Chris Rice Cooper
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copyright holder which is identified beneath the individual photo.
**The links along with the names of the persons and/or organizations
are at the end of this piece in alphabetical order. Some of the links
will have to be copied and then posted in your search engine in order to pull
up properly
***Excerpts from The
Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and
the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer are highlighted this way.
Skip Hollandsworth’s
The Midnight Assassin:
Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial
Killer
“The Community of
Souls: Social Responsibility In the Wake
of Serial Killer Mayhem”
When Texas
Monthly Executive Editor Skip Hollandsworth, 60, was a young teenager
living in Wichita Falls, Texas he along with his friends would make the Friday
night ritual of driving by the local mental hospital, North Texas State
Hospital (Left), which he described in the June 2010 issue of Texas Monthly.
"For us, the state hospital, which nearly everyone referred to as
LSU, or Lakeside University, because it was located across from Lake Wichita (Right attributed to Michael Barera),
was our real-life haunted house. The fact that two thousand adults were being
treated for 'insanity' out in those buildings, just past the city limits sign,
simply tortured our imaginations."
He switched seats
from the truck to the actual hospital room where he would play the cello for
the patients of North Texas State Hospital. (Left)
Soon he became a volunteer in
every department of the hospital communicating with the patients in what he
described as a “community of souls who
had never been able to make it on the outside.”
“I
volunteered at the hospital, utterly curious about the patients who had crossed
some invisible line into an unknown world.”
Hollandsworth said to CRC Blog in an email interview on
December 8, 2017.
The patients made a huge impact on
Hollandsworth and his career choice of becoming a journalist: “I realized that what I loved about my
visits was that I got the chance to study people who went right up to the line
of normal behavior—and then, inexplicably, stepped over it. I was captivated by
the patients and tried to fathom what it felt like to be swept away by madness.” Hollandsworth
wrote in a Texas Monthly
article. Above Left Melancholia attributed to Albrecht Durer in 1514.
Hollandsworth
received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Texas Christian University
in 1979 and has been writing ever since:
screenplays, crime stories, celebrity features, but his most recent
accolade is the crime nonfiction book Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the
Hunt For America’s First Serial Killer, published by Henry Holt and Company in hardback and
kindle on April 5, 2016; and paperback on April 11, 2017. The Midnight
Assassin cover design is by David Shoemaker.
From December 31, 1884 to December 24, 1885
the city of Austin, Texas was terrorized by America’s fist serial killer,
christened the Midnight Assassin. The
Midnight Assassin ritualistically, barbarically, and viciously murdered seven
women and one man with axes, knifes, rods, screwdrivers, clubs, and bricks.
The
first of the eight murders occurred on December 31, 1884 when African American
cook and maid Mollie Smith, 23, (in article on Left) was
stabbed repeatedly in the chest and stomach, the stab wounds so deep they
revealed her internal organs. She also had slash wounds to her legs and arms.
Her head was almost chopped in two by an ax; on May 7, 1885 African
American woman
Eliza Shelley, 31, (Right) had ax wounds and
screwdriver wounds to her head and between her eyes in addition to stab wounds,
some four inches deep, all over her body; on May 22, 1885
African American cook
Irene Cross, 33, (Left) had an ax scalping
head wound and her arm nearly severed; on August 29, 1885
African American girl
Mary Ramey, 11, (Right) had a rod slammed
through both of her ears and both sides of her brain; on September 28, 1885
African American cook Gracie Vance
was
beaten to death with a brick and her boyfriend Orange Wash-
ington (detailed in article on left) was beaten to death with an ax; on December 24,
1885 prominent white woman Susan Hancock, (Below Right) 43, had a rod penetrating both ears to her brain; and on that same night of December 24, 1885
prominent white Eula Phillips,17, (Below Left) had her head chopped in two by an ax;
disturbingly, unlike the other murders, her body was placed in a crucifixion
pose with three small pieces of wood across her chest and her stomach.
Hollandsworth,
who has been writing for Texas Monthly since 1989, first
heard of the Austin murders in 1988 when he met with Nicole Krizak, a Texas
public high school teacher who happened to be working on her own novel based on
the Austin murders. This spiked Holland-sworth’s interest and he began
his
research almost immediately. He and
Krizak would compare notes and would meet to discuss the progress of their work: "Nicole was wanting to write a novel about the murders, and I wanted to write a non-fiction book about the killings. We discussed theories about the case," Hollandsworth (Above Right) said to CRC Blog in an email interview on December 7, 2017.
