Arkansas's Oldest Cold Case: The Texarkana Phantom Killer Part Two: The First Double Murder.

Richard Lanier Griffin was born on August 31st, 1916, in

Linden, Cass County, Texas to Richard Hightower Griffin and Bernice Cameron Griffin.

He was a war veteran who was discharged from the Seabees in November 1945.

(Seabees is the nickname for the United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Force (NCF). During World War II they were plank-holders of both the Naval Combat Demolition Units and the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs). They also provided the manpower for the top secret CWS Flame Tank Group.)

Richard was a carpenter and painter and handled his own contracting. He was living with his mother at 155 Robison Courts which was built for servicemen returning from World War II.

Polly Ann Moore was born on November 10th, 1928, in Bryans Mill, Cass County, Texas to George Sloan Moore and Lizzie Mae Melton Moore. She graduated high school in 1963, at the age of just 16. After graduation she worked for Red River Arsenal, as a checker. (I am pretty sure the Red River Arsenal was an army depot in Texarkana, Texas, in Bowie County.)

In 1946, Polly was living with her cousin at boardinghouse at 1215 Magnolia Street. She began dating Richard sometime in February. 17-year-old Polly and 29-year-old Richard were last seen alive on March 23rd at 10p.m. at a cafe at West 7th street in Texarkana, where they had visited with Richard's sister, Eleanor, and her boyfriend. After leaving the cafe they set off for the nearby lovers' lane.

The next morning was rainy. It was around 8:15a.m. when a motorist passed by Richard's 1941 Oldsmobile Sedan parked near a railroad spur a near Rich Road. He saw what looked like two people sleeping inside. He was concerned so he stopped and got of his car to investigate and soon realized the people were dead, slumped over in pools of blood. He quickly got back in his car and back to town where he alerted the authorities.

Bowie County Sheriff W.H. "Bill" Presley was again one of the first officers to arrive at the scene. He was joined by friend and the Texas City Chief of police, Jack Runnels. When they looked inside the car, they saw Richard between the front seats on his knees with his head resting on his crossed hands and his pockets turned inside out. He was identified from his car. Polly was sprawled face-down in the back seat. Both of them were fully clothed and both had been shot in the back of their head execution style. Polly was identified by the class ring she wore on her finger, which bore the inscription of her initials, "P.A.M." as well as her graduation year "'45." Later blood tests would confirm their identities.

There i have not found a record of a pathologist examining or analyzing the bodies, so it is unknown if Polly or Richard were sexually assaulted or anything of the sort.

The running board inside the car was covered in congealed blood, which had been pooling underneath the car door. A couple of .32-caliber shells and a bullet, most likely from an automatic Colt model pistol, were found at the scene. 

Despite the rain there was a huge patch of blood-soaked soil about twenty feet away or so away from the car. Unfortunately, the rain washed away possible footprints, fingerprint and blood smear evidence. No weapon was found either and there were no witnesses. It also didn't help that curious townsfolk were not kept away from the crime scene. When Texas Ranger Jimmy Greer arrived, he scolded the local police department for not securing the scene.

Besides the sheriff calling the Texas Rangers to come assist, he also called the Department of Public Safety, neighboring Miller and Cass counties, and even the FBI.

Somewhere between 50 and 60 witnesses were interviewed within 3 days of the double murder. Most of these witnesses were customers and employees of Club Dallas, a local bar near the crime scene. It was theorized that maybe Polly and Richard had stopped there after the cafe, but nothing useful from the interviews were found.

$500 reward was announced for information leading to an arrest. All this did was deliver over 100 false leads.

At one point, at least three suspects were taken into custody but were let go later.

Overall, 200 people were questioned in Polly and Richard's murder, but no one was charged with any crimes relating to the case.

                        
A plea was published on March 27th in the Texarkana Gazette. "Sheriff Bill Presley and his deputies have a difficult task ahead of them as they attempt to solve the shocking double murder discovered Sunday morning. Texarkana residents can help in this investigation and at the same time, if they are not careful, they can hinder the investigation and cause the officers to spend many hours following blind trails. Persons who have information which might furnish a clue to the identity of the slayer or slayers or which might indicate a motive for the crime should not divulge such information on street corners or at cold drink stands but should immediately make it available to the officers. Do not spread rumors regardless of how many bases for the fact there is in them. Do not say 'I heard' or 'they say' because the chances are that the person listening will repeat your information and enlarge upon it. Before long the story grows to such proportions as to necessitate a detailed investigation by the officers, thereby perhaps pulling them off the true trail and sending them up a blind alley. Stick to facts that you know of your own personal knowledge and relay those facts as quickly as possible to the officers."

Investigators were baffled and never considered they might be connected to the brutal beatings of Jimmy Hollis and Mary Leary. Locals were becoming uneasy and began patrolling lovers' lanes and shortening their children's curfews.

Richard's funeral was at the Union Chapel Methodist church in Cass county at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26th, that were officiated by former pastor Rev. Mr. Everett, assisted by Rev. Mr. Curtwright. He was laid to rest in Union Chapel Cemetery in Cass County.

Polly was laid to rest in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Bryans Mill, Cass County. Her headstone reads: "Thy life was beauty, truth, goodness and love."

Darkmatter: Arkansas's Oldest Cold Case: The Texarkana Phantom Killer Part One: The First Attacks. (darkmatter69.blogspot.com)

Arkansas's Oldest Cold Case: The Texarkana Phantom Killer Part One: The First Attacks.

