The Texarkana Moonlight Murders
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There was a murderer on the loose, one the papers were calling the Phantom Killer. His wife, 36-year-old Katie, brought him a heating pad for his sore back. She kissed him goodnight and retired to their bedroom for the evening. She slipped into her nightgown and tried to fall asleep, but a rustle outside snapped her awake. She called out from the bedroom, asking Virgil to turn down his radio. Suddenly, it cut.

and the sound of shattering glass echoed through the home. Katie rushed into the sitting room to see Virgil standing there, eyes wide and seemingly confused. Blood rushed down his face, and he collapsed backward into his chair. Katie ran to him, discovering that her husband had been shot through the head. How many times was not clear at the moment. One thing was clear: Virgil was dead, and there was nothing she could do.

Meanwhile, the phantom killer was standing outside the window, perched on the front porch behind Virgil's armchair, with a pistol aimed through the broken glass. Katie never saw him. She scrambled to the wall-mounted crank phone to call the police. Frantic, she cranked it twice before more gunshots erupted through the same window. Katie was struck twice, once in the right cheek and again below her lip.

The second shot shattered her jaw and obliterated several teeth. She dropped in pain. Blood leaked into her eyes, blinding her. Thankfully, she could still hear. The killer had walked around to the rear of the home and was trying to pry open the screen door. This was Katie's chance to escape. She knew Virgil kept a pistol in the living room, but the blood in her eyes made searching for it impossible. Meanwhile, the killer was moments away from ripping the screen off.

Katie thought about writing a final goodbye note, but quickly abandoned the idea. She was a fighter, a survivor. She wasn't going to die here tonight. She lunged for the front door and sprinted across the street, barefoot and leaking blood, until she reached her sister and brother-in-law's home. To her horror, nobody was home. Katie mustered her waning strength and ran 50 more yards to another neighbor's house. She screamed and banged on the door.

Thankfully, they answered. Katie forced out the words "Virgil's dead" before collapsing in the front yard. Her neighbor grabbed his rifle and fired a warning shot into the air. It woke several other homeowners, who all ran over with enough guns and ammo to arm a small platoon. Katie survived the night. She was rushed into surgery to fix her damaged face and was able to tell police everything after she recovered in the hospital.

Her story and the crime scene at home were eerily similar to the attacks and murders that had been plaguing Texarkana since February. By then, five people were dead, including Virgil. Katie and two other young people had been attacked, but luckily survived their ordeals. There was a lunatic roaming the countryside,

He wore a white sack over his head with holes for his eyes and mouth. He carried a pistol, either .22 or .32 caliber, and he wasn't afraid to use it. He stalked young couples and killed them in cold blood. Then, he'd slink into the night without leaving a shroud of evidence. They called him the Phantom Killer, the Phantom Slayer, and the Phantom of Texarkana. And to this day, that's all he is: a ghost.

It's a gruesome cold case that has baffled police since the end of World War II. It inspired multiple true crime books and the 1976 cult classic film The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Because when the sun went down over Texarkana, the Phantom Killer came out to play. Young Love was a death sentence. Executions were carried out by a one-man firing squad. Part 1. Welcome to Texarkana.

Texarkana. Officially the Texarkana Metropolitan Statistical Area is a two-county region anchored by the twin cities of Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas. The region was initially settled as a railroad and lumber center. Some called it "Little Chicago" as it served as a travel hub for those heading east and west. Before World War II, the region was, more or less, an underpopulated stopover town.

The attack on Pearl Harbor kicked off the American war machine. Many factories were repurposed, while others sprung up on all available plots of land. The influx of wartime jobs brought a new wave of people to the Texarkana region. Populations on both sides of the border ballooned and would stay that way until long after the war. Today, the Texarkana metro is home to about 150,000 people between both states.

Before the Phantom Murders, Texarkana was the kind of place where people left their doors unlocked and kids played baseball in vacant lots. Moms made homemade Halloween candy, while dads smoked cigars and read the paper on the front porch. People had guns, but they were mainly used for hunting and sport. For 25-year-old Jimmy Hollis and 19-year-old Mary Larry, life was blissful.

They were young lovers on a double date with Jimmy's older brother, Bob, and his new girl. It was Friday, February 22, 1946. The couples had eaten an early dinner and had just left the local movie theater. Around 11:00 PM, Bob and his girlfriend asked for a ride home. Jimmy was happy to help. He had to drive Mary home anyway, and she lived about 20 miles away in Hooks, Texas.

