The Atlanta Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who is suspected of killing at least fifteen Atlanta women in 1911 and 1912.
The Atlanta Ripper moniker will sound familiar to crime enthusiasts for a reason: just a few years earlier, Jack the Ripper had terrorized London, murdering women and prostitutes in the goriest of fashions. By early 1911, the perpetrator had begun adding a similar grisly signature to his victims. Rosa Trice, a thirty-five year-old housewife, was found dead just a short distance from her home, her head bashed in, her throat slashed open. That February, another victim (never named) was found murdered in exactly the same way, and then in June, one Addie Watts fell prey as well. Local newspapers claimed a 'Black Butcher,' or in the name that stuck, an 'Atlanta Ripper.'
As almost any historical crime writer can tell you, it is a sad fact that African American murder victims rarely received the newspaper coverage that white victims received. This was especially true prior to the middle part of the twentieth century, when lynchings and race riots were still a tragic reality in American history. The fact that so many people have never heard of the "Atlanta Ripper" murders that took place in 1911 and 1912 is a perfect example of poor reporting by the newspapers of the day. In many cases, white reporters of the era were quick to point out that the killer's victims were all attractive, well-dressed mulattoes with no "out and out black women" slain by the murderer.