7 True Scary Horror Stories From Texas

[Music] before I start be aware names have been changed to protect the innocent and to ensure the accused receives a fair trial no matter how great we men think our lives will turn out some unseen force can always come along and derail us sometimes permanently from our course whether we achieve the nuclear family with the 2.5 children or end up living with our parents a single childless insel at 45 no one can predict their future perhaps the best way for me to illustrate my point is to tell you the story of Darren sellers my former best friend no matter if we would have grown up in Dallas or the little hick town we were doomed to reside in Darren would have been a special kid doctor lawyer pro football player he could have excelled at any profession he put his mind to since childhood he was always that kid that did better than his peers at everything I know he was speaking at an abnormally early age and reading by for heck that wouldn't be surprised if he came out of his mother's womb potty-trained and I think he get the idea he was a very special kid that should have become someone great except he didn't buy high school he was already beginning to show some alarming traits a pastime that he and I always enjoyed collecting and cataloging skulls and antlers from dead animals would eventually involve into killing and skinning neighborhood pets for him well I found this aspect of the hobby to be a strange tangent to take it wasn't odd enough to affect a relationship the way he would treat his girlfriends however would growing up in a very small town we'd known almost every girl since kindergarten some had been close friends either way because of his popularity he had his pick of them regardless of who she was Darren decided to date her he would always end up treating her badly a committed relationship meant nothing to him a lot of really kind girls would get their hearts broken because of him but to be honest they would be the lucky ones Sarah a very smart and cute girl was with Darren on and off for several years she would break up with him after he hit her butt and go back after he apologized a week didn't go by that I wouldn't have to give him a chewing out for his behavior but it made no difference it was like his body had been taken over by the soul of a stranger and the guy I had grown up with was fading into the background none of this would hurt his standing at the school he graduated first in her class and received a full ride to Texas A&M I was no slouch myself coming in at 6 out of the class of 100 but for me I'd have to get scholarships if I wanted to go to college after deciding on UT in Austin Darren and I went our separate ways we wouldn't see each other for almost two years and when we finally did get together to catch up things had changed drastically I hadn't returned home my entire first year money was far more important to me and little still existed to draw me back when I wasn't working Darren and I spoke maybe a handful of times never during any of those conversations that he mentioned problems at A&M however during a phone call with my folks just before Christmas break my sophomore year my mom said that Darren had dropped out of college and returned home a month prior I had already made plans to visit for a week during the holiday now I had a lot of questions to ask we met up my first night in town and drove to Dallas to visit a club or two I decided not to deluge Darren with a bunch of questions he would probably fill me in when he was ready while sitting at the first club he finally opened up about his time in College Station things have been going well for a while until he started smoking more and attending class less the anonymity among all those strangers made it hard to make friends the few people he did meet would lead him down the dark path he said by the start of year two he knew his days were numbered so he dropped out to save the school the trouble of kicking him out this is a much different person than the one I'd left just a year and a half prior I'd never known Darrin to embrace failure other than the goatee and long hair he appeared to be the same but now he just didn't seem to care about what happened him going from a full scholarship at A&M to delivering pizzas would have destroyed the old Darrin but now he acted like he loved his new life while driving to our next stop he suggested we pick up a girl and have some fun with her I laughed at first thinking he meant maybe buying some sort of lady of the night or something I said Yeah right so saved my money thank you I'd misinterpreted his meaning he said he meant that we should grab a girl from the street and take turns with her the suggestion shocked me I looked over his face trying to find a sign that he was joking but couldn't for a few minutes nothing was said between us I still couldn't believe what he'd said then an odd idea struck me out of nowhere have you done this kind of thing before he hesitated at first but eventually admitted he and his friends had done it a few times back in College Station as if it would make things less serious he stressed that they'd never hurt the girls or anything once they had their fun they'd drop her off and go on their way they all right discussed I felt at that moment very nearly overwhelmed me but I held myself together uh-huh maybe next time I visit I had no intention of taking part in anything like that my words were simply meant to defuse any hostile feelings he may have been harboring at that second all he could think of was getting away from him I faked feeling sick and suggested we head home he didn't seem like he was mad about it I dodged his calls for the rest of the week and returned to Austin that Friday we would speak one more time at the end of the school year he was wondering if I would be coming home for the summer but I told him I wasn't sure when I'd be back because of work and I wasn't lying if I wanted to pay for school I had to work almost every day to do it he sounded a little bummed out hearing this and for a minute I felt bad for him however it wasn't long until I remembered our trip to Dallas if I'm being honest I had actually decided our friendship was over at that night something that had always been lurking under the surface of his personality had been freed while he was at A&M and now he couldn't put it back in its cage the second he joined the others in there fun and games he ceased to be the friend I knew forever not long after that last call my mom sent me an email containing a newspaper story although it didn't mention the name of the attacker my mother told me later that it was Darren I guess after he realized I wasn't coming back anytime soon he went hunting by himself and got caught perhaps the most tragic part of that story is that the woman lost her life without the backup of his college friends he lacked the power to control his victim and took things further than he ever needed to before at least as far as we know because of the seriousness of the charges he's been in the Collin County Jail for the past few years and has no hope of bail barring any mistakes made by the police the case appears to be open and shut that means he'll be inside for 30 years at a minimum and for the sake of women everywhere let's hope he never gets out this happened to me during my yearly camp out at Lake Texoma in North Texas the lake itself was built during the second world war using mainly German POWs a burr it sits astride the Texas Oklahoma border and covers roughly eighty nine thousand acres and