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The Texarkana Post Office/Courthouse. The left half is in
Texas while the right is in Arkansas. |
Texarkana is a nice, small city. With half of the town in
the state of Texas and the other half in Arkansas, the road that divides the
two halves is named State Line. Shoppers on one side of the street are in
Arkansas and just a few feet away on the other side of the yellow line in the
middle of the road the stores are in Texas. The Post Office/Courthouse Building
sits astride the state line - Texas offices on one side of the building,
Arkansas offices on the other. There are plenty of outdoor activities to enjoy
as well as several popular parks where families go for a picnic lunch or to
play Little League baseball or simply to enjoy a lazy summer day in the shade
of the many trees.
But one of those popular parks, Spring Lake Park, has a
sordid history. Many of the old timers still refuse to go into the park after
dark. You see, back in the mid-1940's, it was the favorite hunting grounds of a
serial killer. The murders shocked and terrorized the quiet, close-knit town.
Doors and windows in homes that previously were never locked, were locked and
checked several times after darkness fell. Men began carrying guns; women
stopped walking alone when running errands and children were forbidden to play
outside. As more innocent people turned up brutally killed and the murders went
unsolved, neighbors and friends of many years began to suspect and turn on each
other. In the mid-1970's, a horror movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown was
made about the crimes. The true horror is that the story was based on fact.
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| The entrance to Spring Lake Park |
On the night of February 22, 1946, 24-year-old Jimmy Hollis
and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Mary Jean Larey, went on a date, a date that
started off as any number of dates taken by any normal young couple, but this
particular date would end very differently. After dinner and a movie, Mary Jean
accompanied Jimmy in his car to a dark, secluded spot in the park for a
romantic interlude. Jimmy glanced at his watch and noted the time as 11:45. He
had promised his father to have the car home by midnight, but the moon was
full, Mary Jean was lovely, her sweet perfume filled the air and when he leaned
in for a kiss, she didn't resist. Facing the wrath of his father's anger later
was no match for the lure of Mary Jean now. Soon, only the sounds of heavy breathing
could be heard in the car and the young couple were not aware of anything other
than their passion.
When Mary Jean opened her eyes to look into Jimmy's, she saw
a dark shape beside the car. When she gasped and pulled away, Jimmy looked up and
saw the figure of a man. Expecting to see the uniform of a policeman, he began
to roll down the window and was startled to see not a policeman, but a man
dressed in dark clothing with a hood over his head. In a muffled voice, the man
said, "Get out of the car now!" and tapped on the partially opened
window with a .32 caliber pistol he held in his hand.
Fearing the man would shoot through the window if they
didn't do as he demanded, they both exited out of the driver's side door. They
offered to give him their money and the keys to the car, but the hooded man hit
Jimmy in the head twice with the butt of the gun knocking him out. He then
turned his attention to Mary Jean. In desperation, she ran, but the man quickly
caught her and threw her to the ground. After slapping her several times, he
began to rip off her clothes and while still holding the gun, began roughly fondling
her. After several minutes but what seemed like hours and frightened beyond
words, Mary Jean had resigned herself to her fate when she saw the dirty canvas
that covered her attacker's head light up. The man groaned and shouted several
coarse cuss words. At first confused, Mary Jean then realized it was a car
coming down the road and its headlights had illuminated the scene. The hooded
man stood up and after hitting her in the face with his fists several times,
ran off into the darkness.
The approaching car, occupied by a kindly farmer and his
wife who were coming home from a late movie, stopped to see what was going on.
They managed to get Jimmy into the back seat and rushed the injured couple to
the nearest hospital. Physically, Mary Jean only had bruises and scratches, but
Jimmy's injuries from being hit in the head with the butt of the gun were more
serious. Although he suffered from two skull fractures so severe that he had to
spend days in the hospital, both he and Mary Jean lived to tell their story. At
the time, they were not aware of how lucky they actually were.
When the police failed to find and arrest the attacker, the
crime was written off by the residents as an anomaly, a sad byproduct of having
a railroad going through town. The perpetrator must have been a transient and
he had no doubt hopped a railway car and was long gone. No need to fear.
