76 years later, Texarkana’s Phantom Killer still a mystery

It’s been 76 years since Virgil Starks was killed and his wife, Katie, was injured in a double shooting that marked the end of a murder spree by one of Texas’ most prolific and still unidentified serial killers.

In spring 1946, people in the Texarkana area lived in fear as multiple young couples were slaughtered in what is now known as “the number one unsolved murder case in Texas history,” according to Texas Monthly.

During his 10-week reign of terror, the assailant, known as the Phantom Slayer or Phantom Killer depending on whom you ask, is credited with attacking eight people — all male-female pairs. Five victims died from their injuries.

The murder spree, dubbed the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, started with the attack on 25year-old Jimmy Hollis and his girlfriend, 19-year-old Mary Jeanne Larey, just before midnight on Feb. 22. The two were parked on a secluded road when a man in a white cloth mask, resembling a pillowcase with eyes cut out, appeared at the driver’s side door and shined a flashlight in the window.

According to media reports, the killer told Hollis that he wouldn’t kill him if he did as told, instructing him to the take off his pants. The killer assaulted Hollis first, pistol whipping him with a firearm and fracturing his skull in multiple places.

The killer then told Larey to run before catching up to her and sexually assaulting her. She managed to escape and run to a nearby house to call for help. By the time police arrived, the man had vanished.

The first murder came a month later when the bodies of 29-year-old Richard Griffin and 17-year-old Polly Ann Moore were found dead in Griffin’s car on the morning of March 24. A passing motorist saw the vehicle on a lovers’ lane and found the two blood-soaked figures inside.

Evidence suggested that the two were killed outside the vehicle with a .32-caliber Colt pistol before their bodies were put in the car.

Over the next several weeks, two more people died allegedly at the hands of the Phantom Killer. Paul Martin, 17, and Betty Jo Booker, 15, were killed on April 14 on another secluded road.

Dreading sundown

Media reports said the deaths paralyzed the town, striking fear in nearly every person who lived in the area.

A 2014 article from Texas Monthly described the chaos in the town: “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 Goldbergesque 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 pallets on the floor so their children could sleep beside them.”

On May 3, 1946, the Phantom Killer struck for the last time, killing 37-year-old Virgil Starks and his 36-year-old wife, Katie Starks, in their Arkansas farmhouse.

Virgil was shot twice in the back of the head through a closed window while sitting in an armchair reading the newspaper. Upon hearing the sound of broken glass, Katie rushed into the room and found her dead husband.

As she attempted to call the police, she was shot twice in the face from the same window. She fled through the front door and ran to a neighbor’s house.

In total, three attacks occurred on youngsters parked on lovers’ lanes on the Texas side of town and one at a rural farmhouse on the Arkansas side, according to Texas Monthly. Every attack occurred late on a weekend.

Police identified several suspects in the case, including a petty criminal named Youell Swinney, based on statements his wife made to police and circumstantial evidence found at some of the scenes. But after his wife recanted her statement and refused to testify, the murder charges against Swinney were dropped.

Now, 76 years later, the murders remain a mystery. The horrors that happened in Texarkana spurred several movies and television shows, including the famous 1976 movie — and its 2014 remake — “The Town that Dreaded Sundown.”

In 2020, the FBI released hundreds of pages related to the Phantom Killer case, including reports, media clippings and photographic evidence of fingerprints, maps and other items.