sees about six million visitors on an average year it's to my knowledge still one of the biggest reservoirs in the country and my favorite place to spend my birthday every year the week before or after spring break I load my camping supplies into my car and make the 30-mile drive my usual place to set up is Eisenhower State Park located on the Texas side of the border and just happens to be named after Dwight D Eisenhower the famous world war ii general and president who was born near by sorry kansas the cool thing about the park is that for a small fee I can take my pick of spots that offer running water and electrical connections although I normally camp in a relatively traditional manner having access to power nearby can be convenient perhaps the best part of camping so early in the season the temperatures are still reasonable you could go out as little as two months later and already be nearing 90 plus degrees during the hottest part of the day this also means there are far fewer other campers in the park and then visiting the lakes since before I can remember as a matter of fact one of my first memories is of me bawling my head off and holding my bloody foot my dad sped our boat to shore in order for me to get the medical care I required after stepping on a broken bottle we all wore shoes in the water after that in all my years of going out there I had never heard anything about wild packs of dogs roaming the area all groups of wild pigs have been an ever-growing problem in our state while dogs not so much or maybe that's just my ignorant showing and it's a bigger deal that I'm aware whether it is or not I wasn't expecting what happened my second night I believe that evening no one else was within a mile of my camp it was just starting to get dark and I walked a few feet down to the water oftentimes I'll sit on the shore and watch boats cross the lake with a cup of coffee and enjoy the calming sounds of the waves licking lightly at the shore it hadn't gotten completely dark yet but the shapes I noticed approaching me were unidentifiable as they grew closer I could make out the shape of two dogs walking slowly down the shore I figured they belonged to another camper and called out to let them know I was there as the seconds passed no answer came and the dogs continued to get closer while I'm not nor have ever I had been afraid of dogs I do practice common-sense measures with those I'm not familiar with when they were within 10 yards of me I saw three more dogs all of differing sizes come down the cliff at an angle for me and joined the other two on the bank my caution was beginning to shift into fear odds are that if a group of dogs form a pack without the moderating influence of a human they become feral and can be a serious danger to any person that come in contact with I was that person on this night and things would only prove to get worse as it went on running away would just engage their prey Drive and I'd be run down and mauled for sure with no other choice I stood still as they approached me the two larger dogs I had seen first began to smell me I didn't move or pet them as they did so well the leaders sniffed the other three began to surround me and walk slowly toward me even if I had never been scared of dogs before this freaked me out during this whole interaction I did my best not to indicate that I was scared but the nearer the other three came the more nervous I grew things would come to a head when I felt one of them bumped me on the back of my head I did the worst thing I could have and jerked away this was all the pack needed to begin attacking me each of the leaders had grabbed me one on the hand and the other had a mouthful of my leg the rest had ganged up and took a firm grip on my right leg this wasn't some rough play either I could tell that they were trying to pull me down to the ground I quickly lost my balance and dropped to one knee but fortunately for me I had a makeshift walking stick in my right hand and used it to break my fall one of the leaders used this as an opportunity to go for my face however I first saw something like this and jabbed at it with a stick before it reached me this gave me the time I needed to return myself to standing with a firmer stance I started jabbing at the others a few let go and backed off only to renew their attack seconds later rage and frustration began to take over and I started swinging wildly at them here and there I'd hear a scream come from the darkness until finally the assault ceased I stood my ground and waited for it to begin again but the pounding of my heart was all I could hear to be safe I walk slowly back up the hill to my camp watching the whole time for any movement in the darkness when I reached it I'd turned up my lamps and searched for wounds my left hand was bloody but after washing it I could see it wasn't as bad as I had feared the bad Bice were to the back and sides of my calves the best I could do was clean and wrap them until help could get to me the gates didn't close until 10 p.m. that day so the ambulance was able to scoop me up and get me to a hospital rather quickly I spent the rest of the evening getting treated among the procedures was my first set of rabies shots I was overjoyed to learn the procedure is far less extreme than it was when I was a kid although you still have to get the vaccine over several appointments science has made major strides at least in this area the following morning I called a friend to pick me up and take me back out to break my camp I made sure to notify the office about the attack but I don't know if anything was ever done I watched The Evening News and check the paper for two weeks nothing about the dog packs or my attack was ever mentioned for all I know the decision was made to handle the problem quietly and avoid any hits to the coming tourist season the last few times I have camped there since the attacked I haven't encountered any feral dogs so perhaps that's what was done my run-in with the dogs motivated me to finally get my license to carry a handgun and then wanting to do it since the law was passed but can never justify it to myself in addition to carrying while out and about in public concealed to prevent any problems with the general population I'm legally allowed to bring my pistol along with me when I go camping since I believe self-protection is a right I probably would have had it with me whether it was legal or not but thankfully I don't have to take that chance my goal by sharing this is not to create fear among others who love staying in the outdoors I simply want to remind people that even in places we feel comfortable the unexpected can happen so if you ever visiting Texas I highly recommend Lake Texoma and the attractions around it just be sure to wear your lifejacket when you're on the water don't drink too much and keep your eyes out for the creatures who share the land with you whether they're rattlesnakes or feral dogs one misstep or loss of concentration could really ruin your day [Music] Nicholas Patrick Barclay was born on December 31st 1980 Masson Antonio native was the youngest of three children and by the age of 13 had acquired quite the reputation for being a bad seed the young man had been violent and verbally abusive towards his mother Beverly multiple times on such occasions police would have to be called to calm him down the problem didn't stop at home however Nicholas would often skip school and when he did attend trouble followed him going even as far as threatening one of his teachers the 13 year old also had a