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| Trees in the area where 2 bodies were found in a car |
On March 24th, just one month later, a visitor to the park
noticed a 1941 Oldsmobile parked partially hidden about 100 yards from the road
in a grove of trees. Thinking it might be a stolen vehicle and he should
investigate, the driver approached the car. He saw what he thought at first was
a man asleep behind the wheel, but when he got close, he saw a body covered in
blood. He ran, jumped in his car and made it to a store nearby where he called
the police.
After rushing to the scene, police found not one, but two
bodies in the car. The man sitting in the driver's seat was identified as being
29-year-old Richard Griffin who had recently received his discharge as a Navy
SeaBee. Laying in the back seat was his girlfriend, Polly Ann More. Both had
been shot in the head with a .32 pistol. Polly had been roughly sexually
assaulted. Evidence indicated Richard had been shot outside of the car and
Polly had been tied to a nearby tree with rope. Police theorized the attacker
had incapacitated Richard and then tied Polly to the tree. He had made her
watch as he beat and then fatally shot her boyfriend. For some reason, he drug
Richard's body back to the car and placed it in the driver's seat. He then
proceeded to assault Polly while she was still tied up. She eventually was
killed and drug to the car where her body was placed in the back seat. Once
again, the police were unable to find any clue that would lead them to a
suspect. He seemed to have vanished into thin air.
The town now knew there was a sadistic killer among them.
Papers across the state picked up on the news and began calling the case the
"Texarkana Moonlight Murders. With the public clamoring for an arrest, the
local police called in the vaunted Texas Rangers for help. Three weeks later on
April 14th, with the Rangers in town performing their investigation, the killer
struck again.
15-year-old Betty Booker was an exceptionally gifted
saxophone player. To help with her family's income, she sometimes played in a
band which performed at proms and other social events. The band was asked to
play for a dance one night at the local VFW and since she was a straight-A
student, it would be for good pay, and he had come to trust the band's adult
leader, her father gave his permission for her to join her band-mates and then
attend a slumber party at a friend's house. After the performance was over at
about 1:00AM, a friend and former classmate of Betty, Paul Martin, offered to
drive her to her friend's house for the slumber party and drop her off. Paul
was a clean-cut, innocent-looking young man who had not partaken of any
alcoholic beverages so the band leader said it was OK. After packing her sax in
its case, the two said their goodbye's. It was the last time they would be seen
alive.
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| Road going into the park where Paul's car was found |
Several hours later, parents at the slumber party became
worried that Betty had not yet arrived so they called her parents to see if
maybe she had decided to go home instead. Soon, the police were notified that
Betty was missing and a search was quickly begun. Paul's car was found
abandoned on the side of the road just inside the entrance of Spring Lake Park,
nowhere near where the slumber party took place. Paul's body was finally found
over a mile away and Betty's was found almost 2 miles from the car. Both were
riddled with bullets from a .32 cal revolver and Betty had been sexually assaulted.
It was a mystery as to why Paul's car was found so far from the slumber party
destination. The pair had not be linked romantically and both had reputations
for being good kids so there was no reason for them to be at the park. Betty's
saxophone was missing and police put out notices in the papers and to pawn
shops to be on the lookout for it. The instrument, still in its case, was found
2 months later rotting in the muck around a small pond inside the park several
hundred yards away from where the car was found. It had obviously been thrown
there the night of the murders as it was half-submerged and rusted. Why it was
taken and why it was thrown there so far away from the car and the bodies is
unknown. The leader of the band Betty had played in felt so guilty that he had
let her go with Paul rather than drive her himself that he disbanded the
popular group. The Rhythmaires never played again.
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The pond where Betty's saxophone was found is now
clean and maintained |
After testing, it was determined all of the bullets from
each of the murders was from the same gun. Once again, the perpetrator had
disappeared and neither the police nor the Rangers found anything which would
lead to the identity of the killer. The papers began calling him "The
Phantom."
Texarkana became a town under siege. Gun shops sold out of
shotguns and ammunition; hardware stores completely sold out of locks and
latches. Homeowners began constructing burglar devices that would drop nails
and tacks on the floor. Shotguns were rigged to fire with strings attached to
doorknobs and triggers. Business' closed at sunset when the streets and
sidewalks emptied. Groups of vigilantes, men armed with shotguns, patrolled all
over town. Unfamiliar cars driving through town were stopped and the passengers
made to identify themselves and give a good reason for being there. Older
teenagers staged traps in the park - a boy and girl would park along a dark
secluded roadway and pretend to make out while a pack of armed boys would be
hidden in the trees waiting for The Phantom to make an appearance. The police
had their hands full trying to disperse and send the armed groups home before
some innocent person was shot. It was all to no avail - The Phantom seemed to
be able to sniff out any traps and stayed away.
