The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of a Town in Terror (55 page)

James M. Hollis, “The Texarkana Phantom Murders.” Unpublished manuscript.

Jerry Atkins, Unpublished memoir of the spring of 1946 and aftermath.

Records in Bowie County, Cass County, and Cameron County, Texas, and Texas State Archives; Miller County and Union County, Arkansas.

Records in Texas State Library archives, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Texas Department of Corrections, and Arkansas State Police files.

FBI records for Youell Lee Swinney and Phantom case.

U.S. Census records for 1920, 1930, 1940.

Social Security Death Index (online).

City Directory, Texarkana, 1940s, 1950s.

Texarkana Telephone Directory, 1946.

Tillman Johnson Papers.

Bowman, Bob and Doris.
More Historic Murders of East Texas
. Lufkin, Texas: Best of East Texas Publishers, 1994.

Clemmer, Donald.
The Prison Community
. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1958.

Cox, Mike.
Texas Ranger Tales: Stories That Need Telling
. Republic of Texas Press, 1996.

Douglas, John, and Mark Olshaker.
Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit
. New York: Pocket Star Books, 1996.

Douglas, John, and Mark Olshaker.
The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals
. New York: Scribner, 1999.

Fox, James Alan, and Jack Levin.
Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder
. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2005.

Frazier, Shervert H. “Violence and Social Impact,”
in
Joseph C. Schoolar and Charles M. Gaitz, eds.
Research and the Psychiatric Patient
. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1975, pp. 183-194.

Greer, Leslie B.
Pages of Time
. Texarkana, Ark.

Keirsey, Tex. “Riding With the Rangers on a Phantom’s Trail.”
Amarillo Globe-Times
, Feb. 7, 1956.

Kerr, Robert. “Unmasking the Phantom at 40.”
Texarkana Gazette
, March 23, 1986.

Kerr, Robert. “Texarkana’s Phantom Killer.”
Arkansas Times
, November 1986, 24, 26.

Leet, William D.
Texarkana, A Pictorial History
. Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning Company, 1982.

Levin, Jack.
Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers: Up Close and Personal
. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2008.

Malsch, Brownson.
Lone Wolf: Captain M. T. Gonzaullas. The Only Texas Ranger Captain of Spanish Descent
. Austin, Texas: Shoal Creek Publishers, 1980.

McClish, Mark.
I Know You Are Lying: Detecting Deception Through Statement Analysis
. Winterville, N.C.: Police Employment, 2000.

Minor, Les, Ruth Evans, and Ethel Channon, ed. and compiled for
Texarkana Gazette. Texarkana II: The Two County Collection
. Marceline, Mo.: D-Books Publishing Co., 1994.

Minor, Les, and Ethel Channon, eds.
Images of Texarkana: A Visual History
. Marceline, Mo.: Heritage House Publishing Co., 1991.

Morrison, Helen, and Harold Goldberg.
My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World’s Most Notorious Murderers
. New York: William Morrow, 2004.

Morton, Robert J., and Mark A. Hilts, eds.
Serial Murders—Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators
. Symposium, Aug. 29-Sept. 2, 2005, San Antonio. FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.

Newton, Michael.
The Texarkana Moonlight Murders: The Unsolved Case of the 1946 Phantom Killer
. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2013.

Presley, James. “The Phantom Murders,” 8-part series.
Texarkana Gazette
, May 1971.

Rasmussen, William T.
Corroborating Evidence II: The Cleveland Torso Murders, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Phantom Killer of Texarkana, The Zodiac Killer
. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2005.

Ressler, Robert K., Ann W. Burgess, John E. Douglas, et al.
Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives
. New York: The Free Press, 1988.

Stowers, Carlton. “The Phantom Menace.”
Dallas Observer
, 40-51. Feb. 1-7, 2001.

Texarkana Gazette
. “The Phantom at 50,” May 1996.

The Tiger
1946. Texarkana, Texas: Students of Texas High School, 1946.

Amarillo Globe-Times

Arkansas Democrat

Arkansas Gazette

Atlanta (Tex.) Times, The

Billings (Montana) Gazette

Dallas Morning News, The

Dallas Times Herald

Nashville (Ark.) News

New Orleans Item, The

New Orleans Times-Picayune

Shreveport Times, The

Texarkana Daily News

Texarkana Evening News

Texarkana Gazette

Two States Press

Interviews were conducted with most of the individuals quoted, either in person or by telephone in 1971 and in the 1990s and up to 2013. These included, but are not limited to, Max Tackett, Tillman Johnson, Bill Presley, Dr. Shervert Frazier, and hundreds more.

Active Years
(Little Rock, Ark.)

Arkansas Times

Life

Newsweek

Time

Getaway, The

Jesse James

Three Strangers

Town That Dreaded Sundown, The

ALSO BY JAMES PRESLEY

Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes
(in collaboration with John T. Scopes)

Please, Doctor, Do Something!
(in collaboration with Joe D. Nichols, M.D.)

