Mary: It was white with black stripes! Jimmy: It was black with white stripes! Texarkana police: Stop being inconsistent, obviously this so-called "zebra" doesn't exist!
Fellow Arkie here from Saline County. I want him to do our boys on the tracks. My husband went to school with Don Henry and Kevin Ives. Sadly Kevin's mother passed a couple years ago and never got closure. It ties back to the guns for the Iran contra by way of selling cocaine to get the mo ey to buy the gus for the Contra. Cia, Arkie state police, theClinton's, and killed these two because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw what they should not have seen.
As someone who's lived in Texarkana all their life and watched your videos (all your channels), it's cool to see you cover this. Thanks to Jen and Kevin for supplying Simon with stuff to get me thru shit 12hr shifts building tires...
Born and raised in Texarkana, but live in Colorado now. So cool to see them cover this, I watched "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" in Spring Lake Park on a big projector on Halloween a few years.
As someone who is from Arkansas, my grandmother talked a lot about this case. Then the movie The Town that Dreaded Sundown came out and scared my adolescent ass. Despite it happening in the 40,s (this was the 70's) and living 2 hours away, this warped my little brain and started a life long habit of horror stories and movies.
Fun fact: there's a rather bizarre movie about this case from the 1970s called The Town that Dreaded Sundown. It gets shown in Texarcana once a year on the anniversary of one of the killings.
i grew up in texarkana and they occasionally play the movie in spring lake park, which is the major park there and where it was also rumored to happened. pretty fun
Again, yes. Thank you Jen for editing this masterpiece, which I'm sure was difficult. Love the writers. All of you. Too many to name Simon Thank you for delivering a story in a format that I can enjoy the way you deliver things helps my ADD. I think again I work graveyards not doing much. These stories give me through my night
My 95 year old mother was a 19 year old living very near Texarkana during this time. On her second date with my dad, a new fellow in town. They parked in the dark and told her, “I am the Phantom Killer. She told him she had a pistol in her purse and he folded. Can’t believe she still married him.
No he wasn't. The first murder happened before he took a construction job in town immediately after he was discharged from the Navy. The timeline was wrong. My mother is a tough cookie.
This is funny to me because I actually googled just a basic example of a grocery list because I never know what to get and I get anxious in the stores but I just put Simon in my ear and I’m good to go but back to my main thing it’d be amazing if he could read me a grocery list. 😅
My grandparents lived in Texarkana, Texas, from the 1960s to the 1980s. I don’t know if it was really a dangerous town, but my grandparents and their friends were always talking about bizarre and horrifying crimes people had committed in Texarkana or nearby. They also talked about their next-door neighbors in a way that made child me think they were especially deranged psychopaths. All this made it a little hard to get to sleep whenever I stayed at Grandpa and Mimi’s house.
It was common to have a signal system with your neighbors in rural areas back then. A lot of people didn't have telephones so they had signals to alert help. It's not a bad system if you live rurally
Great episode as always and since Simon is always talking about not treating your kids terribly or else I highly recommend a look into the Wineville Chicken Coop murders, a story where the murderer lived a relatively happy childhood and his most prominent victim (despite years of horrendous abuse) grew up to be a rather upstanding citizen
That is the only serial killer that’s ever bothered me. Even those 2 or 3 from South America with hundreds of victims didn’t bother me. But the Chicken coop guy? 🤢.
@@black_hand78 and even though 10 sets of remains were found on his property we won't know the exact number of boys Northcott abused and killed mainly because he was a pathological liar though I think it's likely he killed way more than just 10 as he used quicklime to destroy the corpses
Thanks Simon and Jen and Kevin! This case always leaves me wondering if it was a police officer. A young couple seeing a cop approaching wouldn't wonder why. They wouldn't try to drive off or fight. Maybe with new technology they can answer the questions surrounding this.
Simon has now become the unofficial soundtrack to my life! I listen to so many of his podcasts while I’m doing my day to day errands. I watch his videos when I’m chilling at home….. damn I sound like a stalker! 😂
Honestly, when you come from a more impoverished area, it's not surprising that the residents didn't really take the first attack that seriously. Like if it happened where I'm from, I'd be a little disturbed, but it wouldn't rank that high in terms of terrifying crimes. I mean, not too far away from where I live, there was a "machete brawl" a year or so ago, and right up the street from me, an elderly lady was mauled to death by her neighbour's dogs. When you live somewhere chronically underfunded in every sense, shit like that isn't super shocking unfortunately.
@@ruzi.the.spider Well I live way in the sticks in Ontario, machete brawl is little off, but junkyard dogs, or guard dogs not looked after in general are a quite common. More so barn dogs, but same idea.
From what I gathered from the time, the couples being targeted were "sinning". If they hadn't tried to fool around, they wouldn't have been killed. I think that had a lot to do with it. Similar to the Yorkshire Ripper in the UK that believed he only targeted sex workers.
Texarkana's problem was almost the opposite! The war had really swung things into high gear, and they had an influx of all kinds of people as they became a small town by today's numbers but also a big city as far as bars, theaters, and all-night entertainments. Then vets were coming home and employment wasn't as steady with the competition. So, robberies and fights spiked in certain "bad" neighborhoods where there were rooms to rent and a constant flux of different people but also around those all-night entertainments. Car theft was also rampant because of the war, as new cars for just normal people were out of the question when factories were cranking out military vehicles. Law enforcement wasn't bad for the times, but they were stretched thin trying to cover the crime wave around the clock!
Simon, as a lifelong Arkansan, your southern accent isn't that far off. While, yes, there are people who sound exactly that way, even to me, I'm pretty sure that I sound that way to Northerners. I consider myself quite articulate and well educated, but from my travels I've come to understand that I have an overwhelming southern draw that those from the north just can't seem to ignore. So when it comes to your southern accent, this lifelong southerner says "Keep it coming!"