He dropped Bob off and headed west with one thing on his mind. Jimmy knew he could stop by a secluded lover's lane on the way to Mary's house. The couple could finally have some alone time after the long night. It was a quiet road about 100 yards from a nearby housing development. The trees dampened noise and gave them enough privacy, or so they thought. They'd been making out for 10 minutes when a tap-tap-tap on the window caused them both to jump.

Jimmy looked up and saw a man with a white sack over his head. He was tapping on their window with a high-powered flashlight. The light nearly blinded Jimmy and Mary in the car. At first, Jimmy thought it was a prank. He laughed and told the sack man that he had the wrong guy. His smile faded when the sack man revealed a pistol. Through the window, the sack man said, "I don't want to kill you, fella, so do what I say."

Frozen in fear, Jimmy and Mary exited the car through the driver's side door. The sack man, taller than both of them, gripped the flashlight in one hand while aiming with the other. "Take off your goddamn breeches," the sack man demanded of Jimmy. He hesitated and Mary told him to listen. Shaking, Jimmy obliged, only to be pistol whipped twice with his pants around his ankles. He was unconscious and his skull was fractured in multiple places.

Mary, believing the sack man was robbing them, grabbed Jimmy's wallet and showed him it was void of money. But the sack man wasn't robbing them. He cracked Mary over the head, most likely with his flashlight. He told her to run, and so she ran, faster than she'd ever run before. Meanwhile, their attacker watched, giving her a head start up the road. Then, he hunted her. She sprinted toward another car, only to find it abandoned.

By then, the sack man had caught up. He grabbed her and demanded to know why she was running. Confused, Mary screamed, "Because you told me to!" The sack man called her a liar and pushed her to the ground. He sexually assaulted her with the barrel of his gun. All she could do was sit there, taking it, praying he didn't shoot her. Meanwhile, Jimmy had regained consciousness by his car.

His ears were ringing, his head was throbbing, and there was blood running down his face. He couldn't find Mary or the sack man. He walked a short distance to another road and flagged down a passing car. The driver agreed to call the police from a nearby funeral parlor, while Jimmy remained at the crime scene. That same driver must have scared the sack man away. He fled upon seeing the headlights, leaving Mary lying there, bleeding and crying.

But like Katie Starks, Mary was a fighter. She rallied, climbed to her feet, and ran half a mile to a nearby house. 30 minutes later, the Bowie County Sheriff's Office was on the scene. Jimmy and Mary had survived the night, but offered different descriptions of the same attacker. Mary claimed she saw under the mask and that the sack man was a light-skinned African-American man. Jimmy claimed their attacker was a tanned white man in his 30s.

The only thing they could agree on was their attacker's height. He towered over them at about 6 feet tall. Sheriff Bill Presley believed they were dealing with a love triangle. Presley was a battle-hardened man, having served in France during World War I. He spent the next 20 years as a public servant, eventually becoming the Bowie County Sheriff before World War II. It was his way or the highway. Sheriff Presley didn't have time for games.

Jimmy and Mary's conflicting story told him one thing, that they knew who attacked them and were covering for him. He found it strange that Jimmy's pants were 100 yards away and that his wallet and personal effects were not stolen. The attack felt personal and the stigma caused police to lose interest in the case. Nobody was detained and no suspects were questioned. And that's if any suspects even existed. Jimmy was in critical condition at the hospital.

He finally regained consciousness after four days, but didn't go home until March 9th, 12 days after the attack. He had multiple skull fractures that would make the next six months extremely difficult. The attack scarred him for the rest of his life. "I still get nervous when I think about it," he said. By May of 1946, he was still struggling to process what had happened that night.

By then, the Phantom had struck thrice more, killing five people and wounding Katie Starks. Jimmy spent the rest of his life wondering why he wasn't the first murder victim. He died in 1974 without ever getting an answer. He was 54 years old and left behind a wife and seven kids. Mary was released the morning after her attack, only having suffered a minor head wound. For her, the sexual assault was more pressing.

Unfortunately, the media refused to report it, believing it was too vulgar to print. Police also wanted the assault withheld as a means to weed out false confessions. Like Jimmy. She was plagued by nightmares for the rest of her life. A few weeks after the attack, she moved over 300 miles away to live with her aunt and uncle in Frederick, Oklahoma. For her, the sack man's voice was tattooed on her mind.

