was found lying on the
(19:41):
railroad tracks west of Atlanta,her throat cut and her shoes
missing.
A few days later, ellen Maddoxwas walking home from work when
she was brutally attacked, herhead and face smashed with a
rock.
Unbelievably, she lived longenough to talk with police, but
(20:02):
she succumbed to her injuriesshortly thereafter.
On the evening of October 21stthat same year, the body of Eva
Florence was found stabbed inthe throat, her head bashed.
On November 10th, minnie Wisewas found dumped on a trash heap
, her throat cut and her headcrushed in with a blunt object.
(20:25):
But listen to this Minnie'sright index finger was sliced
off at the joint A clean cut.
This was new.
On the morning of November 21st, the body of Mary Putnam, still
(20:50):
warm, was found lying in aditch and buried under loose
dirt.
Her skull had been crushed andher throat slashed.
And there was yet another newmutilation not previously seen
in these murders Mary's breastwas slashed open and her heart
had been ripped from her bodyand laid beside her.
(21:13):
Was the Ripper's bloodlustescalating or, as some in the
press and police opined, wasthis murder spree simply the
actions of several perpetrators?
Was there a serial killer loosein the young city?
Or had the madness of the dayspiraled into a wild climate of
the wholesale murder of blackwomen for any reason?
(21:36):
As the number of killings rose,arrests were being made.
During the mayhem, a laborernamed Henry Huff was arrested
for Sadie's murder.
A cab driver claimed to haveseen the two together in his
taxi the night she was killed.
Later that same night, huff wasallegedly found with blood and
(22:01):
dirt on his pants.
He was arrested and indictedfor the murder of Sadie, but no
one seriously believed that hewas responsible for all of the
Ripper murders.
Some police reports indicatethat law enforcement officers
weren't even convinced of hisinvolvement in Sadie's murder.
(22:22):
Shortly after Huff's arrest, aman named Todd Henderson was
arrested for the Ripper murders,and Emma Lou Sharp thought he
was the man she saw the night ofher mother's murder and her own
stabbing, but as it turned outlater, she really couldn't be
sure.
Later a third suspect wasarrested.
(22:43):
His name was John Daniel, andhe was indicted alongside Henry
Huff for Sadie Holly's murder.
The police lacked confidencethat any of these men was
responsible for the Rippermurders and, as it turns out,
their lack of confidence waswarranted.
While all three men were stillin custody, mary Ann Duncan was
(23:07):
murdered, and the killingscontinued.
Just a couple of weeks afterMary Putnam was found so
brutally slain, a young womannamed Zila Favors was murdered
on her own front porch.
This was in early December.
She had been stabbed multipletimes and witnesses reported
(23:30):
seeing her talking to a largeblack man near her home about an
hour before she was murdered.
The Ripper was clearly still onthe loose, despite the three
arrests.
Murders of young black womencontinued into 1912, but the
first few of those werereportedly the result of
(23:51):
domestic violence.
In fact, through mid-Februaryseveral Ripper-like murders were
committed, but they were allattributed to domestic partners,
and just a month later a FultonCounty grand jury issued the
opinion that the Atlanta Ripperwas simply a myth.
Up to that point, there were 16murders attributed to that myth
(24:16):
.
Now, by the FBI's definition,serial killers share common
traits they're sensation-seeking, they lack guilt and remorse,
they're impulsive, they have aneed for control and they engage
in predatory behavior.
They hunt victims that sharerace, gender and physical
(24:43):
characteristics.
Does any of this sound familiarto you?
Because it does to me.
One by one, murders with thesame signs of those attributed
to the Atlanta Ripper continuedas the year 1914 was coming to a
(25:07):
close.
However, so it seemed, was theRipper's reign of terror.
Sadly, the circumstances thatswirled around these murders
that some say actually began in1909, hindered any chance at
real resolution.
Was the city of Atlanta, withthe surrounding climate of
(25:27):
growth, hatred, mistrust andindifference, gripped in the
hysteria of unbridled massslayings committed by several
killers?
