Wicked Wednesday Presents Urban Legends: The Texarkana Moonlight Murders

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is officially October and we are officially back. Friends.
Did you miss us? We missed you. It feels incredible
to be back in our little creepy corner of chaos.
And what better time to make our break ending debut
than what Amber would duve as the best month of
the year, Spooky Month.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I mean, you know, for me, every month is spooky month,
but it's finally the month that everyone else gets on
the same page as me. So as Gina said, it's
October and October means the return of Wicked Wednesday. We
change up our content during the month of October frequently
and sometimes do things a little differently. This month, we've

(00:43):
decided to incorporate the spooky with the true crime elements.
I mean, as if true crime isn't spooky enough. But
to kick things off, we're going to give you all
a little refresher in a past episode.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Before we let the Amber and Gina of the past speak.
If you like what you hear, or if you like
Spooky Month like we do, or if I don't know
you breathe oxygen, please consider leaving us a five star
rating and review wherever you're listening from. It helps us
to keep bringing you the weird and spooky. While you're

(01:18):
at it, follow us on Instagram at Weird True Crime.
I'm sure Amber will bombard me with a slew of
spooky and sarcastic means to share with you all so
you don't want to miss it.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
So for our first official intro into this year's Wicked Wednesday,
sit back and listen to the terrifying tale of the
Texarcana Moonlight Murders. Until next time, stay safe and make
good choices. Mine Fireeyes Media.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
In the nineteen forties, Texarcana was a railroad hub that
straddled the Texas in Arkansas state lines. Street in the
area was thriving because of the natural resources in the
area like timber, agriculture, and mineral deposits. At the beginning
of World War Two, the Red River Army Depot and

(02:12):
the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant was built for a
cool forty five point five million dollars and supplied artillery shells, bombs, fuses,
and other items for the war. Life was good. Business
was booming, the population was growing, and Texarcana was one
of the major railroad centers in the Southwest.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Life in Texarkana changed abruptly in nineteen forty six, when
three people were brutally attacked and five were murdered between
February and May of that year. Over four hundred suspects
were questioned and hundreds of leads were followed, but we
still don't have a definitive answer of who the culprit was.

(02:56):
Seventy seven years later, I'm Amber and I'm Gina, and
this is the weird true story of the Texarcana Moonlight murders.

(03:27):
James Jimmy Hollis was a twenty five year old insurance
agent when he began dating nineteen year old Mary Gan Larry,
who lived with her parents in Hooks, Texas, about twenty
minutes outside of Texarcana. On the evening of February twenty second,
nineteen forty six, the couple went to the movies and

(03:48):
were returning to Mary Jean's house when they took a
detour and parked on a secluded, unpaved lane about one
hundred yards from the last row of houses in a
new neighborhood. In an interview with the Texarcana Gazette a
few months later, Mary Jean stated that they had been
there about ten minutes when a man wearing a white

(04:09):
mask over his head with cut out places for his
eyes and mouth, walked up to the car. He pointed
a flashlight and pistol at them and told Jimmy something
along the lines of I don't want to kill you, fellow,
so do what I say. They both exited the car
on the driver's side and stood next to the masked man.

(04:29):
The man told Jimmy to take off your expletive here britches,
and Mary Jean told Jimmy to take them off so
they wouldn't be hurt. After Jimmy took off his pants,
the man hid him twice in the head. Mary Jean
thought he had been shot because it was so loud,
but later learned it was the sound of his skull cracking.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Ugh ouch al pain Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
After Jimmy was unconscious, the attacker turned to Mary Jean
and demanded money. She took Jimmy's wallet from his pockets
and showed the man there was no cash, but he
didn't believe her. He then hit her with what she
believed to be a piece of iron pipe and knocked
her to the ground, but she managed to get back up.
The man told her to run, so she ran toward

(05:17):
a parked car on Richmond Road. She ran up to
the car, hoping someone was inside, but there wasn't anyone there.
She started running again, but her heels made it difficult
and the attacker caught up to her. He then hit
her again and knocked her to the ground. At this
point he began assaulting her. Mary Jean stated that the
man didn't rape her, but abused her terribly. Police reports

(05:42):
would later indicate that the suspect used the gun barrel
to sexually assault her. Jimmy regained consciousness, got up and
headed toward Richmond Road, where he stopped a passing car.
The suspect took off, probably frightened by the lights from
the car. Mary Jean, afraid she was still being chased,
continued to run for what she guessed to be around

(06:04):
a half mile until she reached a house for help.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Jimmy Hollis spent more than twelve days recovering from his
injuries at Texarkana Hospital. He suffered physically and mentally for
a long time following the events of that night. Neither
he nor Mary Jean could describe their attacker and were
understandably concerned he would come back to finish what he started.

