Welcome to Freaky Friday. Today, we have a true crime topic that takes place in Texas. The star of the show is the Phantom Killer of Texarkana whose murderous rampage inspired both a movie and a play.
The Phantom Killer of Texarkana is believed to have committed five murders between the months of March and May of 1946.
Texarkana is an unusual city because it covers area in both Texas and Arkansas. Texarkana, Arkansas is located in Miller County, Arkansas. Texarkana, Texas is located in Bowie County, Texas. The states of Texas and Arkansas meet on Texarkana’s State Line Avenue.
The Texarkana metropolitan area in 1946 had a population of 44,000. Life was returning to normal after the conclusion of World War II. Despite rough areas, Texarkana was considered a safe place. The events that happened between February and May of 1946 would sour that sentiment.
The murders became known as The Texas Moonlight Murders. They all took place after dark. Most of the Phantom Killer’s victims were young people parking on lonely lover’s lanes in the rural areas near Texarkana.
Though the killing started in March, the Phantom Killer’s first attack happened a month earlier, in February. The first two victims lived to tell the tale.
On the night of February 22, 1946, Jimmy Hollis, a twenty-four-year-old insurance salesman, took his nineteen-year-old girlfriend Mary Jeanne Larey parking off Richmond Road in Bowie County, Texas. The couple was approached by a man wearing a canvas hood over his head.
The hooded man pointed a flashlight and a pistol at Hollis and Larey and ordered them out of the car. The hooded man then ordered Jimmy Hollis to take off his pants, which Hollis did. Once Hollis’s pants were removed, the hooded man hit Hollis in the head.
Hollywood's rendering of the Phantom Killer
The hooded man ordered Larey give him her purse. She told him she didn’t have one, and he hit her in the head. When she got up, the hooded man told her to run, and she did. He caught her and sexually assaulted her with the barrel of his gun. He also hit her in the head again.
The hooded man stopped the attack at this time. Jimmy Hollis stumbled onto Richmond Road and flagged down a motorist for help. Mary Jeanne Larey found a farmhouse whose occupants she woke and persuaded to call the police. Both victims received medical attention—Hollis had a fractured skull—but recovered from their injuries.
It is Hollywood, but it's also creepy.
Police were aware of the attack but thought it was an isolated incident. They had no way of realizing it would kick off a horrifying a spring season.
A month later, the killing began. On the night of March 24, 1946, a motorist on U. S. Highway 67 noticed a vehicle parked in the dirt. Because it was a rainy night, the motorist suspected the car’s owner might be stuck in the mud. He pulled over to help and got a nasty surprise.
Richard Griffin courtesy Texarkana Gazette
Inside the car were the bodies of twenty-nine-year-old Richard Griffin and seventeen-year-old Polly Moore. Both had been shot to death with a .32 caliber pistol. Richard Griffin had his hands over his face. Polly Moore had been sexually assaulted.
Law enforcement put the two incidents together and realized they had a big problem. Unfortunately, the rainy weather had washed away any footprints the killer might have left, and no fingerprints were discovered.
Polly Moore courtesy Texarkana Gazette
Almost another month passed. On April 13, 1946, sixteen-year-old Paul Martin gave fifteen-year-old Betty Jo Booker a ride to a slumber party. Instead of going to straight to the party, they stopped off at a lover’s lane at Spring Lake Park.
The next morning, a family taking a shortcut through the park discovered Martin’s bullet riddled body. He had been shot four times. The family contacted law enforcement, who discovered Betty Jo Booker’s body.
Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin courtesy Texarkana Gazette
Betty Jo Booker had been shot in the chest and in the face. Though Booker was found fully clothed, it was later discovered she had been sexually assaulted. Ballistics tests confirmed the shots came from a .32 caliber pistol.
Fear set into the once peaceful Texarkana. Western Union deliveries after dark were suspended. Women whose husbands worked nightshifts spent nights in the Grim Hotel with their children. Residents adopted a curfew. Nobody went out after dark alone.
