The Midnight Assassin: The Hunt for America's First Serial Killer
The New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Texas Institute of Letters's Carr P. Collins Award
One of Book Riot's Best Books of the Year
In nineteenth-century Austin, Texas, a ruthless murderer terrorized the city in what would soon become a story more shocking than any fiction.
In the late 1800s, just as Austin was on the cusp of emerging from an isolated western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan metropolis, a series of brutal murders rocked the burgeoning city and shook it to its core. At the time, the concept of a serial killer was unknown and unimaginable, but the murders continued, the killer became more brazen, and the citizens’ panic reached a fever pitch.
For more than a decade, Texas Monthly journalist Skip Hollandsworth has researched this gripping tale of murder and madness that plays out like a well-crafted whodunit. With vivid historical detail and novelistic flair, Hollandsworth's The Midnight Assassin: The Hunt for America's First Serial Killer brings this terrifying saga to life.
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Community Reviews
The Midnight Assassin introduced me to a terrifying piece of Texas history that somehow escaped every classroom, museum trip, and local legend from my childhood. I grew up near San Antonio and had never heard about the unidentified killer who terrorized Austin during 1884 and 1885. Skip Hollandsworth turns the unsolved murders into a detailed portrait of a growing city desperate to appear civilized, prosperous, and ready for national attention.
The attacks begin with Black women working as domestic servants. The killer enters their homes at night, drags them outside, and assaults them. Austin’s leaders promise answers while police arrest suspects without reliable evidence. Racial prejudice shapes nearly every stage of the investigation. The victims receive headlines and public sympathy, but officials remain eager to blame Black men and preserve the comfort of the city’s white residents. The atmosphere changes after two white women are murdered on Christmas Eve 1885. Fear spreads across every neighborhood, political careers begin to tremble, and Austin can no longer treat the violence as a problem confined to its Black community. Detectives arrive from Houston and Chicago. Bloodhounds follow trails that lead nowhere. Newspapers circulate rumors, suspects offer conflicting accounts, and politicians use the murders against their opponents.
Hollandsworth does not pretend the surviving evidence can provide a satisfying answer. He documents the suspects, witness statements, arrests, rumors, and theories as carefully as the historical record allows. The investigation exposes how racism, poor police work, limited forensic knowledge, and public pressure allowed fear to spread while the killer remained free.
The history surrounding the murders fascinated me almost as much as the case. Austin was trying to transform its reputation from a rough frontier town into a respectable capital city. Officials seemed far more comfortable discussing elections, rivalries, and promotional campaigns than admitting women were being brutally murdered. That response felt extremely Texas. Look away from the horror, insist everything is peachy, and redirect attention toward the men in power.
The political sections occasionally dragged. I understood why Hollandsworth included them since newspaper archives would preserve political arguments more easily than the investigation of the murders that was coming up empty. I am sure there was private pressure to minimize the murders in the press. I also enjoyed learning how San Antonio supported Austin during the crisis. San Antonio apparently deserves a small gold star for neighborly behavior.
The Midnight Assassin is no In Cold Blood, but it is well researched, respectful toward the victims, and honest about the limits of the evidence. Clint Jordan’s narration made the audiobook especially engaging. His accent, pacing, and delivery suited the research perfectly.
Skip Hollandsworth and Clint Jordan maybe the most Texas names ever paired in a book about Texas. I grew up around plenty of small-town boys called Skip or Clint, so I knew these men were about to tell me a good ol' Texas tale. Pick this up if you enjoy unresolved true crime, Texas history, historical investigations, and books that examine how prejudice affects justice.
I am kind of split on this book. The parts dealing with the murder's and the trials surrounding it are very interesting. Also, the crime scenes are described in great detail and really graphic. So, if you are squeamish you may not want to read this book or just skip the parts that are graphic. A big issue is that between the parts about the murders the book slows down a bit. The reason for this is that this book ends up mainly being about the history of Austin in the 1800s. In the end, it was a really interesting book if you lie true crime and history.
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