In spite of already knowing the story, I was nevertheless turning the pages as fast as I could to find out what happened. Read more.
Postmortem Print
One-time Austinite Steven Saylor tells the story of the Servant Girl Murders through the eyes of one-time Austinite O. Henry in the novel A Twist At The End. You think you know people, but you don’t. A Twist at The End is an old-fashioned mystery novel of people not being who they seem, thwarted expectations and unexpected resolutions. The novel begins in 1906 in New York, with O. Henry spending his last remaining years writing, drinking too much, struggling with… Read more.
Once there was a killer in nearby Austin who was still at large. He had chloroformed his victim (rather humanely, I thought) before chopping her head off with an axe. Fear that ‘dat debblish axe-man’ might strike again, in only the Lord knew whose house, resulted in some extraordinary precautions. From the morning Pinkie heard about the axe-man’s method of operation until the day that he was finally trapped -- a period of three weeks -- she and Annie (her… Read more.
Austin native Henry B. Barnhart, was a successful attorney in 1885. He was appointed Travis County Attorney in 1886. An 1887 description of Barnhart’s career included the following passage: With uncompromising firmness, he has made successful war upon evil and wrong-doing wherever and whenever found, and by vigilance and courage brought evil-doers and lawbreakers to justice...Not more than sixteen months ago, Austin had a national reputation for midnight murder, with criminals undiscovered and unwhipped by justice. Crimes, the most… Read more.