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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
The Atlanta Ripper of 1911-1912 (I Need Help With Research!)
Casebook Message Boards: Beyond Whitechapel - Other Crimes: The Atlanta Ripper of 1911-1912 (I Need Help With Research!)
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Sunday, 19 January 2003 - 11:03 pm |        | I'm just starting research for a novel AND a nonfiction book or short monograph on the Atlanta, Georgia "Ripper" crimes of May 1911-May 1912, in which twenty mulatto women were strangled, had their throats cut, and were then mutilated after death.
He was seen by at least one person: When one victim, Lena Sharp, was late coming home, her daughter went to look for her and was accosted by a well-dressed black man. Frightened by his mannerisms, she turned to flee, whereupon the "Ripper" stabbed her in the back. She survived, fortunately.
The case was never closed and has never been solved.
My novel is about a black female PI's hunt for the Ripper; I also feel that at least a short nonfiction account of it should be published for the sake of history.
If anyone has any photos, documents, clippings, oral histories, or other primary or secondary source materials about the case, I would love to hear from you.
And if the Ripper himself is still alive--I'd love to hear your side of the story. Since I'm a Caucasian male, I feel safe!
Would all of you "Ripperologists" out there be interested in reading about this case? (This is a survey question.) |
Author: Billy Markland
Sunday, 19 January 2003 - 11:46 pm | | James, that sounds like a very worthy research project. I would be interested in reading about it.
Best of wishes,
Billy |
Author: David O'Flaherty
Monday, 20 January 2003 - 12:36 am | | I'd second that, James. Sounds like you might have a winner there with the unusual setting (haven't seen much about 1912 Atlanta), and a rare black serial killer operating in the area seventy years before Wayne Williams. Also, the black female P.I. will be a new sort of protaganist with an intriguing viewpoint.
Anyway, best of luck with it, and the monograph too. If you're going to touch on racial attitudes for background, I do have a report made to the Florida Board of Regents in 1993, dealing with 1923 Rosewood, but there's some general information on what was going on in the south and Midwest overall. Feel feel to email me if this might be of interest to you.
Cheers,
Dave |
Author: Dan Norder
Monday, 20 January 2003 - 05:57 am | | Sounds very interesting... but if you have a 110+ year old black man show up to be interviewed, I recommend hiding your cutlery.
 
Dan
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Author: Christopher T George
Monday, 20 January 2003 - 08:39 am | | Hi, James:
Your research sounds most intriguing and I wish you the best of luck with it. I will be interested to hear how it progresses. You should be able to find articles on the murders in the contemporary newspapers, if you have not already accessed them, though from your mention of the suspect description it sounds as if you have the articles. It was the practise of the day to copy newspaper articles in the newspapers published in different cities, so don't just look in Atlanta or Georgia newspapers. Also have you tried to find out if the police files are available? For the proposed novel, your choice of an African American private eye also sounds most interesting and promising. Again, the best of luck in your project to write both a novel and a nonfiction book on this murder series. You probably know about the murders of black women in Austin, Texas (1885) and Jamaica (December 1888) which might be worth referencing as possibly connected.
All the best
Chris |
Author: Vila
Monday, 20 January 2003 - 10:19 am | | James,
If I recall correctly (and if things haven't changed too much from when I was a student there), the University of Georgia has set aside most of one of the library's seven floors for a Georgia history section. There would be all sorts of records there you might want to look into. I don't know what, if any, is online, but a Google search should turn up quite a bit of whatever *can* be accessed. And if you are actually located in the south, you can always go look for yourself.
http://www.uga.edu/
http://www.libs.uga.edu/
http://www.libs.uga.edu/collections.html
I hope this helps somewhat,
Vila |
Author: Scott E. Medine
Monday, 20 January 2003 - 02:51 pm | | Come On Dan, If a 110 year old killer shows up I am sure James can at least out run him.
Peace,
Scott |
Author: Jeff Bloomfield
Monday, 20 January 2003 - 04:09 pm | | Hi James,
Until now I did not know of the first apparent
serial killer of Atlanta (the second being
the young boy murderer of twenty years ago -
the crime that Wayne Williams was imprisoned
for). I'm just curious if any fears regarding the
non-apprehension of this killer could be tied to
the hate - full hysteria involved in the Mary
Phagan - Leo Frank Case just two years after
(1913 - 1915).
Good luck on your research.
Jeff |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Tuesday, 21 January 2003 - 12:45 am | | Everyone--Thanks for your kind words and encouragement.
