A Real Life Horror: The Texarkana Moonlight Murders
Based on true events, the 1976 film The Town That Dreaded Sundown depicts the brutal real life murders that shocked a rural community in 1940s post war Texas
Background
In the 1970s, a new genre of horror films became popularized with the introduction of slasher flicks, two of the most notable being The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween.
In 1976, The Town That Dreaded Sundown made its cinema debut. Claiming to be based on a true story, the film quickly earned a reputation among horror fans for its grainy realism and chilling narration. The film depicts a mysterious masked killer who stalks and murders couples in rural Texas.
Behind the dramatized production lies a chilling real-life case - the still-unsolved Texarkana Moonlight Murders. The film’s legacy left a lasting impact on the horror and slasher genre, but is it an accurate depiction of true events as it claims to be?
To answer this question, we must pull back the curtain and explore the real case that inspired the movie: the story of The Phantom of Texarkana.
Texarkana Moonlight Murders
In early 1946, Texarkana was terrorized by a mysterious killer. The first attack occurred on February 22nd. Jimmy Hollis, 25, and his girlfriend, 19-year-old Mary Jeanne Lary, were attacked while parked on a secluded road around midnight.
They were ambushed by a man wearing a mask made of white cloth, with cut-out holes over the eyes. The man ordered the couple out of the car and beat them both brutally. Jimmy’s skull was fractured, and Mary was ordered to run. When the man caught up to her, he beat her again before sexually assaulting her using the barrel of his gun.
Incredibly, after enduring such cruel torture, Mary managed to run half a mile to the nearest house and call the police. Both victims survived and shared their accounts with police. The brutal attack was initially presumed to be an isolated incident, a presumption that would quickly reveal itself to be incorrect.
In the next attack, the killer left no survivors. Richard Griffin and Polly Ann Moore were found dead in Richard’s car on March 24th. A passing driver noticed the car parked on a lovers’ lane and reported the gruesome scene.
Richard had been shot multiple times, and blood found pooled outside indicated they’d been killed outside the car and then placed back inside. Both victims had a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, execution-style.
On April 14th, the killer struck again in a similar fashion. His fifth and sixth victims, Paul Martin and Betty Jo Booker, were only 16 and 15, respectively. They were both shot multiple times, including through the nose, neck, and face.
The level of overkill spoke to the savagery and rage exhibited by the killer. The media dubbed the killer “The Phantom of Texarkana” as public fear now reached a fever pitch.
The last known attack occurred on May 3rd and marked a sharp deviation in both the Phantom’s methodology and victimology. With the 10-week reign of terror placing locals on high alert, young couples were no longer parking on lovers’ lanes late at night, which may explain the deviation.
Virgil Starks, 37, and Katie Starks, age 36, were attacked in their home just northeast of Texarkana. The attack occurred earlier than the previous ones, just before 9 p.m., and both victims were awake in the home.
Virgil was sitting in a chair in the living room, reading the paper, when he was shot through a closed window at close range. Katie came running, just in time to see her husband stand and collapse back into his chair, dead.
She acted quickly, running to the phone to call the police. But before she could dial out, Katie was shot from the same window. She suffered two gunshot wounds to the face.
Despite being shot twice in the face, she managed to maintain her wits, attempting to grab a pistol, but was unable to see due to the blood pouring into her eyes. She heard the killer entering through the back of the home and fled out the front door.
She then ran to her sister’s house, and after finding it empty, raced to the nearest neighbor’s home. Katie managed to tell neighbor A. V. Prater, “Virgil’s dead” before collapsing on the floor.