See, as a northern, I think I’ve done a pretty decent job at hiding my New England accent. I don’t slur words or use slang, and I articulate my words carefully imo. However, I was out of the country once, and some lady was able to pinpoint where I was from while talking to me XD. I asked her how she knew, and she said it was because she couldn’t keep up with me since I talked too fast. Apparently that’s a New England thing.
Lol ironically people from the north also have an equally unhideable accent but different depending on if its like boston/new york or minnesooota, and those are sometimes even easier to notice than someone from canada lol its wild for me both of those and british accents are easy to understand but there are times when someone from ireland or scotland is speaking where im convinced they arent even speaking the same language 😂 Accents are weird, especially when you consider the accent of the midwest is the lack of a noticeable accent
As a Minnesotan transplant to Kansas, my feelings were somewhat hurt by the lifelong Arkansan (Arkansan? Arkansonian? Arkansian?) Who told me, and I quote "You talk funny". To add insult to injury, it was stated in the slowest, thickest drawl I've heard outside of Mississippi.
Re: Peggy talking with the cops. This would have been before the Wainwright and Miranda rulings (which established that you had a right to an attorney regardless of ability to pay, and that the police had to make you aware of said right respectively) so she probably didn't have access to a lawyer (unless she was wealthy).
The Town That Dreaded Sundown. One of my favorite early low budget horror flicks. Gritty like Texas Chainsaw, but mysterious like Halloween, being as it has elaborate death scenes like TCM and the killer's motive is never revealed like in the original Halloween.
I'm amazed they connected a saxophone in Corpus Christi with an attack in Texarkana. The two cities are a solid 8 hours away from each other. The media reach of this case must have been massive, especially for the time.
My grandfather was growing up in Amarillo, and he followed the case closely. It was a massive case all over Texas, and we were still talking about it when I was in middle school in the aughts.
Yey!!! A new episode! I really liked the intro and, Jen, the names in the end of the video look very nice 😎 The videos keep getting better and better. Great job guys!!!
As a deep south southerner, my accent is not quite 'hick' but still fairly thick and I'm not offended at all. I find your attempted southern accent amusing. And the "only law I know is Jesus" is something you could absolutely hear. No joke, 2 days ago i couldnt sleep and went to get a single shot bottles of vodka and the woman in line actually said "If you talk to Jesus you won't have insomnia." in the accent you're imagining.
Simon, a great episode! There is one point i want to make. In the US, a spouse cannot testify against there spouse because they may either provide a false alibi or be less than truthful depending on the status of their relationship.
Actually, the spouse that is being tried for the crime would plead spousal privilege and the spouse can not testify against the other spouse. A spouse can definitely testify but again, either can claim privilege
I saw a video about this on a different channel. One commenter said that they grew up in Texarkana and the rumor around the town was that the killer was the son of a prominent family who was never heard from again because he never made it home from the Korean War, being KIA.
The botched handlings of Ruby Ridge and Waco destroyed the credibility of the FBI in the 90s. The negative portrayal of the FBI from that Richard Jewell movie a few years back (speaking of another case the FBI completely botched) is pretty much right on the money. Definitely the biggest joke of an alphabet agency
@@garretth8224 It's possible that there is more than one joke agency at a time. There are propaganda shows out now that try to recover the FBI's reputation but they're still a joke. It's just not as widely known now, the FBI has been a clown show for a very long time, including way back in the early J Edgar Hoover days
Kevin's scripts started out great and just keep getting better, across multiple channels even. THANKS KEVVY KEV!! We Blazers / Cas Crims / Decoders appreciate you. 🤙
I'd really like to see the Murdaugh case written by Liam. He's the perfect writer to provide really good insight on the case since it's so tied into the legal system. To Simon: It'll get a lot of views. You'll be doing capitalism proud!
Texarkana is a town I've been through many many times. It's between my dad's and my mom's and my grandmother's houses, so it's a frequent meal stop place when I go to visit my grandmother and has been since I was a kid. It really is a nice little town. Er, unsolved murders aside, of course.
I think the Ghoul Boys from Buzzfeed Unsolved covered the Texarkana Phantom, so I'm glad Simon is also covering with a bit more detail and equal amounts of humor. Also, any chance you could cover the Green River Killer? I eagerly await a casual criminalist episode based is Washington State
Living close to Texarkana in Shreveport and the amount of murders in these areas is insane. Literally daily we see two or more shootings or murders, at least it seems that way.
Texarkana has nothing on Pine Bluff. Also... Shreveport is in LA. I used to live in NOLA. Pretty sure the only town in Arkansas that beats out NO for violent crime is Pine Bluff... not even Little Rock(capital city) beats the Bluff. Texarkana has gotten worse over the last 50 years ... but so has everywhere in the last 4 years..... Also... Please look as to who is holding the keys to these big cities.... Please look at who is running thier local city governments... There is a running theme for these cities... See if you can figure it out....lol
I was having a bad day with car breakdown this morning, and then new CC episode AND DtU episode to help me pass the time while awaiting the tow truck. Perfect timing
Corpus Christi is about 540 miles (869 km.) by road from Texarkana, Texas. So it’s not impossible that someone would steal a saxophone in Texarkana and then try to pawn it in Corpus Christi, but it seems highly improbable.
Attacking couples in lovers spots, shining flashlight in their eyes to blind them, mask with eye holes cut out. Exactly like the Zodiac but 20 years too early.
I thought the same thing. I wonder if any of the military personnel working at the armory in Texarkana were from northern California and moved back to California afterwards. I believe the Zodiac killer was thought to be older maybe in his 40s or so.
I think having personal connections to the murder victims doesn't mean much in a town of 30k. There's probably only one theater that everyone visits, everyone knows everyone through one group or another and everyone lives somewhat close to each other. If you conclude that someone is the killer because he worked at a theater some of the victims visited, played in the same band as another and was a neighbor of a third one, you can probably easily also find someone who worked at the grocery store where some victims shopped, was a member of the same sports team as a second victim and went to school with a third one.
