Front Porch Mysteries with Carole Townsend
Author and veteran journalist Carole Townsend shares remarkable tales from the South, tales of mystery, terror, and wonder. Townsend has built a career on the premise that truth really is stranger than fiction.
Here in the South, we love our stories. We begin in childhood huddled around campfires, whispering of things best spoken in the dark, confiding in our small trusting circles. Why is that, do you suppose? I have researched and investigated Southern history for more than 20 years and I believe it has to do with this region itself. There's a lot that hangs in the ether here and much that is buried deep in the soil. There's beauty here in the South and shame and courage and, make no mistake, there is evil. There's always been the element of the unexplained, the just out of reach that we can all feel but can never quite describe. And the best place for telling tales about such things is the comfort and safety of an old front porch. So I invite you tonight to come up here with me, settle back into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you like, and I'll share with you some of the tales best told in the company of friends, tales that prove that truth really is stranger than fiction, and I'll turn on the light. You're going to want that. I'm Carole Townsend. Welcome to my front porch.
Front Porch Mysteries with Carole Townsend
Unmasking the Atlanta Ripper: A Journey into Forgotten Crimes
Experience the chilling tale of the Atlanta Ripper, and uncover why his gruesome crimes have been shrouded in obscurity. Listen as we recount the harrowing story of Emma Lou Sharpe, who survived a brutal attack and provided crucial details to the police after her mother, Lena, was found murdered. We explore the social and racial tensions of early 1900s Atlanta—a city grappling with its Confederate past and rapid industrial growth—shedding light on the city's darker corners where the Ripper roamed.
Join seasoned journalist and acclaimed author Carole Townsend, as she examines how the murders of so many women went unnoticed by newspapers and law enforcement alike, until the crimes could no longer be ignored. Drawing on sources including books and newspaper articles, we’ll piece together why these crimes remain lesser-known, and delve into the historical context that allowed such terror to persist. Don't miss an opportunity to learn about and understand a critical and shadowy part of Atlanta's history.
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We've all heard the chilling stories of London's Jack the Ripper, but did you know that Atlanta had a ripper of her own? Sit with me a while and I'll tell you a haunting story about the South that most people have never heard. Here in the South, we love our stories. We begin in childhood huddled around campfires, whispering of things best spoken in the dark, confiding in our small trusting circles. Why is that, do you suppose? I have researched and investigated Southern history for more than 20 years and I believe it has to do with this region itself. There's a lot that hangs in the ether here and much that is buried deep in the soil. There's beauty here in the South and shame and courage and, make no mistake, there is evil. There's always been the element of the unexplained, the just out of reach that we can all feel but can never quite describe. And the best place for telling tales about such things is the comfort and safety of an old front porch. So I invite you tonight to come up here with me, settle back into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you like, and I'll share with you some of the tales best told in the company of friends, tales that prove that truth really is stranger than fiction and I'll turn on the light. You're going to want that. I'm Carole Townsend. Welcome to my front porch. The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.
Carole Townsend:On July 1st 1911, 20-year-old Emma Lou Sharp nervously fidgeted as she sat on the couch in her modest home on Hanover Street in Atlanta, georgia. She was waiting for her mother, lena, to return from the market. She had been gone a long time, much longer than she usually was when doing the shopping, and Emma Lou was getting nervous. It was late and it was dark. There were evil goings-on in the dark Atlanta streets these days and despite the growing vigilance of the black community, the evil persisted. You see, as far back as 1911 and, many would argue, 1909, there was a lunatic prowling the streets of the city. He had a thirst for blood, violence and cruelty and he had an appetite for attractive African American women. In fact, by mid-1911, a woman in the black community in Atlanta would have been foolish to venture outside in the dark of night and all alone. You see, just three weeks before Emma Lou struck out to find her mother, that hot July evening, the body of Addie Watts, a neighbor of the Sharps had been found close to the Southern Railway, her head caved in by a coupling pin from a train.