I would know his voice anywhere," she'd say later. "It rings in my ears. Why didn't he kill me too?" According to reports, Mary and Jimmy dated for another week after recovering. However, the trauma proved too much, and they both went their separate ways. Sadly, Mary's life was cut short by cancer in 1965. She died in Montana at 38 years old.

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Richard Griffin grew up in Linden, Texas, a small city about 40 minutes south of Texarkana. He was in his mid-20s when World War II began and served in a U.S. Naval Construction Battalion until the end. He was discharged in December of 1945 and returned home to work as a painter and carpenter. He lived with his mom and struck up a relationship with a young girl named Polly Moore.

Polly was 12 years younger than Richard. She grew up about 30 minutes south of Texarkana and graduated high school when she was 16. She was a smart girl with a bright future, a future that was cut short by the Phantom. Polly began dating 29-year-old Richard when she was 17. Today, the age difference would be frowned upon. Back then, it wasn't a big deal.

Like Jimmy and Mary, they met Richard's sister for a double date on the evening of March 23, 1946. They were last seen at a Texarkana café around 10 pm. They'd been dating for six weeks, and Richard wanted to take things to the next level. They drove to Rich Road, a secluded gravel strip not yet connected to the highway.

It was surrounded by trees and offered plenty of privacy, which is why the locals called it "Lovers Lane." We do not believe it was the same Lovers Lane as the Jimmy Hollis and Mary Larry attacks. The following morning, a man driving down Rich Road spotted an Oldsmobile parked on the side. It felt unusual, so the man pulled over to investigate. Perhaps the driver needed a jump.

Unfortunately, the driver and his passenger were beyond help. Inside, the man saw two dead bodies. Richard was crouched between the front seats. His pockets had been turned out, and his head was resting on his crossed hands. In the back seat, Polly was face down and sprawled out. There was blood inside and outside the vehicle, and both victims had been shot through the head, execution style.

Because the double murder happened on the Texas side of the border, it fell into the laps of Bill Presley and the Bowie County Sheriff's Office. Among the first things they noticed was a patch of blood located about 20 feet from the car. This led police to believe one or both victims were killed outside the vehicle and then placed inside. Tests on the blood were a match for Paulie Moore's blood type.

Police found a pair of .32 caliber shell casings on the scene, suggesting the killer used a Colt pistol in the attack. Blood pooling and congealing on the running board suggested that Richard was shot to death inside the vehicle. In all likelihood, Richard was killed immediately. The Phantom then dragged Polly from the car and shot her execution style, likely while she begged for her life.

A rumor floated around that Polly had been sexually assaulted, but there's no available evidence backing that claim. Both victims were fully clothed when police found them.

The only promising lead, footprints discovered near the scene, was washed away by an afternoon rainstorm. Within 72 hours of the murder, police had interviewed between 50 and 60 witnesses, most of whom were patrons of Club Dallas, a bar and nightlife spot near the crime scene. They figured Richard and Polly had stopped by the club for a drink before heading to Lovers Lane.

To their dismay, none of the patrons present that night remembered seeing them or anything suspicious. By March 30th, a $500 reward was offered for any information leading to an arrest. The offer only created a logjam of over 100 bad leads. At one point, three suspects were arrested after police found them with bloody clothing.

However, they couldn't tie any of them to the murders, and all three were released. Police questioned over 200 people regarding the murders of Richard Griffin and Polly Moore. None were arrested, nor did they offer any credible leads. The public was beginning to worry. Parents tightened curfews and restricted allowances. A few concerned residents began patrolling all the known Lovers Lanes in Texarkana. It wouldn't be long before vigilantism took hold.

Soon, everyone with a gun was hunting a ghost. Part 3: The Phantom Murders Continue Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin had known each other since kindergarten. She was born in 1930. She never had any siblings, and her father died when she was little. Paul, the youngest of four, was born a year prior. For Betty, Paul was a friend and the masculine figure that was missing from her life.

But life ripped them apart when Paul's family moved to the Texas side of the Texarkana border. She only ever saw him on Sundays at church. As a teenager, Paul left for the Gulf Coast Military Academy in Mississippi. Meanwhile, Betty attended Texas High School, where all the boys fawned over her. But Betty didn't have time for boys. She was focused on her grades, and her heart, whether she knew it or not, belonged to Paul.