criminal record incidents such as stealing a pair of shoes and breaking into a convenience store were among his crimes because of his pass it was no surprise that people around him didn't take what happened very seriously at first on June 13 1994 Nicholas's mother gave him five dollars to go and play basketball with some friends down at the park a little later he called home to get a ride from his mother but because Beverly worked nights and slept during the day Nicholas his brother refused to wake her the boy wouldn't be heard from again after that he'd run away before and returned in a day or two so no one was really concerned at least at first even when the cops did get involved they were confident that he had been found quickly how far could it get on five dollars anyway right the only problem was he wasn't found and as the weeks passed any hopes of finding him alive were dwindling Beverly believed her son may have taken a ride home from a stranger then on the night of September 25th 1994 just three months after his disappearance something strange would happen Nicholas his older brother Jason called in to the police to report someone breaking into the family's garage the perpetrator was gone by the time the cops arrived however the older brother would swear the person committing the break-in was Nicholas after a search of the surrounding neighborhood no sign of him was found this led the police and the young men's mother to believe he had made up the story but no one could understand why if Nicholas was truly there that night it would have been the last documented sighting of him the Barclay family would have to carry on with their lives all the time harboring the hope Nicholas would return on his own or be found by law enforcement but this time had passed it looked less and less likely that they'd ever see their loved one again three years would pass before anything new would be heard concerning Nicholas's disappearance and would come from a very unexpected place San Antonio police received a phone call from a man working in a youth shelter in lunaire Spain in October of 1997 a young man had been found huddling in a phone booth and brought into the shelter the man from the shelter believed him to be Nicholas Barclay the young man claimed to have escaped from a child trafficking ring where he had been abused since he went missing despite being relatively healthy the young man had no memory of his past life unable to contain her joy Nicholas's half-sister Kari Gibson hopped on a plane and head for Spain the boy wouldn't leave his room at first afraid he wouldn't be recognized his fears would soon be put to rest however although the young man before her didn't quite resemble the boy she remembered she chalk this up to the passage of time and confirmed he was indeed Nicholas now finally being reunited the pair sat looking through family photo albums Carrie had brought with her all the time attempting to shake some memory loose in her traumatized brother's mind gradually bit by bit the young man's memories appeared to be coming back to him but he remained quiet likely because of all the abuse he was believed to have experienced after taking a test identifying family members from pictures he passed after making only one mistake and was decided by authorities to be the real Nicholas Barclay he was cleared to return home he and Carrie hopped on a plane to be reunited with the rest of their thankful and relieved family although Carrie and Beverly were overjoyed to have him back again there were others in the family very suspicious of the young man the fact that Nicholas had blonde hair and blue eyes before his abduction and came back with dark brown hair and eyes was the source of much distrust not to mention the fact that he now spoke with a French accent hey the reason for all of this of course the individuals who had abducted him had chemically dyed his hair and eyes to make him unrecognizable the accent was just a side effect of spending so much time living in Europe the women wanted to believe this so much they easily accepted his explanation however for the rest the questions were not going away that easily his mother was eager to help him take back his former life she enrolled him in school and after a while Nicolas seemed to become more comfortable at home the media never willing to let a good story go by continue to badger the family for an interview and they would eventually relent picking hard copy to tell their story in February of 98 Charlie Parker a private investigator working for the show would notice something off about Nicholas's ears they were different since ears are like fingerprints and never changed throughout a person's life this anomaly was an important one Parker would compare pictures of Nicholas taken when he was younger to ones of the newly returned Nicholas and came to the conclusion the two boys were not the same person this is just the opportunity the rest of the family have been waiting for a long struggle would break out in the courts between Nikolas those who believe the story and those who did not the court would finally order fingerprints and DNA tests be taken the results of those tests would be nothing anyone could have expected it turned out that the shy young man who had been found in Spain was not Nicholas Barclay instead his name was Frederick bored in a French born 23 year old Borden was a serial impersonator thought to have taken the identities of up to five hundred people he had got Nicholas's information from a missing child center Nicholas Barclay was the first of three missing children whose identities would be taken by Borden he said that he had spread the story of lies about the human trafficking ring getting as much media attention as he could to make Nicholas more real and to make people love him even more to know what had happened now that the family knew the truth did they throw Borden forcefully from their lives no as a matter of fact they attempted to keep him this odd reaction caused the police to begin to look at the family with an eye of suspicion they felt this had to mean the family had something to hide Jason's phone called to the police in September of 1994 took on a whole new angle according to him it's not uncommon in murder cases for a call to be made to convince people that someone is alive before he could be questioned Nicholas's older brother died from a possibly intentional drug overdose with his death the case has gone cold although private investigators still work at today Jason appears to be the prime suspect but since he's dead we may never know what happened to Nicholas Barclay and Borden spent six years in prison for his crime upon his release he returned to Europe and continued with his grifting for a while but would eventually marry and start a family in 2007 he is convinced that Nicholas Barclay was murdered Borden himself called the police to report as much once claiming Beverly even admitted to it however nothing would materialize in light of Jason's death there's an amazing documentary available in YouTube right now called the impostor it should do a great job of filling in any gaps have left I feel Nicholas's disappearance tends to get lost in the strangeness of what happened with Frederick Borden so I'm including a description of the real Nikolas and what he was wearing the day he went missing for the sake of all those who hold him dear let's hope he returns to them alive and well Nikolas whose nickname was Nicky is a Caucasian male with light brown hair and blue eyes he has tattoos of the letters J