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The Servant Girl Annihilator · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, everyone gather around, because today we're stepping back
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  in time, back to eighteen eighty four to be exact.
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  We're headed to Austin, Texas for a deep dive into
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  a case that still sends chills down your spine. The
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  Servant Girl Annihilator.
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  Speaker 2: You know what makes this case stick with you even
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  after all this time, is the way it makes you
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  think about safety, about the things we just can't explain.
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  Imagine a city right on the edge of change, still
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  holding on to that wild West feel, and then suddenly
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  you have these murders and no one knows why.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so paint the picture for us. What was
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  Austin like back then? I mean, I know it wasn't
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  the Austin we know now, But what made this case
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  so unsettling for the people who live through it.
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  Speaker 2: Think dirt roads, flickering gas lamps, that kind of place
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  where rumors spread like wildfire and fear takes rude overnight.
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  This wasn't the tech hub we know today, No, sir,
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  This was a different Austin, and Austin still figuring itself out,
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  haunted by its own past.
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  Speaker 1: And then in the middle of all that you have
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  a serial killer I mean, talk about turning the fear
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  up to a exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And what makes these killings even more unsettling is they
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  didn't just happen anywhere. These were homes, people, safe spaces,
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  attacked in their own beds, some even dragged outside before.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's enough to give anyone chills. Hearing serial
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  killer is one thing, but those details, that's what gets you,
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  like something out of a scary story. But this was
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  all too real.
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  Speaker 2: And get this, there's a literary connection that just adds
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  to the whole atmosphere. William Sidney Porter, you might know
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  him as Oh Henry the Writer. He was living in
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  Austin right during all of this, and he even mentions
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  the Servant Girl Annihilator in a letter. He wrote, like
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  it was this creepy open secret hanging over the whole city.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, talk about a creepy coincidence. It's like suddenly realizing
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  the history you thought you knew has this whole other
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  dark side.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and this case is full of those what if moments.
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  And what really makes you think is back then they
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  didn't have the tools we have now, no fancy forensics,
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  no DNA analysis. They were trying to solve this with
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  eyewitness accounts, which, be honest, could be pretty unreliable. Imagine
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  trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces gone
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  and the other half faded with time.
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  Speaker 1: Makes you wonder would we even be talking about this
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  today if it happened now, with all the technology we have,
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  would it be another case salt forgotten in the archives?
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  Speaker 2: That's the million dollar question, isn't it. It really shows
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  you how much we rely on science to make sense
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  of the senseless, and when those tools are gone, well,
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  it makes you appreciate what we have now.
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  Speaker 1: Trying to solve a modern mystery using whispers and gaslight.
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  All right, So with that in mind, let's talk victims.
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  What really struck me about this case is that it
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  wasn't just one type of person being targeted. This wasn't
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  a case of a killer with a specific type.
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  Speaker 2: You hit the nail on the head. That's one of
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  the big mysteries here. We're talking Molly Smith, Clara Strand,
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  Christine Martinsen. The list goes on men, women, black, white,
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  from eleven years old to adults. It's that randomness that
• 2:55
  really deepens the mystery, makes it that much harder to crack.
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  Speaker 1: It's like searching for at that doesn't exist. Was it
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  actually random or is there something we're just not seeing.
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  It's enough to make your head spin.
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  Speaker 2: And then when you look closer at the crimes themselves,
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  that unsettling feeling you get. Yeah, it gets worse because
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  as different as the victims were, the way they were killed,
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  it was eerily similar. Most of them attacked at home.
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  It paints a disturbing picture, doesn't it, Like the killer
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  was comfortable familiar being in those spaces.
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  Speaker 1: And the violence. I read that some of the sources
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  describe the victims as utterly mutilated. This wasn't just about
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  ending a life. This was something else, something much darker.
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  Speaker 2: And that's where the theories, the speculation, it all tastes root.
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  When you're faced with something you can't explain, you start
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  grasping for any explanation, any story, to make sense of
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  the chaos. Yeah, like the whole city was holding its breath,
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  waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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  Speaker 1: So, in all that fear and uncertainty, what were people
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  saying at the time, any theories about who or what
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  was behind it all?
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  Speaker 2: Imagine a city feeding on rumors, right, some folks they
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  clung to that image of a lone wolf, some shadowy
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  figure slipping through the night. But others they couldn't wrap
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  their heads around that level of violence from just one person.
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  So what they do They whisper about conspiracies, secret societies,
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  even gangs working together. Gangs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the source mentioned that the possibility of accomplices. That's chilling.
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  The thought of it not even being one person but
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  a group.
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  Speaker 2: It just adds to that feeling that something awful has
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  its grip on this city. And it's important to remember
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  this fear. It didn't hit everyone the same way. Among
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  Austin's African American community, there was this belief that the
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  killer was a white man, but with a twist, they
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  thought he had magic powers.
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  Speaker 1: Magic powers. Wow, talk about fear warping reality. It really
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  shows you how deep the racial divide was back then,
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  how mistrust and suspicion could color everything.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and trying to find the truth in all this
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  it was like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands.
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  There were witnesses, sure, but their stories rarely lined up.
