The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer

by Hollandsworth, Skip

  NOTES AND SOURCES

  Much of this book is based on hundreds of articles from more than thirty nineteenth-century newspapers. Sometimes the articles were a few hundred words long—the New York World’s feature story was the exception. Sometimes they lasted no more than a couple of sentences. Each anonymous author tended to add a detail or two about whatever was happening: a murder, an investigation into a murder, or the arrest of a suspect. I often felt that I was putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle, made up of thousands of pieces—and there were still so many pieces missing. In my mind, I kept urging those nineteenth-century reporters to ask follow-up questions of city officials and police officers, to do more investigations into particular suspects, to find out if a man did, in fact, accompany Eula Phillips to Mae Tobin’s house of assignation on Christmas Eve. I wished one of those reporters had gone to Marshal Lucy or Sergeant Chenneville toward the end of their lives and persuaded them to reveal all they knew. Alas.

  At the same time, however, I came across a rich seam of material that captured the pulse of a young city as it was making its way into the modern age. I read dozens of books, dissertations, manuscripts, letters, journals, and yes, more newspaper articles about Austin. In many ways, Austin became the most interesting character in the book, an intoxicating mixture of the Old South, the Old West, and the new Gilded Age. Because the murders affected every level of Austin society—from the most privileged members of white society to desperately impoverished African-Americans—I had a rare opportunity to create a portrait of race, class, gender, urban life, and, most significantly, the nature of American violence. Indeed, the Midnight Assassin’s rampage was a freakish foretaste of what was to come in American life, especially in the rapidly growing, behaviorally volatile cities. That is why, at least for me, his story is so important.

  One side note: there has been a long debate among Austin history buffs over the role the murders played in the erection of the city’s “moonlight towers.” When the idea of the towers was first proposed, three and a half years had passed since the last murder had taken place. What’s more, there is no evidence that any city leader publicly declared that the towers would keep away the Midnight Assassin. On the other hand, the question still has not been answered as to why the towers were erected at the very time that other cities were taking them down. Why didn’t Austin’s leaders just erect regular streetlamps—lots of them? And why did they want the towers spread throughout the city and into the white neighborhoods, instead of just putting them around downtown like other cities had done?

  I keep wondering about the reporter for the Austin Daily Statesman who, on May 4, 1895, when the lamps in the towers were first turned on, speculated about the possibility that the light would end Austin’s fear of violent crime at night, which he claimed had lingered for many years. Was the reporter making a reference to the Austin killings of 1884 and 1885? I tend to think he was, but I’m not sure we will ever know.

  PROLOGUE

  “London police officials were speculating” comes from Hudon’s “Leather Apron; or, The Horrors of Whitechapel,” p. 10.

  The New York World article ran on January 1, 1886.

  “The Midnight Assassin” was reported in the San Antonio Daily Express, September 8, 1885.

  Women being given guard dogs comes from the Austin Daily Statesman, December 29, 1885. The proposal for electric lights comes from the Austin Daily Statesman on March 21, 1886.

  Coverage of the New York Academy of Medicine meeting was reported in the December 20, 1888, issue of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal; the January-June 1889 issue of the Weekly Medical Review; and the New York Herald, December 14, 1888. “The most extensive and profound scandal” was reported in the Houston Daily Post, May 26, 1886.

  The Kenward Philp short story was reported in the Austin Daily Statesman on January 13, 1886, and the Fort Worth Gazette on January 18, 1886.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Details on the late December cold front are taken from the Austin Daily Statesman, San Antonio Daily Express, Dallas Daily Herald, and Bastrop Advertiser between December 12, 1884, and January 20, 1885. Also see Gard’s Rawhide Texas, p. 4; and the diary of Austin resident Eugene Bartholomew, p. 146.

  Details on the Hall family and its Austin residence come from the Austin Daily Statesman on November 13, 1881, December 25, 1883, January 1, 1885, and January 2, 1885. Information on Tom Chalmers comes from the Austin Daily Statesman on April 29, 1884. Details on the Texas Rangers are from Robinson’s The Men Who Wear the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers, pp. 168–79.

  Information on Walter Spencer comes from the 1880 U.S. Census records and the Austin Daily Statesman on August 7, 1881, and June 19, 1884. Details on Butler’s brick factory come from William Owens’s interview in Mann’s Slave Narratives, pp. 7–8.

