Beneath Austin's shiny veneer lies a dark past, filled with murder, lechery and deceit. Legislators, lawmen and lawyers killed, robbed and lied just as well and just as often as the drifters and grifters preying on newcomers. The nation's first known serial killer made his debut in Austin in the form of the Servant Girl Annihilator, who is still rumored to be Jack the Ripper. After the Willis brothers murdered their neighbors over rumored buried gold, a lynch mob hanged the boys from live oaks on present-day Sixth Street. Freshman representative Louis Franke died after he was robbed and beaten on the steps of the statehouse. Author Richard Zelade delivers a fascinating look at the seedier side of Austin history. Richard Zelade is an author and historian from Austin, Texas, and a graduate of the University of Texas. His writing has appeared in Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas Monthly, People, Southern Living and American Way, among others. An author of five other books, Zelade studies Texas geology, weather, geography, flora, fauna and ethnic folkways, including the medicinal and food uses of native plants. This is his second book with The History Press. Visit RichardZelade.com for more details. Austin Murder & Mayhem By Richard Zelade The History Press Copyright © 2015 Richard Zelade All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-62619-917-0 Contents Introduction, How Do You Say "Please Don't Kill Me" in Comanche?, "Shoot, Damn You, Shoot!", Texas "Swing", "Hold Fast What You Get and Catch What You Can", Assassination in the Most Public of Places, "Killed in the Line of Duty", "Are You as Good a Man as You Was a While Ago?", Big Ben, "My Amen Is Happiness to Come", The Servant Girl Annihilators, "Should We Have Another Such Legislature, Would It Not Be Well to Dissolve Our State Government and Get Attached to the Indian Territory?", "Why Don't You Use It, Now That You Have Your Hand on It?", Love Lies Bleeding in Their Arms, Legal Lunacy, "Tell Ben I've Killed Mollie", Adamant Johnson, Bibliography, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 HOW DO YOU SAY "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME" IN COMANCHE? In his welcoming address to Republic of Texas president Mirabeau Lamar on October 30, 1839, Edwin Waller, chief contractor and Austin's first mayor, noted that since his construction crew had commenced building Austin in May of that same year, they "were liable every moment to be interrupted by the hostile Indians, for whom we were obliged to be constantly on the watch; many-tongued rumor was busy with tales of Indian depredations, which seemed to increase in geometrical progression to her progress through the country." The March 11, 1840 issue of the Austin Sentinel featured a remedy against Indian arrows, given by Henry Mollhausen, captain of artillery and Austin's first architect: "Take 16 to 24 sheets of blotting paper, interspersed with layers of silk or cotton, wrap it around your torso like a jacket, and you will be invulnerable to arrows and bullets." The Sentinel also printed a brief dictionary of the Comanche language for the convenience of its readers. The city was thrown into considerable excitement two nights later, when a man named Ward, a butcher, was found dead. His corpse was shockingly mangled — shot with three rifle balls and an arrow and scalped by a party of Indians who had ventured into town for the purpose of plundering and stealing. Scouting parties immediately got up and made an unsuccessful search. The next morning, another corpse was found about a mile below town — that of a ditcher, Thomas Hedley. He was attacked while alone, in his camp. Endeavoring to escape, he had gotten some two hundred yards from the camp, in the direction of the city. He was pierced with twelve arrows (most of which passed through his body), his throat was cut from ear to ear and he had been scalped. Future Texas president Anson Jones noted in his diary that the suburbs of the town had been plundered of all the horses and he heard Hedley's cries while under the hands of the Indians. The good citizens of Austin were so rattled that Mayor Waller felt compelled to issue a public declaration on March 15, urging everyone to preserve strict quiet, "avoiding all unnecessary noise of any description, particularly the discharge of fire arms." Acknowledging a likely repeat of the events of the thirteenth, he laid out a plan of action: It is expected that every citizen will have his arms in order for immediate use. Any incursion of hostile Indians into the City will be denoted by two discharges of the Cannon, which is under the direction of Captain Henry Mollhausen, and the Citizens are requested upon hearing the report, to assemble instanter, at the office of the Quarter Master General, on Congress Avenue opposite the Capitol, where those who require it, will be furnished with arms and ammunition. Particular attention is requested to these suggestions, that unanimity and vigor of action may be insured and