REVIEW: 'The Midnight Assassin,' by Skip Hollandsworth

If obsession is as obsession does, then the ghost who terrorized Austin, Texas, a century ago may have met his match. Texas Monthly journalist Skip Hollandsworth spent 15 years chipping away at the story of a shadowy creature who may be counted as the first known serial killer in the United States. "The Midnight Assassin" is a well-deserved new feather in Hollandsworth's well-feathered hat.

The murders that raged through Austin are intriguing in their own right. From December 1884 until Christmas Eve a year later, several unrelated women were butchered, torn apart "so quickly that they didn't have a chance to scream." Most of the victims were black, servants who scratched out an existence on the fringes of an ambitious and racist frontier city and whose deaths, while disturbing, were dismissed as the work of disgruntled lovers or other "bad blacks." The city shuddered with fascination, but then shrugged with detachment — until the final two murders, on Christmas Eve 1885, felled two of Austin's highest society white women.

Questions crackle throughout Hollandsworth's book:

Why and how did the assailant execute such horror and yet leave survivors — children or lovers who shared a bed; housemates; employers or neighbors within easy shouting distance? Why were the victims poor, discardable blacks — until suddenly they weren't? How did the monster get from one side of town to another in impossible time — or were there multiple monsters?

And most intriguing: Why did the murders, after one bloody year, so suddenly stop? Was the devil who haunted Austin honing his grisly craft to become London's notorious Jack the Ripper?

No spoilers here: Hollandsworth declares flat-out that he failed to unmask the monster. But for readers who love the tangle of history, mystery and skilled storytelling — and who possess a strong stomach for the gruesome — joining his quest is a treat. He hunts down obscure public records, news accounts, shirttail relatives, the rare letter and photograph. The annotations cataloging his search are a delicious detective story unto themselves.

He delves into the limits of emerging forensic science. And his rendering of time and place is sublime; as much as the assassin remains opaque, the city of Austin is etched in high relief, and becomes the key character of the book. The next time you pop down for some music and margaritas, consider the history walking beneath your feet: political careers made and destroyed, race as a barometer of worth, money as the cruel master that trumped all.

And then add "The Midnight Assassin" to the rolls of unsolved monster-mysteries that hold us forever in their grip.

Jacqui Banaszynski is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who teaches at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and coaches writers worldwide.

The Midnight Assassin
By: Skip Hollandsworth.
Publisher: Henry Holt, 321 pages, $30.