The Phantom Killer of Texarkana - A True Crime Story

#truecrime phantomkiller #texarkana #strangeland
What's up!? Today, we are bringing you a new true crime video on "The Phantom Killer of Texarkana". Multiple movies have been spawned from this true story, but the true details in the story are the most horrifying, themselves. Enjoy and leave us a comment below :)
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We're a true crime channel that started as a podcast, and now mainly focuses on KZbin. We cover serial killers, murderers, and all around general psychopaths. We also want to cover more cult, and obscure stuff as well. Let us know in the comments what you like! We don't do ASMR ;)

[@pabloescobar7802]

I’m from Texarkana I grew up with my grandparents telling me about this and how they boarded their windows up .. my granddad would sleep in the living room with his shotgun.. truly creepy times especially for that time

[@somabdullah2789]

I like the last line "...reminding the people of Texarkana what the moonlight can hide ". Great video 👍 Thank you guys😊

[@Breeridl6181]

Loved this video. I’m from Texarkana, and this case is still baffling. Every October, the city would play The Town That Dreaded Sundown at Spring Lake Park. This case still lives on in the minds of many people today.

[@ghostwriter1415]

@Jebb34 probably the largest case in the VHS rental store. Most of the movies had an empty box the same size as the tape, but this movie had a giant plastic case that opened from the right, like a book!

[@pauljoyner4338]

​@@ghostwriter1415 It's called a "clam shell" container because of the way it closes around the tape. If you have a "clam shell" copy of Halloween(1978) by Media home video they are worth a small fortune. Star Wars in the "clam shell" is worth a mint also. They were rental copies only for Star Wars.

[@ghostwriter1415]

@@pauljoyner4338 damn man! I cant believe its been almost a year! I told someone else that there was a live interview with Youll Swinney here on YT, but I guess it's gone. I've looked everywhere for it to no avail. Anyhoo thanks for the reply! I have, The Goonies in clamshell, but it's pretty worn! Take care.

[@j.j._]

Awesome video/ episode. I always say when it comes to horror " less is more". Humans are terrified by the pillow case or gunny sack mask. Its so simple but effective.

[@ogdencastle]

Thanks!

[@johnscanlon2598]

Yes ! I think the most sinister looking mask ever in a movie was Scarecrow in the Dark Knight trilogy , just a. Burlap sack

[@cadillacdeville5828]

Thanks so much for the video ☺️📸.

[@joeyegerson3349]

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a fantastic slasher 🎥.

[@nctr3791]

the original or the remake? I've only seen the remake.

[@joeyegerson3349]

@@nctr3791 The remake.

[@comicsdude3166]

@@nctr3791 original is good too.

[@phantomcollector1976]

@@joeyegerson3349 IT'S NOT A REMAKE ITS A SEQUEL AND ITS A PILE OF CRAP THE ORIGINAL THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN IS AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE

[@bruh_hahaha]

the 2014 is an underrated slasher gem.

[@glam_goth6662]

One of my all time favorite movies. I went to Texarkana just to see the place!

[@GrandDawggy]

You where right with the community post, I'm only 5 mins in and it's gripping. Edit: yup this one crazy

[@vampirequeen953]

This case was definitely something else 😳😳 so many questions but really no real answers!! It's such a shame that individuals had lost their lives so horrifically!! WOW 🤯🤯 Anyway, thank you so much for a extremely interesting case!! I really appreciate it. You guys are simply awesome!! Again thank you!!

[@ktcooki276]

Yup!😁

[@anniej1834]

Smashed the like button now time 2 kick back and get stuck into the video thanks 4 the quality content 😃😁🤣

[@theresalaux5655]

I am so glad you guys are back! Good video!

[@bfgolf]

If if wasn't the car thief guy, I bet that the phantom called on the wrong house one night and ended up under a pond dam somewhere and nobody said a word.

[@b-049]

I think the phantom is the zodiac, both killed couples, both “hunted” at spots where couples hanged out, both used guns that were used by police or military, both had military boots, both used masks, and both were very tall and intelligent, Either the zodiac got influenced by the phantom, or are the same person, or it’s just a coincidence, which I don’t think it is,

[@Caden32105]

​​@@b-049they do seem very similar. If it was Zodiac he must have been born a long long time ago because the phantom killer was in 1946 and then the confirmed zodiac murders were all the way up into the late 60s. So maybe if Zodiac was born in the late 1920s or early 1930s he would've been around 20 years old which is what I would imagine his age to be around to be so intelligent and efficient with evading the police, then into the 1960s he would've been in his 30s or 40s and could've just decided to kill again. It's crazy we will most likely never know, and the killer or killers were out there for decades after they killed multiple people just walking around totally free.

