Texarkana was once a "town that dredded sundown"

By Feb. 27, 1946, a five-day old press blackout had sprung a leak and the people of Texarkana learned by word-of-mouth about a violent attack at a local lovers lane.

The savage career of the northeast Texas killer nicknamed "The Phantom Slayer" began on the night of Feb. 22. The fiend's first victims miraculously survived, but his subsequent targets were not so lucky as the city astride the Texas-Arkansas border became "the town that dreaded sundown."

Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey, ages 23 and 19, parked in secluded Spring Lake Park, a romantic retreat popular with Texarkana youth. Suddenly a masked figure appeared at the driver's door, dragged Hollis from the car and beat him unconscious. The girl was then pummeled and molested before the headlights of an approaching vehicle scared off the assailant.

Conflicting accounts from the battered couple gave police little to go on. One believed the attacker was a white man, while the other swore he was black. Convinced premature press coverage would cause unnecessary concern and lessen their chances of catching the culprit, authorities tried in vain to keep a tight lid on the frightening story.

A month and two days later, the bodies of a young man and his 17 year old female companion were discovered at the same site. Both had been shot twice in the head.

This time the gruesome news could not be suppressed, and a morbidly curious crowd overran the crime scene obliterating all clues before police could comb the area. To make matters worse, the hasty embalming of the girl's body prevented important post-mortem tests.

Hysteria swept the normally tranquil community of 20,000. Critics of the besieged police charged that two lives might have been saved by public disclosure of the earlier incident. Within hours merchants sold out of firearms, ammunition and heavy-duty door locks as the citizens of Texarkana fortified their homes and businesses against the mysterious menace.

A team of Texas Rangers led by M.T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas soon arrived. Although in the twilight of a celebrated career dating back to 1920, the one and only Ranger of Hispanic descent was still a top-notch detective as well as the best known lawman in the state.

The Rangers offered to stay indefinitely in order to lend a helping hand, but wounded pride and a sullied reputation caused the Texarkana cops to refuse the expert assistance.

Three weeks to the day after the double homicide, two high school students selected Spring Lake Park for a late-night tryst in spite of the tidal wave of warnings. Slain in the same execution style, they were found dead the next morning.

The grisly killings made sensational front-page copy across the country as a pack of reporters descended upon the stunned town. As if the facts were not lurid enough, several newshounds started a nerve-wracking countdown to the anticipated date of the next murder.

Texarkana lived on a steady diet of raw fear, which escalated into mass paranoia. A Western Union messenger boy narrowly avoided an early grave, when a trigger-happy telegram recipient mistook him for the Phantom. Visitors were advised for their protection to clear the streets by twilight, and Texarkana after dark turned into a ghost town.

Ranger Gonzaullas eventually returned and took charge of the case. Over a thousand suspects were questioned, and every plausible lead exhausted. Police decoys, with one of the two officers disguised as a woman, were stationed nightly at isolated locations, but the Phantom did not take the bait.

On May 3, 1946, 48 hours before the deadline, the serial assassin set his sights on a couple in rural Arkansas ten miles northeast of Texarkana. Virgil Stark was relaxing in his recliner listening to the radio, when a bullet crashed through a window killing him instantly.

His horrified wife ran to the telephone but was shot twice in the face before she finished dialing. Amazingly she summoned the strength to stagger outside and made her way to the nearest neighbor. Even more incredible, Mrs. Stark recovered from her wounds.

Four days later, the corpse of an unidentified man turned up along a stretch of railroad tracks on the outskirts of Texarkana. In all likelihood he was a drifter, whose only crime was hopping one freight too many. Nevertheless, many emotionally drained inhabitants convinced themselves that the unclaimed remains were those of the Phantom.

"Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas never shared that overly optimistic opinion. After his retirement in 1951, he revealed that his investigation did yield a prime suspect but not enough evidence for arrest and prosecution.

The famous Ranger implied that the Phantom Slayer was alive and well and walking the streets of Texarkana.

Bartee Haile welcomes your comments, questions and suggestions at haile@pdq.net or P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549. And don't forget to visit www.twith.com!