WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Texarkana Moonlight Murders 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.600 Hey guys, Steve here, you are listening to one of 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.600 our original twenty six episodes. If you've listen to any 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.280 of our new episodes, you're gonna notice that we're sounding 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:11.639 a little different in these ones. Yeah, there's a reason 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:14.480 for that. There is they've been remastered. They have been 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.040 remastered because they had a really annoying hum. Yeah, I 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.480 mean a huge thanks to listener James for doing almost 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:23.880 all of the legwork on this thing. They'll also notice 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:25.880 if you had listened to what we're calling the last 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.639 twenty six episodes before and you're re listening now, the 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.160 music and sound effects are gone. Yes, we've we've gone 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.720 back to straight audio, so be warned. We sound a 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.040 little different today than we do in what you're about 0:00:38.040 --> 0:01:01.240 to listen to. Yeah, bye bye, Hi there, thanks for 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.600 joining the show again. This is Thinking Sideways the podcast, 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.000 and I am Steve as always, I'm joined by Joe 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:12.000 Hello and Devin Hi, and we who decided to give 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.600 you a little bit of a holiday extrass. Since it 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.080 is Halloween. We're gonna pull around the campfire. We're gonna 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.720 tell a creepy story. Yeah, pretty excited. We don't usually 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:24.800 do this, No, now, this one's a little little out 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.200 of our ballpark. But that's okay, So let's let's well, actually, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.760 before we get into the show, I do want to 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.200 say something for listeners. Uh, this story, ladies and gentlemen 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.039 that we're gonna go into has some pretty graphic details 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.920 in it, and it's got a lot of violence in it. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.520 So you're not into that thing, or you're gonna be 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.480 listening to the show and there's some some kids around 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.280 or younger folks, you might want to just skip this 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.880 show because it's probably not the style that you want 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.400 to go into. Okay, Well, there to night we are 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.680 going to talk about what is referred to as the 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:06.240 tech Sarcanna Moonlight Murders Texarcana. Yeah, didn't they base a 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.280 movie on that town that in fear? I think it's 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.800 that dreaded sundown. Yeah, have you seen that? No? I haven't. 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.720 Actually I haven't either. I've just I've been through tex 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.720 Arcana on a train and I can tell you that 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.040 when you stop at what seems to be the train 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.280 station and then go the building seems to transition into 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.320 a jail. So I don't know if that's real or not, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.320 but in my mind, tex Arcana is the place where 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.280 the train station is the same building as the jail. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.400 Good thing. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, So here's the story. 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.519 Um and spring at six or a series of fairly 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.360 grizzly murders were committed, most about three or four weeks apart, 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.360 and eventually put the whole town of Texarcana into a 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.919 tremendous state of terror, both people buying guns and nailing 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.560 their windows shut and buying dolber buying Doberman pinchers to 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.360 guard the house. The slayer was never caught. He was 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.200 eventually nicknamed the Phantom Killer. Alternatively, he was called the 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:11.000 Phantom Slayer. It's unknown why he killed these people, and 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.120 it's unknown if you committed other murders besides this or what. 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.320 It's all just a big mystery because they never caught 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:22.160 the killer. Yeah, that's the scary part, one of the 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.399 scary parts of the many scary parts of this very 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.280 scary story. It's possibly you and and sometimes it's in 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.240 a series of crimes like this, the killer does get caught, 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.720 but for another crime. It might very well be that 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:35.600 this guy went away for something else, and that's why 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.040 the murders stopped that's a possibility. But we're getting ahead 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:43.440 of ourselves. Yeah yeah, So let's uh, let's talk about 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:50.560 the attacks. The first attack took place on February twenty second, 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:57.760 around midnight. The first victims were Jimmy Hollis, who was 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:03.720 twenty four, and his girl friend Mary Jean Larry. Now, 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:05.360 what do you do when you're in a small town 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:07.200 and you want to get away? They were parked out 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.080 on a lover's lane. They were gonna have us included 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:13.320 evening together. They've been there about ten minutes when suddenly 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.159 somebody knocked on the window. Jimmy looked up and he 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.560 thought it was going to be a cop, but instead 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.359 he saw a guy wearing a white hood pointing a 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.719 gun in his face, and he said, felly, you got 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.960 me mixed up with someone else. You've got the wrong man. 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:33.880 I gotta say, I gotta say, that's that's pretty cool 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.000 demeanor on his part. If I say somebody like, you know, 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:37.800 with a gun in a white hood, and I wouldn't 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:39.560 be saying, oh, you got me mixed up with somebody else. 