(06:29):
Jimmy said that the man who beat him so unmercifully
was a sadist and crazy. He even warned police at
the time that the man was desperate and would kill
the next couple he attacked. By April, Mary Jean had
already left Texarkana to live in Frederick, Oklahoma, because she
couldn't bear to stay in town. In an interview in

(06:52):
May of nineteen forty six, Jimmy said he was also
thinking of leaving Texarkana for a job in Shreveport. Jimmy
and Mary Jean were both sure that the man who
attacked them was responsible for the murders that took place
just months later. I can wholeheartedly say that I agree
with that assumption.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
The attack on Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jean Larry didn't
make headlines or travel through gossip circles in town. It
would be quite some time before the people of Texarcana
started to worry about their safety, which is a shame
because if they had, maybe we wouldn't be talking about
this next couple. On the morning of March twenty fourth,
nineteen forty six, twenty nine year old Richard Lanyard Griffin

(07:36):
and seventeen year old Polly Anne Moore were found shot
to death in Richard's nineteen forty one oldsmobile on a
secluded street known as Lover's Lane. Of course, of course
that's what it was called. The couple was last seen
around ten pm on March twenty third, and a cafe
on West Seventh Street, where they ate dinner with Richard's
sister Eleanor. They had only been dating for about six weeks.

(08:00):
It's hard to find information about the victims in some
of these older cases, but here's what we learned about
Richard and Polly Anne. Richard Lanier Griffin was born on
August thirty first, nineteen sixteen, to parents Richard Hightower Griffin
and Bernice Griffin. He had just received his discharge from
the US Navy Seabees Construction Battillion in November nineteen forty five.

(08:25):
He was living with his mother and a home built
for servicemen returning from World War II. Griffin was a
carpenter and painter and managed his own business.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Polly Anne Moore was born on November tenth, nineteen twenty nine,
to George Sloanemore and Lizzie May Moore. She graduated from
Atlanta High School in Douglasville, Texas, in May of nineteen
forty five. She then moved to Texarcana and began working
at the Red River Arsenal and lived in a boarding house.

(08:56):
She was wearing her high school class ring at the
time of her death, which her younger brother Mark wore
until he went to East Texas State University. At the
scene of the crime, it was noted that Richard and
polly Ann had each been shot in the back of
the head at least once. Richard was on his knees
between the two front seats with his head resting in

(09:18):
his hands. His pants pockets had been turned inside out,
indicating that the attacker attempted to rob him after he
shot him. According to a police report written by Arkansas
State Police Trooper Max Tackett, polly Anne was found face
down in the rare seat of the car, but it
appeared that she had been killed outside of the car

(09:40):
on a blanket and then placed back in the vehicle.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Very few clues were found at the scene of the crime.
There were bullets found that matched a thirty two caliber
pistol that investigators believed to be a cult model, but
no gun was found. There was a section of ground
saturated with dry blood about twenty five feet from the car.
A blood stained portion of soil was sent to the
crime lab in Austen for analysis, but it more than

(10:07):
likely belonged to Polly Anne. Investigators did find a picture
of Pollyanne inside her purse, which was found beside her
body in the car. Unfortunately, it rained most of the
day on Sunday, washing away any potential footprints that could
have been left behind. Within three days of the murders,
the Sheriff's office had already questioned about fifty to sixty

(10:27):
people and traced down more than one hundred false leads.
Investigators believed Richard and Polly Anne's murders were an isolated
incident and not related to the February attacks on Jimmy
Hollis and Mary Jean Larry. This is interesting considering both
couples were parked in a secluded area and a gun
was used in both attacks.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
The general public in Texarcana still didn't seem too concerned
about the recent happenings in town. If investigators believed it
was isolated incident, then there was no reason to worry,
right well, that consensus changed pretty quickly after the events
that took place just three weeks later on April fourteenth

