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3 UNCAUGHT Serial Killers · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: There are some serial killers who we have the misfortune
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Speaker 1: of knowing their names and hearing their twisted stories or
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Speaker 1: fortunate depending on how you look at it. But then
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Speaker 1: there are those who managed to get away, slipping through
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Speaker 1: the very cracks of history. They would leave behind bodies
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Speaker 1: and fear, but more than anything else, they'd leave behind
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Speaker 1: so many questions. It's as if they were just shadows
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Speaker 1: who left no trace of a name or face that
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Speaker 1: we could tie to the monstrosities they committed. These are
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Speaker 1: three serial killers who vanished into history. Crime, conspiracy, gults,
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Speaker 1: serial killers and murder all things that I love to
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Speaker 1: consume and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful,
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Speaker 1: intellectually minded freak. And today we are talking about the
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Speaker 1: scariest thing ever, and that is murderers, serial killers just
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Speaker 1: still walking around out there, potentially so without further ado,
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Speaker 1: let's unbuckle or seatp's gomockfied on the highway's level the
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Speaker 1: ranks and buster this windshield into these uncaught serial killers together.
1:26
Speaker 1: The Connecticut River flows through a group of small towns
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Speaker 1: and farmlands near the border of New Hampshire and Vermont,
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Speaker 1: and it's a spot where a violent crime was once
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Speaker 1: an almost unimaginable thing, full of dense woods, rich agriculture
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Speaker 1: and tight knit communities. But as the nineteen eighties arrived
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Speaker 1: at this quiet region, so did a series of unexplained murders,
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Speaker 1: and the seeming innocence of northern New England would quickly disappear,
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Speaker 1: replaced by the haunting shadow of a serial killer. Twenty
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Speaker 1: seven year old Catherine Milliken went to take pictures of
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Speaker 1: birds after work on October twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight,
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Speaker 1: and she parked her brown Volkswagen Rabbit near the entrance
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Speaker 1: of the chandler Brook Wetland Reserve in New London, New Hampshire,
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Speaker 1: and wandered in, never to return because her body was
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Speaker 1: discovered the next day, only a short distance away from
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Speaker 1: where she was last seen, with at least twenty nine
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Speaker 1: step wounds, and Catherine was one of the very first
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Speaker 1: victims of what would later become known as the Connecticut
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Speaker 1: River Valley murders. And just about three years later, Mary
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Critchley, who was thirty seven years old, would disappear
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Speaker 1: on July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty one, near I ninety
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Speaker 1: one on the Massachusetts in Vermont border and She was
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Speaker 1: a student at the University of Vermont and was last
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Speaker 1: seen by a friend who dropped her off around exit
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Speaker 1: thirteen of the Massachusetts Turnpike to hitchhike, and unfortunately, her
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Speaker 1: body would be found a couple weeks later in a
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Speaker 1: wooded area some eighty miles from that drop off point,
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Speaker 1: too decomposed to determine the cause of death, and then
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Speaker 1: it took another three years for the violence to resume
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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty four, so on May thirtieth, a nurse's
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Speaker 1: aide named Bernice court Monch also vanished while hitchhiking from
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Speaker 1: Claremont to Newport, New Hampshire, and she went to visit
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Speaker 1: her boyfriend, but after some time had passed without her
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Speaker 1: reaching her destination, she was missing, and a fisherman would
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Speaker 1: find her remains by the Sugar River two years later,
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Speaker 1: with sta wounds on her chest and a head injury
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Speaker 1: and her throat stopped.
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Speaker 2: And only a.
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Speaker 1: Few weeks after Bernice's disappearance, Ellen ruth Fried, who was
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Speaker 1: twenty six years old and didn't show up for her
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Speaker 1: work as a supervising nurse at Valley Regional Hospital and
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Speaker 1: the night before, on July twenty second, she had stopped
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Speaker 1: at a payphone around two am to call her sister
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Speaker 1: and they spoke for around an hour, and during the
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Speaker 1: conversation she mentioned that she could see an odd car
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Speaker 1: driving back and forth and in circles around the parking lot,
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Speaker 1: and she stepped away for a month, meant to make
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Speaker 1: sure her car would turn on, and then went.
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Speaker 2: Back to the call.
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Speaker 1: But that was the last time she was heard from,
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Speaker 1: and her car was found a few miles from the payphone, abandoned,
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Speaker 1: and her remains were found in August, showing signs of
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Speaker 1: multiple spoons again and possible essays and the killer, perhaps
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Speaker 1: growing more bolds from remaining uncought, struck again in broad daylight,
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Speaker 1: this time claiming Linda Moore, who was thirty six years old,
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Speaker 1: and she had been doing yard work at her home
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Speaker 1: while her husband was at work on April fifteenth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty six, and when her husband returned home that evening,
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Speaker 1: he discovered Linda dead with twenty five spoons after what
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Speaker 1: appeared to be a fierce struggle, but there were no
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Speaker 1: signs of robbery or forced entry. That witnesses do recall
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Speaker 1: having seen a man suspiciously hanging around that home that
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Speaker 1: afternoon and that man was described to be around twenty
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Speaker 1: to twenty five years old, clean shaven, with a owned face,
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Speaker 1: stocky build, wearing dark rimmed glasses and carrying a blue knapsack.
