The Phantom Killer // 446
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Thank you.

What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. So for some, this might feel familiar because today's episode was actually one of the first episodes that we ever covered on our Patreon bonus series over six years ago. I think it was actually five years ago. But, you know, we never cover cases from our bonus episode series over here on Going West because obviously that is not fair to our subscribers. But we're going to cover cases from our bonus episode series over here on Going West.

But we were baby podcasters when we covered this, and we just really wanted to re-research it and dive into it for Going West for this one exception. We have been recommended it a bunch of times, so thank you so much to Jace, Stephanie, Paul, Linda, and Trina for emailing us about it. Yeah, I mean, it is so crazy listening back to part of that original episode.

because we sound incredibly different. - No, I actually wanna play a little clip because it blows my mind. Like listen to how quiet and insecure we sound. They were approached by a man, but they couldn't see his face because he was hidden behind a white cloth mask that apparently looked similar to a pillowcase. - And this mask is kind of like the mask that you would see in "Friday the 13th Part II" where Jason's wearing a gunny sack over his head.

Or if you've seen a town that dreaded sundown, it looks just like that. Well, there you go. That too. So this man came in. Oh my God. We literally sound like meek little babies. Were we okay? I don't know. I don't know. How did we sound like that? Because we've always had these more outgoing personalities. So I don't know if we were just like really scared. I think we were scared. Yeah. Just years of practice have brought us to this point where we're more comfortable and

And so we wanted to, you know, redo this episode so that you guys could listen to all the extended details with more confident voices. Yeah, I mean, this is such a spooky story. It felt perfect for this time of year. So sorry, subscribers. I hope it's okay that we're doing this just this once. And thank you to everybody for tuning in. Well, all right, guys, this is episode 446 of Going West. So let's get into it. ♪

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Tonight, a final case from the Tex-Files, Texas mysteries worthy of X-Files plots. You've heard this one, serial killers stalking young couples on Lovers Lane. But it isn't fiction, it's the real deal. A legendary predator that people in Texarkana have always known as the Phantom Killer.

The incredible story you are about to see is true. The legend of Texarkana's phantom killer fascinated America for decades. Eventually it was immortalized on the silver screen. A film called "The Town That Breaded Sundown" mangled the story as only Hollywood came. But the basics were there: a hooded serial killer stalking young couples on lovers lanes. That part is true.

And the conclusion is well. February 1946, two young lovers parked along Richmond Lane, then just a dirt road on the outskirts of town. Suddenly, a man in a white hood approaches with a pistol and a flashlight in his hands. Three weeks later to the day, another lover's lane attack outside Texarkana. This time, the couple was murdered.

Once it had been reported that this was the pattern, every three weeks this mysterious killer was loose. People became very alarmed. It was after the second double murders they started using the name "Phantom" in the local newspaper.

It was the night of Friday, February 22nd, 1946, when 24-year-old Jimmy Hollis, who worked as an insurance agent, was on a romantic date at the cinema with his girlfriend, 19-year-old Mary Jean Larry, and another couple. The theater was in downtown Texarkana, Texas, which is one of twin cities on the border of Texas and Arkansas, as there is Texarkana, Texas, and then also Texarkana, Arkansas.

So when the movie ended, the young couples walked under the marquee and strolled along the warmly lit downtown streets before hopping in the car. After dropping off their friends, Jimmy and Mary Jean decided to keep the night going before Jimmy would need to drop Mary Jean off at her home in nearby Hooks, Texas.

So as many couples did, especially in those days, they made their way to a nearby scenic spot to park their car at the local notorious Lovers Lane. Now, obviously, it's not called Lovers Lane. This is not the one and only Lovers Lane. Yeah, there's a ton of different Lovers Lanes all over the U.S. Yeah, it's just like the term for a secluded spot where people just go and hook up, you know? So this Texas version of Lovers Lane, this place,

One of many lovers lanes in the area was a slightly secluded dirt road at the edge of town where teen couples would sit in their parked cars, like I said, to hook up after hours. So Jimmy and Mary Jean parked the car near the quiet stretch of highway at about 1145 p.m. They were chatting and kissing for only about 10 minutes when a figure approaching their car caught their eye.

Now, in the distance ahead, they saw what they assumed to be a man in a hood lurking towards them. Remember, they are alone in this quiet spot. So seeing another person just walking around this more desolate spot was concerning. It's not like, you know, surely there were many times when there was another car up there, you know, getting steamy or whatever. But...

A guy just like walking around looking at you. That was weird. I mean, it's terrifying from the get-go just to know that this guy is wearing a mask because you immediately don't get positive thoughts because it's like if that person was walking towards the car not wearing a mask, you might think, okay, is this a police officer, a friend, somebody else, whatever. But just the fact that the mask is involved is terrifying.

terrifying. Yeah, and they're not even really sure what they're seeing because, you know, he's holding a flashlight at them, but also then they're realizing, sitting there in confusion, that he is also holding a pistol directed right at them. So he can't really, or sorry, Jimmy and Mary Jean can't really see a lot of his details. It's happening so fast, suddenly he's approaching them with a flashlight and a gun.