She got straight A's and played alto saxophone in the school band. After school, she planned on becoming a medical technician, but her dreams were smothered on a dark April night. In early April 1946, Paul and Betty made plans to see each other while Paul was visiting his parents for the weekend. It was Friday, April 12th. 17-year-old Paul left his parents' new home in Kilgore, Texas, and drove two hours to Texarkana.

He stayed with a friend that night and had plans to meet 15-year-old Betty on the 13th. At the time, Betty played in a band called The Rhythm Heirs. That night, she had a gig at the local VFW, which kept her occupied well past 1 am. Paul picked her up around 1:30 in his 1946 Ford Club coupe. The plan was to spend some alone time together and then drop Betty off at a slumber party across town.

They pulled down a secluded road and never drove back out. Between five and six hours later, a Texarkana family found Paul's bloody body lying on his side on the northern edge of Lover's Lane. He'd been shot several times, with blood leading back to another splatter, suggesting a second victim. For the third time, Sheriff Bill Presley arrived on the scene. He retraced Paul's steps and learned he was with Betty Jo the night before.

She, however, was nowhere to be found. Presley organized a massive search party between police and local volunteers. Around 11:30, another Texarkana family found Betty's body behind a tree about two miles away. Like Paul, she'd been shot multiple times in the head. However, her body seemed staged. She was fully clothed, with her coat buttoned up to her neck. Her hand was in her pocket, and she was lying on her back.

She'd been shot twice, once through the chest and once through the face. Police determined that whoever killed Paul and Betty used the same weapon as the first double murder, a .32 caliber Colt pistol. As for Paul's Ford Club coupe, police found it about three miles from Betty's body and a mile and a half from Paul's. The keys were still in the ignition. Presley couldn't tell who died first.

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After seven years, the adventure continues with our immersive travels feature. Explore distant cultures and engage in exciting experiences. There's always something new to discover. Are you ready? Download June's Journey now on Android or iOS. Part 4: Hunting a Ghost By April 1946, Sheriff Presley had investigated three double assaults in as many months. Four young lovers were dead, and two were scarred for life.

The term "serial killer" didn't exist yet, but it was clear that somebody was stalking couples among various lover's lanes in Texarkana. The question was whether these were random or targeted attacks. Did the killer know his victims, or were they in the wrong place at the wrong time? To find out, police worked 24-hour shifts, patrolling every secluded road in Texarkana.

They even tried baiting the killer by recruiting teenagers as decoys while police watched their car. Some officers even sat with real partners or mannequins, pretending to be young lovers. When that didn't work, Sheriff Presley called in the big guns. Manuel Gonzalez had been a Texas Ranger for 25 years. His flashy, dramatic behavior and tendency to work outside the box earned him the nickname "The Lone Wolf."

At the time, the Rangers were considered Texas' elite crime-fighting unit. If anybody could find the Phantom, it was them. Their involvement told all of Texarkana that this wasn't just a small case. It was a big deal and something to be scared of. Strict curfews were set, and police tried keeping people off the streets at night. Texarkana was a powder keg of worry and anxiety primed to explode. One more murder would likely set it off.

Back at the Betty Jo Booker crime scene, police were investigating the mysterious disappearance of her saxophone. According to her bandmates, Betty had left the gig with her sax. She and Paul never stopped anywhere, so the instrument should have been near her or at least in the car. The fact that it was missing was a tiny lead, but a lead nonetheless.

About a week later, that lead brought police to Corpus Christi, Texas, where a man was trying to sell a saxophone at a local music store. The man seemed nervous, so the employee bartering with him got the manager involved. When the manager asked where the saxophone came from, the man got angry and ran away. The manager called the local police, who contacted the Texas Rangers.

Two days later, on April 27th, police found and arrested the man. While there was no saxophone in his home, police did find bags of bloody clothes. They also learned the man had recently bought a .45 caliber revolver from a local pawn shop. The man claimed the blood was due to a bar fight from several days before. That's likely why he went and bought the gun. Employees at the music store identified him as the man who tried selling the saxophone.

But because it was gone, the police couldn't connect it to him anymore. After several weeks of detention and questioning, the man was cleared. According to Captain Gonzales, "This man has been checked and double-checked, and he couldn't have had anything to do with the murder cases." The public chastised Gonzales for this decision until Betty Jo's saxophone turned up six months later in October. It was in the woods, a short distance from where her body was found.

