80 Years Ago, Unknown Serial Killer Committed Final Double Murder
Tuesday marked the grim 80-year anniversary of a chilling double murder that was linked to a masked serial killer in Texarkana.
The much more documented "Zodiac Killer" was known for stalking and attacking victims in lovers' lane areas. What many don't know, however, is that there was another unidentified killer who committed such crimes more than two decades earlier.
Over a 10-week period in 1946, a serial killer dubbed 'The Phantom Killer' attacked eight innocent people in the region of Texarkana, a twin city on the Arkansas-Texas border. 80 years later, the crimes, known as the "Texarkana Moonlight Murders", officially remain unsolved.
25-year-old Jimmy Hollis and 19-year-old Mary Jeanne Larey, the first victims, survived attacks at a lovers' lane on Feb. 22. On March 24, 29-year-old Richard Griffin and 17-year-old Polly Ann Moore were found shot to death at a lovers' lane in Bowie County, Texas.
Unfortunately, authorities were unable to catch the killer. Thus, his reign of terror was far from over.
April 14: The Phantom Killer's Final Double Murder
(Photo by: Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
On Apr. 14, the masked killer would commit his second double murder. This time, he claimed the lives of 16-year-old Paul Martin and 15-year-old Betty Jo Booker, who were killed at another secluded location in Spring Lake Park.
Martin had picked Booker up from a concert performance. Both had been shot multiple times, and their bodies were found nearly two miles apart. Like the previous attacks, the killer left no significant evidence behind. Authorities had little to go on, and the unknown killer would strike one last time 19 days later.
On May 3, Virgil Starks was shot to death through a window at his home off Highway 67 East. His wife, Katie, was shot twice in the face. Miraculously, she survived and recovered from her gruesome injuries.
Youell Swinney was the prime suspect in the murders. Though plenty of circumstantial evidence points to him, police never gathered enough to charge him. He died in Dallas at the age of 77 in 1994.