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The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of a Town in Terror, by James Presley
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Set in the rowdy, often lawless town of Texarkana shortly after WWII, The Phantom Killer is the history of the most puzzling unsolved cases in the United States
The salacious and scandalous murders of a series of couples on Texarkana's "lovers lanes" in seemingly idyllic post-WWII America created a media maelstrom and cast a pall of fear over an entire region. What is even more surprising is that the case has remained cold for decades. Combining archival research and investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize nominated historian James Presley reveals evidence that provides crucial keys to unlocking this decades-old puzzle.
Dubbed "the Phantom murders" by the press, these grisly crimes took place in an America before dial telephones, DNA science, and criminal profiling. Even pre-television, print and radio media stirred emotions to a fever pitch. The Phantom Killer, exhaustively researched, is the only definitive nonfiction book on the case, and includes details from an unpublished account by a survivor, and rare, never-before-published photographs.
Although the case lives on today on television, the Internet, a revived fictional movie and even an off-Broadway play, with so much of the investigation shrouded in mystery since 1946, rumors and fractured facts have distorted the reality. Now, for the first time, a careful examination of the archival record, personal interviews, and stubborn fact checking come together to produce new insights and revelations on the old slayings.
- Sales Rank: #439619 in eBooks
- Published on: 2014-11-15
- Released on: 2014-11-08
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"Diligently researched, this gripping, page-turning account would be a standout true-crime narrative even without the material Presley gathers to buttress his identification of the serial killer." ---Publishers Weekly
About the Author
James Presley has a PhD in history from the University of Texas and has won numerous awards for his journalism, including the Anson Jones Award and the John H. McGinnis Memorial Award. He is the author of A Saga of Wealth: The Rise of the Texas Oilmen, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Texarkana, Texas.
Audiobook veteran Michael Kramer has recorded more than two hundred audiobooks for trade publishers and many more for the Library of Congress Talking Books program. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner and an Audie Award nominee, he earned a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award for his reading of Savages by Don Winslow.
Most helpful customer reviews
29 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent yet questionable
By Jereme Kennington
UPDATED 5/19/15
TO SEE WHY THE "EVIDENCE" AGAINST SWINNEY IS UNRELIABLE, READ BELOW
This is the first authoritative book on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders and the serial killer associated with those crimes: The Phantom Killer. It is a second-hand account, for the author is the nephew of the Bowie County Sheriff who investigated the case during that tragic time. The first half of the book is excellent, revealing to readers for the first time unpublished accounts by Jimmy Hollis, the survivor of what's considered the Phantom's first attack. It also reveals unknown information about the victims and their actions before their violent encounter. Everyone will learn something from this book. A lot of new information is presented. There's almost no filler, which makes for a smooth and easy read. It also contains several nice photos of the victims and lawmen; some of which have never been seen before. I highly recommend it to those looking into these crimes.
With that being said, however, it lost a star because of the second half of the book as well as other problems. Even though there were/are other suspects, this book focuses on just one and makes the claim that he is the Phantom and that this 68 year-old cold-case is finally "cracked". This portion of the book feels biased or one-sided. This suspect is not a new suspect. There's a reason why he was never identified or charged as the killer. The evidence on why he is a suspect is largely covered, but all of the reasons why he was considered innocent is largely ignored. There are some important documents/reports that the author fails to mention. The author did not uncover more or new evidence to prove the man's guilt. This information on the suspect has been known to authorities since 1946, yet it wasn't strong enough to convict him then; so why now? I believe a man is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
James Presley said this in 1996 (50 years after the murders and 24 years after his uncle's death) in the Texarkana Gazette's 50th anniversary article of the Phantom murders:
"I got the impression that my uncle was not 100 percent certain that the evidence they had on the leading suspect was conclusive enough. He had deep feelings for people, and he knew that because of the emotions of the time that whoever was convicted probably would be electrocuted. He wanted to be absolutely certain."
In the same 50th anniversary series from 1996, one article states:
Jim Presley, one of two former Gazette employees who chronicled the Phantom Killer in the past 25 years, says he won't deduce a probable suspect.
Because his uncle, Bowie County Sheriff Bill Presley, was never convinced the man fingered by his girlfriend was guilty, Jim Presley won't make a guess either.
