Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 174. The Texarkana Moonlight Murders - Part I

Transcript

174. The Texarkana Moonlight Murders - Part I · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:12
Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
0:17
Speaker 1: The history podcast that is not your history class with
0:21
Speaker 1: me your host, Katie Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books,
0:27
Speaker 1: and welcome one and all to the very first episode
0:30
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six. Oh yes, I very nearly said
0:35
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty six season. That is incorrect, because I
0:40
Speaker 1: like my ass just don't quit. So yeah, I'm really
0:46
Speaker 1: excited for this year. I've got so much more plans
0:49
Speaker 1: and I'm better organized this year. So those of you
0:53
Speaker 1: who are relatively new to the podcast, if you have
0:56
Speaker 1: joined in recent months, first of all, you may be
0:59
Speaker 1: wondering what was that music that my friends, as longtime
1:05
Speaker 1: listeners know was the original theme song for the podcast.
1:11
Speaker 1: I really wanted something about older and initially I had
1:15
Speaker 1: also considered a variation of Greensleeves right, But every version
1:22
Speaker 1: I found of it just kind of sounded really sad,
1:25
Speaker 1: and I couldn't get it to work with how I
1:27
Speaker 1: wanted it to go, because I did not want this
1:30
Speaker 1: to be a very depressing history podcast. But that being said,
1:36
Speaker 1: I managed to find this sort of nineteen twenties song
1:39
Speaker 1: that I was really really excited about because I really
1:45
Speaker 1: love nineteen twenties as a whole because from a sociological
1:50
Speaker 1: and historical standpoint, it is this beautiful pocket, this interwar period,
1:55
Speaker 1: which is very exciting and odd, and there's art, and
2:01
Speaker 1: there's just so many weird and wonderful things happening in
2:05
Speaker 1: this pocket of time, and you have music and art
2:11
Speaker 1: in fashion and a whole lot of like social change happening,
2:17
Speaker 1: and it's wonderful and also awful. But I just don't
2:20
Speaker 1: really love it as a general as a general rule,
2:25
Speaker 1: and I found this song by the Rhythmic Eight, and
2:29
Speaker 1: I loved it because it was called Kansas City Kitty,
2:33
Speaker 1: which I'm fairly certain it is a euphemism for something.
2:37
Speaker 1: But I really really enjoyed the song, and I mistakenly
2:41
Speaker 1: assumed it was in the public domain. It was not.
2:48
Speaker 1: It is, however, now in the public domain, so I
2:54
Speaker 1: can now use it again because all the nineteen twenties,
2:57
Speaker 1: it's like it's available now, hatcha, So I can find
3:01
Speaker 1: a way I can finally use it again without having
3:05
Speaker 1: my content taken down. Now. I was always worried about
3:08
Speaker 1: using the word content because it feels a bit, I
3:12
Speaker 1: don't know, like I'm reducing what I'm doing. But that's silly.
3:20
Speaker 1: It's just another word for the thing I make. Right,
3:23
Speaker 1: So I teach history on the Internet, and I do
3:26
Speaker 1: it this way now, circling back as we were to
3:31
Speaker 1: this whole situation about what this year is going to have. Now,
3:36
Speaker 1: from about August last year, I started doing like month
3:39
Speaker 1: long themes, and I found that this works so much
3:43
Speaker 1: better for me, and I think it works better for you.
3:47
Speaker 1: It's so like research is actually taking slightly less time
3:51
Speaker 1: because I have the historical context for each setting, which
3:57
Speaker 1: is so much easier when you're trying to explain it
4:00
Speaker 1: to other people to have understanding yourself. Because I jump
4:04
Speaker 1: between like locations in time periods, and that in itself
4:09
Speaker 1: can be quite daunting and difficult to then jump between.
4:14
Speaker 1: And it made researching a lot more difficult on my side,
4:21
Speaker 1: let alone trying to then gather all that information and
4:26
Speaker 1: then produce this, but also when it came to the
4:29
Speaker 1: social media side of things, to also create it in
4:32
Speaker 1: digestible chunks. But I have a full fun year ahead
4:39
Speaker 1: and this month we are starting with one of my
4:44
Speaker 1: just like favorite little pocket topics, nineteen forties crime. Now
4:51
Speaker 1: am I choosing nineteen forties crime specifically so I can
4:54
Speaker 1: do this voice, yes, but also so I can dress
4:59
Speaker 1: in your cue vintage outfits when you're making your social
5:03
Speaker 1: media videos. Also yes, but also because I'm genuinely very
5:07
Speaker 1: interested in it, and I wanted to start the year
5:10
Speaker 1: with something like I could have gone for a bit
5:13
Speaker 1: more positive stuff, but history is depressing as a general rule,
5:18
Speaker 1: So I thought, let's just jump right in to a
5:21
Speaker 1: bunch of muddles, like, let's go with nineteen forties crime folks.
5:27
Speaker 1: But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Kerry, it's
5:29
Speaker 1: been over five minutes. Quite your gibble jabble in fact me,
5:34
Speaker 1: in fact you why will? But first we've got to
5:38
Speaker 1: get our source on. Our sources are Federal Bureau of
5:47
Speaker 1: Investigation file number six two DASH eight zero eight six four,
5:54
Speaker 1: Federal Bureau of Investigation fill number eight seven seven zero
5:59
Speaker 1: eight nine. Yeah, you know what, you know what, there
6:03
Speaker 1: was a lot of reading in this. There was a
6:05
Speaker 1: lot of reading in this, So I'm I'm naming them. Okay,
6:07
Speaker 1: this was not fun. We also have Texas Ranger files,
6:14
Speaker 1: the US Bureau of Prison files. We have number five
6:18
Speaker 1: to eight five seven dash L. We also have articles
6:25
Speaker 1: from the Arkansas Democrat, The Arkansas Gazette, The Dallas Observer,
6:31
Speaker 1: The Dallas Times Herald, The Dallas Morning News, Kansas City Star,
6:37
Speaker 1: Texas Cana Daily News, The Texas Canada Gazette, New York Times,
6:42
Speaker 1: and USA Today. On top of that, we also have
6:48
Speaker 1: sexual homicide Patterns and Motives by Robert Wrestler, An Burgess,
6:54
Speaker 1: and John Douglas. The Man Who Caught to The Phantom
7:00
Speaker 1: Killer by Blair. Case Most Evil by Steve Hoddell, Still
7:09
Speaker 1: at Large, A Casebook of twentieth century killers who Eluded
7:13
Speaker 1: Justice by Michael Newton. Moonlight Murders in the Town That
7:17
Speaker 1: Dreaded Sundown by Vic Dillinger. Serial Killers, The Moonlight Murderer
7:23
Speaker 1: of Texarkana by Brett Hardle, The Phantom Killer, Texarkana Moonlight
7:30
Speaker 1: Murders by Joseph Geringer, The Phantom Killer, Four Months of
7:35
Speaker 1: Terror and Texarkana by John Sanchez. Texarkana Moonlight Murders, The
7:41
Speaker 1: Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, The Texarkana Moonlight Murders,
7:48
Speaker 1: The Unsolved Case of the nineteen forty six Phantom Killer
7:52
Speaker 1: by Michael Newton. A Real Live Horror, The Texarkana Moonlight
7:56
Speaker 1: Murders by Tim Reynolds as. In addition, further more, in
8:02
Speaker 1: the name of transparency, I did. I did listen to
8:05
Speaker 1: several podcasts on the topic. I wish I hadn't, but
8:10
Speaker 1: I did now first of all, and that's how I
8:14
Speaker 1: learned about the topic, as I was listening to one
8:16
Speaker 1: of my short form podcasts, like last year, and it
8:21
Speaker 1: was one of those episodes that's between like eighteen and
8:23
Speaker 1: thirty five minutes long. Don't remember which one it was actually,
8:26
Speaker 1: but I'd heard about it, and I was like, oh,
8:27
Speaker 1: that's interesting. I must write the name down in my
8:30
Speaker 1: book and I'll talk about it at a later date.
