The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of a Town in Terror (31 page)

Whether Tackett’s theory explained the evening or not, several items stood out in Swinney’s account. He had no alibi other than his own claims for his whereabouts from the time Roberts and Peggy left his presence. No one corroborated his claims. His statement seemed to be given in the context of the attack night, as he carefully crafted the events to provide an alibi for the crimes. Had he been referring to the following—Saturday—night, it would not have mattered at what time they parted company or even what had taken place.

There was, furthermore, the fact that this particular statement was given to the Arkansas state police on July 30, five months after the evening in question. By that time, the events themselves would hold supremacy over exactly which date and time the events had occurred. The emotional memory, if it was strong enough, would stand out more forcibly than a particular date.

Most of all, Swinney presented no supported alibi to account for himself during the minutes a man and woman were being assaulted.

The next portion of Swinney’s statement to the state police contained his version of his movements in April. He cited his itinerary but dwelled on no details. His account covered the critical weekend when Paul Martin and Betty Jo Booker were murdered, but mentioned only that he and Peggy had stayed at her parents’ home. This version conflicted radically with what Peggy had said earlier. The one thing they both agreed on was that they were in Texarkana that tragic weekend. He offered no specific information about the rest of the spring, as he retraced his movements ending in Antoine later in April.

The interrogation then turned back to March and the weekend of the Griffin-Moore murders. He abandoned a stolen Hudson sedan and they spent the night at a motel. The next day they rented a tourist cabin where, he claimed, he spent the night with Peggy. Earlier he’d roamed about town on foot, then joined Peggy at “about” eleven
P.M.
This would have placed him with Peggy when the Griffin-Moore murders occurred.

“Spent rest of night in cabin with Peggy. Spent all day Sunday in the cabin. About dark on the 24 March I left Peggy in the cabin and went to town. I stole a 1941 Plymouth sedan near a church downtown.”

Again, he had presented a shaky alibi for the hours during which Richard Griffin and Polly Moore were murdered. Peggy was his alibi, and earlier she had given a different account of the evening.

Then after dark he stole a car, which he used to leave town. He did not hesitate to admit the car-theft felony, in fact, seemed almost eager to confess it.

Essentially, he had confirmed that he’d had the opportunity to commit all of the Texas-side crimes, by virtue of having been in Texarkana without a solid alibi on any of the occasions.

When questions zeroed in on the murders, Swinney was never forthcoming. He wouldn’t discuss them. “Man, I wadn’t here,” he’d insist, even though it was proved that he was. “I didn’t have nothing to do with it.” Repeatedly he denied everything but stealing cars.

A
rmed with statements from the prisoners, Tackett and cohorts interviewed a series of witnesses keyed to Swinney’s actions while at Antoine, Arkansas.

• Kelly Caldwell: “On Friday, May 3, 1946, I was at a café in Antoine. Youell Swinney came by the café about dusk dark and told me that he was going to Texarkana and asked me if I wished to send any word to my brother who lives in Texarkana. Peggy Stevens was with Swinney. He turned and drove down the street and turned toward Prescott road and out of sight.”

• Leonard Hare: “On Saturday, May 4, 1946—I am positive of this date because it was the Saturday following Virgil Starks’s death in Texarkana—I saw Swinney and some woman who I presumed to be Peggy Stevens come into Antoine from
the cut-off road leading to the Delight and Prescott road. They turned and passed directly in front of my house and entered Highway 26, which is the main Delight and Antoine road. It was just breaking daylight when I saw them. I had seen the two of them several times and knew it to be Swinney and the car he had been driving.”

• Clyde Lamb: “Lee Swinney, Louis Lamb, and myself went to Murfreesboro, Arkansas, on Friday or Saturday 19 or 20 of April to see about a job. The following Monday we went to work. Everett Lamb, Louie Lamb, and Jack Barton rode with Swinney to work and back, a distance of about seventeen miles. Rode with him until May 3. This was last day.”

• Everett Lamb: “Swinney told me that he was going to Texarkana late in the afternoon of May 3, 1946, and that he was not going to work any more on the Murfreesboro job, as he had no place to stay, and that we would have to secure rides with someone else. All the time that I have known Swinney at Antoine he has told me several times that he was going to Texarkana and he would leave the job. On one occasion I had to catch a ride from work to home because Swinney had left the job and was not there to carry me home.”