(11:12):
of nineteen forty six. Paul Martin was only seventeen years
old and the youngest of four boys. He was born
on May eighth of nineteen twenty nine to Ruben S.
Martin Senior and Inez Donnelly. His father, Ruben owned an
ice business and had moved it to Kilgore in East

(11:33):
Texas oil Town in nineteen forty four. Anez his mother
preferred Texarcana and convinced Ruben to continue living there and
commute to Kilgore for a work. Paul was a student
of the Gulf Coast Military Academy at Gulfport, Mississippi for
a time before going back to Texarcana.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Betty Joe Booker was born on June fifth, nineteen thirty
to William Blanton Booker and Bessie lou Tenne. Her father, William,
died at the age of thirty one, and her mother
got remarried to a man named Clark Brown. She started
dancing at an early age and was featured at civic
club luncheons and similar events. In high school, she began

(12:14):
singing and playing the saxophone, and wanted to be a
medical technician. She was only fifteen years old at the
time of her murder. On the night of April thirteenth,
Betty Joe had been recruited to play the saxophone at
the Veterans of Foreign Wars Club. After the event, around
one thirty am, Betty Joe was leaving when she ran

(12:34):
into Paul Martin in the parking lot and he offered
to give her a ride. Their original destination was a
slumber party across town, but they stopped at a downtown
cafe around two am. This is the last time they
were seen alive.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Around six am on the morning of April fourteenth, nineteen
forty six, Paul Martin's body was found lying against a
hedge of huh ty suckle flowers. He had been shot
four times, once in his right hand, once in his face,
once in the back of his neck, and once again
in the back. Betty Joe was found six hours later

(13:15):
on the side of the road, about a mile away
from where Paul was found. She was fully clothed, face up,
with one gun shot in her chest and one on
the left side of her face. During the autopsy, a
vaginal swab was done and tested positive for semen, but
it wasn't Paul's. The official report states that Betty Joe

(13:38):
was raped. Remember Mary Jean Larry, who survived the first attack,
had been sexually assaulted. Paul's car, a nineteen forty six
Ford Club coop with the keys still in the ignition,
was located another mile away, headed in a different direction.
No gun was found. The pistol used in the double

(14:00):
order was believed to be a thirty two caliber cult pistol,
same as the weapon used three weeks prior.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
A latent fingerprint was found on the car steering wheel,
but forensic testing showed that it didn't belong to Paul
or Betty Joe. The public started taking things a little
more seriously after news of the second double murder in
three weeks made its way around town. Residents gathered a
reward poll totaling seven hundred dollars which is a little

(14:28):
over eleven thousand dollars today for information that led to
catching the suspect. Local city and state police from Texas
and Arkansas, along with the FBI, quickly became involved in
the investigation. Once they determined they had a serial murderer
on their hands. According to an article in the San
Angelo Standard Times from May eleventh, nineteen forty six, some

(14:52):
members of the younger generation in Texarcana were going too
far in trying to catch the murderer, who had been
dubbed the Phantom killer.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
The sheriff in chief of police had put out a
public statement telling citizens that somebody was out of pocket
during the Booker Martin murder and urged people to remember
if anyone they knew was missing on those dates. This
call to action caused some residents to begin trailing people
they believed to be suspicious. A high school athlete had

(15:23):
the tires of his vehicles shot by police after he
refused to stop following a bus that had been boarded
by a man who seemed suspicious. Some of the younger
folk were going so far as to arm themselves in
park on dark country roads to wait for the Phantom
to try another attack. I don't think this is what

(15:46):
the police had in mind when they said to keep
an eye out.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I'm thinking not no. On May third, nineteen forty six,
three weeks after the murders of Paul Martin and Betty
Joe Booker, one year old Virgil Starks was sitting in
his armchair in his living room, reading the newspaper and
listening to the radio in his farmhouse. Virgil and his wife,
Katie lived off of US Highway sixty seven, about ten

(16:13):
miles northeast of Texarkana on the Arkansas side. While he
was reading the paper, an unidentified gunman fired two shots
from a three foot distance through the closed front porch window,
striking him in the back of the head. Virgil's wife, Katie,
was in her bedroom at the time of the shooting.
She entered the living room where she found Virgil slumped

(16:34):
over in the chair bleeding. She ran to a wall
mounted telephone to call for help, but before she could
finish dialing, a gun shot struck her in the right cheek,
and then another struck her in the jaw below her
lower lip. The impact broke several teeth.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Though severely injured, Katie dropped to the floor and crawled
to the bedroom to avoid the line of fire. The
gunman had run away round to their back porch in
an attempt to break through the kitchen window. Meanwhile, Katie
is struggling to her feet and trying to find a
safe way out of the house. She headed to the
kitchen but heard the killer attempting to break the window.

