Transcript

Episode 738: The Atlanta Ripper

From Morbid | Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 6 min · 12,391 words · 306 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Episode 738: The Atlanta Ripper", an episode of Morbid | Podcast published December 17, 2025 (1 h 6 min, about 12,391 words). It mentions 23 people, works and ideas, including Atlanta Ripper, Satie Holly, Henry Huff, Ava Florence, Rosa Trice.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Sirius, Atlanta Ripper
  2. – 20:00: Atlanta Ripper
  3. – 30:00: Atlanta Ripper, Rosa Trice
  4. – 40:00: Selker
  5. – 50:00: Henry Huff, Satie Holly, Atlanta Ripper, Ellen Maddox
  6. – 1:00:00: Ava Florence, Atlanta Ripper, Alice Owens, Loten Brown

Notable quotes from "Episode 738: The Atlanta Ripper"

  • A giant billboard that Sirius was so nice and they paused the billboard for us. They paused it for 5 minutes so we could take pictures.
    about Sirius · at
  • Yeah, it's we're talking about the Atlanta Ripper case. I've heard of this case, but I don't know all the details.
    about Atlanta Ripper · at
  • Attributed. This one's like the one that's generally attributed to the Atlanta Ripper is 35-year-old Rosa Trice. her body was discovered a short distance from her home on…
    about Rosa Trice · at
  • Short term. On Saturday, July 8th, Mary Yel left the home of her employer, WM Selker, around 8:30 p.m. and headed home after a very long day of work. Mary had only went about a…
    about Selker · at
  • The soft dirt. So, we followed the marks and eventually discovered the body of Satie Holly.
    about Satie Holly · at
  • Happening, it's likely no coincidence that just one day after Satie Holly's murder, police arrested 27year-old Henry Huff out of nowhere. They're Oh my god, found him.
    about Henry Huff · at
  • Now, despite their certainty that Huff was Sades killer, just one day later, police arrested Todd Henderson on suspicion of being the Atlanta Ripper.
    about Todd Henderson · at
  • Before the end of the year, the bodies of Ava Florence, Minnie Wise, and Mary Putnham would also be discovered in locations across Atlanta, all under the same circumstances. Head beaten, throat slashed, all of it.
    about Ava Florence · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Satie Holly — Person · 4 mentions · first at
  • Henry Huff — Person · 4 mentions · first at
  • Ava Florence — Person · 4 mentions · first at
  • Rosa Trice — Person · 3 mentions · first at
  • Selker — Person · 3 mentions · first at
  • Todd Henderson — Person · 2 mentions · first at
  • Ellen Maddox — Person · 2 mentions · first at
    And were nowhere to be found. Her throat had been slit from one side to the other. and a month later, Ellen Maddox, a cook for a family in Inman Park, was walking home from…
  • Will Broglin — Person · 1 mention · first at
    On the morning of Tuesday, July 11th, Will Broglin was on his way to work as a laborer when he came upon what appeared to be signs of a considerable scuffle having taken place somewhat sometime earlier. There were deep drag marks in.
  • John Daniel — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Others included Todd Henderson, John Daniel, and Bud Wise. All of whom bore a slight resemblance to the man who attacked Emma, but otherwise had no connection to the murders and despite.
  • Bud Wise — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Others included Todd Henderson, John Daniel, and Bud Wise. All of whom bore a slight resemblance to the man who attacked Emma, but otherwise had no connection to the murders and despite investigators strong belief in their.
  • Mary Anne Duncan — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Of August 31st, nearly 7 weeks since the last Ripper victim was discovered, the body of 20-year-old Mary Anne Duncan was discovered by the railroad tracks just outside of…
  • Mary Putnham — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Before the end of the year, the bodies of Ava Florence, Minnie Wise, and Mary Putnham would also be discovered in locations across Atlanta, all under the same circumstances. Head beaten, throat slashed, all of it.
  • Minnie Wise — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Before the end of the year, the bodies of Ava Florence, Minnie Wise, and Mary Putnham would also be discovered in locations across Atlanta, all under the same circumstances. Head beaten, throat slashed, all of it.
  • Courtland Wyn — Person · 1 mention · first at
    In response Mayor Courtland Wyn published an editorial in the city paper to say among other things Atlanta is known throughout the country as one of the most law-abiding cities of its size.
  • Alice Owens — Person · 1 mention · first at
    That is a little weird. On February 17th, the body of 17-year-old Alice Owens was discovered in a gully not far from the city limits. Her throat was cut. Her body was mutilated. Alice's husband, Charlie, was quickly arrested.
  • Loten Brown — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Pretty low. the majority of the case against Loten Brown was based on a statement given to police by two women who both claimed to be his wife.
  • Adolf Ash — Person · 1 mention
  • Cynthia Erivo — Person · 1 mention
  • Debb — Person · 1 mention
  • Jeremy John Mary — Person · 1 mention
  • Remy — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

Full transcript with timestamps

Hey weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. My name's kind of like an automatopia. Do you know what I mean? Ash. Ash. It is a little bit. Can't you hear that? My kids love that word. I know. Uh, I was playing hideand go seek with one of them the other day and we were hiding in a closet and she just kept going on the monopia on the monopia and I was like, "Shut the [ __ ] up. You're going to get us caught.

Get us caught." And then the other kids just like stopped seeking us. Yeah. That they do that a lot.

Yeah. Um, playing playing hide-and-seek with my children is really a risk that you you take, you know.

Also, one of them is so good that it's like dangerous actually because I'm like, we may never find her.

Yeah. There's times when I'm like, I should put a little uh jingle bell, a little apple

air tag on her. I'm going cat. You're going mom. Yeah. I'm like, a jingle bell.

A little jingle bell on her. We could also lay out a saucer of milk for her. Like or we could just give her her little bracelet with the Apple Air Tag on it. Oh, also speaking of cats, thank you so much everybody um for helping me with the tips about um like ceramic bowls and all that for feline acne. We do all of that and he still has feline acne. He's just got really persistent acne.

And now he's on prednazone and ointment and liquids and all that stuff. It's really great. It's awesome. She showed me a clip from the office this morning.

She was explaining that she she was like, you know, and now Remy needs like this ointment twice a day and he's on this and he's on that. And I immediately thought of the the part in the office where Angela has Dwight go to like, you know, take care of her cat, Sparkles. And she's like, she just she's like, well, he's diabetic, so you have to roll the insulin. Don't shake it. And you have to put the ointment at the base of his tail. And then Dwight just like murders the cat.

Yeah, that's crazy. I immediately thought about it and I had to show her the clip because that's just who I am as a person.

And honestly, that's who I am. I'm Angela. Um, also you're going to hear two old episodes on Christmas, like we're rerunning Elena's favorite episodes the week of Christmas.

In one of those episodes, you'll hear me say that I don't like cats. I need to remind all of us that people grow and I don't want to hear it. Okay, I just needed to get that out.

It's true. It's fine. You I'm going to get so many messages like, I you one time you said you hated cats and now you have three. Do you hurt them?

Yeah, that is precisely what's going to happen. I don't. It's just the Do you know how much money I spent for them to shave Remy's chin and give me all kinds of ointments and prednazone?