Carole Townsend:Still finally able to wait no longer, emma Lou left the safety of her house, letting the screen door squeak and slam behind her as she quickly walked down the front steps. Off the porch, she set out to find her mother. The night air was warm, heavy and wet, typical for a deep south summer, and the streets were all but deserted. African American women had been warned to stay home or to only go out in groups, and certainly to stay inside during the dark hours of the night. As Emmalou walked toward the market, her steps quickened. So did her heartbeat. She felt very exposed, but her fear for her mother was compelling.
Carole Townsend:Before she ever reached the market, emmalou was approached by a tall, broad-shouldered black man. He wore a wide-brimmed hat and, in spite of his size, moved with the stealth of a cat. He asked Emmalou how she was feeling that evening. She answered that she was fine, but the man's presence made her nervous, so she attempted to walk around him. Don't be afraid, I never hurt girls like you, he said to her, and then began viciously stabbing her in the back. The man turned and fled as quickly as he appeared, disappearing into the shadows of a dark alley. Emmalou later recalled hearing the man laughing maniacally as he ran away.
Carole Townsend:Ironically, lena lay just beyond the scene of her own daughter's stabbing. The two major Atlanta newspapers at the time were the journal and the Constitution. While each paper reported the details of the crime that night was slight variation, the end result was the same Lena lay dead in the street with her throat cut so viciously that she was nearly decapitated. But Emma Lou regained consciousness long enough to run screaming from the gruesome scene. Miraculously, she survived the attack and was able to describe her assailant to police officers. Emma Lou's recollection of the circumstances of the murder of her mother and her own stabbing provided the first clues in identifying the vicious killer who became known as the Atlanta Ripper, named for London's sadistic Jack the Ripper because of the brutal stabbings of women. The Atlanta Ripper was actually more prolific than London's Ripper, at least that's the assumption. So why do so few people know about the killing spree, and why do I use the word assumption? Well, to understand the case of the Atlanta Ripper, we must first understand the time and place of his reign of terror.
Carole Townsend:Atlanta in the early 1900s was a city groaning with the labor pains of post-Civil War growth. The South had been laid bare and poverty was rampant throughout much of the region. Hatred and mistrust often boiled over during this period, with the African American population growing rapidly and with white Southerners still licking their wounds and resenting the death of an era in which agriculture, mainly cotton, was king. The defeat of the Confederate Army, even decades later, reinforced the hatred that Southern whites felt for Blacks. Northern infiltration into Atlanta was seen as salt being ground into an already raw, gaping wound. Still, businesses thrived in the city, with railroads crisscrossing in the very heart of Atlanta, thrived in the city, with railroads crisscrossing in the very heart of Atlanta. Many of those businesses were run by the brash carpetbaggers from the North and African Americans flocked to the capital of Georgia for industrial employment. The burgeoning population of the young, bustling city made many in the white community nervous and angrier. It felt like insult was being added to injury. Surprisingly, marketing of the busy new city painted Atlanta as a city in which racial tension no longer existed. Morehouse College, spelman College and Morris Brown College were relatively new but respected institutions of higher learning then, and they remain so today.
Carole Townsend:The reality in the early 1900s, however, was that nothing could have been further from the truth. Racial tension was palpable and in the heat of the summer of 1906, the city of Atlanta was a pressure cooker. As a result of the crushing defeat of the war, the sweeping change that followed and a hotly contested gubernatorial race, turmoil and conflict inevitably erupted in violence. With the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, several white women were allegedly attacked by gangs of black men during this time. Adding to the tension, tough Jim Crow laws turned up the heat throughout the South and, over the span of just a few days in September, white mobs murdered dozens of black Atlantans and injured many more. In the midst of this carnage, or perhaps as a result of it, a butcher was born.
Carole Townsend:The case of the Atlanta Ripper is one cloaked in mystery, uncertainty and confusion. There are several reasons for this, which we'll get to in a moment, but most researchers acknowledge the fact that 15, and probably as many as 20 women were brutally slain in the city between the years of 1909 and 1914. The killings were carried out with such brutality and disregard for the humanity of the victims that many of the more lurid crime scene details were never disclosed to the public. What we do know is that each of the Ripper's victims was African American. Each of them was attractive and neatly dressed and most had a measure of education. Each of them was attractive and neatly dressed and most had a measure of education. Many of them worked as household servants for moneyed families in the Atlanta area, which meant that they walked to and from work every day in the early morning hours and in late evenings alone. Others of them were prostitutes, women who worked in dangerous, vulnerable solitude during the same lonely, bleak hours. Interestingly, while the Ripper's victims were never raped, there was a sadistic sexual edge to the killings.