8:34
Speaker 1: And so here we are. But I was like, let
8:37
Speaker 1: me listen to some podcasts about it, because one, I'm
8:39
Speaker 1: ature crime girly in two. Sometimes I can get a
8:44
Speaker 1: better understanding of a location or a community, you know,
8:49
Speaker 1: if I'm listening to something about the area by someone
8:52
Speaker 1: from the area, and so it's always good to get
8:54
Speaker 1: that perspective. Now. Unfortunately, near enough, every podcast I managed
9:00
Speaker 1: to listen to seem to be more focused on being
9:03
Speaker 1: dramatic and flowery as opposed to you know, factually correct.
9:08
Speaker 1: But I digress. I will be covering discrepancies throughout this
9:14
Speaker 1: just yeah, because that's that's who I am and what
9:17
Speaker 1: I do. So without further ado iles it in comfortably good.
9:25
Speaker 1: Then let's begin. The Texarkana Moonlight Murders were a series
9:30
Speaker 1: of double murders slayings allegedly is perpetrated by one man,
9:36
Speaker 1: the Phantom Killer, who stopped so called lover's lanes for
9:41
Speaker 1: his victims in the twin town of Texarkana. Now, before
9:47
Speaker 1: I go on, consider this your blanket trigger warning. For
9:50
Speaker 1: this episode and the next, I shall be discussing violent crimes, assaults, attacks,
9:57
Speaker 1: and murders against women, men, and children. As usual, I
10:03
Speaker 1: will be as clinical as possible when discussing these attacks,
10:07
Speaker 1: but I will be providing accurate information. If you feel
10:11
Speaker 1: that this is going to cause you any distress whatsoever,
10:15
Speaker 1: feel free to exit stage left and we will see
10:18
Speaker 1: you the next time around. And with that, let's slip
10:23
Speaker 1: into some context. In nineteen forty six, text Arcana was
10:28
Speaker 1: in fact two cities connected by name, tex Arkana, Texas
10:33
Speaker 1: and texts Arcana, Arkansas. Is that is that like Kansas City,
10:39
Speaker 1: Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Or am I conflating the
10:44
Speaker 1: two concepts anyway? Text Arcana was connected not only by
10:50
Speaker 1: name but by culture, sharing a community and history. And
10:56
Speaker 1: with that, let's slip into some context. In nineteen forty six,
11:02
Speaker 1: Texarkana was in fact two cities connected by name, Texarkana,
11:08
Speaker 1: Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas. Now is that is this? Is
11:14
Speaker 1: this like Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Is
11:19
Speaker 1: it like one city over to state lines? Yes? No, maybe. Anyway,
11:28
Speaker 1: Texarkana was connected not only by name but by culture.
11:33
Speaker 1: They shared a community and they shared a history. Right. So,
11:38
Speaker 1: from about the eighteen fifties, railroads were pushing their lines
11:42
Speaker 1: through the states, right, and they were big business. Now
11:47
Speaker 1: we've all heard about the railroad barons, like we've seen
11:50
Speaker 1: the guilted age. Yeah, and I will cover that at
11:53
Speaker 1: a later date. Now, so I'm gonna say there were
11:56
Speaker 1: what we would call keane rivalries, see competition between these
12:02
Speaker 1: railroad builders. So you've got the Cairo and Filton Railroad
12:08
Speaker 1: it's making its way across Arkansas. And then you've got
12:11
Speaker 1: the Texas and Pacific Railroad, it's laying track across Texas
12:16
Speaker 1: up to the state line with Arkansas. Right. So, and
12:21
Speaker 1: this area the state line between Texas and Arkansas is
12:27
Speaker 1: like the most practical place for these different railroads to
12:32
Speaker 1: connect with each other, like you've got a river. A
12:36
Speaker 1: bridge comes later on, like builders of the Texas and
12:41
Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad began selling lots from this site from the
12:47
Speaker 1: eighth of December eighteen seventy three, right, and with the
12:51
Speaker 1: opening of the Red River Bridge, the aforementioned bridge the
12:56
Speaker 1: following year, so eighteen seventy four, that was well less
13:02
Speaker 1: than four months later actually, right, And this allowed a
13:05
Speaker 1: link up with the Iron Mountain Railroads track so up
13:10
Speaker 1: to Little Rock and the caron Filton Railroads track which
13:14
Speaker 1: brought them over to like Saint Louis, Missouri. So you've
13:17
Speaker 1: got these railroads meeting up in this location. It's a
13:20
Speaker 1: really good hub. There was natural resources. It's a decent
13:25
Speaker 1: place to be. So they're selling lots and they're like towns.
13:29
Speaker 1: I guess now. The thing is you might be wondering
13:34
Speaker 1: yourself is why is it called Texarcana. Well there are
13:39
Speaker 1: three stories right again near enough every podcast to listen
13:46
Speaker 1: to said just one, but m anyhow three the first
13:53
Speaker 1: being was that there was a Red River steamboat named
13:57
Speaker 1: the Texarkana, and they were like, yeah, that'll do sort
14:02
Speaker 1: of like when a character has to think of a
14:05
Speaker 1: name quickly in a movie and they look at an
14:08
Speaker 1: empty glass and they're like, George Glass, you know, like that.
14:14
Speaker 1: The second story of how the town got its name
14:17
Speaker 1: is that there was a man called Swindle I shit
14:21
Speaker 1: you not, and he owned a store in Redland, Louisiana
14:26
Speaker 1: who made a drink called Texar Can of Bittles. And
14:31
Speaker 1: also people were like, yeah, that'll do. That's a good name.
