The SHOCKING case that baffled detectives
Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. There is no one-to-one path between the Texarkana murders and the stories it created or fed, but the basic drift of evolving stories is clear to see. Here was a big, raw country only just starting to develop a connected hive mind. Americans listened to the same big radio networks, read the same wire reports in their local papers, and traveled on the same metastasizing network of highways connecting previously disconnected places.
Another note, which directed attention to the youth's strongbox, was written with a pen obtained from the news stand operated by Mrs. John I. Smith Oct. 30 or NOv. 1, Sheriff Crider related. Sheriff Bruce Crider said one of the messages may have been written after Oct. 30. A Fayetteville news stand operator reported that a ball point pen was sold to the university freshman around that date. Meanwhile, at Fayetteville officers were checking activities of Doodie Tennison in an effort to fix the date of one of the three messages he left when he ended his life. The manhunt for the killer who struck after dark has been called on of the most intensive in the Southwest. No reference ws made in the note to the deaths of Griffin and Miss Moore or the non-fatal attack a masked man made on a couple near Texarkana in February, 1946.
The rescue team employed some rather aggressive tactics to get them to surrender, including playing extremely loud music and crushing the Davidian's cars. The siege eventually ended when several fires broke out in the compound and gunfire was heard inside. Only nine Davidians survived the siege while 80 were found dead inside, including 20 children, many with gunshot wounds similar to the one Koresh was found with, which suggested a mass murder-suicide.
On Friday, October 14, 1966 in a local hospital at the age of 69 from a heart attack he had suffered a few hours earlier. He is buried at the far-left Cold cases side of Hillcrest Cemetery . He was the first lawman on the scene of Mary Jeanne Larey's attack and the first and second double-murders.
The area was excavated, but only a leather glove, a rubber boot, and animal bone fragments were found. Ten days before school was out, Virginia went to the annual picnic from Texarkana Junior College at a lake near Daingerfield, Texas. That evening, Virginia came home and said she did not feel well. Mrs. Carpenter said her daughter "was one of the most sunburned persons I had ever seen." Virginia fell across her bed and went to sleep. Hazel woke her for supper but Virginia said she did not feel like eating.
Swinney’s wife, Peggy, would subsequently implicate him in the Texarkana Moonlight Murders and described the murder of Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin in great detail. Following the confession, however, Peggy made conflicting statements and changed her story. With no physical evidence against him and with Peggy claiming her lawful right to refuse to testify against her husband, Swinney was never prosecuted for the murders. In 1947, Swinney was sentenced to life imprisonment for repeated auto-theft but was released in 1978.
When trying to determine such characteristics as the content, chronology, and location of writings by Doodie, a reading of 1948 newspaper articles can be confusing and misleading. It is also desirable to establish a nomenclature by which reference can be made to specific writings during discussion and analysis of such writings. Despite how horrendous many of these Texas crimes are, many have led to significant, positive changes. Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey managed to survive. Perhaps the Phantom Killer hadn’t worked up the nerve yet.
Single most damning thing the police could come up with was that the killer was male. The fear of the killings eventually died off after they appeared to end. This panic was covered all over the nation in various news papers and magazines. It eventually spawned its own movie "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" Several people came out, claiming to be the killer, but due to inconclusive evidence, none were ever convicted.
Washington County Sheriff Bruce Crider who originally investigated the suicide said, however, he still is not satisfied as to the reasons for some of Tennison's statements in the notes. Only one viewmaster was found among Tennison's possession and a film on Mexico was found in th strongbox along with the note "confessing" to the slaying of two high school students and a farmer. He also reported that Mrs. Smith told him that Tennison had purchased a "viewmaster" -- a film viewing device -- and film ono Mexico at the same time.
I have already completed the copy and paste to a Word document. I have had an interest in the Phantom Killer ever since I heard the story of a neighborhood boy shooting my grandmother's front door with his BB gun. It was only a shadow from a tree that the boy saw, but it cost a new window for the door.
The 1976 film itself is a fictional take on the real-life Texarkana Moonlight Murders, just like the Stab movies would be to the town of Woodsboro, California. Located deep in the Ark-La-Tex region of Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas, the unique community is full of history, culture, and interesting facts that many people don’t know about, including some local residents. 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. “Doodie” Tennison, a college student who confessed to some of the killings in a note left behind after he killed himself. Still, this incident was included in the Phantom investigation as panic swept the area.
Given all the evidence that I have seen, I find the evidence that H. B. Tennison was telling the truth to be entirely plausible. His death created almost as much of a sensation as did the slayings. The Texas department of public safety made the check after H.
Johnson firmly believed the identity of the Phantom was that of the prime suspect, Youell Swinney. At 84 years old, on Sunday, July 3, 1994, she died in a local hospital as Katie Starks Sutton. She was survived by her husband, Forrest Sutton, three sisters , and a number of nieces and nephews. She was buried next to Virgil, and is now between both husbands.
Miss Moore and Griffin, a war veteran and war plant worker, were found in the rear seat of a car parked off Highway 67, one mile outside Texarkana's western city limits. Miss Booker and Martin were found a mile apart, on lonely roads near Spring Lake Park, north of here. And the Starks' home is located on Highway 67, 10 miles northeast of Texarkana. This was the night Virgil Starks was shot to death by an unknown assailant. And the Starks' home is located on Highway 67, ten miles northeast of Texarkana. Mahaffy reported Mrs. Daniel said her brother had never owned a firearm and knew nothing about them, and she was almost certain he did not know how to drive a car two years ago -- when the "phantom killer" struck.