Carole Townsend:The Ripper's first murder, according to many accounts, was believed to have been committed on April 5, 1909. The woman's name was Della Reed and her lifeless body was found on a trash pile that very morning. The uncertainty I just referred to with regard to the exact number of Ripper murders is the result of a general lack of interest by the two major white-owned Atlanta newspapers. That statement sounds preposterous in 2024, but you see, the slayings of women black women at that were simply not considered newsworthy at the time. It was only when the number of murders could no longer be ignored and panic spread like wildfire throughout the African-American community that the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, newspapers and law enforcement alike had to begin reporting and investigating the atrocities and eventually call the murderer what he was a serial killer.
Carole Townsend:Still, investigations into the Ripper's slayings were stifled by not just the indifference of the media but also by some of the black religious leaders in Atlanta. Reverend HH, proctor of the Black First Congregational Church said this to his congregants in his sermon titled Hand of God as Seen in Work of the Ripper, and I quote but this bloody hand points to the sins of the colored people themselves. Our churches are doing good work, but they are not doing enough. They do not sufficiently relate their efforts to actual life. They've been getting people ready to die when they should have been preparing them to live. The best preparation for the next world is to live right in this one. Our churches are not progressive enough. Shut up six days a week, the people pass by them onto the places that are prepared for them, because the places for evil are never shut. End quote Even leaders in the communities under siege pointed the finger at the perceived lack of morality and right living among their own citizens.
Carole Townsend:With all of this blame and confusion swirling in the background, the Ripper continued his bloody work. He was quick and cunning and brutal, murdering most of his victims without ever being seen or heard by witnesses or likely by the victims themselves, choosing lonely out-of-the-way sites, usually near train tracks, to satisfy his lust for fear, control and violence. And he moved unnoticed through the Black communities of Atlanta. And he moved unnoticed through the black communities of Atlanta, that is, until he attacked but failed to kill Emmalou Sharp. Just a week after he murdered and brutally stabbed Lena and Emmalou, the Ripper struck again.
Carole Townsend:20-year-old Mary Yeldell, who worked for William Seltzer, was walking back to her own home in the late evening of July 8th, but just half a block from her employer's residence she heard someone whistling from the shadows Turning. She saw a quote large, very dark-skinned black man walking toward her. Quote large, very dark-skinned black man walking toward her. She ran and he began chasing her, slashing wildly at her clothes. Mary just barely made it back to her employer's house, crying, screaming in terror, begging for his protection. Mr Seltzer ran outside brandishing a pistol and pointing it at her attacker, but the man deftly ducked into the evening shadows and fled the scene. Again he had failed and again one of the Ripper's victims described him to police and to reporters.
Carole Townsend:Two days later, a group of men working on Atlanta Avenue noticed a trail of blood that led to a nearby ditch. The men followed the trail, finding the body of Sadie Hawley. At the end of it, her head had been bashed in with a two-pound rock. We know this because the rock was found nearby, covered in blood. Sadie's throat had been deeply slashed and, oddly enough, her shoes had been cut from her feet and taken, presumably by her killer.
Carole Townsend:Though Sadie fell eighth in the list of identified Ripper murders, hers was the first murder to be reported on the front page of the newspaper. This madman could no longer be ignored or explained away. The press and the police, with urging from leaders of the Black community, took notice. The murders were being reported and while that fact alone indicated both concern and progress, the media and law enforcement alike were not quite ready to recognize a pattern in these killings. The murders and those to come were often attributed to domestic violence. Others blamed the nature of African Americans themselves for the brutal killings.