  Biographical detail on Mollie Smith comes from the 1880 U.S. Census; the Austin Daily Sun (a short-lived newspaper that closed in March 1885), on January 1, 1885; the Austin Daily Statesman on July 7, 1882, January 1, 1885, January 2, 1885, and January 3, 1885; the Fort Worth Gazette on November 15, 1885; and the Frederick News of November 20, 1888. Mollie’s life and duties as a servant was taken from accounts in the Austin Daily Statesman, January 3, 1883; Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, March 1, 1883; the Christian Messenger, May 27, 1885; and Sutherland’s Americans and Their Servants, pp. 12–122. Mollie called a “yellow girl” comes from the Austin Daily Statesman, May 26, 1885.

  The accounts of the late-night conversation between Spencer and Chalmers are taken from the Austin Daily Sun, Austin Daily Statesman, Galveston Daily News, Houston Daily Post, and Fort Worth Gazette of January 1, 1885.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Estimates of Austin’s population in 1885 vary, ranging from 11,000 to 23,000. The lower number was usually thrown out by Austin’s critics and the 23,000 was trumpeted by Austin’s boosters. A more unbiased estimate of 17,000 comes from Moffatt’s Population History of Western U.S. Cities and Towns, 1850–1900.

  Description of the police department comes from the Austin Democratic Statesman, a forerunner to the Austin Daily Statesman, March 19, 1876; from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Austin from June 1885; from photos of Austin City Hall, gathered by the Austin History Center of the Austin Public Library; and from Barkley’s History of Travis County, pp. 222–29.

  Winds tangling telephone lines is based on reports in the Austin Daily Statesman from March 22, 1884, and May 16, 1970; and the San Antonio Daily Express from January 22, 1884, and January 24, 1884. More on police departments and telephones comes from Harring’s Policing a Class Society: The Experiences of American Cities, p. 49; and Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life, 1876–1915, pp. 188–89.

  The report of Steiner’s call to the police department is found in the Austin Police Department’s Record of Police Calls and Arrests, October 21, 1879, to May 31, 1885, p. 85.

  Number of police officers is from the Austin Daily Statesman, May 19, 1885; and from Barkley’s History of Travis County, pp. 222–29.

  Grooms Lee afflicted with the dengue is from the Austin Daily Sun on January 1, 1885, and January 5, 1885.

  Austin having five to six murders a year is from the Austin Police Department’s Record of Police Calls and Arrests, October 21, 1879, to May 31, 1885.

  Officer Howe descriptions and duties is from the Austin Daily Statesman on December 28, 1883, February 24, 1884, July 27, 1884, August 21, 1884, and June 27, 1885. Also see Tracy’s “A Closer Look at O. Henry’s Rolling Stone,” p. 30.

  Howe’s uniform description is from the Austin Daily Statesman, January 9, 1884.

  Howe’s duties are described in the Austin Daily Capitol (an Austin newspaper that went defunct in late 1884) on November 27, 1884; and in the Austin Daily Statesman on July 30, 1880, February 25, 1883, February 7, 1884, February 12, 1884, March 9, 1884, December 18, 1884, January 4, 1885, February 2, 1885, February 4, 1885, October 10, 1885, and March 24, 1885.

  The descriptions o
f the murder scene throughout the rest of the chapter, the activities of the police, and the arrest of Lem Brooks are taken from the Austin Daily Statesman, Austin Daily Sun, Dallas Daily Herald, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Gazette, Galveston Daily News, Houston Daily Post, San Antonio Light, San Antonio Daily Express, Waco Day, and Waco Daily Express from January 1–6, 1885. More stories were later written about Mollie’s murder in the Austin Daily Statesman, December 10, 1885; the New York World, December 29, 1886, and January 1, 1886; and the National Police Gazette on July 30, 1887.

  Details on Sergeant Chenneville are taken from the author’s interviews in 2002 and 2004 with his grandchildren Louise Davis and Jack Chenneville and his great-granddaughter, Dr. Tiffany Chenneville. Descriptions of Chenneville come from Streeter’s Ben Thompson: Man with a Gun, pp. 168–69; Chenneville’s handwritten “Application for Appointment as Special Texas Ranger” on March 11, 1889; and Chenneville’s biographical file at the Austin History Center. Many descriptions of Chenneville were found in the Austin Democratic Statesman, among them March 9, 1878, March 13, 1877, March 16, 1878, November 3, 1878, April 2, 1879, and April 15, 1879, and in the Austin Daily Statesman on February 27, 1880, August 3, 1880, February 5, 1882, March 11, 1882, July 19, 1882, July 6, 1883, January 16, 1884, October 2, 1884, January 13, 1885. “Pals” is from the Austin Daily Statesman, December 12, 1884. “Most industrious officer” is from the Austin Daily Statesman, November 29, 1881. “Untiring vigilance” is from the Austin Daily Statesman, December 16, 1884.