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.279 I'd be handing my wallet or whatever. Well that's the 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.480 first thing you would think. But this, uh, this the 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.359 suspect had what we now are pretty sure is a 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:55.000 thirty two caliber handgun pointing at him, and he said, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:56.800 I don't want to kill you, fellows to do what 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.720 I say. He then proceeded to order them both to 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.240 get out of the car, and the quote, which was 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.880 taken from the police report, says, take off your bleeping bridges, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.239 at which point his girlfriend Mary Jean said, basically, please 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.400 do what he says. Just do what he says. So 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.960 he goes. He goes ahead, and he takes off his pants. 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.359 But while he's bent over taking off his pants, he 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.039 gets clubbed in the head. He gets hit so hard, 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.320 the noises so loud that his girlfriend Mary thinks that 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.720 he's actually been shot. So he got hit with that 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.159 much force, and it turned out it turned out that 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.680 it was actually a skull cracking. Yes, it was his 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:39.400 skull cracking. That's that's really hard. Apparently a skull is 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.880 cracked in three places. Yeah, which not not something I'd 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.640 want to have happened. So what happens here is our 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:51.400 our assailant then of course pulls his wallet out, Jimmy's 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.840 wallet out, and goes through and discovers he doesn't have 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:58.320 any money. And gets a little upset and starts talking 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.720 to Mary and is upset about and says, no, I'm 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.000 sorry he has no money, at which point he's sure 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.080 that she has a purse and she says, well, no, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.599 I don't have a purse, and he doesn't believe her. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.200 He thinks that she's lying to him. He gets so 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.719 angry he hits her and knocks her to the ground, 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.240 and she's on the ground. She starts to get up, 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.279 and he says something along the lines of run. She 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.839 starts to run away from him towards the ditch that's 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.599 on the side of the road and tell HER's, no, 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.320 don't run that way, run down the road. So of 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.560 course she turns around. She starts running down the road. 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:36.560 He runs and catches up with her and knocks her 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:41.520 down again, and he says, why are you running? She says, 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.799 the logical thing, because you told me to, at which 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.919 point he starts telling her that. He starts saying she's 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:55.279 a liar and that he's gonna kill her, and he 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.040 knocks her down again, and this is where the gorries 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:03.360 parts start happening, because he sexually assault her with his gun. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.400 Not a lot of details are there, as to exactly 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:09.120 what happened, and I don't think any of us want 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.520 to know exactly what happened. But she used the guns 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.640 of unsafe. It's it does and there's there's multiple puns there, 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.000 but we're not going to go there today. After he 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.840 had finished that, he started to go back towards Jimmy, 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.600 if I understand correctly, at which point she stood up 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.440 and she ran away again. This time she was able 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.080 to get to a house and knock on the door 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.960 and get the people who were home to wake up, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.360 tell them what was happening, and call the police. Now, 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.000 didn't the um police not believe her at first that 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.200 she didn't know who it was that did it? Yes, 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.000 the police, and her statements that she's given years, had 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.320 given years after the fact, said she didn't understand why 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:59.800 the police were continually telling her, no, you know the assailant, 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.240 you know who it was, which, let's be honest, nothing 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.040 like this has happened in the town, and they're pretty 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.200 sure it's probably somebody that they know. It's probably a 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.880 rendezvous gone bad, and she's trying to protect them. That's 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.520 what I would presume the cops are thinking that they 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.440 haven't obviously no idea what's going to come down doesn't 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.720 doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense. So because if 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.320 she wants to protect him, that she wouldn't go to 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.239 the cops to begin with, you're right, right, but people 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:27.720 do things in the heat of the moment. She might 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.200 have changed her mind. But regardless, the cops show up 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.600 and they find Jimmy and he's obviously not doing so well, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.360 and they take him to the hospital. But they both 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:41.440 survived the attack, and they're able to give accounts of 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:45.760 it to the police, and they are able to give 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.360 what end up being very different accounts in terms of 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.000 what their attacker looked like, because if you remember, I said, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:54.640 he had a sack over his head, so we had 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.600 eye holes cut out at a mouth hole cutouts, and 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.679 that was it. And I believe here it is. So 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:06.560 Jimmy believed that it was quote unquote a dark tanned 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:11.480 white man, whereas Mary believed it was a light skinned 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.800 quote unquote negro because of the way he pronounced the 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.920 curse words he growled. But we don't know which it was. 