Carole Townsend:Listen to this unnamed detective's take on the reason. Police couldn't seem to solve the mystery. In an Atlanta Constitution article dated November 23, 1911, an Atlanta PD detective was quoted as saying. These murders are being committed by the lower class of Negroes, ignorant, brutal beasts that know nothing else. Their acquaintances are afraid to talk, but if there was a little money slipped to them we could find out valuable clues. That same detective went on to say that the practice of paying for information was a common one among law enforcement agencies, but there was no money for such practices in the Atlanta agency. Eventually, and in desperation, the police department issued a call for the hiring of quote black detectives in the hopes that they would be able to solicit clues and information from the black community.
Carole Townsend:By mid-1911, the murders had become so frequent that members of the business community began to take notice. The killings caught the attention of business owners because they caused and again I'm quoting an intensified servant problem. In other words, the murders and the understandable hysteria that they stirred were affecting the ability of Atlanta businesses to function and to prosper. The inability of businessmen to depend on their domestic and industrial workforce amped up interest in both news and in law enforcement, turning up the heat even higher. During this terrifying murder spree, a rash of robberies and burglaries aimed at whites acted as gasoline on an already raging wildfire. Hatred and mistrust ballooned, and they further divided the white and black communities at a time when the cooperation of the entire community was desperately needed.
Carole Townsend:While these political, racial and business conundrums muddied the waters surrounding the mystery of the Atlanta Ripper, the body count continued to grow. At the end of August, mary Ann Duncan was found lying on the railroad tracks west of Atlanta, her throat cut and her shoes missing. A few days later, ellen Maddox was walking home from work when she was brutally attacked, her head and face smashed with a rock. Unbelievably, she lived long enough to talk with police, but she succumbed to her injuries shortly thereafter. On the evening of October 21st that same year, the body of Eva Florence was found stabbed in the throat, her head bashed. On November 10th, minnie Wise was found dumped on a trash heap, her throat cut and her head crushed in with a blunt object. But listen to this Minnie's right index finger was sliced off at the joint A clean cut. This was new. On the morning of November 21st, the body of Mary Putnam, still warm, was found lying in a ditch and buried under loose dirt. Her skull had been crushed and her throat slashed. And there was yet another new mutilation not previously seen in these murders Mary's breast was slashed open and her heart had been ripped from her body and laid beside her.
Carole Townsend:Was the Ripper's bloodlust escalating or, as some in the press and police opined, was this murder spree simply the actions of several perpetrators? Was there a serial killer loose in the young city? Or had the madness of the day spiraled into a wild climate of the wholesale murder of black women for any reason? As the number of killings rose, arrests were being made. During the mayhem, a laborer named Henry Huff was arrested for Sadie's murder. A cab driver claimed to have seen the two together in his taxi the night she was killed. Later that same night, huff was allegedly found with blood and dirt on his pants. He was arrested and indicted for the murder of Sadie, but no one seriously believed that he was responsible for all of the Ripper murders. Some police reports indicate that law enforcement officers weren't even convinced of his involvement in Sadie's murder.
Carole Townsend:Shortly after Huff's arrest, a man named Todd Henderson was arrested for the Ripper murders, and Emma Lou Sharp thought he was the man she saw the night of her mother's murder and her own stabbing, but as it turned out later, she really couldn't be sure. Later a third suspect was arrested. His name was John Daniel, and he was indicted alongside Henry Huff for Sadie Holly's murder. The police lacked confidence that any of these men was responsible for the Ripper murders and, as it turns out, their lack of confidence was warranted. While all three men were still in custody, mary Ann Duncan was murdered, and the killings continued. Just a couple of weeks after Mary Putnam was found so brutally slain, a young woman named Zila Favors was murdered on her own front porch. This was in early December. She had been stabbed multiple times and witnesses reported seeing her talking to a large black man near her home about an hour before she was murdered.
Carole Townsend:The Ripper was clearly still on the loose, despite the three arrests. Murders of young black women continued into 1912, but the first few of those were reportedly the result of domestic violence. In fact, through mid-February several Ripper-like murders were committed, but they were all attributed to domestic partners, and just a month later a Fulton County grand jury issued the opinion that the Atlanta Ripper was simply a myth. Up to that point, there were 16 murders attributed to that myth. Now, by the FBI's definition, serial killers share common traits they're sensation-seeking, they lack guilt and remorse, they're impulsive, they have a need for control and they engage in predatory behavior. They hunt victims that share race, gender and physical characteristics. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Because it does to me. One by one, murders with the same signs of those attributed to the Atlanta Ripper continued as the year 1914 was coming to a close.