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Speaker 1: And then laggers in Unity, New Hampshire were startled to
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Speaker 1: find the remains of Eva Marie Morse, who was twenty
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Speaker 1: seven years old on April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty six,
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Speaker 1: so the same year, only five hundred feet from where
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Speaker 1: Critchley's body was found in nineteen eighty one, and the
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Speaker 1: single mother went missing a year prior after having last
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Speaker 1: been seen hitchhiking near Charleston, New Hampshire, and examinations of
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Speaker 1: the body revealed she suffered night wounds to her chest
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Speaker 1: and to her neck. So this discovery of multiple bodies
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Speaker 1: in a short amount of time was alarming, and the
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Speaker 1: killer wasn't quite done because on January tenth, nineteen eighty seven,
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Speaker 1: now nurse Barbara Agnew, who was thirty eight years old,
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Speaker 1: disappeared while heading home on a snowy night in Vermont,
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Speaker 1: and her green BMW was found at a rest stop
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Speaker 1: in Hartford with a cracked door and bloodstains on the
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Speaker 1: steering wheel and back seat and a dumpster nearby held
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Speaker 1: her bloodstained belongings, and her body was found two months
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Speaker 1: later on March twenty eighth, near an apple tree in
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Speaker 1: a wooded area, and she was also stabbed multiple times
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Speaker 1: in the chest and the neck. She also had quote
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Speaker 1: defensive wounds as well as a disabling wound unquote. So
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Speaker 1: the mo is just so extremely similar with all of
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Speaker 1: these women, especially the way in which they are killed
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Speaker 1: and the way in which they are disposed of. But
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Speaker 1: the murderer's last known attack was against Jane Barrowski, who
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Speaker 1: was twenty two years old on the night of August sixth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, and the seven months pregnant soon to
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Speaker 1: be mother was approached and pulled from her car at
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Speaker 1: a closed convenience store in West Swansea, New Hampshire, because
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Speaker 1: she had stopped on her way home from a fair
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Speaker 1: to buy a soda from the vending machine when she
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Speaker 1: noticed an unfamiliar jeep wagoneer parked directly next to her,
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Speaker 1: so she got back into her car and that's when
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Speaker 1: she saw a man exit the jeep and move around
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Speaker 1: the back of her car, and then he came to
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Speaker 1: her window under the guise of asking if the payphone
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Speaker 1: was working, but quickly grabbed her and pulled her from
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Speaker 1: her car, accusing her of attacking his girlfriend, and Broski
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Speaker 1: confirmed she did not attack his girlfriend and knew nothing
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Speaker 1: of the incident, but he continued staying her twenty seven
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Speaker 1: times before speeding off, leaving her for dead. But miraculously
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Speaker 1: and thankfully, she survived and drove to a nearby friend's house,
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Speaker 1: who immediately called for help, and allegedly she passed by
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Speaker 1: her attacker on the way and he pulled a U
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Speaker 1: turn to drive by the house as she was taken
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Speaker 1: care of, before speeding off once more absolutely horrifying, but
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Speaker 1: after that moment he was never seen again, and Broski
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Speaker 1: was treated at a nearby hospital for a quote severed
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Speaker 1: jugular vein, two collapsed lungs, a kidney laceration, and severed
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Speaker 1: tendons in her knees and thumb unquote, and miraculously, again,
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Speaker 1: somehow her unborn baby girl survived, though she was later
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Speaker 1: diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy. Like, what a miracle and
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Speaker 1: what a fighter to be able to make it through
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Speaker 1: that and still be able to help out the police
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Speaker 1: and talk about the attacker. I just commend that woman,
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Speaker 1: so the attacker and his vehicle were visible enough for
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Speaker 1: Boroski to provide a description for a composite sketch and
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Speaker 1: the first three characters of the license plate, but there
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Speaker 1: were no more related killings after her near death experience,
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Speaker 1: and some investigators do believe that the killer may have
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Speaker 1: actually claimed a few more victims, but the mo is
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Speaker 1: so off, with some of the women dying of fixation
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Speaker 1: or blending and the ages being completely different than all
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Speaker 1: of the other victims, so they aren't put into this
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Speaker 1: specific serial killer, but some speculate. But the confirmed murders
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Speaker 1: happened within about a fifty mile radius in the Connecticut
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Speaker 1: River Valley, and many of the bodies were discovered in
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Speaker 1: the remote wooded areas of Sullivan County, New Hampshire, suggesting
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Speaker 1: the killer likely knew these areas quite well. So all
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Speaker 1: in all, there were at least seven women that were
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Speaker 1: murdered and one more that was attacked and survived between
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight and nineteen eighty eight, and the consistent
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Speaker 1: pattern of the victim profile and brutal stabbings seemed to
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Speaker 1: point to a single killer who terrorized to this Otherwise
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Speaker 1: peaceful region, and because these murders and their respective dump
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Speaker 1: sites spanned over three states, including New Hampshire, Vermont, and
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Speaker 1: bordering Massachusetts, law enforcement ran into a few coordination hurdles.
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Speaker 1: Because these were generally small towns and rural areas, police
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Speaker 1: resources were not as plentiful as the bigger city counterparts,
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Speaker 1: and the fact that these murders were the work of
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Speaker 1: a serial killer and could be connected was an act
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Speaker 1: realized until midway through the nineteen eighties, several years after
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Speaker 1: the first murder had happened. And on top of that,
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Speaker 1: police databases back then were essentially babies compared to the
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Speaker 1: databases we have now. Having a centralized location of information
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Speaker 1: was a luxury yet to be realized, and not to mention,
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Speaker 1: DNA profiling had only just begun to gain traction around
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Speaker 1: despite those difficulties, investigators got a major breakthrough with Jane
12:35
Speaker 1: Burrowsky because a composite sketch of her attacker and partial
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Speaker 1: license plate gave them something tangible to go off of
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Speaker 1: because this was the only actual eyewitness account of the killer.
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Speaker 1: Im sure, there was the description of the man at
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Speaker 1: the more residents, but no one saw that man actually
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Speaker 1: commit the murder. And investigators also noted a similar pattern
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Speaker 1: of wounds on the victims, which were multiple furious wounds,
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Speaker 1: often upwards of twenty suggesting that these cases were in
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Speaker 1: fact linked by a single killer. With a love for
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Speaker 1: using a knife specifically, and though the supposed knife was
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Speaker 1: never found and the crime scenes as a whole tended
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Speaker 1: to have minimal physical evidence, the locations of the bodies
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Speaker 1: provided a pattern as well, because several of the victim's
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Speaker 1: remains were found close to each other, some very very close,
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Speaker 1: some within five hundred feet of each other, which points
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Speaker 1: to the killer having a deep knowledge and preference of
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Speaker 1: wooded areas. And the investigation has continued even as recently
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Speaker 1: as May twenty twenty four, when authorities entered a home
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Speaker 1: in Newport, New Hampshire to execute a new search warrant
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Speaker 1: and potential evidence was allegedly collected and a person was interviewed,
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Speaker 1: but no arrest came of it. But the important part
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Speaker 1: is that the show's investigators are actively looking into leads
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Speaker 1: still and years after the murders, a man named Michael
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Speaker 1: Niccolo became a prominent suspect, and he was a decorated
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Speaker 1: Army helicopter pilot who served in the Vietnam War before
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Speaker 1: being charged with murder and attempted murder for a strafing
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Speaker 1: incident against civilians. And strafing, for those who aren't familiar,
14:11
Speaker 1: is firing automatic weapons from a low flying aircraft really
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Speaker 1: fucked dangerous and illegal, but the charges were ultimately dropped.
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Speaker 1: But Nicolo returned from the war bitter against the US
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Speaker 1: Army and sued them, and he suffered from PTSD and
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Speaker 1: received treatment from the Veterans Administration for the rest of
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Speaker 1: his life. But ultimately his life would end in the
14:36
Speaker 1: way you can't talk about on YouTube if you know
14:38
Speaker 1: what I mean, on New Year's Eve in two thousand
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Speaker 1: and five, during which he also showed his then estranged
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Speaker 1: wife Eileen and his stepdaughter Taran. So after hearing the
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Speaker 1: news of this death, private investigator Lynn Marie Carti was
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Speaker 1: compelled to dive into his history, and she had actually
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Speaker 1: already been hired by the mother of Nikolo's first wife,
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Speaker 1: miche Michelle, to look into the disappearance of her daughter.
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Speaker 1: So as Carti reached in Nicolo's past, she also began
15:06
Speaker 1: to look into other New England crimes that happened around
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Speaker 1: Michelle's disappearance, and this led her to the Connecticut River
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Speaker 1: Valley murders. And there were a few points of interest
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Speaker 1: that she couldn't ignore, namely that Michelle was a nurse,
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Speaker 1: which was the same profession that a few other victims
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Speaker 1: also shared and though Nicolo's home was some distance away
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Speaker 1: from the murders, Carti discovered that Michelle had relatives in
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Speaker 1: the area, and in nineteen eighty six, she was at
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Speaker 1: the same hospital Barbara Agnew would disappear from just one
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Speaker 1: year later, and Nicolo also owned a jeep Wagoneer in
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Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, which of course is the same vehicle.
