Welcome to Criminalia, a production of shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
A series of murders and related violent crimes involving four couples was committed in the Texarkana region of the United States between February and May of nineteen forty six and remain unsolved. Before we begin, please note that this story will include discussion or mentions of sexual assault, violent physical assault, suicide, and some truly terrifying bits in general. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky.
And I'm Holly Frye. Texarcana is one city that's located on the border of two states, and it forms two metropolitan constabularies, Texarcana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas. In nineteen forty six, the year we're traveling back to, it had a popular of almost fifty thousand people. It was a bit of a bustling town, but it wasn't a dangerous town. But beginning in February that year, a series of brutal attacks
occurred across a span of ten weeks. Three instances were violent attacks on young people parked in secluded areas on the Texas side of town. The fourth was the shooting of a middle aged couple in their rural farmhouse on the Arkansas side of town. Three victims were seriously wounded and five were killed, and they were all attacked at night, So let's talk about who they were and their crime scenes.
The first victims were Jimmy Hollis, aged twenty five, and Mary Jean Lawry, nineteen. On the night of February twenty second, the pair had seen a movie and then driven just outside of town to a kind of makeshift lover's lane. Just before midnight, Jimmy noticed someone approaching them, motioning for them to get out of the car. They were wearing a mask and shining a flashlight through the window. At gunpoint, the perpetrator forced them out of the car and instructed
Jimmy to quote take off your explative pants. Jimmy complied and was severely beaten, but despite several injuries, including a fractured skull, he survived. The perpetrator ordered Mary to run and then terrifyingly chased her. He ordered her to change course, and when he caught up to her, like she was his prey, he beat her violently and then sexually assaulted
her with his pistol barrel. Some versions of this crime story suggest she was allowed to go, others suggest she escaped, and yet others suggest her attacker ran when he saw headlights. Mary Jean did get away, but her attacker disappeared by the time local law enforcement arrived. They were the first couple attacked in what would become a serial murder case, and it was downplayed as a freak incident by both authorities and the press. Things like this just didn't happen
in Texarcana. Later, both Jimmy and Mary Jean described their attacker, but their descriptions were very vague. He stood about six feet tall, and he had been wearing a homemade white hood that had holes cut out for the eyes and mouth. They didn't agree on anything else. Mary Jean later stated quote, I would know that voice anywhere. It rings always in my ears. Eventually she would move to Oklahoma, a fresh place to heal her trauma.
Unlike the first victims, Richard Griffin, a twenty nine year old recently discharged navy Cebee, and Pollyanne Moore, seventeen, his girlfriend did not survive the attack on them. Less than a month after Jimmy and Mary Jean were assaulted. On March twenty fourth, Richard and polly Anne were found dead in their parked car, which was Richard's nineteen forty one Oldsmobile Sedan. A passing motorist had noticed the car parked about one hundred yards off the highway in a grove
and stopped to make sure everything was okay. They saw Richard's body on the front seat on his knees with his head resting on his crossed hands. Polly Anne was faced down on the back seat. She had been sexually assaulted. Both victims had been shot in the back of the head with a thirty two caliber Colt pistol, and later investigations suggested that they had both been killed outside of the car and then been placed back inside.
About three weeks later, the attacker struck again. Fifteen year old high school junior Betty Joe Booker loved to dance. She wanted to become a medical technician. She was also a talented saxophonist who played with a local dance band, the Rhythmaires. They had a standing Saturday night gig at
the Veterans of Foreign Wars Club. A former classmate and friend since kindergarten Paul Martin picked her up at the VFW at about one am on April fourteenth, and he was supposed to drop her off at a slumber party. Betty Joe did not make it to that party, and it was the last time either were seen alive. When her mother found she hadn't returned home by morning, she notified authorities. A search party found Paul first, lying near
the entrance of Spring Lake Park. He had been shot four times, once in the right hand, once in the face, once in the back of his neck, and once in his back, and his body was a mile away from where his car was parked with the keys still in it. Betty Joe's body was found a few hours after Paul in a wooded area about two miles away from the car. She had been shot in the face and chest. Both were shot by a thirty two caliber cult pistol.
Authorities posted a bulletin that read quote wanted for murder person or persons unknown for the murder of Betty Joe Booker and Paul Martin on or about April thirteenth, nineteen forty six, in Bowie County, Texas. Subject or subjects may have in their possession or may try to dispose of a gold plated Bundy E flat alto saxophone serial number five two five three five, which was missing from the
car in which the victims were last seen. Any information as to the location of the saxophone or description and whereabouts of the person connected with it should be forwarded immediately to the Sheriff Bowie County, Texarcana, Texas, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, Austin, Texas. Betty Joe's saxophone was found, but not for several months, and when it was found, it was in a marshy field near spring Lake Park. The Rhythmares never played again.
