The victim did not expect to have a fireplace poker stuck into her ear. She read the headlines in the papers about previous victims who were raped after being knocked unconscious with chloroform and then hacked to death, usually with a rusty ax.
This latest gruesome murder was the most recent in a rash of killings of black servant girls of wealthy white families - murders that had the town on edge, but the killer was never caught. Was it the work of "Jack the Ripper" in London?
No, it was the work of the "Servant Girl Annihilator," and it happened right here in Austin in the mid-1880s.
Our fair city - more commonly known for its bustling night life, world-class university and picturesque beauty - has a dark history.
Apparitions from long-dead roughnecks, prostitutes, lunatics and suicide victims are said to haunt scores of locales around Austin. The most famous of these is the Driskill Hotel on Sixth Street, a neighborhood once home to hooligans and rabble-rousers of the Old West.
"The Driskill is hugely haunted," said Jeanine Plumer, founder of Austin Ghost Tours, which operates year-round but is busiest in the few weeks leading up to Halloween. "Objects move all the time, faucets and lights turn on by themselves and Annie Lennox' dresses were moved."
Lennox, a singer-songwriter, was staying at the hotel a few years ago and hung up two dresses while deciding what to wear the next day. The next morning, when Lennox awoke, one of the dresses had mysteriously moved to the closet, Plumer said.
Apparitions aren't afraid to roam the Forty Acres, either.
The Littlefield Home, on the corner of Whitis Avenue and 24th Street, is said to be haunted by its founder, Alice P. Littlefield.
One night six years ago, when the building housed offices, an employee was working late. She felt a presence in the hallway outside her office. When she went to investigate the oddity, she heard the sound of rustling satin, much like that of a petticoat dress, right behind her. She then felt a rush of cold air blow past her and immediately left.
However, not all stories can be taken at face value, Plumer said.
"I like to find some factual, historical evidence behind the stories that people tell me," said Plumer. "I do a lot of debunking on my tours."
Whether they're true or just urban legend, ghost stories intrigue and compel those brave enough to seek the spirit world, she said.
"People want to explain the unexplainable," said Plumer. "But there's a side of us that just wants to be scared, too."
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