They shaved my cat's chin. She's become that person that sits there and says, "Let me just show you a couple pictures of my cats." So, she loves those cats. I love them so much. That's what I mean. Like, you've become that person since this that episode.

Yeah, you could message me nice stuff, but don't don't be like, "OH MY GOD." YEAH. Just don't don't get mad at You probably will still, but I just wanted to say

some people will. But you know, and you know what, listener, weirdo listening, it's not you.

It's not you. You, you know, it's not you. It's not you. You know, you're not the problem. It's not you.

You're not the problem. It's not you. But there are problems. And it's not you.

And you're not them. You listening right now, wherever you are, you are not the problem.

Unless it's one of you. Unless you are the problem. All right. Anyway, I just really wanted to get that all out. What's up with you, Red? Big Red.

What is up with you, Big Red? It's almost your [ __ ] birthday. It is almost my birthday.

I know what we're doing. And I have no idea what we're doing, which is fun. That's a fun thing.

I'm drunk on PA. I'm drunk on PA. And you know what? And it's the end of the year. I always like I always love the end of the year cuz I love a fresh slate. Yeah, I agree.

And I think there's a lot of cool stuff that's happening next year. Yeah, there is fun stuff.

Really good stuff. I mean, January pops off with another ghost concert. So, I am

Oh, when are you going for this? It's at the end of January. Oh, damn. But yeah.

Okay, I'll be there. I love that. In Connecticut. Hell yeah. Connect. Cannot wait.

Let's go. Excited for that. Debb is coming to this one, which I'm really excited. Her first ghost concert.

I cannot wait to see photos of that night. I'm going to die. She's purely video of

Deborah. Deb Deborah is a real one because she's like, "Well, you love Ghost so much and I've heard some of their songs and I like them." Yeah.

So, I want to go because you love it so much and I want to go where you love things.

Deb is a quintessential best friend. She really is. Like, just know that about Debb. She rides hard.

She does. And so, that's going to be fun. And then there's a bunch of other really cool stuff.

There's so much fun stuff. Some things we we really can't say right now, but there's cool stuff.

But you'll see. And speaking of awesome stuff, did you see our [ __ ] awesome billboard in Times [ __ ] Square? a giant billboard that Sirius was so nice and they paused the billboard for us. They paused it for 5 minutes so we could take pictures.

We never had that experience in the past. Never been offered that. We just had to watch it flick by really quick and we were like, "Hey, it's so cool that we have one, but oh, where'd it go?"

Yeah, you wait another 45 minutes. This one we got to experience. We got to literally sit there like look at it, stare at it, take really take in the moment. It it like was such a different experience because you got to like take in the entirety of it.

Yeah. It was And with Sam and Colby. Yes. So that was fun. No, it was really fun. And that was just really cool of them to do. We love being at Sirius.

We do. It's been so late. Uh and that was just great. So we hope you guys dug that episode. Um if you haven't listened to it yet, make sure you watch Sam and Col's video of our investigation and then listen to our episode for the debrief. It's like a really fun little um you know meal and dessert platter.

Yeah. It's like um it's like going to watch a movie at the Lux level. Yeah. There you go. Just serving it up, you know.

Remember that? I haven't done that in a long time. I haven't either actually cuz I haven't been to like the actual movie theater.

No, I can't. I think the last time I was at the movie theater, I saw Wicked at uh like the old Wicked. I still haven't seen part two.

Oh, yeah. I'm a little wicked out. I didn't want to say it because I'm always that person.

That's okay. I'll say [ __ ] Like I think it's an incred like I've never seen the play. I want to see the play.

But cuz so I don't even know what happens in part two, but I just need a minute.

Yeah, I think that Yeah, I just I think I just needed a minute. But, you know, my kids love it, so I think it brings me to a little better of a place with it. But

yeah, it really was all-encompassing for a while. It just became like it it was the zeitgeist for a while.

Yeah. Like the press tour. It was crazy. It was a lot. And you you thought you could get away with it, but you go scrolling on TikTok and it's like your entire Tik Tok feed if you just say the word wicked, which I don't know if you guys know, but we live in Massachusetts and we use the word wicked

all the [ __ ] time. 100 times a day. That was wicked bad. That was wicked scary. I'm wicked man.

Yeah, exactly. And every time you say it, your phone is like, "Oh, wicked. You want to see wicked videos? You want to talk to Ariana? You want to talk to Cynthia? Like

like I don't I'm sorry. Not right now. Not right now. I'm tired. I'm tired. Okay.

And then all I could hear, which is like the most incredible note, but I'm jealous I can't do is

that note. How she is I'm not taking away from the talent because the talent is like unmatched.

And I love it. It's just I It was just I think it's a lot all at once. Sometimes it's the marketing

that that can get to be too much. sometimes they don't know when to stop. But I I'm not going to be able to avoid spoilers for a long time. So, I do need to go see the second part cuz I want to hear your thoughts cuz we've seen

uh John and I have seen the musical a bunch of times. We both love it and then we took the girls to see it like a couple years ago

and they keep almost ruining it for me and then they're like, "Oh, wait. Tit hasn't seen it.

Ti hasn't seen it." They like catch themselves live. I'm like, "I'm actually very impressed with your ability to hold that back."

They hold back spoilers. They do. But yeah, the Cynthia Aribo's note in Defying Gravity, I remember going into this thinking like I'm a little scared because I'm just like really partial to Adena Menzel hitting that note.

Can anyone hit it like Adel Dazim? I don't. And literally said, hold my beer. And she said, "I can." And I said, "Respect." She said, "Watch this immediately." I I just have to I just saw you being

that her no good deed is by far the most amazing thing in the world. Like see and we haven't seen it.

I don't even know what that means. Well, we're going to know what it is. So, no good deed killed it apparently.

Let's go. We'll watch it after this. Don't worry about it. I know. We're going to watch it.

Um but Cynthia Reva's voice is insane. All right. So, I think we should get into this story. It's massive trigger warning for this story.

Um, lots of racism just abound here. Um, it's it's a rough one, but it's an important story to tell cuz it's also unsolved.

Oh. Um, and even though it is from the early 1900s, I think it's I don't think anything

Not the 1900s. Not the year. I know you just sounded like a young a young No, this is like 1906, so it's actually like 1900s.

Yeah, it's we're talking about the Atlanta Ripper case. Um I've heard of this case, but I don't know all the details.

It's I truly believe just like the Jack the Ripper case, which we will mention in this a lot because it really kind of came off the back of that.

Oh, I think it can be solved. Yeah, I really don't think that any case is like fully out of the realm of being solved. It's just how you approach it.

I fully There's always something. There's always one little p like string to pull

and technology is crazy. Uh, exactly. And in this one in particular, I'm going to be quoting like a lot of uh investigators who uh were uh wildly racist and I'm going to be quoting a lot of newspapers which were uh

wildly racist and uh they use language which I will not be using um because I am a white person who does not use that language. Great. So, I will change that language so that I don't have to say something that is completely inappropriate and something that does not align with my love beliefs. Um, so just so you know that. So, I'll tell you I'll say like here they said something gnarly, but I'm going to say this so you know, just so the context is there because I don't want to erase the fact that this was wildly racist.

Yeah. Um, but I'm just not going to say certain words cuz icky. Um, but yeah, so yeah, just trigger warning. All of that is in here. It's a rough one.