Grim Hotel
Texas Rangers, led by the famous M. T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzualles, swarmed the town along with a horde of news reporters. Gonzualles promised he wouldn’t leave Texarkana until the murders were solved.
Twenty days passed. On May 3, 1946, thirty-six-year-old Virgil Starks sat in his living room reading his newspaper when shots were fired through the window. Both shots struck Starks in the back of the head.
M. T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzualles of the Texas Rangers
Virgil’s wife, Katy, was already dressed for bed. She entered the living room and was shot in the face two times. When the gunman began breaking into the house, Katy managed to run next door and get help from a neighbor.
For the first time, the killer left behind clues. There were bloody footprints, and the killer had stopped to rub a hand through the blood pooled beneath Virgil Starks’s head. The killer left behind a red-handled flashlight. .22 casings were found on the scene.
It is suspected that this killing was not the work of the Phantom Killer. The attack happened in a house, not in a car on a lover’s lane. The bullets were .22 caliber instead of .32. The Starks murder was also the only murder that took place on the Arkansas side of Texarkana.
Meeting of Law Enforcement investigating Phantom Killer
The Starks murder was the final killing linked—rightly or wrongly—to the Texas Moonlight Murders. Law enforcement continued looking for the killer. They listened to false confessions, followed leads, and came up empty-handed. Lone Wolf Gonzualles and the other Texas Rangers left town.
Tillman Johnson, who was part of the Moonlight Murders investigative team, suspected a car thief named Youell Swinney of the first four Moonlight Murders.
Tillman Johnson in 2001 photo courtesy Dallas Observer
This suspicion was based on information Swinney’s wife gave police after she was arrested in connection with a stolen car. The case against Youell Swinney could never be proven, and the Texas Moonlight Murders remain unsolved to this day.
There is an eerie footnote to the Swinney as the Phantom Killer theory. In the years since the murders, the victims’ families have been contacted via telephone by a woman who apologizes for what her father did. To the best of public knowledge, Youell Swinney did not have a daughter. Just like any good horror movie, there remains a little unsolved mystery at the end.
Youell Swinney is third from the left photo courtesy Texarkana Gazette
Dish on Demand has The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) available for free viewing. The movie is presented in documentary style, complete with a narrator’s voice over. The movie ends with police chasing the hooded man through a swamp.
I never found documentation of this version of events and suspect it is fiction. It was an entertaining and creepy end to the movie, though.
My paternal grandmother remembers when these murders happened. Though she didn’t live in Texarkana, she feared that the murderer would come to her part of East Texas. She asked her father–my great-grandfather–to spend nights at her house while her husband worked. It had to be a very scary time.
Floor is open. Have you ever lived in or near a place where serial murders were taking place?
For purposes of brevity, I just scratch the surface of my true crime topics. Want to know more? Check out my sources:
“The Phantom Menace” by Carlton Stowers, The Dallas Observer, 2-1-2001.
The Phantom Killer: Texas Moonlight Murders by Joseph Geringer at trutv.com
“The Tex Files: Phantom Killer” by Richard Ray, Fox 4 News, originally aired 5-19-2002. This last one is cool because it has a seven minute video.
How fascinating! Of course I thought of Son of Sam, although the M.O. is slightly different. I definitely think the home invasion was a different person – that’s a pretty big switch for a psychopath like the Phantom to make. And I can’t believe they never caught him – that’s very creepy, especially with the phone calls from the daughter. Can’t imagine living with that kind of secret.
Great post!
I thought about Son of Sam when I researched this post. He did his thing in the 1970s, and I’ve wondered if he didn’t sort of imitate the Phantom Killer.
As for not catching him, I’ve read in several places that he would have definitely been caught had the crimes occurred in modern times. Back in the 1940s, rapes were investigated on visual evidence. In the 2000s, DNA would have been collected.