Hollandsworth spent almost twenty-five
years researching and writing Midnight Assassin until its final
completion in 2013. In the an interview
with Heather Seggel (Left) of Book
Page Hollandsworth stated:
“Throughout
the writing of the book, I would wonder, Could it be this man? (Jack the Ripper aka James Maybrick Right) Or that man? (“four-toed
Negro” Nathan Elgin) Is the killer a barefoot chicken thief? (Oliver Townsend)
Or is he a famous politician? (John
Hancock Below Left) Is he a
Malaysian cookwho disappeared suddenly just after the last set of killings? (Alaska or Maurice)
Or
is he well-known young doctor who worked at the state lunatic asylum? (Dr. James P. Given Below Right) The answer has got to be out there
somewhere—in an old musty record in a police department filing cabinet, or in a
letter hidden away in someone’s
attic. Maybe this book will lead to the answer.
But then again, maybe not. After all, this killer was unlike anyone ever before
seen—a brilliant, cunning monster who set off a citywide panic, and then
disappeared forever.”
Hollandsworth
had no difficulty finding a publisher, Henry
Holt and Company, (1904 Logo Left) for his non-fiction book, which is surprising to me since
the book truly has no ending – the America’s first serial killer remains
unknown to this day.
Why
then could I not put Hollandsworth’s Midnight Assassin down? Perhaps because what makes this nonfiction
book connect with its readership is that finally we have a nonfiction work not completely
focused on the serial killer but on the victims, their family, and their
community. Every aspect of the community
from the housewife, the local storeowner to the mayor to the police chief and
even to the state governor is affected and in someway scarred by the year of
carnage the Midnight Assassin left. (Above Right Illustration by David Palumbo for Texas Monthly. Copyright granted by David Palumbo)
But
the victimization continued – and not by the Midnight Assassin but by all of
Austin (Left in 1888), which Hollandsworth described as his most interesting character.
There
were the white employers of the first five victims. Why were these employers not held accountable
for not providing a safe environment for their workers? Why were the upper class and wealthy more concerned
with greed and what attire to wear instead of finding the truth? Why were the politicians in Austin more
concerned with power, winning the next election, and their public persona
instead of finding the truth? Why were
the defense attorneys and the District Attorney focused on winning the next
court case instead of finding the truth?
There
is also the issue of police brutality – the same issue that greets us even
today; but back then it was more prevalent and more acceptable especially if
the person who was under arrest was of the lighter skin shade. (Right Austin Police on March 21, 1885)
It’s
pretty obvious and clear to me that the white society, particularly the upper crust
white society, did not panic at the thought of the first five murders – the
victims after all were only black – but all that changed when two prominent
white women were murdered in much the same way. (Above Left Moses Hancock - Susan Hancock's Husband)
There
are numerous questions about politics, race economics, and prejudice that are
asked in this book that we should ask today. For the same things that happened in Austin in
1885 are happening in today’s culture. Are
we doing all we can do to prevent Austin 1885 from happening, again? (Above Right Jimmy Phillips- Eula Phillips's husband)
Finally
we have a seasoned writer who is brave enough to ask ALL the right questions –
not only who the killer is? Who the
victims are? And who the community
is? But what we as a community are
responsible for – especially for individuals who are marginalized? (Above Left Skip Hollandsworth)
One of the many good solid reasons why Midnight
Assassin is a work of art, reliable research and superb story telling
is because Hollandsworth had the same goal as Truman Capote (Right)– not to write the
non-fiction novel; but to make sure this historical non-fiction book had the
same story-telling elements of the fiction novel.
“I tried to make the
scenes novelistic, but I wrote it as a straight-forward, documented history.” Hollandsworth told CRC
blog. Hollandsworth
gave Talia Lavin (Above Left) of the New Yorker, a more detailed answer on June 20, 2016 issue below right: “Serial
killers create better
chronological narrative.