After this third attack, the community was paralyzed with fear, as you can imagine. After all, the murders seemed to be totally random. Because the perpetrator was targeting young people, parents began to impose curfews.
The fourth, and what would turn out to be the final attack in the community happened on May third, and it played out differently than the previous three. Instead of targeting secluded spots on the Texas side of town, this time the perpetrator struck the home of Virgil and Katie Starks, who lived on the Arkansas side of town. Remember Texarkana's a city that is located on the border of two states.
Around nine pm, Virgil, a thirty seven year old farmer, was sitting in his chair in his den reading the newspaper when he was shot twice in the back of the head through a closed window. He was killed Instantly. Hearing the sound of broken glass and what she thought was a gunshot, Katie, aged thirty six, ran to find her husband. Finding him fatally shot, she attempted to call the sheriff's office, but while she was dialing, she was shot twice in the face. The first the bullet entered
her right cheek and exited behind her left ear. The second bullet crushed her jaw and then lodged in the muscles under her tongue. The bullets that hit her came in through the same window as those that had hit her husband. Katie survived, and despite the gravity of her wounds, she evaded her assailant, who entered the home through the kitchen door, just as she was able to exit the
front door and run for help. As reported by the Texarcana Gazette in the next day's edition, quote she fled in her bloody nightgown across the highway to her sister's house, only to find no one at home. She eventually made her way to the av Prater farmhouse down the road, where she was able to summon help, and a ride
to Michael Marr Hospital emergency surgery saved her life. According to media coverage, investigators found two small bullet holes in the front porch window, and the crime scene inside the house was a mess, as if the perpetrator had been in a rage while he searched for Katie. There was a lot of blood, but there were also plenty of fingerprints.
Finally, though there is no known record of what most of those in charge of the investigation believed at the time, some law enforcement weren't so sure the shooter at the farmhouse was the same person as in the previous three scenes. There were two things that left them unconvinced, though the
four crime scenes would forever remain linked. First, bullets removed from the Stark's crime scene were fired from a twenty two caliber semi automatic Cult Woodsman, a totally different weapon than the thirty two caliber Cult pistol used in the three lovers Lane attacks. And the second the victims well, they just didn't line up. Virgil and Katie weren't teenagers at Lever's Lane. They were a couple in their thirties getting ready for bed in their home.
We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors. We've talked about the crimes, so when we're back, we will set up the investigation and talk about just how many agencies were involved.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the investigation, but let's also talk about the panic that gripped Techsarcana.
At this point, ten weeks into living in fear, the community had escalated to panic and some residents took a stand to stay safe. They boarded up windows, they armed themselves, and some mainly teenagers, actually formed vigilante groups. Local hardware stores sold out of guns, ammunitions, and locks. The attacks were accurring late at night, and the police dramatically increased their presence with more frequent late night patrols, but that didn't assuage anyone's fears.
A twenty fourteen article published by Texas Monthly described the scene at the time like this quote. Women of means packed up their clothes and children and checked into downtown's hotel grim when their husbands were away on business. Others rigged Rube Goldberg esque security systems, attaching pots and pans
to wire that was strung around their property. People who had never owned guns slept with loaded pistols on both sides of the bed and made palettes on the floor so their children could sleep beside them.
The press played a significant role in amplifying that fear. Newspapers published sensational headlines and melodramatic articles about the killer and the crimes. When national outlets picked up the story,
suddenly Texarcana was in the spotlight. When the attack X became a national story, media outlets from around the country sent reporters to Texarkana to cover it, and that included high profile papers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Dallas News, the Houston Chronicle, and even the London
Times arrived on the scene. John Quincy Mahaffey, then editor of the Texarcana Gazette, stated, quote all of the news agencies, including the Associated Press, United Press, and the International News Service sent reporters.
The press quickly dubbed the murders the Texarcana Moonlight murders, and they were also responsible for giving the unidentified killer a nickname. After the deaths of Betty Joe Booker and Paul Martin. In the April sixteenth edition of the Texarcana Daily News, a headline read quote, Phantom killer eludes officers as investigation of slayings pressed. The Texarcana Gazette, too, used the nickname. The day after, the Daily News did on a small story with the headline quote phantom slayer still
at large as probe continues. Editor Mahaffey stated that the Gazette's managing editor at the time, Calvin Sutton, had quote an acute sense for the dramatic and was behind the nickname. When he asked if they could refer to the unknown murderer as the phantom, Mahaffe replied, quote, why not. If the SOB continues to elude capture, he certainly can be
called a phantom. But Mahaffe did admit quote, Of course, as we continued to write about the murders, the name phantom only served to intensify the hysteria.
