This axe murderer who killed servants was never caught

Dani Erinn
4 min readApr 16, 2024

An unidentified American serial killer stalked Austin, Texas in 1884 and 1885. Known as the Servant Girl Annihilator or the Austin Axe Murderer, this supposed madman killed eight humans three years before the Jack the Ripper murders occurred.

Photo by Alexei Scutari on Unsplash

The murders

Texas Monthly shared with the world that this unknown killer murdered seven women and one black man. Five of the women were black and two were white. In addition to the murders, they also seriously injured six women and two men.

All eight of the victims were attacked while they were asleep in their beds. Five of the women were dragged unconscious out of their beds and outside while still alive. Three of those five were mutilated by an axe after being dragged.

While it isn’t clear what the position was, a few news outlets reported the victims were all posed in a similar position. Oddly enough, six of the murdered women were found with unknown “sharp objects” inserted into their ears.

The last two be murdered was two white women, Eula Philips and Susan Hancock. Susan Hancock was sleeping in bed next to her 16-year-old daughter when she was attacked with her husband supposedly also in the house. Moses Hancock was accused of killing his wife for a time but was eventually found innocent.

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Dani Erinn

I love writing true crime and fascinating stories about humans.