Somehow, the police had missed it. Rumors tend to fester in the absence of truth. On April 18th, Gonzalez was forced to hold a press conference regarding a new rumor that the Phantom had been caught. He called such rumors a hindrance to the investigation and harmful to innocent people.

Newspaper stories such as "Phantom Killer Eludes Officers", "Phantom Slayer Still at Large", and the all-caps headline "SEX MANIAC HUNTED IN MURDERS" didn't help public sentiment. Everyone began pointing their fingers at each other. Soon, those fingers turned into guns. The public powder keg exploded in May 1946, after the Virgil Starks murder. People began locking their doors, hanging sheets over windows, and nailing them shut.

Gun stores were picked clean, and there wasn't a bullet left in all of Texarkana. It had become so dangerous that police officers would turn on their sirens and headlights and announce themselves loudly before approaching someone's house. If they didn't, they might get confused for a phantom in the night. The fear spread as far as Oklahoma City, where gun sales spiked.

When no more guns were left, locals cleaned the hardware stores out of all their picks and axes. There was an uptick in vigilantism when police failed to find the Phantom. Young kids would arm themselves and purposely park on isolated roads, hoping the killer would try and jump them. One night, an Arkansas state trooper spotted a car parked on one of those roads. He approached and tapped on the window to find a couple inside.

He introduced himself as a police officer, to which the young girl replied, "It's a good thing you told me who you are." She then revealed a pistol she had pointed at him. On May 10th, seven days after the Virgil Starks murder, police learned about a suspicious car that had been following a city bus. They chased the driver for three miles, ultimately shooting his tires out. Behind the wheel was C.J. Lauderdale, a high school athlete and local vigilante.

He said he saw a suspicious man get on the bus and was following to investigate. He only ran from the police because they were driving unmarked cars. Teenage vigilantism got so out of hand that Gonzales issued a warning to local kids in the Texarkana Gazette, saying, "It's a good way to get killed." Part 5: The Usual Suspects Back at the Starks crime scene, investigators struggled to connect Virgil's murder to those of the Lovers Lane murders.

Everyone else had been killed or attacked on isolated roads. This was the first incident to take place at someone's home. It was also the first and only attack on the Arkansas side of town. The weapon used was also different. Jimmy Hollis was beaten with a pistol. Richard, Polly, Paul, and Betty Jo were shot with .32 caliber bullets, likely from a Colt pistol. In the Virgil Starks case, the killer used a .22 caliber round.

There were also four shots fired, but only two holes in the window. This led investigators to believe the shooter used a rifle, allowing him to place two shots through the same hole without re-aiming. Police found tire tracks near the home, but couldn't connect them to nearby cars. Later on, they learned that two officers had spotted a suspicious vehicle parked near the Starks' home on the night of the murder.

Those officers, however, were rushing to drop off expense reports at headquarters and never stopped to investigate. "They always regretted not stopping," said James Presley, Sheriff Bill Presley's young nephew. Police were finally able to question Katie Starks as she recovered in the hospital. She quickly dispelled rumors that someone had been harassing Virgil days before the attack. She said it was random and didn't understand why someone would target them.

Miller County Sheriff W.E. Davis later said of the Phantom, "This killer is the luckiest person I have ever known. No one sees him, hears him, or can identify him in any way." Dr. Anthony LaPaula, a psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, suggested that the Phantom killer would likely change his M.O.

If he were going to keep killing, the attacks would more closely resemble the Starks' murder, as police and teenage vigilantes were still staking out Lovers' Lanes. Dr. LaPella believed the same man committed all five murders despite some police officers feeling differently. Their suspect was likely a male in his mid-30s to 50s who was motivated by sex and sadism. Their killer was intelligent, clever, and shrewd, and unlikely to be a war veteran.

He didn't fear police activity and probably walked among them, leading an everyday life. Each attack showed planning and calculation. They were random in terms of the victims chosen, but they were not random acts of violence. The killer worked alone and was careful not to tell anybody about his crimes. Several suspects emerged over the next few months, each with a different story and set of circumstances as to why they could be the Texarkana Phantom.

There was, of course, the saxophone man, who was officially cleared when police found Betty Jo's saxophone in October. Then, there was the German POW, who allegedly escaped during World War II and fled to the United States.

