The Texarkana Moonlight Murders, a term coined by the contemporary press, was a series of four unsolved serial murders and related violent crimes committed in the Texarkana region of the United States in early 1946. They were attributed to an alleged unidentified perpetrator known as the Phantom of Texarkana, the Phantom Killer, or the Phantom Slayer. This hypothetical suspect is credited with attacking eight people, five of them fatally, in a ten-week period.
The attacks occurred at night on weekends between February 22 and May 3, targeting couples. The first three attacks occurred at lovers' lanes or quiet stretches of road in Texas; the fourth attack occurred at an isolated farmhouse in Arkansas. The murders were reported nationally and internationally by several publications, and caused a state of panic in Texarkana throughout the summer. Residents armed themselves and, at dusk, locked themselves indoors while police patrolled the streets and neighborhoods. Stores sold out of guns, ammunition, locks, and many other protective devices. Investigations into the murders were conducted at the city, county, state, and federal level.
The prime suspect in the case, career criminal Youell Swinney, was linked to the murders primarily by statements from his wife plus additional circumstantial evidence. After Swinney's wife refused to testify against him, prosecutors decided against pursuing murder charges. Swinney was convicted on other charges and sentenced to a long prison sentence. Two of the lead investigators believed Swinney to be guilty of the murders. The book The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders (2014), written by James Presley (nephew of Sheriff William Hardy "Bill" Presley), concludes that Swinney is the culprit. The events inspired many works, including the 1976 film The Town That Dreaded Sundown. This film is the basis for much of the subsequent myth and folklore around the murders.
Crimes The Texarkana Moonlight Murders consisted of four violent attacks which occurred over ten weeks from February to May 1946. The murders occurred in and around Texarkana, twin cities at the border of Miller County, Arkansas, and Bowie County, Texas. All four attacks targeted couples in isolated locations, on weekend nights. The attacks took place at intervals of three to four weeks. Investigators speculated that the attacks were the work of an unidentified serial killer. Over time, there have been shifting opinions by officials over whether the first and fourth attacks were committed by the same perpetrator.
February 22: First attack
At around 11:45 p.m. on Friday, February 22, Jimmy Hollis (25) and his girlfriend, Mary Jeanne Larey (19), parked on a secluded road just outside Texarkana, Texas, after having seen a movie together. The lovers' lane was approximately from the last row of city homes, where present-day Central Mall is located. Around ten minutes later, a man wearing a white cloth maskwhich resembled a pillowcase with eyeholes cut outappeared at Hollis' driver-side door and shone a flashlight in the window. Hollis told him he had the wrong person, to which the man responded: "I don't want to kill you, fellow, so do what I say."
Both Hollis and Larey were ordered out of the car, and the man ordered Hollis to "take off [his] goddamn britches." After he complied, the man struck him twice upon the head with a firearm. Larey later told investigators that the noise was so loud she had initially thought Hollis had been shot, when in fact she had heard his skull fracturing. Thinking the assailant wanted to rob them, Larey showed him Hollis' wallet to prove he had no money, after which she was struck with a blunt object. The assailant ordered Larey to stand, and when she did, told her to run. Initially, Larey tried to flee toward a ditch, but the assailant ordered her to run up the road.
Larey spotted an old car parked off the road but found it empty, and was again confronted by the attacker, who asked her why she was running. When she said that he had told her to do so, he called her a liar before knocking her down and sexually assaulting her with the barrel of his gun. After the assault, Larey fled on foot, running a half-mile (800m) to a nearby house; she woke the inhabitants and phoned the police. Meanwhile, Hollis had regained consciousness and alerted a passing motorist, who also called the police. Within thirty minutes, Bowie County Sheriff W. H. "Bill" Presley and three other officers arrived at the scene, but the assailant had already left. Larey was hospitalized overnight for a minor head wound. Hollis was hospitalized for several days to recover from multiple skull fractures.
Hollis and Larey gave slightly differing descriptions of their attacker: Larey claimed that she could see under the mask that he was a light-skinned African-American male. Hollis alternately claimed the attacker was a tanned white man, and around thirty years old, but conceded he could not distinguish his features as he had been blinded by a flashlight. Both agreed that the assailant was around tall. Law enforcement repeatedly challenged Larey's account, and believed that she and Hollis knew the identity of their attacker and were covering for him.
March 24: First double-murder Richard Griffin (29) and his girlfriend of six weeks, Polly Ann Moore (17), were found dead in Griffin's car on the morning of Sunday, March 24, by a passing motorist. The motorist saw the parked car on a lovers' lane 100 yards (91 m) south of US Highway 67 West in Bowie County. Griffin was found between the front seats on his knees, with his head resting on his crossed hands and his pockets turned inside out; Moore was found sprawled face-down in the back seat. There is evidence that suggests she was placed there after being killed on a blanket outside the car.
