You're listening to the drag.

It's May 23rd, 1885.

It's a busy week in Austin, Texas.

There's a carnival at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, formerly known as Turner Hall.

There's a small fire in someone's kitchen, and a local woman dies of the quote,

fearful disease, smallpoxpox and the citizens of

Austin fear and outbreak. According to the city physician the woman's husband

unknowingly spread smallpox while he was mourning her death. The man and a handful of other people

who came into contact with are ordered to quarantine. This is all fairly typical for the developing

city of Austin, Texas. Construction continues on the new Texas Capitol building in the heart of the city.

Just a few blocks north of where the Capitol will soon stand, Irene Cross is fast asleep after a long day of work.

She's 33 years old and a widow, but she lives with her son Washington and her nephew Douglas. She's a black woman who works as a domestic servant and

lives in a small outbuilding on her employer's property.

Austin has been terrorized by a series of brutal attacks on primarily black and immigrant

domestic servants for the past five months.

Two women are dead, but it's been three weeks since the last attack.

Irene wakes in the middle of the night.

Her nephew sleeps in a adjoining room, but there's a stranger in the room she serves with her son Washington.

Washington is 17 and Irene is used to her son coming and going at night.

He works in one of Austin's saloons.

He often forgets to lock the house door, a deadly decision on this particular night.

The stranger stands above Irene as she and Washington screamed for help.

...