So at first they thought this was obviously some kind of sick joke, but as the moments passed, they learned that this was not a prank. Before them, a real life horror story unfolded where the gunman instructed them to get out of the vehicle. So terrified and beyond confused, the couple obeyed and the masked individual looked at Jimmy and said, I don't want to kill you fella, so do what I say.

Jimmy was then instructed to, quote, take off his britches with no explanation. But then the man searched them. So it's possible that, you know, he wanted Jimmy to take off his pants so that he could see if there was any money in his pockets, which there was not. While standing outside of the car with Mary Jean full of fear, he did so, leaving him standing there on this dark dirt road in only his shirt, boxers and shoes.

The stranger then approached Jimmy and whacked him in the head with a heavy object, believed to either be the gun that he was holding or a piece of iron pipe that he also had on him, and Jimmy was immediately out cold.

And actually, the sound of metal on his skull was so loud that Mary Jean later recalled that she thought her boyfriend had been shot. Like, that's how loud this sound made against his head. So think about how loud that was and how...

major of an injury that would be to his head to create such a sound. Just how painful that would be. Truly, which is why he passed out right away. So she obviously is becoming hysterical at this point. She is pleading with the gunman and

And at this point, assuming that it's some kind of robbery, Mary Jean expressed that they had no cash. She even reached for Jimmy's wallet while he was unconscious on the ground to show them his wallet and say, look, we don't have any money. He doesn't have any money. And it was at this point that the masked perpetrator whacked Mary Jean on the side of the head with that iron pipe.

Well, this attack on Mary Jean did not make her fall unconscious, but it did cause this like very deep bloodied wound. So she was able to scream, begging for help. Mary Jean fell over and fell into somewhat of a daze upon being struck. And while slightly incapacitated on the ground, Mary Jean gazed up at her attacker and said, "Go ahead and kill me."

Her life flashed before her eyes, believing that, you know, he really was gonna do it. But then, this armed stranger bizarrely demanded that she get up and start running. Mary Jean was delirious at this point, her head aching, but she got up and tried to hide in the nearby ditch. But the man then instructed her to run up the road.

So as she did this, which was tough to do in her heels and, you know, obviously with this injury to her head, Mary Jean noticed an old car on the side of the road. She ran to it before realizing that it was empty. And when she stopped at the vacant car, the attacker caught up with her once again, knocking her down with that metal weapon. And I wonder, I mean, he's the one who said to run. So it's either like he wants to kind of play a game. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. And chase her or.

Or I wonder if because she's going to this car, maybe this is his car and he doesn't want her to be able to identify it and doesn't want her to try to get into it or whatever. And that's why he's doing this. I think it's probably one of those two. Yeah, because we actually never found out who owned that vehicle that was on the side of the road. We don't know. So you're right. It could have been his car. Yeah. And cars actually play a really interesting part in this story, which we will talk about later. But anyway, sorry, go ahead.

So, after knocking her to the ground, this assailant defamed her before sexually assaulting her with a barrel of his pistol. Then, in a swift turn of events, for really no explained reason, the attacker began to turn away from her and just disappear into the night. And somehow, you know, after the traumatizing incident, Mary Jean had the strength to flee on foot and darted a half a mile to a nearby home.

Now, she banged on the door in a panic, and when the half-asleep residents opened the door, she explained what had happened to her and her boyfriend, Jimmy. And with that, the police were called, because remember, Jimmy was still back at the scene, unconscious and needing help. But slowly but surely, Jimmy was regaining consciousness, and even before police arrived, he was able to flag down a passing motorist, who also got in touch with the police.

Within a half an hour, several deputies from the Bowie County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene.

Jimmy and Mary Jean were battered and bloodied on this dark country road, explaining their story before police arranged for them to be taken into a local hospital for their injuries. Jimmy in particular was recovering from skull fractures and stayed in the Texarkana hospital for nearly two weeks. I mean, think about how intense you would have to get hit over the head to be in a hospital for two full weeks.

Now, once the two of them were on the mend, police, of course, wanted to understand what the hell happened here. And by the way, just to paint the scene of this area a little bit better. So the town of Texarkana, Texas only had about 24,000 people living there at this time.

And it's located in a rural area. The closest larger city is over an hour away in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is not like a huge, huge, huge city, but it is like fairly large. So this type of crime wasn't super common in the area. I mean, it also wasn't a terribly safe area and it still isn't. And I did read,

some different mafia related crimes were occurring in that area in the 1950s. Remember, this took place in 1946. But still, obviously, the police wanted to figure out who was behind this because it

It was still out of the norm. And luckily, both Jimmy and Mary Jean survived to, you know, kind of explain what they saw. Yeah. And it's very interesting thinking about the fact that this town has about 24,000 residents.

Because that's not terribly small. That's like two of your towns put together. Yeah, that's like two of Junction City, where I'm from, put together. So it's not a small place by any means, but it's also not a massive place. And that's why it's important to keep this in mind, because as the investigation goes on... Goes on...

They're not really focusing on it as much as they should. The police aren't. Sure. As you guys will see. So, yeah, remember that this is a really small town. So this is the kind of thing that you want to get a handle on as soon as possible. But, yeah, so, again, they both survived. And so police were hoping to get a ton more information from them as they kind of rested a bit and tried to remember more of what happened. But here's the thing.

