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.
The film’s popularity led to a 2014 meta-sequel produced by Hollywood heavyweights Jason Bloom and Ryan Murphy. In the early 1970s, Swinney appealed his life sentence and was released in 1973. He continued to deny his guilt in the Texakiana murders. He finally died in 1994 in a Dallas-area nursing home. Dr. In Lapalla’s summary, the killer was a threat that needed to be neutralized before he became more dangerous.
Three months after the attack, he stated, "I still get nervous when I think about it. At night, on the street, even downtown." Jimmy Hollis was a 25-year-old insurance agent at the time of the attack. He lived at 3502 North State Line Avenue, a house which no longer exists.
I never had any excuse for my absences, I just played around. I never even cracked book at home at night, had more fun by myself drawing. In class I did not take notes, oh I did take a few, just enough to make the instructor thing Famous trials I was working, the few I did take did not do any good for I could not read them. When my check came in from daddy I went to town and bought things I had no use for, just got them for the purpose of having fun and to play with.
She was also a member of the Delta Beta Sigma sorority. She was one of four officers in her high school band, and played the Bundy E-flat alto saxophone second in Jerry Atkins' orchestra, The Rythmaires, who played at proms and other events. In 1937, several years after the death of her father, her mother, Bessie, married her stepfather, Carl Brown, an employee of the Gifford-Hill Company. Betty and Paul Martin had been friends since they went to kindergarten together on the Arkansas side until she moved to 3105 Anthony Drive on the Texas side.
Dr. Presley's bibliography shows a wide variety of creditable sources from Texas and Arkansas as well as from around the United States, not just from the Texarkana Gazette. A high school-age girl named Jami is the first to encounter the second Phantom Killer after witnessing her boyfriend being brutally murdered by him in a woodsy area on Halloween night. She was an attractive brunette married to Virgil Starks and lived at their farmhouse of five years on 500 acres of farmland off Highway 67 East almost 10 miles northeast of Texarkana. Her sister, Mrs. Allen, lived directly across the street from her. Her and Virgil went to school together growing up because their parents lived on neighboring farms in Red Springs, Texas. A friend had stated that she and Virgil were two of the best people he had ever known.
John Holman, chairman of the reward fund, asked people to send their donations in check form made out to either Texarkana National Bank or the State National Bank. He said that the reward monies will be kept in deposit slips and that it would make it easier to return the money back to the donators, if ever needed. Immediately after reports of the slaying spread, blockades were put up several miles northeast and southwest on Highway 67 East. In the house, investigators found a trail of blood with scattered teeth.
Earlier yesterday, officers said they uncovered another note in young Tennison's belongings denying that he had anything to do with the killings. Despite arrests of several suspects in various states and the posting of $11,000 in rewards, the "phantom," described by a Texarkana psychiatrist as a sexual maniac, was never identified. Johnson won the Senate post held by O'Daniel when the one-time flour salesman did not choose to fun a second time.
At the murder scene of Virgil Starks, Bowie County Sheriff William "Bill" H. The victims of the first attack, Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey, were the only victims to give a description of their attacker. They described him as being six feet tall, wearing a white mask over his face with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth. Although Hollis believed he was a young, dark-tanned, white man under 30 years old, Larey believed he was a light-skinned African-American.
At first, the motorist thought the passengers were sleeping. Then, approaching the 1941 Oldsmobile, the motorist found the bodies of 29-year-old Richard L. Griffin and 17-year-old Polly Ann Moore, each shot once in the back of the head. The film, like the 1976 film, understands its story and takes it seriously, and has no issue making the film dark and commendably frightening. Compare the murder scenes in this film to the murder scenes that took place in the original film, both of which made effective by the lack of music and their emphasis on realism.
In addition, the location of the attack was different in that it was barely across the Arkansas state line and not near Spring Lake Park. Also, it was at a private residence rather than at a lover’s lane type location. Nearby departments brought in bloodhounds who followed a trail back to a highway, where it ended. The Sparks had valuables that were left untouched, though the killer could have panicked when he was not successful in killing Katie. The rewards in the case were increased to $10,000, a substantial amount of money in 1946.
By 30 March, police posted a $500 reward but the only thing it produced was over 100 false leads. Mary Jeanne spent the night at the hospital for a minor head wound, while Jimmy stayed for several days due to multiple skull fractures. They each gave conflicting accounts as to what their attacker looked like. She claimed that he was wearing a white bag over his head with the eyes and mouth cut out, and that she could see under the mask that he was apparently African-American. Jimmy Hollis said the man was white, around 30, but admitted he couldn't distinguish features as he had been blinded with a flashlight.
Tennison left behind a suicide note in which he confessed to the string of murders. On the 3rd of May, Virgil Starks, 37, was sitting down to listen to his favourite weekly radio show in the ranch-style home he shared with his wife, Katie Starks, 36. Suddenly, two shots were fired into the back of his head; the shots came through a closed window. Katie – who was upstairs – came rushing down where she saw her husband standing up with blood rushing down his body. Katie ran to grab the phone and call the police but as she reached the phone, she was shot twice in the face from the same window.
Sometime before 9 p.m., Virgil turned on a favorite radio show in their modest, yet modern ranch style home on his 500 acre farm off Hwy. 67 East, almost 10 miles northeast of Texarkana. Katie, age 36, gave him a heating pad for his back and he sat in his armchair in the sitting room, just off the kitchen and bedroom. Katie was in her bedroom lying on her bed, when she heard something from the backyard and asked Virgil to turn down the radio.