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Speaker 1: Jane Barroski reported that her attacker drove coincidence. I think
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Speaker 1: I don't know, but it's it doesn't that I feel
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Speaker 1: like it's not a stretch, and Carti connected with Barroski
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Speaker 1: and shared the evidence she had discovered. Nebroski allegedly initially
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Speaker 1: claimed that Niccolo bore some resemblance to her attacker, but
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Speaker 1: she later believed that he was not so. Authorities have
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Speaker 1: not made any conclusive link to Niccolo and the murders
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Speaker 1: to date, and other suspects have appeared into the limelight
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Speaker 1: over the years, but unfortunately left as quickly as they came.
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Speaker 1: One was Delbert Tellman, who confessed to and murder of
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Speaker 1: Heidi Martin, but he later recanted this confession and was
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Speaker 1: fully acquitted, though he would eventually be convicted as a
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Speaker 1: you know what offender for a later crime, but there
16:33
Speaker 1: was no current link to him and the Connecticut River
16:36
Speaker 1: Valley murders. And another lead that ultimately fell through the
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Speaker 1: cracks was the confession of Gary Westover, a paraplegic from
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Speaker 1: New Hampshire, and he claimed he was picked up by
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Speaker 1: three friends one night for some partying and they ended
16:50
Speaker 1: up abducting and murdering Barbara Agnew and Westover relayed this
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Speaker 1: to his uncle, Howard Minnan, who was a retired deputy sheriff,
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Speaker 1: and Minnan attempted to give this con to his law
17:01
Speaker 1: enforcement contacts, who allegedly didn't care about the information. So
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Speaker 1: whether ignored by authorities or simply just inconclusive, it did
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Speaker 1: not lead to any.
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Speaker 2: New developments in the case.
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Speaker 1: So a lot of interesting suspects, but nothing, nothing concrete,
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Speaker 1: nothing conclusive, And though the killer remained elusive, their emma
17:23
Speaker 1: was rather consistent and extremely brutile because as victims were
17:26
Speaker 1: women that were alone and isolated and vulnerable locations, and
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Speaker 1: several of them were hitchhikers or in or near their
17:33
Speaker 1: cars alone. And then there was a weapon of choice,
17:36
Speaker 1: which was a knife and in which he used to
17:39
Speaker 1: the extreme, and he would focus a lot of the
17:42
Speaker 1: wounds to the chest and the neck specifically, And this
17:45
Speaker 1: just suggests a release of pent up rage and the
17:49
Speaker 1: killer just seemed to enjoy ambushing his victims. Not to mention,
17:53
Speaker 1: he seemed to move the bodies after the attacks, as
17:56
Speaker 1: many of the bodies were found in those wooded areas
17:58
Speaker 1: that we talked about. Many theorized that the Connecticut River
18:01
Speaker 1: Valley killer was very likely a serial offender who was
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Speaker 1: organized and familiar with the area on a deeply intimate level,
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Speaker 1: and this ability led investigators to believe that the killer
18:12
Speaker 1: was either someone who lived locally or someone that had
18:15
Speaker 1: long term ties to the area, someone who would be
18:19
Speaker 1: able to move around and be seen without arousing suspicion.
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Speaker 1: And criminal psychologist John Philippin posed the idea that the
18:27
Speaker 1: killer was not one who stalked their victims in advance. Rather,
18:31
Speaker 1: Philippin suggested that they hunted for victims by bouncing back
18:35
Speaker 1: and forth between favored spots in hopes of finding the
18:38
Speaker 1: right opportunity. So an opportunistic serial killer and they would
18:42
Speaker 1: then carry out the crime and move the body to
18:44
Speaker 1: a pre selected dump site. And the idea came about
18:48
Speaker 1: when Philippin had the opportunity to interview Barowski while she
18:52
Speaker 1: was under hypnosis, and the circumstances pointed to the fact
18:55
Speaker 1: that she was not stalked that day, as her decisions
18:58
Speaker 1: to attend the fair and stop soda were very last
19:01
Speaker 1: minute ones, not part of her usual day to day activities,
19:04
Speaker 1: and Philippin believed that the killer had an addiction to
19:07
Speaker 1: the struggle, and this is supported by the fact that
19:10
Speaker 1: they appeared to continue the attacks against Barowski as she
19:13
Speaker 1: intensely fought for her unborn daughter's life, and once she
19:17
Speaker 1: began to fade and the struggle subsided, so did the
19:20
Speaker 1: killer's interest. And the evidence that a struggle ensued with
19:24
Speaker 1: the other victims supports this idea as well, though for
19:27
Speaker 1: them he fully finished the job. So perhaps the fact
19:30
Speaker 1: that Barowski was fighting for her unborn child is the
19:33
Speaker 1: reason that she held on longer than the others. It's
19:36
Speaker 1: obviously very hard to say for sure, but regardless, the
19:40
Speaker 1: signs of struggles seemed too common for them to be
19:43
Speaker 1: a mere coincidence among the many victims. But as of today,
19:47
Speaker 1: the Connecticut River Valley murders are still officially unsolved, and
19:51
Speaker 1: they are considered a cold case or if actually disconnected
19:55
Speaker 1: a series of cases in the states of New Hampshire,
19:58
Speaker 1: Vermont in Massachusetts, and though the case went cold after
20:01
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, it was not forgotten and has been
20:04
Speaker 1: reviewed and re examined by cold case units, and with
20:07
Speaker 1: the many forensic advances we've made since the nineteen eighties,
20:11
Speaker 1: there is still hope.
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Speaker 2: That the case could be cracked.
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Speaker 1: Whether the break would come from preserved crime scene evidence
20:17
Speaker 1: like victim's clothing, hair, or any potential biological samples or
20:21
Speaker 1: something else is yet to be determined. But so far
20:24
Speaker 1: no DNA profile match for the killer has been made,
20:27
Speaker 1: and authorities still urge anyone with any information to come forward.
20:32
Speaker 1: Though officially speaking, the Connecticut River Valley killer is still
20:36
Speaker 1: at large, the likelihood is that he is rather old
20:40
Speaker 1: in age now, if he is even still alive, But
20:43
Speaker 1: the case continues to be one of New England's most
20:45
Speaker 1: haunting unsolved killing sprees, and we can only hope that
20:49
Speaker 1: one day that truth will be found and some sort
20:52
Speaker 1: of peace can be brought to the victims' families. I
20:55
Speaker 1: want to take a second to talk about the holidays,
20:58
Speaker 1: because the holidays are coming up that means we have
21:01
Speaker 1: to give gifts, and sometimes that's very hard. But something
21:04
Speaker 1: that you can literally give everyone and they will all
21:07
Speaker 1: like it is a Lola blanket. I have been genuinely
21:11
Speaker 1: obsessed with Lola blankets for I don't know, like six
21:15
Speaker 1: months now. They are genuinely the softest thing I've ever
21:19
Speaker 1: touched in my life, and I have touched a chinchilla
21:21
Speaker 1: I have, and luckily they're faue, so you don't have
21:24
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22:57
Speaker 1: The ancient city of Istanbul, Turkey, radiate from its rich
23:00
Speaker 1: culture bridging Europe and Asia. Millions and millions of people
23:04
Speaker 1: call it home, from the crowded bazaars to the packed fairies,
23:08
Speaker 1: to the vibrant nightlife. Istanbul is brimming with excitement at
23:12
Speaker 1: every turn, But even in a city quite used to chaos,
23:16
Speaker 1: wasn't ready for the gruesome mystery that began in early
23:19
Speaker 1: two thousand, when dismembered limbs started to appear in various
23:23
Speaker 1: public places, and the press would call the perpetrator the
23:27
Speaker 1: severed leg killer as their calling card seemed to be
23:31
Speaker 1: these lone legs left for discovery, Oh my fine god,
23:36
Speaker 1: that's disturbing. And as they continued to be found without
23:40
Speaker 1: so much as an inkling of the butcher's identity, a
23:43
Speaker 1: fear set in over the city. Quote Turkey's first real
23:47
Speaker 1: serial killer unquote was on the loose. And it began
23:50
Speaker 1: when a man in Istanbul's busy spice bazaar collecting papers
23:54
Speaker 1: from the trash noticed that there seemed to be blood
23:57
Speaker 1: on some of the papers on the morning of January eighth,
24:00
Speaker 1: two thousand, and upon closer inspection, he found a severed
24:04
Speaker 1: human leg, and police would determined that the leg had
24:08
Speaker 1: once belonged to a woman about twenty six to twenty
24:11
Speaker 1: seven years old, and that it was removed from the
24:14
Speaker 1: body one to three days earlier, and that it was
24:17
Speaker 1: well taken care of in that it was clean, shaven
24:21
Speaker 1: and pedicured, suggesting the woman took care of her appearance.