on his left shoulder T on his left hand between his thumb and forefinger and the letters L and n on his outer left ankle he also had a gap between his front teeth he has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder Nicholas was last seen wearing a white t-shirt purple pants and black sneakers he was seen carrying a pink backpack [Music] not a month before my grandpa passed he sat me down and told me a story about his childhood in Texas to my knowledge very little has been said concerning this time in his life perhaps that's why what I was about to hear shocked me so deeply somewhere in the wide expanse of the forest between the Louisiana lion in Paris I dare not be any more specific than this my family had a small bit of land roughly 150 acres this was a lot more than most but with generation after generation staying on the land room got scarce quick my people had been about the area since Texas was still its own country and life back in those days was no place for the meek squabbles were handled between neighbors and the law often came at the end of a gun my daddy had me out and hunting for food as soon as I could shoot this was depression times and folks did whatever they could to make ends meet my mother had an older brother who'd already been in and out of the penitentiary twice for making liquor when my schooling her chores didn't see me busy I had make a little money watching over the still the local law dogs generally turned a blind eye to folks personal enterprises and sometimes engaged in the practice themselves government revenue agents were the real thorn in our side their meddlesome ways could derail a man's income for an entire season and this was in a time legitimate jobs were thin on the ground as I said during the winter months I'd make a bit watching over my uncle's still stuck off in the far corner of the property revenue agents always being a burden on us I was to keep a keen eye out for them and dissuade any other folk of a curious disposition from walking up on the manufacturing being a pretty young man at the time near on 12 years old I could pretend I was merely hunting and draw no attention if the agent spotted me both barrels from my shotgun notified those working the still of any undesired folks approaching and I was to walk away none the wiser of their fate nobody wanted a child like myself with such a bright mind and promising future to end up in the penitentiary all the precautions and for warnings wouldn't be for not however one cold and foggy morning I was loafing about the still with my uncle and two of his friends a pair of brothers from around Clarksville we were caught unawares by a pair of agents the fog had concealed their approach until it was too late they perhaps would have reacted in a less rash manner had they the time to prepare for their arrival but under the circumstances their sense of self-preservation took over my uncle has said more than once that he had no intention of going back to the penitentiary and when the agents told us to show our hands he opened fire instead the roar of a shotgun scared the Jesus out of me I dropped to the ground and buried my face as far as I could into the leaves it was over in seconds when I dared raised my head the agents were both dead and the younger of the Clarksville boys was minutes from the same the older brother did his best to make his siblings last moments as comfortable as possible my uncle is already dragging the agents body off to buried them this was all going on around me but I couldn't form a clear thought or word it was probably half an hour before I could stand I walked over to where my uncle was digging and he threw me a shovel nothing was said for the next hour the ground was darn near freezing and made the task even longer and arduous we got the holes dug and rolled the agents into them about that time the older brother joined us he began digging another hole nearby and my uncle joined him leaving me to fill in the revenuers graves the younger boy was retrieved by the two of them carefully laid in and covered him I don't believe a single word was spoken the rest of the day my uncle simply looked over at the remaining brother nodded his head goodbye Oh y'all went our separate ways nothing else regarding that morning was ever spoken of until today of course the events of that foggy morning would turn out to be a dark omen on our lives to come word around us that remaining Clarksville boy wandered the country riding trains until world war ii broke out it said he went up into canada and joined the army supposedly died around Dunkirk as for my mama's brother he kept a making liquor until 1937 when he was shot in an argument over a woman and died I guess he could say I came out lucky as compared to the others mama made sure I kept focused on my schooling I got my diploma the Year America joined the war and was one of the first in the country to join up for some crazy reason the Lord watched out for me despite three years of combat constantly being shot at by Japanese snipers I didn't get as much as a hangnail after the government cut me loose I used that GI Bill and enrolled at stephen f austin and stayed around to teach after i finished that's where I met your granny and you know the rest after that we moved up here to Fayetteville so I could teach I'm telling you this now after all these years because I know I ain't got much time left I don't want to go to my Maker with the secret on my conscience the fact is boy I've been walking around every day since then expecting to meet some grisly ending because of what I was a part of it was a big part of why I went to war the weight of being complicit in two murders is a heavy thing to carry through life whether I was the one who pulled the trigger don't much matter I chose not to tell anyone it makes me just as guilty whether it's in the eyes of the law or the Lords and for the sake of your soul be a good man and live a good life if you do that your end will be a peaceful one god bless you and thank you for allowing an old scared man to get some small bit of peace [Music] around 11:45 on the nights of February 22nd to 1946 22 year-old Jimmy Hollis was parked on a secluded Lovers Lane with his girlfriend 19-year old Mary Jean Larrey about ten minutes later a man wearing a cloth mask resembling a pillowcase with the eyes cut out appeared at the driver's side door and flashed a flashlight in the window Hollis thought this may be a prank and told the man he had the wrong person the masked man responded by saying I don't want to kill you fella so do what I say Hollis and Larry were then ordered out of the car and Hollis was told to take off your effing britches he did and was struck on the head twice with the butt of a pistol believing this to be a robbery Larry open Hollis's wallet to prove yet no money she was then struck with a blunt object and ordered a stand once on her feet the man told her to Runk the road she headed toward the main road and spotted another parked car and approached it however as she drew closer she could see it was empty Larry returned on her path but was intercepted by the man and struck on the head for a second time knocking to the ground the attacker took this opportunity to have his way with her with the barrel of his weapon fortunately for Larry the man seemed to have been scared away by the headlights of a passing car before he could achieve this after he fled she pulled herself to her feet and ran to the first house she saw as Larry's terrible episode was unfolding Hollis had managed to pull himself back