14:37
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that. But the most popular theory, the
14:43
Speaker 1: one that gets banded around the most, is that of
14:47
Speaker 1: a surveyor of the Saint Louis Iron Mountain in Southern Railway, right,
14:54
Speaker 1: Colonel Gus Noble, And so when the railroad was being constructed,
15:00
Speaker 1: allegedly so, he nailed a placard to a very very
15:04
Speaker 1: old tree reading tex dash ar k dash Ana Texas
15:13
Speaker 1: arc Anna. This is the name of a town to
15:19
Speaker 1: be built here. Like that's all on the placard, right,
15:23
Speaker 1: tex Arcana. This is the name of a town to
15:25
Speaker 1: be built here, because tex Arcana is a portmanteau of
15:32
Speaker 1: Texas arc and sau and louisi Anna. Although this was
15:40
Speaker 1: a place where two states connected. Good old Gus here
15:44
Speaker 1: mistakenly thought that the Louisiana northern border was only two
15:49
Speaker 1: to three miles south of the town, when in fact
15:52
Speaker 1: it was about thirty miles south. But either way, the
15:55
Speaker 1: name stuck. So this twin town had been growing steadily
16:01
Speaker 1: since then. You know, it had some crime, to be sure,
16:04
Speaker 1: whomen what town hadn't at some point, although a lot
16:08
Speaker 1: of the more prominent crimes over the years had been
16:11
Speaker 1: specifically alcohol related. Are we surprised, No, we're not. So,
16:19
Speaker 1: Like prohibition was a thing, so you've got that as
16:23
Speaker 1: part of it, and then you've got just drunken related escapades,
16:28
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. But in nineteen thirty three,
16:34
Speaker 1: the twenty first Amendment to the Constitution repealed the ban
16:38
Speaker 1: on selling alcohol and ended the quote novel experiment of prohibition. However,
16:48
Speaker 1: several counties, still fond of the temperance movement, chose to
16:53
Speaker 1: stay dry anyway. Bowie County was one of them, Yes,
17:00
Speaker 1: one of the forty six lone star counties that continued
17:03
Speaker 1: to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Now, banning booze in
17:08
Speaker 1: Boobie County is all fine and dandy, but it does
17:12
Speaker 1: well to bear in mind that on the other side
17:14
Speaker 1: of State Line Avenue in Miller County, Arkansas, one could
17:19
Speaker 1: legally purchase an alcoholic beverage any day but Sunday, of course.
17:26
Speaker 1: By the time nineteen forty six rolls around, Texarkana was
17:31
Speaker 1: a enjoying the fruits of the post war economic boom,
17:36
Speaker 1: but the population of about forty thousand all in all,
17:40
Speaker 1: with both sides, it was relatively unscathed by war, at
17:44
Speaker 1: least on the surface, as they had only lost one
17:47
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety six souls in various battles throughout the
17:52
Speaker 1: Second World War. Those who did return were lucky in
17:57
Speaker 1: the fact that they had jobs to return two. The
18:02
Speaker 1: twin city thrived from the economic boost of the Red
18:06
Speaker 1: River Army Depot and the Lone Star Ammunition Plant, both
18:10
Speaker 1: of which had provided gainful employment during wartime. Texarkana also
18:17
Speaker 1: boasted natural resources, with timber, rockweel, sand, and gravel being
18:23
Speaker 1: great exports, and of course the utilizing of those railways.
18:28
Speaker 1: On top of this, there was a strong economy from
18:31
Speaker 1: agricultural crops like corn, rice, soybeans, cotton, and pecants. So Texarkana,
18:41
Speaker 1: whose motto is unsurprisingly twice as nas, had a host
18:46
Speaker 1: of roots, pumping jobs and money into the local area.
18:51
Speaker 1: Now I know that I said that veterans of war
18:55
Speaker 1: returned relatively unscathed, but there were invisible wounds of trauma
19:02
Speaker 1: of war like now what we would call PTSD. But
19:07
Speaker 1: at the time, let's face it, there was a notion
19:09
Speaker 1: of don't ask, don't tell, squash those emotions down into
19:14
Speaker 1: the deepest, darkest depth of yourself, because why carry so
19:18
Speaker 1: much emotional baggage when you can compress it down to
19:21
Speaker 1: a conveniently sized grief case. But of course I digress.
19:27
Speaker 1: If you did happen to show that you were affected,
19:29
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be therapy, no, no, no. The best you
19:33
Speaker 1: could hope for was some gossip around the corpse cart
19:36
Speaker 1: or a trip to the sanitarium with your very own
19:40
Speaker 1: special jacket for self hugs. And these fellas were turning
19:45
Speaker 1: home they I mean, they were looking in the fact
19:48
Speaker 1: that they not only had employment opportunities, but they also
19:53
Speaker 1: had leisure of activities. Right, there were so much to
19:58
Speaker 1: do in nineteen forty seve tis Arcana because it could
20:02
Speaker 1: afford to do it. You had drive ins, community dances
20:07
Speaker 1: like those hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Warshall the VFW.
20:11
Speaker 1: They had bands playing swing music, so that were turning
20:15
Speaker 1: soldiers could jitterbug with their hometown sweethearts. And let's not
20:20
Speaker 1: forget the moving pictures with movie theaters showing stars on
20:24
Speaker 1: the silver screen. And lest we forget, then out on
20:30
Speaker 1: the fringes of town there were roadhouses, some that even
20:36
Speaker 1: had gasp, burlesque shows. Now, like it's funny because like
20:41
Speaker 1: whenever I was reading the reports on it, it was
20:43
Speaker 1: like girly shows. They have girly shows? Do they have
20:48
Speaker 1: girlly shows? Is it is that because a lot of
20:52
Speaker 1: burlesque performers, they would travel round and do shows in
20:57
Speaker 1: these sort of locales on the fringes of town like
21:00
Speaker 1: this was, this was, this was I'm not saying big business,
21:05
Speaker 1: but it was a business, you know. So all in all,
21:10
Speaker 1: Texacona was a very typical small southern town and war
21:17
Speaker 1: was over. Everyone well everyone white felt safe. But that
21:24
Speaker 1: comfort blanket, that sense of safety, it is about to
21:29
Speaker 1: get torn to shreds all On one fateful February night,
21:42
Speaker 1: it was the twenty second of February nineteen forty six,
21:46
Speaker 1: and a couple were getting cozy in a car that
21:49
Speaker 1: Friday night, getting some special alone time. Earlier that evening,
21:55
Speaker 1: James Hollis or Jimmy to his friends, and his recent
22:00
Speaker 1: paramore Mary Jane Larry had been out on a double
22:04
Speaker 1: date with his brother Bob and bob special lady friend
22:08
Speaker 1: whose name I could not find. The couples had gone
22:12
Speaker 1: to see the latest Universal Creature feature, The House of Dracola,
22:18
Speaker 1: starring John Cawardine as the titular Count. Now I think
22:23
Speaker 1: actually that the film had been released ten or so
22:26
Speaker 1: weeks earlier, because it was released the previous year. And
22:30
Speaker 1: isn't it nice when films are in the cinema and
22:33
Speaker 1: you can still go see them more than three days
22:35
Speaker 1: after release? Yeah, you know what? Sidebar actually, because I
22:39
Speaker 1: thought this was interesting. John Caradine, who plays Count Tracula
22:44
Speaker 1: in the movie, he claimed to have tested for the
22:47
Speaker 1: original Dracula film, a fact that has been denied by
22:52
Speaker 1: absolutely everybody else involve Right, He's like, I was going
22:57
Speaker 1: to be Dracula, and everyone was like, no, you weren't
23:01
Speaker 1: because the role of the Count in the original version
23:06
Speaker 1: went to the incredible Bela Lugoce. Now I'm just saying
23:12
Speaker 1: it's gonna pop it in here. Now that neither of
23:15
Speaker 1: them had a patch on Christopher Lee. And that is
23:19
Speaker 1: all I'll say on the matter. Now back to Jimmy
23:25
Speaker 1: and Mary Jean. After saying the monster Mesh moving picture,
23:31
Speaker 1: Jimmy dropped his brother and unnamed galoff before taking a
23:35
Speaker 1: detour with Mary Jean. The twenty four year old insurance
23:40
Speaker 1: agent had promised to return his father's Plymouth that's a
23:43
Speaker 1: car before midnight. As he pulled onto a dirt road
23:48
Speaker 1: about a mile away from Texarkana, Jimmy was ready to
23:52
Speaker 1: break that promise for some one on one time with
23:57
Speaker 1: the nineteen year old divorcee. In the passage your seat
24:01
Speaker 1: see Jimmy, he had recently separated from his wife. The
24:05
Speaker 1: Watts and were fos. I do not know. What I
24:08
Speaker 1: do know is the on Lover's Lane under the half moon,
24:13
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Mary Jane were ready to get down to
24:16
Speaker 1: business nineteen forty's style. The couple were and I quote,
24:23
Speaker 1: necking for about ten minutes. This may shock you, sidebar,
24:28
Speaker 1: but I had to look up necking just to see
24:32
Speaker 1: what it actually related to physically, I say, as if
24:36
Speaker 1: I've lived my entire life in a convent. But to
24:39
Speaker 1: clarify for everyone, it was kissing and some over the
24:44
Speaker 1: shirt stuff right, as far as I can ascertain from
24:49
Speaker 1: the descriptions that I had to look up. I had
24:52
Speaker 1: to look up necking. Oh my goodness. So they had
24:57
Speaker 1: been smooching and what not for about ten minutes, all
25:01
Speaker 1: alone on lover's lane, or so they thought. It's around
25:08
Speaker 1: eleven forty five pm, and the Amber's pair are disturbed
25:13
Speaker 1: by a flashlight blinding through the window like on the
25:17
Speaker 1: driver side. Unsurprisingly, the couple are startled. I mean, you
25:22
Speaker 1: see a flashlight beam in the window of your car.