An article published in the Texarcana Gazette during the investigation helped locals navigate life during a crime spree and subsequent investigation. It read in part as follows quote tax Arcana residents can help in this investigation, and at the same time, if they are not careful, they can hinder the investigation and cause the officers to spend many hours following blind trails.
Persons who have information which might furnish a clue to the identity of the slayer or slayers, or which might indicate a motive for the crime, should not divulge such information on street corners or at cold drink stands, but should immediately make it available to the officers. Do not spread rumors, regardless of how many bases for the fact there is in them. Do not say I heard or they say, because the chances are that the person listening
will repeat your information and enlarge upon it. Before long, the story grows to such proportions as to necessitate a detailed investigation by the officers, thereby perhaps pulling them off the true trail and sending them up a blind alley. Stick to the facts that you know of your own personal knowledge, and relay those facts as quickly as possible to the officers. And that's just good advice in general.
Upwards of four hundred people were questioned in connection with the killings, but each was cleared. Investigators received numerous false confessions as well, which can happen in high profile cases like this one. With nothing new to work with. Roadblocks were established and official curfews were enforced.
Authorities from Texas and Arkansas shared resources. Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation, including, but not limited to, the Texarcana Police and the Arkansas State Police, the Cass County Sheriff's Department and the Miller County Sheriff's Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Texas Rangers. Renowned Texas ranger Manuel Gonzalez, known as the Lone Wolf, was brought
in to lead the investigation. His very manner and presence on the scene lent itself to some very interesting stories from both the press and other law enforcement. In one animated example, during a radio interview, when Gazette editor Mahaffey asked him to offer listeners some advice that might help calm their fears, Gonzales replied, quote, sure check the locks and bolts of your doors, and get a double barreled shotgun to blow away any intruder who tries to get in.
Mahafe In response quickly changed the subject away from that advice. It's true that Gonzalez was often criticized as being more of a showman than a lawman, at least when it came to appearances, and many statements from other law enforcement suggest he turned himself into a kind of one man pr agency. He's described as kind of a perfect spokesperson, though with quote the swagger of John Wayne and the verbosity of Will Rogers.
Mahaffey has said of Gonzalez, quote rumors that attached themselves to Lone Wolf were easy to believe because he was the living embodiment of the Whyld West. He wore a spotless khaki suit and a white ten gallon hat. He packed two pearl handled revolvers on his hips, and did not deny that he was the ranger who sat in the cashier's office in the Crazy Water Hotel in Mineral Wells and gunned down two ex convicts who sought to rob the place. He was also so good looking that
my girl reporters wouldn't leave him alone. He really didn't have time to hunt down the phantom. He was too busy giving out interviews and trying to run the gazette. All of the other officers were intensely jealous of Lone Wolf and complained bitterly every time his picture appeared in the paper.
It wasn't all shotgun sales and radio interviews, though. Responding to the palpable fear in the community and the swirling rumors among the locals who continued to turn on each other, Gonzalez, along with Booie County Sheriff Bill Presley, jointly issued a
press release. Presley had been on the case since day one and was the first on the scene for the first three attacks, and their joint statement read quote The Texar Canon newspapers have cooperated with us all through this investigation, and we intend to cooperate with them in furnishing them the information they desire when the time comes for divulging that information. The newspapers are not printing rumors and have
assured us they will not. Any information the public hears about the case will not be official unless it comes from us through the newspapers. We will appreciate information from citizens, and all such information will be treated confidentially. We noted in a lot of case reports and newspaper articles that the press refrained from speculating about whether or not any
victims had been sexually assaulted. Though it was kept out of the papers or referred to as quote criminally assaulted, people in the area assumed that it had happened, and it had in three of these four crimes, explained to Mahaffy, quote sexual assault wasn't made public. You guarded the person who was raped.
Whenever we're talking about historical crimes, we run up against this. Forensics today we make assumptions that investigators will test anything and everything at a crime scene, but in nineteen forty six that wasn't the case. The tests just weren't available yet. There was fingerprint testing, and there were some types of testing available to type blood and identify other bodily fluids.
In nineteen forty five, Frank Lindquist invented a screening for semen, but crime labs in forensics were really still in their infancy. For perspective, the FBI's crime laboratory had just opened in nineteen thirty two. The killer, though, was adept at leaving minimal to no evidence behind, and that just hindered all parts of the investigation.