to his feet covered in blood and with a fractured skull he stumbled onto nearby Richmond Road and flagged down a car the driver pulled over but horrified by his appearance refused to let Hollis in he did however promise to call an ambulance at his nearest opportunity this proved unnecessary however as the emergency services had already arrived because of a alert by Larry both victims were taken to Texarkana hospital Larry would come away at least physically the better off of the to only needing eight stitches Hollis however would lay in the intensive care ward in a coma for several days once recovered the victims would give two very differing descriptions of their attacker while Larry claimed because of this speech that he was a black man Hollis disagreed and said he believed the man to be white but couldn't be sure because of being blinded by the flashlight these and other factors made the police suspicious of the victims accounts they would form a theory that the couple knew their attacker and was covering for him Hollis was quoted as telling the Bowie County Sheriff William Presley that that man is dangerous and he's a potential murderer the next one he gets will be killed evidently he thought he'd killed me that night I know he was crazy the crazy thing is he said I know his mind was warped Hollis had no idea how prophetic his words would prove to be what no one knew at the time Hollis and Larry were very lucky to be alive they would turn out to be the first two victims in a spree of attacks that would leave the residents of Texarkana Texas and Texarkana Arkansas frozen and fear for the next ten weeks and wondering who the man responsible for them was for far longer a little over a month later on March 24th a peaceful Sunday morning would be shattered by the discovery of the bodies of 29 year-old Richard Griffin and his 17-year old girlfriend Polly and more on Griffin's 1941 Oldsmobile a passing motorist had reported the car as suspicious a couple of hours prior when officers arrived they discovered Griffin slumped over between the front seats with his pants around his ankles pockets turned out and two bullet holes in the back of his head poly was in the backseat with two shots also to the back of her head by the time sheriff Presley and Arkansas State Trooper max Tackett arrived the scene had been compromised by the large crowd that informed no efforts had been made to seal the scene about 20 feet from the car a large blood stain was discovered this led the officers to believe poly was shot outside the car and placed in it after she died also a spent cartridge from a 32 caliber weapon possibly a Colt was found wrapped in a blanket in the car any other possible clues were likely lost the previous night's rain and the failure of responding officers to close the scene with these first murders would come all sorts of rumors such as poly being indecently assaulted however no records indicate this to have occurred investigations were launched on both sides of the border on March 30th the $500 reward would be posted this would sadly lead to over 100 false leads and yield no useful information in a matter of just a few weeks police would find themselves with another set of murders on their hands this time a pair of mere children Betty Jo Booker aged 15 had been playing her saxophone with her band the riff mares at the VFW club around 1:30 a.m. her 16 year old friend Paul Martin arrived to pick her up this is the last time the two were seen alive later that morning and around 6:30 a.m. Martin was discovered lying dead by the roadside near spring park lake he had been shot four times once through the nose and once through the left rib from behind a third through the right hand and the last went through the back of the neck poor Betty Jo would not be found until 11:30 that morning she was two miles away from Paul's Ford coupe than just one mile away from where Martin had been discovered earlier that morning the young woman was mercifully still closed including her overcoat which was fully buttoned her wounds were one gunshot to the chest and a second to the face the scene was sealed from the moment Sheriff Presley who was the responding officer arrived he discovered a date book nearby and quickly pocketed it Martin's Ford was found about a mile and a half from his body just outside the park with the keys still in the ignition as with the first set of murders there were little clues to be uncovered beside the date book Presley found the set of man's tracks alongside another smaller set but was unable to follow them from the angle of the gunshots and Betty's body the police surmised that the killer was right-handed but no mode of her suspects could be produced because of this when the bullets from the teenagers were compared with those of the first two murders they were indeed ruled to be from the same 32 caliber handgun the local rumor mill was working overtime authorities were getting calls any time a person even heard a noise and the atmosphere was growing tenser by the day the Booker Martin murders would be the first time the killer would get his sensational name and the April 16th edition of the Texarkana Daily News a heading red phantom killer eludes officers as investigation of slayings pressed was published The Gazette would get into the action the following day by printing phantoms later still at large as probe continues although other names would be used in papers throughout the country the phantom became the most common the reward fun had been raised to $1,700 and within days six Texas Rangers led by the famous captain Manuel Trey's ocess lone wolf Gonzalez arrived in town to assist in the case with the Rangers the Texas DPS sent technical experts and a lab from Austin things would become so blown out of proportion that Gonzales would have to call a press conference on the 18th to quash many of the rumors circulating around the case he would say at one point that all the hearsay being spread by people and the press were a hindrance to the investigation and harmful to innocent persons the weeks following the second set of murders were relatively quiet this didn't mean tensions were not through the roof some in the community had begun to connect the cases together and since the first attack had occurred three weeks to the day before the second many expected the third attack would be coming in the same timeframe this caused tensions to heighten as may the fourth approached although these citizens were only a day off in their prediction the Phantom would prove to everyone in the area he was far from predictable when the evening of Friday May 3rd sometime before 9 p.m. the killer would strike at 1:00 last couple this time however the Phantom would give the citizens of the Arkansas a taste of the same medicine that he had been sharing with their neighbors across the state line on this night farmer and welder Virgil Starks 37 had sat down in his armchair to enjoy his favorite radio show he and his wife Katie aged 36 lived in a modest ranch-style house on a 500 acre farm almost 10 miles northeast of Texarkana while Virgil relaxed in his armchair in the sitting room Katy was lying in bed in her nightgown she said that she had heard noise in the backyard and yelled out to Virgil to turn down the radio seconds later Kitty would hear the sound of breaking glass thinking perhaps her husband had dropped something she went to see what had happened upon entering the living room Virgil stood up and then slumped back down into his chair seeing blood she ran up to examine him and upon lifting his