25:25
Speaker 1: I would assume, like I would assume it was police, right,
25:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't you. You'd assume if that's coming in, it's the cops.
25:33
Speaker 1: I mean, it's that or a really bad for you, Jimmy.
25:37
Speaker 1: He looks out the window to see a hooded figure
25:41
Speaker 1: stooping beside the car, and with a gruff voice, the
25:47
Speaker 1: man said, I don't want to kill you, fellow. I
25:52
Speaker 1: don't want to kill you, fellow, So do as I say.
25:58
Speaker 1: The couple followed the wo man's orders, both of them
26:01
Speaker 1: getting out of the car and standing on the driver's side,
26:06
Speaker 1: where they stood for a moment a bit anxious and confused,
26:11
Speaker 1: presumably being sized up by the prowler before he snarled
26:15
Speaker 1: at Jimmy to take off your goddamn breeches. Now, baffled
26:25
Speaker 1: and alarmed by the order, Jimmy hesitated before his date
26:31
Speaker 1: urged him to comply with the frightening figure in front
26:34
Speaker 1: of them, brandishing a torch in one hand and a
26:39
Speaker 1: gun in the other. Now he told him to take
26:44
Speaker 1: off his breeches, which is trousers if you're in Europe
26:50
Speaker 1: or on this side of the Atlantic, and pants if
26:53
Speaker 1: you're over in America. So Jimmy dutifully on buckled his
27:00
Speaker 1: belt and stepped out of his slacks, and he stood there,
27:06
Speaker 1: exposed and vulnerable. Why has this man forced this action?
27:13
Speaker 1: Was it a power play? Was it a way of
27:16
Speaker 1: showing authority? Was he getting satisfaction from being in control?
27:22
Speaker 1: Or was it even a distraction, a diversion for the
27:27
Speaker 1: male victim to focus on, either to buy the attacker
27:32
Speaker 1: some time or to have him focused elsewhere. Or again,
27:39
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, is it this idea of shame
27:43
Speaker 1: to have this power over this young fellow standing there
27:48
Speaker 1: in his boxers, right, because that's what he's doing. He's
27:52
Speaker 1: standing there in his boxers in front of this dominating
27:58
Speaker 1: figure in the semi darkakness. Suddenly, the attacker lunged at him,
28:04
Speaker 1: and there was a noise so loud that Mary Jean
28:07
Speaker 1: thought it was a gunshot, when in fact, it was
28:13
Speaker 1: the sound of Jimmy's skull cracking. The assailant had slammed
28:19
Speaker 1: the young man in the head with his pistol twice
28:22
Speaker 1: in quick succession. Jimmy Hollis dropped to the ground like
28:29
Speaker 1: a sack of spunce, believing that her date had been
28:33
Speaker 1: shot in front of her. The terrified teenager scrambled for
28:38
Speaker 1: Jimmy's trousers and pulled out his billfold wallet, frantically showing
28:43
Speaker 1: it to the attacker to show that Jimmy had no
28:46
Speaker 1: cash on him, assuming that it was some kind of robbery.
28:52
Speaker 1: The man called Mary Jean a liar, insisting that she
28:56
Speaker 1: had a purse in the car, but she didn't. And again,
29:01
Speaker 1: was this was this a diversion tactic, a distraction? Was
29:05
Speaker 1: this him just playing with her for his own enjoyment?
29:10
Speaker 1: Either way, this man was bursting with red or perhaps
29:15
Speaker 1: even excitement. Was he getting a thrill from Mary Jean's
29:20
Speaker 1: fear and confusion knowing that he had eliminated his primary obstacle, Jimmy,
29:27
Speaker 1: fueled by something, he swung at the lovely brunette, as
29:33
Speaker 1: the tabloids would call her, hitting her with such force
29:36
Speaker 1: that she crumpled to the ground. Mary Jean felt as
29:41
Speaker 1: though she had been beaten with a heavy pipe, although
29:44
Speaker 1: it was likely the attacker's flashlight or pistol. Dazed and discombobulated,
29:51
Speaker 1: she pulled herself back up onto her feet, and the
29:54
Speaker 1: masked figure, whose six foot plus frame lumbered over the
29:59
Speaker 1: five foot fourteen magor, told her to run, and so
30:06
Speaker 1: she did. She trotted and tetered, trying to run away
30:10
Speaker 1: from the danger, encumbered by her high heels. She had
30:15
Speaker 1: been on a date, after all, and she had dressed
30:18
Speaker 1: for the occasion. Initially aiming for a ditch by the road,
30:23
Speaker 1: the attacker shouted for her to run down Lover's Lane
30:26
Speaker 1: towards Richmond's Road. Behind her, she heard the groans and
30:32
Speaker 1: grunts of Jimmy as the attacker let out a flurry
30:35
Speaker 1: of kicks against the young man who was curled up
30:39
Speaker 1: on the dirt. Her heart was racing, blood trickling from
30:44
Speaker 1: the wound on her head, and she ran, and her
30:48
Speaker 1: heart skipped a beat as she saw a moment of salvation.
30:54
Speaker 1: She threw herself on an old model car parked on
30:57
Speaker 1: the road, hoping whoever was inside could save her, but
31:01
Speaker 1: as she peered in the windows, no one was in there. Panicked,
31:07
Speaker 1: she thought it must be the assailants car, and she
31:10
Speaker 1: tried to pick up speed again, and she had barely
31:13
Speaker 1: taken a few steps when she heard his heavy breathing
31:16
Speaker 1: behind her, and before she knew it, the masked gunman
31:21
Speaker 1: had overtaken her and stopped her in her tracks. There
31:27
Speaker 1: he was blocking her path. As she caught her breath,
31:30
Speaker 1: he asked her why she was running? What and may
31:36
Speaker 1: I add the fuck? When the exasperated and fearful Mary
31:44
Speaker 1: Jane responded that he had told her to, he again
31:49
Speaker 1: called her a liar and smacked her in the head again.