All right. Uh, so in 1888, let's go back there for a minute. That's a familiar year. Yep.

1888, Jack the Ripper. Remember that guy? I do. He terrorized the White Chapel neighborhood of London's East End. He did.

We've talked about him a few times. Um, he honestly introduced the idea kind of to the world of a human who kills out of a compulsive need and won't stop until they're either caught or die. Mhm.

Um, the Ripper killings in White Chapel ended by the close of 1988. It was a pretty quick spree. Uh, but the concept of like a Ripper killer has lived on and on.

Yeah. We've covered a few. Yeah. And for more than a century has at various times been attributed to unidentified killers who commit like really brutal, gruesome murders. They They tend to get the Ripper moniker.

I get I'm thinking of the Chicago Ripper. Exactly. like there's always those that pop up. Um during the second decade of the 20th century, an unidentified serial killer was believed to have operated in Atlanta, Georgia, uh over here in the US, brutally killing at least 20 black women. Now, due to the similarities between the White Chapel victims and the victims in Atlanta, the Georgia press dubbed their killer the Atlanta Ripper, an anonymous monster whose presence literally held the city's black population in a grip of fear. For a period of roughly 5 years, the Atlanta Ripper killed with regularity on the city streets, slashing, mutilating, and otherwise brutalizing the bodies of the women that they killed.

Despite having at least six viable suspects, investigators were never able to conclusively identify who the Atlanta Ripper was. And the murders are solving. Yeah. Um, and the city at this point was boiling over with racial tensions and civil war resentment even because that's the time period we're in.

Oh, yeah. The Atlanta Ripper became also kind of a convenient scapegoat for domestic violence and racially motivated murders.

Yeah. Uh, which may have undermined investigators abilities to solve the crimes at the time.

There was just so much [ __ ] going on. Yeah. And so much racism. Now, in the wake of the American Civil War, the reconstruction effort across the American South was focused largely on the cities, which had been completely devastated to near completion by the Union Army, nearing the war's end.

Uh, in Georgia, a lot of the state's reconstruction was focusing on rebuilding Atlanta in particular. Uh, it was the largest city in the state. It had been kind of the economic and social hub. They wanted to get that back on track.

I was so hoping you'd say the word hub. I love hub. I It is a hub, you know. I like when things are hubs.

I love being a hub. It feels good. I like being a hub. I'm not a hub. Well, maybe I am a hub for something.

Maybe you're a hub. I don't really No, I don't want to be a hub. You're a hub for emotional um support.

Oh my god. Thanks. For me, you're my hub. This morning, Alina told me I can't die because she wouldn't go on. And I said, "That's a lot of pressure."

I said, "You literally like don't take risks." Like, be be safe. Exactly. I said, "No risks."

No risks. So the economic shift from agricultural work to industrial and intellectual labor meant that anyone needing steady employment which included the large number of now newly freed enslaved people Yeah. migrated to cities in search of work. This migration led to major increases in city populations. And in Atlanta alone, the population of black citizens rose from less than 10,000 just after the war to around 35,000 by 1900. That's actually insane.

Significant growth. So this huge increase of black atlant were was directly related to the educational and economic opportunities that simply couldn't be found elsewhere. But a secondary thing that made this migration happen was the community and social networks that arose from the population increase. By the end of the 19th century, black enclaves like Sweet Auburn and the West End had become like havens for black businesses, academics, and activists that would become very essential to the civil rights movement of the early to mid 20th century. So this all kind of led to further growth and further progress. Uh despite this progress in stability though, Atlanta like a lot of southern regions would remain mostly segregated for many decades after the Civil War and resentment was still a regular part of life.

Yeah. The tension between black advancement and white resentment for that came to a head in 1906 when an event known as the Atlanta Race Massacre laid bare the disparity between black and white existence in Atlanta. I mean, anything that's labeled a massacre, yeah, should horrify you. Hoping to capitalize on the growing fears of, you know, what was being touted as black-on-white crime at the time,

oh man, a number of Atlanta newspapers, which I've already up, published articles in the fall of 1906 that magnified or simply made the [ __ ] up examples of black residents attacking white residents. Just lies.

That's nice. On September 22nd, two Atlanta newspapers published articles claiming that four white women had been sexually assaulted by black men. Now, we've seen this happen before.

Yep. Causing the racial tensions to simply boil over. Um, this is something I'm sure you're thinking EMTT.

Yep. And by the way, later that was already known to be a complete [ __ ] lie. Yep. Like that kid was brutalized, tortured, and murdered for no other reason besides him being

his skin color a little black boy. Yep. That the end like period. So this should already make your senses go up, especially in this time period and in this place.

Yeah. So following that publication, white men and boys began assembling in mobs across Atlanta with estimates raging between 10,000 to 15,000 of them patrolling the streets.

That many white men. These I'm saying these angry mobs besieged black neighborhoods. Like all these enclaves I just talked about, destroying blackowned businesses, attacking black men at random, pulling them from street cars, chasing them down the street. By the end of the night on September 22nd, this is horrifying. The end of the night, an estimated 25 to 30 black men had been killed by these mobs. God

with countless others terrorized or injured. Just because of these articles. It's like unthinkable. And the fact that it wasn't even true.

Yeah. Makes a million times. Or that's the thing. They had like no like some of these things were

I'm sure they were conflated. Yeah. I was going to say they were either exaggerated or made up these articles. like they ranged in that.

Despite the governor having mobilized state troops to quell the chaos with local police and fire departments supporting their efforts, the violence continued into the next day, finally coming to an end on September 25th a few days later. It's unknown how many black Atlantans died during the massacre, but for many among the community, the violence obliterated any hope that they could successfully integrate with or be welcomed by their white neighbors. Like this was clear at this point, like this is not happening.

And it's like you don't [ __ ] want to at that point. How can you ever trust that this would never happen again,

right? And some left the city bound for safer locations at this point around the US and others just retreated into those enclaves that they had already built a community in.

Yeah. Like safe havens. Yeah. So the shocking displays of racism, cruelty, and violence of the 1906 massacre left the majority of black Atlantans in a constant state of hyper vigilance. At this point,

they were fearful for their safety, safety for their friends, their neighbors, their families. But it also affirmed the feeling that a lot had about what was going on here. That there was two separate Atlantas here. And this literal and figurative segregation would become a pretty critical piece of the Atlanta Ripper murders and the new south as it moved into the 21st century in the late 19th century as Americans were struggling with this like post-war

just like racial tensions and violence and just like uncertainty and resentment and

shittiness. Things weren't things weren't solved. No, they were not they weren't solved. They weren't solid. They weren't feeling good. News of a vicious killer in London was now making its way to the states.

Jack, we know Jack. The shocking crimes of Jack the Ripper started dominating the American headlines, too. And by the early 1900s, Jack the Ripper had become kind of a household name, and the concept was looming pretty large in the minds of a lot of people. A lot of readers were fascinated by this mystery or just terrified by the brutality of the whole thing. And it's unlikely that many of them recognized the role that like class stratification and racial tensions were going to have in this whole thing. Yeah.

But Jack the Ripper's victims were believed to be like we know sex workers. That was their occupation and believed to be what people called women of very low social status.