Vitamin B6: The Doctor’s Report
(in collaboration with John M. Ellis, M.D.)

Public Defender
(in collaboration with Gerald W. Getty)

Human Life Styling: Keeping Whole in the 20th Century
(in collaboration with John C. McCamy, M.D.)

Food Power: Nutrition and Your Child’s Behavior
(in collaboration with Hugh Powers, M.D.)

A Saga of Wealth: The Rise of the Texas Oilmen

Never in Doubt

W
ithout the contributions of hundreds of individuals, this book, long in the making, would have been incomplete. I appreciate each one.

I’m going to reverse the usual order of acknowledgments and first name my agent, Mickey Novak of Writers House, for his enthusiasm, support, friendship, and skills. I also want to shine the spotlight on my editor, Pegasus Books associate publisher Jessica Case, and Pegasus publisher Claiborne Hancock for their enthusiasm (that word again!) and good deeds. Michael Fusco produced a splendid jacket design.

Of the major contributors, Tillman Johnson deserves to be singled out. We often talked till two or three in the morning as we pondered both major and minor evidence and documents. He was mentally alert until his death at age ninety-seven. Jerry Atkins repeatedly answered questions as I reconstructed the times, especially the tragic night when Betty Jo Booker last played in his band. Georgia Daily generously shared audio taped recordings of interviews she’d conducted with J. Q. Mahaffey and Bessie Booker Brown, as well as clippings from a variety of newspapers.

I thank Les Minor, editor of the
Texarkana Gazette
, for his goodwill in use of microfilmed copies of the
Gazette
and
Daily News
. Bill Maddox, a previous editor of the
Gazette
, had opened the newspaper’s old copies to me earlier. Grace Guier shared photographs and other material related to Betty Jo Booker and her family.

Billie Presley Edgington provided memories and photographs of her father, Bill Presley, and other events, as did her late husband, Don Edgington. I interviewed Max Tackett at some length and later talked with his son John Haynie Tackett and daughter Sandra Tackett Zaleski and nephew Boyd Tackett, Jr.

Peggy Gastineau Francisco shared James Hollis’s manuscript account of his night of terror. Paul Burns told of the Frederick, Oklahoma, flight for Lucille Holland’s interview with Mary Jeanne Larey.

My cousin Billie Hargis House and Heather McEntee, then with the Shreve Memorial Library in Shreveport, guided me in genealogy. Wayne Beck shared genealogical data and postings on his website.

Mark McClish, in his book
I Know You Are Lying
, helped me understand Statement Analysis®, adding his to my interpretation. Dr. Shervert H. Frazier gave insights from his work with killers, as did Dr. Jack Levin and Sheila Kendall. Robert Stevens was helpful with photographs.

I am grateful to Clarence Swinney for providing correspondence about the case. His sister, Joyce Ward, was similarly helpful. Judge Jack Carter recalled his representation of Youell Swinney during the evidentiary hearing. Reconstructing the events in Cass County, I thank Paul W. Boone, Ralph Allen, Ollie Jaynes, and Nancy Partain. Nancy particularly helped correct an old error related to the arrest photo.

Juanita Bloodworth helped bring order to my office, while Auzie White maintained my work environment in good repair. Jane and Pat Davitt and their staff, particularly Robbie Bowers, were helpful when I needed copies and reproductions.

Librarians and archivists played major roles: Alice Coleman and her staff at Texarkana Public Library, especially Roann Moore and Lesley Sandlin. Texarkana College’s Palmer Memorial Library produced newspaper files on microfilm. The Moss Library at Texas A&M University at Texarkana also was helpful, as were the Frederick, Oklahoma, High
School staff, Dallas Public Library (Rachel Garrett Howell, history and archives division), Fort Worth, Texas, Public Library, Frederick, Okla., Carnegie Library, Shreve Memorial Library, Sheryl Spencer at Sam Houston University Library Archives in Huntsville, and Gayle Brown at Amarillo (Texas) Public Library.

County clerks and their staffs over a broad reach of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma spent considerable time responding to my many requests. I must single out Velma Moore and her capable staff in Bowie County, Texas, Ann Nicholas and staff in Miller County, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas, city secretary’s staff. Bowie County District Clerk Billy Fox and her staff, especially Dean Maddox and Martha Roberts, dredged up old criminal files, as did Carolyn Williams in the civil section. On the Arkansas side, Circuit Clerk Mary Pankey and staff helped me find old records. The county clerk’s and circuit clerk’s offices in Union County, Arkansas, supplied records, Linda Hinson shouldering the major burden. In Louisiana I benefited from clerks and clerks of court in Caddo and Bossier Parishes; in Texas, in Cameron, Cass, and Dallas Counties; and in Oklahoma, McCurtain, Oklahoma, Cleveland, Johnston, and Tillman Counties. Oklahoma State Health Department and Arkansas State Health Department provided death certificates, as did Texarkana, Texas.