31:54
Speaker 1: And in those mere seconds between his accusation and his
31:58
Speaker 1: swing at her head, the nineteen year old believed that
32:02
Speaker 1: she was going to die at this masked man's hands,
32:08
Speaker 1: and as she fell to the ground, he threw his
32:11
Speaker 1: body on top of hers. His hands reached up under
32:15
Speaker 1: her skirt and ripped off her underwear. He then sexually
32:20
Speaker 1: assaulted her. Now four separate Texas Ranger files describe Mary
32:27
Speaker 1: Jean's assault as attempted rape. Unless we forget this is
32:34
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, understanding the criminal mind and motivations and
32:40
Speaker 1: the language pertaining to certain criminal acts and attacks was
32:46
Speaker 1: not yet understood or widely accepted. It would now be
32:52
Speaker 1: classified as a forcible sexual penetration with a foreign object.
32:57
Speaker 1: It is a form of sexual saarism, and from my
33:00
Speaker 1: limited understanding, can be a part of the desired scenario
33:04
Speaker 1: of a fantasy driven sexual assailant. In this instant, the
33:10
Speaker 1: assailant assaulted the victim by forcibly penetrating her vagina with
33:14
Speaker 1: the barrel of his gun. Now, before we go on,
33:19
Speaker 1: I would like to remind you all that rape is
33:22
Speaker 1: about power, about having control over another person. Sexual gratification
33:28
Speaker 1: is secondary a byproduct, if you will, power is the goal.
33:33
Speaker 1: When it comes to sexual assault. The be all and
33:38
Speaker 1: end all of it is that it's an attack. Regardless
33:42
Speaker 1: of the tool involved, whether by a foreign object, a weapon,
33:47
Speaker 1: a dildo, or a penis, It's an attack. At the
33:51
Speaker 1: end of the day. It's an attack. Like if I
33:55
Speaker 1: stabbed someone with a pitchfork, you wouldn't be saying it's
33:58
Speaker 1: about farming anyway. When the gunman stood up, Mary Jeane
34:07
Speaker 1: had no idea how much longer her ordeal would last
34:11
Speaker 1: or what else he was going to put her through. Bleeding,
34:17
Speaker 1: violated and in tears, she struggled to her feet. Deciding
34:23
Speaker 1: death would be a better fate than more of his abuse,
34:28
Speaker 1: she told him go ahead and kill me. Fully expecting
34:35
Speaker 1: to be shot, she stood defiant, only for the masked
34:40
Speaker 1: man to turn his back on her and walk back
34:43
Speaker 1: in the direction of where Jimmy had been. He left
34:48
Speaker 1: her standing there alone in this rural, rather isolated dirt
34:54
Speaker 1: road at night. And I think, and this is my
34:59
Speaker 1: personal opinion, that her agency may have been what saved her. Now,
35:05
Speaker 1: there are several dramatic retellings of this crime, and they
35:12
Speaker 1: often say that there were headlights in the distance and
35:16
Speaker 1: this booked the assailant and so he turned and left.
35:20
Speaker 1: But there's nothing in any of the reports, in any
35:25
Speaker 1: of the witness statements, there is nothing to suggest this
35:29
Speaker 1: is the case. And I and I don't know if
35:33
Speaker 1: this is just wilful thinking on my part, but that
35:37
Speaker 1: information isn't anywhere. It's as if someone pulled it to
35:43
Speaker 1: be more interesting, to give a reason or justification. But
35:50
Speaker 1: the chasing, the cat and mouse, the power play, toying
35:54
Speaker 1: with her like that's what he was doing, like this,
35:59
Speaker 1: this is no longer fun. If she's like, fine, fucking
36:02
Speaker 1: do it right, shoot me right, she's done and that
36:08
Speaker 1: standing up like like it's not fun for him anymore.
36:13
Speaker 1: And as far as we know, as far as any
36:15
Speaker 1: of the information we have, this is his first known attack, right,
36:21
Speaker 1: we don't know if he's done it before, Like, this
36:27
Speaker 1: is an escalation, and they tend to escalate. Attackers tend
36:31
Speaker 1: to because they're seeking, especially fantasy based assailants, they tend
36:35
Speaker 1: to seek gratification. And he has walked away, and adrenaline
36:45
Speaker 1: must have been pumping through her veins because she thinks,
36:50
Speaker 1: fuck this for a game of soldiers. And as soon
36:54
Speaker 1: as he walks away, she absolutely legged it. She ran
36:59
Speaker 1: for a good half mile at least until she made
37:02
Speaker 1: it to a house. And when she got there, she
37:05
Speaker 1: did not swing and miss. She started wailing and whacking
37:10
Speaker 1: on that door, begging, screaming for help. And when she
37:15
Speaker 1: was waiting for someone to answer the door, someone to
37:18
Speaker 1: get up and open it, she saw a car pass
37:21
Speaker 1: by and she tried to flag it down, but it
37:24
Speaker 1: kept going towards Richmond Road. Now later when she's questioned,
37:31
Speaker 1: she would say it was a strange car, but not
37:35
Speaker 1: the same one that had been parked at the lane earlier.
37:39
Speaker 1: Right now, here's the thing. If if you're driving at
37:45
Speaker 1: night and a woman just starts screaming at you from
37:49
Speaker 1: the side of the road. In nineteen forties, text Orkhana,
37:53
Speaker 1: I can understand that maybe that might be, that might
37:57
Speaker 1: be a weird thing. Also, drink driving laws weren't what
38:02
Speaker 1: they are, so you know, or there is every possibility
38:08
Speaker 1: that this was her attacker. There's every possibility. But whatever happened,
38:15
Speaker 1: whenever car was, it just went by. But there's also
38:22
Speaker 1: the possibility that it was the same car, because remember
38:26
Speaker 1: she's been assaulted, she's got a head injury. And also
38:33
Speaker 1: she doesn't name what type of cars they are, and
38:35
Speaker 1: back then there was not as many types of cars.
38:39
Speaker 1: And as someone who can rarely tell a type of car,
38:43
Speaker 1: I also get it. You'd be lucky if I'd be like,
38:47
Speaker 1: it's blew round the square car Like I wouldn't be
38:52
Speaker 1: able to tell you the majority of what cars look like,
38:56
Speaker 1: unless unless they're very specific, like in Aston Martin d V.
39:00
Speaker 1: And that's only because I've watched a lot of James
39:02
Speaker 1: Bond movies. Sidebar anyway, Now, after she tried to flag
39:09
Speaker 1: this car down and it just kept on going, right,
39:14
Speaker 1: desperate Mary Jane ran to the back door of the
39:17
Speaker 1: house and started banging on it. Right Eventually, you know,
39:22
Speaker 1: the residents, they get up, they come downstairs, they open
39:25
Speaker 1: the door and shocked at the sight of this disheveled
39:30
Speaker 1: young woman on their porch, like they suss it out
39:35
Speaker 1: for a minute. They don't. They don't just let herund
39:38
Speaker 1: straight away at is a moment of going what but
39:42
Speaker 1: they do? They bring her indoors before calling the County
39:45
Speaker 1: Sheriff's office. And just as he appeared, the assailant was gone.
