Atlanta Ripper

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[OVERVIEW]

Unlike the previous serial killer not much is known about the Atlanta Ripper as he has never been identified.

While most people are familiar with London's Jack the Ripper, few are aware of the existence of his southern counterpart who matched him in stealth and carnage, and who had an entire city wracked with terror during the early 1900s.

[MURDERS]

On May 19, 1911 the body of an African American woman was found just 25 years from her home. The woman was identified as Belle Walker. Her throat was slashed.

Two months later two more women were found with their throats slashed. Both women were dark skinned.

Police soon realized this was a work of a serial killer.

However because of the time period not much media was shined on the killings as racism was prevalent so details weren't really known.

One woman did manage to survive her encounter with the Atlanta Ripper. She described him as "a gigantic black man."

The body count jumped to 8 women, all with their throats slit. After this the police started arresting as many giant black men as they could without any probable cause and only a basic description to go on.

Racial profiling didn't help the police the way they had hoped.

African American and other dark skinned women's dead bodies continued to be found with their throats cut so deep that some of them were nearly decapitated.

The entire black community isolated themselves due to fear and absolutely refused to go out at night.

Newspapers said that all the victims were attractive dark skinned women so women who were less attractive had a high chance of surviving.

Like clock work the killer started killing every Saturday night. The victims showed no signs of struggle. It was as if he came up behind them, pulled their head back and in one quick swipe slit their throat.

Some newspapers told the public that the police believed the killer was really a white man dressed as a black man. But this lead, just like all other leads, was just a dead end.

Women around the age of 20 continued to die only more spaced apart. By the end of 1911 15 dark skinned women fell victim to the unknown killer.

In April of 1912 police believed he took his 19th victim. It's also believed he had knowledge of human anatomy as one of the victims organs was missing, but it was a clean removal, as if a doctor had done it.

The killer than suddenly stopped. It's unknown why.

Police believe he killed 20 women but there's no telling how many womens lives he really took.

Atlanta Ripper was never found and to this day there hasn't been any progress in the case. This is mostly do to the fact not much was known about this publicly due to the racism in the city. And it's likely the Atlanta Ripper will never be known.

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