They didn't really see anything like I had mentioned before because Jimmy said that that flashlight was blinding him almost the entire time. So he couldn't distinguish specific features of the aggressor at all.

And to add more confusion, there were some discrepancies in the descriptions given by Jimmy and by Mary Jean. So Mary Jean claimed that she had seen a light-skinned black man in a white mask that she said had holes cut out of the eyes and the mouth.

As you heard in that terrible little clip in the beginning of this episode, it did kind of look like a pillowcase, according to Mary Jean. It was almost like a little sack. Yeah, it looked like that gunny sack, like I said from the beginning as well. Say it better. From Friday the 13th, part two. Great job. Yeah, it looked like a little gunny sack. So very creepy. Yeah, absolutely. But she is saying that under the eye holes, she could kind of tell that this is

may have been a light-skinned black man. Obviously, it's night. There could have been a shadow. She could be misremembering, but this is what she's saying. But Jimmy claimed that it was a white man with tan skin and no mask. So these are obviously two completely different descriptions, and since this was the only attack of its kind in the area thus far, they didn't have anything else to compare it to.

And Jimmy and Mary Jean were understandably unable to provide exact details of the assailant due to, like I said, how dark it was, their genuine fear in the moment, and the obvious head trauma that they both endured. However...

Both Jimmy and Mary Jean did agree that the person who brutalized them was about six feet tall and possibly about 30 years old, which is really interesting that they didn't remember features but knew an age range. Like, I feel like to decipher age, you have to have a lot of different details. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like a 17-year-old could be 6'1 or 6'2".

So could a 30 year old. How do you how do you really you know what I mean. If you if you don't know what their face looked like or even definitively the color of their skin. So they were probably feeling so confused trying to remember what they saw in that state of fear and pain. So it was probably hard for police to even know what to look for. But I do want to mention as well of course.

remember this guy was talking to them. He was, he was giving them commands. Sure. Yeah. So that would be one kind of maybe possible distinguishable feature about this assailant is possibly the voice. Yeah. Like maybe they sounded 30. I mean, again, I don't know, but Mary Jean did say that after the attack, she just kept hearing his voice in her head and that it was kind of haunting her. So at least she could remember that to give Mary,

more detail in that way. But yeah, they don't have a lot to go off of here. I was also going to say that I don't think that a teenager would say, hey, fella, you know, like that sounds like maybe something an older person might do like in their 30s. But this was 1946. I know, but still, fella? I feel like that was such the language, no? Maybe if you're talking to a younger person, I feel like you'd say, hey there, fella, or young fella or something like that. Oh, I guess I see what you're saying. Yeah. Because, yeah, that makes sense. Kind of makes sense, right? Yeah.

Well, during their questioning, law enforcement specifically were skeptical of Mary Jean's account of the events, and they wondered if the couple knew the identity of the person who assaulted them and were just trying to cover it up for whatever reason.

So Jimmy and Mary Jean, they did not know who did this to them. They were very staunch about that. And they were just extremely frustrated with the lack of seriousness from the police. And Jimmy even warned police that if they didn't find this attacker, the eventual next encounter would be deadly. Like he was sure this guy was going to keep attacking people if they didn't catch him quick. And he was right.

Which brings us to Saturday, March 23rd, 1946. Just a month after the first Lovers Lane attack on Jimmy and Mary Jean. 29-year-old Richard Griffin and his girlfriend of six weeks, 17-year-old Polly Ann Moore, were having dinner with Richard's sister Eleanor at a Texarkana cafe.

After dinner, around 10 p.m. that night, they decided to take a moonlit drive along the dusty Texas roads. And after a short drive, Richard and Pauline ended up at a lover's lane. And this lover's lane was actually across town from where Jimmy and Mary Jean were attacked. And they parked his 1941 Oldsmobile sedan there.

Oh, really quick. Sorry. I want to mention that for anybody wondering why were they driving out to a lover's lane weeks after somebody was attacked on a lover's lane or a couple was attacked, the attack on Jimmy and Mary Jean did not make headlines at all. Nobody was talking about this. I couldn't even find any newspaper clippings from the time that that occurred. It wasn't until a few months later that people started talking about this. So basically,

Poor Pauline and Richard probably didn't know that that had happened. Yeah, there was almost no attention given to that first story because, you know, police were kind of under the impression that this was just a one-off thing. Yeah. Well, Richard and Pauline arrived sometime shortly after 10 p.m. And sadly, they would never make it home that night.

The next morning, a motorist was cruising along Highway 67, which runs directly through Texarkana, when he noticed a car on the side of the highway. And for some reason or another, the seemingly abandoned vehicle struck the motorist as odd, and he approached the car to get a better look. To his complete dismay, a grisly scene unfolded.

Early on this Sunday morning, the motorist proceeded towards the car and saw 29-year-old Richard Griffin propped up in the front seat of his own vehicle. And his positioning was really strange here because he was found on his knees in between the front and passenger seat, or the driver and passenger seat, with his head positioned on top of his crossed hands, and his pockets were turned inside out.

17-year-old Polly Ann was laying behind her boyfriend Richard, face down in the back seat. Now it was clear that they had both been shot in the back of the head, and they were fully clothed.

But evidence from a bloody blanket outside the car suggested that Pauline was actually killed outside and then placed in the car afterwards. So this is really reminiscent of the attack on Jimmy and Mary Jean. If they were ordered out of the car at gunpoint...