Yeah I live in a town of 5k and they definitely dont all know each other. I know like 20% and I know more than most people after working a couple public jobs
I didn't recognize this case from the title (I've watched an uncountable amount of true crime shows) but I immediately recognized the victims. It really is so damn sad that their lives were cut short due to one person's hate, frustrations and desires. They were all kids and regardless of when/where/what they were doing, they certainly didn't deserve to be murdered. I can't repeat it enough, it's just so damn sad. :(
As someone who's lived all my life in "small town" Texas, no an attack or a murder out of nowhere would not cause panic. About a year ago a man was found drowned in the lake after being shot. There was no panic simply because the cops/sheriff office didn't really talk about it. Everyone knows that means they know who the victim was and who did it and they don't care about it or the attacker is protected. What scares people is the fear that they could be next or that it was random. No'one is scared that Allie got robed because they know she buys drugs from the sherif and hasn't paid him, so of course she's going to be robbed. Hank got his head bashed in and is in the hospital, everyone knows Hank gets drunk and gets mean, sooner or later someone is going to lay him out. In larger towns/cities you don't know things like that and there are random crimes. People get mugged because they just happened to be on the wrong street. You have to lock your doors because there is someone breaking into whatever house he can. While in small town, I pay what I owe and I don't cheat at cards so why would I have to lock my door at night? Probably no-one panicked after the first attack because everyone assumed that it wasn't a random attack. Maybe she had a boyfriend/ex that wouldn't appreciate her stepping out or he owed someone money. No clue, just little towns don't have to think about "random" crime.
I see the point you're making, but it's still a bit weird not to be worried about a double murder. Even if it was "provoked" in some way, people aren't supposed to kill each other as revenge.
@@jjanon2371 True enough, not trying to say that the attack(s) where thought to be justified or okay by the people living there, just that it doesn't surprise me that there was no mass panic. Although I'll bet there where a lot of mommas that didn't let their kids go out on their own for a while after the first attack.
Idk I can always tell when someone’s not from here when spoken like he does. Tex-Ahhr-kana fits his vernacular, when a quick Texer-kana sounds more like Local to me.
I live roughly 30 minutes fro Texarkana. My husband was raised in that area and from what he has said it was a chaotic time to be there with curfews and police running around. There is also a movie about it, the town that feared sundown I think is the name of it.
I live in a town of 30,000 and I can confirm that if something like this happened here, people would absolutely lose their sh*t-cookies. In the 17 years I've lived here, we've had one mugging. One. A man stopped a college student in a parking lot and demanded she give him all the cash she had on her. He said he had a gun but never showed her any weapon. She, very wisely, gave him all the cash she had - a grand total of $5. She went immediately to the police and an announcement was made on the local radio station. Within a couple hours, everyone in town knew what had happened. The townspeople were so terrorized by a (probably unarmed) man talking a lady out of $5 that many businesses actually closed for the day. The man, who was presumably from out of town, was never identified and never committed another mugging (at least, not in this town). I suppose he used the $5 to buy some gas so he could get out of dodge. He would have made more money standing on a street corner with a sign that said, "Need gas money, please help" 😂
Hi Simon. I have for a long time enjoyed your content in podcast form. Listening using ear plugs. However in the last two months or so the volume has dropped so low that I can no longer hear it. The slightest noise will drown it out. This has nothing to do with the platform or my hardware as I can hear other podcasts just fine. It's only The casual criminalist that has this low volume. Maybe you could look into it and ask whoever converts your video to podcast to boost the volume, and quite a lot too. Thanks, and thanks for all the content.
It's been that way on all his channels for a while. Many of us have mentioned it but he records ahead of time so even with our comments it will probably be a month or 2 before the problem is resolved.
Definitely the guy trying to sell the alto sax with the bloody clothes. He Definitely went back to the scene and put it into the brush after he realized it was a bad idea.
while I love all of Simon’s writers, I think that Kevin’s style works across the board. which is probably why he writes on essentially all of Simon’s channels. There’s a nice balance of accurate fact conveyance, dark humor, and subtle commentary that makes his scripts so entertaining, regardless of which channel his work is featured on. Now, if Simon ever breaks into the beauty industry and starts doing makeup tutorials, or beard care videos, I would love to see if Kevin’s writing could help there as well. Although…not sure how many beard care tutorials are heavily scripted. anyways, the point is…well done, Kevin! Great work, as usual! 9:44
Yet another great script Kevin! You should look into to prison break from Clinton correctional facility in Dannemora, New York. It would be a more light hearted story.
I'm from the Texarkana area and my son did an internship at Texarkana Gazette in college. I just have to say how cool it is to hear Simon say these familiar names 😎 👍
My dad was 28 and mom was 19 when they got married in 1970. Lived happily til my dad passed away in 1992. She never remarried. Age doesn't matter if both over 18 and have the best intentions of making a happy life together.
I think what’s most likely is that the kid that worked at the theater did the first two shootings but took credit for the third shooting in his suicide note (common narcissist behavior) but the car thief shot the older couple, and this was what he was referring to when he said “do you think I’ll get the chair?” His girlfriend knew he had a committed a shooting but was confused about which one.
Oh my god I’m literally from this state and how have I never heard of this. SIMON thank u for that! Edit: as an Arkansas native- we only ever get in the news for a bad wrap 😂
You should look up Ronald Gene Simmons. He killed over a dozen people over the holidays back in the 80s in Russellville and Dover, where I live. Apparently the worst spree killer in state history
How about one on the unsolved 1950 murder of Janett Christman, who’s brutal killing while she was babysitting was the source of “the babysitter and the man upstairs” urban legend?
Not sure if this would be your best channel to cover this guy, but I would love to see you and your writers cover Colton Harris Moore "The Barefoot Bandit". 16 year old kid that stole multiple airplanes in 3 countries while committing dozens of felonies and stayed on the run for 3 years. Kid is practically a legend.. and good news for Simon.. no horrible murders.. Dude calls attorneys to negotiate the movie rights for his story while he is still on the run.. Steals planes, speed boats, luxory cars.. stays on the move.. its kinda awesome to be honest..