Carole Townsend:However, so it seemed, was the Ripper's reign of terror. Sadly, the circumstances that swirled around these murders that some say actually began in 1909, hindered any chance at real resolution. Was the city of Atlanta, with the surrounding climate of growth, hatred, mistrust and indifference, gripped in the hysteria of unbridled mass slayings committed by several killers? Or was there indeed a lone African-American man with bloodlust and a hatred of his own responsible for the killings? In total, there were six men arrested for the Ripper murders. None of them was ever convicted of being the dreaded serial killer.
Carole Townsend:We will likely never know the answer to the question of whether the Atlanta Ripper was a lone madman or a collection of murderers, but we can learn from that terrible time and those vicious killings. Until relatively recently, behavioral science told us that serial killers were likely white males in their mid-20s to mid-30s. But was Atlanta's Ripper real and if so, could his killings be seen as a pattern that could have expanded the definition of a serial killer much earlier. Within the past 50 years, several African American serial killers have been identified, arrested and convicted in the United States, including the infamous Mrs Bluebeard, also known as Roberta Elder, whose victims lived in Atlanta and in Northeast Georgia, where she herself is currently buried. We now know that serial killing is bound to neither race nor to gender. Was the same person following the same modus operandi over this five-year period 115 years ago? Or were the murders in Atlanta during that five-year span the work of several copycat killers who knew that their horrible deeds would be attributed to the Atlanta Ripper himself?
Carole Townsend:Evidence and witnesses are long gone now, but there is something I would like to do before we bring this story to a close. The victims of the Atlanta Ripper were too often not even named in newspaper and police reports 115 years ago. Those in power did not deem the women or their names important. For that reason, I would like to share the names of the women who have been identified as victims of the Atlanta Ripper, who have been identified as victims of the Atlanta Ripper. They were, after all, daughters, mothers, wives and sisters. To the best of my ability, their names are listed here in the order of their attacks Della Reed, in September 1909, another unidentified woman, estella Baldwin, georgia Brown, maddie Smith, lavinia Osten, sarah Dukes, frances Lampkin, eliza Griggs, maggie Brooks, rosa Trice, lucinda McNeil, in February 1911, an unidentified woman, rosa Rivers, bell Walker, addie Watts, sophie Jackson, lizzy Watkins, lena Sharp, emma Lou Sharp, mary Eldell, sadie Holly, mary Ann Duncan, minnie Wise, eva Florence, november 1911, an unidentified woman, zella Favors, pearl Williams, ida Slade, alice Owens, mary Kate Sledge, marietta Logan, august 1912, an unidentified woman, 1912 and unidentified woman, laura Smith, martha ruffian, july 1914.
Carole Townsend:To unidentified women Mary Rowland in 1915, lucy far and two unidentified women 1917. Unidentified woman. 1918, another unidentified woman and, in that same year, laura Blackwell and Chatty Worsham. Oh, one more thing. I'd be remiss in not telling you that in 1913, a man was arrested and charged with the rape and murder of 13-year-old Mary Fagan, an employee in the pencil factory run by a man named Leo Frank. Frank had come down south to run the factory and was the last person Mary is assumed to have seen just before her ruthless attack. Interestingly though, four men had been arrested and subsequently released for the crime. The last man who was arrested was convicted because of two poorly worded notes found near Mary's small body. The notes were supposedly written by Mary herself and they claimed that a long, tall, slim black Negro had done the deed. In fact, the notes had been composed by the short, stocky African-American factory janitor.
Carole Townsend:I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me on social media and check out my website at caroltownsoncom. As always, thanks for listening and if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, apple Play, iheart and anywhere you listen. My team and I used these sources in researching the story of the Atlanta Ripper. The Atlanta Ripper the unsolved case of the Gate City's most infamous murders, by Jeffrey Wells, published by the History Press, the Atlanta Constitution, july 12, 1911 newspaper article, and the ATL Vault. The Atlanta Ripper Terrorizes the City. 100-plus Years Ago, by Tim Darnell.
