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Virginia Carpenter Part 2: Chasing Phantoms · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Denton police didn't know about twenty
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: one year old Virginia Carpenter's disappearance until she'd been gone
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: for four days, when her mother, Hazel, informed them. They
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: knew right away that the missing person's case was anything
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: but typical, as is evident with their quickly identifying and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: locating Virginia's cab driver, forty year old Edgar Ray Zachary,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: by seven point thirty the morning Hazel arrived in town.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: The police had checked all nearby medical facilities for Virginia,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: both by name and description, had requested the assistance of
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Texas State College for Women night watchman Ray Powell, and
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: got in Virginia's description out to the Texas Department of
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Public Safety. Agencies across the country were soon to be notified.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: She was five feet three inches tall and weighed one
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty pounds. The description red, adding that her
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: hair was dark brown. Virginia's eyes were so brown that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: her mother described them as almost black. The description went
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: on to say that her teeth were straight and even
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: The missing young woman was last seen in a green
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: brown and white striped chambray dress, red platform shoes, a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: white hat, and carrying a red purse. In nineteen forty eight,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: getting law enforcement agencies a photograph was going to take
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a little longer, and police in Denton had a lot
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of work to do. In the meantime, search parties were
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: coordinated and the countryside and roads, wooded areas, brushy fields,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and vacant properties were checked from Denton to Texarcana. Even
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: area boy Scouts aided in the effort. It was a
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: particularly hot summer and as arid as usual. The very
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: day Virginia disappeared June first, nineteen forty eight, a major
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: drought had begun in North Texas, so as the days
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: went on, lakes, creeks, storm sewers, stock tanks, and abandoned
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: wells all continued to recede or dry up completely, making
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: them easier to search. Significant construction around the campus of
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Texas State College for Women or TSCW required police and
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: volunteers to search unfinished buildings and roadways. Young women on
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: campus were reporting being approached by men, generally described as
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: in their late twenties, who asked if they knew Virginia
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Carpenter or if they were Virginia Carpenter, but likely these
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: were plain closed policemen. A bulletin had police all over
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the Lone Star state looking for Virginia Carpenter and keeping
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a watchful eye out for a light colored convertible. The
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: car Edgar Ray Zachary her Cabby claimed Virginia had approached
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: when he last saw her. It was the last time
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: she was seen. Even though they had no reason to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: believe that Virginia would purposefully disappear and begin a fresh
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: start somewhere unknown, detectives did their due diligence by checking
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: all the transportation facilities for a trace of her. They
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: found not a one. The theory wasn't unpopular. The lack
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: of clues and evidence led many policemen to wonder if
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Virginia was pregnant and ran off for the fear of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: her mother not approving since she wasn't married. It was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: certainly a theory that reflected the times, and one that
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: was utterly ridiculous for a few reasons. Hazel Carpenter tried
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to explain she and Virginia had spoken about the topic
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: before hypothetically, and Hazel told her daughter she'd help her
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: through it with no judgment or love lost. Not only that,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Virginia had also been seen by a doctor just two
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: weeks before her disappearance after suffering greatly from sunstroke and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a severe sunburn. Many tests had been run and she'd
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: been examined thoroughly. Virginia was boy crazy, but not anymore
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: than her peers. She always stopped heavy petting situations before
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: they went too far, and by too far, everyone who
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: was asked said that meant necking, something she'd only briefly allow.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: No one had ever seen her consume more than two
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: or three alcoholic drinks in one night, and absolutely no
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: one had ever seen her drunk, which rendered any theory
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: based on a terrible accident while partying or any other
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: involving booze low on the list. Also, in a letter
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: she wrote to a friend the month before her disappearance,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Virginia went on about her good grades, how great she felt,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and expressed excitement about coming home for the July fourth holiday.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Even though some detectives would go on to think so,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: there were absolutely no signs she'd want to disappear and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: start a new life. There were not many scenarios Hazel
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Carpenter hadn't thought of and she'd been able to eliminate
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: theories such as these with facts, logic, and her twenty
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: one years of intimate knowledge of her daughter. Anyway, most
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: involved in the case, to their credit, listened to the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: missing young woman's mother and were more closely considering theories
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: that involved foul play. Officers were sent to North Texas