This is my hometown and we always heard this horrible story. Thank you for covering it. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the movie based on this, it’s named The town that dreaded sundown.
Год назад+4
Kevin is going to turn Simon into the most paranoid dad. This is emotional assault! 😅
Texarkana was super creepy when I was there without even knowing about this. I stopped there on a cross country road trip and it's just plain unsettling at first glance.
Simon asks what the people are up to? Well... three people get found covered in blood, and it's unrelated to the murder the cops are investigating, I'd say the locals were busy, whatever they were doing 😳
Simon cracked me up thinking that the guy in Corpus was for sure “The Guy.” Corpus to Texarkana - is further that Prague to Copenhagen or Florence. I think people miss how big the distances from one side of texas to the other really are.
Amazing idea. Fully agree. I've been asking Simon to do Derrick Todd Lee, the Baton Rouge serial killer for over a year and he hasn't done it yet :( maybe one day, but for the meantime I feel I don't want to be a pest who spams the same request on every video.. so I just let it be lol his regular uploads are always a treat enough
@@GrievousReborn It would be cool if there was a poll system that we could vote on for possible future episodes. I know it's not that simple, a lot of work goes into the writers doing scripts and the filming and all of that and he usually films these things a month or so ahead, but idk. Maybe one day our pleas and begging will pay off LOL
Fun fact. Arkansas became a state in 1836. Kansas became a state in 1861. So really Arkansas is the OG. Plus Arkansas is a Native American word meaning “down stream people”
Mary: It was white with black stripes!
Jimmy: It was black with white stripes!
Texarkana police: Stop being inconsistent, obviously this so-called "zebra" doesn't exist!
😭😭😭
😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣
The Moonlight Murders!!!
I was born in Texarkana. It's so awesome Simon finally covered this crime spree.
Enjoy!
Fellow Arkie here from Saline County.
I want him to do our boys on the tracks.
My husband went to school with Don Henry and Kevin Ives.
Sadly Kevin's mother passed a couple years ago and never got closure.
It ties back to the guns for the Iran contra by way of selling cocaine to get the mo ey to buy the gus for the Contra.
Cia, Arkie state police, theClinton's, and killed these two because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw what they should not have seen.
As someone who's lived in Texarkana all their life and watched your videos (all your channels), it's cool to see you cover this. Thanks to Jen and Kevin for supplying Simon with stuff to get me thru shit 12hr shifts building tires...
You're welcome!
I just found out Jerry Delony was from there!
Born and raised in Texarkana, but live in Colorado now. So cool to see them cover this, I watched "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" in Spring Lake Park on a big projector on Halloween a few years.
I live in Shreveport, so I'm pretty close to Texarkana.
Let’s take a moment for Jen: the absolute legend of a video editor , secretly mocking Simon since 2020
Secretly?
LMFAO.........
Apple polisher.
i only just started watching all these cold read channels and im always excited to see its her editing. absolute gold
The underpraised co-host 🫡
As someone who is from Arkansas, my grandmother talked a lot about this case. Then the movie The Town that Dreaded Sundown came out and scared my adolescent ass. Despite it happening in the 40,s (this was the 70's) and living 2 hours away, this warped my little brain and started a life long habit of horror stories and movies.
Fun fact: there's a rather bizarre movie about this case from the 1970s called The Town that Dreaded Sundown. It gets shown in Texarcana once a year on the anniversary of one of the killings.
You goddamn legend. That's a good film.
IIRC, it was made by the same filmmaker as The Legend of Boggy Creek. Man wanted Texarkana to be more than where Bandit and Snowman pick up beer, lol
i grew up in texarkana and they occasionally play the movie in spring lake park, which is the major park there and where it was also rumored to happened. pretty fun
I was thinking of that movie while listening to this.
I remembered that film when he was talking. Loved it.
Again, yes. Thank you Jen for editing this masterpiece, which I'm sure was difficult. Love the writers. All of you. Too many to name Simon Thank you for delivering a story in a format that I can enjoy the way you deliver things helps my ADD. I think again I work graveyards not doing much. These stories give me through my night
You could at least name the one that wrote this,but thanks! 💕
@@ThatWriterKevin Thank you for writing Kevin.
@@maccurtis730 You're welcome
Thank you, Kevin.
replying to comments when it is paused don't help mine when I forget to take my Adderall like right now lol
My 95 year old mother was a 19 year old living very near Texarkana during this time. On her second date with my dad, a new fellow in town. They parked in the dark and told her, “I am the Phantom Killer. She told him she had a pistol in her purse and he folded. Can’t believe she still married him.
I choked on my drink. I think your mother is a badass 🥰
😂😂
She made that up.
No he wasn't. The first murder happened before he took a construction job in town immediately after he was discharged from the Navy. The timeline was wrong. My mother is a tough cookie.
Holy shit the past!
i could listen to Simon read my grocery list and he would still keep me interested in finding out what item comes next
Totally agree! I adore him!❤️🙏🌹
It would be pretty weird when he pauses to go on a tangent about farming or something between the broccoli and the eggs.
It’s the accent. I lived in the UK and it all sounds more interesting in a British accent.
This is funny to me because I actually googled just a basic example of a grocery list because I never know what to get and I get anxious in the stores but I just put Simon in my ear and I’m good to go but back to my main thing it’d be amazing if he could read me a grocery list. 😅
Agreed!
My grandparents lived in Texarkana, Texas, from the 1960s to the 1980s. I don’t know if it was really a dangerous town, but my grandparents and their friends were always talking about bizarre and horrifying crimes people had committed in Texarkana or nearby. They also talked about their next-door neighbors in a way that made child me think they were especially deranged psychopaths. All this made it a little hard to get to sleep whenever I stayed at Grandpa and Mimi’s house.
It was common to have a signal system with your neighbors in rural areas back then. A lot of people didn't have telephones so they had signals to alert help. It's not a bad system if you live rurally
That requires your neighbors to be sober and attentive. Modern Americans are neither.