Also, you have to wonder who to believe--the author or the FBI. The author claims that Polly Ann Moore was found in the front seat of the car, while all other sources including FBI files claim that she was found in the back seat. The author also states things that are impossible to know, such as what went on after the couples were last seen and makes claims of things that happened during the murders. Another problem I have with the book is the lack of explanations, such as claiming one suspect's confession "didn't fit the facts", without giving you details on how it didn't. He provides little-to-no proof on such unverifiable claims that it forces you to just take his word for it. I also find it strange that coming from an expert who has exhaustively researched this, he falsely claims that the term "moonlight murders" wasn't associated with the case until decades later, when in fact it was called so that very same year. Overall, the information is piled-high in this book and finally sets the record straight by dispelling rumors, folklore and myth that has surrounded this case for decades.
***UPDATE*** 05/19/15
Excuse me, while I effectively explain why the evidence against Youell Lee Swinney is not conclusive.
The "evidence" which is considered strong against Swinney includes: 1) Peculiar statements made by Swinney, 2) The "stolen-then-abandoned" car theory which linked him to the crimes, 3) his wife's testimony against him, 4) a victim's datebook his wife "knew" about, 5) the workshirt found in Swinney's possession with a laundry mark coincidentally with a victim's name. Let me go over each one.
1) The peculiar statements made by Swinney
When Swinney was arrested, he allegedly stated that they wanted him for more than stealing cars and asked if he was going to get the electric chair and if he'll be lucky to get out in 25 years. Although these are indeed peculiar statements, they do not prove that he was talking about the Phantom killings. He never mentioned anything about the Phantom killings. He could have been incriminating himself in other unknown crime(s). It is also possible, that Swinney was being a smart-alleck. This "evidence" is not conclusive enough to say Swinney is guilty of the Phantom attacks.
2) The stolen-then-abondoned cars theory which lead officers to his arrest
The whole reason Max Tackett was able to arrest Peggy was from his notion that on each night of the attacks, a previously stolen car was found abandoned and a new one stolen. This seemed like a great connection to the murders. The car in which Peggy was arrested in, was stolen on March 24, the night of the same day Griffin and Moore were discovered. If the attack on Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey was done by Swinney, he apparently had no car that night or afterwards. In notes by Max Tackett, he claims that a man Swinney was staying with stated that Swinney left his house at 2 a.m. on foot. Max also claims that it can't be proven that Swinney had a car during that time and that he took a cab the following night. The car stolen on the night of Griffin's and Moore's murder was still in Swinney's possession when they were arrested three months later. The car was never abandoned. It would be more suspicious, in my opinion, if the car was stolen the night BEFORE or DURING their murder, not the night following it. No stolen car was found abandoned at the scenes of Booker and Martin or the Starks. There goes that theory.
3) His wife's testimony
Peggy's testimony confesses that Youell committed the Booker/Martin murders. It is believed that her details of this crime are proof that she was there because she knew things that no one would have known unless they were there. She "knew" where the abandoned car was found, where Paul Martin's and Betty Jo Booker's bodies were discovered and how many times each were shot, and where the saxophone was found.
Peggy was talking about things that was already known to the public. The place where the car was left and where the bodies of Martin and Booker were found and how many times they were shot was all revealed in the same newspaper, over ten weeks before her arrest. The saxophone being an important piece of evidence and missing from the scene was printed in the newspaper at the end of April, again, many weeks before her arrest. She did not tell where the saxophone was found until almost four weeks after it had been discovered and printed in the newspaper, and only after she's been in custody for five months!
Her story's details changed quite a bit. She changes where the boy was when he was shot, how many times he was shot, what she was doing during the crimes, when they got to the park (1:00/3:30), where they went afterwards (Swinney's mother's house on Texas side/Somewhere on the Hope Highway on Arkansas side), etc.
On top of all of that, she had repudiated her statements numerous times and sent a letter to her parents explaining that the authorities would not believe her, so she felt she needed to tell them what they wanted to hear and lie about Swinney, but that she couldn't do that mindfully without feeling guilty about sending an innocent man to the electric chair. She also led officers all the way to Dallas with her story that Youell burned his clothing there, but it turned out she lied about it. Her testimony (which incriminates herself) is unreliable, and why would they need her to sign the papers to her own confession? She and her statements are unreliable.
