TX TX - The Texarkana Phantom (1946) *UNSOLVED*

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[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Killer"]Phantom Killer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]​
 
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/texarkana/index_1.html

The Phantom Killer: Texarkana Moon
1a.jpg
light Murders



From The Dark

"Why didn't he kill me? He killed so many others?"
— Mary Jeanne Larey, victim


 
Did Swinney live in Texarcana or in the nearby?
 
There are a couple newer sites devoted to the case
 
I remember seeing that low budget movie "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" that is very loosely based on this case back in the seventies.
Very disturbing.

I bought the Blu-ray/DVD version last week with one of my Father's Day gift cards. The audio commentry by Jim Presley fills in some of the information about the case. He, along with Michael Newton, was one of two authors who released books about the case in the last couple of years.
 
A list of named suspects:

1-Youell Swinney
2-Earl McSpadden
3-Henry Tennison
4-Jack Tarrance

Does anyone have any more to add?
 
I did recently learn that Jeanne Axford French had "Tex" written on her body in lipstick-that makes me wonder just a little. She was the woman who was stripped naked and stomped to death outside of L.A. in 1947. Her murder, that is often tied to Black Dahlia, is also unsolved.
 
Of the three victims who survived:

Mary Larey died in 1965
James Hollis died in 1975
Katherine Starks died in 1994
 
Larey and Hollis were dead before filming even began on the movie although there is a slight chance that Hollis might have heard that a film was in the planning stages. Mrs. Starks, who later remarried, was contacted by the film makers for her input but she wasn't interested in participating in the project.
 
Betty Jo Booker was a classmate of H. Ross Perot at Texas High School.
 
Betty Jo Booker was a classmate of H. Ross Perot at Texas High School.

Virginia Carpenter, who some think might be connected to the case, was a senior at the same HS when Booker and Perot were freshmen. She vanished in 1948 and was never found.
 
As best I can tell, 143 graduated in the relevant Booker/Perot class of 1947.
 
I did recently learn that Jeanne Axford French had "Tex" written on her body in lipstick-that makes me wonder just a little. She was the woman who was stripped naked and stomped to death outside of L.A. in 1947. Her murder, that is often tied to Black Dahlia, is also unsolved.

Ralph B. Baumann, 21, confessed to the Phantom murders in Los Angeles in late May of 1946 but wasn't taken very seriously. I wonder what happened to him.
 
going to have to check this case out..Never heard of it before..
 
I'll try to put up my "comprehensive" list of victims from canonical to far-fetched tomorrow. Looks like 19 victims-14 murders, 3 survivors and 2 disappearances.
 

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