I first heard of these crimes back in the late 80s when I was looking up some articles on the "Axman of New Orleans" in the Times-Picayune and came across a sentence like, "Several years ago an unknown man killed a number of Negro women in Atlanta and stole their shoes." Then, recently, I came across the trade paperback edition of Michael Newton's HUNTING HUMANS (second volume), where it had two pages on Atlanta's "Jack." I hope to go to Atlanta next month to go through newspaper files, coroner's and (hopefully) police records, and speak with people who know a lot about black Atlanta in the early years of the last century.
David--Thanks for the offer, but those who know a lot about black Atlanta circa 1911 can give me that same info, I'm sure.
Chris--Right now I'm reading Steven Saylor's superb novel about the Austin killings, A TWIST AT THE END. Jamaican killings in December 1888? Don't you mean a series of killings in Nicaragua in early 1989, which one recent author thought might have been committed by the Ripper, who had supposedly fled to Central America?
Villa--I'm going to the Atlanta Historical Center and African-American History Library, but might have to go to UGA now as well. Thanks!
Jeff--Don't think the fear of the Ripper spilled over into the Leo Frank mess--that had more to do with anti-Semitism. |
Author: Christopher T George
Tuesday, 21 January 2003 - 11:18 am | | Hi James:
In addition to the Nicaragua murders, there were the murders of Jamaican women in Kingston, Jamaica.
Here is what Stewart P. Evans has to say about the Jamaican and Nicaraguan murders in the "Interviews" section on this site:
"There were a series of prostitute murders, undetected, in Kingston, Jamaica in late December 1888 and in Managua, Nicaragua, in early 1889. These murders were so similar, involving both facial and bodily mutilation, to the London killings that the contemporary newspapers gave details of them speculating that the London Ripper was responsible. This appeared in American newspapers and in the London Times, and it was alleged that Scotland Yard contacted the Nicaraguan police for details, feeling that their quarry was then in that country. Dr Tumblety, as stated in his books, visited both the Caribbean and Central America, and he was on the run at the same time of these other murders."
Since Dr. Tumblety died in St. Louis on May 28, 1903 we can safely remove him as a suspect in the Atlanta series of 1911-1912!  What I think is curious in the case of the Jamaican, Austin, and Atlanta murders is the targeting of black women. I am not sure of the race of the women killed in the Nicaraguan series.
Best regards
Chris George |
Author: Christopher T George
Tuesday, 21 January 2003 - 11:24 am | | Hi, James and Jeff:
In bringing up the Leo Franks Case, James, I believe Jeff was making the point that the climate of fear generated by the Ripper-like murders in Atlanta in 1911-1912 might have fed into the hysteria two years later surrounding the arrest of Leo Franks for his alleged part in the murder of Mary Phagan. I think Jeff makes a legitimate point.
All the best
Chris |
Author: David O'Flaherty
Tuesday, 21 January 2003 - 11:33 am | | Hi, James
If you're going to Atlanta, you might find it worthwhile to make a side trip to Kennesaw (outside Atlanta) and visit Wild Man's store. I'm not sure if it's still there, but if you ask around I'm sure someone might know about it. If you find it, you'll have a rare opportunity to see some of the old South first hand.
Cheers,
Dave |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Thursday, 23 January 2003 - 12:54 am | | | Everybody--The Atlanta PD doesn't have files going back to 1911-12, but the Superior Court does have coroner's inquest files from that far back. Those files, the victims' death certificates from the Fulton County Vital Statistics office, and the clippings from the Atlanta J-C and the city's two black newspapers, the World and the Independent, should give me plenty of info! I'll let you know how my research progresses. |
Author: Jeff Bloomfield
Thursday, 23 January 2003 - 10:32 pm | | Hi James and Chris,
Chris is right, James, about my remark regarding
the possible spill-over effect of the Atlanta
"Ripper" case on the Mary Phagan/Leo Frank
Case. I'm not denying the ugly anti-Semitism
there (as it also appears in the Whitechapel
Case, the Lipski Case in 1887, or in the contemporary Mendel Beillis Case in Russia from
1911 to 1913), but the fear and uncertainty of
a bad series of unsolved killings on the public
is the point that I was stressing.
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Friday, 24 January 2003 - 12:37 pm | | Jeff--Was just wondering if the white community of Atlanta felt particularly threatened, since only mulatto women were among the victims. The BLACK community felt threatened, but still--
Must check into this interesting research question. Thanks for suggesting it to me!