Historian Waynebeck has written, quote, the Texas Rangers were in contact with every law enforcement agency in the country where someone attacked people parking and either killed them or committed rape. Surprisingly, there were many such incidences, even as far away as Wisconsin and New York. They checked out virtually everyone who
was arrested for rape or robbery. In Texas, where the modus operandi was similar to the tech Sarcanic crimes, there were several good leads, including local people, but the rangers would go no further with them if their fingerprints didn't match.
Local investigators moved ahead on a theory that the killer was familiar with the area, which allowed him to blend in. Psychological profiles also suggested the perpetrator was a male, a loner, and, because of his tactical approach to his attacks and his use of firearms, probably someone with military experience. The sheriff's office posted a five hundred dollars reward for information, but
received no leads. Noticing the killer had a pattern attacking young couples parked in secluded areas at night, with about three weeks between Gonzales attempted to set up a sting two undercover officers, each with a mannequin posed as teenage couples parked in lover's lanes. But what investigators didn't know at the time was the perpetrator was done after the May third attack. He never struck again, at least not with a similar crime.
We're going to take a break here for a word from our sponsors, and when we return, we'll talk about who authorities considered to be suspects.
Welcome back to Criminalia. There were a lot of suspects. Authorities may have questioned hundreds of people, but there were fewer they took seriously as the perpetrator of these crimes. One man in particular stood out.
Over the years and decades, several suspects have emerged in this investigation. The problem evidence linked to these potential perpetrators is primarily just circumstantial.
Residents immediately began to come forward with accusations against other locals, neighbors they suspected of the crimes because of any number of reasons. It was kind of like a witch hunt in that regard. One resident, for instance, with a grudge, accused their neighbor, an IRS agent, an innocent IRS agent. But in these instances, fingers pointed mostly at those who had proximity to the crime. Scenes and seemed to behave
suspiciously and by people with grudges. No local was ever conclusively linked to the case.
There were a lot of curse suspects that local and federal agents looked into. But let's talk about some of the serious suspects that authorities pursued and some of the theories that locals considered possible. There was suspect Henry Booker Tennyson, who went by duty. He was an eighteen year old university freshman at the time of the attacks. Investigators found inconsistencies in his story and in their evidence that actually
ultimately ruled him out. He went on to take his own life in nineteen forty eight, leaving behind a cryptic note slash poem that a minority of armchair investigators have interpreted as a confession. One of his friends, though, came forward to the police with an alibi for Tennyson. They were at home together playing cards when they heard the news report on the Martin Booker murders.
Next, there was a forty two year old man from College Station, Texas, which is about two hundred and fifty miles away from Texarcana, and he was non to get a kick out of sneaking up on parked cars at Lover's Lanes with his twenty two caliber rifle, and was frequently known to visit Texarcana. So while that's terrifying, he was innocent.
A Missouri Pacific Railroad section Hand wrote a letter to the Governor of Texas confessing to the killings, but he also confessed to killing Satan. He also challenged FBI Director Jay Edgar Hoover and President Harry Truman to a duel. It was determined he had no connection to the killings, and.
Then speculation arose about an unnamed German pow. Then an escaped prisoner of war was the killer. There is not, nor ever was evidence to support this theory, but it does remind us that the Second World War had ended just five months earlier.
On May thirteenth, the Texarcana Gazette reported quote, despite combined efforts of Texas, Arkansas County, City and federal officers, no trace of the Phantom killer has been found as of late tonight. Officers said there were no new developments. We've been working in circles all week, was the way one officer expressed himself. There were no attacks after May third, but by late summer, the case still hadn't moved forward.
But then there was the investigator's favored suspect, Yule Swinney. Yuell was a tall, thin, twenty nine year old with an extensive record of car theft, counterfeiting, burglary, and assault. He became a person of interest to investigators for two reasons. Firstly, Yule had a history of violent behavior. He gave ambiguous answers to investigators' questions. As a local resident, he would have been capable of being in the vicinity during the
period the attacks happened. However, it's unknown whether his fingerprints matched and he found at the Starks farm. Despite being the prime suspect, being an habitual criminal didn't make him the perpetrator of these crimes, at least not without some real evidence.
Secondly, though Yule's wife gave him up kind of chief of police, Arkansas State Patrol Max Tackett had observed that before each attack, there were reports of a car being stolen and then found later on having been abandoned after the crime. On the afternoon of June twenty eighth, one of these stolen cars was tracked to a parking lot in Texarkana, and police staked it out who would claim
it if anyone. They didn't wait long before they observed a young woman leaving a nearby market and getting into the automobile. They promptly apprehended her. She confessed that the car belonged to her husband, but that he was currently out of town. That woman was Peggy Swinney, and her husband, Yule, was out of town. That was not a lie. She had left out though, that he was out of town
trying to sell a stolen car. After speaking to Peggy, authorities arrested Yule at a bus station and brought him back to Texarcana. During the trip home, Yule told arresting officer Tackett, quote, hell, I know what you want me for. You want me for more than stealing a car.
