Servant Girl Annihilator and had a club foot which was similar to a footprint believed to have been left by the killer. In February 1886, shortly after the last murder, Elgin was shot and killed by police while he was attempting to assault a girl with a knife. William Sydney Porter, better known as the short story writer O. Henry, was living in Austin at the time of the murders. Porter coined the term "Servant Girl Annihilators" in a May 10, 1885, letter addressed to his friend Dave Hall and later included in his anthology "Rolling Stones": "Town is fearfully dull," wrote Porter,
William Archer Porter Tait William Archer Porter Tait William Archer Porter Tait FRSE FRMS MICE (1866–1929) was a 19th/20th century Scottish civil engineer and part of the Guthrie Tait dynasty. He was Vice President of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1929. He was born on 25 March 1866 at 6 Greenhill Gardens in south-east Edinburgh, the second son of Peter Guthrie Tait and his wife, Margaret Porter. He was named after his maternal uncle, William Archer Porter. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy. From 1881 he studied Engineering at Edinburgh University under Prof Fleeming Jenkin graduating BSc in 1885. He was then apprenticed