The Texarkana Moonlight Murders

By Irish Hulse

The Texarkana Moonlight Murders was a term created for the unsolved murders committed in and around Texarkana in the spring of 1946 by an unidentified serial killer known as the "Phantom Killer". The killer attacked eight people within ten weeks, five of whom were killed with the attacks occurring late at night, hence the name "Moonlight Murders." The murders sent the town of Texarkana into a state of panic throughout the summer as people sought to arm themselves and kept indoors at night.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201437640

Book preview

The Texarkana Moonlight Murders

––––––––

IRIS HULSE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE TEXARKANA MOONLIGHT MURDERS

ANGEL RESENDIZ

HOUSE OF HORRORS

Texarkana has always been an unusual place.  On the east, you have Texarkana, Arkansas, a small town by any other measurement, yet home to the largest population in Miller County.  To the west lies Texarkana, Texas, located in rural Bowie County and lucky enough to have its very own Wal-Mart.  Together these twin cities make up what is simply referred to as Texarkana.

Texarkana is a dusty town, built on a foundation of competing railroads and a Mexican border dispute in the 1800s.  The town laid low for the next several years, sending off its sons to fight World War I and then II, and welcoming them back home for better or for worse.  But no one in Texarkana was prepared for the national attention that came in the spring of 1946.  On February 22nd, 1946, a masked serial killer, dubbed the Phantom Killer by the Texarkana Gazette’s Calvin Sutton, began terrorizing young couples on the town’s secluded country roads.

Today, if you search the Internet for information on Texarkana and its morbid history, you will likely be redirected to pages on The Town That Dreaded Sundown and its Arkansan producer, Charles B. Pierce.  In 1977, decades after the last murders, this film joined the ranks of Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as one of Hollywood’s classic horrors, featuring countless local residents as set extras.  While the film’s accuracy is something to be questioned, it remains a key piece of the town’s identity.  Visitors can even catch a screening every Halloween at Spring Lake Park, not far from where one of the infamous murders took place.

Texarkana may have embraced its celebrity status, but eighty years ago the town was paralyzed in fear.  Within a single spring, five were dead and three were wounded.  All in what had previously been a quiet, friendly community. 

A Masked Attacker

Just before midnight, on February 22nd, 1946, Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey were finishing up their date in the backseat of Hollis’ father’s car.  Hollis, 24, and Larey, 19, had been dating for a while, but his parents expected the car (and the lovebirds) home by midnight.  Throwing caution to the wind, they parked on a secluded dirt road, known as a lovers’ lane, and proceeded to do what young couples will do.

The pair was soon startled by a flashlight, shining through the driver side window and blinding them to whoever stood outside.  Hollis quickly composed himself and opened the door, thinking they were being interrupted by an ill-timed police patrol or a prank from some local kids, but they found themselves face-to-face with a masked man holding a gun. 

Hollis continued to confront the intruder, telling him, Fellow, you’ve got me mixed up with someone else. You got the wrong man.  Hollis later said that the masked man muttered something like, I don’t want to kill you, so do what I say.  Hollis attempted to calm the assailant, who forced the young man out of the vehicle and demanded Hollis remove his pants, gun pointed squarely at his face.  Larey pleaded with Hollis to do as the man said, thinking he would not become violent if they did as he said.  Instead the masked man overpowered Hollis, beating him over the head with the revolver.  As Hollis lay limp on the cold ground, the attack continued until the sound of Hollis’ skull cracking echoed throughout the clearing.

At this point Larey was hysterical with panic, thinking the loud crack of Hollis’ broken skull was the sound of him being shot.  She told the man they had no money or valuables, attempting to hand the man Hollis’ wallet, but he only screamed, Liar, at her and demanded her purse.  Then the masked man told her to run toward the road.  Larey ran as fast as she could, but the strange man pursued, continuing to scream, Liar, at her as she ran. 

The assailant eventually outpaced Larey, and forced her to the ground.  Larey reported that the man did not rape her, but that assaulted her violent and used his gun to sexually molest her.  Larey was afraid for her life, fighting against the weight of her attacker.  She eventually managed to escape his grasp, rising up and telling him, Go ahead and kill me.  She then ran to a nearby house at 805 Blanton Street, where she managed to wake up the sleeping woners and pleaded for help.  Shortly after, the Bowie County Sheriff, W.H. Bill Presley, arrived at what would be the first known Phantom Killer crime scene.

Hollis and Larey were lucky enough to survive this first attack, though they were left with plenty of physical and emotional scars to show for it.  Hollis and Larey described their attacker as a tall man wearing a burlap sack with two slits cut for the eyes, though they could not agree on the man’s race.  Hollis believed the man was white, with tanned skin from working outdoors, while Larey insisted he was a black man because of his mannerisms