By Austin Spradlin
NOTE: The following events are described as mercifully as they can be.
Hidden in the distant northeastern corner of Texas – or southwestern edge of Arkansas is Texarkana it mainly goes unacknowledged now, at one time it was described as: ”An almost lawless town.” One thing folks thinks of when they hear Texarkana is the gruesome murders done by who some refers to as ‘The Phantom Killer’ or ‘The Moonlight Murderer’ “The Boogeyman” because of him Texarkana lived true to the name of the 1976 film starring Ben Johnson and Dawn Wells loosely based off of the murders called “The Town that Dreaded Sundown.” Texarkana still plays the film around every Halloween.
On Friday February 22, 1946, when Jimmy Hollis, 24, and his girlfriend, Mary Jeanne Larey, 19, were parked in his old model grey Chevrolet at a sequestered corner on an untenanted road right off of Richmond Road in Texarkana.
The two had spent their evening at the drive in-cinema and decided they would spend some time on lovers’ lane. The two were married , just not to each other, Mary had just taken her dress off when out of the cold night a man in a white mask often assumed as a feed sack with eye holes cut in it, blinding them momentarily with a flashlight.
He unsheathed his .32 caliber “roll down the window.” He said in a gruff voice. Hollis obliged to his commands. He aimed his gun at Mary, Jimmy leaned forward getting in between her and the man’s pistol.
“Let’s just relax man,” Hollis said, taking his watch off. “Here want this?” He asked reaching it out the window.
The man shook his head and ordered Hollis to get out of the vehicle. Reluctantly he done as the man had told him to do.
Jimmy got out of the vehicle shutting the door behind him, he stood directly in front of the man. A moment of silence between the three before he turned his attention to Larey, who was trembling in trepidation in the passenger seat, trying to keep herself covered with her arms.
“Hey focus on me, leave her out of this,” Jimmy said, pleading with the man.
In response: SNAP the man had pistol-whipped Jimmy, knocking him to the cold hard ground.
Mary cried out. The assailant once again aimed the gun at her, “quiet,” he admonished, looking down at Jimmy. He would strike Hollis two more times.
The sickening thuds of the pistol-whipping was the sound of Hollis’s skull fracturing.
“Look away.” He told Mary. Mary did as she was told.
He pulled Hollis’s pockets, undone his belt, pulled his trousers down and began to fold them. He glanced back up at Mary , she hadn’t listened, she stared at him the whole time without making a peep.
“I told you to look away,” he said, going towards the vehicle. He opened up the driver side door; Mary hastily departed out of the passenger side. Breaking her right high heel, resulting in her falling.
He came around the front of the vehicle standing in her way as she got up. “Run.” He told her.
She took off running towards the road, he instantly chased her down. “The other way.”
She once again followed his commands, going in opposite direction of the road and towards the thick brush.
“Why are you running?” He asked as his footsteps got closer to her.
“You told me to.”
“That’s a damn lie,” he responded, playing sick mind games with her.
The assailant caught up to Mary and struck her over the head once again. She fell to the ground and was sexually assaulted with the revolver.
“Go ahead and kill me,” she said, spitting at him.
An oncoming vehicle put the attacker in retreat back to his vehicle when he found himself in their headlights. Only for a second though.
While he was occupied with attempting to kill Larey, an injured Hollis was able to regain consciousness and flag down an ambulance that was about to get off work. Both Jimmy and Mary were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Jimmy couldn’t speak, Mary could somewhat. She described the pistol-whip that fractured Jimmy’s skull as according: “The noise was so loud I thought Jimmy had been shot.”
Mary suffered from survivors' guilt as she went onto say three months later "I would know his voice anywhere. It rings always in my ears. Why didn't he kill me too? He killed so many others."
She moved to Frederick, Oklahoma to live with her aunt and uncle. “For the first time in Mary's life, Mary was extremely nervous. The poor girl would not go upstairs by herself, nor would she ever sleep alone.”
Hollis and Larey spent a week together in Frederick, Oklahoma after surviving the attack. That would be where they shared their Last kiss goodbye.
Hollis had earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and a Master of Science in public administration. He landed a job working for the U.S. Government and got the role of playing former Vice President Andrew Johnson in the 1971 made for tv film ‘They’ve Killed President Lincoln.’
In 1975 Jimmy would pass away in his sleep at the age of 54.
Many of the rangers felt that Mary knew who her attacker was and could have possibly been protecting him out of fear. She tried to help every way she could to find out who the psychopath was. No one questioned that she ever stopped looking up until her death in 1965 where she passed away at the age of 38 after losing her life to cancer.
On the rainy Sunday afternoon of March 24, 1946, Richard Griffin, 29, and Polly Ann Moore, 17, were found murdered in Griffin’s Oldsmobile Sedan which was parked on a secluded road called Rich Road. They had both been shot in the back of their heads with a .32 caliber pistol.
Polly was wearing her high school ring which helped the police identify her body.