24:25
Speaker 1: And only a few short months later, in the early
24:28
Speaker 1: morning of May nineteenth, a captain docked his ship at
24:31
Speaker 1: Amino Nu Port where he heard something repeatedly bumping against
24:35
Speaker 1: his boat, and checking the water, he discovered that a
24:39
Speaker 1: severed leg was causing the noise. Initially believing it to
24:42
Speaker 1: be a leg from a mannequin, he pulled it out,
24:45
Speaker 1: only to realize it was actually a human leg. And
24:48
Speaker 1: right after the captain found the leg, one of the
24:50
Speaker 1: passengers found another leg on the shore, and forensic analysis
24:55
Speaker 1: examined the legs, determining them to be from a woman
24:59
Speaker 1: twenty five thirty years old, and the toes on both
25:02
Speaker 1: legs seemed to have dark red nail polish on them,
25:06
Speaker 1: so potentially the same person's legs.
25:08
Speaker 2: Oh, it's just so God, it's just terrifying.
25:12
Speaker 1: And they estimated it had been one to two weeks
25:15
Speaker 1: since the legs were removed from the body, though this
25:19
Speaker 1: was difficult to determine what the decomposition from the saltwater,
25:22
Speaker 1: and on December seventh, yet another severed leg was found,
25:27
Speaker 1: and this time by a group of high school students,
25:30
Speaker 1: and the leg belonged to a woman between the ages
25:32
Speaker 1: of twenty two to twenty four and was also well
25:35
Speaker 1: taken care of, just as the previous legs have been,
25:39
Speaker 1: and it was thought to be about one to two
25:42
Speaker 1: days old. So these grim limb findings would continue on
25:46
Speaker 1: into two thousand and one as well, with the first
25:49
Speaker 1: pair of the new year discovered on March twelve, and
25:52
Speaker 1: two garbage bags were found in the Haydar district, about
25:55
Speaker 1: fifty meters apart from each other, and each bag was
25:58
Speaker 1: home to a leg, though this time they were from
26:01
Speaker 1: different people. In one bag, the leg was determined to
26:04
Speaker 1: be from a twenty to twenty two year old woman
26:07
Speaker 1: and in the other the leg belonged to a twenty
26:09
Speaker 1: five to thirty year old man. This time so the
26:13
Speaker 1: mo has changed slightly and the woman's leg had been
26:16
Speaker 1: removed from the body cleanly, while the man's leg featured
26:19
Speaker 1: much rougher cuts and also traces of drugs and alcohol
26:23
Speaker 1: were found in the man's blood sample, suggesting he may
26:27
Speaker 1: have been incapacitated during the incident, and just ten days
26:31
Speaker 1: after the discovery of the two limbs in bags, a
26:34
Speaker 1: breakthrough occurred on March twenty second, when two garbage collectors
26:38
Speaker 1: found a severed leg in a subway line. This leg
26:41
Speaker 1: would belong to the only victim that was ever positively
26:44
Speaker 1: identified throughout the entirety of the case, and that was
26:48
Speaker 1: seventeen year old Yasamine d'argoun, who went missing two days
26:52
Speaker 1: prior after last being seen at a post office, and
26:56
Speaker 1: no blood was found at the discovery site, suggesting that
26:59
Speaker 1: the leg had been dunked in hot water after dismissed,
27:04
Speaker 1: possibly in an attempt to cleanse. It and her belongings
27:07
Speaker 1: were discovered two days later in a park, with only
27:10
Speaker 1: her phone missing, which was discovered later at A phone
27:14
Speaker 1: call was placed to a payphone at Durgan's school on
27:17
Speaker 1: March twenty fifth. When a student answered the call, a
27:20
Speaker 1: voice described as intoxicated or psychotic said, don't look for
27:25
Speaker 1: that girl. You won't find her ooo. Chilling as hell,
27:30
Speaker 1: and another similar call occurred a couple minutes later, and
27:32
Speaker 1: the anonymous taunting paints a picture of a killer aware
27:36
Speaker 1: of how the news of the crimes was spreading and
27:39
Speaker 1: enjoyed stirring the pot.
27:40
Speaker 2: Because he's a sick.
27:43
Speaker 1: And the last known victim's leg belonged to a thirty
27:45
Speaker 1: to thirty five year old man and it washed up
27:48
Speaker 1: along the shore of Multipay on July twentieth, And notably,
27:52
Speaker 1: this leg had been at the knee and toxology reports
27:55
Speaker 1: showed a high level of alcohol in his system, similar
27:59
Speaker 1: to that of the other male leg that was discovered
28:02
Speaker 1: months earlier. But no more severed legs were found after
28:05
Speaker 1: mid July, which brought the final count to seven victims,
28:09
Speaker 1: as two of the eight legs belonged to the same victim,
28:13
Speaker 1: so investigators believed that each of the seven victims was
28:16
Speaker 1: claimed by the same killer. There were six female legs
28:20
Speaker 1: belonged to five total victims and two male legs belonged
28:23
Speaker 1: to two total victims, and their ages ranged from seventeen
28:27
Speaker 1: to thirty five years old. And as mentioned, many of
28:30
Speaker 1: the legs appeared to be in good condition relatively, so
28:34
Speaker 1: that is to say, they were well taken care of
28:36
Speaker 1: by the victims themselves, clean shaved and pedicured or painted nails.
