On February 22, 1946, in the Texas-Arkansas border town, appropriately named Texarkana, Jimmy Hollis, 25, and Mary Jeanne Larey, 19, went on a date to the movies and began driving back to Mary Jeanne’s home. On the way, they stopped their car on a quiet, unpaved road about 100 yards away from some houses in a residential neighborhood.
After about 10 minutes, a man walked up, as Mary Jeanne would later relate. “He wore a white mask over his head “with cut-out places for his eyes and mouth. The man pointed a flashlight and pistol at us. He came up on the driver’s side of the car and told Jimmy something like this, ‘I don’t want you to kill you, fellow, ‘so do what I say'”. Both Jimmy and Mary Jeanne got out of the car. The assailant made Jimmy take off his pants then hit him twice over the head, cracking Jimmy’s skull and knocking him unconsciousness. The attacker then tried to sexually assault and rob Mary Jeanne.
Mary Jeanne pleaded with the attacker, telling him they didn’t have any money. The attacker hit Mary Jeanne, knocking her to the ground. When she got up, the man told her to run. Mary Jeanne took off down the road, but was wearing high heels. The assailant quickly overtook her and hit her again, knocking her to the ground, where he began to abuse her. At this point, Jimmy struggled to his feet and managed to stop a passing car. It’s thought the assailant saw the car lights and fled from Mary Jeanne. Both Jimmy and Mary Jeanne received medical treatment. Jimmy spent over 12 days recovering in the hospital.
Texarkana was a violent area
In the mid-40s, Texarkana was a relatively violent place. Killings, robberies and other crimes were very common. It might make sense then, while the attack on Jimmy and Mary Jeanne was brutal, the community didn’t pay it much attention until another attack occurred a month later. This one fatal.
On the morning of March 24, authorities found the bodies of 29-year-old Richard L. Griffin and 17-year-old Polly Ann Moore in a 1941 Oldsmobile on what was then known as a lovers’ lane. Both had been shot in the back of the head. Richard was found between the two front seats on his knees, with his head in his hands. His pants pockets were inside out, thought to be the result of someone trying to rob him.
Polly Ann was discovered face down in the back seat of the car, though there was evidence that suggested she may have been murdered on a blanket outside the car and placed there later. The couple had last been seen around 10 p.m. the night before, eating dinner with Richard’s sister. They had been shot with what was thought to have been a Colt .32 caliber pistol and any footprints that would have been around the car had been washed away throughout the day.
Police ended up investigated 100 false leads
Though there weren’t many clues for authorities to go off of, three days after the killings, at least 50 people had been asked about the murder and over 100 false leads had been investigated. While this attack, ending in the murder of a young couple, turned more heads than the first assault, the community still believed these events to be isolated incidents.
Three weeks later, their indifference would change into a frenzy of fear. On April 14, authorities found the bodies of 15-year-old Betty Jo Booker and 16-year-old Paul Martin. The previous night, the two teens had attended a band performance at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Club, where Betty Jo played alto saxophone. They were also seen leaving the dance around 1.30 in the morning. Paul had been shot four times and was discovered in a rural area on North Park Road. Betty Jo had been raped and shot twice. Her body was found up in the woods about a mile away.
Both had been shot with a .32 caliber Colt, the same weapon thought to be used in the previous attack. This being the third attack in less than two months, now with four young people dead, the community was finally paying attention and they were panicked. When their husbands and fathers were away for work, women and children would move into the aptly named Hotel Grim in downtown Texarkana. Others bought guns and crafted homemade security systems from kitchenware and wire around their homes. Typically bustling streets went quiet. The Texarkana Gazette named the attacked the Phantom Killer. Tillman Johnson, one of the lead investigators, said, “We were constantly getting calls, mostly at night about prowlers. People would called about any noise they heard at all.” Everybody was afraid they would be the next victim of the Phantom Killer.
Texarkana Phantom Killer struck again May 3
On May 3, 37-year-old farmer, Virgil Starks, was listening to the radio when a .22 caliber round tore through his front porch window and hit him. His wife, Katie, left their bedroom to find Virgil bleeding in the living room. Katie went to call for help when the attacker shot her twice in the face. The bullets knocked some of her teeth out but she survived. Ducking to avoid more shots, she made her way back to the bedroom. As the attacker tried to break in through the kitchen window, Katie escaped out the front door, with a bullet stuck under her tongue and trailing blood behind her. Katie made it to a nearby farmhouse where she was taken to the hospital and survived. Virgil however died.