The only thing officers found at the crime were .32 slugs. Giving what had happened nearly a month before, it had become obvious that Texarkana had a serial killer lurking in their woods.
Griffin was a war veteran who received a discharge from the Seabees in November 1945. He earned a living by doing carpenter and paint jobs.
Polly was living with a cousin at the time of her death. The old home they had lived in was a boardinghouse that was razed during the widening of State Line Avenue. Her friends described her as quiet and shy, they felt her circumspect personality was what separated her from the other girls her age.
After the double-murder, Mary went to Texarkana to talk to the police hoping and praying that they would connect the crimes and identify the murderer, but the Rangers questioned her story and once again insisted that she knew who was behind these horrible crimes.
On Sunday April 14, 1946, roughly 1:30am Betty Jo Booker, 15, was a straight-A student and a talented saxophone player. She played each Saturday night with a group known as the Rhythmaires. So that Saturday night was just another typical Saturday night. Right around 1:30AM, her friend, Paul Martin, 16, picked her up after the show. The two stopped at Spring Lake Park which was only a few minutes from Booker’s home. The next morning, Martin’s body was discovered on the edge of North Park Road. He had been fatally shot in the back of the head with a .22 rifle.
A search party was assembled in attempts to find Booker’s body. Six hours later, her body was discovered: Tied to a tree, posed slumped over a medium-sized tree root, only in panties, her back covered in blood, shot in the back of the head – Her body was about two miles from Martin’s.
Sheriff Presley was marginally terrified by the scene. He experienced a lot of sleepless nights, the nights he was able to get some sleep he would dream about the scene.
On Friday April 12 two days before the murder, Martin drove to Texarkana from Kilgore. That night, he stayed with a friend. That’s a two-hour drive.
“I was wary about him going to Texarkana, not because of the danger but in fear that he might wreck.” Martin’s mother stated.
Sheriff Presley believed he had tied her up to the tree before he killed her.
Betty had a name around town, she was wildly popular in school. She had numerous boyfriends; she wouldn’t get serious with any of them. She had won the title of “Little Miss Texarkana.” The only thing she was passionate about was music. She was just as intelligent as she was pretty, winning musical and literary competitions.
"I trust the men who are handling the investigation into my daughter's death. I'm sure they'll find whoever did it. If he is caught, I would like to kill him. If they would let me, I would kill him myself." Said Betty’s distraught mother.
"What happened was so tragic, and for many of us who lived through it, the frustration and sadness will always be there." Said a fellow classmate.
After the sickening tragedy of Betty and Paul, the Texarkana police brought back Mary for more questioning. She sat down at the wooden desk in the interrogation room.
“You might as well spill it.” Sheriff Presley said sternly.
“I done told you–”
“People are dying, now we know you know who attacked you and Jimmy. You had better start talking.” Sheriff Presley shouted, cutting her off.
She stared belligerently at Sheriff Presley; she rose from the table.
“Where’re you going?”
“Obviously what connects these crimes are he’s going to attack couples that are parked in a secluded area to have sex. I told you this before, I don’t know who he is, sitting here yelling at me and trying to intimidate me isn’t going to get justice for anyone.” Mary never did care to tell it like she saw it. At this point she hadn’t seen or spoken to Jimmy. She was going through a divorce with her husband, she had a lot on her plate – so that meant she didn’t have time for what she thought was Sheriff Wesley being petty.
“I hope that’s true, but how many more people you reckon he will kill before we kill him?”
His question threw her a beat, but she sharply responded, “You can’t kill the boogeyman.”
Texas Ranger Captain Manuel Trazazas “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas was brought in. He was a ranger from 1940-1951. He had been following the story of the murders, when Sheriff Presley expressed concerns that Mary knew who her attacker was, he disagreed. “I don’t think these crimes are being done by one person. Who attacked Jimmy and Mary is not the same person responsible for Richard Griffin and Polly Ann Moore and Betty and Paul. There’s two sick individuals out there, one is a murderer and the other is an attempted murderer.”
“Whoever killed Betty and Paul had done this before, the way he set up Betty’s body, it was too specific.”
“Just because they’ve killed before does not mean they attacked Jimmy and Mary. I believe this murderer was a war veteran, he has become addicted to killing.” Lone Wolf argued.
The tragic events that had occurred so far scared a lot of the citizens in Texarkana on both sides. Locksmith locks had increased, guns and ammunition sales increased as well, One-night, Chief Deputy Tillman Johnson was patrolling a derelict road with Arkansas State Trooper Charley Boyd when they drove up on a parked car. Both sighed, thinking teenagers really don’t take anything serious. When Johnson approached the car and noticed the couple enjoying each other’s company. He still interrupted "Aren't you two afraid to be out here at night?" The girl, 19, replied, "You're the one that ought to be afraid, sir. Good thing you told me who you are.” She said revealing that she had a .25 ACP pistol aimed at him, waiting for him to approach them.