28:41
Speaker 1: And the only confirmed victim was the youngest of them
28:44
Speaker 1: and that she was a student with no known over
28:47
Speaker 1: rebellious behavior, so it just seemed to deepen the mystery,
28:52
Speaker 1: and the other six victims remain unidentified as Istanbul, Jane
28:56
Speaker 1: and John Does So Istanbul police were dealing with an
28:59
Speaker 1: unpressed in a case in Turkey's history, and as such,
29:02
Speaker 1: how could they be sure what they were dealing with,
29:05
Speaker 1: So as best as they could, they initially treated the
29:08
Speaker 1: first discovery as just one murder, naturally as you do,
29:12
Speaker 1: or maybe it was even from someone digging up corpses
29:15
Speaker 1: from graveyards, But as more and more legs turned up,
29:19
Speaker 1: it was clear that something bigger was at hand, and authorities,
29:23
Speaker 1: of course tried to match the legs to their original
29:25
Speaker 1: owners through missing persons reports, and they even got close
29:28
Speaker 1: with a pair of legs that had dark red nail
29:31
Speaker 1: polish on them, suspecting she was a Lady of the
29:34
Speaker 1: Knight who was based out of axe Arii and Taxom districts,
29:38
Speaker 1: but unfortunately no confirmation would come as they were unable
29:42
Speaker 1: to locate and contact the woman's family to get any
29:44
Speaker 1: DNA comparison. So it's entirely possible that several of the
29:48
Speaker 1: victims were involved in sensitive situations like Lady of the nighting,
29:53
Speaker 1: which only served to increase the difficulty of identification and
29:57
Speaker 1: add that along with the fact that the killer only
30:00
Speaker 1: he left legs behind as opposed to heads or fingers,
30:04
Speaker 1: and traditional identification was essentially thrown out the window, and
30:08
Speaker 1: limited forensic capabilities of the time also posed challenges because
30:13
Speaker 1: DNA profiling was still relatively young at this time and
30:16
Speaker 1: experts had little to compare DNA against, and managing the
30:20
Speaker 1: public panic iiO proved difficult because the limbs were discovered
30:24
Speaker 1: in public places, generally by your average person, so it's
30:28
Speaker 1: very easy to understand the widespread fear this might cause
30:31
Speaker 1: because everybody's thinking who would be next? It might be me,
30:35
Speaker 1: you know, you don't know, And it seemed obvious that
30:37
Speaker 1: the killer wanted these to be found and he wanted
30:41
Speaker 1: to spread fear, so keeping information under wraps was essentially
30:45
Speaker 1: impossible with the way that he was disposing of the legs,
30:48
Speaker 1: and if the information wasn't immediately publicly visible, then surely
30:52
Speaker 1: people talked about it and it was eventually leaked. But
30:55
Speaker 1: there really wasn't much to go on in regards to
30:58
Speaker 1: physical evidence other than the themselves, and the difference in
31:01
Speaker 1: the cuts on the female versus the male legs does
31:04
Speaker 1: seem to be of note, though what it means could
31:07
Speaker 1: be a number of different things. Maybe the killer struggled
31:11
Speaker 1: if the male bodies were heavier, or maybe the situations
31:15
Speaker 1: involving the males left the killer open to being interrupted,
31:18
Speaker 1: forcing a botched job. And it's also rather interesting that
31:22
Speaker 1: only the male victims seemed to have been drugged or intoxicated,
31:26
Speaker 1: possibly suggesting that the killer needed extra help in subduing
31:29
Speaker 1: the males, or that they initially targeted men that were
31:33
Speaker 1: already under the influence of something. Either way, it just
31:35
Speaker 1: made it easier for the killer to subdue them. And
31:38
Speaker 1: the lack of blood in Yasmin and Dragoon's case is
31:41
Speaker 1: fascinating as well, because why did the killer seem to
31:44
Speaker 1: go through more effort to conceal this particular murder, and
31:49
Speaker 1: even more so, how did this murder become the only
31:51
Speaker 1: one to be fully identified? And as mentioned, Yasmin's belongings
31:55
Speaker 1: were found, which is a rare bit of evidence considering
31:59
Speaker 1: nothing of the sort was fed for any of the
32:00
Speaker 1: other victims, and on top of that, the calls to
32:03
Speaker 1: her school are more than the killer did for any
32:06
Speaker 1: of the other victims that we know of. But ultimately,
32:08
Speaker 1: there's just a significant lack of evidence. There's very little
32:12
Speaker 1: CCTV and no witnesses from a city with millions of
32:16
Speaker 1: people who could potentially be a suspect left a very
32:19
Speaker 1: hard situation for law enforcement to overcome. So eventually Istanbul
32:23
Speaker 1: authorities reached out for help abroad, and they got it
32:26
Speaker 1: from an infamous American profiler, Richard Walter, who some view
32:30
Speaker 1: as one of the creators of modern profiling, and a
32:33
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three New York magazine article did accuse him
32:37
Speaker 1: of overstating his credentials and achievements, but either way, Walter
32:41
Speaker 1: studied the case and came up with a detailed psychological
32:44
Speaker 1: profile for an unknown killer. And according to this profile
32:47
Speaker 1: and some alleged personal commentary from the article it comes from,
32:51
Speaker 1: the killer was likely a male in his mid twenties.
32:54
Speaker 1: The murders of the female victims seemed to be sexually motivated,
32:58
Speaker 1: possibly due to his own inadequacy or that he wants
33:01
Speaker 1: to be attracted to women but is instead attracted to
33:04
Speaker 1: men potentially, and the murders to the male victims were
33:07
Speaker 1: likely due to their ties to the female victims and
33:11
Speaker 1: maybe they're partners of the victims or clients if they
33:14
Speaker 1: were ladies of the night, or maybe they're just collateral
33:18
Speaker 1: damage since they just happened to be present at the
33:21
Speaker 1: time of the murders of the female victims. And the
33:24
Speaker 1: killer had a killing ground of sorts, which was a
33:27
Speaker 1: single location in which he committed all of the murders,
33:30
Speaker 1: and he would victims into six pieces each arm, each leg,
33:35
Speaker 1: torso in head, but only the legs would be shown
33:37
Speaker 1: to the public, suggesting the killer wanted these specific parts
33:41
Speaker 1: found to make himself known and spread fear, but the
33:44
Speaker 1: rest of the parts would remain hidden, either to prevent
33:47
Speaker 1: full identification or just to be kept as trophies. And
33:51
Speaker 1: it also suggested that the killer would revisit the crime
33:53
Speaker 1: scenes later on to enjoy the chaos, reliving the thrill.
33:58
Speaker 1: And Walter's profile describes the killer as someone who was
34:01
Speaker 1: not originally from Istambul, potentially moving there for work, and
34:05
Speaker 1: this thought stems from the seeming lack of personal connections
34:08
Speaker 1: that could tie him to any of the missing persons,
34:11
Speaker 1: because when it came to transporting the bodies, the killer
34:14
Speaker 1: probably carried them in a suitcase or a used public transit,
34:17
Speaker 1: as the dump sites were generally busy central areas and
34:20
Speaker 1: would be very difficult accessing with a car, and this
34:23
Speaker 1: caused Walter to believe the killer didn't own a car
34:26
Speaker 1: at all, and he also likely worked a job that
34:29
Speaker 1: let him off work earlier in the day, or maybe
34:32
Speaker 1: he worked nights and the free time granted in the
34:35
Speaker 1: mornings and early afternoons are what allowed him to operate
34:38
Speaker 1: when others would have had difficulty. And given the methodical
34:41
Speaker 1: approach of the crimes, Walter believed that the killer had
34:45
Speaker 1: a history of violence and or institutionalization, and the suggestion
34:49
Speaker 1: that he targeted ladies of the night or others in
34:51
Speaker 1: potentially vulnerable positions, at least initially, was so he could
34:55
Speaker 1: build up his confidence to more difficult targets. He could
35:00
Speaker 1: see the success of his efforts, he was able to
35:03
Speaker 1: switch his focus and now whether his profile is fully
35:07
Speaker 1: true or accurate remains to be seen, but we have
35:10
Speaker 1: at least seen enough to confirm the following about his EMMO.