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  One would say the killer was light skin, the next
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  would say he was darker, even described as a yellow man.
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  The Skui's was sooted.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about unreliable narrator. It makes you realize how easily
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  memories can be influenced, especially in moments of terror.
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  Speaker 2: Right, imagine seeing something so horrific, so far outside your
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  everyday experience, your mind's going to try to make sense
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  of it somehow, even if it has to invent details.
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  Speaker 1: So we've got a city living in fear, brutal murders,
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  and theories flying faster than bats out of hell. And then,
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  just to throw another log on the fire, a possible
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  suspect emerges. In twenty fourteen, that PBS show History Detective.
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  They did an episode on this and they brought up
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  this guy, Nathan Elgin. So what makes them different from
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  all the other dead ends and whispers.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Elgin story it kind of wheezs its way into
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  the case in these really specific ways. First off, he's
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  a young guy, just nineteen, worked as a cook and
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  guess what he lived and worked right around where several
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  of the murders happened. But here's the real kicker. He
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  was missing a toe and you know they found it
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  one of the crime scenes, footprint matching that exact description.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's not something you can easily explain away
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  how many people are walking around with a missing toe.
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  But it gets even wilder, right, because then there's how
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  Elgin himself died.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, talk about a twist. Two years after the
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  last Servant Girl Annihilator murder eighteen eighty six, Elgin gets
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  shot and killed by the police, no less official story.
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  He was attacking a young girl with a knife.
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  Speaker 1: So we've got the whole proximity thing, the physical evidence,
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  and then Elgin's own violence streak. Seems like everything lines up.
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  So does this give people that sense of closure? Do
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  they breathe a sigh of relief and say, Okay, we
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  finally know who the monster was.
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  Speaker 2: Wouldn't that be nice to finally put a face to
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  the nightmare? Right? But here's the thing about the truth.
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  He usually doesn't play by Hollywood rules.
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  Speaker 1: There's always a butt, isn't there?
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  Speaker 2: That always is, and it's a big one. See, it's
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  intriguing as Elgin's story is. He was never actually charged
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  with any of the Servant Girl Annihilator murders.
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  Speaker 1: So we're talking compelling but ultimately circumstantial evidence.
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  Speaker 2: You got it. We've got proximity, we've got a physical
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  characteristic that kind of matches up and then his own
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  violent end. But it's all two years after the murder stopped.
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  It's like trying to fit puzzle pieces from different boxes.
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  They might go together, or they might just be close
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  enough to make you think they do.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what makes this case so frustratingly fascinating. Right,
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  You think you're getting close and then it slips away.
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  Why did the murderers just stop? Did the killer get
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  spooked and skip down die for some unrelated reason? Or
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  is there a whole other piece of the puzzle we
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  just haven't found yet.
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  Speaker 2: The silence is deafening, isn't it. Those unanswered questions just
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  echo through history. In this case, it's got enough silence
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  to spawn a whole library of theories.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking of theories, can we talk about that Tannis episode
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  on this case? For anyone who hasn't listened, Tannis is
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  this podcast, and they go deep on some seriously weird stuff.
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  Their take on the Servant Girl Annihilator. While doesn't even
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  begin to cover it, no.
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  Speaker 2: Kidding, it really highlights how this case just grabs hold
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  of your imagination, makes you want to connect the dots,
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  even if those dots really really far apart. Yeah, but
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  you know, as entertaining as Tannis is, they do like
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  to play fast and loose with the facts. So take
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  it with a grain of salt, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, like a scary story around a campfire. Fun to
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  get spooked, but maybe don't let it keep you up
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  at nights. Easy to get lost in the possibilities, especially
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  with the case this shrouded in mystery.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, but even if you strip away the wildest theories,
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  what you're left with is still deeply unsettling. These murders,
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  they weren't just random acts of violence. They were invasions,
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  violations of the one place were supposed to feel safe,
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  are homes, and that fear. That's something that still resonates today.
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  Speaker 1: It really makes you wonder, how would we even begin
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  to tackle this case with all the tools we have now.
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  Would DNA testing be the magic bullet? Or would all
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  the lost time, the faded memories, the whispers lost to history.
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  Would it all just be too much to overcome?
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  Speaker 2: That's the question, isn't it, And it might be one
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  we never truly answer. But maybe that's why we keep
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  coming back of these old cases, these glimpses into the past.
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  They remind us how much we don't know how much
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  we're still trying to understand, And sometimes the most captivating
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  mysteries they're the ones that leave us with more questions
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  than answers.
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  Speaker 1: Well said, We've walked the gas lit streets, we've poured
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  over the details, and we've grappled with the theories. But
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  the Servant Girl Annihilator case it remains stubbornly unsolved, a
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  chilling reminder that some stories, no matter how hard we
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  chase them, might just hold onto their secrets forever. And
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  for anyone who wants to dive deeper into this case,
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  we'll be sure to link all our sources, including that
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  tennis episode in the show notes, just maybe don't listen
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  to it right before bed until next time. Keep those
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  brains buzzing, keep asking questions, and remember, sometimes the most
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  fascinating mysteries are the ones that never truly end.