On Friday May 3, almost 9:00pm., Virgil Starks, 37, was sitting in his chair in the living room. He was about to start listening to his favorite radio program. He had his back pressed against a heating pad, the Texarkana Gazette in his hands. When from out of nowhere he was shot in the back of the head. The killer shooting through a double window with a .22 rifle.
The killer was in the cornfield underneath the inky-black sky. The stocks keeping him hidden as he had his eyes on Virgil.
Katherine “Katie” Starks, 36 who was upstairs reading came downstairs where she saw her husband standing up, in immense pain, he was shot once again in the back of the head. This time in front of Katie. She screamed in terror and ran to the phone, where she tried to call the police.
Katie was shot twice like her husband once in the corner of her bottom left lip, then in the back of the head , she survived, she heard the killer enter their house. In the fight for her life. She pulled herself up and was able to get out of the house.
Thinking she’d be hidden; she went to the cornfield. Fortunately, the assailant never saw her. She was able to get to a nearby house. Their dog barking is what got their attention. They opened up their front door and saw Katie crawling to them. “Please help me, that guy.” She never completed her sentence. But it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to know what happened and who she was talking about. The neighbor had his wife to contact the police.
“Katie and Virgil were two of the best people I had ever known.” A friend had stated.
Katie eventually remarried. At 84 years old, on Sunday, July 3, 1994, she died in a local hospital as Katie Starks Sutton.
A red and black flashlight had been found in the cornfield, believed to have belonged to the killer after Katherine said her and Virgil didn’t own a flashlight that looked like that one.
The Stark family was the last known attack by The Phantom Killer. Now to take a look at the suspects.
Lone Wolf felt that the person responsible for the murder and attempted murder on the Stark family was not the same person that killed Betty and Paul or Richard and Polly, he didn’t think this person attacked Jimmy and Mary.
Sheriff Wesley felt that the loose conglomeration of clues danced with absurdity.
Sheriff Presley believed that Youell Swinney was the killer. One reason was Swinney’s wife Peggy, because she named her husband as the killer. Although she retracted her confession. At the times authorities could not force you to testify in court against spouses.
“She knew too many details about the murders.” Sheriff Presley stated.
Authorities arrested him for auto theft in 1946 when he was 29 years old. Each car he had stolen was reported hours before each murder. Once Swinney went to jail, the killings ended. Authorities considered the case closed after he received a life sentence for stealing cars. However, Swinney was eventually released in 1973 due to a habeas corpus. He never confessed to the murders.
On Thursday September 15, 1994, Swinney had passed away in his home. If he was the murderer, he took his secret to his grave.
On November 5, 1948, 18-year-old H.B. Doodie Tennison was found dead. He had taken his own life and he left behind a letter explaining why he committed suicide.
The following letter: “Thanks to Ella Lee (Mrs. McGee, the owner of the house he was rooming in) for letting me stay with her during my college career, and to Belva Jo (Mrs. McGee's 12-year-old daughter) for putting up with me the way she did, she had to I know, but I fell in love with her about a week ago, if she was older I would have asked her to marry me, but that would be impossible.
Why did I take my own life? Well, 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 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. When I am found, which has already been done, please give this typewriter to Craig [(Tennison's older brother) and tell him that I hope that his child is a boy, he will help him in his work. Everything can go wherever you think it will do best except for the View-Master which will go to Belva Jo. Please take my bankroll and give it to Daddy, I think it should go to him, and tell him I don't want the car now.
Well, goodbye, everybody. See you sometime, if I make the grade which will be hard for me to make.
Before he had written the letter he had written what some call a poem others call a riddle claiming “here you will find out the truth.”
In a tube a paper is found.
It rolls on color and it is dry and sound.
The head removes the tail will turn,
And inside is the sheet you yern.
Two bees mean a lot when they are together.
These clues should lead you to it.
His cousin felt it was possible he and Youell had been working together. The only reason he would have to suspect they were a duo was because Peggy and him had been having an affair during the months of the murders.
Doodie loved the paramount theater, he was what in today’s time is known as a ‘film buff’ he had dreams of one day performing on that local stage, dreams that was washed away along with a trail of blood. He played the trombone in the Arkansas High School band along with Betty Jo Booker.
Go to our website www.serialkillercalendar.com and check out the blog titled “THE BLACK DAHLIA, LITTLE SUZANNE DEGNAN & THE MISSING WEST POINT CADET.”
Editor's note: this article ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written. The Texarkana Moonlight Murders are unsolved, and this archive records them that way: the entry is filed under The Phantom Killer with five deaths across eight attacks, and three people survived. Nobody was ever charged with any of the killings. That is the frame to keep while reading the suspect section. Youell Swinney was never tried for murder; the life sentence he served was imposed for car theft under a habitual offender statute, and he was released in 1973 on habeas corpus. His wife Peggy named him and then retracted, and her statements were never tested at a murder trial. H.B. Tennison was eighteen when he died by suicide and was never charged with anything. Neither man's guilt is established, and the article's own account makes clear how thin the case against each of them is.