35:14
Speaker 1: The system was surprisingly simple at surface level. The killer
35:17
Speaker 1: would murder their victim, take a short amount of time,
35:20
Speaker 1: varying from a day to several days, judging from when
35:23
Speaker 1: the legs were found to diser. At least one leg
35:26
Speaker 1: from the victim's body and they would take this leg
35:28
Speaker 1: whether by public transport or simply walking, and place it
35:31
Speaker 1: in a highly public area to be discovered later. And
35:34
Speaker 1: these public areas allowed for the quickest discovery in the
35:37
Speaker 1: greatest level of shock. And then the killer seemed to
35:40
Speaker 1: sit back and watch as the events unfolded, as evidenced
35:43
Speaker 1: by the phone call shortly after the Durgoon murder. And
35:46
Speaker 1: it also appears that the killer operated on some sort
35:49
Speaker 1: of schedule because the incidents happened around weeks to months apart,
35:53
Speaker 1: and often during the early hours of the morning. And
35:56
Speaker 1: the more desired targets looked to be women, as there
35:59
Speaker 1: were many women legs found than men legs. But unfortunately,
36:03
Speaker 1: where the case stands today is cold. And to add
36:07
Speaker 1: insult to injury, the statue of limitations on the case
36:10
Speaker 1: expired in twenty twenty one for the last of the murders,
36:14
Speaker 1: meaning that even if we were to learn the true
36:16
Speaker 1: identity of the killer today, they could not be tried
36:19
Speaker 1: in Turkey for these specific crimes. I will never understand
36:24
Speaker 1: the statute of limitations.
36:25
Speaker 2: Who made that up? Who made that up? They should
36:28
Speaker 2: go to jail.
36:29
Speaker 1: Okay, no statute of limitations on the guy that made
36:31
Speaker 1: statutal limitations. Okay, thank you, but the investigation is closed
36:34
Speaker 1: in an official capacity as unsolved, and the files have
36:38
Speaker 1: been archived, and the killer most likely just Rome's free,
36:42
Speaker 1: assuming that the initial beliefs of their age were correct,
36:45
Speaker 1: And since the case is deemed closed, there are no
36:48
Speaker 1: active investigation efforts, though there are undoubtedly many armchair detectives
36:53
Speaker 1: still looking into it periodically, but all known leads have
36:56
Speaker 1: gone cold, and in light of no resolution in the case,
37:00
Speaker 1: the statute of limitations also comes into question because would
37:04
Speaker 1: the people be satisfied with the outcome that the killer
37:06
Speaker 1: is found but nothing can be done. I know I
37:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't be, But as it stands, there's nothing to be
37:12
Speaker 1: done unless the killer could be found guilty of something else.
37:16
Speaker 1: Turkey's first real serial killer has left quite a mark
37:20
Speaker 1: on the country, as many firsts do. But one thing
37:24
Speaker 1: we do know is at least six unknown names will
37:27
Speaker 1: never know justice, which is absolutely heartbreaking. Growth and change
37:39
Speaker 1: are two constants that the city of Austin, Texas knows
37:42
Speaker 1: all too well, and this was true even back in
37:45
Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties, because back then Austin was in the
37:48
Speaker 1: process of evolving from an old town on the frontier
37:52
Speaker 1: into a full fledged modern city, but in eighteen eighty four,
37:56
Speaker 1: multiple malicious murders against the working class would push the
37:59
Speaker 1: city into a state of fear, and they would mark
38:03
Speaker 1: one of the earliest recorded serial killer cases in America.
38:07
Speaker 1: So the spree began on December thirtieth, eighteen eighty four,
38:10
Speaker 1: when twenty five year old Molly Smith, who was an
38:13
Speaker 1: African American servant at the time, was attacked in the
38:16
Speaker 1: home of her employer, and the attacker snuck into Molly's
38:20
Speaker 1: room while she slept and hit on the head with
38:23
Speaker 1: an axe and after that she was and then dragged
38:27
Speaker 1: from the bedroom to the backyard. And thirty year old
38:30
Speaker 1: Walter Spencer, her partner, was also present that evening and
38:34
Speaker 1: was attacked as well, receiving serious wounds, but fortunately he survived,
38:40
Speaker 1: but Molly wasn't as lucky, and he was initially suspected,
38:44
Speaker 1: by his injuries and apparent lack of motive moved suspicions
38:47
Speaker 1: away from him. And then there was Clara Strand and
38:50
Speaker 1: Christine Martinsen, who are both Swedish immigrants and young domestic servants,
38:55
Speaker 1: who were viciously attacked in the servants quarters a few
38:59
Speaker 1: months later on March nineteenth, eighteen eighty five, and the
39:02
Speaker 1: two were seriously injured for life from the attack, but
39:06
Speaker 1: they did luckily survive. However, due to their attack or
39:09
Speaker 1: striking in the dark, they were unable to provide any
39:12
Speaker 1: detailed description. Yet their attack did begin to suggest a
39:15
Speaker 1: pattern and it appeared as if someone was targeting servant girls.
39:20
Speaker 1: And on May seventh, the killer struck again and the
39:23
Speaker 1: victim was thirty year old Eliza Shelley, a mother of
39:26
Speaker 1: three and a cook for a prominent family in town.
39:29
Speaker 1: And Eliza was found murdered in her bed that morning,
39:32
Speaker 1: and some accounts say by her coworkers and others say
39:35
Speaker 1: her children, as they were in the room asleep when
39:38
Speaker 1: it occurred, and her head had reportedly been blend with
39:42
Speaker 1: again an axe. And a little over two weeks later,
39:45
Speaker 1: thirty three year old African American servant Irene Cross was
39:49
Speaker 1: attacked with a large knife in her home on May
39:52
Speaker 1: twenty third, and some accounts say May twenty second, but
39:55
Speaker 1: those who came to help found her in critical condition
39:58
Speaker 1: with deep wounds. One reporter said she looked as if
40:01
Speaker 1: she was nearly scalped, and she did initially survive the attack,
40:05
Speaker 1: but only for a short time, and during that time
40:08
Speaker 1: where she was alive, was unable to provide any notable
40:11
Speaker 1: details of her attacker. And as the late summer of
40:13
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty five arrived, so did yet another bloody stretch
40:17
Speaker 1: of murders, starting with eleven year old Mary Raymie, who
40:21
Speaker 1: slept in bed with her mother, who was fifty years old,
40:25
Speaker 1: and on August thirtieth, Rebecca was attacked and knocked unconscious,
40:29
Speaker 1: after which the attacker took Mary outside where she would
40:33
Speaker 1: be with a rock through her ears and s absolutely
40:39
Speaker 1: disgusting and heartbreaking, and she would pass away from her
40:43
Speaker 1: wounds while her mother was inside and couldn't do anything
40:46
Speaker 1: because she was unconscious. And Rebecca did survive, but she
40:50
Speaker 1: was severely wounded. And then there was the double murder
40:54
Speaker 1: of Graceie Vance, a twenty year old African American servant
40:57
Speaker 1: again and Orange Washington, her twenty five year old partner,
41:02
Speaker 1: and it took place on September twenty eighth, where the
41:05
Speaker 1: couple were again sleeping in a shack behind Vance's employer's
41:09
Speaker 1: house when they were attacked with an axe as well,
41:12
Speaker 1: and both were hit repeatedly again on the head and
41:16
Speaker 1: vance would also be taken outside say and then two
41:20
Speaker 1: other people, Lucinda Boddy and Patsy Gibson, were also in
41:24
Speaker 1: the household and severely beaten, but did survive the attack.