I get so excited everytime one of these comes out. I can't wait to hear what Simons tangent is today.
Jen's editing is top notch👌Love all these little subtle touches that make the viewing interesting, like the closeups or little sound effects!
Great episode as always and since Simon is always talking about not treating your kids terribly or else I highly recommend a look into the Wineville Chicken Coop murders, a story where the murderer lived a relatively happy childhood and his most prominent victim (despite years of horrendous abuse) grew up to be a rather upstanding citizen
Ah yeah Gordon Northcott's crimes were beyond unspeakably disgusting
That is the only serial killer that’s ever bothered me. Even those 2 or 3 from South America with hundreds of victims didn’t bother me. But the Chicken coop guy? 🤢.
@@black_hand78 and even though 10 sets of remains were found on his property we won't know the exact number of boys Northcott abused and killed mainly because he was a pathological liar though I think it's likely he killed way more than just 10 as he used quicklime to destroy the corpses
And then abused his own cousin.
He was Norman Batesy. And the family was cruel to the cousin.
Thank you Kevin and team for putting this video together.
Welcome!
Thanks Simon and Jen and Kevin!
This case always leaves me wondering if it was a police officer. A young couple seeing a cop approaching wouldn't wonder why. They wouldn't try to drive off or fight.
Maybe with new technology they can answer the questions surrounding this.
You're welcome!
Jimmy was right 😂. I’m glad we can find some dark humor from a horrible situation.
Glad you enjoyed! 💕
Simon has now become the unofficial soundtrack to my life! I listen to so many of his podcasts while I’m doing my day to day errands. I watch his videos when I’m chilling at home….. damn I sound like a stalker! 😂
Same. I listen at work.
Well he is a legend after all!
Simon's lovely dulcet tones send me to sleep on many nights; like he's reading me a bedtime story!
Pretty much same.
Same! I work from home and have to have something on in the background or I'll go nuts and of course anything slightly creepy is a must!
Honestly, when you come from a more impoverished area, it's not surprising that the residents didn't really take the first attack that seriously. Like if it happened where I'm from, I'd be a little disturbed, but it wouldn't rank that high in terms of terrifying crimes. I mean, not too far away from where I live, there was a "machete brawl" a year or so ago, and right up the street from me, an elderly lady was mauled to death by her neighbour's dogs. When you live somewhere chronically underfunded in every sense, shit like that isn't super shocking unfortunately.
This must be a Europe thing but citizens being gunned down by an unknown killer strikes me different than a brawl or a dog attack. 💔
@@ruzi.the.spider Well I live way in the sticks in Ontario, machete brawl is little off, but junkyard dogs, or guard dogs not looked after in general are a quite common. More so barn dogs, but same idea.
From what I gathered from the time, the couples being targeted were "sinning". If they hadn't tried to fool around, they wouldn't have been killed. I think that had a lot to do with it. Similar to the Yorkshire Ripper in the UK that believed he only targeted sex workers.
Texarkana's problem was almost the opposite! The war had really swung things into high gear, and they had an influx of all kinds of people as they became a small town by today's numbers but also a big city as far as bars, theaters, and all-night entertainments. Then vets were coming home and employment wasn't as steady with the competition. So, robberies and fights spiked in certain "bad" neighborhoods where there were rooms to rent and a constant flux of different people but also around those all-night entertainments. Car theft was also rampant because of the war, as new cars for just normal people were out of the question when factories were cranking out military vehicles. Law enforcement wasn't bad for the times, but they were stretched thin trying to cover the crime wave around the clock!
Volume is great this time around! Thanks for fixing it. Love your videos.
Ah yes, 40 minutes of Simon saying “police get your shit together!”
As someone from Texarkana I can confirm they haven't. Not at all.
police in these serial killer/ large crime spree stories always seem to be the most incompetent, lazy, apathetic pieces of hog shit
It’s easy to criticize.
Kevin another awesome story. Jen 👏👏👏. My absolute favorite thing to listen to all week.
Thanks!
Simon, as a lifelong Arkansan, your southern accent isn't that far off. While, yes, there are people who sound exactly that way, even to me, I'm pretty sure that I sound that way to Northerners. I consider myself quite articulate and well educated, but from my travels I've come to understand that I have an overwhelming southern draw that those from the north just can't seem to ignore. So when it comes to your southern accent, this lifelong southerner says "Keep it coming!"
See, as a northern, I think I’ve done a pretty decent job at hiding my New England accent. I don’t slur words or use slang, and I articulate my words carefully imo. However, I was out of the country once, and some lady was able to pinpoint where I was from while talking to me XD. I asked her how she knew, and she said it was because she couldn’t keep up with me since I talked too fast. Apparently that’s a New England thing.
Lol ironically people from the north also have an equally unhideable accent but different depending on if its like boston/new york or minnesooota, and those are sometimes even easier to notice than someone from canada lol its wild
for me both of those and british accents are easy to understand but there are times when someone from ireland or scotland is speaking where im convinced they arent even speaking the same language 😂
Accents are weird, especially when you consider the accent of the midwest is the lack of a noticeable accent
As a Minnesotan transplant to Kansas, my feelings were somewhat hurt by the lifelong Arkansan (Arkansan? Arkansonian? Arkansian?) Who told me, and I quote "You talk funny". To add insult to injury, it was stated in the slowest, thickest drawl I've heard outside of Mississippi.
Simon I want you to know that you, as a British person, can proudly blame the French for it being pronounced ar-kan-saw instead of ar-kan-sas
Good man! Let' blame the French!
It's that an actual fact?! If it is, I'm going to look into it.
Its a native word, i just checked. i guess its algonkian
@@niclasnyberg4173 correct, and that's how the french spelled it.
@@TheCasualCriminalist Ha!
Re: Peggy talking with the cops. This would have been before the Wainwright and Miranda rulings (which established that you had a right to an attorney regardless of ability to pay, and that the police had to make you aware of said right respectively) so she probably didn't have access to a lawyer (unless she was wealthy).