Yeah. That was the big class thing. Women that I'm sure Jack the Ripper assumed would be missed by very few people. Um, and it's a a population of women who were frequently victimized um, and rarely saw justice out of it. And in simple terms, one of the reasons that Jack the Ripper's identity still remains a mystery to this day.

It is still a [ __ ] mystery. Don't get her started. Don't get me started. Don't send her that article that said they solved it. They did not. And she will start talking to you about mitochondrial DNA for seven years.

It's true. I will. And that's not a bad thing. No, it's not. But go back to the Tobias Forge episode when we talk about Skelea and Or Kelly one. We put it in there too. Either one of those. Go to both of them. But specifically the Elisa one that we just did. The Jack Harer stuff was fascinating.

It's true. So there you go. If you want to know more about that. Uh but the reason why it still remains a mystery to this day and is unsolved is kind of similar to what Atlanta was going through. He existed in two separate Londons, one for the wealthy middle class and one for the poor and destitute.

Mhm. The fact that his victims were for from a lower social class, that was not an accident. It's not like he just wandered in there and was like, "Well, I'll just do this." Yeah.

They were likely chosen because, among other things, it was unlikely that London police would work very hard to solve the murders,

right? because they consider that a quote and quote highrisisk job and they are less than

and it's a major factor in this case, the Atlanta Ripper case as well. Yeah, it sounds like it would be because violence against black men and women have become such a common occurrence in Atlanta following the 1906 massacre. It's actually difficult to pinpoint exactly when these Ripper murders began. Some believe it began with the murder of 29-year-old Dela Reed on April 5th, 1909.

That's such a pretty name, Dela. Dela Reed. Isn't that like it just it's pretty

it flows. Yeah. Yeah. Dela's brutalized body was found in a trash pile. That's a trash pile on Ranken Street.

She died from what is only known known and like recorded as a pulmonary hemorrhage.

Okay. So, they don't like they don't know exactly what occurred that led up to this, but she was in a trash pile. Like she was clearly killed. You also have to wonder how much effort was put into finding out actual cause of death.

Now, a few months later in September, the body of an unidentified, still to this day, black woman was discovered in Peach Street Creek, also murdered.

By the end of the year, the murders had picked up in frequency. Bodies were being discovered at a rate of one one per month at least.

Wow. Uh in the weeks and months that followed, more bodies were discovered. Estella Baldwin was discovered in March, dead from a quote concussion of the brain. Uh, in April, it was Georgia Brown. She was shot by an unknown asalent. The next day, it was Maddie Smith, also shot by someone unknown. The following month, the bodies of Levvenia Austin, Francis Lampkin, and Eliza Griggs were all found within days of one another.

Wow. All shot to death. Oh, these are all very different causes of death. It sounds like

that's a lot of them. So all of them um or all of them except the first Estella Baldwin and Dela Reed have at least gunshot wounds.

Yeah. Um Dela Reed, we don't know. Yeah, because it's pulmonary hemorrhage. So I have no idea. And again, this is from 1906, like 1909, so it's recorded.

And we have Estella Baldwin, who was dead from a concussion of the brain, which to me sounds like one for trauma. So we have some different and also none of these also go with the ripper moniker.

Exactly. Because usually that's when we think of a ripper we and we think of like stabbing and mutilation, you know, mutilation.

Um so again like you just pointed out the differences in the manner of deaths here.

It's pretty unlikely that all these were done by the same person, but they're attributed a lot of times to this

interesting. But with the 1906 massacre so fresh in everyone's memories, the frequency and brutality with which black women were killed in the streets of Atlanta only contributed to the apprehension and terror felt throughout the entire community. Um, also the legend of Jack the Ripper was just continuing to permeate the United States media and the similarities in, you know, like gender and manner of death and like the victim profiles were what led a lot of people to think this is a ripper killer.

Okay. So, the first murder that's like really attributed like those those first ones that I mentioned are like sometimes attributed. This one's like the one that's generally attributed to the Atlanta Ripper is 35-year-old Rosa Trice. Uh, her body was discovered a short distance from her home on January 26th, 1911. Her body was found near the Southern Railway tracks. Her head beaten badly with a blunt instrument, fracturing her skull and jawbone.

Oh god. And her throat had been slashed. It was It severed the jugular vein. Oh [ __ ] Police arrested Rosa's husband, John, for the murder, but he was released a few days later when investigators and the coroner's inquest failed to find any evidence connecting him to his wife's murder.

Yeah. Now, less than a month later on February 19th, the Ripper had killed again. This next victim was a young black woman whose throat was cut and her skull was bashed in as well. Same exact thing. The discovery of another body in the woods, having suffered the exact same wounds as the first victim, seemed evidence that this might be the start of something.

Yeah. But after the second body was found, no new murders were found um in March and April. So, it seemed like, okay, those happened very quickly.

Um but maybe maybe that was just a coincidence. But on the morning of May 28th, the body of Mary Bell Walker was discovered on Gabaldi Street. Mary had left the home of her employer the evening before after a long day of work, but she never arrived home that night. The next morning, when her sister realized that she hadn't returned, she set out to look for her, but she didn't have to look far. Uh Mary's body was discovered in an unused field just 25 yard from her home. 25 yard at all. Her throat had been cut with what the press described as quote a jagged edge. Oh,

but there was no additional clues as to who killed her. A coroner's inquest was held the next day, but without any evidence or information about her death, nothing really came of it.

That's so sad. Investigators and community members barely had time to react or even respond to Mary Bell Walker's death when the killer had struck again. On June 15th, the body of Addie Watts was discovered by the Southern Railway. Her skull was bashed in first with a brick, then with a railroad coupling pin.

Oh my god. And her throat was deeply slashed. Um, as in many of the other cases, two local men were arrested for the murder, but both were let go a short time later because there was just lack of evidence connecting them to the crime.

Yeah. Now, it's important to note that despite several murders that could be attributed to the same killer,

the the the Atlanta press was, and again, at this time of high racial tensions, whiteowned, white controlled, they had yet to address the murders in any meaningful way.

Wow. Despite the fact that like it seems like this is a serial killer. Shocking from where we sit today, but like sadly not shocking for the time being.

No. And in fact, while the deaths were clearly described and investigated as murders, the papers rarely gave more than a few lines to the stories, offered little or no follow-up, and in some cases didn't even bother to find out the name of the victim.

Are you [ __ ] kidding me? Yep. These women had their li like their throats literally slashed open,

skulls bashed in, and you can't even bother to print their name and like respect. Now, while the concept of a serial killer was still not quite defined at all in the minds of most Americans,

it took a long time for that to happen. Thanks to Jack the Ripper, the public had come to understand that it was entirely possible for one person to be responsible for seemingly random murders. Like, that was becoming a thing that people were like, "Oh, fuck." Yeah. But throughout late 1910 and 1911, few if any public figures or institutions had voiced any concern that such a thing could be happening in Atlanta's black community, despite the fact that it clearly was. And it's like, not only are you not respecting these women who lost their lives in such a brutal manner, you're also not paying any regard for this community to like be on the lookout and be vigilant and be safe and

you know what I mean? Like that's the thing. But that's your responsibility literally and that's all they need is some like to be informed

but they don't people didn't want that they don't want they don't want people to be on the lookout

n want them to be safe horrifying it's a horrifying concept now the failure of the press to fully acknowledge the alarming rate of murder in Atlanta is not only one of the reasons the killing spree went on for so long but also one of the reasons why the Atlanta Ripper case is still pretty unknown to this day not just the killer The case itself is pretty

it's a name that I've heard before for sure, but I really don't know a lot about it until sitting here today.