An indication of the fear the Phantom Killer had instilled in the community, 20 to 30 police officers converged on the Starks’s farmhouse. Police tried to gather evidence and interview possible suspects and witnesses. According to Johnson, “people would stand out near the front of their homes and yell at you to identify yourself before you got too close. You had to identify yourself or you would get shot.”
Authorities followed bloody footprints left by the killer that went from the house across the highway, where they eventually lost the trail. While this incident exacerbated the fear of the Phantom Killer, it’s possible this killing was done by someone else. The other attacks had targeted people younger than the Starks and had taken place in cars, not homes. In addition, Virgil was shot with a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol, a different weapon than the .32 caliber used in the previous murders of Betty Jo and Paul.
Still, this incident was included in the Phantom investigation as panic swept the area. Authorities took to dressing as young couples in an effort to lure the murderer, but it appeared the Phantom was done. Two months later, with no more Phantom murders, the community’s fear began to decrease and life started to get back to normal. No one was ever found guilty of the murders.
Texarkana Phantom Theories
H. B. “Doodie” Tennison, a college student who confessed to some of the killings in a note left behind after he killed himself.
According to a newspaper from the day of his death, a sheriff reportedly said the note read, “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. Stark and tried to get Mrs. Stark.”
According to Doodie’s cousin, forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Tennison, Doodie had connections to all of the victims. He was allegedly an usher at the theater where some victims of the attacks had seen movies before their deaths, and had been in the same high school band as Betty Jo. According to Dr. Tennison, one of Doodie’s friends lived under the same roof as the sister of Katie Starks.
29-year-old Youell Lee Swinney.
Around the time of the attacks, Arkansas state trooper Max Tackett observed that cars were reported stolen and later found abandoned whenever the Phantom Killer made an attack. Following this lead led police to stake out a downtown parking lot on June 28th 1946, where a stolen car was abandoned. This led to the arrest of 21-year-old Peggy Swinney, the new wife of one Youell Lee Swinney.
While in custody, Peggy gave many detailed statements, explaining how her husband committed the murders of Betty Jo and Paul, though descriptions of her own involvement varied from statement to statement. On July 23rd, Peggy gave a statement saying that on April 13th, the day before the bodies of Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin were found, she and Youell parked at Spring Lake Park and drank some beers.
According to her statement, Youell left the car, saying he had to, “take a leak.” Peggy said, “he was gone from the car about one hour when I heard something that sounded like two gunshots. It was just getting daylight when he came back to the car and started driving out of the park at a rapid rate of speed. When he came back to the car, I saw that his clothes were wet up to his knees and damp on up to his waist.”
On July 24, Peggy gave another statement. In this one, she said Youell had said, “he was going out to the park to rob someone.” Peggy said she went with Youell to Paul Martin’s car, where Youell pointed a gun at the young couple and told them to get out of the car. Peggy said that she refused to search the teenagers, which angered Youell, and he shot Martin twice.
Youell was sentenced to life in state prison
Peggy then allegedly held Betty Jo in place while Youell got his car. He drove it back, made both girls get into the car, drove west, turned around, and shot Paul two more times, as he had apparently been able to get up and move after the first two shots. He took Betty Jo into the woods while Peggy waited in the car. When Youell returned, he told Peggy he had tried to, “get some”, with the young girl, and then shot her after she refused. While Peggy’s story shifted, she crucially told police information that only someone who had been at the scene of the crime would have known.
For instance, Peggy mentioned how Paul’s date book was thrown into some bushes. A fact that only Bowie county sheriff, W. H. “Bill” Presley knew at the time, as he had been the one who’d found the book.
Youell was arrested at the Arkansas Motor Coach Bus Station as he arrived back from Atlanta, where he had attempted to sell a stolen car. While his wife was willing to talk to investigators, Youell was not. Critically, while Peggy did give statements to investigators, she could not be forced to testify against Youell, as they had gotten married mere hours before police arrested her.
Youell was taken to Little Rock for a truth serum shot, but he was given too much, which caused him to pass out. Investigator Tillman Johnson said, “I think that if we had just kept him here in Texarkana and kept questioning him, we would have gotten the truth out of him eventually.”
Peggy was imprisoned for her own involvement in the car theft, but eventually released. Youell was sentenced to life in state prison for being a habitual criminal after the auto theft charge but was released on parole in 1973, when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided that he didn’t have adequate representation on a car theft charge from 1941. Youell died in a nursing home in Dallas in 1994.
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