Or was there indeed a loneAfrican-American man with
bloodlust and a hatred of hisown responsible for the killings
?
In total, there were six menarrested for the Ripper murders.
None of them was ever convictedof being the dreaded serial
(25:51):
killer.
We will likely never know theanswer to the question of
whether the Atlanta Ripper was alone madman or a collection of
murderers, but we can learn fromthat terrible time and those
vicious killings.
Until relatively recently,behavioral science told us that
(26:11):
serial killers were likely whitemales in their mid-20s to
mid-30s.
But was Atlanta's Ripper realand if so, could his killings be
seen as a pattern that couldhave expanded the definition of
a serial killer much earlier.
Within the past 50 years,several African American serial
(26:34):
killers have been identified,arrested and convicted in the
United States, including theinfamous Mrs Bluebeard, also
known as Roberta Elder, whosevictims lived in Atlanta and in
Northeast Georgia, where sheherself is currently buried.
We now know that serial killingis bound to neither race nor to
(26:58):
gender.
Was the same person followingthe same modus operandi over
this five-year period 115 yearsago?
Or were the murders in Atlantaduring that five-year span the
work of several copycat killerswho knew that their horrible
deeds would be attributed to theAtlanta Ripper himself?
(27:23):
Evidence and witnesses are longgone now, but there is something
I would like to do before webring this story to a close.
The victims of the AtlantaRipper were too often not even
named in newspaper and policereports 115 years ago.
Those in power did not deem thewomen or their names important.
(27:45):
For that reason, I would liketo share the names of the women
who have been identified asvictims of the Atlanta Ripper,
who have been identified asvictims of the Atlanta Ripper.
They were, after all, daughters, mothers, wives and sisters.
To the best of my ability,their names are listed here in
(28:05):
the order of their attacks DellaReed, in September 1909,
another unidentified woman,estella Baldwin, georgia Brown,
maddie Smith, lavinia Osten,sarah Dukes, frances Lampkin,
(28:30):
eliza Griggs, maggie Brooks,rosa Trice, lucinda McNeil, in
February 1911, an unidentifiedwoman, rosa Rivers, bell Walker,
addie Watts, sophie Jackson,lizzy Watkins, lena Sharp, emma
(28:55):
Lou Sharp, mary Eldell, sadieHolly, mary Ann Duncan, minnie
Wise, eva Florence, november1911, an unidentified woman,
zella Favors, pearl Williams,ida Slade, alice Owens, mary
(29:19):
Kate Sledge, marietta Logan,august 1912, an unidentified
woman, 1912 and unidentifiedwoman, laura Smith, martha
(29:40):
ruffian, july 1914.
To unidentified women MaryRowland in 1915, lucy far and
two unidentified women 1917.
Unidentified woman.
1918, another unidentifiedwoman and, in that same year,
laura Blackwell and ChattyWorsham.
Oh, one more thing.
(30:03):
I'd be remiss in not tellingyou that in 1913, a man was
arrested and charged with therape and murder of 13-year-old
Mary Fagan, an employee in thepencil factory run by a man
named Leo Frank.
Frank had come down south torun the factory and was the last
(30:27):
person Mary is assumed to haveseen just before her ruthless
attack.
Interestingly though, four menhad been arrested and
subsequently released for thecrime.
The last man who was arrestedwas convicted because of two
poorly worded notes found nearMary's small body.
(30:47):
The notes were supposedlywritten by Mary herself and they
claimed that a long, tall, slimblack Negro had done the deed.
In fact, the notes had beencomposed by the short, stocky
African-American factory janitor.
(31:18):
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at
caroltownsoncom.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
(31:39):
friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
anywhere you listen.
My team and I used thesesources in researching the story
of the Atlanta Ripper.
(31:59):
The Atlanta Ripper the unsolvedcase of the Gate City's most
infamous murders, by JeffreyWells, published by the History
Press, the Atlanta Constitution,july 12, 1911 newspaper article
, and the ATL Vault.
The Atlanta Ripper Terrorizesthe City.
100-plus Years Ago, by TimDarnell.
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