(17:15):
Bleeding severely, she made her way back to the bedroom,
then through the living room and out the front door,
trailing blood the whole way. Katie ran to her sister's
house on the other side of the highway, only to
find she wasn't home, so she kept running fifty more
yards down the road to the av Prater farmhouse. There

(17:39):
she finally found help and got a ride to the hospital.
The bullet that struck Katie's right cheek exited behind her
left ear, but the bullet that had hit her lower
jaw was lodged under her tongue. Katie survived the attack,
but unfortunately never saw the killer's face.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
The attack immediately attracted somewhere between twenty and thirty local, county, state,
and federal law enforcement officers. This was the third shooting
in six weeks and the fourth since February. When investigators
went to people's homes in the area to question them,
the residents would stand near the front of their homes
and yell at law enforcement to identify themselves before getting

(18:23):
too close or for fear of getting shot. I can't
really say I blame them for being so cautious. Back
in the Starks' home, investigators found the living room filled
with smoke from a shorted out heating pad burning in
Virgil Stark's chair, where he still sat slumped over. After

(18:43):
breaking in, the killer tracked bloody footprints through the living
room before leaving through the front door and across the highway.
Canine units followed the suspects trail on the highway for
about two hundred yards before crossing back to the other
side of the highway and losing it about a half
mile later. Police found two small bullet holes shot through

(19:05):
the front porch window, leading them to believe the attacker
used either an automatic or semi automatic weapon. The bullets
extracted from Stark's body were fired from a twenty two
caliber semi automatic weapon, possibly a rifle.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
A spent shell casing was found on the front porch
and taken as evidence. A rare type of flashlight, apparently
belonging to the gunman, was also found. Miller County Sheriff
Davis said he couldn't link the Stark's murder with the
double slayings because of the differences in gun calibers. While
there were investigators who did believe the attacks were connected.

(19:44):
The lead investigator on the case, Telman Johnson, felt like
the phantom killer wasn't responsible for the Stark's murder. The
first three couples were young and in cars, but the
Starks couple were at home, married and in their mid
to late thirty While the circumstances around the shooting didn't
entirely match the prior to murders and aggravated assault of

(20:06):
Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jean Larry, police went ahead and
included the Starks murder in their investigation.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
After the murder of Virgil Starks and the attempted murder
of Katie Starks, residents believed another killing would happen in
three weeks, but the weekend of May twenty fourth, nineteen
forty six, came and went without incident. Arkansas State Police
troopers were pulled from other areas in the state to
patrol Texarkana for about thirty days following the Spring Lake

(20:36):
Park murders of Paul Martin and Betty Joe Booker. Milton Massier,
an Arkansas Police trooper, told the Texarcana Gazette in a
nineteen ninety six interview that they had to check on
absolutely anything that seemed suspicious, and people had lights on everywhere.
Phone lines were swamped with calls from Corsicana on the

(20:57):
night of May tenth, when a rumor spread that the
killer was in the vicinity, but the Corsicana sheriff and
police chief quickly shut down these rumors. Dennison and Sherman
also reported scares. Dennison police received a call that a strange,
red haired man was seen fitting the description of the
Phantom near Lufkin, who boasted that he was the Texarcana suspect.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Most of the calls in so called sightings of the
Phantom didn't amount to much in the days following the
fifth murder, but there were other possibly related incidents and
one lead that seemed pretty solid initially. Earl Cliff mcspadden
was found mutilated on the Kansas City Southern Railroad tracks
sixteen miles north of Texarkana around six am on May

(21:45):
seventh of nineteen forty six. He was identified from his
Social Security card. The coroner's report stated that he was
dead before being placed on the tracks. He had been
run over by a train, but there were no bruises
on him. Like what would have occurred if he had
fallen under the train and then been hit. There was

