Austin’s ‘Rainey Street Ripper’ nothing more than urban myth, according to Texas State research paper

A new paper by Texas State University researchers dismisses the Rainey Street Ripper — a purported serial killer said to drown victims along downtown Austin’s lakeshore — as nothing more than another urban myth. On Tuesday, Texas State’s Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation released a 41-page report that analyzed 189 drownings at Lady Bird Lake between 2004 and 2025. Researchers looked into the deaths after rumors about an Austin serial killer began to circulate online.