  Chenneville’s previous arrests is from the Austin Daily Statesman of November 20, 1881, November 29, 1881, January 3, 1882, February 16, 1882, April 20, 1882; and see the Austin Daily Sun on August 3, 1882.

  Sources for the lack of criminology available to a police officer in 1885 include Cole’s Suspect Identities, pp. 1–78; Friedman’s Crime and Punishment in American History, p. 208; Beaven’s Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and the Murder Case That Launched Forensic Science, pp. 86–87; Lane’s Murder in America: A History, pp. 200–211; Lane’s Policing the City, Boston, 1822–1885, pp. 14–150; and Robinson’s Science Catches the Criminal, pp. 19–21.

  The life of newspaper reporters in Austin is from the Austin Daily Statesman, January 6, 1885, October 17, 1885, January 2, 1886, January 8, 1886; and also from the Fort Worth Gazette on July 28, 1895, and August 11, 1885. The Austin Press Club scenes are from the Austin Daily Statesman on July 15, 1883, and July 2, 1884. More information was taken from Busfield’s “History of the Austin Statesman, 1871–1956”; Nalle’s “The History of the Austin Statesman”; and Lang’s “A Study of Texas Newspapers from 1876–1890.” The actual title of Mark Twain’s December 1884 Century magazine story was “An Adventure of Huckleberry Finn,” p. 268.

  The Indian attacks on Texas settlers were later compiled in Wilbarger’s Indian Depredations in Texas. Accounts of the last of the Comanches were taken from Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon, pp. 4, 17, 174, 230–70.

  Brooks’s history and life in Austin is from the Austin Daily Statesman on January 1, 1885, January 2, 1885, and January 3, 1885. The “figures” at black dances called by Brooks are described by Hunter in To ’Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War, pp. 169–76.

  Life of black undertakers is from Mear’s And Grace Will Lead Me, pp. 108–9; Rice’s The Negro in Texas: 1874-1900, p. 269; Byrd’s J. Mason Brewer, Negro Folklorist, p. 20; and McQueen’s Black Churches in Texas: A Guide to Historic Congregations, pp. 1–27.

  Mollie Smith’s body falling apart when put in the coffin is from the National Police Gazette on July 30, 1887.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Mollie Smith in the “dead room” of the City-County Hospital is from the Austin Daily Statesman, January 1, 1885. The description of the “dead room” (it was also called the “dead house”) is taken from the Austin Daily Statesman, June 24, 1885, and August 5, 1885; and Barkley’s A History of Travis County and Austin, 1839–1899, p. 243.

  Details about the city’s gas lamps are from the Austin Daily Statesman, January 11, 1883. Henry Stamps is found in Morrison and Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Austin, 1885–1886; and Barkley’s A History of Travis County and Austin, 1839–1899, p. 246.

  Incandescent lamps in Austin is from the Austin Daily Statesman on November 10, 1883, and February 9, 1884; also see Southwell’s “A Social and Literary History of Austin from 1881 to 1896,” p. 16.

  Details about New Year’s Eve are from the Austin Daily Statesman on December 30, 1884, December 31, 1884, January 1, 1885, and January 2, 1885; and the Austin Daily Sun on January 1, 1885, and January 2, 1885. Histories of masquerade balls in Austin were found in the Austin Daily Statesman on January 8, 1971, and February 28, 1976. Additional information on the Brunswick Hotel comes from the Austin Daily Statesman on January 5, 1884, and Tracy’s “A Closer Look at O. Henry’s Rolling Stone,” p. 85. The Gold Room shotgun raffle is mentioned in the January 6, 1885, issue of the Austin Daily Statesman. More details on the various Austin saloons can be found in the Sunday American Statesman Magazine, January 10, 1926; Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History, pp. 112–14; The Industries of Austin Commercial & Manufacturing Advantages, 1885, p. 95; and the Austin Daily Statesman on September 1, 1883, July 2, 1884, and June 3, 1885.

  Biographical details on Mayor Robertson come from the Austin Daily Statesman of June 13, 1884, June 15, 1884, June 22, 1884, and October 7, 1884; and from the Austin Daily Sun on February 18, 1885. Also see Daniell’s Types of Successful Men of Texas, pp. 421–28; Johnson’s History of Texas and Texans, p. 1867; and Robertson’s obituary in the Austin Daily Statesman on July 1, 1892.