4) The datebook his wife "knew" about
Apparently, on the day of the discovery of Martin's body, Sheriff Presley and his friend Jack Runnels (Texas City Police Chief) were first on the scene and Presley found a datebook in the bushes, and secretly held on to it without telling anybody. Apparently, Peggy knew that Swinney threw this datebook into the bushes--something that no one could have known about unless they were there. I've still yet to come across any evidence that this mysterious datebook was checked for fingerprints. Why wouldn't this simple task had been performed? It was first spoken of 25 years later by Max Tackett in 1971. He said that the information came from a Texas Ranger. It was barely mentioned in the 1996 50th anniversary edition of the Gazette. Later, it was spoken of by Tillman Johnson in a 2001 documentary. This seems to be quite the evidence to barely get recognition. In statements attributed to Peggy, she never mentioned a datebook, but only that Swinney took out the boy's billfold, took money out of it and returned it to the boy's pocket. She never mentioned the datebook officially or unofficially. When she was taken to the park by Bill Presley, he asked her if Swinney took anything else out of the boy's pocket (a leading question). She said "papers or stuff". He asked what did he do with it. She said he tossed them over there into the bushes (could have been a lucky guess after being asked such questions). Not very impressive when you find out that Bill Presley was not convinced that Swinney was guilty (according to FBI files and previous statements made by Jim Presley). Why wasn't this spoken about in the polygraph exam? Max Tackett told a special agent in 1957 that the case is still unsolved and that a recent suspect was a "logical suspect" in the case. If officers were convinced of this man's guilt, why did they send off thousands of other suspect's fingerprints to be checked for the next several years afterwards against the latent prints at the Booker/Martin crime scene? Something doesn't seem right to me.
5) A victim's workshirt in Swinney's possession
This shirt's laundry mark was faded and it wasn't sure if it read S-T-A-R-K or S-T-A-R-R. Also, it only had five letters instead of six for "Starks". Peggy claimed to have been with a man named Starkes earlier that year. According to an FBI agent, she dated Virgil in January. Swinney's sister (Peggy's sister-in-law) said that she found the shirt in the room Youell stayed in at her house. Her husband then gave the shirt to the police. How did authorities find this shirt in the motel room as stated by Max Tackett if it was given to them by relatives? Swinney claimed this shirt was stolen in Oklahoma. Max Tackett said that they could not disprove that statement. Later, Mrs. Starks discounted the shirt as her husband's. Why would this shirt had been stolen from Starks to begin with? Instead of stealing his vehicle or the purse with money and jewels on their bed, the perp stole a workshirt? Wouldn't that have been too hot of an item to steal? This is questionable and definitely not reliable. I can't say this is conclusive enough.
As you see, none of this "evidence" is conclusive enough to make such a bold claim that Swinney is in fact the culprit. It is also said that the murders stopped after his arrest. Not true. The murders stopped almost three months before his arrest.
--Jereme K
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Well Researched and Thought out!
By julie whiteley
The Phantom Killer- Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of a Town in Terror by James Presley is a 2015 Pegasus Books LLC publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This case has been the subject of much speculation over the years. Officially, it remains an unsolved mystery, but in this book, James Presley builds a case against the prime suspect which left me feeling, at least in my mind, as though the case was finally solved.
In 1946, the term “serial killer” wasn't on the tips of everyone's tongue like it is today. While there were multiple killings in this case, I'm wondering if “spree killer” might not be a more apt description. Nevertheless, this type of crime was practically unheard of, especially in the small boom town of Texarkana, a city with the unique notoriety of being placed between the borders of both Texas and Arkansas. Yes, there is an Arkansas side and a Texas side. Otherwise, there was nothing especially remarkable about Texarkana, but this case put it “on the map” so to speak.
The first vicious attack on a dark, isolated lover's lane is the stuff horror movie legends are made of. Two young people parking are approached by a gunman wearing a hood or mask and brutally attacked. The couple miraculously survived, but law enforcement had a nearly blasé sort of attitude about the crime. However, when another attack occurs, and this time the victims are murdered, the case took on a whole new dimension and law enforcement sat up and took notice and then... another attack took place.
The first part of the book which outlines details of the crime spree was riveting. It will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Random shootings and attacks like these, where there doesn't appear to be any kind of personal motive or pattern, is one the most difficult to process and understand and it's hard to pinpoint who is responsible.