[@OLEKBambo]

​@@b-049first time i see description like this. Zodiac is very tall ?

[@mrsd2950]

I’m glad you guys are back at it!

[@ogdencastle]

Appreciate ya!!

[@naominordfors9287]

Great video! I know i said it last week but I'm glad y'all are back:) ty

[@theresacarter2093]

This is great! Thanks a bunch for this video! This case haunts me 💀, such a sad and scary case❕Awesome way to start the Halloween season 👻!!

[@_i_am_unceded]

⭐ Honor and Respect⭐ Great writing. Great presentation and research. Keep evolving higher.

[@josephwarner9021]

Great Job! You guys are sounding great!

[@ogdencastle]

Thanks!

[@dfgiuy22]

Another good episode as always. I hope you guys still ENJOY doing this. Even when you blow up, which you will... only do it if it makes you happy. Your great story tellers and cover some more of the lesser known true crime. Make sure you look after yourselves and so long as your both up for it and able, looking forward to the next one! Cheers from down under!

[@emghee2510]

I think the suspect was proficient with fire arms only because it sounded like the wounds were placed on the same spots on the victims' bodies and how he was able to hit his last victim multiple times while she was on the move. I assume he was a WWII vet. I also think that it's odd his last hit was at a married couple's house. To me it's like he saved the best for last, almost like some vendetta. I listened to this in the car and all I thought of upon first impression is that perhaps this guy hated young lovers cos he was scorned when he was young. Idk why but im leaning on sayimg that he had a romantic failure in his youth with his last victim with the shattered jaw. I think he quit cos he assumed the surviving woman caught a glimpse of him. Also: Wouldnt it be a serious plot twist if the douchebag ranger ended up being the killer?

[@ronaldzeak6704]

Or he stopped because he had killed who he actually wanted to in the final case. I think thats the real best lead.

[@emghee2510]

@@ronaldzeak6704 as in he finally got that sweet revenge cos he killed Virgil, shattered jaw lady's husband? More than likely the dude she left him for? O_o bruhhh. This guy was fucken sick! However, his impunity in life won't match his punishment in death if you believe in that kind of thing.

[@johnscanlon2598]

The girlfriend went off with some guy to a lovers lane while he was over fighting a war

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

This is one of the very first serial killers whose spree was fairly quickly covered by the press/media - newspapers and radio news shows, which absolutely terrified the entire city and area for days, then weeks on end. The Phantom Killer was also I believe the first killer who disguised himself.

[@bqkmg2037]

Believe Ed Gein was the first his murder spree was in Wisconsin 1930s.

[@TiffanyWeiland]

My mom grew up in Texarkana, and most of her family lives there still. I'll have to ask her if she heard of this case. If I find anything juicy I'll share!

[@shaneryan7417]

Did you find any juicy details?

[@jasonl1942]

​@@shaneryan7417I think the phantom got to her...

[@MirrorMindYT]

Fantastic episode guys!

[@ogdencastle]

You’re fantastic

[@meredithk7610]

Nicely done..Good narration..

[@lisagentry2210]

He was a cop.. just my theory

[@lisagentry2210]

@specificphilosopher3107 I would have to go back and watch this again to give you an answer..I can't recall the story from 2 years ago

[@CBAGawd]

He was definitely somebody with "pull". I'm from TK and have always been aware of the case, but since recently appearing in my algorithm without me searching for it. I've begun to form theories. Mostly that it was more than one person & someone came from a good background, with connections.

[@daytonasayswhat9333]

You’re like soooo smart

[@cynthiar7350]

Mama’s best friend grew up in Texarkana & was 19 in Feb 1946. She was dating her future husband, after losing her 1st husband in WW2, like mama. She’s in her late 90’s now & remembers her mother telling them not to even sit in the driveway after a date because of the danger. She says she didn’t feel fearful, but maybe she was young & had already experienced tragedy. She does wish she knew who it was though.