head she realized he was dead she ran to call the police but after cranking the old wall telephone a couple of times she was shot twice in the face from the same window Virgil had been shot from the bullets while one went through her right cheek and out between her left ear and the other breaking her John's splintering several teeth they did not render her and capable of helping herself although at first she would drop to her knees she soon regained her footing and ran for a pistol that was kept in the bedroom meanwhile the shooter ran to the back of the house Katie unable to locate the gun returned to the kitchen just in time to see her assailant climbing through the couples kitchen window horribly injured and afraid she changed directions and fled through several rooms and out of the house leaving a trail of blood and teeth in her wake after first seeking help at her sister and brother-in-law's home across the street but getting no answer Katie ran the fifty yards to the neighbor AV fratres home pratter would bring her inside he then retrieved his rifle from his home and returned outside he fired into the air to alert any nearby residents of his need for aid neighbor Elmer Taylor would answer the call pratter asked Taylor to bring his car around and they drove mrs. Stark's to Michael Meagher Memorial Hospital Arkansas state officers max Tackett and Charlie Boyd would be the first to respond to the call upon arrival the officers roped off the scene however the commotion stirred up by 30 or more members of law enforcement going in and out all night would render their efforts largely useless the sheer amount of blood left behind by mrs. Stark's made it hard for the officers to keep the area clean Miller County Sheriff W Davis who would take control of the investigation called in officers from around the area including the FBI sheriff Presley captain Gonzales and his group of Texas Rangers and many others police would find money in the home along with cash and jewelry but in the theory of robbery to rest three Clues would be found at the scene a red metal flashlight was discovered in the bush by the window and two 22 caliber bullets were retrieved from the walls of the house the third muddy footprints lifted from the yard and welding shop were less solid because of the poor state of the ground bloody footprints were also found in the home but it could never be proven if they belong to the killer or the large number of officers moving through the scene although the caliber used that the Starks farm was 22 sheriff Davis stated it is possible that the killer is one and the same man several men found in the vicinity would be picked up for questioning but soon released the next morning and bloodhounds were brought in by the Arkansas State Police two trails were found that led to the highway before the scent was lost the flashlight was sent to the FBI lab in DC but was found to be free of any prints scores more officers were brought in that weekend to patrol and protect residents Texarkana Gazette's would continue to stir up fear by printing a headline on Sunday May 5th that read maniac hunted and murders on the night of Virgil's death the reward was seven thousand twenty-five dollars and would soon be combined with another reward making it equal up to ten thousand dollars that Monday Virgil Starks funeral was held the following day Katy was ruled well enough by doctors to be questioned but was unable to provide any new information a detailed description of the flashlights along with the color picture will be sent to the Gazette on the morning of Wednesday May 29th this would be printed included with this was an appeal that said have you seen this to sell flashlights you may be the one to aid in solving the Phantom slayings another appeal from sheriff Presley and Chief of Police Jack and Runnels was printed a few weeks earlier May 11th asking for any information on missing persons on the nights of the murders the rumor mill remain running around the clock word that the killer had been caught began to spread once again the authorities had to go to the press to shut the stories down sheriff Presley denied the killer had been apprehended and implored people to be more considerate of their fellow citizens a lot of innocent folks were being accused of being the Phantom no talk from the sheriff was going to make the people in the area any less jittery as the weeks passed the citizens how their collective breath awaiting the next attack but nothing would come and over time they would all return to their normal lives they had before the Phantom arrived the Rangers would quietly leave town throughout October and so only the local law enforcement members were left with no new attacks to investigate they were now able to focus on suspects among those dismissed early on was Ralph Baumann a war veteran living in Los Angeles who had attempted to sell his story to a newspaper of his Texarkana murder spree when they didn't go in for the story he took it straight to the police telling them that he lived for danger how he previously been in a coma and how he was running from something maybe murder if it turned out that he hadn't committed the crimes he hoped instead that he could settle down working as a stuntman in Hollywood a black man in his 30s also briefly a suspect after he failed a polygraph test officers decided to have him hypnotized the man was taken to Travis Elliot a psychiatrist and hypnotist Elliot talked to the man in a private session for a while sheriff Presley asked Elliot if the man could be hypnotized yes but you have the wrong man he has no criminal tendencies replied Elliot it was later determined that he failed the polygraph because he was having an affair with a married woman his tracks have been found in the area because it was the location the pair had used for their illicit tris and spite to the nine people that made false confessions to tack it the police working the case did have a few real suspects the prime target was UL Sweeney the path the Sweeney was a twisted one Arkansas State Police officer Tackett made a link he thought may be worth checking out on each night of the murders a car had been stolen in a previously stolen car had been found abandoned on the night of Friday June 28th they found the car that had been reported stolen in a parking lot and decided to stake it out and wait to see who would come to pick it up to his surprise the car was approached by a young 21 year old girl named Peggy Sweeney she was taken into custody and said that her new husband ul was in Atlanta Texas selling another stolen car Tackett tracked down ul to the Arkansas Motor Coach bus station on Front Street when ul Spada Tackett he fled out the back of the station but was cornered as Tackett approached him he told the officer not to shoot - which Tackett replied I'm not going to shoot you for your car theft mister don't play games with me he won't me for more than stealing cars came Sweeney's reply Sweeney would not stop with the incriminating comments however when ul was in the police car he asked chief deputy Tillman Johnson mr. Johnson what do you think they'll do to me for this will they give me the chair Johnson responded with you won't get much maybe five or ten years they don't give you the electric chair for stealing cars Sweeney then said mr. Johnson you got me for more than stealing cars in spinals Commons he well would not confess to being the Phantom under questioning Peggy was being held meanwhile for the murders of Paul Martin and Betty Jo Booker she would say nothing for almost