(22:06):
a deep cut above mcpadden's eye that was serious enough
to cause death. His body was discovered while officers were
searching the area for the person who shot Virgil Starks
and his wife. There is a rumor that MX badden
was the phantom killer and committed suicide by jumping in
front of the train, but this seems highly unlikely, and

(22:29):
we'll get into why in just a bit.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
There was also another incident that took place soon after
the Stark's murder. A woman living on a farm about
eleven miles east of Kaddo, Oklahoma, was attacked around May tenth,
nineteen forty six by a man who claimed he killed
three women in Texarcana. The report made by the Sheriff's
office stated that the man cut off the woman's hair

(22:54):
and threatened killer. He was reportedly frightened from the farmhouse
by a passing herd of horses. Later, the man, Charles Coleman,
was found and held for questioning in Atoka, Oklahoma, but
was eliminated as a suspect in the Texarcanic killings after
establishing alibis at the time of the murders. Charles Coleman

(23:15):
may not have been the phantom killer, but there were
plenty of other people who had no problem confessing to
the murders, nine people, to be exact. Unfortunately, none of
their statements lined up with the facts and they were
let go.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Max Tackett, the Arkansas police trooper, was busy investigating car
thefts when he realized that on the night of the
Griffin Moore murders, a car had been stolen in the
area and a different stolen car had been found abandoned.
Police tracked down one of the stolen cars abandoned in
a downtown parking lot. On June twenty eighth of nineteen

(23:52):
forty six. A stakeout of the area led to the
arrest of a twenty one year old woman named Peggy Swinney.
Her new husband, twenty nine year old Yule Lee Sweeney,
became their new prime suspect. Yule Sweeney already had an
extensive criminal record that included burglary, counterfeiting, car theft, robbery

(24:18):
and assault, and attempting to sell a stolen car in Atlanta,
Texas around the same time the car was found in
the parking lot. Atlanta police followed Sweeney out of town
as he drove north toward Texarkana, where local police were
looking for him. Tackett arrested Yule inside the Arkansas Motor

(24:39):
Coach bus station in downtown Texarcana. After being placed in
the police car, Sweeney said to tack It, hell, I
know that you want me for more than just stealing cars.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
While under arrest, Peggy Sweeney gave several detailed descriptions and
statements to police about the Betty Joe Booker and Paul
Martin murders. She rode with police to the site where
Paul Martin was murdered and described how her husband then
boyfriend shot the couple. She shared details only a person

(25:16):
at the scene of the crime would know. One detail
that directly connected Peggy and Yule Sweeney to the crime
was Peggy's statement about Paul Martin's date book being thrown
into some nearby bushes. This book was found by Bowie
County Sheriff Bill Presley and not known by the general public.
Peggy Sweeney made four other statements to law enforcement about

(25:39):
the Booker Martin murders. In each statement, she said she
was with her then boyfriend Yule Sweeney on the morning
of April fourteenth, nineteen forty six, when Booker and Martin
were found shot to death at different locations near Spring
Lake Park. However, while her description of yull Sweeney's actions
that morning remained the safe and each retelling, her level

(26:02):
of involvement changed.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
And a copy of the police interrogation of Peggy on
July twenty third of nineteen forty six, she told law
enforcement that she and Swinny were at her sister's house
discussing the murders in Texarcana when she asked him who
killed the couple, which is weird in itself because if
he wasn't involved, how would he know who killed them?
But anyway, Swinny told Peggy it was someone with a

(26:29):
brilliant mind, someone with more sense than the cops. Okay,
and her second statement, Peggy said that on the night
of April thirteenth, she and Swinney drove to Texarcana from
Dallas and stopped for a steak dinner around six thirty pm.
After dinner, they saw a movie at the Joy Theater,

(26:50):
drank a couple of beers at the driver's cafe, and
took four bottles with them to Spring Lake Park, where
they parked near a dairy. Swinny then left the car
to take a leak and was gone for about an
hour when Peggy heard what sounded like to gunshots. The
sun was coming up when Swenny got back to the car,

(27:10):
his clothes soaked up to his knees. Her story changed
again in her third statement, when she told the police
that Sweeney said he was going out to the park
to rob someone on the evening of April thirteenth.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Peggy's fourth statement, however, changed quite drastically and provided a
lot more detail. This time, she said she got out
of the nineteen forty one Plymouth with Sweeney and walked
up to the driver's side of Paul Martin's car and
told the couple to get out. Swinny then told the
couple to give them everything they had while pointing his