Kind of like one of those that just under the rug, which is crazy. You've only told me a few

of the killings so far, and it's like awful. But just one day after Addy Watts's murder, the Atlanta Journal finally wrote about the alarming trend and the potential for having a serial killer. They didn't call it that, in their midst. The journal article states, "On account of the number of recent murders of they say something different, black women, uh, quote, "Police advanced the theory that Atlanta has an insane criminal, something on the order of the famed Jack the Ripper, which also the famed Jack the Ripper." Have you ever heard of the term infamous, notorious,

like what? Like famed. That gives him like spotlight. Uh despite this, other newspapers, however, remained less thorough in their coverage. According to Jeffrey Wells, the journal's main competition, the Atlantic Constitution, quote, "Still reported the death of Watts as it had the other murders as isolated incidents with no connection and certainly no mention of a serial killer."

It's like weird that we mentioned the exact same thing last week and the week before that and the week before that.

Yeah. And it's the same manner of death. So, the noticeable discrepancy between how the papers covered the murders continued a few weeks later when the body of Lizzie Watkins was discovered in the brush at the corner of White and Lawson Streets on June 27th. She was killed the same exact way as the other victims. According to Wells, the Atlanta Journal quote gave front page attention to the city's newest arch criminal, going so far as to begin examining the sim similarities between the murders. The Atlantic Constitution, on the other hand, continued their trend of sparse coverage. Uh, and he said only this time it managed to add its own spin, citing that it was certain the death was the result of alcohol or drugs.

Um, her throat was open. Yeah. And what is this? So, all of them. Oh, okay. Okay. For sure. While many among the press and police had speculated that the murders were committed by a killer similar to Jack the Ripper, there had yet to be any evidence or witness that could tie the cases together, which is hard. This changed on July 2nd when the Ripper struck again, but left an eyewitness.

Oh, [ __ ] On the evening of the 2nd, 40-year-old Lena Sharp and her 20-year-old daughter, Emma Lou,

shut the [ __ ] up. I love a double name like that. It's so cute. Really cute. They left their home for the market to do some shopping together. As they made their way back home, a man stepped out from the bushes on Seabard Avenue, not far from the sharp house. The man greeted the two women, and before they could respond, he raised a brick high above his head and brought it down hard on Lena's skull, dropping her to the ground.

And she's with her daughter. Yep. Emloo attempted to run, making it only a few steps before she was grabbed from behind. And he said, "Don't be afraid. I never hurt girls like you.

Oh. Before driving a knife deeply into her back and slashing at her wildly. What the [ __ ]

Yeah. Emloo. Emiloo. Oh. As Emiloo slumped to the ground, bleeding profusely now from these wounds, she watched helplessly as this man went back to her mother, who was laying unconscious on the ground a few feet away, and started slashing at her before finally slashing the knife across her throat from one side to the other several times. Oh my god.

The man then went back to Emiloo, intending to kill her as well, but then heard the sound of running footsteps and he hovered over her for several seconds and then ran off into the darkness and people came to Emiloo's rescue. That is the scariest [ __ ] I've ever [ __ ] heard. And for him to say, "Don't be afraid. I never hurt girls like you." And before stabbing and slashing her, like what?

What the [ __ ] That isn't I don't even know. I don't even know. Now, Emma Lou Sharp suffered very serious injuries and required multiple surgeries, but she was still able to give police a description of her attacker.

Wow. According to Emma Louu, the killer was a quote well-dressed black man who she described as a quote giant, well over 6 feet in height. Wow.

With tremendous breath of shoulders, an exceptionally strong and sinnuy arms. sineu um that's like a like fibrous tissue that connects like bone to bone or muscle to bone. It's like fibers. Okay.

So I think like I don't know if she means like gangly gangly or like Yeah. Um, so the uh an article in the Atlanta Journal noted, "While the ordinary um, and I won't say that murder attracts little attention, the police department was upon the alert last night, doubtfully expecting a repetition of the long series of crimes which have baffled every effort of the detectives."

Okay, now these newspaper headlines are insane. They're wild. Like, yeah, while the regular murder of a black person isn't cause for alarm. Yeah. Oh, all right. Yeah. Now, Lena Sharp's murder and Emiloo's description of the killer finally only gave Atlanta investigators something to work with in their investigation with one detective declaring, "It's the work of the same man." And there seems to be little doubt that the fellow has tried a double crime on a single night,

which also is a little Jack the Rippery. It is a double event. Except with Jack the Ripper,

it wasn't really planned. I won't go into it. I don't think it was planned. I think it was he [ __ ] up and then he had to satisfy. Yeah, he's a completionist. So,

I think that's a widely held belief. I think so, too. Um, but while the la latest attack seemed to confirm the suspicions of many that it was the same man, it also elevated the story in the eyes of the press. Right.

The Atlanta Journal expanded their coverage. And um, even their rivals, the Atlanta Constitution, who seemed to suck at all this, could no longer ignore the story. But that wasn't all. News of the killer had also begun to spread to other states. A few days later, papers from as far away as New York were reporting on, quote, "Atlanta's Jack the Ripper," noting the inability of local investigators to stop the murders and the toll it was taking on the city's black community. Uh, the New York Times reported, "Tonight, there are a few black women on the street, and black cooks and housemaids are refusing to work after dark in cases where they have any distance to go to their homes afterwards."

So, while the national press coverage had an undeniably racist tone, yeah, it cemented two important things in the public eye.

First, that there was a quote madman as methodical and cunning as Jack the Ripper operating in Atlanta's black community. And second, that investigators seemed either uninterested or completely incapable of doing literally anything to stop it.

Yeah. And in truth, the murders were hardly ingenious or cunning. Like that's they're not like like I Jack the Ripper is not ingenious or kind. He's pretty cunning like and pretty quick and pretty like does it under the cover of darkness and all that.

Um this really wasn't that. Yeah. Atlanta's white police force didn't prioritize solving violent crimes when they were committed against non-white people. That's just the way it is. Fortunately, the expanded press coverage did put some pressure on investigators though, to the extent that a serious effort was mounted to identify and catch the killer before he could kill again.

Okay. Not because they felt like it was like morally something that they should do, but because they felt presser from now, the national press kind of roasting them for it.

Unfortunately, he would take several more lives before this killing spree came to an end. Um, within a few days, investigators had developed a basic profile for the man they believed to be the killer, but were careful not to attribute all the women killed in Atlanta that year to the Ripper.

Um, coroner Paul Donahoo told reporters, "While a number of black women have been killed in the city, the work of the Ripper seems unmistakable." According to Paul, a peculiarity to say it's so hard to say concerning the crimes is that all of his victims have met their deaths on a Saturday night.

Interesting. Which is a clue. That's a big clue. Uh leading police to believe it was only a matter of days before the killer struck again. That should also give you a little bit of a clue like he's working during the week. He works on these days. Like maybe he doesn't, you know, he's doing something on Sundays.