Tackett entered a note: “Everett Lamb stated that Swinney told him that on one occasion he was stopped and checked by the police near Texarkana in connection with those murders.”

• Jack Barton: “I rode to and from work with Swinney in his car. On one occasion Swinney tried to sell me his car, but I could not buy it. I loaned Swinney fifteen dollars at one time, but he paid me back. I left a pair of cheap white cotton gloves in Swinney’s car; they had a blue cuff. Swinney talked once to me about going squirrel hunting and asked
me if I had any guns. He said that he might be able to get one from Louie Lamb.

“I believe that Swinney went to Texarkana every Saturday that he was in this part of the country. I remember only Saturday that Swinney did not leave town. On one occasion I saw Swinney arranging his trousers and I glimpsed a large roll of money folded in the middle fastened in some way to his underwear in such a way that it was held in place by his belt, this was about a week or maybe less before he left here for good.

“Swinney told me that at one time he and his wife were parked near Texarkana and a policeman came up to the car and told them that they were in danger and might get killed by the Phantom Killer.

“About dusk dark on Friday, May 3, 1946, Swinney came to my house and told me that I would have to get another ride as he was leaving the job and going to Texarkana. However, I believe that on Saturday morning, May 4. 1946, I rode to work with Swinney. I am not sure Everett Lamb rode or not.”

• Mrs. Louis Lamb: “My sister Peggy Stevens and Youell Lee Swinney arrived at my house on Wednesday before Easter Sunday which is the seventeenth day of April, I think. That was the first time I had ever seen Youell Lee Swinney. We went to Hot Springs on Easter Sunday. On the following Monday Swinney and my husband started working at Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Swinney and Peggy boarded at my house until May 3, 1946.

“Immediately after Swinney and my husband arrived home from work on the afternoon of May 3, we engaged in a quarrel concerning some board money due me. I asked Swinney and Peggy to leave. I left and went to a neighbor’s home and when I returned they were leaving. This was shortly before dark. My husband told me that he saw
Swinney and Peggy in the car in Antoine about five
A.M.
Saturday morning, May 4.”

The witnesses filled out the picture that had Swinney leaving abruptly following a quarrel with Peggy’s sister, going to Texarkana the evening of Friday, May 3. He and Peggy were seen the following Saturday morning back in the Antoine area, and they were in Nashville at noon that day, having the car repaired. He was known to have gone to Texarkana almost every weekend. On the critical Friday evening he had headed toward, then back from, Texarkana, which would have taken him by the Starks home, in an emotional state hardly conducive to calm behavior.

Equally intriguing were Swinney’s comments that, while parked near Texarkana, a policeman had warned him and Peggy that the Phantom killer was loose and they were in danger by parking there. They had been perceived as potential victims of the killer, because they were a couple. He had told this account to two men, Everett Lamb and Jack Barton. Considering the tenor of the times, it’s almost certain that if Swinney had been alone he would have been taken into custody and investigated, as was many another man by himself during that time. Most of all, his car, which was stolen, would have been checked out, leading to his arrest.

Peggy was his shield, his “cover.” Her presence must have protected him on more than one occasion. Little thought seems to have been given to the possibility that the Phantom might have had a girl friend or wife. If policemen had taken the license number, a check would have revealed a stolen car.

The faded khaki work shirt found among Swinney’s clothing immediately became a focal point of the investigation. The laundry mark wasn’t Swinney’s. The shirt was faded. On the collar a dim mark,
STARK
, had
no S on the end of the name but was close enough to the slain man’s surname to raise suspicions. Most laundry marks did not spell out the owner’s full name unless it was quite short. It made sense to believe that
STARK
was the mark for
STARKS
. It was too close to be ignored. The old laundry mark could be seen with the naked eye but all of the letters weren’t clear. To satisfy any doubts, Sheriff Davis sent the shirt to the FBI lab for confirmation. Under a black light the full laundry mark was verified.

In the shirt pocket they also found fragments of metallic matter that could have come from a welding shop.