(27:47):
gun at Paul Martin. According to Peggy, both she and
Betty Joe Booker were screaming and begging Swenny not to
shoot anyone. Sweeney told Peggy to search the couple for money,
but she refused. He got mad and shot Paul Martin
twice with a thirty two caliber handgun. Both women were
forced into Swenney's car, and he drove westward on North

(28:09):
Park Road for a short distance before doubling back to
the scene. Paul Martin had managed to get up and
move from where he had first been shot, so Swinney
shot him two more times. All of this was new
information that she hadn't shared in previous statements. Swenny then
drove westward again before turning on to Morris Lane. According

(28:30):
to Peggy, he then ordered Betty Joe Booker out of
the car and walked with her into a wooded area
off the lane, where he eventually shot her. He returned
later without Booker and told Peggy he tried to get
some from the girl, but she refused, so he shot her.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Oh yeah. Sweenney was under arrest for vehicle theft, but
wouldn't talk about anything related to the murders. When asked
about his wife, Peggy, he clammed up and said nothing.
He was taken to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was
given a shot of sodium pentathol or truth serum, but

(29:11):
they gave him too much and he passed out without
saying a word. Okay, time for a learning moment. According
to sunrisehouse dot com, weird name, but I swear it
checked out. Sodium pentathol slows the rate of communication between
the brain and the central nervous system. It depresses the

(29:32):
body's ability to transmit information to and from the brain,
making it useful for pain relief. At the beginning of
the twentieth century, drugs like these were used during childbirth
for said pain relief, and a doctor by the name
of Robert House noticed that when on the drug, women
were quick to respond unthinkingly to questions. He figured that

(29:53):
if it can call the mind of a woman having
a baby, surely it can get potential spies and criminals
to tell the truth. This became a very popular method
for getting the truth out of criminals, and while it
might be a mind altering drug, the effect isn't strong
enough to stop a person from lying, and courts were
generally wary of confessions from suspects under the influence of

(30:17):
truth serum. The more you know, and it also just
makes me think of a truth serum and Harry Potter,
So there's that you would go there? I would, yes.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Peggy Sweeney refused to testify in court at her husband's
trial in nineteen forty seven and couldn't be compelled to
do so under the law. She married Yull Swinny mere
hours before she had been taken into police custody. In
June of nineteen forty six, Peggy was jailed for being
an accessory to car theft. Swinny was extradited to Bowie

(30:50):
County and received a life sentence in state prison on
the auto theft charge and a conviction for being a
habitual criminal. However, his conviction was overturned and he was
released on parole in nineteen seventy three, when the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that he was not adequately
represented by an attorney during his initial arraignment for the

(31:11):
nineteen forty six car theft charge. He died in a
Dallas nursing home on September fifteenth, nineteen ninety four. Two
of the lead investigators, Max Tackett and Tilman Johnson, continued
to believe he was guilty of the murders until their
own deaths. Michael Newton, the author of the Texarcana Moonlight Murders,

(31:33):
also points to Yule Swinney as the phantom killer, but
there are a couple of other suspects that are often
mentioned when discussing the Texarkana murders.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
According to part one of the released FBI records, Ralph
Bauman was taken into custody in Los Angeles on May
twenty third of nineteen forty six after confessing to the murders.
He claimed that on the day of the Stark murder,
he ook up after a fugue state and noticed that
his rifle was gone. A fugue date is a period

(32:06):
of loss of awareness of one's identity, often paired with
flight from one's usual environment. These behaviors are often associated
with certain forms of hysteria or epilepsy. Bomban heard about
a suspect who matched his description, young adult male, red hair,
freckled face, five eight and one hundred and fifty pounds,

(32:28):
and decided to hitchhike to Los Angeles. He said he
felt like he was running away from murder. Texas Ranger
Captain Manuel Gonzaris said his testimony had very little basis.
In fact, he was discharged from Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in
nineteen forty five because he suffered from psychosis. However, Bomban