[@lowrider81hd]

I’m just not sure Virgil and Katherine Starks were victims of the same killer, I always thought that was a more personal crime; but I guess they have evidence that convinced them… 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@ckenzor210]

Uuu,that is cool video

[@lyndsieb701]

Great video

[@stacyvonn8036]

Serial killers who wear wigs, masks, and other cloaks for their Identity often do so because of a Psychological Reason....Killers like Ed Gein made masks out of human flesh due to an Insane part of the brain that commanded it.... Other killers may have worn costumes for the thrill or enigmatic purposes...."Shock Effect" as part of their killer routine... But I often wondered if this Incident specifically because it remained Unsolved Rooted other Lovers Lane killers such as the Zodiac....🤔

[@ghostwriter1415]

There may be a connection there. I admire you're perspective, and connection between the two. L/R

[@incubustimelord5947]

Could it be connected to a veteran of World War Two? Possibly a soldier in the U.S. Army who was an infantryman and who had become mentally and emotionally unstable because of the violent deaths of American soldiers that he had witnessed, and because of all of the psychological torture that he had experienced fighting against Nazi Germany? Maybe when he was fighting overseas ever since 1941 when he was in his late teens or early 20s, he had a wife who he found out was cheating on him and when he returned after the end of the war and the defeat of the Axis Powers, he was suffering from some kind of P.T.S.D. despite him celebrating the Allied Powers' victory and upon catching his wife with another man, that was the last stressor that finally made him have a psychotic break and now he hated all young couples who were secret lovers. He targeted men and women who were in relationships because he hated his wife for having an affair and leaving him to run off with some other man while he was off fighting in Germany defending the U.S.A. from Adolph Hitler, and now he wanted bloody revenge. It seems like a plausible motive for a serial killer in the summer of 1946. Killing attractive young people in a berserker rage while disguised in Texarkana as murderous vengeance incarnate on all lustful lovers is quite possible. In the end, this both crazy and evil man may have been an insane sociopath who was well-armed and extremely dangerous, but also suffering from further degenerative psychosis that had made him become psychotic with audio and visual hallucinations. He may have wound up either getting locked up in an insane asylum, or he may have, in a brief moment of lucidity, become horrified by what he had done and promptly committed suicide in order to prevent himself from hurting people further. Whatever the case may be, the Phantom Killer of Texarkana who was responsible for the Moonlight Murders is now the stuff of infamous legends, and notorious, unsolved crime cases such as the Butcher of Kingsbury Run and the Axe Man Murders. It's been well over 70 years and the psycho killer is probably more than likely long since been dead for decades. Killers who commit murders like this would never ever stop. They are non-functional and homicidal maniacs. Continually going berserk until they are either confined or killed. And they have brief moments of clarity, but those vivid moments are simply to try to trick and deceive other people into thinking that they have had an epiphany all of a sudden when, in reality, all it is is just a way for them to try to actually talk their way out of confinement. But these types of malevolent psychopaths don't just suddenly stop for no reason. So the Phantom Killer is either very, very old (which is highly unlikely) or else he is long since dead by now.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

When I first saw " Texarkana" I assumed it was a slang nickname for a location. Not the official name of a place.

[@moorek1967]

Boggy Creek is not far from Texarkana. That is the Legend of Boggy Creek of the Bigfoot sightings. But the Zodiac is a copycat of the Texarkana killer.

[@peterkostiuk9739]

Zodiac, and his family, many disguises

[@noorsnowball]

you guys are the best in the game

[@ogdencastle]

Dawww you're making us blush!

[@elliequddos1429]

@@ogdencastlei love it 😍

[@katelynthewhitewerewolf6376]

Patrick: Yeah who needs Dumb Old Texas?

[@reneedennis2011]

I remember that movie The Town that Feared Sundown! 😨

[@phantomcollector1976]

THAT'S NOT THE NAME POINDEXTER

[@giancarlotubal5985]

My theory is that he was a ww2 vet and when he came home his wife may have cheated on him at the same time he has a PTSD. Second theory he's a policeman that's why he was never caught he knows all about the investigation about him.

[@amandajean7738]

Sounds similar to the Zodiac Killer.

[@reneedennis2011]

Yup

[@bqkmg2037]

And the killer at the Colonial parkway murders in the 80s.

[@ProdMigoMucciAnt]

Catherine is a badass glad she made it 💯

[@StilettoCutsQuick.]

Yes she is.