He was the first suspect police tracked down thanks to new state-of-the-art equipment called the two-way radio. These, of course, are standard issue today. Back in 1946, they were groundbreaking pieces of technology. Police quickly relayed information about a stocky, 24-year-old man with reddish hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a GI jacket and allegedly had weapons on his person.

According to police, he'd stolen a car in Mount Ida, Arkansas, and was spotted accosting other drivers and residents. Police tracked him to a gun store in eastern Oklahoma, at which point he vanished into thin air, according to the Texarkana Gazette. The next suspect was 21-year-old Ralph Bauman, an ex-Army Air Force machine gunner who turned himself into police in Los Angeles, claiming to be the Texarkana Phantom.

He said he heard the story and believed the suspect matched his description. He claimed that, on the day of the Stark's murder, he'd awoken from a fugue state that had lasted several weeks. His rifle was missing, leading him to believe that he was the Phantom. He hitchhiked from Texarkana to California, where his conscience finally got the better of him.

His story is a good example of why people withhold evidence from the media. As one ASP officer explains: Ralph Bauman was what you might call a crackpot. Several parts of his story didn't match the investigation.

He was quickly cleared when police learned he'd been discharged from the Air Force for being "psycho-neurotic." Around the same time, the body of Earl McSpadden was found on the Kansas City Southern Railway tracks about 16 miles north of Texarkana. His left arm and leg were gone, likely severed by the freight train that struck him. According to the coroner, McSpadden was dead before being placed on the railroad tracks,

He listed the cause of death as death at the hands of persons unknown. Many believed Earl McSpadden was the Phantom's sixth and final victim. Others think Earl was the Phantom and that he killed himself shortly after the Starks' murder.

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Part 6. The Ghost of Texarkana.

The best suspect in the Phantom case was 29-year-old Yule Swinney, a known thief and counterfeiter. An ASP officer involved in the case stumbled upon a crucial fact that tied the five murders together. On all of those fateful nights, a car had been stolen in Texarkana.

One of those cars, the one stolen the night Richard Griffin and Polly Moore were killed, turned up in a parking lot months after their deaths. Police staked out the vehicle to see if the thief would return. To their surprise, a young woman approached and got inside. She was 21-year-old Peggy Stevens, who had just returned from Louisiana after marrying Yule Swinney. In fact, they had just exchanged vows hours before she was detained.

She claimed Yule was in Atlanta, Texas, trying to sell another stolen vehicle. Officers followed that lead, hoping to learn more about the car thief. They found him at a bus station, where Yule tried running away at first. He got himself cornered and is quoted as saying, "Please don't shoot me." When police said he wasn't going to get shot over stolen cars, Yule responded, "Mister, don't play games with me. You want me for more than stealing cars."

Yule made several more odd comments. On their way back to Texarkana, he lamented about getting the electric chair and claimed that other officers were chasing him for past violent crimes. Police learned that Yule had a long history of theft, burglary, assault, and counterfeiting. Peggy also helped incriminate him. When she learned police were holding Yule for murder, she asked, "How did they find out?"

She confessed to his involvement in the phantom murders three separate times. During the first confession on July 23, 1946, she stated: "Yule and I were at his sister's house at 220 Senator Street. We were discussing the murders in Texarkana. I asked him who killed these people. He told me that it was someone with a brilliant mind, someone with more sense than the cops.

She recalled that, months prior, Yule pulled over to pee on the side of the road after they saw a movie together. It happened to be near where Paul Martin and Betty Jo Booker were parked before they were killed. She claims Yule had walked away from their car for about an hour. That's when she heard two gunshots. Yule finally returned as the sun rose, and he peeled out of the area. His clothes were wet up to his knees and damp around his waist.

On July 24th, Peggy confessed again, claiming she was a bystander during the Paul and Betty murders. She said Yule was just trying to rob them, but the robbery went horribly wrong. Finally, on November 22nd, 1946, Peggy confessed for the third and final time. She led police to the spot where Paul Martin's car was found. She claimed she hid in the trees and watched as Yule killed them both.

Sure enough, police found a woman's heel print near the crime scene. Then, Peggy revealed details that the police hadn't released to the public. The first concerned: Paul Martin's planner book. He was detail-oriented, with all his upcoming dates and appointments written down. Peggy claimed they threw Paul's planner into the bushes near the crime scene. Sure enough, that's exactly where police found it when they initially found the car.