39:54
Speaker 1: He had not gone back to finish Jimmy off because
39:58
Speaker 1: Jimmy had already gone, so he had managed to stumble
40:05
Speaker 1: and stagger to the road, where he managed to stop
40:09
Speaker 1: a car that was going by. And again there's a
40:14
Speaker 1: bleeding person waving at you from the side of the
40:17
Speaker 1: road at night. It's you know, after midnight. That's that's
40:22
Speaker 1: kind of scary. Now, it's a relatively rural road, it's
40:26
Speaker 1: after midnight, and a beaten and bloody man in his
40:29
Speaker 1: underwear is on the road. Now the driver he pulls over,
40:34
Speaker 1: but he refused to let the clearly injured man into
40:40
Speaker 1: his car. Instead, he's zoomed towards town, where he called
40:45
Speaker 1: the Texarcana Funeral Home. Now, before you think that's a
40:50
Speaker 1: bit pessimistic, the mortuary had an ambulance and within fifteen
40:55
Speaker 1: minutes it was on its way to Lover's lane, and
41:00
Speaker 1: the attacker was now well gone, leaving both his victims alive.
41:07
Speaker 2: A mistake he would not plan to repeat.
41:18
Speaker 1: Bowie County Sheriff William Henry Presley, or Bill as he
41:24
Speaker 1: was known, was the first to arrive on the scene
41:27
Speaker 1: with three deputies at twelve thirty a m. Now that
41:33
Speaker 1: just shows you just how quick this attack was. Forty
41:38
Speaker 1: five minutes from the flashlight beamed through the driver's window
41:42
Speaker 1: of the car to the sheriff and his deputies arriving
41:48
Speaker 1: at the scene. Sheriff Bill Presley had tried to question
41:51
Speaker 1: the two victims with varying degrees of head injuries before
41:56
Speaker 1: realizing that that was fucking stupid and decided that medical
42:02
Speaker 1: intervention was the best course of action. By now, the
42:07
Speaker 1: adrenaline would have been wearing off. Mary Jane and Jimmy.
42:11
Speaker 1: He was slipping in and out of consciousness. Compounded with
42:16
Speaker 1: Mary Jean's head wound and the trauma she's endured from
42:20
Speaker 1: being sexually assaulted, and you know that Jimmy had several
42:24
Speaker 1: severe skulp fractures. Putting the victims in the mortuary ambulance
42:29
Speaker 1: and sending them to Texarkana Hospital was probably the best
42:33
Speaker 1: course of action. When they reached the hospital on Pine Street,
42:39
Speaker 1: Jimmy was already unconscious. He was diagnosed with two or
42:44
Speaker 1: three skull fractors, depending on which report you read, and
42:49
Speaker 1: he slipped into a coma and he was placed on
42:52
Speaker 1: the hospital's critical list. Mary Jean, on the other hand,
42:58
Speaker 1: was sent home after her scalp bold was stitched up.
43:02
Speaker 1: I mean, it was only a fifty bed hospital and
43:05
Speaker 1: she'd been violently attacked. But yeah, awey, chain stitch, maybe
43:09
Speaker 1: a French knot, and off you trot. Back. At the
43:15
Speaker 1: crime scene, the police found the attack site where Jimmy
43:19
Speaker 1: lay bleeding and about one hundred feet away like from
43:24
Speaker 1: the pool of blood. They found his slacks and the
43:30
Speaker 1: only car at the scene was Jimmy's father's Plymouth, the
43:36
Speaker 1: old car that Mary Jane had seen was gone. It
43:41
Speaker 1: also would never be identified and old old isn't really
43:49
Speaker 1: a lot to go on. The other car that passed
43:54
Speaker 1: her that did not stop, well, the sheriff considered that
43:58
Speaker 1: perhaps the driver was the attack fleeing the scene and
44:03
Speaker 1: the place. They had no evidence. You know that they
44:06
Speaker 1: had limited forensics and they were relying on witness testimony.
44:12
Speaker 1: In the days following the attack, the sheriff attempted to
44:15
Speaker 1: get a description of the assailant. And here's where it
44:20
Speaker 1: gets interesting. Both victims gave different descriptions of the attacker.
44:29
Speaker 1: Both agreed that he was at least six feet tall,
44:33
Speaker 1: but that's where the similarities end. Mary Jean claimed that
44:39
Speaker 1: the gunman was an African American man with a white
44:43
Speaker 1: mask that resembled a pillowcase with the eyes cut out. Okay,
44:50
Speaker 1: not quite a sidebar, because it is because this is adjacent.
44:56
Speaker 1: But I did read one report of saying that it
44:59
Speaker 1: looked like burlap sack, but every single other report said
45:05
Speaker 1: white and like a pillowcase, which is weird that they
45:11
Speaker 1: would say it's like a pillowcase and not just was
45:16
Speaker 1: a pillowcase with the ice cut out, Like I mean,
45:20
Speaker 1: I feel like that's enough to go on. When Jimmy
45:24
Speaker 1: woke up a week later, right, He, on the other hand,
45:30
Speaker 1: claimed the attacker was a white man with a light
45:34
Speaker 1: tan and he was about thirty years old, and he
45:41
Speaker 1: wasn't sure if he was wearing a mask. So bear
45:47
Speaker 1: in mind it's dark ish, I mean, there's a half moon,
45:51
Speaker 1: but the assailant he has a flashlight. And these two
45:55
Speaker 1: have both suffered a traumatic event. And lest we forget,
46:01
Speaker 1: the human memory is unreliable. On top of this, both
46:07
Speaker 1: victims had their skulls beaten with what I assumed to
46:11
Speaker 1: be the butt of the gun. So it's not a
46:15
Speaker 1: huge stretch to assume that people who sustained head injuries
46:20
Speaker 1: that resulted in confabulation. Basically, it's damage to the prefrontal cortex,
46:27
Speaker 1: which can create false or altered memories. And yes, I know,
46:32
Speaker 1: I'm aware. It is nineteen forty six, so the science
46:35
Speaker 1: hasn't quite caught up yet. But you know, effectively, bonk
46:41
Speaker 1: on head makes remembering hard. Right, So the police they
46:48
Speaker 1: don't think about any of that because it's nineteen forty six,
46:53
Speaker 1: and they come to the conclusion that obviously Mary Jane
46:58
Speaker 1: was lying. There's a theory that the police chose to
47:04
Speaker 1: believe Jimmy over Mary Jane because this was nineteen forty
47:08
Speaker 1: six in the South and racial segregation wasn't just normal
47:14
Speaker 1: for the time period, it was the law. Like paranoia
47:18
Speaker 1: was rife, and incidents of racial violence could be triggered
47:22
Speaker 1: with a whisper. Basically, four years prior, a racist mob
47:28
Speaker 1: dragged Willie Vincent, a black man, through Texarcana behind a
47:33
Speaker 1: car before hanging him from a cotton gin winch. The
47:39
Speaker 1: white racist mob lynched a twenty five year old black
47:42
Speaker 1: man because he looked like the attacker of the plant's wife.
47:49
Speaker 1: So Willie Vincent had been arrested, shot in the stomach.