Thanks for stopping by, and I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Oh gosh yes. 1984, The Night Stalker – Richard Ramirez. Killed over a dozen people, I think, in the San Fernando Valley where I lived at the time. It was the hottest summer; but because of him, we had to keep our windows closed and locked (no air conditioning, either). Scary? You bet. I’ve never been happier when he was finally caught.
Ahh, yes. The Night Stalker. I bet that was a weird and scary time. Didn’t he sneak into houses in a bunch of different neighborhoods–pretty much at random? I would wonder if I was next. I bet you were glad when he was caught.
So y’all don’t have air conditioning in California? I’d heard a/c was fairly uncommon in Washington state (where it gets cold), but I didn’t realize it was uncommon in California.
Thanks for stopping by.
Very interesting article. I wonder how the daughter knew her father committed these murders. I think it would be difficult to live with that knowledge – maybe that explains the phone calls.
Love you.
I’ve wondered if the calls weren’t made by a nutter who had absolutely no connection to them. You know, just a delusional person on the loose making phone calls. But, yes, if it was his daughter it would be difficult to live with that knowledge.
Love you, Mom, and thanks for stopping by.
Ted Bundy struck fear into women everywhere, but here in Utah especially.
I remember my room mates and I making sure all the doors and windows were locked before bed.
This Texarkana story must have fueled all those teen flicks where parking with your guy ended in murder. Though these killings aren’t recent, they’re still frightening.
Thanks for the history.
Oh wow. You remember the bad old days of Ted Bundy. What a crazy, crazy dude. I can see why all the doors and windows would be locked. What frightens me about Ted Bundy is that his appearance did not match the monster lurking inside him. If he approached you smiling and friendly, you’d probably smile back and never realize something was wrong until it was too late.
Thanks for stopping by.
Great job, Catie. After watching the film I always wondered if they made up the part about him taping a knife to the end of the girl’s trombone and stabbing her with it. Crazy. And yeah, when
I was eighteen me and a friend got a rental house for what we thought was an amazing price and after moving in we learned BTK had murdered the woman who lived catty-corner behind us, probably traipsed within view of our kitchen window through her backyard. We worked late once and didn’t get home until the wee hours, got there to discover my brother had broken our window to get in because he didn’t know we were working late and thought we were both lying inside the house dead. That’s how crazy things become in a city with a serial killer on the loose.
The trombone and the knife: definitely fiction. The girl played a saxophone, and the killer did take it. Police scoured pawn shops looking for it, but later found it discarded in a marshy area.
BTK is a scary, scary case. Have you read that novella in Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars that is based on the BTK killer? I don’t blame your brother for breaking in to see if you guys were okay…even though I also laughed.
Recently, a guy was arrested in Pasadena, TX (near here) on suspicion of murder. They have tied him to a bunch of murder cases spanning something like 20 years. So, it’s scary when a serial killer is on the loose, but it’s also scary when you realize there was one doing his thing….and nobody realized it.
Isn’t the Walking Dead restarting soon?
Great article, Catie.. I, too, thought of Son of Sam – but this guy seemed much creepier (never thought that would be possible!).
What a great read.. I love your Freaky Friday posts.
This guy creeped me out because of a) the hood and b) the fact that he attacked people in parked cars. Something about that just scared me. I’m so happy you enjoy Freaky Friday. Keep coming back.
Yeah, I think the worst thing about this is that the person was never caught. And perhaps that call was made by the killer her/himself to the families of the victims? I live in a very boring, low-crime city with a severe demarcation line that wraps around our island and keeps us in Never Never Land from Oakland. Oakland gets a bad wrap, however it does have a huge homicide rate in comparison to other cities in the U.S. We sit here in our little bubble world, happy and content, leaving our doors open all the time. But no one is really in truly safe no matter where you live.
It is terribly scary that the killer was never caught. If your get time, watch the video on that last source. One of the guys interviewed in it talked to Youell Swinney (the main suspect in the case) when he was an old man near death. What he says will raise the hair not the back of your neck.