The atmosphere in the town of Texarkana was nearly one of mass hysteria and the media wasted no time hyping the story making the situation even more tense.
But, once the book moves past the initial shock of the murders themselves and the author begins to make a case for one particular person who most likely had an accomplice, the pace of the book slows down to crawl. This part is pretty dry reading despite the fact I thought the author had the killer pegged.
The book comes with a set of photographs which give faces to names and lets us know what happened to all the people involved, either as victims or officers in the case.
The book also, of course, reminds us that the movie “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” was loosely based on this crime, and I do mean loosely. The crime, the publicity, the movie and TV true crime shows have all left Texarkana with a bit of notoriety it might not have otherwise and there are people there today who are still attempting to cash in on that fifteen minutes of fame, some of which I found to be in poor taste.
Overall the author did a great job of laying out the crime, the era of time, the aftermath and the investigation. He went into great detail in making his case and had me convinced, without a doubt, that the man he fingered was in fact “The Phantom Killer”. The book is well researched and thought out, and even though the book was a little dull in places, it accomplishes it's goal. I am so glad someone has written a book about this crime and put to rest that awful image people have due to the Hollywood version of events. If you want to know what really happened, read this book. 3.5 rounded to 4
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Convicts were turned back on the streets to perfect their craft
By Russell Ferrell
Ever since I saw the movie The Town That Dreaded Sundown I have been intrigued by this subject and being from Texas I have been through Texarkana a time or two. James Presley is the foremost authority on the subject - having lived in Texarkana and his uncle was the sheriff of Bowie County, the locale for most of the horrors documented in this book. A well researched book. Presley was the one person most qualified to write this book and he utilized first hand sources at the core of the events.
The setting for the book was post World War II in a railroad linked town at the crossroads of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. With the war over, Americans were ready to settle down into normality and resume their lives in peace and contentment. There was a tinge of innocence, although Texarkana was far from being an innocent or peaceful community. Serial killing was a relatively new phenomenon. This was a period when professional criminals flourished as law enforcement methods and technologies were lacking the sophistication of today. Car theft and burglaries were common. Convictions were harder to come by. Convicts were turned back on the streets to perfect their craft. Knowledge of serial killing, sociopathology, or psychopathic traits were rudimentary. In this environment, a sociopathic car thief, burglar, or counterfeiter could establish a successful criminal enterprise. if he housed deep-seated anger with a need for revenge, he might even become a serial killer. Random victims could become surrogates for projection of his real hate.The Phantom Killer thrived in this kind of environment. Texarkana police were lacking experience and techniques in solving serial killings, consequently their methods and investigations were sometimes sloppy and inadequate.
Despite a lack of expertise in solving these kinds of crimes, Texarkana authorities eventually nabbed a local hoodlum with a checkered past and a long trail of car thievery, counterfeiting, burglary, and assorted crimes who had spent much of his life in and out of prison. The convict, a local citizen, fit the profile of a sociopath and became linked to some of the phantom killings. He even had a female accomplice who eventually presented written testimony and evidence against him. Still, it was not enough to assure conviction so authorities chose to put the suspect away for life on other charges.
The evidence against the suspect was quite compelling and James Presley does a convincing job of weighing the evidence for the reader. Although the crimes remain officially unsolved, there is substantial evidence that local police finally got the right man. The life of the suspect , the son of a Baptist minister, is well documented in Presley's book and is quite intriguing and disturbing. The movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, presented the killer as highly intelligent and likely a prominent citizen of the local community. The suspected killer in Presley's book, habitual criminal Youell Swinney, was seemingly an ordinary convict (except for the sociopathic personality) with less than, or average, intelligence.
This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in the phantom killings. Presley is the foremost authority on the subject. However, there is one flaw with the book. It mentions little, if any anything, about other suspects. And if there were any shortcomings in the evidence against the suspect, Youell Swinney, Presley does not narrate it. Although the crimes were never officially solved, Presley believes the killer has been identified and the cases should be closed. Youell Swinney died in a Dallas nursing home in 1998 at age 72, after spending most of his life in prison. To Presley, the case has been solved.
Russell Ferrell is the author of The Bone War of McCurtain County
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