Phantom Killer - Leading Suspect

Leading Suspect

The prime suspect in the Phantom case was Youell Swinney, a 29-year-old car thief with a record of counterfeiting, burglary, and assault who was arrested in Texarkana in July 1946. Swinney’s wife, who was also arrested, told police that Swinney was the Phantom and that she had been with her husband when he committed the murders. Swinney’s wife kept changing the details about the killings, however, and police came to view her as an unreliable witness. After being questioned by the police in Texarkana, Swinney was questioned in Little Rock. Swinney was eventually convicted of car theft in Texas and, as a repeat offender, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947.

In 1970, Swinney petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that he should be released because he had not been represented by counsel in a 1941 felony conviction that was used to enhance his sentence in 1947. Swinney’s life sentence was overturned on appeal and he was set free in 1973. He died in 1994. The case of the Phantom has never been solved.