47:53
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which came first, and he was in
47:56
Speaker 1: the basement of the tex Arcana hospital when Fifth Dean
48:00
Speaker 1: Minn came in and just took him. They took the
48:05
Speaker 1: man with a bleeding stomach wound, attached him to the
48:12
Speaker 1: back of a car, dragged him through the streets, and
48:16
Speaker 1: then hanged him from a cotton gin winch. Now, if
48:22
Speaker 1: you're thinking, why did Chase say hanged instead of hung,
48:25
Speaker 1: because that is the method of execution. It's hanged. He
48:31
Speaker 1: was lynched, right, and Sheriff Monroe Watts, investigating the crime,
48:38
Speaker 1: found no leads whatsoever. So this is a city with
48:44
Speaker 1: racial bias baked in, so there is the possibility that
48:49
Speaker 1: Mary Jean's memory of her attacker could have been influenced
48:53
Speaker 1: by this. But on top of this as well, Bill
49:00
Speaker 1: Presley may not have wanted another violent attack or lynching
49:04
Speaker 1: on his watch. Right. There's also this idea that patriarchy
49:11
Speaker 1: though that because she was a woman, especially one who
49:14
Speaker 1: suffered sexual assault, that she was more emotional and as
49:19
Speaker 1: such less reliable as a witness. What is that hysteria?
49:26
Speaker 1: You say to shreds? You say? Either way? The police
49:32
Speaker 1: believed that the victims were lying about knowing their attacker.
49:37
Speaker 1: They believed that their discrepancies existed to cover up that
49:41
Speaker 1: they knew they were attacker, which is why they didn't
49:44
Speaker 1: want to say who it was. So they were deliberately
49:47
Speaker 1: giving conflicting reports so that they could not catch the person.
49:51
Speaker 1: Right now, of course, that canon has happened a victim
49:57
Speaker 1: not wanting to name their attacker out of fear, threat, shame,
50:02
Speaker 1: and a thousand other terrifying reasons. But in this case,
50:10
Speaker 1: nighttime head trauma, possible mask slash hood. Hang on, hang on,
50:17
Speaker 1: sidebar normally not quite a sidebar because it's relevant. There's
50:22
Speaker 1: a violent white hooded figure in the South. Not one
50:28
Speaker 1: person suggests clan like I read the reports. I read
50:35
Speaker 1: every report, and it's not it's not a mention, it's
50:38
Speaker 1: not a suggestion, it's not a consideration. Okay, you know what,
50:43
Speaker 1: you know what actual sidebar? Right? When I studied American
50:47
Speaker 1: history in college, like, one of the the areas we
50:52
Speaker 1: covered was the ku Klux Klan, Like i'll we were
50:56
Speaker 1: studying the civil rights movement because history doesn't exist in
50:59
Speaker 1: a vacuum, and my lecturer was always adamant that we
51:02
Speaker 1: had both backstory and context right lower is important And
51:09
Speaker 1: for my known US listeners who haven't heard of the clan,
51:14
Speaker 1: the clan was everywhere authority figures people of good standing, teachers, ministers, sheriffs.
51:22
Speaker 1: Who do you report racists attacked to? When law enforcement
51:26
Speaker 1: authorities are part of it? Now on the podcast, I
51:31
Speaker 1: typically don't talk about certain aspects of black history because
51:36
Speaker 1: I am a naturally blonde, gray, green eyed. I don't know.
51:39
Speaker 1: Someone tell me what colorized are white women? And there
51:43
Speaker 1: are certain stories that are not mine to tell. But
51:46
Speaker 1: one day don't ask me when I again, I'm genuinely
51:51
Speaker 1: not sure, but I will do a whole clan history,
51:56
Speaker 1: which if you're not versed in, will make some things
52:00
Speaker 1: very very clear and will also relate to the modern
52:04
Speaker 1: world somewhat so. Cover ups and mishandling of information and
52:10
Speaker 1: evidence when it comes to prominent members or their family
52:14
Speaker 1: members isn't new. But there was always the possibility again
52:19
Speaker 1: that Mary Jane's memory was distorted by racial bias. She
52:26
Speaker 1: did not say African American, she said a more word
52:30
Speaker 1: of the time, and I'm not gonna say it. It
52:33
Speaker 1: could have been distorted by racial bias. Or she could
52:35
Speaker 1: have been absolutely correct. You know, we don't know. The
52:40
Speaker 1: police badgered the couple for two months incessantly, and the police,
52:47
Speaker 1: they badgered the couple for two months incessantly, right for them,
52:53
Speaker 1: like it was so difficult for them to ascertain a motive,
52:57
Speaker 1: Like they had dismissed robbery like that wasn't on the cards,
53:02
Speaker 1: and they didn't mention the sexual assault publicly. At this point,
53:11
Speaker 1: it would have been more convenient for the police to
53:14
Speaker 1: blame the attack on the couple as an act of
53:18
Speaker 1: revenge or jealousy, as opposed to a violent, random stalker
53:24
Speaker 1: hunting lover's lane, and like, why would someone attack a
53:29
Speaker 1: couple that he doesn't even know, Like they even questioned
53:35
Speaker 1: and cleared Mary Jean's ex husband, right, So for two months,
53:43
Speaker 1: two months they were hounded and accused of protecting their
53:47
Speaker 1: attacker's identity. Both victims suffered horrible nightmares following the attack,
53:55
Speaker 1: and that coupled with the harassment from the authorities. Mary
54:00
Speaker 1: Jean Larry ended up leaving Texarcana to live with relatives
54:05
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma and Jimmy Hollis He was in hospital for
54:10
Speaker 1: three months recovering. He was receiving treatment, and he was
54:14
Speaker 1: also signed off for work for a further six months,
54:19
Speaker 1: and instead of staying in Texarcana, he ended up moving
54:23
Speaker 1: to Louisiana to get away from it all. But when
54:28
Speaker 1: he was first questioned by police, Jimmy warned Bill Presley
54:33
Speaker 1: that the gunman would attack again and that they had
54:36
Speaker 1: to stop him. Meanwhile, the police, believing that the couple
54:41
Speaker 1: were protecting their attacker and that this was a personal attack,
54:46
Speaker 1: decided that it wasn't really necessary to keep looking what
54:51
Speaker 1: what what to them, it wasn't exactly a matter of urgency.
54:59
Speaker 1: I mean, this kind of attack wasn't going to happen
55:02
Speaker 1: again in the safe community of Texarkana, and the community agreed,
55:11
Speaker 1: like they also thought that their home, you know, couldn't
55:15
Speaker 1: have bred a violent attacker like he's not from ours.
55:18
Speaker 1: It must have been a passing vigilante or someone with
55:21
Speaker 1: a personal grudge, like nobody would do this from our area,
55:26
Speaker 1: from our safe, lovely home. No, as if they weren't
55:32
Speaker 1: lynching a man with a fatal bullet wind in the
55:34
Speaker 1: stomach four years earlier. But unfortunately for everyone involved, Jimmy
55:44
Speaker 1: Hollis was right. This was not an isolated attack, and
55:51
Speaker 1: the assailant would strike again, except this time it was
55:58
Speaker 1: going to be fatal. And I think that is a
56:01
Speaker 1: good point to pause this story. There will be a
56:07
Speaker 1: part two, partially because I knew when I was writing
56:11
Speaker 1: this i am not finished writing this, that it was
56:16
Speaker 1: so dense, so information dense, that it really needed time
56:24
Speaker 1: and proper consideration. Now, I didn't want to rush over
56:30
Speaker 1: facts or victims, and I didn't want to have ourse this.
