The Phantom Killer was an
unidentified serial killer believed to
have committed a number of murders in Texarkana, Texas
between February 23 and May 4, 1946. The
Phantom is also known as
the Texarkana Phantom and
the Moonlight Murderer, having often killed when
the moon was full.
The murders and attacks
The Phantom first struck on February 23, attacking Jimmy Hollis,
24, and his girlfriend, Mary Jeanne Larey, 19, who were parked on a
secluded road outside Texarkana. A man, armed with a handgun,
forced Hollis and Larey out of the car and
pistol-whipped Hollis. He then
sexually assaulted Larey with the gun before
fleeing when he saw the headlights of an approaching car. According
to Larey and Hollis, their assailant was about six feet (1.8 m)
tall and his head and face were covered by a mask.
A month later, on the evening of March 23, Richard Griffin, 29, and
his girlfriend, Polly Ann Moore, 17, were murdered. Both were found
the next morning in Griffin’s car on a rural
Bowie County road, outside Texarkana. Both had
been shot in the back of the head, by a .32 revolver. A
bloodstained patch of earth found 20 feet (6.1 m) away suggested
that both victims were killed outside the car and put back in
it.
Early on April 14, Paul Martin, 17, and Betty Jo Booker, 15, were
killed in Texarkana’s Spring Lake Park. Martin’s body was found a
mile and a half from his car (which was in the park) near a rural
highway. Booker’s body was found two miles from the car, near a
patch of woods. Both had been shot several times. As with Griffin
and Moore, the bullets had been fired from a .32 revolver. Soon
after, the killer was dubbed the Phantom in the
Texarkana Gazette.
By this time, the citizens of Texarkana had entered a state of
panic. Many residents bought firearms, barricaded their residences,
and stayed in at night. The police, meanwhile, began patrolling
Texarkana’s secluded streets and
lovers'
lanes, apparently prompting the Phantom to change
tactics.
On May 4,
a man attacked a farmhouse in Miller County, Arkansas
, 12 miles from Texarkana. The prowler,
standing outside the house, shot Virgil Starks, 36, twice through a
parlor window, killing him. Virgil’s wife, Katy, 35, upon hearing
breaking glass, left her bedroom and entered the parlor. The
assailant, still outside the house, shot her twice, hitting her in
the face and mouth, but Mrs. Starks managed to escape from the
house and get help from a neighbor. While Mrs. Starks sought aid,
the killer searched the house, leaving muddy footprints on the
floor. By the time the police reached the house, the killer had
gone. Although
ballistics tests would
later reveal that the bullets removed from the Starks had been
fired from a .22
semi-automatic
pistol, not a .32 revolver, the murder of Virgil Starks is
generally believed to have been committed by the Phantom.
Two days later, a man’s body was found on train tracks north of
Texarkana. Some reporters speculated that the man, Earl McSpadden,
was the Phantom and that he had committed suicide. However,
following the coroner’s report of May 7 it was revealed that
McSpadden had been stabbed to death before his body was put on the
tracks, leading some to believe that McSpadden was another victim
of the Phantom.
Only major suspect
The only major suspect in the Phantom case was
Youell Swinney, a 29-year-old car thief with
a record of
counterfeiting,
burglary, and
assault who
was arrested in Texarkana in July 1946. Swinney’s wife, who was
also arrested, told police that Swinney was the Phantom and that
she had been with her husband when he committed the murders.
Swinney’s wife kept changing the details about the killings,
however, and police came to view her as an unreliable witness.
After
being questioned by the police in Texarkana, Swinney was questioned
in Little
Rock
. Swinney was eventually convicted of car theft in Texas
and, as a
repeat offender, was sentenced to life
imprisonment in 1947.
In 1970, Swinney petitioned for a writ of
habeas corpus, claiming that he should be
released because he was not provided with an attorney at his trial
in 1947. Swinney’s conviction was overturned on
appeal and he was set free in 1974. He died in 1994.
The case of the Phantom has never been solved and remains open,
although as of 2006 it is considered cold.
In popular culture
William T.
Rasmussen, author of Corroborating
Evidence II (2006), presents similarities between the Phantom
Killer of Texarkana and the Zodiac
Killer who terrorized California
(and has also never been caught) in the late 1960s
and early 1970s.
In 1977,
American
International Pictures released
The Town That Dreaded
Sundown, a film about the Phantom killings.
The band the Bad Detectives have a song titled "Texarkana
Moonlight" which is based on the events of the murders.
The rapper
Nas mentions the Phantom Killer in
his song
The World is
Yours. Nas states, "Headed for Indiana stabbin' bitches like
the Phantom." Nas demonstrates his ignorance to the details of the
killings, as only one victim was stabbed, and that killing was not
clearly linked to the Phantom.
References
- Ancestry.com. Texas Death Index, 1903-2000 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.
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