Phantom Killer - The Attacks and Murders

The Attacks and Murders

The first attack happened on February 22, 1946, close to midnight. The Phantom attacked James B. "Jimmy" Hollis, 24, and Mary Jeanne Larey, 19. Jimmy Hollis received three fractures to his skull after being hit twice with a heavy blunt object. Mary Jeanne Larey was sexually assaulted with the perpetrator's pistol. Jimmy made his way to Richmond road where he flagged down a passing motorist who then contacted help. Mary managed to run off to get help. Jimmy stayed in the hospital for a few months. Mary did not stay in the hospital but received stitches to her head. The attack happened somewhere near Stevenson street off Richmond.

A month later, sometime during the night of March 23, Richard Griffin, 29, and his girlfriend, Polly Ann Moore, 17, were murdered. Both were found the next morning in Griffin’s car on Rich road (now South Robison), one mile west of the city limits. Both had been shot in the back of the head by a .32 revolver. A bloodstained patch of earth found 20 feet (6.1 m) away suggested that someone was shot outside the car before being put back in it.

The third attack happened early Sunday morning, April 14, between 2:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., resulting as the second double murder. The victims were Betty Jo Booker, 15, and her friend Paul Martin, 16. Paul's body was found first at 6 a.m. lying beside the north side of North Park Road. Blood was found on the other side of the road a short distance up the street from his body. His body was found somewhere around the 6700 block of North Park road. He was shot to death, receiving four shots. His car was found about a mile and a half away, about 400 yards from the entrance to Spring Lake Park. Betty's body was found later around 11:30 a.m. behind a tree a few yards off the north side of Morris Lane (now Moores Lane) about a mile away from Paul. She was also shot to death, having received two shots. Just like the first double-murder, they were killed by a .32 revolver.

On May 3, a man attacked a farmhouse in Miller County, Arkansas, around 10 miles outside Texarkana. The prowler, standing outside the house, shot Virgil Starks, 37, twice through a window, killing him. Virgil’s wife, Katie, 36, upon hearing breaking glass, left her bedroom and entered the sitting room. The assailant, still outside the house, shot her twice, hitting her in the face and mouth, but Mrs. Starks managed to escape from the house and get help from a neighbor. By the time the police reached the house, the killer was gone. Although the bullets were from a .22 semi-automatic pistol and not a .32 revolver, the murder of Virgil Starks is generally believed to have been committed by the Phantom.

Two days later, a man’s body was found on train tracks north of Texarkana. Some reporters speculated that the man, Earl McSpadden, was the Phantom and that he had committed suicide. However, following the coroner’s report of May 7 it was revealed that McSpadden had been stabbed to death before his body was put on the tracks, leading some to believe that McSpadden was another victim of the Phantom.