In 1946 between February 22nd and May 4th, a series of grisly murders and attacks in which five people were killed and several injured occurred. The victims were couples parked on back roads and lovers’ lanes areas in the adjoining border towns of Texarkana, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas.

Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey were a young couple both in the process of divorcing other people. Jimmy was a 25-year-old insurance agent and Mary attractive, petite, a 19-year-old dark-eyed brunette originally from Oklahoma.

On the evening of February 22nd, 1946, Jimmy and Mary had just been on a double date with Jimmy's brother Bob and his girlfriend.

They had gone to the movie "The House of Dracula" at Strand Theater in downtown Texarkana. After the movie Bob and his girlfriend were dropped off somewhere, because they didn't want to ride all the way to Mary's house at East Hooks courts. Jimmy and Mary were now alone in Jimmy's father's Plymouth headed to secluded road known as a lovers' lane.

It was about 11:45p.m. when the couple parked on the road lateral road off of Richmond Road, a mile north of the Beverly addition, near Taylor Street. About 10 minutes later, a bright flashlight was shone in the couple's faces. A man walked up to Jimmy's driver's side door. The man was wearing a white hood made from what looked like a pillowcase over his face with holes cut out for the eyes and mouth. At first Jimmy thought it might be a prank and told the man that he had the wrong person. The man replied with "I don't want to kill you fellow, so do what I say". He was armed with a pistol and demanded the couple get out of the car. Mary and Jimmy both climbed out through the driver's side door. The man then told Jimmy to take of his "goddamn britches". At first, Jimmy refused, but with Mary's urging he relented and removed his pants. The man then suddenly slammed the pistol twice into Jimmy's head. A loud cracking sound could be heard. The sound was so loud that at first Mary thought Jimmy had been shot, but it was the sound Jimmy's skull cracking that made the terrible sound.

Mary thought that the man wanted to rob them, so she picked up Jimmy's pants and pulled out his billfold and told the man "Look he doesn't have any money." The man told her she was lying and that she had a purse. Mary told him that she didn't, and she was knocked to the ground with the gun. Then man ordered her to stand, and when she did, told her to run. Mary started running towards a ditch when the man told her to run to the road instead. As she ran, Mary could hear Jimmy groan as the man beat and stomped on him. The man then began running after Mary, who was having trouble running in high heels.

Mary came upon an older car parked further up the street facing their vehicle. She quickly looked inside to see if anyone was in there who could help her, but there was no one inside. She started to run again but was overtaken by the man. The man asked her why she was running. She reminded him that that is what he told her told her to do. He called me a liar again and then knocked her down with the gun once more and preceded to assault her sexually with the barrel. She managed to get up and told the man to "go ahead and kill me." She fled on foot, believing she was being chased. She made it a half-mile to a Beverly residence at 805 Blanton Street, where she screamed for help and banged on the front door. As Mary was banging on the door a car passed by, but it did not stop when she called out to it. The residents of the home finally opened the door and let Mary in to call police.

While Mary was calling the police, Jimmy had regained consciousness and alerted a passing motorist who also called the police. Within thirty minutes, Bowie County Sheriff W. H. "Bill" Presley and three other officers arrived at the scene, but the man had already driven off. Jimmy's pants were found 100 yards away from the attack. Jimmy and Mary were both taken to Texarkana hospital. Jimmy was in critical condition with multiple skull fractures. He ended up staying in the hospital for months. Mary's head wound was stitched up and she was released from the hospital the next day. However, Mary was deeply traumatized, and she had nightmares, so she moved to Frederick, Oklahoma to live with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Long. For the first time in Mary's life, she was extremely nervous and would not go upstairs by herself or sleep alone.

Jimmy and Mary had differing descriptions of their attacker. Mary claimed that she spotted a light-skinned African American male under the mask. Jimmy said their attacker was a tanned white man, and around 30 years old, but was unable to see his features because he had been blinded by the flashlight. However, both agreed that the man was around 6 feet tall. Jimmy told authorities that the next victim the attacker gets a hold of will be killed.

The authorities were having a difficult time believing that Mary nor Jimmy knew who their attacker was. They thought that the pair were covering for someone. The first suspect was Mary’s estranged husband, but he was able to provide an alibi that placed him nowhere near the crime scene. Allegedly, there were more people arrested but then let go.

Jimmy was finally released from the hospital on March 9th,12 days after the assault. He was told that his recovery from multiple skull fractures would be a long and arduous process, and he couldn't return to his job for at least six months. 

Three months after the attack, Texarkana Gazette hired Paul Burns, a Linotype operator and pilot who owned his own plane to take reporter Lucille Holland to interview Mary. By the time of the interview, officers had not publicly linked Jimmy and Marry's attack with any murders. The report appeared in the May 10th edition of the Texarkana Gazette. In the article Mary stated that she would know her attacker's voice anywhere because rings always in her ears. She also said, "Why didn't he kill me too? He killed so many others." In the article Mary also gave the same description of the attacker as she gave to authorities.

After the first double murder, Mary traveled Texarkana to talk to the authorities in hopes they would connect the incidents and help identify the murderer; but they questioned her and insisted she knew who her attacker was. After the second double murder, a Texas Ranger went to Frederick to question her again.

In 1965, Mary passed away from cancer at 38 years old in Billings, Montana.

Jimmy's son, David first learned of his father’s brutal attack while in the fourth grade. Old newspaper clippings provided some insight. Years later his mother would tell David stories that revealed just how deeply the attack affected Jimmy.