Griffin had been shot twice while inside the car; both had been shot once in the back of the head, and both were fully clothed. A blood-soaked patch of earth near the car suggested to police that they had been killed outside the car and placed back inside. Congealed blood was found covering the running board, and it had flowed through the bottom of the car door. A .32 caliber cartridge casing was also found, possibly ejected from a pistol wrapped in a blanket. No extant reports indicate that either Griffin or Moore was examined by a pathologist. Contemporaneous local rumor said that Moore had been sexually assaulted, but modern reports refute this claim.
April 14: Second double-murder At around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 14, Paul Martin (16) picked up Betty Jo Booker (15) from a musical performance at the VFW Club at West Fourth and Oak Street in Texarkana. Martin's body was found at around 6:30 a.m. later that morning, lying on its left side by the northern edge of North Park Road. Blood was found on the other side of the road by a fence. He had been shot four times: through the nose, through the ribs from behind, in the right hand, and through the back of the neck.
Booker's body was found by a search party at about 11:30 a.m., almost from Martin's body. Her body was behind a tree and lying on its back, fully clothed. It was posed with the right hand in the pocket of the buttoned overcoat. Booker had been shot twice, once through the chest and once in the face. The weapon used was the same as in the first double-murder, a .32 semi-automatic Colt pistol.
Martin's carTexarkana Daily News, Wednesday, April 17, 1946, page 2. was found about from Booker's body and away from his body. It was parked outside Spring Lake Park with the keys still in the ignition. Authorities were not sure who was shot first. Presley and Texas Ranger Manuel T. Gonzaullas said that examinations of the bodies indicated that they both had put up a terrific struggle.Texarkana Daily News, Monday, April 15, 1946, front page Martin's friend, Tom Albritton, said that he did not believe an argument had happened between the victims and that Martin had not had any enemies.
May 3: Fifth murder The fifth murder occurred on Friday, May 3, sometime before 9 p.m., when Virgil Starks (37) and his wife Katie (36) were in their home on a farm off Highway 67 East, almost northeast of Texarkana.Texarkana Gazette, Saturday, May 4, 1946, page 2 Virgil was sitting in an armchair reading the newspaper when he was shot twice in the back of the head from a closed double window. Hearing the sound of broken glass, Katie came from another room and saw Virgil stand up, then slump back into his chair.Texarkana Gazette, Sunday, May 5, 1946, front page When she realized he was dead, Katie ran to the crank telephone to call the police. She rang twice before being shot twice in the face from the same window. She fell but soon regained her footingTexarkana Daily News, Saturday, May 4, 1946, front page and tried to get a pistol from another room, but was blinded by her own blood.Texarkana Daily News, Tuesday, May 7, 1946, front page
Katie heard the killer at the back of the house and fled out the front door. She ran barefoot across the street to the home of her sister and brother-in-law. Because no one was home, she ran to neighbor A. V. Prater's house, gasped that "Virgil's dead,” then collapsed.Life magazine, June 10, 1946, p. 40 Prater shot a rifle in the air to summon another neighbor, Elmer Taylor, who Prater sent to collect his car. Taylor complied and, along with other members of the Prater family, took Katie to Michael Meagher Hospital (now Miller County Health Unit). Katie was questioned in the operating room by Miller County Sheriff W. E. Davis, who became head of the investigation. Four days later, Davis talked with Katie again, and she discounted a circulating rumor that Virgil had heard a car outside their home several nights in a row and feared being killed.
Investigations Investigations of the attacks involved law enforcement officers at the city, county, state, and federal levels. Notable investigators included: William Hardy "Bill" Presley (1895–1972), the Bowie County sheriff who was the first lawman on the scene of the first three attacks.Texarkana Gazette, Sunday, May 28, 1972, front page Jackson Neely "Jack" Runnels (1897–1966), the Texarkana chief of police who was among the first called to the scenes of the two double-murders.Texarkana Gazette, Saturday, October 15, 1966, front page W. E. Davis, the Miller County Sheriff who headed the investigation of the Starks murder. Max Andrew Tackett (1912–1972), an Arkansas State Police detective who was first on the scene of the Starks attack and the arresting officer of the lead suspect.Texarkana Gazette, Tuesday, March 14, 1972, page 2A Tillman Byron Johnson (1911–2008), a Miller County sheriff's deputy who was one of the leading investigators on the case, and was eventually the last surviving participant in the investigation.Texarkana Gazette, Thursday, December 11, 2008, page 8A Manuel T. Gonzaullas (1891–1977), a captain in the Texas Rangers who became the public face of the investigation. He was criticized as a "showman" who presented the work of other officers as his own to the press,Texarkana Gazette, Sunday, March 23, 1986, page 1C and spent a great deal of time with female reporters.Texarkana Gazette specially limited edition tabloid The Phantom Killer at 50: A Retrospective, page 17 Five years after the murders, Gonzaullas left the Rangers to become a technical consultant to the entertainment industry.