The Town That Dreaded Sundown. One of my favorite early low budget horror flicks. Gritty like Texas Chainsaw, but mysterious like Halloween, being as it has elaborate death scenes like TCM and the killer's motive is never revealed like in the original Halloween.
I'm amazed they connected a saxophone in Corpus Christi with an attack in Texarkana. The two cities are a solid 8 hours away from each other. The media reach of this case must have been massive, especially for the time.
It’s an 8-hour drive now, but in the 1940s, with no superhighways, it would have been more like a 12-hour drive, requiring several tanks of gas.
It could have been because the rangers and fbi were also on the case. Either of those departments could have easily of found out.
My grandfather was growing up in Amarillo, and he followed the case closely. It was a massive case all over Texas, and we were still talking about it when I was in middle school in the aughts.
Yey!!! A new episode!
I really liked the intro and, Jen, the names in the end of the video look very nice 😎 The videos keep getting better and better. Great job guys!!!
Thanks! 💕
Yes, the “front porch sitting talk to neighbors” life did exist. Still is sorta there in my tiny town.
I'm in the suburbs and a group of us neighbors usually have the lawn chairs out in one of our driveways most weekends.
As a deep south southerner, my accent is not quite 'hick' but still fairly thick and I'm not offended at all. I find your attempted southern accent amusing. And the "only law I know is Jesus" is something you could absolutely hear. No joke, 2 days ago i couldnt sleep and went to get a single shot bottles of vodka and the woman in line actually said "If you talk to Jesus you won't have insomnia." in the accent you're imagining.
Simon, a great episode! There is one point i want to make. In the US, a spouse cannot testify against there spouse because they may either provide a false alibi or be less than truthful depending on the status of their relationship.
of course they can. they can claim spousal privilege to get out of it, but that doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to testify
Actually, the spouse that is being tried for the crime would plead spousal privilege and the spouse can not testify against the other spouse. A spouse can definitely testify but again, either can claim privilege
Sounds like the reason he married her.
I saw a video about this on a different channel. One commenter said that they grew up in Texarkana and the rumor around the town was that the killer was the son of a prominent family who was never heard from again because he never made it home from the Korean War, being KIA.
Kevin, please do Ruby Ridge. I would love to see Simon's surprise at how bad the FBI messed that one up.
I'll take a look!
The botched handlings of Ruby Ridge and Waco destroyed the credibility of the FBI in the 90s. The negative portrayal of the FBI from that Richard Jewell movie a few years back (speaking of another case the FBI completely botched) is pretty much right on the money. Definitely the biggest joke of an alphabet agency
@@gugurupurasudaikirai7620 Isn't the ATF the joke agency?
@@garretth8224 Yes. FBI somewhat recovered their reputation but the ATF (BATFE now) is still widely hated. Same with ICE
@@garretth8224 It's possible that there is more than one joke agency at a time. There are propaganda shows out now that try to recover the FBI's reputation but they're still a joke. It's just not as widely known now, the FBI has been a clown show for a very long time, including way back in the early J Edgar Hoover days
Whoa. New CC!!! I love these long format videos. Thanks Simon and team!!
You're welcome! 💕
Kevin's scripts started out great and just keep getting better, across multiple channels even. THANKS KEVVY KEV!! We Blazers / Cas Crims / Decoders appreciate you. 🤙
We ♥️ Kev!
Thanks! 💕
@@michellekozaczok8201 Thanks!
I'd really like to see the Murdaugh case written by Liam. He's the perfect writer to provide really good insight on the case since it's so tied into the legal system.
To Simon: It'll get a lot of views. You'll be doing capitalism proud!
God bless Capitalism: it works!
but I think we should wait until we aren't being smothered by the case because right now there's soooo much I haven't even got to yet
Texarkana is a town I've been through many many times. It's between my dad's and my mom's and my grandmother's houses, so it's a frequent meal stop place when I go to visit my grandmother and has been since I was a kid. It really is a nice little town. Er, unsolved murders aside, of course.
Haha
I think the Ghoul Boys from Buzzfeed Unsolved covered the Texarkana Phantom, so I'm glad Simon is also covering with a bit more detail and equal amounts of humor.
Also, any chance you could cover the Green River Killer? I eagerly await a casual criminalist episode based is Washington State
Living close to Texarkana in Shreveport and the amount of murders in these areas is insane. Literally daily we see two or more shootings or murders, at least it seems that way.
Texarkana has nothing on Pine Bluff.
Also... Shreveport is in LA.
I used to live in NOLA.
Pretty sure the only town in Arkansas that beats out NO for violent crime is Pine Bluff... not even Little Rock(capital city) beats the Bluff.
Texarkana has gotten worse over the last 50 years ... but so has everywhere in the last 4 years.....
Also...
Please look as to who is holding the keys to these big cities....
Please look at who is running thier local city governments...
There is a running theme for these cities...
See if you can figure it out....lol
I was having a bad day with car breakdown this morning, and then new CC episode AND DtU episode to help me pass the time while awaiting the tow truck. Perfect timing
Corpus Christi is about 540 miles (869 km.) by road from Texarkana, Texas. So it’s not impossible that someone would steal a saxophone in Texarkana and then try to pawn it in Corpus Christi, but it seems highly improbable.
Yeah, back then you probably would have blown a tire making the drive. That wouldn't have been much of a financial gain if any.
This is my favorite case to research I’m so glad you made a video on it
Hope you enjoyed!
I live in Texarkana. Glad to hear this one come out!
Hope you enjoy!
Attacking couples in lovers spots, shining flashlight in their eyes to blind them, mask with eye holes cut out. Exactly like the Zodiac but 20 years too early.
The monster of Firenze (Italy) was also a serial killer who attacked couples in lovers spots.
he was probably an incel
@@PutinsMommyNeverHuggedHim
This wasn't a thing then.
At all.
Please stop incerting your own life experiences into historical facts.
Sheesh...