BTW--admit it. You were the second gunman on the grassy knoll, weren't you? Hah hah hah! |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Friday, 24 January 2003 - 04:18 pm | | Everyone--Also must give thought to the racial angle. The killer was seen at least once, and was described as a "black man." Don't know, though, if that meant "dark-skinned" or "light-skinned." If the Ripper was a dark-skinned black man, and all of his victims were mulatto women, then a racial angle might have played a part. Perhaps he thought thse mulatto women were "impure" and "deserved to die," or perhaps he felt that they were "more white" than he and therefore felt jealous of them, because he hated himself for being "really black." Must think this out carefully.
Or maybe he just was sexually attracted to mulattoes and had violent impulses toward women, and so vented his impulses upon the type of woman he was attracted to! |
Author: David O'Flaherty
Friday, 24 January 2003 - 04:30 pm | | James,
When you're ready, I hope you'll post an account of Lena Sharp's encounter for us to read.
Cheers,
Dave |
Author: Jeff Bloomfield
Friday, 24 January 2003 - 10:38 pm | | Hi James,
It is just a rumor about me and the grassy knoll.
And don't believe that I was the other murderer
in Shakespeare's MACBETH.
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Saturday, 25 January 2003 - 12:35 am | | Jeff--But you killed Christopher Marlowe, didn't you?
David--Lena Sharp was killed by the Atlanta Ripper. Her daughter had the encounter with "Jack." |
Author: David O'Flaherty
Saturday, 25 January 2003 - 12:58 am | | Thanks for that. In any event, my question was about being able to read the account, since you've sparked some interest in this thread.
I might be a cynic, but this newspaper story sounds almost too exciting to be true--the girl searching for her mother, stumbles across the well-dressed killer (who steals shoes), who stabs her, but the girl escapes, or the killer allows her to live to provide a description. A great story for a novel, but if you write a non-fiction piece, will you attempt to confirm whether the girl was treated for a stab wound through other sources, if possible--surviving hospital records, etc?
Dave |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Sunday, 26 January 2003 - 08:25 pm | | All--Today a thought occurred to me: I wonder if the New York Times covered the Atlanta Ripper case? I looked in the paper's 1911 and 1912 indexes at the NC State Library here in Raleigh and found three articles. I'll post the two short ones here; the longer one I'll post in a different post.
From the front page of the Times for Tuesday, 27 June 11:
MURDERS SIX NEGRO WOMEN.
Each Sunday Night (sic - it should read "Each Saturday Night") a New Victim is Strangled in Atlanta.
Special to the New York Times.
ATLANTA, Ga., June 26--The finding of the mutilated body of a comely colored woman on a side street this morning makes the sixth mysterious murder which has puzzled the detectives and thrown the negro population into a state of terror.
Six consecutive Sunday nights have been marked by the murder of a negro woman, and in each instance the body has been mutilated. The indications are that they were first strangled to death.
The third and last article is from the sixth page of the first section of the Times for Sunday, 12 May 1912:
ANOTHER RIPPER MURDER.
Twentieth Girl Found Slain by Unknown Murderer in Atlanta.
Special to the New York Times.
ATLANTA, Ga., May 11--"Jack the Ripper" claimed his twentieth woman victim in Atlanta some time last night. Like the other nineteen victims he has slain in the last nine (sic - should read "twelve") month (sic), she was a comely yellow girl and has not yet been identified.
Her body was found this morning by a party of laborers in a secluded alley. The clothing had been removed and was piled nearby. Death was caused by two stabs in the neck, one of which cut the jugular vein. After these fatal stabs the ripper, as in the case of the other nineteen girls (sic - at least one was a mature woman), made other cuts on the body.
So far the detectives have been unable to find a clue to the slayer. The negroes, who are in a state of terror and try to keep their women off the streets at night, have offered a large reward for the arrest of the murderer. |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Sunday, 26 January 2003 - 08:51 pm | | Here is the lengthy article (second in the series of three), from the third page of the first section of the Times for Monday, 3 July 1911:
EIGHT VICTIMS NOW OF ATLANTA RIPPER
Mulatto Women Slain and Mutilated on Eight (sic - Should be "Seven") Consecutive Saturday Nights.
NEGROES ARE IN TERROR
Woman Who Escaped Describes Assailant as Large Black Man Neatly Dressed.
Special to the New York Times.
ATLANTA, Ga., July 2--The eighth (sic) weekly victim of Atlanta's "Jack the Ripper" came to her death Saturday night at the same hour and in almost identically the same manner in which the other seven (sic) mulatto women were killed. This eighth victim is Lena Sharpe, aged about 40 years. The woman was found dead with her head almost severed, and her body horribly mutilated.