They never told anybody about that planner, so there's no way Peggy would have read it in the paper. Yule Swinney was looking guiltier by the day. Police learned that he owned a .32 caliber Colt pistol that he'd recently lost in a craps game. They also found slag in his pocket, a waste product created when metals are smelted and refined. The slag matched materials found in Virgil Stark's welding shop. Despite all this, Yule maintained his innocence

He scored a point when fingerprint testing failed to produce anything conclusive. He scored another when police began poking holes in Peggy's stories. Inconsistencies deemed her an unreliable witness. She also couldn't be compelled to testify against her husband due to legal protections. In the end, police were forced to drop the murder charges against Yule Swinney. They could, however, still get him on car theft.

Because he was a repeat offender, a judge sentenced him to life in prison. Life, however, only lasted 26 years. Yule successfully appealed his conviction in the early 70s. He got out in 1973 and died in a Dallas nursing home in 1994, maintaining his innocence until the bitter end. Many lead investigators went to their graves believing that Yule Swinney was the Phantom.

In his 2014 book, The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders, Dr. James Presley, Sheriff Presley's nephew, claims Yule was guilty in all five attacks. His book is widely considered the foremost authoritative work on the Texarkana murders, and he makes the best case for why Yule Swinney was the Phantom. Part 7: Loose Ends

Two months after Yule was ruled out, a new lead reinvigorated the Phantom story. Henry Booker Tennyson was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Arkansas. Most people knew him by his nickname, "Duty." On November 5, 1948, Duty was found dead in his bedroom in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Two days prior, he'd purchased cyanide, claiming he needed it as rat poison.

Inside Doody's bedroom, police found a strange note with a riddle for them to solve. It pointed to Doody's lockbox, which was equipped with a heavy-duty lock. The riddle read: "The opening to my box will be found in the following few lines: In a tube of paper is found, rolls on colors, and it is dry and sound. The head removes, the tail will turn, and inside is the sheet you yearn. Two bees means a lot when they are together.

These clues should lead you to it. The riddle led police to a BB fountain pen that contained a hidden note inside. The note provided the lockbox combination. The pen cap also contained the cyanide that Doody had used to kill himself. Inside the lockbox were several handwritten letters, one of which claimed responsibility for the Texarkana murders. Guilt had racked Doody's mind and allegedly drove him to suicide.

One paragraph read in part: "Why did I take my own life? When 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 I killed Mr. Starks and tried to get Mrs. Starks. You wouldn't have guessed it. I did it when Mother was either out or asleep, and no one saw me do it. For the guns, I disassembled them and discarded them in different places.

Doody Tennyson would have been 15 or 16 years old in 1946 when the murders occurred. He was never questioned or suspected, though police did learn that Doody played in the same high school band as Betty Jo Booker. They played brass but were not acquainted in any way. Still, it was the only provable connection between a suspect and one of the victims. Police dug but never found anything else. One of Doody's friends provided an alibi for the night of the Starks' murder.

claiming they were playing cards when they heard about the attack. Other notes in his suicide lockbox painted a clearer picture. Doody was deeply depressed with an overactive imagination. He'd often take credit for things he never did, things that could easily be disproven. His confession letter was deemed irrelevant, and Doody was ruled out as a suspect. As the years passed, the Phantom of Texarkana faded into obscurity.

Manuel Gonzalez only remained on the case for three months after Virgil Straux's death. He remained a Texas Ranger until 1951, when he took his flashy persona to Hollywood and became a consultant for radio and TV. His story was the basis for the 1976 cult classic, The Town That Dreaded Sundown. A remake of the same name came out in 2014.

The film became Texarkana's claim to fame. It's shown annually at local festivals, and it plays every Halloween in the park where Paul Martin and Betty Jo Booker were killed.

As for Katie Starks, she was among the longest living people involved with the Phantom case. She fully recovered from her gunshot wounds and ultimately remarried, becoming Katie Starks Sutton. She lived until July 3, 1994, ironically passing away about a month before Yul Swinney. As of 2025, the Phantom of Texarkana has yet to be identified.

The murders of Richard Griffin, Paulie Ann Moore, Paul Martin, Betty Jo Booker, and Virgil Starks remain unsolved.

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