Phantom Couple Killer

"Back in the day, we didn't have to deal with these kinds of problems!" Some elderly people will exclaim when confronted with how to use the internet or when a new scam pops up. And while their statement is technically correct, they forgo the fact that solving murders in the past was also much harder. That is one of the reasons that the Texarkana serial killer was never found, or maybe saying never "convicted" is a much more accurate way of describing what happened.

It was a winter night, just after Valentine's Day. James Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey were spending some time on what was then known as a lovers lane. A flashlight was shined in their eyes and they were forced out of the car at gunpoint. The stranger forced Hollis to strip off his clothes, and then beat him with the flashlight. After telling Larey to run away, he chased her, and once he caught her, he raped her. In this day and age, a DNA test could be done on his semen to find the killer, but since this happened in 1946, that was not an option. The attacker would escape.

Hollis and Larey would describe the assailant as a white man, six-foot tall, and someone who wore a hood over his face. Texarkana was a small town, so this should have been enough to find a lead, but the police were stumped and asked the town for help. More than 200 leads came in, but none of them helped find the person responsible.

The first two victims were lucky (so to speak, and in relation to the other victims) because they lived. Richard Griffin and Polly Ann Moore are the first known murder victims of the Phantom Killer. This name was assigned to him by the police. Griffin and Moore were found in a secluded area on another lovers lane. A driver saw the car as they passed by and thought it was just two lovers who had fallen asleep in one another's arms. But something about the scene seemed odd, and they stopped. Griffin was found on his knees, head in his hands, pockets turned out. Moore was sprawled on the backseat of the car. Both were fully clothed. Blood was found outside of the vehicle, which led the police to believe that they had been killed while out of the car and then placed back inside.

Like with Griffin and Moore, the next two victims would be found dead completely clothed. Though with Betty Jo Booker and Paul Martin, their bodies were found two miles apart. Griffin would be found having been shot four times, once through the nose. Booker was shot twice, and the killer put her right hand in the pocket of her overcoat for some reason. At this point, the town was gripped in fear. Parents began warning their teens about staying out late and being in secluded areas. It was an excellent argument for abstinence.

The Phantom Killer's final attack would be on Virgil and Katie Starks. Virgil would end up being killed, but Katie was able to escape, though she was shot. A neighbor helped her get to the hospital, and she tried to give clues to the police, but they did not help. Outside of catching the killer red-handed, what would have helped?

Some will say a confession. Sadly, there were a ton of confessions from people with no knowledge of the situation. Police combed through every admission, but nothing struck them as being true. The town of Texarkana seemed to enjoy having their own version of Jack the Ripper, even as they lived in fear of the serial killer striking again. Then one woman's testimony about her husband seemed to strike a chord with investigators.

The wife of Youell Swinney swore that he had confessed to the attacks to her. Police listened to her intently, as she had some specific details of the murders that had not been made public. Swinney was arrested on an unrelated car theft charge and the killings stopped. As the police began to build a case against him, his wife suddenly stopped talking and wouldn't agree to testify. The case fell apart, but Swinney was convicted of car theft and sentenced to life in prison. No other murders occurred after that.

Some have theorized that the mysterious wife was the actual murderer, and the testimony against her husband was a ruse to shift the blame from her. The biggest hole in that is Hollis and Larey identified a man as the one who attacked them. It is possible, however, that husband and wife worked together in a Macbethian way. However, it is unlikely that this case will ever have a resolution, much like Jack the Ripper in London.