Soon after the daughter of the dead woman, who had gone in search of her, was attacked by a negro whom she had never seen before. The daughter, too, was badly cut, but managed to make her escape, and it is thought she will recover. She describes her assailant as a large black man, powerfully built, and neatly dressed. She asserts that he spoke to her and attempted to engage her in conversation. She took fright, she says, and as she started to run, was stabbed in the back.
The police are more than ever mystified, and are working in the dark. Meantime the entire negro population has become terrorized. To-night there are few negro women on the streets. Negro preachers have taken the murders for a text, and their congregations, always emotional, have been worked up into a state of religious frenzy. Negro cooks and housemaids are refusing to work after dark in cases where they have any distance to go to their homes afterward.
Killings of negroes by negroes are frequent enough on Saturday nights, when blind tiger whisky has been flowing freely, and if the murders had been of the ordinary kind even a series of them would have caused little stir among the blacks. The eight killings of the eight past weeks, however, appear to be the work of a madman as methodical and cunning as the Jack the Ripper whose gruesome murders in the Whitechapel district of London over twenty years ago startled the world.
The Atlanta ripper seems to possess some knowledge of anatomy. The first stroke is always in a fatal spot and death is dealt out with absolute certainty. It is afterward that carving up of the victim--always in the same region of the body--begins. The woman is then left to welter in her blood in some dark, obscure alley. Sometimes the crime has not been discovered until Sunday morning.
It appears that the murder is not committed after the accomplishment of the crime for which negroes are so frequently lynched. [In other words, they weren't raped. -- JJP] Invariably the victims have been good looking, neatly dressed, and physically attractive. More than one of them has received an education in one of the many schools for negroes founded by philanthropic white people at (sic) the North.
Not in a single instance has an out-and-out black woman been murdered in the manner described; and the word has gone forth among them that they are safe.
It would seem that all of the negroes had been killed with the same instrument, a razor or a very sharp knife such as surgeons use. Save in one instance, the throat was cut from ear to ear, and the wound was clean. No stab marks were evident. All wounds were made as if the victim had been seized suddenly, head held back and the blade drawn swiftly across in a horizontal direction. The jugular vein was in each case completely severed, and death must have been all but instantaneous.
The murders have not been confined to one part of the city, but have been widely separated. Each Saturday night a new spot has been selected. |
Author: Billy Markland
Monday, 27 January 2003 - 11:38 am | | J.J., very interesting posts!
For some strange reason, the first thought which popped through my brain on reading the longer Times article was, "Undertaker".
Billy |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Monday, 03 February 2003 - 04:04 pm | | | Billy, Do you mean you think that the Atlanta Ripper was an undertaker? Jeff |
Author: Billy Markland
Monday, 03 February 2003 - 05:14 pm | | JJ, when I was growing up in the rural South, only 4 classes of people were "well dressed": lawyers, doctors, bankers, and undertakers. Since in my home town we had only a black undertaker, he was always the best dressed black man in town. Being how these murders occurred in the city, there would have been more of a middle class of black merchants, lawyers, etc. who could afford to dress well so my experience would not correlate to that environment.
But yes, my thought, for the reasons above, is the killer was an undertaker.
Billy |
Author: chris scott
Tuesday, 04 February 2003 - 08:48 am | | Hi James
This may be of some help. There is a discussion board (in French unfortunately!! - no disrespect to France) at http://jackleventreur.free.fr/lecteurs.htm
which has a lot of content about the Atlanta killing of 1911-12 and I noted that there is reference to a "20th century book" called Jack the Ripper: Georgia 1911-1912 and referes to a website of the publisher
www.loompanics.com
Message No 5, a lengthy entry, mentions this and seems quite informative. Without wishing to sound patronising, if your French is not too good, let me know and I will post a translation of this article.
All the best
Chris S |
Author: James Jeffrey Paul
Tuesday, 04 February 2003 - 11:11 am | | Chris, Many thanks, my French-speaking buddy (do you eat snails and like Jerry Lewis too? Ha ha hah!), but I know of the site and the article you mention is the "Atlanta Ripper" entry from Michael Newton's invaluable book, HUNTING HUMANS, which I've already referenced.
Merci! Oui oui! And Pepe Le Pew has searched ze world ovair for ze right skonk for heem. C'est tres simple--Pepe speaks French, ze universal language uf luff! |
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