Youell Lee Swinney (February 9, 1917 – September 15, 1994) was an American criminal and the only major suspect in the
Phantom Killer case in
Texarkana in 1946, although he was never officially charged with any of the murders.
Life
Swinney grew up in rural
Cleveland County, Arkansas
Cleveland County (formerly Dorsey County) is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its population was 8,689 at the 2010 U.S. census. The county seat and largest city is Rison.
Cleveland County is included in the Pine Bluff, AR Metro ...
, the son of a
Baptist minister. Swinney was a known criminal with a history of
counterfeiting
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
and car theft. He was convicted of car theft in 1947 and as a repeat offender, he received
life in prison. However, he was released from prison in 1973 following a ''
habeas corpus'' proceeding which found that a prior conviction in 1941 used for sentence enhancement purposes was void because Swinney had not been represented by counsel.
Suspected as the Phantom
Swinney was the only major suspect in the Phantom Killer case. He was linked to the crimes by detailed descriptions of the Booker-Martin murders from his wife and accomplice, Peggy, who refused to testify against him in court. Investigation into his involvement in the murders eventually faded. The case remains unsolved, and physical evidence is virtually nonexistent today. Swinney died in a
Dallas nursing home in 1994.
Two of the lead investigators in the case,
Max Tackett and
Tillman Johnson, believed for the remainder of their lives that Swinney was guilty of the murders. A 2014 book, ''The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders'' by Dr. James Presley claims that Swinney is the culprit of all five Phantom attacks.
References
External links
Unsolved Murders
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1917 births
1994 deaths
American counterfeiters
American people convicted of theft
Criminals from Arkansas
People from Cleveland County, Arkansas
Place of death missing
Suspected serial killers
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