And then we know that Richard's pockets were inside out. We also know that Jimmy's pockets were searched when the assailant asked Jimmy to remove his pants. So this is really lining up with that first attack. Well, along with the bloody blanket, a cartridge from a .32 caliber pistol was found about 25 feet away from the vehicle, telling police what type of gun that they were murdered with when they arrived and assessed the scene.

And even though this happened just a month after Jimmy and Mary Jean's attack, in the same small city, in the same situation, with the same type of victims, the police would proceed to do a really shoddy job once again with this case.

Some reports claim that there was evidence of Pauline having been sexually assaulted, but other reports claim that she was embalmed and buried before, you know, a proper test was even done to prove this. But obviously, it would be good to, you know, be able to confirm, especially knowing that Mary Jean was sexually assaulted just weeks earlier by her attacker. And it's really strange to me because I feel like I don't understand why...

the assailant didn't kill Jimmy and Mary Jean, it almost feels like that was kind of a trial run. Like maybe this was the first attempt at doing something like this and they got more bold as time went on. Yeah, no, I completely agree. I feel like maybe he was nervous and didn't know what to do. And then after that, it kind of built him up because it does seem like the same person. And again, knowing that Jimmy and Mary Jean's attack did not receive media attention, it

Nobody would even know about the first attack to copy it. Yeah, exactly. And it's just going to, we're going to see more of these same situations happen. And so, yeah, I believe, you know, all of us believe that it was the same perpetrator. Well, sadly, it wouldn't be until this unknown killer struck a

third time that proper attention would finally be paid and the community as well as law enforcement would realize that they had a serial killer on their hands. This third attack took place just three weeks after the brutal killings of Pollyann and Richard. So fast forward to April 14th, 1946. 15-year-old Betty Jo Booker was enjoying a night out in Texarkana, Texas.

Betty Jo was a saxophone player and attended weekly meetups at the Texarkana VFW building where she regularly played in a band called Jerry Atkins and His Rhythmaires. That sounds exactly like a band from 1946. It really does. So a little after 1.30 a.m. when the band had wrapped up their performance, 17-year-old Paul Martin pulled up in his car outside the venue.

Now, Betty Jo and Paul had known each other since they were kids, but some reports state that they had become romantic, though they were not officially dating. But it does seem like they were probably going down that road. So Betty Jo headed outside with her saxophone in hand and got into Paul's brand new Ford before waving goodbye to her bandmates and friends.

Betty Jo shut the passenger door. The red taillights faded into the distance. And this would be the last time that they would be seen alive. About five hours later, at around 6.30 a.m., again on April 14th, 1946, Paul's lifeless body was found on the side of North Park Road in Texarkana.

A family that was passing by noticed him on the ground and at first it appeared that he was maybe drunk or had just passed out. But once the family got close to him, they noticed that he had four gunshot wounds to his body. One through the back of his neck, one entering through his face, one through his left shoulder, and the final shot pierced through his right hand.

Now, oddly, his shiny 1946 Ford, along with Betty Jo, were nowhere to be found. While Paul was found right there in the dirt, Betty Jo's absence was becoming a concern back at her family home because Betty Jo had not come home the previous night. So a search party, including her worried family and friends, went out to look for her.

They hadn't yet been aware of Paul's fate at this point, so they didn't know how worried they should really be here. But it just was not like Betty Jo to simply not come home after a night out. So her family and peers were full of questions and anxiety.

After hours of searching for Betty Jo, the group who had set out that morning made a devastating discovery. It was Betty Jo's body found in a wooded area about two miles from where Paul's body had been found hours earlier. Betty Jo was still wearing her coat, which had been soaked in blood from the two bullets that took her life, one in her chest and the other in her head.

Betty Jo's beloved saxophone would later, like six months later, be found under some brush nearby, still in its case, proving that this attack had spread across the area.

As for Paul's vehicle, that would later be found with the keys still in the ignition at a nearby railroad bordering Spring Lake Park, which was a popular cruising spot for local teens. So you can kind of imagine they had driven to this spot to hang out together. And that's when this assailant found them and killed them both. Did they run on foot? I mean, I doubt that they both ran together.

you know, two miles apart. Um, so were their bodies transported? Like how did they get to where they were found? Yeah. I mean, that's a confusing question there. And also I feel like this is really just, you know, such an opportunist mind state of this killer because there are young couples for the most part, um,

And they're in these very desolate areas where nobody can see. It's dark. It's at night. So I wonder if that was the plan the whole time. It's like, well, I know that there's going to be somebody at some Lover's Lane...

some night and I'm just going to be there waiting ready to strike. Yeah. Until somebody pulls up or maybe he's cruising them after these couples are already there, but clearly he is trying to find secluded couples to attack. Right. And by the way, we are going to post a map of events because everybody was found only a few minutes drive away from each other. Again, this is a small area. Obviously we're not going to include street views because this area looks so different now than it did in

So now there had been three similar attacks on six people total that took place within two months on similar desolate back roads of northeast Texas. And at this point, the community was really starting to take this situation, you know, seriously. Terrified, knowing that a monster was in their midst.

