Texarkana Moonlight Murders "Phantom Killer" and "Phantom Slayer" see Phantom Killer (film) or For the 1982 video game, see Phantom Slayer (video game).
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 streets and neighborhoods. Stores sold out of guns, ammunition, locks, and many other protective devices.Some youths attempted to bait and ambush the killer. Investigations into the murders were conducted at the city, county, state and federal level. Over time, there have been shifting opinions by officials over whether the first and fourth attacks were committed by the same perpetrator.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 heterosexual 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.
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 300 feet (91 m) from the last row of city homes, where present-day Central Mall is located.Around ten minutes later, a man wearing a white cloth mask–which resembled a pillowcase with eyeholes cut out–appeared 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 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 6 feet (1.8 m) 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.