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: State Teachers College, also in Denton, and questioned to countless
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: young men there looking for the elusive yellow or cream
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: colored convertible, a car that was central to one of
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the cops prevailing theories that Virginia either went wilfully with
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the two young men thought to have been in it
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: and something subsequently went terribly wrong, or she was forced
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: into the car same outcome. They tracked down a few
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: vehicles that matched the description, most of which they determined
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: could not have been at Brackenridge Hall the night Virginia vanished.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Another witness also reported to have seen a man put
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: a young woman's luggage in the trunk of a similarly
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: described car while another man waited in the driver's seat.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Police questioned the owners of all the light colored convertibles
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: in the city and came up with nothing. As the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: investigation slowly moved forward. Denton Police detectives, Denton County Sheriff's
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Office investigators, and Texas rangers kept up the pubble appearance
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that they worked together, each agency sharing with the other
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: whatever leads or witnesses they came across. According to at
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: least one investigator closely involved in the case of the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: disappearance of Virginia Carpenter, however, nothing could have been farther
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: from the truth. On Monday, June seventh, nineteen forty eight,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Texas Ranger Lewis Calvin Reigler joined Denton County Sheriff Roy
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Moore and Denton Police Chief Jack Sheppard in their investigation
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of the disappearance of Virginia Carpenter. Having been on the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: job as a Texas ranger for about a year, his
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: leather boots were just getting worn in Those and his
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: crisp tan stetson hat tilted ever so slightly to the right,
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  Speaker 1: were the only physical way to distinguish Wigler as a
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  Speaker 1: member of the most elite and Texas law enforcement. His
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: gabardine suit, flap pocket shirt, and stark black tie filled
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the rest out. Make no mistake, Wigler knew what he
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: was doing. His time in the US Army and his
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: five years on the road as a Texas Highway patrolman
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: had given him plenty of experience. He wrote in to
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  Speaker 1: Denton intent on finding out what happened to Virginia Carpenter and,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: if necessary, holding the person responsible to account. Not long
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: after he entered the investigation, Wigler and Denton Police Chief
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Shepherd decided they would allow any commissioned law enforcement officer
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: in the state to review their file on the case.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It was an attempt to keep fresh eyes on it constantly.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: The Texas Ranger quickly became known as the lead investigator
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  Speaker 1: on the case. He got down to business immediately, and
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the state ranger, Reigler later said, spared no expense on
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the investigation. Among Texas Ranger Lewis Rigler's first orders of
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: business was to interview Virginia's kind of self appointed boyfriend,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Kenny Branham. He fit the not so helpful description of
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the shorter young man the cab driver claimed to have
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: last seen Virginia with short with a stocky build, sometimes
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: described as chubby. On top of that, he had a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: tall friend who fit the general description of the other guy. Dallas,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: where he lived, was about an hour drive, and there
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: was a ton of empty space and water in between,
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  Speaker 1: but detectives couldn't place either of them in a yellow
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: or cream colored convertible. After coming to town the same
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: morning Virginia's mother, Hazel arrived, Kenny stayed for an extended
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: period in Denton, awaiting news of Virginia's whereabouts. Missus Carpenter,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: paying his motel and eating expenses, Ranger Wragler thought Kenny
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: could easily be their guy, even though he said Virginia's
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: mother Hazel tended to trust him. A couple days after
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: she disappeared, folks remembered Kenny's presence on what was to
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: have been a triple date vividly, as he was despondent
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and sullen as the result of a rejection. Virginia had
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: turned down his invitation to go on the date. For
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: twelve hours, Ranger Wragler tore into Kenny Branham alongside a
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  Speaker 1: Denton policeman. After the intense interrogation, Kenny emerged and probably
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: headed straight back to his motel to sleep for another twelve.
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  Speaker 1: Ten days after Virginia disappeared, it was learned there was
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a vehicle matching the one described at the scene that
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Kenny that Kenny might have been able to use. It
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: was a stretch, but investigators were at the point where
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: stretching was necessary. Hazel went to visit Kenny in Dallas
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to tell him detectives wanted him back in Denton. He
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  Speaker 1: was annoyed, but when Hazel told him either she could
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: drive him up or the cops would come down and
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  Speaker 1: get him, the young man chose to ride with her. Kenny,
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  Speaker 1: the mother turned reluctant detective said on the ride, if
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  Speaker 1: I were sure you're innocent, I'd do anything in the
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  Speaker 1: world to help remove this cloud of suspicion. But if
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: you killed Virginia, I think I could kill you myself.