You have a killing; you have a break. You have a second killing; you
have a break. It gives you a chance to watch the panic begin to build, watch
the fear rise, slowly and slowly. The
structure lends itself to drama. The
building of suspense leads to a spectacular dénouement, in which the killer is
either caught or commits a final atrocity before evading justice.”
I
asked Hollandsworth if the same North State Texas Hospital that influenced his
decision on being a journalist influenced the writing of Midnight Assassin. His response was no. I found his response surprising especially
since he has a fascination with the patients of the mental state hospital and
has a mission of focusing on the victims, especially those who are marginalized. And perhaps the most marginalized victims of
all would be those who are confined in a mental facility. (Above Right Portrait of the Insane attributed to Theodore Gericault in 1822)
And
that mental facility in Midnight Assassin is the State
Lunatic Asylum, which is supervised by superintendent Dr. Ashley Denton. (Right) Dr. Denton, 48, is a member of the upper
crust white society but unlike most of his counterparts, Dr. Denton was compassionate
and treated his 550 patients as valued human beings.
Dr.
Denton received $200,000 from the legislature and spent the funds on
landscaping the grounds with lily ponds, gazebos, benches, green grass,
flowers, shrubbery, statues, and curvy dirt paths. Dr. Benton had the ten-foot-high picket
fence surrounding the hospital and its grounds torn down and replaced it with a
four-foot high fence.
He also had the asylum’s cemetery, where unclaimed
lunatics were buried, moved from its spot next to the main building to a plot
of land over a hill so that his patients would not have to see it and be
overcome with morbid thoughts.
He
had the walls of the hospital painted a sparkling cheerful white, purchased new
beds for the patients’ rooms, and decorated the hallways with fresh flowers. In
addition he also allowed cats and dogs to wonder the asylum grounds, which
uplifted the patients’ spirits.
He
also allowed the patients to wear the clothing of their choice, which was
normally their own personal clothing, which boosted the patients’ morale. (Patients and visitors Left)
He also set up a daily schedule for the patients in
which they were awakened before dawn, given a bountiful breakfast (a leading
theory of the day was that much of insanity was due to a lack of proper
nutrition), sent off to work (most of them labored on the asylum’s 120-acre
farm or its 15-acre orchard) and then encouraged at the end of the day to
develop what Denton called “their gray cellular material” by reading books and
newspapers in the day rooms, singing patriotic songs around a piano, playing
cards, chess, or billiards, or bowling on the single ten-pin lane in the asylum
basement.
On
February 12, 1886 Dr. Denton’s daughter Ella was to be married to Dr. James P
Given, the asylum’s assistant superintendent. Dr. Denton chose the wedding day to introduce
his version of the asylum to the Austin middle, wealthy and upper crust
whites. Dr. Denton made sure the wedding
guests knew what the emergency bell was used for (to sound in case a patient
escape) and that it had been silent for the past several months.
His patients had no desire to run away, Denton
said. For them the asylum was a rural
paradise, a peaceful refuge, an Eden-like outpost far away from the unbearable
rigors of civilization.
Unfortunately
that civilization at the time was Austin 1885 where an unknown but clever
serial killer was on the loose and all aspects of the community were
affected. The sadness of the story,
other than the carnage of what the Midnight Assassin did and left behind, is
that the community as a whole did not try their utmost best to find out the
truth; or perhaps at the very least their motives were never pure and in fact
self-motivating.
Perhaps
that is the horror of this story – a horror that is repeated even today.
*Read an excerpt from Midnight Assassin by clicking on the link below:
WEB LINKS in alphabetic
order
They spend the entire day in Blossom Valley –
the whole time the free loving Miss Schneider dancing away and laughing
delightfully while Max and Grandfather lie down on the green grass next to each
other and stare into the sky. It is at
this moment that Grandfather teaches Max a deep lesson about space.
“Why not?”
Max is then reminded of his Grandfather’s
Alzheimer’s when Grandfather forgets who he is.
How can a Grandfather not recognize his own grandson, especially a
grandson who loves his Grandfather to the moon and back? Then in the next moment Grandfather remembers
who Max is and all is well. But then Max
begins to worry: what happens when
Grandfather forgets and never remembers again?
Max tells Grandfather his fears and Grandfather places his hand on Max’s
shoulder and with the other hand points to the sky. 