I like your theory about the killer calling the victim’s families. Perhaps it was the killer. The guy they suspected (Youell Swinney) was married at the time of the killings. His wife told police things that make it sound like she was present at the killings. I wonder if it was her?
And you’re right. Nobody is truly safe, no matter where they life. Thanks for stopping by.
Fascinating story. Have to agree on the house shooting, serial types rarely change modis and that one had all the signs of a copy cat trying to pull of an unrelated crime while covering his own tracks with the more sensational story.
Creepy and dangerous things lurk in the night, especially in out of the way places. One should always use caution, gender regardless.
Great post, Catie
Reblogged this on Author S.K. Epperson and commented:
Catie did a great job here. Be sure to watch the film and the video link she recommends at the end.
Ooo, I didn’t know this story and I love Texas True Crime Stories…well, not that they happened…you know what I mean. I grew up in a small town of about 100,000 and to my knowledge, we never have had a serial killer of any kind. When I moved away to college, the town’s population doubled in size, but the homicide rates were still very, very low. We did have a case of three missing (and later found murdered) girls while I lived there, but I don’t think the cases were all linked together or classified as serial. GREAT, great post.
Serial killer Ricky Lee Green was executed 15 years or so ago. A lady I dated briefly told me she had given him a ride, not knowing who he was. Scary.
Creepy! Especially since he never got caught. I think you’re right about the last murder not being his. Too different. When I was in college, I traveled back and forth from Ft Worth to Austin on I-35. There were a string of killings over the years (and during the time I was on the road)– brilliantly referred to as the I-35 murders. Some were attributed to Henry Lucas but now some aren’t so sure he was guilty of them or at least as many as originally thought. So there may still be someone out there who committed these crimes. The killer victimized hitchhikers and those with car trouble. Now I have never hitch-hiked, but one day I was on my way back to school and my car went kerplunk. Of course it was in the middle of no where. And a time before cell phones The only thing around was a lone house off the highway and through a field. And did I have on sensible jeans and tennis shoes? Um..no. I had on a dress and high heels. A guy in a truck pulled up on the access road before I’d made it into the field too far and asked if I needed help I told him no He asked if I was going to that house Well, duh. Anyone could see that was my goal..so I said I was. He told me he’d take me there and wait to make sure someone was home. I told him thanks but no. He said, “You’re in a dress and heels. If I wanted to hurt you, you wouldn’t be able to get away.”
Makes me shiver just thinking about it now. Didn’t exactly instill a peaceful feeling in me. He was right of course. So I thought about it — realized he was right and if I tried to run I’d break something, most likely my neck considering how klutzy I am on two flat feet, much less heels. I prayed. Got in the truck and reached down so I could yank off my shoe in a hurry and stab him in the eye if I had to. Thank God he did what he said. Took me to the house. And thank God someone was home and the woman sent her teenage son to help me fix the car. Mostly, thank God I’m not so stupid anymore. I’m really glad I didn’t have to stab him in the eye. That would have been really gross!
I agree that the house killing is too different. Here’s what I don’t understand: A killer who goes after three couples in the space of a few months…then stops. Why did the serial killer stop? They don’t usually stop until caught or dead, do they?
Those phone calls would be so eerie to receive as a family member. Too bad they didn’t have caller ID back then. Not to mention that DNA testing.
One more thing: Did that movie say that Dawn Wells was in it? Wasn’t she Mary Ann in Gilligan’s Island?
Very Creepy story. I can’t help but wonder why he chose couples parked on a dark road. Were they just easy prey, or out-of-the-way victims to practice on, or did he have some experience in life that made him feel he needed revenge on couples in love or getting frisky in a parked car? To stop after 3 seems odd. Maybe he didn’t stop. Maybe he relocated and continued. Back then they didn’t have the ease of tracing people or the same extent of national news coverage we have now.
Never had a serial killer in my hometown that I’m aware of. Hope we never do, either. GReat psot, Catie.
Should be…Great post!
I thought killing couples at loves lanes was just a movie thing- how scary! This post gave me the chills. Thanks
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