The Texarkana Moonlight Murders: The Unsolved Case of the 1946

Studying instead  of playing around, going out with the people in my age group instead of staying home and dreaming.... This is my last word to you fine people, and you are fine. I want to thank you for all the trouble that you have gone to, to send me to college and to bring me up, you have really been wonderful.
However, Mary’s main concern was the sexual abuse she received at the hands of this unknown perpetrator. It was not reported in the media at the time, and the police and reporters believed it too vulgar to mention. Police hoped that withholding that information would help avoid false confessions.

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.
As things got worse, Peggy Sweeney recanted her confession at a trial. Also, since she was married to Yuval Swinney, she could not have been Crime scene investigation compelled to testify against him. However, Yuval Swinney refused to confess to the murders because of the possibility of the death penalty.

The flashlight that was found at the scene was sent off to Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Mrs. Starks was showing improvements at Michael Meagher Hospital. The title on the front page of the Texarkana Gazette on Sunday, May 5, 1946 read "SEX MANIAC HUNTED IN MURDERS". In 1946, years before the phrase "serial murder" was coined, a masked killer terrorized the town of Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border. Striking five times within a ten-week period, always at night, the prowler claimed six lives and left three other victims wounded.
At night, he sat in his chair with an electric heating pad on his back, listening to the radio and reading the newspaper. There was a brief disclaimer at the top of the Gazette that they did not want to alarm anyone with Lapalla’s profile. The next morning, the Texarkana Gazette ran a front page story with the headline, “Couple Found Shot to Death in Auto.” It would take another attack, however, before people started to pay attention. There is a story in America that we’ve told for years.

Dr. Anthony Lapalla, a psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, believed the killer was planning to continue to make unexpected attacks such as that of Virgil Starks on the outskirts of town. He also believed that the same person committed the murders of Virgil  Starks, Betty Jo Booker, Paul Martin, Polly Ann Moore, and Richard Griffin. He also believed the killer was between the ages of the middle 30s to 50 years old. He said that the killer was apparently motivated by a strong sex drive and that he was a sadist.
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.
His brother was not sure where Earl was living at the time. It was also found that Earl had registered at the United States Employment Service in Shreveport. The body was taken by a Prewitt Funeral Home ambulance from the funeral home to Dallas. He was made captain of the Company B Texas Rangers in 1940. In 1946, while hunting the Phantom, he swore to stay in Texarkana until the killer was apprehended, but left three months after the last murder.

But if that attack didn’t convince Texarkana no one was on the way to rescue them, then the night of May 3 would. The pair had known each other since kindergarten, and while it’s unclear if they were dating, most newspapers seem to think the circumstances at least make their night look like something of a date. Martin was seventeen, a well-liked guy who his classmates described as a sweet kid with no enemies. Booker was fifteen and a junior at Texas High, where her classmates described her as well-liked, as well. She made good grades and did dance and belonged to a sorority, and played saxophone not just with the Rhythmaires but in the school band, too. On the night of Saturday, April 13, 1946, he headed to the Texarkana VFW building, where Jerry Atkins and His Rhythmaires played their weekly gig, to meet up with their alto sax player, Betty Jo Booker.
H. B. Tennison, 17, of Texarkana, Ark., was found dead in his rooming house here, where he attended the University of Arkansas. In the room with his body--he apparently used poison--were found notes telling that he killed himself because he was the Texarkana "phantom." The tall, gangling 18-year-old youth found dead of poison in his room Friday left a note admitting he killed three of the five persons whose deaths were attributed to the Phantom killer in Texarkana early in 1946. S movements on the nights when Betty Jo Booker, 15, and Paul Martin, 17, were slain in their parked car, and Virgil Starks killed by a shot fired through a window of his rural home.

By the evening of Virgil Starks’ murder, the reward fund for the Phantom Killer investigation had exceeded $7,000. On May 29, 1946, the Texakiana Gazette ran a front-page story about a new lead investigators were looking for, and it was about a flashlight. But in an instant she had the shocking realization that there was nothing she could do. She ran to the telephone, intent on at least trying to call the police.
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.

He rushes to Katie’s aid as she collapses in the backyard, saying, ‘Virgil’s dead.’ Prater fired one of his rifles into the air, alerting some of the other neighbors. One of these neighbors, Elmer Taylor, was quick to respond. After searching for the cause, he asked him to bring the car and help him, he sent a message that Virgil was dead and that Katie needed urgent help.