Other organizations include Pioneer Heritage Town Site, Frederick, Oklahoma; Tillman County Historical Museum (Jimmy Espinosa, director); Waynoka (Oklahoma) Historical Society (Sandie Olson, director); Pioneer Telephone Company; Texas Prison Museum (Jim Willett, director). There is no way I can enumerate the cold calls, made virtually all over the country, from California to Virginia, from Texas to Montana, in tracing individuals of interest.

The Texas State Library and Archives, the keeper of old state records, including prisoners’ rolls, provided transcripts of Youell Swinney’s evidentiary hearings and related papers. Tony Black and Laura Saegert especially made the search easier, as did Robert Tissing at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library at The University of Texas at Austin.

The Arkansas State Police responded ably to my FOI requests. I thank Ron Stovall, Miller County sheriff and former Arkansas State Police
supervisor, for advice on finding the documents and Tina Witt in the file room for locating and copying them.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice at Huntsville, in the persons of Jason Clark, Michelle Lyons, Patricia Fleming, and Rachel Williams, responded to my Freedom of Information requests. The Federal Bureau of Investigation responded fully to my FOI requests as I sought rap sheets and other documents related to the murders.

Men I interviewed earlier but who were dead when I began the book provided information I otherwise might never have learned. These include Max Tackett, Bill Presley, J. Q. Mahaffey, and Calvin Sutton. I interviewed Louis F. Graves, Sr., after undertaking this book; he, like others, did not live to see its publication. Prudence Macintosh and John Mahaffey helped add to their father J. Q. Mahaffey’s story.

Thanks to Andrew Lusk for his map of the Spring Lake Park crime scene.

Finally, I thank the families of the victims, who have been victims themselves, deprived of the lives and company of their murdered relatives. Almost everyone I talked to was helpful in telling family stories, enabling me to recreate the historical and emotional environment. These include Richard Griffin’s brothers Welborn and David Griffin, and other members of the Griffin family, especially nieces Ruth Proctor Mahoney and Andrea Anderson; Polly Ann Moore’s brother, Mark Melton Moore; Paul Martin’s sister-in-law, Margaret Martin; and Katie Starks’s second husband, Forrest Sutton. Of the victims who survived but died before my research, I found their survivors helpful: James Hollis’s widow Peggy, his niece Diana Burris, his son by his second marriage David Hollis and daughter Rebecca Wivagg, and former sister-in-law, Mary Ann Williamson, and children by last marriage (with Peggy) son James Hollis, Jr. and daughter Cherie Lydick; and Mary Jeanne Larey’s niece Luann Cate.

Others who contributed in various ways include: The Rev. A. M. Adams, Milam Albright, Tom and Pat Albritton, Sybil Alexander, Ralph Allen, Ted Asimos, Sonny Atchley, Charles Raymond Barlow, Gene Barlow, Tom Binger, Patti Bishop, Barry and Lyn Blackmon, Charlsie Boyd, Edward Brettel, Jr., Byron Brower, Jr., Doris Brower, Sandie Burnett, Diana Burris, Dale Buster, Oran Caudle, Don Coleman, Wanda Evaige, P. H. Fairchild,
Joe Forgy, Herbert G. Freeman, Sidney Fricks, Javier Garcia, Howard K. Giles, Frances Goodknight, J. C. and Ruth Gray, Earl F. Greene, Neoma Guyton, Cecil Harris, William Carson Harris, Mark Hazel, Noah H. Hilliard, Ernest Holcomb, Bill Horner, Dorothy Humphrey, Henry Jackson, Wynnell Jackson, Laverne Jester, Robert Kerr, Betty King, Jackie Larey, James Larey, Tony Leal, Mara Leveritt, B. C. Lyon, Frances Machette, Wanda Mapp, Ray and Bettye Matthews, Robert E. Matthews, Sue McCrossen, Ruth McCutcheon, Stuart McDonald, Roy John McNatt, Evelyn Anne Minor, Richard Moores, Robert Morris, James A. Morriss, Archie Munn, Wayne Murdock, Sally McClure Patton, Norman Powell, W. Dewey Presley, Don Preston, Sophia Anne White Redditt, Casey Roberts, Willie Marie Robinson, Traci Russell, Bill Sharp, D. Henry Slaton, Ellen Stewart, Ken Stewart, Marie Tammen, Alfred A. Tennison, Jr., Bill Thomas, Brad Thomas, Gwen Tice, Thomas Torrans, Richard Tuck, Darlene Vanderpol, Haskell Walker, Tammie Watson, Evelyn Miroir West, Laverne Wilson, Ann Winger, and Herbert Wren.