I thought the same thing. I wonder if any of the military personnel working at the armory in Texarkana were from northern California and moved back to California afterwards. I believe the Zodiac killer was thought to be older maybe in his 40s or so.
@@kaylynhewell8046 Just because the terminology didn't exist doesn't mean that the people the terminology describes didn't.
"Ah just rely on Jesus" I just choked on my tea 🤣🤣🤣
Me too
I think having personal connections to the murder victims doesn't mean much in a town of 30k. There's probably only one theater that everyone visits, everyone knows everyone through one group or another and everyone lives somewhat close to each other. If you conclude that someone is the killer because he worked at a theater some of the victims visited, played in the same band as another and was a neighbor of a third one, you can probably easily also find someone who worked at the grocery store where some victims shopped, was a member of the same sports team as a second victim and went to school with a third one.
30K people, not 30 people lol. My town is like 25K people and I definitely don't know most of them.
Yeah I live in a town of 5k and they definitely dont all know each other. I know like 20% and I know more than most people after working a couple public jobs
I didn't recognize this case from the title (I've watched an uncountable amount of true crime shows) but I immediately recognized the victims. It really is so damn sad that their lives were cut short due to one person's hate, frustrations and desires. They were all kids and regardless of when/where/what they were doing, they certainly didn't deserve to be murdered.
I can't repeat it enough, it's just so damn sad. :(
Been watching you for years it's crazy to hear you cover this from my small hometown. Also you said Texarkana right! Thanks!
🤣🤣 no he didn’t! It’s Texer-kana not Tex-Ahhhr-kana
As someone who's lived all my life in "small town" Texas, no an attack or a murder out of nowhere would not cause panic. About a year ago a man was found drowned in the lake after being shot. There was no panic simply because the cops/sheriff office didn't really talk about it. Everyone knows that means they know who the victim was and who did it and they don't care about it or the attacker is protected.
What scares people is the fear that they could be next or that it was random. No'one is scared that Allie got robed because they know she buys drugs from the sherif and hasn't paid him, so of course she's going to be robbed. Hank got his head bashed in and is in the hospital, everyone knows Hank gets drunk and gets mean, sooner or later someone is going to lay him out.
In larger towns/cities you don't know things like that and there are random crimes. People get mugged because they just happened to be on the wrong street. You have to lock your doors because there is someone breaking into whatever house he can. While in small town, I pay what I owe and I don't cheat at cards so why would I have to lock my door at night? Probably no-one panicked after the first attack because everyone assumed that it wasn't a random attack. Maybe she had a boyfriend/ex that wouldn't appreciate her stepping out or he owed someone money. No clue, just little towns don't have to think about "random" crime.
I see the point you're making, but it's still a bit weird not to be worried about a double murder. Even if it was "provoked" in some way, people aren't supposed to kill each other as revenge.
@@jjanon2371 True enough, not trying to say that the attack(s) where thought to be justified or okay by the people living there, just that it doesn't surprise me that there was no mass panic. Although I'll bet there where a lot of mommas that didn't let their kids go out on their own for a while after the first attack.
🙋🏻♀️Live close by. Thanks for covering!!
I live in Arkansas and thanks for doing a story for us southerners. I love hearing people from other countries imitate our accents 😂
I love it when Simon gets all PO'd & crunk @ the same time. 😂❤️
As a native from around the area, you're probably the only person I've heard that pronounced Texarkana correctly.
Idk I can always tell when someone’s not from here when spoken like he does. Tex-Ahhr-kana fits his vernacular, when a quick Texer-kana sounds more like Local to me.
Give your editor a raise! Doing funny and great stuff
I live roughly 30 minutes fro Texarkana. My husband was raised in that area and from what he has said it was a chaotic time to be there with curfews and police running around. There is also a movie about it, the town that feared sundown I think is the name of it.
From Texarkana been watching you for years glad my terrible little town is worth a story.
I live in a town of 30,000 and I can confirm that if something like this happened here, people would absolutely lose their sh*t-cookies.
In the 17 years I've lived here, we've had one mugging. One. A man stopped a college student in a parking lot and demanded she give him all the cash she had on her. He said he had a gun but never showed her any weapon. She, very wisely, gave him all the cash she had - a grand total of $5.
She went immediately to the police and an announcement was made on the local radio station. Within a couple hours, everyone in town knew what had happened. The townspeople were so terrorized by a (probably unarmed) man talking a lady out of $5 that many businesses actually closed for the day. The man, who was presumably from out of town, was never identified and never committed another mugging (at least, not in this town). I suppose he used the $5 to buy some gas so he could get out of dodge.
He would have made more money standing on a street corner with a sign that said, "Need gas money, please help" 😂
LOVE the insert from "Gangs of New York". Jen is a Boss!
Hi Simon. I have for a long time enjoyed your content in podcast form. Listening using ear plugs. However in the last two months or so the volume has dropped so low that I can no longer hear it. The slightest noise will drown it out. This has nothing to do with the platform or my hardware as I can hear other podcasts just fine. It's only The casual criminalist that has this low volume. Maybe you could look into it and ask whoever converts your video to podcast to boost the volume, and quite a lot too. Thanks, and thanks for all the content.
It's been that way on all his channels for a while. Many of us have mentioned it but he records ahead of time so even with our comments it will probably be a month or 2 before the problem is resolved.
I'm having the same problem, and thought it was me but others videos sound a lot better
Thank you for posting this 😊
Im so excited about this one I live a couple hrs from Texarkana and I have always wanted answers we will probably never get.
Hope you enjoyed!
Definitely the guy trying to sell the alto sax with the bloody clothes. He Definitely went back to the scene and put it into the brush after he realized it was a bad idea.
I love the more relaxed and humorous style of this channel compared to into the shadows, however both are amazing
Smokey and the Bandit was literally the only thing I knew about Texarkana before watching this.
while I love all of Simon’s writers, I think that Kevin’s style works across the board. which is probably why he writes on essentially all of Simon’s channels. There’s a nice balance of accurate fact conveyance, dark humor, and subtle commentary that makes his scripts so entertaining, regardless of which channel his work is featured on.