a month before making a statement then two more over the next two days all three of the statements would have contradicting information and although she claimed ul was indeed the Phantom by law in 1946 Peggy could not be forced to testify against her husband even with some circumstantial evidence in Peggy's statements she was deemed an unreliable witness in the case against the two collapsed he well would not be charged with the assaults or murders but instead convicted on Texas's habitual offender law and given life in prison in the various entities involved in the case hoped that they would eventually be able to connect him to at least one of the cases but this never panned out and Sweeney eventually appealed his conviction was released in 1973 and the only other suspects most historians consider possibly being the Phantom was Henry Booker Tennyson an eighteen year old University of Arkansas freshman on November 5th 1948 the body of Tennyson was found in his room the young man had used cyanide of mercury to end his own life on a nearby desk the police found two notes one was a poem that included clues to the location of the combination of his Lockbox a note was also found inside a fountain pen marked BB poison was found in the cap the note inside the pen contained further clues to the combination of the lockbox not in the mood for playing games the police forced the lock box open and side was a viewmaster with several rolls of film of Mexico and a stack of papers under the stack of papers was a note confessing to the Texarkana killings however more papers would be discovered that would contradict Tennyson's confession James Freeman a 16 year old friend of Tennyson from Texarkana came forward and said he and Henry had been together on the nights of Virgil Stark's death Tennyson's brothers claimed the confession and him ending his life were fantastic things induced by reading too many comic books in addition they both stated that he did not know guns and didn't care for weapons hunting or shooting none of the guns that Tennyson would have had access to match the bullets used in Phantom's murders furthermore Craig a brother said that he hadn't taught Tennyson how to drive a car until the summer of 47 none of the fingerprints or bullets could be tracked back to Tennyson while there are a few less probable suspects like an escaped German POWs and an unidentified man in Atoka Oklahoma I'll leave it up to the listeners to search them out on their own to this day while many people out there have their own theories and ideas about what happened in Texarkana all those years ago the fact is the phantom killer was never caught and likely never will be there is much more information regarding the case available but for the sake of brevity I only included the most basic of facts if this story interested any of you I encourage them to seek out every bit of information you can find on the slayings a lot of the things you'll come across derive from the same sources however if you look hard enough you can discover some additional information I've not yet read any books about the subject of the phantom murders but the most recent and well acclaimed was the phantom killer unlocking the mysteries of the Texarkana serial murders by James Presley November 15 2014 Presley is not only from Texarkana he also happened to be the nephew of Bowie County Sheriff William Presley I thank you all for your time and I hope I was able to give everyone listening something a little less viral to think about don't you worry about me I promise you all will hear from me again and remember a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step but without a good pair of shoes you won't get more than a mile or two [Music] way back in 1970 Robert el Tex Roberts was an aging an eccentric millionaire living with his slightly older female companion Jesse Forsyth on the night of August 15 1970 the couple would disappear from Roberts Dallas mansion and never be seen again that evening Roberts 85 summoned his friend and bodyguard al Bergeron to the home on a matter of utmost importance when Bergeron arrived he would discover the usually locked front door ajar and known home although it was not out of the ordinary for Roberts to leave the house suddenly it was almost unheard of for 89 year-old infirmed Forsyth to go with him after waiting several hours for Roberts to return Bergeron called the police two days later Bergeron received a phone call from a friend with news of a special delivery letter from Tex the letter stated that attorney Leon C Horton would be managing his affairs during his absence Horton filed deeds to virtually all of Roberts real property including the mansion on Spring Valley Road at the Dallas County Courthouse it was then all sold to a management company owned by Horton next Horton tried to cash Roberts ample holdings of stocks and bonds even with the power of attorney know Dallas bank would negotiate the transactions however one in Amarillo would and Horton would then convert the securities into cash and has posited into his commercial accounts Horton then withdrew the funds and sent them supposedly detects according to a pre-arranged plan Bergeron who was a major beneficiary in Roberts will didn't know whether to believe Hortons assurances that Tex was getting the money yes to speak to him personally but Horton denied this claiming he was protecting his clients request for secrecy months would go by until in January of 1971 Bergeron received a Christmas card from Tex that was mailed from the small Louisiana town of Homer near the Arkansas border other of Roberts friends was also get similar cards in the mail all of these cards would have typewritten addresses this little nugget of information would motivate Bergeron to go back and examine Texas signature on the card one he knew well after taking a closer look he would decide it didn't quite look right Bergeron would now begin to investigate in earnest he would uncover another person who sold property to Horton an elderly woman who disappeared in 1969 after consulting a handwritten expert he would take his findings to attorneys Paul Chitwood who had also done legal work for Roberts in the past the attorney would examine Berger ins findings and ultimately determine a court of inquiry was necessary from the start the inquiry was a mess Horton was supposedly assaulted in the courthouse parking garage and his briefcase which held the power of attorney it was a stolen nevertheless using existing copies the handwritten expert testified that Roberts signatures and the documents were not genuine in his opinion this would lead to the indictments of Horton and notary artists Odell Reed who claimed to have witnessed Roberts signatures a grand jury in Randall County would also indict Horton for converting common stock to his own benefit he'd been convicted of theft by false pretext and given a sentence of 10 years in prison later on he would be convicted on four counts of forgery in Dallas artists Odell read the notary would vanish for over two years after being released on $15,000 bond when he finally surfaced the Dallas DEA office mysteriously lost interest in the case and agreed to a probated sentence other than Horton himself O'Dell reads maybe the only person who knows the fate of Jessie Forsyth and Tex Roberts [Music] the Christmas holiday should be a happy time for the year for family that celebrates it one of giving and sharing unfortunately the season of 1974 would be a terrifying confusing one for three Fort Worth families and everyone that has followed