In the twelve months between May 1911 and May 1912, black residents of Georgia's capital were terrorized by the activities of a knife-wielding maniac who preyed exclusively on women of color, leaving them with throats slashed and bodies mutilated after death. Inevitably, he was christened "Jack the Ripper" by the local press, and like his namesake, he was never captured or identified. Unlike his predecessor, though, Atlanta's ripper claimed an even twenty victims , while the 19th-century practitioner had satisfied himself with five. The early murders in Atlanta were committed with a shocking regularity, the slayer claiming victims on seven successive Saturday nights, between May 20 and July 1, 1911. White newsmen were quick to report that the victims were all attractive, well-dressed mulattoes, with no "out-and-out black women" slain by the stalker. In each case, there was evidence of the woman being choked unconscious, after which her throat was slit from ear to ear and "the carving of the victim -- always in the same area of the body -- begins." None of the women had been raped, but from the nature of the mutilations -- tactfully unspecified in media reports -- it was apparent that the crimes were sexual in nature. As in the case of London's Jack (and nearly all his imitators), newsmen noted that the killer "seems to possess some knowledge of anatomy." Number seven on the Ripper's hit list was 40-year-old Lena Sharp, slain in the late hours of July 1, her head nearly severed, her body "horribly mutilated" after death. Concerned when Sharp was late arriving home, her daughter started searching in the streets. She was accosted by a well-dressed black man, but his mannerisms frightened her, and as she turned to flee he stabbed her in the back. Escaping with her life, she offered homicide investigators a description of the man, but no arrests resulted from the lead. The Ripper's first near-miss resulted in a change of schedule, slowing down his pace. He would require ten months to claim another thirteen victims in Atlanta, mutilating his last target -- a "comely yellow girl" of 19 years -- on Friday, May 10, 1912. A large reward collected by the black community produced no takers, and the case remains unsolved today. It is, perhaps, coincidental that the years 1911 and 1912 also witnessed the unsolved ax murders of more than 40 mulatto victims in Texas and Louisiana.