41:28
Speaker 1: But the murders finally reached their climax on Christmas Eve
41:32
Speaker 1: with a rather surprising turn of offense, because this time
41:35
Speaker 1: the victims were Susan Hancock and Yula Phillips, both somewhat
41:40
Speaker 1: prominent white women this time who were killed just a
41:43
Speaker 1: few hours apart. And forty one year old Hancock was
41:46
Speaker 1: the first of the two to be slain, described by
41:49
Speaker 1: one reporter as quote one of the most refined ladies
41:53
Speaker 1: in Austin unquote. And she was found in the backyard
41:56
Speaker 1: by her husband, and she had been dragged from her
41:59
Speaker 1: bed and a t with an axe once again, and
42:02
Speaker 1: she died from her wounds. And then there were seventeen
42:04
Speaker 1: year old Phillips, who was murdered just a short while later,
42:08
Speaker 1: and her unclothed body was found in an alley behind
42:11
Speaker 1: her father in law's home, and she had also perished
42:14
Speaker 1: from the same type of wounds. And her husband, twenty
42:17
Speaker 1: four year old James Phillips, was found nearby also be
42:21
Speaker 1: and knocked unconscious from a head wound, but he would survive,
42:25
Speaker 1: and then no related attacks occurred following the Christmas Eve massacre.
42:30
Speaker 1: So the murders initially focused primarily on African American servant
42:34
Speaker 1: girls and their families, as all the early murder victims
42:38
Speaker 1: smith Shelley, Cross, Raby, and Vance were African American women
42:42
Speaker 1: working as servants or were the family of servants, so
42:46
Speaker 1: it's not a stretch that authorities suspected a racist or
42:49
Speaker 1: personal vendetta attack to the black community. However, as time
42:54
Speaker 1: passed and the total murder count reached eight people, seven
42:57
Speaker 1: women in one man, and at least seven an injured
43:00
Speaker 1: survivors spanning racial and social barriers, that assumption didn't hold
43:04
Speaker 1: as true, and the murders of Hancock and Phillips, as
43:08
Speaker 1: white women of higher social standing, changed the outlook and
43:12
Speaker 1: the methods of attack was fairly consistent across all incidences.
43:16
Speaker 1: The killer would strike late at night, often while the
43:18
Speaker 1: victims were sleeping in their beds, and they would usually
43:21
Speaker 1: be blind with an axe. Then some of them would
43:25
Speaker 1: be dragged outside and they would be asserted, and this
43:29
Speaker 1: could explain why the loved ones who were close by
43:31
Speaker 1: in a few situations never woke up in time because
43:34
Speaker 1: the killer may have quickly knocked out the victim and
43:37
Speaker 1: then snuck them outside without a sound, But many of
43:40
Speaker 1: the victims were reportedly as demonstrating a motive in addition
43:45
Speaker 1: to the desire to kill, and the killer also seemed
43:48
Speaker 1: to have a signature because several of the bodies had
43:51
Speaker 1: allegedly been posed in a similar way, and six of
43:55
Speaker 1: the victims had a sharp object inserted into their ears
43:58
Speaker 1: as well, And so the initial response of police was
44:01
Speaker 1: seemingly brute force, arresting as many men as possible in
44:05
Speaker 1: hopes of catching those responsible, and at least four hundred
44:09
Speaker 1: men were arrested through eighteen eighty five, according to a
44:12
Speaker 1: December New York Times article. In that year, and as
44:15
Speaker 1: a symptom of the times, the racial tensions of the
44:18
Speaker 1: investigation were significant as well, and Austin was segregated as
44:22
Speaker 1: evidence by servants sleeping in separate housing, and the early
44:26
Speaker 1: murders committed against African American servants may not have even
44:29
Speaker 1: gotten police attention if they didn't take place in more
44:32
Speaker 1: prominent white homes, which is incredibly sad, and many of
44:36
Speaker 1: the men that were rounded up were African American men
44:40
Speaker 1: and they were beaten for information, demonstrating racial assumptions by authorities,
44:45
Speaker 1: and when the murders continued, groups of vigilantes began roaming
44:48
Speaker 1: the streets at night, expressing their anger, fear, and frustration
44:52
Speaker 1: at the situation, and some African American communities even believed
44:56
Speaker 1: the killer or killers to be white men possessing magic powers,
45:00
Speaker 1: some sort of a voodoo magic, as no dogs seemed
45:04
Speaker 1: to bark nearby as the incidents happened as well, which
45:07
Speaker 1: is very odd, and as authorities were desperate to keep
45:10
Speaker 1: peace among the chaos, outside investigators were brought in, but
45:14
Speaker 1: unfortunately this did little to help, as they often took
45:17
Speaker 1: the same approach as local authorities, and the African American
45:20
Speaker 1: community as a whole did whatever they could to fight
45:23
Speaker 1: back against the unknown enemy, expressing their disappointment that not
45:27
Speaker 1: enough was being done as they were targeted in these incidences,
45:31
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until Hancock and Phillips were murdered that
45:34
Speaker 1: the entirety of Austin woke up to the issue at hand,
45:38
Speaker 1: and more police officers were swiftly hired and rewards were
45:42
Speaker 1: finally offered for information and the citizen vigilance committees were formed,
45:46
Speaker 1: and the killer would soon be reported to have moved
45:49
Speaker 1: on or out of town, as the murders just seemingly stopped.
45:54
Speaker 1: But the killer slipped away without a trace, and the
45:57
Speaker 1: investigation certainly wasn't helped by the widely varying and contradicting
46:02
Speaker 1: descriptions of the attacker. Because of the fairly large numbers
46:06
Speaker 1: of survivors, police did manage to get some eyewitness testimony,
46:10
Speaker 1: but it led to just more confusion than clarity because
46:13
Speaker 1: some witnesses reported the killer as white, others as dark complexioned,
46:19
Speaker 1: and others even described them as a yellow man, which
46:22
Speaker 1: could mean a number of things at the time, including
46:25
Speaker 1: a lighter skinned black man or someone of mixed race.
