The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-11-15
MY STERIOUS CRIMES.
A Review of Bloody Horrors
Here in the City.
Austin detectives and London
Detectives on the Same Level.
Will the Mystery Ever
Clear Away?


all the details.
The accounts call up the many mys.
terious murders which have been com,
mitted in this city, and which like thu
Whitechapel crimes, have baffled all effort.
of the detectives to bring the guilty par
ties to Justice.
THE FIRST CRIME.
The first horrible crime which startled
this community happened along in the fall
of the year of 1868.
An old German living on First street
Just this side of the old government bar
racks, was found one morning in his room
with his head split open and his body hOr.
ribly mangled.
He lived alone and had been murdered
for his money.
This was evident, as his trunk was open
and its contents scattered over the floor.
The old gentleman was very quiet and a
great lover of flowers, which he cultivated
and raised in great profusion.
His home was literal bower of roses
and high up over all these was perched a
curiously contrived windmill to brighten
off birds. 1t was the work of the old man
and consisted of figures of men, women
and horses, all moving and keeping up a
noisy clatter.
When the wind was quite strong and the
fans of the little mill moved with unusual
rapidity an old bald-headed shoemaker
would hammer away with terrific energy,
adding to the din, until window Just
over him would open and a figure, evil
IDENTIFY that of an aged spinster, would
look out upon the gathering crowd of
Gathering puppets and beam with intense
disgust upon the old shoemaker. The
opening of the window acted upon a
spring and the old shoemaker and nearly
all of the noisy figures would cease to
move. Then the spinster would disappear
and not until another strong gust of
wind set the merry registers to dancing
and the old man hammeripg would it open
again.
1t was a curious and ounningly wrought
machine and people won stand and
watch with great interest.
The old man, too, was the first to ever
conceive of wire fence, and during the
great suits several years ago between the
barbed wire manufacturers, scores of peo-
pie were examined in this city to show
that the old German was the first to ever
use WlE6 WIFI DhTDS lOf
His beautiful flowers and his wonderful
windmill had made him known all over the
city, and his cruel, bloody murder aroused
the whole community.
His murderer, negro, was captured.
He confessed his crime and suffered the
death penalty just across from the mouth
of Shoal creek, near where the city water
works now stand.
But The STATESMAN set out to speak of
murders, the perpetrators of which have
never been discovered.
AUGUST WHITMAN.
August Whitman was hack driver, and
no more popular one ever held the reins
and served the people in this city.
He was genial, generous and polite, and,
in his line, did splendid business.
One Thursday evening along about 1877
he proceeded home a little earlier than
usual and put up his horses. He told his
wife he was going down town and left.
He was seen again that same night at a
Mexican circus, then exhibiting on the
public square near Christian 81 Crooker's
lumber yard.
Il was the last time he was seen alive by
an acquaintance.
He did not return home that night nor
did he show up Friday.
His wife, being uneasy, notified some of
his friends, and they instituted search,
but without finding any trace of him. The
river was very high at the time, and it was
suggested that possibly after leaving the
circus he strayed in the dark to IT, and,
tumbling off the bank into its murky wa
ters. he drowned.
Indeed, there we're persons who averred
that they heard cry for help that night
near the river, but it not being repeated
no further attention was paid to it.
No trace of him could be found Satur-
day, and the river theory settled down
into fixed conviction and people talked
and wondered why August, as we'll
acquainted as he was, should be SO foolish
as to 90 to the river and fall into 1T.
Suicide was suggested more than once,
but how could man 80 comfortably fixed,
80 popular and thriving so well be induced
to take his own life.
The idea was preposterous and was
secuted.
Sunday morning was ushered in clear
and bright. 1t was Indian summer, and
never before or since was the day more
bright, more balmy, more soft, dreaming
and delightful.
Two or three little boys with their dogs,
going through Horsts' pasture, started
rabbit.
The dogs "treed" at last, and the boys
hurried to where they were, expecting to
fud the game in a hollow tree.
They discovered something else, how
ever.
In little clump of black jacks on the
ground was the body of man horribly
mutilated.
The boys, frightened almost out of
their wits, scampered off to tell
of their find, and a short
time after several persons, among whom
was the writer, were on the ground. The
dead man was August Whitman. His
throat was cut from ear to ear nearly sew
eripp the head from the body and he had
one or two bullet holes through the skull.
He had evidently been forced to go to
the spot and after being shot, to make
sure his throat was cut.
His own knife was used and all blood
stained it was left on the ground by his
side.
His silver watch was in mis- vest pocket,
and some money in his pockets.
Evidently robbery was not the OBJECT
What wasS
No one knows, and to this day his muir
der is a profound mystery
AfFIr n