He can't do these things. Investigators theory that the killer only took victims on Saturday held true, at least for the short term. On Saturday, July 8th, Mary Yel left the home of her employer, WM Selker, around 8:30 p.m. and headed home after a very long day of work. Mary had only went about a block or so when she heard a whistle as she passed by a dark alley. Oh. and stopping to see who was trying to get her attention, she watched as a quote large, well-built black man, which is exactly the description from the last one, emerged from the darkness and walked towards her. Mary screamed and ran back to her employer's home, where she told her employer what happened. Selker grabbed his revolver and ran to the spot where Mary had seen the man and was dis surprised to find that the man was still standing in the alley.

Oh. So he raised his pistol and demanded that this guy raise his hands. But instead, the man quickly turned and quote, "Ran like a flash down the alley and into the vacant lot where Selker lost sight of him." That's so freaky.

He was just standing there waiting and ran like a flash. Yeah. When he returned to his house, Selker phoned the police and both he and Mary gave descriptions of her wouldbe asalent, who investigators believe was the same man responsible for the other deaths.

Yeah. Um, it's also like of note like these women, a lot of them are just coming home from like a long [ __ ] day of work.

Yeah, they're exhausting and they're running into this [ __ ] Like that sucks. It does. It's awful.

If the killer had been following some compulsion to kill on Saturdays or if there was a reason he killed on Saturdays, he ignored that in the case of the next victim. Ah,

I also wonder if he started possibly released somehow or leaked that he only killed on Saturdays and he said, "Well, I have to switch that up."

On the morning of Tuesday, July 11th, Will Broglin was on his way to work as a laborer when he came upon what appeared to be signs of a considerable scuffle having taken place somewhat sometime earlier. There were deep drag marks in the soft dirt. So, we followed the marks and eventually discovered the body of Satie Holly.

Like the others, Sadi's skull had been crushed with a large rock and her throat was sliced from one side to the other. Unlike the others though, it looked like the killer had taken Sadi's shoes.

What? Which is like a strange little side quest. Had he or like had somebody else

perhaps, you know what I mean? Since her body was Yeah. out there. Maybe somebody needed shoes. Was being weird.

Maybe he took them. Maybe he took them, though. Now, the discovery of yet another body so soon after the attempted attack on Mary Yel set off alarms not only within Atlanta's black community, but within the other populations as well. uh having already begun covering the story now finally like in earnest the press started tracing the murders back and discovered that the Ripper killings likely began for far earlier than anyone had previously thought.

Oh, as at least as far back as Rosa Trice's murder in January because remember before they weren't even considering those. Um, also the realization prompted a new round of outrage from Atlantans, all wanting to know why the murders hadn't been connected until now and demanding to know what the police were going to [ __ ] do about it.

Uh, one reporter wrote, "The police department has nothing to say in explanation of its inability thus far to cope with the situation."

Yikes. In the meantime, uh, the black community are holding mass meetings and are appealing to the governor, the mayor, and the law-loving citizens to help them in capturing the guilty party. So, they're doing the work.

Mhm. Of course, basically. Now, given the newly applied pressure and all the growing outrage that was happening, it's likely no coincidence that just one day after Satie Holly's murder, police arrested 27year-old Henry Huff out of nowhere. They're like, "Oh my god, found him."

Yeah. and held him as a quote suspicious character in the death of Holly. Like I think you guys are suspicious.

I think so, too. Now, according to investigators, there was quote strong circumstantial evidence against Huff, including the fact that he was known to have a romantic relationship with Satie, had been seen with her on the night of her murder, was seen late that evening wearing bloody clothes, and had a wound on his head, which he claimed to have received in a pool room fight. That is also pretty evidence.

Now, despite their certainty that Huff was Sades killer, just one day later, police arrested Todd Henderson on suspicion of being the Atlanta Ripper.

Okay. Like Huff, Todd Henderson was also black and vaguely fit the description of the killer as given by Emiloo Sharp. And investigators claimed to have quote strong circumstantial evidence connecting him to the crimes.

Okay. In his statement to the press, Sergeant Lanford told reporters while he believes Henderson to be the ripper and guilty of several murders, if not all of the crimes attributed to attributed to the fiend, he nonetheless found the evidence against Huff so compelling that he quote thought best to have him before the jury as well.

So like just pick. So in simple terms, in their rush to show that like, hey, nope, we got it. We're not we we got it. We know who it is. We've been working on this. We are not incapable. We are not not caring about this. Like, here we go. We got it. Progress. In the rush to do that, Atlanta's police arrested two men who vaguely matched the description of the killer and held them both for the same crimes, determining it was best to just shove them in front of a jury and be like, you guys decide who did it,

A or B. Which is like, that's literally your job. Yeah, that's literally your job.

Yeah. You can't put that on the jury. So, for a time, the residents of Atlanta breathed easy, believing that the Rippers killing spree had come to an end.

Too simple. Maybe one of these guys did it. Too simple. In fact, following Sades murder in July, there was a six-w weekek stretch of times that there was no murders.

That's actually a pretty long time. Which did lead many to believe that whether it was Huff or Henderson, the real killer had been caught. One of them was it. Huff was indicted by a grand jury in early August for the murder of Satie Holly with investigators announcing quote at least one of the Ripper crimes is no longer a mystery for the evidence against Henry Huff is so conclusive that there is no doubt that he will be convicted of the murder of Satie Holly.

That's a bit of a stretch. I'm like I think we have circumstantial evidence but

and unfortunately the jury didn't agree with that the evidence against Huff was all that compelling. I'm actually surprised

and he was eventually acquitted for murder. But I'm actually truly shocked by that.

Now, ultimately, Henry Huff would be one of several black men arrested on quote strong circumstantial evidence that they were the Atlanta Ripper.

That was apparently not so strong. Others included Todd Henderson, John Daniel, and Bud Wise. All of whom bore a slight resemblance to the man who attacked Emma, um but otherwise had no connection to the murders and despite investigators strong belief in their guilt, would eventually be acquitted or simply released.

Wow. Um, as in the case of Henry Huff, the timing of the arrests and indictments of the other suspects comes after the public outcry over law enforcement's complete inability to catch the killer.

Makes sense. It's possible that one or more of these arrests could have satiated the public demand for action had the killings not continued while Huff and the other suspects were in custody.

That does present a problem. That presents a problem. On the morning of August 31st, nearly 7 weeks since the last Ripper victim was discovered, the body of 20-year-old Mary Anne Duncan was discovered by the railroad tracks just outside of Atlanta in a community known as Bland Town. Like Satie Holly, Duncan's shoes had been removed. Oh,

okay. And were nowhere to be found. Her throat had been slit from one side to the other. Uh, and a month later, Ellen Maddox, a cook for a family in Inman Park, was walking home from work when she was struck from behind with a blunt object. She lived. Okay.

Um, the next day, the uh papers reported on the assault, saying, quote, "She was attacked from behind, her head almost crushed, and her face beat out of all resemblance to a human being."

Oh, wow. And she lived. She was rushed to the hospital. Um, and despite the severity of her injuries, which were described right there, she was able to give a statement to police, but she never saw her asal asalent.