56:36
Speaker 1: So you are getting a second episode, and you were
56:38
Speaker 1: getting it soon. I am going to finish writing it,
56:42
Speaker 1: and as soon as it is written, it's being recorded
56:44
Speaker 1: and it's being posted, so you should have that before
56:50
Speaker 1: before typical release day of the podcast. Now I guess,
56:58
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess we do it. We all do,
57:00
Speaker 1: which is recommendation time. You know what, Let's give us
57:04
Speaker 1: a second too, just because I feel myself getting angry
57:11
Speaker 1: on behalf of the victims, and I'm gonna have to
57:13
Speaker 1: take some throat coat tea because I can feel myself stressing.
57:18
Speaker 1: But yes, recommendation time. This case did actually did actually
57:28
Speaker 1: inspire a horror movie, a slasher movie technically, which is
57:36
Speaker 1: unsurprising because that's what we do. We take horrible times
57:41
Speaker 1: and we make them into entertainment. Now, I'd like to
57:44
Speaker 1: think of what I do as edutainment. So I'm educating
57:47
Speaker 1: you while entertaining you. Now, also like we are going
57:53
Speaker 1: to be covering the murders and the suspects and everything
57:57
Speaker 1: in the next episode, and I know, I finding, well,
58:01
Speaker 1: there's going to be some aresehol out there who's going
58:03
Speaker 1: to be like, anyway, keep it jervying filment. You'd be
58:06
Speaker 1: able to gig it into one episode, which first of all,
58:09
Speaker 1: piss off into no. No, I would not like I
58:14
Speaker 1: would have to remove information because the next episode it's long.
58:20
Speaker 1: It's longer than this, and that's without me having jibber
58:25
Speaker 1: jabber at the beginning, like it's before all that, And
58:27
Speaker 1: that's without me having the sources in because they're here.
58:30
Speaker 1: I put them in here so that you wouldn't have
58:33
Speaker 1: to have them next. Now, in order for me to
58:38
Speaker 1: tell the story and have it so succinct it would
58:41
Speaker 1: fit into one episode, I would have to remove a
58:44
Speaker 1: lot of information about the victims. And I won't do
58:47
Speaker 1: it because we brush over them or I see them
58:50
Speaker 1: always brushed over as if they weren't fully fledged people
58:54
Speaker 1: whose lives were fucking snuffed out, and they deserve more
58:57
Speaker 1: respect for that, and so I'm not going to ignore
59:01
Speaker 1: the people they were before they were killed. And now
59:07
Speaker 1: here's the thing as well, This is not me shitting
59:08
Speaker 1: on other podcasts like they are dealing with a lot
59:10
Speaker 1: of the information they have available to them. I have
59:15
Speaker 1: access to more information because of what I do, like
59:18
Speaker 1: as a historian and as a sociologist. Okay, it also
59:23
Speaker 1: helps that my area of expertise in history is the
59:26
Speaker 1: rise of sensationalism and the use of print as propaganda
59:30
Speaker 1: in the late modern period. So I'm already using a
59:33
Speaker 1: lot of these resources, and I already versed in them,
59:38
Speaker 1: so I'm not going second and third hand for information
59:41
Speaker 1: a lot of the time, which is what a lot
59:43
Speaker 1: of these people have to do. And so again, also,
59:48
Speaker 1: I listen to true crime podcasts for fun. Okay, they
59:52
Speaker 1: sue me. Okay, we've been through this, and I don't
59:56
Speaker 1: think it's fair to be shitting on other podcasts because
59:58
Speaker 1: a lot of them are doing their best. Now there's
1:00:00
Speaker 1: one that I don't like, and I'm not gonna talk
1:00:02
Speaker 1: about it because they're shit and mean and I don't
1:00:07
Speaker 1: respect them for the way that they treat victims or
1:00:11
Speaker 1: the fact that they don't know how to read of
1:00:12
Speaker 1: fucking autopsy a report. But I'm not gonna get into that.
1:00:15
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get into that. Okay, Now, oh yeah, Belfast.
1:00:19
Speaker 1: I have a show in Belfast February first. I kept
1:00:23
Speaker 1: thinking it was January thirty first. It is February first.
1:00:26
Speaker 1: It's like Saint Bridget's Day or the day before Saint
1:00:31
Speaker 1: Bridget's Day. It's in bulk over here in Ireland, and
1:00:35
Speaker 1: I'm in Belfast. I'm in the Sunflower Comedy Club. It
1:00:38
Speaker 1: is gonna be fun. I'm gonna tell jokes. I'm gonna
1:00:41
Speaker 1: be full of pasta because I'm going to an Italian
1:00:44
Speaker 1: restaurant before so I'm definitely gonna wear some kind of
1:00:48
Speaker 1: corset because I'm just like man, I'm gonna eat. I'm
1:00:52
Speaker 1: gonna eat my wait in pasta. But of course before
1:00:55
Speaker 1: we go anywhere else. Recommendation time, You know what, you
1:01:01
Speaker 1: know what, It's twenty twenty six recommendation time. You know
1:01:04
Speaker 1: what I'm going to do this week is I'm going
1:01:06
Speaker 1: to recommend my friends stuff because i haven't read anything
1:01:09
Speaker 1: new this week because I've been so busy with this.
1:01:13
Speaker 1: So I'm going to recommend for reading Tart by Becky
1:01:19
Speaker 1: Jane Crossley. It is fiction. It is the story of
1:01:24
Speaker 1: a bisexual lady. So enjoy for listening. For listening, there
1:01:32
Speaker 1: is a podcast by a longtime friend of this podcast
1:01:37
Speaker 1: called on Fire for History, which is a u n
1:01:41
Speaker 1: on Fire for History. There's the amount this person knows
1:01:46
Speaker 1: about Alexander Hamilton and and the pamphlet they will on it.
1:01:52
Speaker 1: They will be a guest on the show at some
1:01:54
Speaker 1: point when I can finally organize that. But you should.
1:01:57
Speaker 1: You should go listen to it. They're great for watching.
1:02:03
Speaker 1: You know what, You know what, Stranger Things, you know
1:02:06
Speaker 1: what it was. It was a bit wobbly for a minute,
1:02:08
Speaker 1: but I for one enjoyed the finale. Right here. Here's
1:02:13
Speaker 1: the thing. At the end of the day, Stranger Things
1:02:15
Speaker 1: was a love letter to eighties media, and it ended
1:02:20
Speaker 1: exactly like a love letter to eighties media would like,
1:02:25
Speaker 1: we're so used to these big, shocking, terrifying, sort of
1:02:31
Speaker 1: big heart gut wrenching finales of shows that we can't
1:02:36
Speaker 1: enjoy a happy ending spoilers, well, a happy ending for
1:02:41
Speaker 1: some people some some others did not get a happy ending,
1:02:44
Speaker 1: and also it's kind of about who did. Anyway, I'm
1:02:47
Speaker 1: not going to get into it, but go watch it,
1:02:51
Speaker 1: enjoy it as a whole. You know, you're allowed to
1:02:55
Speaker 1: grieve when something ends, just don't be a dick about it.
1:02:58
Speaker 1: And with that, I will see you in the next
1:03:02
Speaker 1: episode very soon. Adios. Au revoir of Wierzen My Friends,
1:03:07
Speaker 1: Bibbe