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  Speaker 1: For several days, Kenny had been doing everything he could
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  Speaker 1: to hold back tears, but that statement broke him. As
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: he sobbed, Kenny begged Hazel to believe him. He wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: do anything to hurt Virginia, and he'd do anything to
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  Speaker 1: prove that it was not a performance. Hazel believed at
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  Speaker 1: that moment Kenny Brannam was cleared in her mind for
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  Speaker 1: the time being. It wouldn't be long before the police
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: also had to drop the lead. They checked Kenny's alibi
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: back in Dallas five times. Ranger Reigler later said his
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: story was full of holes, but several people had placed
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: him golfing and hanging out with friends that day and night.
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  Speaker 1: Every time a witness was reinterviewed, the story was the same,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and most didn't have a bad word to say about him.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Kenny's employer also gave accounts of his whereabouts at what
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: were likely pivotal times in the disappearance. Dallas car rental
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: companies had no record of renting out a car that
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: matched the vehicle description in the case, and they couldn't
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  Speaker 1: put Kenny Brannam in one belonging to anyone he knew.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: He was eliminated as anyone ever was in Virginia's disappearance,
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  Speaker 1: which didn't mean anything really. The investigation continued. Texas Ranger
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Lewis Rigler and Denton police detectives chased leads across the nation.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: As Virginia's disappearance gained attention in the national media, folks
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: from all over began reporting sightings of her. A man
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: claimed to have seen someone matching her description one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty miles southeast of Denton, near Palestine on Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: June eighth, nineteen forty eight, in a tourist court near
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  Speaker 1: the Old Mill inn driving a red Chevy convertible and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: wearing either glasses or sunglasses. A to Queen, Arkansas ticket
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  Speaker 1: agent at the small town's bus station claimed to have
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: seen a young woman fitting Virginia's description on Friday, June eleventh,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight. The woman inquired about hotels and seemed nervous,
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  Speaker 1: The ticket agent said. A young man came in, met
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  Speaker 1: the woman, and they laughed. Moments after their departure, she claimed,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the station's phone rang, She answered, and the caller asked
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: for miss Virginia Carpenter. The ticket agent didn't learn of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the disappearance until the next morning, when she called police.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Bowie County Sheriff Bill Presley traveled to de Queen alongside
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: FBI agent HS Hallett, and the young woman picked out
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  Speaker 1: Virginia's photo from a lineup of several On Saturday, June twelfth,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: in Mina, Arkansas, just under fifty miles from to Queen,
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  Speaker 1: a young woman riding in a car with two young
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: men was reported as matching Virginia's likeness. Decades later, reporters
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: would call these supposed sightings compelling, but one might just
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: as easily label the stories far fetched or even completely fabricated,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: based on news that was already well known in the region,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: perhaps especially when considering others in which the folks reporting
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: it were just as convinced they'd seen Virginia Carpenter. On
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  Speaker 1: June twelfth, nineteen forty eight, at about three point thirty pm,
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  Speaker 1: two young men and a young woman came into the
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  Speaker 1: New Haven Cafe on Highway seventy seven, about eight miles
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  Speaker 1: south of Dallas. They'd pulled up in what was described
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: as a nineteen forty one convertible Ford Coop. Both of
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the young men placed their orders, and one ordered for
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the young woman, who two witnesses said did not touch
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: her food. She was a dead ringer for Virginia, they
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: told police in Fort Worth. There were reports that the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: driver of a Plymouth convertible matched her description. Then there
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: was a sighting of Virginia by a Michigan tourist visiting Tucson, Arizona.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: There were plenty more, none particularly remarkable, and law enforcement
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: agencies ac across the state, even across the country, were
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: keeping an eye out for suspicious light colored convertibles. Not
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: long after the disappearance, in Haskell, Texas, a young man
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: brought home his yellow nineteen forty seven Plymouth convertible one
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two miles from Denton, where he was
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: a student. The boy's father reported he'd given no reason
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: to explain why he brought it back or said anything
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: about the missing twenty one year old girl. Back at school,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: a local police officer looked over the vehicle and found
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: no stains or any other sign that Virginia had been
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: in it. While some cops chased sightings, others were going
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: down rabbit holes. When a former boyfriend of Virginia Carpenter
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: paid off a large debt not long after she vanished,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: both the cops and her mother, Hazel theorized the missing
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: young woman might have been kidnapped, drugged, and sold into
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: White sol slavery a term often mistaken as indicative of race.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: It is not. In the United States. However, the term
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: became synonymous with white women and girls. As a country
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: long obsessed with the ridiculous notion of racial hierarchy. White
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: slavery was very broad and meaning, and was also used