(32:52):
couldn't account for his time in the Texarcana area or
securing alibi.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
There's also Henry Ry Booker Duty Tennyson, an eighteen year
old university freshman who took his own life on November fourth,
nineteen forty eight, and left behind a suicide note in
which he confessed to the killing of Paul Martin, Betty
Joe Booker, and Virgil Starks, and the attempted murder of

(33:19):
Katie Starks. He played trombone in the same high school
band as Betty Joe, but they weren't friends. Investigators were
unable to find any other evidence linking him to the murders,
and a friend of his, James Freeman, provided an alibi
for the night of the Starks murder. However, doctor John Tennyson,
Duty's first cousin, once removed, thinks that though the public

(33:42):
ruled him out as a suspect, he's more likely to
be the killer than Yu'll Swiney. According to doctor Tennyson,
Duty's suicide note read, why did I take my own life? Well,
when you have committed two double murders, you would too. Yes,
I did kill Betty Joe Booker and Paul Martin in
the city Park that night, and killed mister Starks and

(34:04):
tried to get missus Starks. Duty referred to four of
the five victims by name and mentioned a double murder,
alluding that he killed the other two as well. He
also wrote about being a burden to his family. He
described himself as a social outcast, which, as far as

(34:25):
doctor Tennyson is concerned, is a probable reason for attacking
the most common type of people. The phantom did, older
guys dating younger girls. Apparently, Duty had a turbulent relationship
with his own father, and it's possible the victims were
symbols of someone he felt had wronged him.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Here we are seventy seven years after the brutal murders
of five people and the attack on three others, and
we still don't know who did it or why. At
this point, most of their family members have probably passed away,
never getting answers. By nineteen forty eight, authorities no longer
thought that the Stark's murder was connected to the two

(35:07):
previous double murders, which is honestly worse because that means
there were at least two killers in Texarcana at the time.
My gut tells me Yole was responsible for the deaths
of Richard Griffin, Polly Anne Moore, Paul Martin and Betty
Joe Booker, because his wife Peggy gave so many detailed

(35:27):
statements that only someone at the scene would know. But
why would duty confess to the murders in a suicide
note if he was innocent? What are your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (35:39):
I mean, I agree like Yule seems like the most probable.
And why do people confess to things that they haven't done?
Maybe we tried to look that up. Why do people
do that? Well, maybe it was a way that he

(36:00):
ugh Maybe he felt like confessing to this is a
way that he would be remembered, albeit in a bad light,
but remembered regardless, like they wouldn't forget him because of
what he had done.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
I just or maybe he was trying to justify him
taking his own life, being like, well, I did these
horrible things and that's my justification for it. Possibly, but
he also confessed to the murders of two different sets
of people that the police say weren't connected, so and

(36:36):
it doesn't least like they were.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
The police had a lot, a lot of questions and
very few answers, so it's easy for people to fill
in those answers and whatever way it fits their agenda.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
So mm hmm, Yeah, I'm leaning with the general consensus
that it was probably Yu'll swenty and there just wasn't
enough everdence to actually pennant on him. And because he
and Peggy were married and she didn't testify against him,

(37:07):
they really had no statements to work in their favor. Yep. Unfortunately,
it's kind of my thoughts on it.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
If only they had the crime skeleton to confess their
sins to.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Oh my god, so that definitely would have scared it
out of them. Forget truth serum. Just give them the
crime skeleton exactly and all your problems would have been solved.
It's a really good point. Yeah. Well, thank you for
taking a step back in time with us this week
for another Texas Unsolved episode. If there's an unsolved Texas

(37:42):
case that you would like us to cover, let us
know by messaging us on Instagram or emailing us at
Weird True Crime at gmail dot com.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at
Weird True Crime, or join the Facebook group. All of
the social links can be found in the show notes.
It is the season of giving, so if you love
what we're doing here in our Creepy Corner. Please share
the podcast with a friend or two. This show wouldn't
be as fun without your support.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
I know we love you all for it. And until
next time, stay safe, make good choices.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Texas Ranger Captain Manuel Manuel. I know that word. Why
couldn't I say it? Texas Ranger Captain Manuel, I did it?
Did I do it right? It's like one of those
words that you know, but then you say it. You're like,
that doesn't feel right.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
You keep trying to say, Manual, I do even though
you were correct. Menuel, you are right. Just stop trying
to go me. Gina is broken.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
I have broken. It's the day quill okay,

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