Okay. Uh, Maddox, it turned out, was lucky. Before the end of the year, the bodies of Ava Florence, Minnie Wise, and Mary Putnham would also be discovered in locations across Atlanta, all under the same circumstances. Head beaten, throat slashed, all of it.

So, it sounds like he comes up from behind to throw you off. He takes them by surprise.

By late 1911, public outcry over the continued failure of law enforcement to catch or even identify the actual killer as opposed to very convenient scapegoats that they were trying to shoehorn in here had reached a fever pitch. As the public continued to put pressure on the city government, letters from concerned citizens began arriving at city hall with offers to help catch the ripper. How sad is it that they wouldn't even have faith in their police force and they were like hey do you want me to take a take a crack at it?

Literally the implication is that well investigators don't have the ability to so why don't I help

since you guys can't step aside. In response Mayor Courtland Wyn published an editorial in the city paper to say among other things Atlanta is known throughout the country as one of the most law-abiding cities of its size in the United States and its police and detective departments are second to none. According to Wells, leaders, and this is why, according to Wells, leaders in the black community used this time to renew their calls for help and for the hiring of black detectives to assist in bringing the murderers because maybe black detectives would care.

Yeah. For their part, investigators deflected responsibility and directed their anger at the black community for wanting it to be solved. They made strange and even racist comments to reporters suggesting black residents were somehow responsible for catching the killer. Are you [ __ ] kidding me? Mhm. One unnamed, which convenient. One unnamed detective told reporters in late November 1911, "We won't get to the bottom of this thing until we get some help from the he said something else, but I'll say black community."

Oh, honey, name them. He said, "These murders are being committed among the lower class of He said something else. I'll say black people. The detective insisted, quote, "Ignorant, brutal beasts that know nothing else. Their acquaintances are afraid to talk, but if there were a little money slip to them, we could find out invaluable clues, and I wager we would land the murders." This isn't something I say often, but I really hope that guy choked and died.

I also hope he choked. Cool. Choke, [ __ ] Yeah. uh that not only is that the most racist thing ever, um but also he's literally saying the only reason we the literal detectives whose job description and paycheck is because we're supposed to be solving these

we can't solve this because the citizens who are being terrorized are not solving it for us.

That's literally what he's saying, babe. He's saying the community that is being terrorized Yeah.

isn't solving it. Yeah. So, we can't solve it and that's on them. Yeah. When white people are killed, we're also expected to solve the the murders.

Of course. Yeah. Of course. That goes same way. Hello. Like, what? Now, overt what a douchebag. overt and wildly explicit and egregious racism aside, there's something uniquely reprehensible about blaming victims for the violence perpetrated against them and implying they are also to blame for allowing the killings to continue. Like

you guys should have stopped this like this. We're busy. The levels of depravity.

Yeah. on the investigation side of this and also on a like murderer side and investigation side. The levels of depravity are no no bounds.

It just makes me wonder like how people can be so gross. Yeah. And suck so much. Like I'm like how are you such a hateful [ __ ]

That's how you suck people and how do you not realize how much you suck? Now not surprisingly, the implication was entirely untrue. In fact, even before the press or law enforcement had identified the murders as likely being the work of the same killer, Atlanta's black community had activated already and were working together to warn of the dangers posed to women on the streets. I'm sure following Mayor Wyn's editorial defending the police, leaders in the black community intensified their efforts to protect themselves and their families and community, advocating for better protections, raising money that could be offered as a reward for information leading to an arrest, like actually doing the physical work. How sad that they had to do that because nobody else would. They probably would have done it anyways because their community.

One uh announcement read, "Stay indoors and your lives will be saved for venturing out at night moans only to invite this monsters ravages."

But how sad is that though? Because so many people had to work into the night and then go home and they were saying stay at work. People have to live families. And

now by January 1912, the Atlanta Press was reporting that at least 15 women had been killed by the Ripper. Wow.

Yet, investigators were no closer to catching this person than they were one year earlier when Rosa Trice's body was discovered.

Worse yet, the murders continued almost as though they were on schedule. Really,

in January, the body of Pearl Williams was discovered in a field um adjacent to Chestnut and West Fair Streets just a few blocks from her home. That seems to be another thing.

And what the Atlanta Constitution said was dead from a ghastly wound in her throat.

Police arrested a man named Frank Harvey for the murder based on his having known the victim, having been discovered wearing clothes with blood on blood on them and as having a quote sharp potato knife on him when he was arrested.

It's unclear what became of him. Huh. Because he doesn't appear to have been convicted of Williams death and nothing really came out of it.

Disappears everywhere. It's very strange that so many people were walking home with blood on their clothes.

Yeah, that is a little weird. I do hate that. That is a little weird. On February 17th, the body of 17-year-old Alice Owens was discovered in a gully not far from the city limits. Her throat was cut. Her body was mutilated. Alice's husband, Charlie, was quickly arrested for the murder, and despite insisting he was innocent, he was convicted of his wife's murder and sentenced to a life term in a chain gang. Whoa. Now, it's here that the story of the Atlanta Ripper becomes more like nebulous.

Okay. Uh, this is when it gets like a little like it has like a mythical quality to it at this point. Oh,

because in early April, the body of 18-year-old Mary Kates was discovered in a field just beyond the city limits as well. Um, the Atlanta Journal said murdered and mutilated after a hard struggle. Mary's throat had been cut, her clothes were ripped to shreds from the killer. Um, and the killer had quote mutilated her body about the breast and below the waist, which is very Jack the Ripper. Y

in their description of the murder, the press added yet another detail to the increasingly again mythical description of the killer, noting that, quote, "The mutilation of the girl's body was evidently done with a surgical instrument, and the Slayer had some anatomical knowledge as one of the organs was deafly removed."

Interesting. Yeah. Now, in the months that followed, other bodies of young black women were discovered, some bearing similarity to the earlier Ripper victims, while others were a little less obvious to match up with the Ripper's preferred victim profile.

That last murder feels so disconnected from the It's literally Jack the Ripper.

Yeah. Whereas the other ones like there's blunt force trauma, there's jagged l usually it's trauma to the head, throat cut,

right? and some and maybe like stabs and slashes but yeah, but not like surgical level cuts.

Yes. Very strange. That's weird. That's why it takes on a little bit of you're like

that's not the same person. Is that like what? And also as time passed other bodies were discovered outside of Atlanta that bore the hallmarks of the Ripper and many that didn't.

Okay. Like after a bit of time, the press began ascribing the Ripper moniker to unsolved murders of young black women outside of Atlanta, regardless of whether there was any evidence or any kind of like similarities to the early Ripper ones, like it just kind of all got thrown into one pot.

Yeah. uh you know just liberally ascribing blame to an increasingly mythical and kind of legendary killer at this point became a problem for investigators when they did make an arrest in one of the cases in the summer of 1912. In August, police arrested Lton Brown for the murder of Eva Florence, one of the victims that was assigned to the Ripper in late 1911. The arrest was based largely on his having known the victim and his wife's statement that he'd been out on the night of the murder. Okay.

And she discovered him burning some of his clothes the next morning. That's suspicious.

Pretty suspicious. After a lengthy interrogation, Brown confessed to the murder of Florence. According to Brown, he quote, "He knew Florence had $3.50 and that he killed her for the money."