a reminder of loss on the morning of December 23rd 1974 three girls left their homes for a shopping trip at the seminary south shopping center and South Fort Worth Rachael Arnold trilha 17 picked up her friend Renee Wilson 14 at her home Julianne Mosely who was only nine asked the girls to let her tag along they agreed but only if Julia's mother gave permission Julie called her mother at work and only after a lot of whining as her mother says she allowed the young girl to join the others Renee had a Christmas party that night so the girls planned to be home by 4 p.m. to allow her to prepare for it the trio's first stop was the Fort Worth army-navy store to pick up some items on layaway only then did they head for the seminary south shopping center parking rachel's vehicle in the upper-level near sears several people in the mall remember seeing the girls one woman even told a store clerk she recalled Renee's sweet honesty t-shirt another claim the girls have been spotted in a security patrol car it is known the girls had made it back to the car at some point because their purchases were found inside of it when the girls did not return home the families became concerned and traveled to the shopping center to search for them they would camp out there all night waiting for the girls return with no results in the coming years more than one person would come forward with stories of seeing one or all the girls being pushed into a van or pickup truck regardless of what people claimed to have witnessed the police still had no more clues to the three girls final destination of course law enforcement would propose the time-worn runaway theory but the parents shot this down quickly a letter would arrive the next morning however that would lead police to believe that they were right it was addressed to Rachel's husband Tommy the two had been married for around six months at the time of the disappearance the envelope would hold some strange forms of speech though rather than the familiar Tommy that Rachel always called him it had the formal Thomas a trilogy Rachel's name was just scrawled across the top with no return address far more strange her name appeared to be initially misspelled as the Ellen her name was written as a lowercase e but then had been gone over again to form the correct spelling there was a snow city name on the postmark only a blurred postal service number seven six zero eight three the three oddly looked to be backwards the possibility of it being an unfinished eight are the last two digits of the stamping handwritten have been considered making it a 38 if they were indeed a 38 the letter would have been stamped in elias ville a town near Throckmorton Texas however if they were actually 88 it could have been sent from Weatherford the letter itself was on a piece of paper too large for the envelope and written in a childlike scrawl saying I know I'm going to catch it but we just had to get away we're going to Houston see you in about a week the car is in Sears parking lot love Rachel Rachel's mother Fran Langston never believed the letter came from her daughter in the 70s and 80s the letter was examined by multiple experts including those from the FBI but each time the results came back inconclusive just after the disappearance the families walked creek beds and back roads looking for the missing children the police chased a hundred empty leads by the spring of 1975 the families had become frustrated by the police investigation they would hire flamboyan private investigator John Swain in early 1975 one young man claiming to be an acquaintance of Rachel's step forward and said that he saw them in the record department of the store inside the mall just before they disappeared the man claimed that another person appeared to be with the girls in April of that year Swain would join with a hundred volunteers in Port Lavaca to search under bridges and through swamps after he received an anonymous tip that the girls had been killed and dumped there nothing would become of this or any of the other tips Swain would get and by 1979 the detective would be dead of a drug overdose with his death the case will be rendered basically closed for the time being throughout the ensuing decades the remains of more than a few people would be uncovered but none would turn out to be those of the three girls the story would get a new lease on life when the case was reopened and assigned to homicide detective Tom butcher in 2001 the detective believes the girls left the mall was someone they trusted and more than one individual may have been involved sadly like so many other times nothing new would be discovered by this new investigation nevertheless people still take time out of their lives today to comb the woods swamps and long-forgotten trails for any bit no matter how small it may be that could help solve this mystery rusty Arnold Rachel's brother who was just 11 at the time she went missing would meet Dan James a private investigator around 1995 James has been following the case since 1975 on his own time he is even posted 25 thousand dollars of his own money for any clues that could lead to the arrest and condition the person or persons responsible for the disappearance James has never been hired by any of the families or received any compensation for his work a handful of supposedly credible witnesses have been found one in 1998 that story claims Rachael was abducted and the person involved and it still has her to this day it said that he allows her to visit Fort Worth every year at Christmas rusty and James seemed will leave this story but neither man will come out and say what they think has happened to the two other girls even as recently as 2018 two cars could be dragged from Ben Brooks lake because it was thought that they may have a connection to the case but this too would lead nowhere until somebody inside the case comes out and states names and locations all types of rumors and theories will be thrown out only the individuals involved in the disappearance of the trio really know their fate and until they come forward with their story we shall all remain in the dark hey friends thanks for listening be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations if you got a story be sure to submit them to my subreddit our let's read official and give and receive feedback from the community and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video and join my discord to interact with me and other listeners directly and if you want to support me even more grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on patreon and maybe even pick up some let's read march on Spreadshirt and check out the let's read podcast where you can hear all these stories in long compilation form and save huge on data located anywhere you listen to podcasts all the links in the Bayeux thanks so much friends and remember tomorrow is head moderator day so be sure to thank your head moderators

Channel: Lets Read!

Views: 208,415

Keywords: true scary stories, scary true stories, true scary stories from reddit, reddit scary true stories, true horror stories, true horror stories from reddit, true scary stories reddit lets not meet, scary stories, horror stories, true stories, scary horror stories, stories from reddit, lets not meet, reddit, lets read, user submissions, asmr reading, asmr sleep, scary asmr, ASMR, deep woods, texas stories, true scary texas stories, stories from texas, texas horror stories

Id: YtZfS_ENErI

Length: 67min 25sec (4045 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2020