When Peggy claimed that her husband had confessed to her that he was the phantom, authorities, well they thought they had their man. Peggy had been arrested as an accomplice in one of Eule's car thefts, and in holding she talked a lot, but not about car theft. She gave detailed statements to investigators about when and where they married when they came to Texarcana, which actually had not been long before the murders began, and surprisingly, she implicated her
husband in the attacks, and her statements weren't vague. She included specific details of the Martin book and crime scene that were known only to investigators at the time, or so investigators had thought. She stated that even though she didn't participate, she had been with her husband while he committed every one of the Moonlight murders. But then the details of her stories changed from interview to interview and statement to statement, especially her level of involvement in those crimes.
She also had.
Trouble describing location details and time frames, and that was all a major challenge. It made her seem unreliable.
Even after her long and detailed statements to authorities. Peggy refused to testify against her husband. A spouse could not be compelled to testify against their partner in court, and without her testimony, there really wasn't much evidence against Yule, and certainly not even enough to arrest him. He was ultimately convicted several times, actually, as he was a career criminal, but he was never tried for these crimes, and no one ever.
Was What a terrible story.
It is terrible. Here was my solve on this one to talk about something other than gruesome murder, because there's a part of this that I love. I love the fact that there was a concerted effort on the part of law enforcement to communicate to the public to not gossip about this.
Wasn't that great.
It's like, I mean, I'm sure every police department, every you know, sheriff's department, et cetera, they all wish that were always the case. But this is such a straightforward, like, hey, don't be gossiping on street corners. That doesn't help anybody. Like it's so direct, and I really really like it. So that's what I'm choosing to focus on. And I'm making a drink called.
Just the Facts, ma'am.
And this one also, I am invoking the associations that a particular herb has, which is sage, which is like being a so eted with the truth and with clarity. So I thought we should include some sage in this one. We can also consider it like a drink based smudging of the entire Texarcana area to try to remove all
of the bad, bad vibes from it. So this one, you're gonna start with four to five sage leaves and put them in the base of your shaking tin or a glass or whatever you want to use, and then you're gonna add between this is a taster's choice between three quarters of an ounce to an ounce of simple syrup and an ounce of grapefruit juice. And you're gonna muddle that all together for a little bit. And just as we've said before, we haven't had a muddling discussion
in a minute. But you know, you want to press the leaves and get the oils and the flavor out. You don't need to like macerate them, just make sure they're broken and that you're getting all of their essence. And then you will add two ounces of bourbon because we actually haven't had bourbon yet season. And you're just gonna shake this in your tin with ice and then strain it into a pre chilled cocktail glass. There is an optional step that is part of time and place here.
I want egg white on this drink. Oh yeah, yeah, But eggs are hard to get an expensive right now, so I'm not gonna tell anybody they need to have it. But if you want to do it with egg white, it's even more delicious. So I would recommend doing that if you have eggs available and you have the means to pay whatever exorbitant some they are charging.
Maybe maybe you have some chickens at home.
Or maybe you have chickens that keep you hooked up, which is great, and then same thing, you would just add that egg white. If you're adding egg white, you're gonna do a little bit of a dry shake without ice first and get it nice and frothy. If you have a frother like a coffee frother, now is the time, and then you will add your ice and chill it all with another shake, and then you can fine strain
that into your pre chilled cocktail glass. Anytime there's like an egg white loading on top of things, that's a good time. If you want to get pretty, to add a couple of drops of bitters to create a little visual that also shifts your drink around a little bit, but those are optional. You can do it just as written. With your sage leaves. You're simple. You're grapefruit in your bourbon. If you would like to make this a mocktail, it's
very easy. In lieu of that bourbon, you're just going to do two ounces of I would do an earl gray tea specifically here. It just goes better with the grapefruit in my experiments than other options. But if you have another dark tea that you want to try, go for it. I also added a little bit of saline to my tea to give it a little more a little more body. So that is just the facts, and I hope that as tempting as it always is to gossip about big news and embellish things, and people don't
even mean to. I know they don't in many cases, so I'm not judging anyone. I'm just saying we could all probably do better in this arena. We hope that you have enjoyed hanging out with us here as much as one can enjoy hearing such a sad story. But we're sure grateful you're with us. We will be right back here next week with another cold case and another probably icy cold drink to go with it. Criminalia is
a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.