[@johnoneill7947]

We need Joy Peace and Contentment. Mark 3:25

[@chaosdromanah8620]

The fact that he didn't got caught ......is mind boggling

[@chrisgobeil4751]

Pretty easy to not get caught back then with no DNA testing available.

[@JimmyRamone-jc2ou]

It was probably a police officer. They should reopen the case.

[@deannawitt9376]

I'm old enough to admit I saw that bad movie when it came out. I was maybe 6yrs old..

[@darthmikeempiresupporter.1871]

I truly believe the killer was part of the investigation a Police Officer or Volunteer.

[@MarksArk1]

The Phantom was able to kill with impunity because he was a cop. After the last murder he decided he better get the hell outta town. Before he left he either got killed in the line of duty, died of natural causes, or he transferred somewheres else where he knew he'd better behave himself or be caught and sent to ol' sparky.

[@michaelnewman7446]

The zodaic killer walked with a limp, & the phantom killer was shot in 1 of his legs

[@DarrenKuhn-j5m]

The town that dredded sundown

[@bradenarville1]

There is really only 1 suspect? Crazy

[@humanipulationnation]

Any new facts here? Or a documentation of the previously known case?

[@ogdencastle]

MANY new facts.

[@ogdencastle]

We actually prove who it was. Jk

[@humanipulationnation]

@@ogdencastle thanks for the response!!!! I’m gonna watch when I have some free time here, was just curious and thought I’d throw it out there to u and viewers

[@humanipulationnation]

Was hoping the rabbit hole goes deeper than I thought 😁

[@OLEKBambo]

​@@ogdencastlewho?

[@douglasspende929]

I have been in law enforcement going on 25 years and every time I watch these killings 1946 phantom or 1966 1969 Zodiac or the 1888 Jack the Ripper, it frustrates me how the police back then did not know to investigate a crime scene or ask Proper questions on what the assailant was wearing. Ok I went to college for police science 2 years in 1992 to 1994. But still police work is all common sense! They don't describe the killers hight or weight or what he was wearing!? You had ME's back then you tell me that they can't tell when a woman has been molested?! When a perpetrator attacks people he wants money, vehicle, watch or jewelry. For woman sex!

[@jessestewart169]

I believe he died in the swamps of Arkansas in 1946. He was never heard of again or seen after that year.

[@colleenhanna5383]

Wow I wonder if the ZODIAC copied this monster

[@hey2goober1975]

I heard they found the saxophone months later.

[@YTC1234]

Now Broward County. Bowie county.

[@sammyday3341]

Not “Now”, “Not”.

[@jamesschwartz3837]

TV movies didn't exist in 1941. I think your timeline is off if the killings occurred in '46.

[@michaelnewman7446]

My theory, is that the phantom killer & the zodiac killer are the same person

[@stevewalker4638]

Had to be a local guy …

[@phataton7588]

Bowie county

[@Mr.Caring]

Say what🤔 Were made in HIS image. HE made us with the power of free choice A good prayer: I'm a sinner JESUS please forgive me for all my sins I know you shed your Blood for me on the cross at Calvary. Thank you JESUS for my salvation and for shedding they Blood for me. I love you JESUS. Romans 10:5/10 ct...❤️k JESUSisLord!Amen... Amen.. If you'd like to call someone who cares 83 For Truth. bc you don't know when you'll die? .y r u hesitant. . . .

[@chrisgobeil4751]

Anyone else find the age gap between some of these couples a little concerning?

[@ShiftaelV2]

I don't remember it claimed to be factual, thin it just said 'based on a true story'..

[@kelsirosetaylor]

Please don’t ever say “gangsta” again. I physically cringed

[@ogdencastle]

gangsta

[@kelsirosetaylor]

@@ogdencastle 🤮🤢

[@Davidbayless5413]

It’s Bowie county not Broward county

[@kingslandmusicproductionsi6565]

Texas ranger was the killer?

[@SissyJobe]

My granddaddyyll

[@peterkostiuk9739]

Zodiac

[@johnoneill7947]

He obviously couldn't get a woman so he was jealous and frustrated.

[@sharonhardin4307]

Soooo many inaccurate statements

[@pretenditsagoodworld]

Like the contest and the video but found it a bit confusing and unnesseasry with two narroators

[@mrsd2950]

They always both narrate it.

[@ogdencastle]

🙌

[@dcheng4248]

It's probably Youell Swinney. Too much circumstantial evidence to be considered all coincidences.