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to describe both voluntary and coerced prostitution when it was
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the term. Many Americans believed in white slavery as the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: work of an organized and interconnected global cabal. Much like
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: similar modern day conspiracy theories. The idea Virginia was taken
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: into white slavery looks to have originated in a letter
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: sent to Denton Police Chief Jack Sheppard from Hugo, Oklahoma
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Police Special Officer Jackson Jones. He had a feeling a
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: local criminal of his was responsible. Luckily, Hazel Carpenter found
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a law enforcement officer with his head screwed on a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: little tighter. A Texas Mexico Border Patrol agent told her
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that ninety percent of the folks considered involved in white slavery,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the sex work part, were doing so of their own
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: free will. It was only ten percent, he told her,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: that were being held against their wills, drugged until they
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: became addicts, and broken down emotionally until they think they
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: have no other choice. Realistically, it was a bit of
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a high percentage to throw at Hazel, but it kept
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the theory low on her list. It was much rarer
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: than she might have thought previously. As far as investigators
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: on the case were concerned. It was a theory only
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: briefly entertained. Residents of Denton, Virginia's uncle, a former employer
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: of the young woman, and even a skip tracing company
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: out of New York donated to a reward fund that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: totaled twenty three hundred dollars for information leading to Virginia Carpenter.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Her mother, Hazel, began offering two hundred dollars to anyone
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: who could bring her one of the items that had
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: gone missing alongside her daughter, her clothing, jewelry, or anything else.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Hazel hired Investigations Agency out of Dallas to look into
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Virginia's case on July twenty third, nineteen forty eight, but
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: it did little good. Their final report told nothing new.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Police Chief Jack Sheppard attempted to get the names of
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: any military personnel who had visited Denton or Texarcana around
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the time Virginia disappeared, though it isn't clear exactly why.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Several of the persons of interest had been in the military.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Detectives were chasing down every possible phantom one thing that
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: haunted investigators from the start, particularly Texas ranger Lewis Reigler,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: was Virginia Carpenter's family's acquaintance with three of the victims
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of the most notorious crime spree that had ever taken
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: place in her hometown. It was on the minds of
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: absolutely every citizen of Texarkana in both Bowie County, Texas
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and Miller County, Arkansas. The families of the victims, of course,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: felt it the most. The grief, the anxiety, the fear,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and the lawmen that tried desperately to solve the case
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: but ultimately failed were haunted at night by the ghosts
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of the five victims and even by the faces of
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the three survivors. In nineteen forty six, a series of
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: savage and senseless executions took place in both Texarkana, Texas
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and Texas Arcana, Arkansas. The attacks perpetrated by an officially
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: still unknown assailant, an assailant dubbed by the press at
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the time the Phantom Killer. The case remains one of
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the most infamous cases in Texas history, if not in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the entirety of true crime itself. First striking on February
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: twenty second, nineteen forty six, just a little before midnight,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the Phantom Killer's attack on nineteen year old Mary Jean
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Larry and her boyfriend twenty five year old Jimmy Hollis
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: at a Texarcana, Texas lover's lane. Resulted in no deaths.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: The phantom shined his flashlight through the driver's side window
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: where Jimmy sat, and demanded he exited the car. After
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: first refusing, thinking it was a prank, Jimmy opened his
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: door and stepped out of the vehicle. Take off your
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: fucking pants, the man demanded. Jimmy finally did after again
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: initially refusing, and the phantom proceeded to beat him on
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the head with a solid, heavy object. The beating was
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: so severe that Mary Jean believed one of the hits
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: was gunfire, but instead it was the loud pop of
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Jimmy's skull cracking. Mary Jean thought the madman was after
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: money and attempted to show him that they had none
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: by flashing Jimmy's wallet, but money wasn't at all what
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: he was after. Terror was his only motive. The Phantom
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: struck Mary Jean. He then sexually assaulted her with what
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: is thought to be the barrel of his gun. The
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: depraved attacker wore a mask, according to Mary Jean, but Jimmy,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: once he recovered enough to give a statement, told police
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: he didn't see a mask. Jimmy Hollis's skull, anyway, was
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: severely fractured, and his recovery was long and painstaking, but
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: luckily he and Mary Jean Larry survived. A month later,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the man soon to be dubbed the Phantom Killer killed.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Twenty nine year old Richard Griffin and his seventeen year
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: old girlfriend, Pollyanne Moore were found shot twice each in
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the back of their heads in Richard's nineteen forty one oldsmobile.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: A month later, on March twenty fourth, they were also
