The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Nick:
He said he'd shoot me if I got any closer.

Lillian:
Well that's his job.

Jami:
Just because he wanted to die doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't the Phantom, right?

Lone Wolf Morales:
After our friend kills those kids with the trombone, who does he go after next?

Chief Deputy Tillman:
In the movie after the trombone killing there's a double homicide at a farm house.

Lone Wolf Morales:
Every damn house out here is a farm house.

Narrator:
In the spring of 1946, in the small town of Texarkana, on the Texas/Arkansas border, a series of horrific murders were committed by a masked assailant known only as the phantom killer. For three harrowing months, the phantom stalked the back roads of Texarkana following young couples looking for privacy to isolated areas where their screams for help would go unanswered. Though several arrests were made in connection to the brutal slayings which ended as suddenly as they began, the killer's identify was never confirmed. Indeed many people who lived through that nightmare time believe t4h phantom spend the rest of his days free, walking the streets of Texarkana quietly, anonymously, until his assumed death in 1976 a film inspired by the infamous Moonlight Murders was released. Every year on Halloween "The Town that Dreaded Sundown" is screened somewhere in Texarkana, in tribute to the Phantom's legacy of death and blood. Today, Texarkana is a place haunted by its past, defined by a mystery that was never solved, and a tragedy that could never be forgotten. The following happened in Texarkana last year.

Jami:
Grandma, do you remember anything about the murders?

Lillian:
Oh dear God, barely. Just what I heard later. You know your great grandpa and your great grandma lived in this house when it happened. I remember my mama once said ti was like the town was being tested and no one knew why, even the grown ups were scared. He was the boogeyman they said, can't catch the boogeyman, can't kill the boogeyman, his father's the devil and his mother's a whore. Know before that summer, everybody would leave their doors unlocked, and after the summer, you saw a stranger, you wouldn't wave hello, you'd just cross the street.

Jami:
What about when they made the movie?

Lillian:
What about it?

Jami:
Were people still afraid?

Lillian:
Of the Phantom? No that faded, no one knew exactly who he was or what he did, just that he lived in this town ad attacked some teenagers on lover's lane. And then the movie brought it all back.

Jami:
I just don't understand why he thinks we deserve this;

Deputy Foster:
Well, I'll tell you what, I wasn't born in Texarkana but I've been around long enough to know one thing: it's that just about everyone around here's got some kind of blood on their hands.

Jami:
People are saying the Phantom is back; that after 60-some years he's come back and we need to be ready. The Phantom is our dirty secret. Everyone knows some piece of the story but the whole truth has been all but buried. Most of the people alive back then are no longer with us, or they just don't want to remember. But everything comes back, the past is alive, all around us.

Lone Wolf Morales:
We have 2 jobs, friends: to capture this bastard, and to keep the good people of Texarkana from killing each other out of fear. We are not hunting a ghost, we are after a flesh and blood, cold blooded killer, who up to this point has not made ONE mistake.

Chief Deputy Tillman:
I do respect, Lone Wolf, he WAS videotaped.

Lone Wolf Morales:
I'd like to see that footage, oh, and the movie: believe it or not, I've never had the pleasure of seeing it.

Jami:
Mr. Pierce, I'm writing something about the Phantom, about his legacy in our town and...

Charles B. Pierce, Jr.:
Well I can tell you who the killer is. Would that be interesting to you?

Kendra:
[during vigorous sex] I'm sore, I need a break!

Kendra:
[to Danny] Knock when you come back, so I know it's you, okay?

Reverend Cartwright:
[to the teens frequenting the Halloween showing of the movie] Real people died, you know, young man!

Jami:
This town, where I was born, where I grew up, is the only place I've ever known.

Townsperson:
[at town hall meeting] Don't act so surprised that the Phantom' back, of course he is! You can't leave a candle burning in a window for someone and then be SURPRISED when he finally shows up!

Texas Mayor:
That movie will never be shown in Texarkana again, not on the Texas side!

Arkansas Mayor:
And not on the Arkansas side either.

Jami:
I don't think we'll figure out who the Phantom is now unless we figure out who he was back then.

Phantom:
[voiceover narration as Jami reads the email he sent] They couldn't catch me 66 years ago and they never will. I come and go as I please, I kill when I please. You may think I'm a horrible sick murderer, but I'm not; I love my neighbors, I wish they would stop and let my soul rest in peace.

Jami:
[reading the rest to the police] For you see I am the soul of Texarkana, I'm the reckoning foretold.

Paul Mason:
Now look, I can understand how this can be upsetting, but it's also most likely a fake.

Jami:
Well the Zodiac, he sent a manifesto to the press and...

Paul Mason:
Yes, so did Son of Sam, and the Axeman of New Orleans, but to reporters, not teenagers.

Lone Wolf Morales:
We all realize it could be a hoax, Deputy, but until it's 100% confirmed, we will take it AND this young lady seriously. [to Jami] I want my entire team to hear what you have to say, if you think it's important, we think it's important.

Jami:
It was crazy of me to think I could help the police, but I'm going to keep researching, keep writing, there are stories that need to be told, so...

Chief Deputy Tillman:
That's the most God awful thing I've done in a long while. They asked me if their sons were dead before he mutilated their bodies, I lied. I told them as far as I could tell, they had passed before the worst of it.

Lone Wolf Morales:
Maybe they had.

Chief Deputy Tillman:
They cried. These two grown men I've known, boy alive. Their boys.

Lone Wolf Morales:
We catch him, we kill him, that'll make it better. That'll at least bring them peace.

Chief Deputy Tillman:
I agree.