As to capturing The Phantom, the police were clueless and
the Rangers embarrassed. In desperation, the FBI was called in. Over 300 people
were detained and questioned - people caught roaming around in the dark, people
considered "odd" by their neighbors, hermits, loners, and every
person in town who had any kind of criminal record. Soon, the FBI was just as
perplexed as the other lawmen. Newspapers around the country picked up the
story and Texarkana came into public awareness for the wrong reason.
On May 3rd, with groups of armed men roaming around, police
on high alert, the Texas Rangers and the FBI still in town in force, The
Phantom struck again.
Virgil and Katy Starks owned a farm 12 miles outside of
Texarkana. About 9:00PM, Virgil retired to his easy chair in the living room,
turned on the radio and began to read the newspaper. Katy finished cleaning the
kitchen, went upstairs, changed into her nightgown and lay on the bed reading
the Post magazine she had recently purchased. As Katy began to relax, she was
startled by what sounded like two gunshots and breaking glass downstairs. She
jumped out of bed, put on her slippers and rushed down to her husband's side.
She saw glass blown into the room from a shattered window pane and then she saw
her husband slumped over and covered with blood from two gunshots to the head.
She immediately thought, "Phantom!" and rushed across the room to the
phone to call the police. Her shaking finger managed to dial 0 on the rotary
phone, but as a female voice answered, "Operator, how may I help
you?" she felt a tremendous blow to her right jaw and the phone flew from
her hand. The blast of a gun shot registered in her brain and she instinctively
turned toward the sound only to feel another bullet smash through her left jaw.
As if in slow motion, she fell to the floor and saw her shattered teeth flying
through the air above her. When she hit the wooden floor, she swallowed a
mouthful of blood.
Incredibly, Katy remain conscious and fighting through the
pain and shock, began crawling toward the kitchen away from the window where
the shots were coming from. Bleeding profusely, she made it to the kitchen only
to discover to her horror that the shooter, failing to gain entry through the
locked front door, had ran around to the kitchen door in the back and was
trying to get in. It too was locked and she could hear the monster on the other
side cursing in frustration as he kicked and slammed his body into the door
trying to break in. Struggling to not pass out, Katy found a determination
borne of desperation to not be another of The Phantom's victims. She made it to
her feet and ran to the front door. As she unlocked it and ran out, she heard
the kitchen door finally give way. As she stumbled across the porch and into
the front yard, she heard more curses as The Phantom found her to be gone.
She made it into the dark before the intruder saw her and
made it to a neighbor's house down the road. After banging on the door, she
passed out. Finding her on the porch in her bloody nightgown, the neighbors
called police and then rushed her to the hospital. Katy was immediately taken
into surgery and spent several weeks in the hospital in critical condition,
but, physically anyway, she eventually recovered. She had terrible scars, but the
physical scars were nothing compared to the emotional scars she suffered for
the rest of her life.
Back at the Starks home, authorities entered to discover no
one alive. Virgil's body was found laying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Muddy footprints were found going from the smashed back door, through the
kitchen, into the living room where the killer evidently had dabbed his palms
in Virgil's blood, then up the stairs into the bedroom and back down again
through the front door. The walls had been smeared with bloody hand prints. The
monster had obviously been hunting for the whereabouts of Katy. Bloodhounds
were brought in and they followed the scent out the front door, across the yard
and into the woods where Katy had fled. They then doubled back for about 200
yards and disappeared where he evidently had gotten into his car and drove
away.
The authorities were ecstatic because this time they had
hand prints and shoe prints, plenty of them. However, in spite of the evidence
and all of their efforts, The Phantom's identity remained unknown. There was no
record of his prints to match, his shoe prints were non-remarkable, there were
no witnesses and again the perpetrator seemed to have vanished into thin air
without a trace.
As suddenly as the killings started, they stopped. Nobody
was ever arrested. Nobody ever confessed. Nobody knows who The Phantom was, why
he did what he did, why he stopped, if he fled Texarkana or if he stayed in town as a
neighbor and friend to unsuspecting residents. The case is still open today and
unsolved.