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.959 They never agreed on what it was, and so it 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.280 didn't help the case at all. Did they agree on 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.719 anything else? About his physical appearance. They both said that 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:32.520 he was approximately six ft tall, and that's kind of 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.280 where it ends. And that's the hard part is with 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.200 the records. It's a little difficult because original records are 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.720 hard to get hold of anymore. But that's that's the 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.200 best we've got out of their descriptions. Essentially, you're the 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.000 simplest version that I should say. So. The next attack 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:53.320 happened about four weeks later on March um and Richard 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.240 Griffin he was twenty nine, and his girlfriend of six weeks, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.360 Polly Anne Moore, who was seventeen, were found dead in 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.840 Richard's car between like eight thirty or nine UM in 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.240 the morning by a driver that was passing by, and 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.160 the driver stated that he originally thought that they were 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.320 asleep in the car, but as soon as he walked 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.280 up to it realized, oh no, they're not asleep, they're dead. 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.320 So he called the police and they came out. Richard 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.640 was found in between the seats on his knees with 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.360 his head resting on his hands, um in his pocket 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.440 pockets had been turned out so like he had been robbed. 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.920 It looks like a robbery. And Paully was found sprawled 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.200 face down in the back seat. Griffin had been shot 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.880 twice and Polly had been shot once. Both of them 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.080 had been shot in the back of the head. Polly's 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.920 purse was next to her in the back seat, however, 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:44.040 so maybe it wasn't actually robbery. That's one of the 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.080 things they found was a section of ground about twenty 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.560 ft from the car that was saturated in dry blood. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.360 Blood was spattered throughout the vehicle and um mrs gross 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.640 congealed blood was found flowing through the bottom of the 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:02.760 door off of the dashboard a lot of luck. Yeah, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:04.960 there was a blanket also found in the car, and 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.440 it had thirty two cartridge shells that were believed to 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:10.600 be shot from the same kind of gun used in 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.520 the first crime. There inside of the blanket. There was 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.240 no gun ever found, so it couldn't be ruled a 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.720 murder suicide. And the theory was that the assailant had 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.240 wrapped the gun in the blanket and shot it as 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.880 a sort of muffler because those cartridges were found inside 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.160 of the blanket, so and it had rained overnight, so 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.720 they couldn't find any kind of footprints or anything like that. Additionally, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:38.600 I think you know, in my mind. If you think 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:40.760 of a woman sprawled face down in the backseat of 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.720 a car and it's traced to the crime that had 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.800 happened previously. I think there was probably some kind of 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.960 sexual assault play that had happened, except her body was 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:56.000 taken and they had the examiners examine it not for rape, 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.240 but like cut her open and do that kind of autopsy. Yeah, 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:01.760 before or they could ever do any kind of rape anything. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:03.959 So we don't actually know if she was actually assalted 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.360 or not because then they like screw up and cary 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.520 your body away to the mortuary, and she was embalmed 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.720 and all that stuff. Yeah, that's the second murder, a 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.719 lot of the third one. So attack. Yeah, So three 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.680 weeks go by and nobody gets killed. Everybody's starting to think, hey, 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:20.920 everything's all right, and then I guess what, two more 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.760 people get killed. So this happened that The victims were 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.480 Paul Martin and Betty Joe Booker on Saturday night, April thirteen. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.720 Betty Joe Booker did I say? She was fifteen PM. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.440 So she was playing her saxophone in a band that 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.920 she played with in a bar, and she got away 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:37.960 with it because you know, her parents wrote her a 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.280 note or something like that. But but she played with 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.800 this band on a regular basis and they finished up 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:46.160 about one thirty am and her friend Paul Martin, who 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.120 was sixteen. Childhood friend was to pick her up and 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.319 take her home. So at some point after one thirty 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.360 am and before six thirty am, when Paul's body was found, 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.079 they were killed by apparently a thirty two automatic. His 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.440 body was found about six thirty am. It was lying 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.880 on his left side on the side of the North 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.800 Park Road, found a little bit further down on the 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.120 other side of the road by offence. He'd been shot 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.959 four times, once through the nose, once to the ribs, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.280 one in the right hand, and a fourth through the 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.080 back of the neck and it exited the front of 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.080 his head. That is a lot of shots, a lot 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.320 of times. Yeah, yeah, a lot of a lot of 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.480 spray in there. I'm not sure exactly what was going on. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.040 I mean, And once you're the hand almost seems as 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.040 if it's a defensive wound. Somebody points a gun and 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:36.880 you try to move and you've got your hands up, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.200 you're likely to get shot in the hands. So that 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.800 to me would almost explain that he was in some 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.800 prone position but trying to get away when shot through 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.720 the nose to the left of Yeah, it's three of 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.720 these wounds. I mean, they don't even though they're in 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:53.920 this particular order, that doesn't mean that the wounds actually 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.480 occurred in the three of them were in the back, 0:13:57.640 --> 0:13:59.600 I said, Well, the right hand, I don't say, but 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.440 me and so two and probably three were in the back, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.160 which you know, and maybe the kid that he was 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.000 running away, And so that's why I explain to see 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.719 low accuracy of the shots. And then probably the q 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.800 D grad one through the face was the last one, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:18.400 but I don't know speculation. So anyway, that's what's going 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.320 on with his body. Her body was nowhere to be found, 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.960 so search parties were organized and it was found about 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.720 eleven thirty am that day, about two miles away. He 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.800 was lying his back fully closed with a button overcoat. 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.800 She'd been shot twice, once in the ribs and once 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.640 in the face. The weapon is apparently the same at 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.320 thirty two automatic. Uh. Some people say that they believe 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.960 it was a thirty two automatic cold pistol, And there's 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.880 it's possible you can identify from the marketings on the cartridge. 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.400 You know what kind of a gun it actually is, 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:52.240 or it might be somebody just sort of put that 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.560 little tidbit in there. But yeah, thirty two. Back in 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.240 those days, thirty two is actually a pretty popular round. 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.840 It's not that popular these days. It's considered kind of marginal. 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:06.240 Still obviously pretty good at killing people. Unfortunate following Day's 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.960 newspaper had reports about it. They claimed the bodies were 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.440 not abuse that later rumors claimed that Betty had been raped. Well, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:14.280 so that's that's one of the things, right is this 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.880 nineteen forties and they're not big on reporting sexual So no, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:20.800 you don't talk about this. This is one of those 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.760 things that we just pushed into the car. Even post mortem. Yeah, 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.720 we don't. We don't discuss that that didn't happen. Now, Joe, 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.040 she was in the band and if I remember writing 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.560 in reading she she had her was it a saxophone 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.600 that she had? Yeah, she played the saxophone And when 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.040 they found her, they did not find her saxophone and 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.960 it was thought perhaps had been taken by the attacker somebody. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.840 The band leader did report that she had had her 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:49.440 saxople with hery when she left, and since it was 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.400 nowhere to be found. It wasn't found in Paul's car. 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:52.840 His car was by by the way I found a 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.520 few miles away, and the saxophone was not there, and 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.440 so that was considered to be a possible clue. I thought, well, 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.000 if we find a guy with the saxophone, obviously he's 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.360 our killer and won't give him the chair. Yes, sax 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.760 well was found about six months later. It was found 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.640 in Bush's pretty close to where her body had been found, 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.480 so it was not actually taken. It was probably just tossed. Yeah, 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.240 it's it's it's kind of unfortunate really that they didn't 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.040 find it that at that time because they had the 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.320 police actually wasted quite a bit of resources trying to 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:28.720 find that sax and whoever had that sex. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.560 we've got another murder that we're going to talk about 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.280 in the same series. And yeah, I know. This one 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:39.280 happened on Friday May three, sometime before nine o'clock in 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.920 the evening. There was a local farmer welder named Virgil 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.440 sat Or Starks. Virgil Starks come home. He had a 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.160 long day, his back was store, so he had his wife, 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.720 you know, give him a heating pad and he sat 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.440 down in a chair to listen to the radio and 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.560 and go through the newspaper and relaxed, and his wife 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.760 went and laid down in the bedroom. At which point, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.720 and this is again we don't have the exact times, 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.879 but summer before nine o'clock, someone came up to the 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:11.399 kitchen window and shot him through the window twice in 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.760 the back of the head. His wife reported not hearing 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.200 the shots, but actually hearing the sound of breaking glass, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.000 at which point she thought her husband had broken something. 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.640 She came out to see what the noise was, at 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.879 which point she saw that her husband was dead, and 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:37.280 she instantly turned around and went to run for the phone. 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.719 You've got to remember, ladies and gentlemen, this is the 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:46.159 nineteen forties, and telephones then weren't like they are today. