The Texarkana Phantom Killer

“In 1946 a man killed five people today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana”. Texas has had its fair share of famous criminals and murders happen in the state. Famous criminals like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, famous murders like that of President John F. Kennedy. In the year of 1946 the small town of Texarkana on the border of Texas and Arkansas would be plagued by a series of attacks and serial murders carried out by a masked man the local newspapers would dub, the phantom killer. The killers attacks would last between February thru May of 1946 and would leave 5 people dead and 3 others wounded. This case is one of the earliest examples of serial murder in the United States before the public even knew what a serial killer was. The case is also one of the earliest examples of cooperation between multiple law enforcement agencies, the Bowie County sheriffs department in Texarkana Texas, the Miller County sheriffs department in Texarkana Arkansas and the Texas Rangers. Even with all these law enforcement agencies and a excessive manhunt the killer was never caught leading to the question still plaguing researchers today, who was the phantom killer? And why was he never caught?

In his book The Phantom Killer Unlocking The Mystery Of The Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of A Town in Terror author and historian James Presley attempts to unlock the mystery of the Phantom Killer. Presley has a personal interest in the case because his uncle Bill Presley was the sheriff of Bowie County Texarkana during the period of the phantom killers attacks giving the…