Now, if Simon ever breaks into the beauty industry and starts doing makeup tutorials, or beard care videos, I would love to see if Kevin’s writing could help there as well. Although…not sure how many beard care tutorials are heavily scripted.
anyways, the point is…well done, Kevin! Great work, as usual! 9:44
Yes this is a crazy one!
Hey an Unsolved Mystery(TM)--nice! Do a few more.
Yet another great script Kevin! You should look into to prison break from Clinton correctional facility in Dannemora, New York. It would be a more light hearted story.
Thanks! 💕
I can look into it, but nonviolent ones don't do as well sadly
Another great story. I always want to have a conclusion, but unsolved cases always have the "whodunnit" appeal.
Anyone else think Texarkana would make a good title for an old west with magic video game?
I'm from the Texarkana area and my son did an internship at Texarkana Gazette in college. I just have to say how cool it is to hear Simon say these familiar names 😎 👍
Just in time for my lunch break :D
I’m from the area surrounding Texarkana and it’s so crazy to me that anything interesting has happened there ever
My dad was 28 and mom was 19 when they got married in 1970. Lived happily til my dad passed away in 1992. She never remarried. Age doesn't matter if both over 18 and have the best intentions of making a happy life together.
Glad I turned on notifications; just ran out of content to listen to while working
I think what’s most likely is that the kid that worked at the theater did the first two shootings but took credit for the third shooting in his suicide note (common narcissist behavior) but the car thief shot the older couple, and this was what he was referring to when he said “do you think I’ll get the chair?” His girlfriend knew he had a committed a shooting but was confused about which one.
I live in Texarkana now and Simon's impersonation of the Texarkana PD is pretty spot on.
Oh my god I’m literally from this state and how have I never heard of this. SIMON thank u for that! Edit: as an Arkansas native- we only ever get in the news for a bad wrap 😂
Go watch The Town That Feared Sundown! Not sure if Simon mentions it or not, but it's based on this. Pretty good movie.
Could be Dreaded, not Feared.
You should look up Ronald Gene Simmons. He killed over a dozen people over the holidays back in the 80s in Russellville and Dover, where I live. Apparently the worst spree killer in state history
@@calebbean1384 no way you lived in Dover! HAHA same.
That moment when the new CC thumbnail pops up in your suggested and you go "oh yeah! that's a great one to cover"!!!
Hope you enjoy!
@@ThatWriterKevin I extraordinary do sir. You are a fantastic writer!
@@arizonatsunami Thanks!
How about one on the unsolved 1950 murder of Janett Christman, who’s brutal killing while she was babysitting was the source of “the babysitter and the man upstairs” urban legend?
Not sure if this would be your best channel to cover this guy, but I would love to see you and your writers cover Colton Harris Moore "The Barefoot Bandit". 16 year old kid that stole multiple airplanes in 3 countries while committing dozens of felonies and stayed on the run for 3 years. Kid is practically a legend.. and good news for Simon.. no horrible murders..
Dude calls attorneys to negotiate the movie rights for his story while he is still on the run.. Steals planes, speed boats, luxory cars.. stays on the move.. its kinda awesome to be honest..
Am I wrong for laughing a lot during this episode? Jen has once again surpassed herself!! Brava Jen!!
This is my hometown and we always heard this horrible story. Thank you for covering it. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the movie based on this, it’s named The town that dreaded sundown.
Kevin is going to turn Simon into the most paranoid dad. This is emotional assault! 😅
Thank you
can we get Simon to fill in a blank map of the USA? I would pay for it.
😂😂😂
We absolutely cannot. We could get him to try maybe, but no way he can fill in names for all 50 states, even in the wrong places
Way to go Kevin, springing a cliff hanger on Simon at the end.
Thanks!
Awesome! I actually happen to be in Texarkana right now. My residence is only 20 to 25 minutes from here
Luckily the phantom killer is lkng dead...or immortal
Simon, I've lived in the states my whole life, I completely agree with your comment on Arkansas. Definitely a WTF situation.
Simon casually states both his parents are short but he’s insulated tall BUT HIS UNCLE IS TALL? Simon put the clues together
You're right even today Texarkana has a rough reputation.
This is the story that inspired the 1970s movie The Town That Dreaded Sundown, yes?
How’d I miss this one coming out?!? Still great timing though!
The Town that Dreaded Sundown!
Texarkana was super creepy when I was there without even knowing about this. I stopped there on a cross country road trip and it's just plain unsettling at first glance.
Simon asks what the people are up to? Well... three people get found covered in blood, and it's unrelated to the murder the cops are investigating, I'd say the locals were busy, whatever they were doing 😳
Simon cracked me up thinking that the guy in Corpus was for sure “The Guy.”
Corpus to Texarkana - is further that Prague to Copenhagen or Florence.
I think people miss how big the distances from one side of texas to the other really are.
You should do a video on the Columbus Nightclub Shooting where former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell and 3 others were murdered.
Amazing idea. Fully agree. I've been asking Simon to do Derrick Todd Lee, the Baton Rouge serial killer for over a year and he hasn't done it yet :( maybe one day, but for the meantime I feel I don't want to be a pest who spams the same request on every video.. so I just let it be lol his regular uploads are always a treat enough
Please not yet I'm not ready.
@@austinjones8420 yeah I posted this comment once before this might be the last time I post it
@@GrievousReborn It would be cool if there was a poll system that we could vote on for possible future episodes. I know it's not that simple, a lot of work goes into the writers doing scripts and the filming and all of that and he usually films these things a month or so ahead, but idk. Maybe one day our pleas and begging will pay off LOL
@@GrievousReborn also shout-out Dimebag, one of the all time greats
Absolutely cracked up at Simon’s American southern accents. It’s pretty gd good.
Fun fact. Arkansas became a state in 1836. Kansas became a state in 1861. So really Arkansas is the OG. Plus Arkansas is a Native American word meaning “down stream people”
Thanks!