46:28
Speaker 1: And regarding clothing, some described the killer as wearing a
46:31
Speaker 1: slouch hat and one account reportedly saw a man in
46:34
Speaker 1: a Mother Hubbard style dress feeling the crime scene, and
46:38
Speaker 1: some reports spoke of multiple attackers working together, and it
46:42
Speaker 1: was suggested that even a gang might be the culprit,
46:45
Speaker 1: but the many discrepancies made it quite difficult for investigators
46:48
Speaker 1: to focus on one profile of suspect and the different
46:51
Speaker 1: accounts to show how unreliable witness testimony really can be
46:56
Speaker 1: especially at night, during stressful situations and during just like
47:00
Speaker 1: a peak of racism. And the reality is that the
47:03
Speaker 1: killer most likely intentionally took advantage of the night for
47:07
Speaker 1: the element of surprise and low visibility. So the time
47:10
Speaker 1: of the murders, the people of Austin were left with
47:13
Speaker 1: many possibilities that the idea of a single serial killer
47:16
Speaker 1: was fairly unpopular. However, more modern looks into the case
47:20
Speaker 1: by historians and researchers in search of identifying the killer
47:24
Speaker 1: have brought a compelling suspect to the surface, and that
47:27
Speaker 1: is Nathan Elgin, and the theory increased in popularity after
47:31
Speaker 1: it was featured on the PBS show History Detectives in
47:34
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. And Elgin was a nineteen year old African
47:37
Speaker 1: American cook who was living in Austin during the time
47:40
Speaker 1: of the murders. And one very important piece to the
47:43
Speaker 1: puzzle was that Elgin was missing a toe on his
47:46
Speaker 1: right foot. Keep that in the back of your mind,
47:49
Speaker 1: which matched a bloody footprint that was found at Philip's
47:53
Speaker 1: murder site. And Elgin also worked at a place not
47:56
Speaker 1: too far from the crime scenes, which suggests local knowledge
48:00
Speaker 1: of the area, and he was known to have great
48:02
Speaker 1: strength and a temperamental attitude, which fit the profile of
48:06
Speaker 1: someone capable of overpowering multiple people. And just over a
48:10
Speaker 1: month after the final murder, in February of eighteen eighty six,
48:14
Speaker 1: Elgin was involved in a violent situation and he drunkenly
48:18
Speaker 1: dragged a girl out of a saloon and an actor
48:20
Speaker 1: with a knife as she screamed for help, and nearby
48:24
Speaker 1: people came out to help, attracting the attention of a
48:26
Speaker 1: police officer who also intervened, and Elgin was shot and
48:30
Speaker 1: died the next day when the timing of his death
48:33
Speaker 1: and the prompt stopping of the murders is of note
48:36
Speaker 1: and potentially suggestive, but inconclusive, and Elgin's age also is
48:41
Speaker 1: fitting of the killer's description as a young man that
48:44
Speaker 1: some reports referenced, but in the end, without the ability
48:47
Speaker 1: to examine the DNA and no confession, were unable to
48:51
Speaker 1: definitively claim that Nathan Elgin is the killer, but this
48:55
Speaker 1: theory is widely accepted as the best explanation. Another rather
49:01
Speaker 1: interesting theory about the case suggests that the Austin Killer
49:04
Speaker 1: and Jack the Ripper may actually have been the same
49:08
Speaker 1: person potentially, and the idea originated shortly after Jack the
49:12
Speaker 1: Ripper murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Adows by an
49:16
Speaker 1: editor for the Atlanta Constitution, and some writers have entertained
49:19
Speaker 1: the theory over the years, and one notable supporter was
49:22
Speaker 1: Shirley Harrison, who wrote in her book Jack the Ripper
49:26
Speaker 1: The American Connection that a cotton merchant from Liverpool named
49:30
Speaker 1: James Maybrick had spent time in Austin during the times
49:33
Speaker 1: of the murders and therefore could have possibly committed both
49:36
Speaker 1: sets of crimes, though most people find this theory pretty
49:40
Speaker 1: far fetched, as the emos of both killers varied significantly.
49:44
Speaker 1: I think it's a stretch because the Ripper targeted ladies
49:48
Speaker 1: of the night and did horrible things to their body,
49:52
Speaker 1: not that the servant girl killer didn't.
49:54
Speaker 2: He obviously also did that, but Jack the Ripper.
49:58
Speaker 1: Was horribly more creative with it. You'll have to watch
50:03
Speaker 1: this video to get more on that. But I digress.
50:07
Speaker 1: So there's no conclusive link between the two sets of
50:09
Speaker 1: murders other than a short difference in time, which is
50:12
Speaker 1: about three years apart. But in terms of more relevant suspects,
50:16
Speaker 1: husbands and partners were wrongly accused on multiple occasions, including
50:20
Speaker 1: Walter Spencer, Molly Smith's partner, Moses Hancock, Susan Hancock's husband,
50:25
Speaker 1: and James Phillips Eula phillips husband, and as its common
50:29
Speaker 1: practice to assume the husband did it, there were at
50:31
Speaker 1: least reasonable suspicions, and though they were charged and in
50:35
Speaker 1: Phillip's case, actually convicted, fortunately they were all acquitted and
50:39
Speaker 1: Phillip's conviction was actually overturned. But as mentioned, no theories
50:43
Speaker 1: or suspects seemed to fit the case.
50:46
Speaker 2: As well as Nathan Elgin.
50:48
Speaker 1: And the murder pattern just suggests a classic serial killer
50:51
Speaker 1: driven by lust in rage in the fact that so
50:55
Speaker 1: many of the victims were African American could simply have
50:58
Speaker 1: been that they were easy year to target and authorities
51:02
Speaker 1: unfortunately would not devote as many resources to catching them.
51:06
Speaker 1: Regardless of the motive, the killings were unlike typical crimes
51:09
Speaker 1: of the times, and the concept of a serial killer
51:12
Speaker 1: was not a common one in the minds of law enforcement,
51:15
Speaker 1: and during the time of the murders, a man by
51:18
Speaker 1: the name of William Sidney Porter, who went by the
51:20
Speaker 1: name O Henry for his short stories, was living in Austin,
51:24
Speaker 1: and on May tenth, eighteen eighty five, he wrote a
51:26
Speaker 1: letter to a friend writing about the murders, referencing the
51:29
Speaker 1: killers he believed there were multiple, as the Servant Girl Annihilators,
51:34
Speaker 1: and thereby coining the term that would stick when describing
51:37
Speaker 1: the murders going forward. Quote town is fearfully dull except
51:42
Speaker 1: for the frequent raids of the Servant Girl Annihilators, who
51:45
Speaker 1: make things lively during the dead of night. Unquote that's
51:49
Speaker 1: in pretty poor taste if you ask me. He basically
51:52
Speaker 1: just said, you know, it's pretty pretty lame around here,
51:54
Speaker 1: except for the mass murders that are happening.
51:57
Speaker 2: That seems exciting. Just bleed because hell.
52:00
Speaker 1: But the case of the Servant Girl Annihilator is still
52:03
Speaker 1: one of America's most notorious unsolved serial murder cases, especially
52:08
Speaker 1: considering the murders happened before serial killers existed and shortly
52:12
Speaker 1: before the Jack the Ripper murders, and it's considered to
52:15
Speaker 1: be one of the very first serial killer cases in
52:18
Speaker 1: US history. And for the city of Austin, it's a
52:21
Speaker 1: fascinating part of the city's lore and though music and
52:25
Speaker 1: tech are now it's primary draws. The killer that once
52:28
Speaker 1: roamed the streets with an axe is forever ingrained in
52:31
Speaker 1: its history. And this is one of those cases too
52:34
Speaker 1: where it probably will never be solved and it's awful,
52:38
Speaker 1: but all we can do is just remember the victims,
52:41
Speaker 1: and you know, heart goes out to the families that
52:44
Speaker 1: are honestly most likely deceased at this point, at least
52:47
Speaker 1: close family. But that is it for the three uncaught
52:51
Speaker 1: serial killers video. Let me know what other cases you
52:54
Speaker 1: would like me to deep dive into down below, And
52:57
Speaker 1: for goodness sake, do not ever hitchhike, please and stay
53:01
Speaker 1: safe out there all right bye,