Okay. While it's entirely plausible that Brown did kill Florence for the money that he believed she possessed, the more he spoke to investigators, the more questionable his confession probably should have become. In addition to confessing to Florence's murder, he claimed to have witnessed the murders of several other Ripper victims, not as the killer or a participant, but as a spectator who was quote merely passing by and chance to see the crimes.

What? Which what how would you even know that they were happening? With each day that passed, he offered a new information about his knowledge of the Ripper murders. But rather than becoming increasingly skeptical of the ra veracity of these claims, which they should have been, investigators, who were very eager to close this case, interpreted his statements as further evidence of his guilt.

Okay. In fact, despite a city physician declaring Brown quote, undoubtedly insane. Sounded like it. Detectives quickly set about building their case against him and enthusiastically declared they had quote gathered evidence which indicates strongly that Brown is the Jack the Ripper for whom the entire police department has been searching for an entire year.

I don't know. And remember, he's saying that most of these he just happened upon while they were happening,

right? Like what are the odds of that? Like come on. Pretty low. Uh the majority of the case against Loten Brown was based on a statement given to police by two women who both claimed to be his wife.

He's a philander. One of them said quote that the whole time she had lived with him, she believed that he was the murderer and it was a great relief to her that he was caught and was behind bars.

Oh wow. I mean that must have been absolutely [ __ ] terrifying. Yeah. Brown offered nothing in response to the claims or how he was related to these two women at all, which investigators took as evidence of fact rather than evidence of mental illness.

Yeah. Um his trial began in October with investigators enthusiastically claiming they had caught the Ripper and they were certain he was going to be convicted. But just as in the cases of Huff, Henderson, and the others who were accused of being the Ripper, the jury saw Brown for what he was, a mentally ill man whose claims and confessions were clearly unreliable. Right.

Also, the defense offered at least one witness who quote testified that Brown had been forced into a partial confession by police and that he was prone to hallucinations and would confess to almost anything out of pressure.

Oh wow, that's so sad. Yeah. After a lengthy trial, the jury deliberated a pretty short amount of time and acquitted Len Brown of the murder charges.

Wow. I did not see that going that way. And the murders continued into the following year and would go on for nearly a decade.

A decade before they slowly petered out by the 1920s. The problem was though was that the press and to a lesser extent the police labeled like what whatever they were labeling as a ripper murder. It had become so vague and non-suspecific. I don't know why I couldn't say that. that by the mid- teens, it was impossible to know whether the murders were committed by the same man who terrorized Atlanta between 1911 and 1913 or whether maybe it was a few different people and these were not all connected like which ones were part of

like Jack the Ripper has the canonical, you know, series of murder of murders and that we can kind of rely on as being like for sure

and there's so much evidence linking all of there's a lot of evidence linking and some people even question a couple of those, you know what I mean? Like it happens. But this one didn't even they had like a very

loose, confusing set of canonical ones that they could attribute to him. Yeah. According to Wells, quote, "There were some events that were attributed to what would become the Atlanta Ripper that ended up not being the work of the Atlanta Ripper and ended up being the work of disgruntled husbands and boyfriends."

Oh, which damn woof. In most cases, there was little to no evidence left behind in the more two more than two dozen cases eventually ascribed to the Atlanta Ripper. Uh, in fact, the handful of suspects arrested and brought to trial for the crimes all were acquitted by white juries, which was wild, for lack of evidence.

That actually is wild cuz I didn't even think of the fact that it was not necessarily

a jury of their peers. It was white juries, lack of evidence, which is a remarkable occurrence given the racial tensions and just like what was going on in Atlanta at the time. Tells you how little there was.

Well, and it's like how many other stories have we heard where it's a jury of white people who are just like, "Yeah, they did it." But

yeah, they did it. Sure. There's barely any evidence, but Yeah. Yeah. So, this is really, like you said, remarkable.

Very interesting. And to this day, we don't know who committed those murders. How sad is that? And which ones are even the work of the same person?

Well, and honestly, it's a result from zero effort being put into any of these cases.

Just hearing that one detective that summed it all up. How he talked about this, you're just like, "Got it."

And feeling confident to talk to a reporter like that really does show that the force's attitude at the time had to have been pretty

similar. Rancid and rancid. Yeah. Like that's really sad because that could absolutely be a solved case. There was eyewitnesses could have that's the thing. There was eyewitnesses there definitely could have solved this.

And it seems to me like it is a serial killer situation because as we know serial killers there are like certain tenants that seem to be ringing true with them where like

they usually don't kill outside of their race. It happens. That has absolutely happened but it's rare. And this seems like we could this is a serial killer because it's like the same kind of victim profile that's happening here, you know, like

Yeah, it's interesting all of a sudden black women and then like like the throat and the

Yeah, the throat being slashed and it seems like there's the same kind of modus operandi that's happening here.

But then it is so strange that whoever this was like started taking the shoes. I know that's two of the women that we talked about if I remember.

Two that I could that I could see. Interesting. Yeah. I don't know what that's about.

I I think every murder that we talked about today is not necessarily No, I think there's definitely a few that we talked about that are totally outside of

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's really really awful that because of people's lack of humanity, this case isn't solved.

Yeah. And I think it could be. You never know. Just saying. You never know. Maybe somebody will revisit it someday and find a little connection that

like you said that little thread you start to pull to unravel. Exactly. Wow. What a sad case.

I know. Random fun fact. Random fun fact. Hold on. We need one for this one for sure.

Let's find a random fun fact. I don't know this one. I know. You knew the last one. What was it? Dinora.

Um Dan or Dan. Durian. Durian fruit. Okay, but hold on. That's not the fact for today. Random fun fact. Jenner a tour. Let's go. Oh, this is fun. The word Lego is formed from the Danish word leot, which means play well in English. In Latin, it means putting together.

Oh, I I always wondered if Lego was like cuz it's all capitals, so I wondered if it stood for something.

Yeah, you're right. But it's just from a Danish word. I love that. Fun. I think um Lego is like a uh I think they they use it very specifically people who are very into Legos cuz we watched Lego Master with the girls. What do you mean? They use it like um they use it almost like a verb.

Like I'm legoing. Yeah. Like I think it's there's a there's a specific like terminology that they that they use.

Huh. I think I might be wrong. You guys can tell me. Uh if you're Lego if you're Lego lovers.

Yeah. Um because I remember I I like noticed it and I was like, "Oh, that's interesting.

That is interesting." All right. So, that's that's a good one. I like that. Well, that's what I got for you today. So, uh we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it, but not so weird that you don't Lego some Legos and not be a racist.

Lego. Bye. Woo.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Episode 738: The Atlanta Ripper"?

In order: 0:00 Sirius, Atlanta Ripper; 10:00 Atlanta Ripper; 20:00 Atlanta Ripper, Rosa Trice; 30:00 Selker; 40:00 Henry Huff, Satie Holly, Atlanta Ripper, Ellen Maddox; 50:00 Ava Florence, Atlanta Ripper, Alice Owens, Loten Brown.

What is mentioned in this Morbid | Podcast episode?

23 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Atlanta Ripper, Satie Holly, Henry Huff, Ava Florence, Rosa Trice, Selker. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Episode 738: The Atlanta Ripper"?

The episode runs 1 h 6 min; the transcript is about 12,391 words in 306 timestamped sections.

More from Morbid | Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.