  The “chili con carne” statement was in the June 15, 1884, edition of the Austin Daily Statesman. Robertson’s booming and his plans for the future were in the Austin Daily Statesman on June 13, 1884, June 15, 1884, June 22, 1884, November 11, 1885, and December 8, 1885. More information on Robertson’s work comes from Suhler’s “Significant Questions Relating to the History of Austin, Texas, to 1900,” pp. 357–62.

  Among the sources for the section on Austin’s history in this chapter are Fehrenbach’s Lone Star, pp. 257–60, 320, 419, 422, 434, and 603–4; Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History, pp. 1–80; Haley’s Texas: From the Frontier to Spindletop, pp. 99–104, 135; Jones’s Search for Maturity, pp. 2, 35–36, 51–52; Barkley’s History of Travis County and Austin: 1839–1899, pp. 12–13, 84–97; Wheeler’s To Wear a City’s Crown: The Beginnings of Urban Growth in Texas, 1834–1865, pp. 3–141; Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon, pp. 72–77, 97–135; Streeter’s Ben Thompson: Man with a Gun, pp. 26–28; Robinson’s The Men Who Wear the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers, p. 106; White’s Texas: An Informal Biography, pp. 130–67; and Orum’s Power, Money and the People, pp. 23–24. Elizabeth Custer’s quote comes from Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas, p. 260.

  Reference to the new University of Texas is made in Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History, pp. 93–100, and Berry’s The University of Texas: A Pictorial Account of Its First Century, pp. 61–115. Among the sources for the section on the size and design of the state capitol are The Texas Capitol, Symbol of Accomplishment, p. 45; The Texas Capitol: A History of the Lone Star Statehouse, p. 27; and Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History, pp. 87–89.

  New York City’s population is from Cox’s West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War, p. 96. Stories of cattle drives through Austin on what was known as East Road (which is now Interstate 35) come from the Dallas Daily Herald on July 4, 1885, and the Austin Daily Statesman on June 5, 1976. “Turn of a kaleidoscope” comes from Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History, p. 76.

  The details about specific Austin businesses, street life, and characters were compiled from the Austin Daily Statesman between January 1883 and January 1886. The Daily Statesman printed a story about J. C. Petmecky on November 15, 1884, and Mrs. Barker on Decem
ber 11, 1884. The Austin Daily Capitol carried a story about Julian Prade on June 19, 1884, and the Daily Statesman contained a story about the Austin Roller Coaster on August 23, 1884, August 24, 1884, and August 28, 1884. Other details of Austin businesses and street life were taken from Morrison and Fourmy’s General Directory of the City of Austin, 1885–1886; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps; The Industries of Austin Commercial & Manufacturing Advantages, 1885; Historical and Descriptive Review of the Industries of Austin Together with Sketches of the Representative Business Houses, 1885; Austin’s size is from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.

  More details on life in Austin were found in Robinson’s “O. Henry’s Austin”; O’Quinn’s “O. Henry in Austin”; Barkley’s History of Travis County and Austin: 1839–1899; Humphrey’s Austin: A History of the Capital City; Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History, pp. 68–118; Southwell’s “A Social and Literary History of Austin from 1881 to 1896”; Weems’s Austin: 1839–1989; Swisher’s History of Austin, Travis County, Texas, with a Description of Its Resources; Manry’s Curtain Call: The History of the Theatre in Austin Texas: 1839–1995; O’Neal’s The Texas League 1888–1987: A Century of Baseball; Sweet and Knox, On a Mexican Mustang Through Texas; Manaster’s “The Ethnic Geography of Austin, Texas: 1875–1910,” pp. 41–9; Jones’s Search for Maturity, pp. 86–87; and Kerr’s Austin, Texas, Then and Now: A Photography Scrapbook, p. 74.

  Berninzo, the organ grinder, was reported in the Austin Daily Statesman on May 20, 1885, and Madame Stanley was profiled in the Austin Daily Capitol on April 15, 1884. Specific details on Dr. Damos were taken from the Austin Daily Statesman on June 11, 1880, February 12, 1881, and January 1, 1886, as well as the Austin Daily Capital on February 12, 1884.

  Information about O. Henry comes in part from Langford’s Alias O Henry: A Biography of William Sidney Porter; O’Connor’s O. Henry: The Legendary Life of William S. Porter; Robinson’s “O. Henry’s Austin”; and O’Quinn’s “O. Henry’s Austin.”