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So at this point this killer had left four young people dead and two severely beaten and traumatized. So Texarkana was about to make some major strides to figure out what was going on and why.

Local law enforcement, including the FBI, arrived in Texarkana and they got to work right away. With the Texas Rangers holing up at the aptly named Hotel Grimm in downtown Texarkana to try to locate this killer as well.

They coordinated with the FBI, who became the public face of the investigation. And while officials had three similar cases, they compared facts, dates, and locations. But the massive search didn't lead them to much of a conclusion here. Manuel T. Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers addressed the public in a press conference about the situation.

In a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, western-style boots, and his tan, classic ranger outfit, he admitted that their efforts so far left them knowing very little about their suspect. Which, you know, worried the public even more here.

So, soon after the investigation began, Texas and Arkansas media was going wild thanks to newspapers and radio stations across the states discussing the cases and their connections. About time! Yeah, I mean, fucking finally, which really ramped up in the month of May, and, you know, that's when this case started to really get some serious attention.

And I mean, in the 1940s, a small town with a string of murders of this caliber, like you said, was just not the norm. And the news coverage of the killings drove the mysterious events to become highly sensationalized. So Ranger Gonzalez put the town on high alert and encouraged local residents to gear up and prepare to protect themselves from this unknown assailant.

People bought guns, window shades, and locks because many people in this area didn't even have locks for their homes in hopes to provide protection in a town where nobody was feeling safe anymore.

At the end of the press conference, Ranger Gonzalez referred to the unknown assailant as the Phantom Killer. And it's interesting because some young couples in the area wanted to try to catch him, you know, after all this was hitting the news. So they would like drive out onto deserted roads and lover's lanes, completely putting themselves in danger to try to lure and trap this guy. But

None of them were successful. And luckily, nobody died doing this. Yeah, this sounds like such a small-town vigilante thing to do. It's like, everybody go get your guns. We're going out to the lover's lane to see if we can catch this killer. It sounds like something from a movie. Yeah, so I think...

as you guys will see as well, it feels like after this hit the news, everything changed because there was one more murder after this. This didn't just continue. So I think knowing that all these people are going out and they're trying to get vigilante justice and that the police are really on high alert, like you're saying, the killer kind of got a little quiet for a second. Yeah. And also people are getting really frustrated because they're

At this point, they have like a lack of faith in law enforcement because they still can't catch this guy. And these murders just keep happening. Well, yeah, it actually wasn't that long after the attack on Betty Jo and Paul or the murders of Betty Jo and Paul that another attack happened. But this one was very different.

Yeah, and that is a great point to make here is that he kind of switched it up.

Totally. So less than a few weeks after the public addressing of the murders, the phantom killer was about to strike yet again on their fifth and final victim. Just under three weeks after the murders of Bobby Joe and Paul Martin.

On the evening of May 3rd, 1946, a 37-year-old farmer named Virgil Starks and his 36-year-old wife Katie were relaxing in their home, just winding down for the night.

Their country-style home sat on 500 acres of vast, sprawling farmland and was located about 10 miles northeast of Texarkana. So this is the first and only attack of these string of murders and attacks that took place outside of the city. It was sometime around 9 p.m. that evening, and Virgil was sitting in his armchair reading the newspaper.

A hot pad was nestled between the chair and his back, you know, soothing some muscle aches that he regularly got from long hours tending to the farm. His wife Katie was in their bedroom, dressed in her nightgown and preparing for bed while listening to the radio. And suddenly, the quiet buzz of the rural home became interrupted by two loud bangs, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.

While Virgil was reading in his chair, two gunshots had been fired from outside the living room window, both penetrating the back of Virgil's head, meaning someone was watching him from outside of his home, through the window, and murdered him without even entering his house. Katie immediately rushed to the living room upon hearing the shots where she found her husband slumped over in his chair.

Bewildered and quickly realizing that Virgil was dead, Katie ran to the crank telephone to call police. But get this, as she was dialing emergency services, Katie was shot twice in the face from the same window.

The first bullet hit her cheek, exiting behind her ear, and the second one entered through her lower jaw, splintering her teeth before lodging below her tongue. Damn, that is brutal. I mean, that sounds so painful, especially because...

As I'm about to get into, Katie survived this attack. And by the way, this guy is a really good shot. Like if from the window, he can kill Virgil and hit Katie in the face with four shots only, and they were all hitters? Yeah, and it seemed like they were all from a handgun as well because, you know, there wasn't some rifle where he was...

I mean, I guess you can aim pretty well with a handgun as well, but yeah, through a window, through the glass, like... I mean, yeah, he's a good shot. So Katie fell to the ground for a brief moment before miraculously getting up. Remember, her teeth are splintered, there's a bullet in her mouth, the other one went out behind her ear, but she's getting up and she runs to go get her own gun.

Now this is when she noticed the assailant trying to break into a window in the kitchen, which was in the back of the house. So this guy is realizing that she is still alive and he's trying to get in to finish the job.

So in her vulnerable state, Katie had to think fast and she booked it to the front door and ran until she was alone in the pitch black pastures. I can't imagine what you would be thinking after, you know, this unknown assailant attacks you at your own home. And now you're out in the middle of the pastures. It's late at night. It's dark as shit.