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.480 They had a wall crank phone. It was probably a 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.000 party line too, it probably was. So she ran to 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:56.200 the phone, and she reported that she got two cranks 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:57.960 on the phone, and how these phones were correct me 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.600 if I'm wrong here, Joe, is that you take multiple 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.200 cranks to get to the operator to come through. Is that? 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:10.439 I have no idea, I don't know, But she she 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.880 got two cranks on the phone to try to get 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.840 someone to come on the line. The operator. The assailant, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:22.520 who was still outside the window, shot her twice. And 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:27.760 this woman is tough, because to survive what we're gonna 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.720 go through, you've got to be a really tough bird. Um. 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:37.800 She was shot from behind twice. One bullet entered her 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:42.600 right cheek and exited behind her left ear, and the 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.720 other went in her lower jaw, below her lip and 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:51.280 splintered her teeth and her jaw before it lodged in 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.120 just below her tongue. That is not a nice way 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:59.600 to be shot. Sound unpleasant, She she felt obviously fell down, 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.960 but she managed to get back up, and she ran 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:07.560 to get a pistol from the living room. But she's 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.320 bleeding so profusely. She's blinded by the amount of blood 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.800 that's coming out. Um. She she heard the killer tearing 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:20.040 loose the screen on her back porch, and you know, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.160 obviously enough she's figured she's gonna get killed, so she 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.840 starts to run towards the front of the house to 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.199 try to leave a note, which and I read that account, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.040 I was I was a little puzzled by that, because 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:34.760 if you can see well enough to write a note 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.040 you can see well enough to find I don't understand that, 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.680 and again in that state of mind, who yeah um. 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:43.960 At this point, the killer runs around to the back 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.120 of the house, makes his way up the porch steps 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.919 and into the side screen porch and their back screen, 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.800 and it's trying to come through a window. She can 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.320 hear him trying to come to basically tearing through the screen, 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:04.000 metal screen window, trying to get in. Mrs Starks turns around. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.920 She she runs through the house, down a hallway out 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:11.879 of bedroom and makes her way out the door on 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.359 the opposite side of the house, basically runs across the 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.040 street and eventually is able to go to a house 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.879 and get family. I believe it's her her brother and 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:26.280 sister in law who lived across the street. Across the street. Oh, 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.800 you're right, they weren't home, And so then she had 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:30.960 to go down to the next house down, which is 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.000 like fifty yards away, and she's barefoot in her nightgown. 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:44.320 The term they used leaving a literal river. She gets 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.720 to these people house, they opened the door, she says, 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:52.159 Virgil's dead, and she collapses. She eventually came to as 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.879 they were taking to the hospital. One side note this 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.919 I said, this lady was tough. This lady was super 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.480 tough because as they were taking her to the hospital, 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.600 because somebody just drove her to the hospital and her, 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.600 like we said, teeth falling out, she pulled out one 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.360 of her teeth that had a goals filling and gave 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.120 to the man driving the car as payment to take. 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:18.280 That's pretty cool, actually, just just for our for our 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.360 viewers knowledge. She eventually recovered from the wounds and wind 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.080 up remarrying and leaving to be a pretty ripe old age. Yeah. 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.280 I mean, she she was lucky she survived. The investigators, 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.120 as Devon had said, came to the house and they 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:35.200 found a trail of blood and scattered teeth throughout the house. 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:40.080 The lead investigator on this case at the second murder 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.399 an noown through this whole time, is a Texas ranger 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.080 by the name of Gonzalez. And Gonzalez walked through the 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.359 house and he said, it's beyond me why she didn't 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.320 bleed to death. That's a lot of blood. When the 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.239 cops says, how did you not bleed today? Yeah, by 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:58.000 the way, just as in the side, by the way, 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.359 by this by this point in time, the town was 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:04.480 flooded with state police, Texas rangers, County County cops, you 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:09.920 know everybody. Yeah, yeah, law enforcement was thick in this town. 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:12.000 And how that how this guy, and that might explain 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.320 why he stopped committing to murders. Maybe the figures there's 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:17.159 so many much, so many cops. Every other car there 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:19.560 rose a cop car. So maybe that's why I quit 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.479 moved on. Well, here's here's what we do know is 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.280 that when they checked out the house, there were only 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:29.720 two bullet holes in the window where Virgil was shot from, 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:33.479 so they're pretty sure that a was an automatic weapon 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:38.720 and be after shooting Virgil, the assailant had to wait, 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.960 had to have waited there for his wife to come 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:46.520