THE DEVIL IS OUT THERE

A Bloody Narrative Of The 1909 Axe Murders In Savannah, Georgia

On December 22, 1911, David J. Taylor stepped into a partially filled bathtub inside the Chatham County Jail while several witnesses and the Rev. John S. Wilder watched. Taylor, balding with a thick mustache covering his upper lip, was to receive his baptism on the same day of his execution by hanging.

Wilder asked Taylor, “Are you guilty?”

“Before God, I am innocent,” he replied. 

*

Around 3 p.m. on December 10, 1909, a patrolman was passing by an old wooden, two-story house with dirty windows at 401 W. Perry St. in Savannah, Georgia when he heard groans coming from inside the house. The policeman stepped up the small porch to investigate the sounds and noticed the front door ajar. He pushed the door only to find resistance. And so he pushed harder until he was able to enter. Maggie Hunter lay in a pool of her own blood, but was still breathing. He rushed back out of the house and down the street to the drug store to alert his  command. 

A barrage of policemen entered the house a short while later. As an ambulance carted Maggie to Savannah Hospital, the police discovered the body of Carrie Ohlander in the hallway with signs of “outrage,” or sexual assault.

In the bedroom, the body of 76-year-old Eliza Gribble laid on the floor with her legs stretched towards the door. She had been sitting in her easy chair reading when she was struck from behind with an axe, the imprint of the weapon still visible in her grey hair, her eye glasses still situated on her face. 

Police, attorneys, journalists, and anyone passing by wandered through the murder house over the coming hours. A bloody axe was found. And later, a bloody iron rod in the shed was found. The house was coated in blood. The Savannah Evening News broke the story with an eyewitness statement that blamed a Black former cook who “went to work this morning with a gray sweater trimmed in red.” 

Later that evening, under the electric city lights, mobs of angry white citizens and nearly every policeman on both the city and the county’s staff began combing through the Black neighborhood of Yamacraw Village, arresting any young Black man who fit the description. A newspaper reported over 150 Black men arrested without cause. The mob rioted and destroyed property, in their blind search for a suspect. The police said robbery was the motive. 

*

Three days later, on Dec. 13, Maggie lay in the Savannah Hospital bed as doctors opened her veins and pumped them full of a saltwater solution and opiates. Rev. Wilder stood over her. He asked her if she recognized him. Maggie looked up at him carefully and said “Yes, Rev. Wilder.” The good minister talked with Maggie about her soul and prayed with her. He then asked who assaulted her. Maggie told the reverend it was a white man and then named him. She died shortly after his visit. The reverend never shared the name with anyone. 

*

After midnight, on the day of Maggie’s death, police lead J.C. Hunter, who’s real name was David L. Taylor, down a dimly lit hallway into a room where they opened a coffin to reveal his dead wife. In the instant he realized who he was looking at, he began to sob and then he broke down into full blown distress. Although they were separated at the time, J.C. lived close to Maggie and was in regular contact. The police’s thinking of the day was, if a murderer saw his dead victim, he would most certainly confess to the killing, overwhelmed by guilt. 

“Can I kiss my wife,” he asked the police. They said yes and so he did. “When did she die?” As they tell J.C. the details of his wife’s death, he continues to sob and was taken back to a cell. He does not utter a word on the way. He becomes the police’s prime suspect. 

On Feb. 23, 1910, he and two other men are arrested for the murders. The other two are found not guilty, but J.C. Hunter is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. 

*

After David Taylor proclaims his innocence to the Rev. Wilder, standing in the bathtub awaiting absolution, the good reverend says with a dramatic tone, “The governor has commuted your sentence.” 

On Oct. 27, 1923, 13 years and 8 months after being arrested, Georgia Governor Clifford Walker pardoned David Taylor. The 77-year-old returned to his Savannah home on Nov. 2, 1923 a free man. 

In 1944, the Gribble House was torn down and the building constructed on the lot now houses a carriage tour company.

The murders of the three women inside were never completely solved.