In the room with his body -- he apparently used poison -- were found notes saying he killed himslef because he was the Texarkana "phantom". Besides, a Texarkana youth who was a friend of the young suicide produced proof that the two were together in Texarkana on the night that Starks was killed at his Arkansas country home. Texarkana became a city of sleuths, but officers were forced to warn some of the younger generation they were going too far in trying to catch the Phantom. Highly incensed because two of their teenagers had been killed, some of them planted themselves as decoys to ulre the Phantom into another attack.
The second being a flashlight which was found in the hedge underneath the window that Starks was shot from. The last clue was of smudged fingerprints as well as bloody footprints on the kitchen floor. Early Saturday morning, bloodhounds were brought in from Hope by the Arkansas state police. They found two trails that led to the highway before the scent was lost.
Many have pointed to these two similarities – the flashlight and the hood/mask – as a possible link between the Zodiac and the Phantom. Both men were assassins operating at night in isolated areas, but there was a gap of about twenty-five years between their operations. The zodiac is described as relatively young, so the timeline doesn’t really match.
Authorities took to dressing as young couples in an effort to lure the murderer, but it appeared the Phantom was done. Two months later, with no more Phantom murders, the community’s fear began to decrease and life started to get back to normal. Thanks to Jereme Kennington for making microfilm copies of relevant pages from the Texarkana Gazette and Texarkana Daily News available to me so that Historical crimes I could transcribe the articles related to H. B. Tennison; for transcriptions of 2 newspaper articles based on AP and UP newswires; and for facilitating my access to so that I could transcribe articles and headlines. It is instructive to read the headlines and reflect how public opinion can be influenced by over-simplistic; often misleading; and often demonstrably false headlines about H.
The Texarkana Moonlight Murders consisted of four violent attacks which occurred over ten weeks from February to May 1946. The murders occurred in and around Texarkana, twin cities at the border of Miller County, Arkansas, and Bowie County, Texas. All four attacks targeted heterosexual couples in isolated locations, on weekend nights.
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Hall said James Freeman, 16 years old, told him tonight that he was a close friend of Tennison and spent the evening of May 3, 1946, with the youth listening to the radio in Tennison's home. It was in the note found in the strongbox in which Tennison "confessed" slaying three of the five victims attributed to the "Phantom" in 1946. He quoted Tennison's sister, Mrs. Alys Jo Daniel as saying the boy was a almost constant reader of comic books and an ardent follower of radio detective programs. "The man who shot those shots was calculating," said Sheriff W. E. Davis of Miller County, Ark., at the time.
Police said the youth had made several rough drafts of his note in pencil and then completed typewritten copies. S brothers with the bullet which killed Virgil Starks at his rural home near Texarkana two years ago. The fountain pen, on which he had stuck a small quantity of poison of the same kind which he used to end his life, was a B. If I am out of the way, all of the family can get down to their own lives. Mother will not have to worry about me making my grades, and daddy will not have to put out any more money on me which probably would do no more good than it did in high school.
She ran to him and lifted up his head, which was covered in blood. He was already dead, shot twice in the back of his head. Hollis, meanwhile, had come to and flagged down a passing car for help as well. He had suffered multiple skull fractures and was in the hospital for several days.In spite of the savagery of their attacks, both Hollis and Larrey survived. The film was shot in four weeks during June and July 1976. Locations are primarily around Texarkana, with a number of local residents cast as actors and extras.
Then, early on the morning of March 24, a motorist found a car parked at the end of Rich Road, a secluded lover’s lane. Inside, he saw the bodies of 29-year-old Richard Griffin, a veteran who made his living in carpentry and painting, and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Polly Ann Moore, who was living in a nearby boardinghouse with her cousin. The couple, who had only been dating six weeks, and had dinner with Griffin's sister and her boyfriend earlier in the night. Mary, thinking this was a robbery, tried to show the man Hollis’ wallet, to show him they had no money.
It would be good to see a movie or a documentary that actually follows the case exclusively. Since it is not solved, I put it up there with the Zodiac. I think that a very good documentary on it or a movie based on the facts would interest quite a few people, including me. To date, the identity of the Phantom Killer remains unknown.
B. Tennison, last week took poison and left notes saying he killed three of the "phantom's" victims. Authorities, however, have not yet completed study of the confession and the youth's activities. The phantom killer struck only once -- a double kill -- but all Winnsboro feared that the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Paola before dawn last Monday might be the first of a series. They compared the killings to those in Texarkana, Ark.-Tex., in the spring of 1946. Tennison, 17, a moody college freshman, was found dead in his rooming house here, where he attended the University of Arkansas.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- UP -- A Moody College freshman claimed in suicide note to have been the phantom killer who terrorized his home town, but police today launched an investigation with doubt. Tennison, 18, a University of Arkansas freshman, committed suicide in Fayetteville today. A University of Arkansas freshman ended his life here today and later a note was found in his room in which he said he committed two "double murders" at Texarkana in 1946. A 'wave of unsolved slayings in the Texarkana area--there were five in all--were attributed to a "phantom" killer. In the note in which Tennison said he had committed two double murders, he referred to a View-Master which he owned. Mrs. Smith said yesterday she remembers selling a View-Master and some film for it to young Tennison, and placed the date of sale either October 30 or November 1.
When Peggy refused to cooperate with investigators, only circumstantial evidence remained. Though he spent most of his life in jail as a repeat offender for car theft and other crimes, Youell Swinney died in 1994 without ever being charged with any of the Texarkana murders. You always knew when the killer was going to strike...down to the second. But even in a bad movie, I expect things to be at least somewhat believable.