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Hollywood Crime Scene

Episode 115 - Movie vs. Reality: The Town That Dreaded Sundown and Texarkana Moonlight Murders

Hollywood Crime Scene

Rachel Fisher

True Crime, Comedy

4.74.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week we explore the terror that gripped a small town in the 40's and was the inspiration for the 1976 film, The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, welcome to Hollywood crime scene. This is Rachel Fisher. Hi, this is Desi Jettakin. Hey, I'm laughing because a mutual friend of ours said that he didn't realize what my last name was and he thought it was Desi Jed and I was saying Desi Jed again.

0:14.0

Oh, so now when I said that I was like, oh, that could I can see how he thought that I was like, but what a loser I would be if I just always said that every every week.

0:23.0

Yeah, Desi Jed again.

0:26.0

I love that. Yeah. So yeah, and shout out to our friend if you're listening. Yeah, you are. You know who you are. You know who you are. I mean, I don't know who you are because we've never met. I don't even I said to him. I'm like, I don't even think I really know his last name.

0:41.0

I know his first name because you've told me obviously it's not his like handle. Right. Yeah. Well, I hung out with him twice. Yeah. It's just funny because you do have these friendships and sometimes you're like, wait, what's their name?

0:52.0

I just know their handle right right right anyway, totally. Okay. So let's start at the show by thinking our lovely patrons. They donated over at patreon.com slash Hollywood crime scene. This week we had Jenna Christopher, Carrie, Sarah, Kat and Erica, Tina, Silver, D Lisa, Angela, Sarah, Jillian, Shannon and Megan.

1:20.0

Thanks, guys. Thank you guys so much. Okay. So this is our last installment of our Halloween horror movie versus reality episodes that we're doing for Halloween month. And today we're going to be discussing the Texarkana Moonlight murders, a series of unsolved murders that were committed in Texarkana during the spring of 1946 by an unidentified serial killer known as the Phantom Killer or the Phantom Slayer.

1:48.0

His reign of terror lasted a very short period. His attacks always occurred on weekends between February 22nd of 1946 and May 3rd of 1946. This crime is rumored to have inspired a very famous lovers Lane urban legend. And that is the one with the hook.

2:06.0

And killer. Do you know that of course. Yeah, I mean, it's a classic where they kind of hear on the radio that there had been a hook handed killer on the loose right and the

2:34.0

film called the town that dreaded sundown. Did you see that? No. And I totally forgot you were doing this episode this week. And I should have watched it this week. And I'm sorry. Okay. That's okay. It's pretty classic old 70s horror movie. I know of the movie. And it had like a a sequely kind of movie remake type deal in the 2000s at some point. Anyway. So we'll talk more about that at the end of this episode. So let's get started. Okay.

3:03.0

So on Friday night, February 22nd, 1946, a 25 year old man named Jimmy Hollis and his girlfriend Mary Jean Larry, who was 19 went out with another couple to a movie and then a diner afterwards.

3:17.0

Jimmy drove the other couple home. And since it was still early, he and Mary went to a secluded area that was known as a lover's Lane. So unfortunately, when the couple get to this area, they were not alone around 11.55 p.m.

3:32.0

And this is according to Mary. We had been there about 10 minutes when a man walked up. He wore a white mask over his head with cut out places for the eyes and mouth. He pointed a flashlight and pistol at us. He came up on the driver's side of the car and told Jimmy something like this. I don't want to kill you fellow. So just do what I say.

3:50.0

We both got out of the car on Jimmy side and stood by the man. The man then told Jimmy, take off your fucking bridges. Mary begged Jimmy to do what the man said and Jimmy took off his pants.

4:01.0

After Jimmy had taken off his trousers, the man hit Jimmy twice on the head. The noise was so loud, I thought Jimmy had been shot, but I later learned that the sound was his skull cracking. Oh my God. I picked up Jimmy's pants and took his billfold out of his pocket. And I said, look, he doesn't have any money. But the man told me I was lying and said that I had a purge.

4:19.0

But I told him that I didn't. Then he hit me. I thought with a piece of iron pipe and knocked me to the ground, but I managed to get up. Now Mary said that the man told her to run and even yelled at her while she was running to change directions.

4:32.0

Like mid running, like I don't really know why. But that was really terrifying to me because that's like one of my fears where like someone who's attacking you tells you to run. Oh God. And you're like, don't know what they're going to do to you when you're running.

4:45.0

Like, because you know, it's like probably something bad, right? Like, like, you're not just letting you escape. Like, and you have to like zigzag. Like, I always like, I always feel like, I have to zigzag really fast so they can't shoot me. Like, it's like getting me like scared right now, thinking about it's like a hunting thing.

5:00.0

Yeah. Like, it must be the most terrifying feeling in the world. Because you want to escape. Right. But at the same time, are you more vulnerable?

5:09.0

Running in like an open field or something? You don't want to play their game. Yeah. It's like such a weird fucked up thing to do to somebody. And they know that. That's why they do absolutely.

5:19.0

So she eventually does reach the main road where she sees a park car. And she kind of like in her testimony or in her statement, she kind of instantly is like, is this his car?

5:32.0

Like, she's kind of happy to see the car. But then she instantly kind of realizes like, wait, that might be his car. Like, am I running to his car? And she was right.

...

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