And you don't know where this guy is. It's so scary. Like, truly like a horror movie. But Katie's sister and brother-in-law actually lived across the road. So she stumbled barefoot about 100 yards to their home before realizing that they weren't even there. So she gets there desperately needing help and they're not home. So luckily there was another house nearby. It was right next to Katie's sister's house. And this house belonged to a man named A.V. Prater.

So Katie approached his home and knocked on the door while gasping for air. I mean, she is so severely injured. Yeah, she's on the verge of death. Luckily, A.V. Prater opened the door just as Katie proclaimed, "'Virgil's dead' before collapsing to the ground."

So Prater watched his bloodied neighbor fall to the ground as he grabbed his own shotgun nearby and he actually fired it into the air, just hoping to quickly get some attention from another neighbor, which this did because Elmer Taylor, a resident of this small neighborhood, ushered to Prater's house where he was instructed by Prater to pull his car up.

After this, the two men loaded Katie's body into the car and rushed her to the local hospital. Somehow, I mean miraculously, Katie survived as Daphne mentioned. And once her condition was stabilized while she was in the operating room, Miller County Sheriff W.E. Davis began questioning Katie about what the hell just happened.

While Katie recovered in the hospital, state, county, and city officers made the 10-mile journey back to the Starks farmhouse to investigate.

And while assessing the scene, officials quickly made the conclusion that this most recent killing was committed by the hands of the elusive phantom killer. But as you guys can tell, this case is very different from the rest because it happened inside a home and the victims were not teens. But it was also different because this time, unlike before, the killer left behind some clues.

The assailant, presumably the phantom killer, while in the house, left numerous traces of evidence. Bloody footprints belonging to the killer were peppered through the living room, and it even appeared that the killer had stopped to rub their hand in the puddle of blood on the ground that was pooling beneath Virgil's body. Why? I don't know. It's like he's getting some sort of sick pleasure out of, like,

just playing around at the scene. I don't know why else he would do that, yeah. Arkansas State Police brought bloodhounds to the crime scene, just hoping that they could pick up a scent, and finally direct authorities to a lead. The bloodhounds guided police via the killer's scent to a nearby highway,

but nothing came of it after this. You know, it just basically told them the direction in which, you know, they believed the killer had fled in. Which makes you wonder, how did he get to this area? You know, the only blood, I'm going to say him, the only blood on him would have been from, you know, rubbing his hand in,

in the blood if he wasn't able to clean it off, but, you know, because the shots were from outside, so he wouldn't have gotten any blood spatter on his clothes. So it makes you wonder if he hitchhiked or if somebody he knew picked him up or if his car was waiting nearby. Like, how did he get out of this area? Yeah, because we know, again, this is, you know, a very rural area. It's a house on many, many acres.

So, yeah, how did he get out there? Well, back at the Stark's home, crime scene investigators found spent shell casings, which implied that the weapon used was a .22 caliber gun. And remember, the other attacks were made with a .32 caliber gun. So, this gun was obviously different, and I'm assuming that, I don't know why, but maybe it was because he just wanted to kind of throw investigators off here a little bit. Yeah, definitely possible.

Well, along with the shell casings, it appeared that the killer had dropped a red flashlight outside while they fled the property. So, police and investigators really hoped that these clues would help point them to a suspect.

In today's age, technology, DNA testing, and intricate investigative tools provide answers to highly sophisticated crimes all over the world. As we know, it is a fantastic thing. But back in the 40s, obviously, the process of finding answers...

especially for a polished criminal, was not an easy feat whatsoever. You know, forensic science was still a new frontier at this time. And it's easy to say that if they had the resources that we have today, the phantom killer would likely have been identified before the killings continued to even play out.

Well, it is very interesting that, you know, the Zodiac killings happened in the 70s, and we still were not that advanced in DNA technology to the point where we could solve those crimes...

And we still don't know, you know? Yeah. So this, I mean, this was even so far away from that. Right. So yeah, good point. And back then, investigators relied more heavily on physical clues like fingerprints, shoe prints, and blood. And even though Heath mentioned to us that the murderer of Virgil Starks left behind some such evidence, police were still totally stumped.

So they were forced to cast a wide net and nearly 400 suspects were investigated. Now, like a round of our favorite board game clue, let's talk about a couple main suspects who police consider to possibly be the phantom killer. Because although they were stumped,

There were some ideas, which, you know, there better be. If you're investigating and questioning 400 people, you would hope that at least one of those people would stick out to them. So the number one person on police's radar was a lanky white man from a rural area of Arkansas. Remember, Texarkana is on the border of Texas and Arkansas, named Yule Lee Swinney.

Yul Swinney was 29 years old when the Texarkana Moonlight murders took place. He was tall and slender with large pointy ears and piercing eyes. And he was a criminal who specialized in car theft and counterfeiting.

Though he was known for committing somewhat petty crimes, Yule came on police's radar when one officer noticed a pattern. Arkansas Patrol Officer Max Thackett realized that before each of the gruesome killings, a car was reported stolen in the area. So he thought that this might be a connection to the murder cases, you know, as we were just saying,

This guy's got to get out of the area and to the areas of the crime somehow, right? So stealing a car sounds like a somewhat smart thing to do so that nobody can identify your car nearby. One car that had been reported as stolen around the time of the murders was tracked down in the summer of 1946.

