The Midnight Assassin by Skip Hollandsworth

Your stomach may even turn along with those of the cynical hard-drinking reporters who are unable to look at the victims’ mangled bodies. The book paints Austin, Texas, in such fine detail that you can feel the chill of the uncommonly cold 1884 – 85 winter to your bones and imagine the crackling excitement in the air as an ambitious mayor endeavors to turn this formerly sleepy town into a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city.

The story is richly told by Skip Hollandsworth, an award-winning magazine writer whose 1998 Texas Monthly article “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas” was the basis for Richard Linklater’s 2011 black comedy Bernie.īut The Midnight Assassin is more than just an unsolved murder mystery. It’s Halloween season, and what better way could a Western history-loving reader experience some chills than with the true story of a twisted serial killer who terrified Texans? Scarier still, the killer was never caught - and some believed he carried on his horrible butchery in the impoverished Whitechapel area of London three years later. Photography: Laura Wilson Why it’s worth a read Three years before the Jack the Ripper slayings, a killer terrorized Austin, Texas, with a series of brutal attacks, mutilating women of all races and backgrounds and sending the rapidly modernizing western town into panic. The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killerįirst edition April 5, 2016. For this entry, we take a look at Skip Hollandsworth’s The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer. Featured volumes might be new, classic, or recently reissued, or they may somehow tie in to current events or the season. Welcome to “Reading Roundup,” a recurring C&I online feature in which we highlight a book that has captured our attention.

Acclaimed journalist Skip Hollandsworth delves into a bloody chapter of Texas history with a fascinating account of a killer who eluded authorities and terrorized the state’s capital city.

The Midnight Assassin by Skip Hollandsworth