On July 21 the FBI sent a Teletype message to its Little Rock office.

MR. VIRGIL STARKS. VICTIM OF MURDER. DEBRIS FROM POCKETS OF TAN SHIRT FROM SUSPECT CONTAINS MAGNETIC METAL SLAG BALLS, SIMILAR TO THOSE IN GRINDING AND WELDING OPERATIONS. HUMAN BROWN HAIR FRAGMENTS ALSO FOUND. SUGGEST KNOWN HAIR SPECIMENS FROM STARKS AND FROM SUSPECT. QUANTITY OF SAND ALSO FOUND. SUGGEST SAND SAMPLES BE SUBMITTED FROM STARKS RESIDENCE FOR COMPARISON
.

[
J. EDGAR
]
HOOVER

Starks was long buried by then, with no hair samples available. Had DNA testing been a reality, positive data probably could have been obtained, but that technology would be decades in the future.

Tackett and Johnson took a dozen pillboxes to the Starks farm and collected samples at random. The welding shop had a dirt floor. The two men scooped up shavings, soil, and slag from different parts of the shop. They sent their collection to the FBI lab.

The report came back that the metal fragments in the shirt were “matching and similar” to those in the Starks welding shop. This was good evidence, but it didn’t go far enough.

The shirt was almost identified by the surviving victim. “This shirt was taken to Mrs. Starks,” said Tackett, “and she said, yes, that was her husband’s shirt and she pointed to a place on the front of the shirt where she remembered personally repairing it.

“But on reflection the next day or so she said she couldn’t be sure. She knew it would mean death for the suspect, based on her identification of the shirt, and she said she could not positively identify it. The name was spelled
STARK
instead of
STARKS
, and any woman would have repaired a damaged place such as that on her husband’s shirt.”

Johnson then took the shirt to the three laundries in town. At the third one, Nelson-Huckins, a leading laundry on the Texas side, the manager acknowledged it was their mark. It belonged to one Billie Starr, madam of a well-known brothel several blocks away. All of the whorehouses were situated in Texarkana, Texas; the Arkansas-side police didn’t tolerate them.

Armed with the shirt and the laundry’s assessment, Johnson headed for the Star Club at 807 West Fourth Street in Texarkana’s notorious red-light district. Billie Starr’s bordello was housed in a long, one-story dormitory-style building at the bottom of the street and across from her major competitor, Fannie’s. He rang the bell at the front door of the white frame structure and waited. He waited a long while. Finally, the proprietress appeared in a robe, unsmiling, and asked him what he wanted—at that time of day, her expression implied. He told her briefly without disclosing the heart of his mission.

“I can’t see you right now, Mr. Johnson,” Ms. Starr said. “I was in bed. We work late. You woke me up. You’ll have to wait till I get dressed.”

She ushered the chief deputy into the parlor.

When she reappeared, she had her makeup on and her hair combed. Johnson held the rough khaki shirt up for her inspection, explaining that the laundry records showed it had her code on it.

She handled it gingerly, inspected it with an imperial glance, and sniffed.

“We don’t have customers who’d wear shirts like this!” she said haughtily. Handing the shirt back to him, she dismissed the subject.

Studied closely, each letter of the word
STARK
was more faded than the one preceding it. A quick glance might overlook the terminal K. Years later, when it was too late to be of practical use and the laundry records no longer existed, Johnson realized that the man at the laundry, with a cursory look, must have missed the K. Seeing only
STAR
, he immediately
recognized Billie Starr’s mark, and had assumed it was hers, or at least one of her clients’. Johnson felt he had come close to tying the shirt to Starks. If a laundry already had a mark for STAR, it would assign a different mark to Starks, the most logical way being to simply add the next letter, K. Johnson worried about this, but by then there was nothing more he could do.

If the shirt did belong to Starks it was easily explained how it had come into Swinney’s possession, linking him tightly to the crime. Swinney frequently stole clothing. If he’d been at the scene that night, looking for something to steal, he would have entered the welding shop, flashlight in hand. The shirt was oversized for Swinney but would have fit Starks, who was brawny and muscular. A work shirt would have been as useful as any other item. At a time when Swinney was employed as a laborer, its utility would have been obvious.