Now, police located this car in a parking lot in Texarkana, and they hoped that if they found who was driving the stolen vehicle, they might find a murder suspect. So after staking out in the parking lot for a bit, police noticed a young woman approaching the car from a nearby shop. And when she entered the vehicle, she was apprehended by police and arrested.

She appeared very confused as this was happening, telling police that the car belonged to her husband, who was currently out of town. And her husband was Yul Swinney, and this is how they found him. Now, he was indeed out of town, but police traced him to Atlanta, Texas, which is only a 30-minute drive away, so he wasn't like out of town, out of town. He just wasn't home.

And in Atlanta, Texas, he was actually attempting to sell a different stolen car that had also been reported missing.

After selling the car in July of 1946, when this was all happening, Ewell Swinney arrived back in Texarkana, which was shortly after his wife had been arrested. And they then went ahead and arrested him. Because at this point, he had stolen the car his wife was found to be driving. And then he was also trying to sell another stolen car. So they have him for auto theft.

And after arresting him, authorities learned that Yule not only had a record for car theft and counterfeiting, but also had charges of burglary and assault.

The Swinnies who lived in Arkansas were temporarily living in a hotel near Texarkana, so police actually headed to this hotel to search their room. And get this: while rummaging, they found a shirt with the name "Stark" written on the pocket. So immediately alarm bells are going off in the heads of police, because they're wondering if this could be, you know, Stark as in Virgil Stark, the farmer who had just been killed a couple of months prior.

When police confronted Yule Swinney about finding the Stark shirt, he didn't say another word. However, his wife did, and she actually had a criminal record herself, and she took the opportunity to start talking. Peggy Swinney claimed that her husband was the Phantom Killer, and she even admitted that she was present during the attacks.

She specifically claimed to police that her husband killed Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin, who remember were the second couple presumably slain and the third couple attacked by the phantom killer.

However, each time Peggy Swinney was interviewed, details of her story changed. Which we hate. Yes, we do. Well, police were grasping at straws and they wanted to believe her because, you know, they finally wanted to catch their guy. So, they spent about six months trying to figure out if what Peggy was saying was actually true. But her version of events kept altering and none of it could be verified.

When the auto theft case went to court, Yule Swinney's potential connection to the murders was brought up, where he claimed that he was not guilty of the killings, and his wife refused to testify against her husband. Prosecutors thought that she was, you know, at this point, just a kind of unreliable witness anyways, and they didn't really believe that there was enough evidence to point him to the killings.

Police were still very suspicious of the shirt that was found in Swinney's hotel room with the name "Stark" scribbled on it, even though no known records exist stating whether Swinney's fingerprints matched those found on the Starks' farm.

While Swinney was not convicted for the murders, he was convicted of car theft a year after his arrest in 1947. And because he was a repeat offender, he was actually sentenced to life in prison. Which I'm actually shocked that they gave that to him, but he didn't even end up serving life. He did 26 years instead, and he was released in 1973 just due to the fact that he was not previously represented by counsel.

And after his release, he continued to proclaim his innocence. And in 1994, Yul Swinney died in a nursing home in Dallas, Texas at the age of 77.

Now, before moving on, I will add that Yule is the only major suspect in this case and is still believed by many to be the Phantom Killer. Actually, the author of a 2014 book on this case called The Phantom Killer, Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders, his name is Dr. James Presley, has made his opinion known that Yule is the

And he mostly believes this because of the circumstantial evidence regarding the car theft and all the stolen cars around the area. You know, some of his wife's claims, the fact that multiple witness statements say that they saw someone that looked like what Yule looks like near the crime scenes. And Yule's behavior was known to be erratic at the time of the murders.

But police did find out that on the night of Bobby Joe and Paul's murders, Yule and his wife Peggy were in the San Antonio, Texas area, which is nearly seven hours away by car. So I still think he's a decent suspect. And knowing that the man who literally wrote a book on the subject thinks he did it, that says a lot. But is it true? Who the heck knows? Well, also, on top of this, you have to think about the fact that the crimes...

stopped after Yule went to prison. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there was a string of killings. Yule goes to prison for car theft. These killings stop, and he's in prison for the next 26 years. That's actually a really good point because he was arrested in July, which was only two months after the May murder of Virgil Stark. So that is a really good point. Yeah, I think he's a really good suspect for sure, and that's why he is the really...

the main one that is discussed in this case. Yeah, and then we also have to talk about the fact that, you know, a lot of these killings happened weeks or months apart from each other.

So if that's the case, maybe he was getting ready to strike again before he was arrested and, you know, sent to prison. Yeah, which is why he was still stealing cars and still in the Texarkana area at the time. But there is one other person who has been a known person of interest in this case, and that is a man named Henry Booker Tennyson, Jr.

Who is also known as HB Duty. Heath, don't. Oh my god. You know I could easily make the shit joke. HB Duty. In my peripherals, he's like picking up his microphone. No. So, um...

HB Doody graduated from Texarkana High School. And I should note that when the crimes took place in 1946, he was only a sophomore in high school. So keep that in mind. Remember, Jimmy and Mary Jean heard his voice. They believed he was in his 30s. I feel like if he was 16 years old, that would have been a little bit more obvious.