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: parked at a Texas side lover's lane. Blood covered the car,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: suggesting to investigators that Richard was executed there, while a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: large pool of blood outside the vehicle showed that Pollyanne
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: was placed back inside after being shot to death. Investigators
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: were unable to determine if Pollyanne had been sexually assaulted
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: because her body had been embalmed before a complete autopsy
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: was performed. These slangs were horrific, though Folks skawking at
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the crime scene, moving in as close as they could
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to the car to get a look at what had happened,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: suggested that it would take more than one double murder
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: for Texarkana residents to become stricken with fear and paranoia.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: They didn't have to wait long. On April fourteenth, nineteen
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: forty six, the bodies of friends Betty Joe Booker, age fifteen,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and Paul Martin, age sixteen, were found. Paul had been
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: shot a total of four times. One bullet went through
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: his right hand as he shielded his face from the
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: projectile and embedded in his nose. Betty Joe was shot twice,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: once in the chest and once in her face. The
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: killer raped Betty Joe. Their bodies were found two miles
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: from one another. The teenagers struggled. Evidence showed far more
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: than the victims of the other attacks, which is presumably
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: why Paul had been shot four times, twice more than
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: all the Phantom's other victims. Full out panic struck the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: two cities of Texarkana, Texas, and the adjoining city of
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the same name in Arkansas, though no murders had taken
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: place in the latter. Not even a month later, however,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the Phantom crossed the border and killed there. Just before
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: nine pm on May third, Virgil Starks, thirty seven years old,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was shot twice in the back of the head as
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: he sat in an armchair in his rural home, listening
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to a radio show and thumbing through the newspaper. He
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: was shot through the closed window behind him. Virgil's wife,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: thirty six year old Katie, heard glass breaking, went in
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to investigate and saw Virgil stand and then fall back
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: in his chair. Katie saw the blood. She hurried to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the phone to call police, and was shot twice in
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the face as she began cranking the phone. Though Katie
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: fell upon the projectile's impacts, she was able to flee
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the home covered in blood and retrieve help from a neighbor.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: She eventually recovered from her injuries, but most likely not
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the loss of Virgil and the terror of that night.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: It was the last attack attributed to the Phantom Killer.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: The assault against Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jean Larry, who
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: both lived wasn't initially thought to be connected, though later
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: would be. Some in law enforcement believed the attacks ended
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: because they had got their guy, when a car thief
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: and all around bad human being, Yule Sweeney was detained
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: shortly after the attack at the Starks home. However, Texarcanic
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Gazette editor John Quincy Mahaffey reportedly said of the crimes
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: that would much later become known as the Texarkana Moonlight Murders,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: when I visit distant cities, someone always says, wasn't Texarkana
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the home of the Phantom Killer? I always say, no,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: he was just passing through this. This brief synopsis doesn't
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: even scratch the surface of the known details of the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Phantom Killer's reign of terror and the aftermath of trauma
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: he perpetuated. The murders are thought to have contributed to
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: two suicides. Three notes were found upon the investigation into
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: one of the suicides, and a so called confession letter
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: to the Phantom killings was among them. This resulted in HB. Tennyson,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: nicknamed Duty, becoming a prime suspect. Posthumously, the Phantom Killer,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as the Phantom Slayer, has never been
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: officially identified. Texas ranger Lewis C. Wigler theorized that Virginia
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Carpenter's disappearance from Denton was connected to this series of
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: attacks and murders. He most likely wasn't the only investigator
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: to entertain the notion that there was a connection, but
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Reglar seems to be the only officer willing to sp
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: speak publicly about the idea. In his autobiography, he uses
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the word we as in we couldn't help but thinking
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: there was some connection, a connection between the atrocious murders
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: at the hand of Texarkana's phantom killer and the mysterious
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight disappearance of Virginia Carpenter. However unlikely, it
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: seems would be a feeling in Ranger Wigler's gut until
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: he died, but that was many decades later. By and large,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: investigator's attention was focused on the missing woman's former love interests.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Having found nothing solid on Edgar Ray Zachary, the cab
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: driver whose story they didn't like one bit, investigators grasped
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: onto every character, fault or nervous reaction of Virginia's boyfriends.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't long before Zachary's name was again at
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the top of the list. That's next time on God
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: on Cold, Texas True Crime. If you like Gon Cold's
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: mission to renew the public's interest in cold cases, you
• 29:08
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• 29:47
  Speaker 1: in the episode's description. Thanks for listening, y'all.