Atlanta Rotarians learned about a fear last week that some in the audience had experienced in their childhoods.
It was the presence for about 10 weeks, February to March 1946, of the phantom killer in Texarkana. Two of the five murdered victims were from and are now buried in Cass County.
Dr. James Presley, author of the book "The Phantom Killer," presented the highlights and conclusion his research revealed.
The summary story is that four separate incidents occurred resulting in five dead, one critically wounded and two beaten in those weeks. In the calm life of those days, families boarded windows and slept with guns in their beds. At least three Rotarians remarked that as children they had known of the fear their parents and neighbors felt, especially as newspapers called the perpetrator the "phantom" and then no one was caught.
Presley said Atlanta played a major role in the apprehension of the one suspect that he and most others think was the culprit, Youell Lee Swinney. Here's that story.
Swinney was being sought in 1946, first for being suspected of car theft. On a July afternoon, he came unknown to Atlanta and tried to sell a rather-new car without having the title.
Hibbett Lee was an oilfield worker in town to see Homer Carter, the lawman in Atlanta so respected that he often would only have to make an announcement and the suspect would turn himself in, Presley said to the murmur of knowing laughter around the room.
Hibbett saw the new-appearing 1941 Plymouth turn in at Ed Hammock's car lot and the driver get out to talk with Cleon Partain. The driver wanted to sell the car without title. Partain declined and memorized the license plate as the Plymouth drove away toward Texarkana. He told Lee to go to Homer Carter and relay the information. Carter radioed ahead. The car was identified as stolen.
"Lee was wiry, lean and tanned, dressed casually with a big hat, cowboy boots and khaki shirt and trousers, good Texas garb," Presley said. "He could recognize the driver and car, so Arkansas State Policeman Max Tackett, along with Carter and Lee, worked out a plan. Lee would go into a suspected bar or place of business with Tackett observing from well-behind to see if anyone ran from them.
""You may not recognize that driver at first, but he'll recognize you, and he doesn't want to see you. He'll do all he can to avoid you," Tackett is quoted as saying.
That's exactly what happened. When Swinney stood up and ran at the back of a room, Tackett drew a pistol and chased him to a fire escape where the suspect gave up. There followed an incriminating moment, Presley said.
"When Tackett pointed his pistol, the tall man said, 'Please don't shoot me.'"
"I'm not going to shoot you for car theft," Tackett said.
"Don't play games with me. You want me for more than stealing cars," the suspect said.
Later, in the police car, the suspect again questioned, "Will they give me the chair for this?"
"Not for car theft," Miller County Chief Deputy Tillman Johnson replied.
Soon afterward, the suspect, who turned out to be Youell Swinney, went silent. But the officers would always remember those suspicious first responses.
Swinney would later be convicted of being a habitual criminal and would be sentenced to 27 years, the most he could be given since law enforcement was unable to prove he was the phantom killer. Swinney would die in 1994 at 77 on the outside and without confessing. The phantom incidents ceased with his arrest.
The Cass County victims were Polly Ann Moore and Richard Griffin. Her funeral was held in Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Bryans Mill and she is buried in the cemetery there. Griffin's funeral's was held in Cass County, and he is buried at the Union Chapel Cemetery next to the Union Chapel Methodist Church.
Presley said he did indeed believe Swinney was the killer.
"It was as high a profile case as you could find," he told the Rotarians.
"Kenneth Davis of the The International News Service dispatch gave a famous quote," Presley concluded. "He said, 'I have arrived in Texarkana, the home of the Phantom Killer. I have met a newspaperman named Graves (Texarkana Gazette's Louis Graves). I have checked into the Grim Hotel, and the hair is rising on my neck."
Dr. James Presley
Dr. James Presley of Texarkana is an avid researcher who seems not to slow down.
An historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Dr. Presley has written or collaborated on the following:
- "Coming of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes"
- "Please, Doctor, Do Something"
- "Vitamin B6: The Doctor's Report"
- "Public Defender"
- "Human Life Styling: Keeping Whole in the 20th Century"
- "Food Power: Nutrition and your Child's Behavior"
- "A Saga of Wealth: the Rise of the Texas Oilmen"
- "Never in Doubt"
Presley said he is working to publish the essentials of his dissertation on diabetes.