But in 1948, so a couple years later, he began his freshman year at the University of Texarkana. Now H.B. Doody was described by his own cousin as an introverted loner who had an inferiority complex. But H.B. Doody's case is very different from Ewell Swinney's because he actually admitted to being the phantom killer, but he was not on police's radar until after his death.

While still a freshman at the University of Texarkana, 18-year-old H.B. Doody died by suicide on November 4, 1948, and his confession was discovered in a series of suicide notes.

OneNote reads, quote, Why did I take my own life? You may be asking that question. Well, if you committed two double murders, you would too. Yes, I did kill Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin in the city park that night and killed Mr. Stark and tried to get Mrs. Stark.

So he is not claiming to be responsible for Richard and Pollyann's murders. He's not claiming to be responsible for the attack on Mary Jean and Jimmy. So we have to remember that here as well. I mean, he said, you know, if you committed two double murders, you would too. I'm assuming he's then obviously referring to Betty Jo and Paul and then Mr. Stark and Mrs. Stark because he did try to kill Betty.

Yeah, I think what he's... Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, it kind of seems like he's talking about the double murderers of Betty Jo and Paul and then Richard and Pauline, but...

But yeah, I mean, and then just kind of tagging on, you know, I got Mr. Stark and tried to get Mrs. Stark too. So yeah, it's possible that he wrote more notes as well and that he just didn't admit to everything or these are the only notes that are available. But yeah,

There was no evidence that HB duty was actually involved. And since he was now dead, they couldn't even question him. So then it's also possible that he confessed because he wanted to be known for something. A lot of people do that. They claim that they're the Zodiac killer or whoever because they want notoriety. They want to be known. They want to be famous. Yeah. And, you know, I think also just given the fact that he was trying to take his own life,

I agree with that. Like maybe he just didn't want to go out with being like a nobody. He wanted like some recognition in the news or something. Or it's also possible, yes, or that he did kill, you know, Betty Jo and Paul and he did kill Virgil Stark and then maybe all of these murders are not connected. I feel like they have so many similarities, particularly the first six attacks. So,

So I think I could believe that two different people were responsible for, you know, across these eight attacks altogether, but...

I don't know. I feel like it's very likely in my eyes that it was one person. I think so too. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know how much weight I put in HB duty. And as mentioned, Yul Swinney remained the main suspect throughout this case, even though officials were never able to prove that he did it. But with no clear motive and hundreds of murky leads...

Officials across the country tried to narrow down their search, but with no success, still to this day. Well, the stories of the phantom killings made their way out of the Lone Star State to the world of Hollywood three decades after the murders occurred.

As mentioned, the killings were highly sensationalized, and as we know, dramatized stories that happen in real life often make their way to the big screen. So, in 1976, a movie called "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" was released. Written by Earl E. Smith and starring Ben Johnson, Andrew Pryne, and Don Wells, the film features a hooded madman who commits five killings in Texarkana, and it's loosely based off of the real events.

While the names of the individuals were changed in the movie, it was mostly filmed in and around Texarkana and even features real life locals from the area as extras. And in the film, the unknown killer is not revealed, just like how it played out in real life. Although the Texarkana Moonlight murders happened almost 80 years ago, the Phantom Killer left a lasting effect on the town of Texarkana.

Five people were murdered in cold blood and multiple were victims of emotional and physical damage that lasted throughout their lives with three survivors: Jimmy Hollis, Mary Jean Larry, and Katie Stark. Not only did the horrific events in Texarkana affect the victims, their families, and the whole community, but this series of killings changed the whole country.

In a somewhat innocent time, where the horrors of mass killings were mostly unheard of, America was definitely changed by this. People became fearful, less trusting, and the world was morphing into a terrifying place that hardly existed on this scale. While to this day, the Phantom Killer has never been caught, surely the perpetrator is now long gone.

The Texas Department of Public Safety once even called the serial killings the number one unsolved murder case in Texas history. Although we may never know who the phantom killer was for certain, the quaint little town of Texarkana with brick buildings and big open skies has become ominously notorious. The terrifying accounts of a bygone era will forever taint the town on the border of two states where Texas meets Arkansas.

♪♪♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What a terrifying story. And, you know, it's one of those stories that it was so legendary that it actually made it to the silver screen. I can't believe we haven't watched that movie still, because even when we covered this case five years ago, I was like, we got to watch that. And we never did. Let's watch it this month.

I have watched the 1976 one, but I guess there's a new one as well. So I do want to watch that one. I think the new one came out. It was either like 2012 or 2014 or something like that. And it's produced by Blumhouse.

So yeah, I wonder how that one is. Let's do a little double feature. But thank you guys so much for tuning in. Thank you to all the subscribers who have already heard us cover this story in the past. Again, we just thought this was a good one to recover. I mean, you heard what the other one sounded like. We had to redo that. And hopefully we did a better job this time. Truly. We really researched it. This episode is definitely longer by like 20 minutes or something. So yeah,

Thank you guys. And thank you so much, by the way, for all the kind comments about the Menendez murders cases case. The two episodes that we did, we got some seriously amazing emails and comments from all of you on our coverings of that. Seriously. So nice. I appreciate and love all of the comments that you guys had sent my way and just all the love. Yes. Thank you guys. We love you. And we will see you again on Friday.

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪♪♪

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