The Midnight Assassin by Skip Hollandsworth

The boom town of Austin Texas was in a panic from 1884 - 1885 because the first serial killer to appear in the United States was preying on servant women. Young black women were being dragged out of their homes and bludgeoned to death while those around them never heard or saw a thing. Many were questioned just to blame someone but there were no witnesses who could give the police anything to go on. The attacks escalated and now included white women in nice neighborhoods. This vibrant city was under siege and there wasn't anything anyone could do. It was a mix of Old West and the dawn of a new age. Racial tension existed between white, black , Hispanic , wealthy and poor. Fast women, sloppy police work , bad politics and new technology make this a fascinating look at a vibrant growing city. I am a bit biased because I live a few blocks away from where most of these women were buried. This killer was "Jack the Ripper" before he existed in London and Skip Hollandsworth puts us in Austin during that scary year for a birds eye look at a great unsolved mystery. "The Midnight Assassin" does for Austin what "The Devil in the White City" did for Chicago.