Texarkana, Texas
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Image:Texarkana stateline.jpg Texarkana is a city located in Bowie County, Texas and is situated in East Texas. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 34,782. Texarkana is named for being at the junction of three U.S. states: Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana – and is just across the state line from Texarkana, Arkansas.
Texarkana is the birthplace of R&B legend Otis Williams, founder of The Temptations. American composer Scott Joplin was born in nearby Linden, Texas and spent his childhood years in Texarkana. The city is also the birthplace of billionaire and 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot. MLB Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews lived in Texarkana until he was 6 years old.
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Geography
Image:TXMap-doton-Texarkana.PNG Texarkana is located at 33°26'14" North, 94°4'3" West (33.437170, -94.067394)Template:GR. It is in the Central time zone.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 66.6 km² (25.7 mi²). 66.4 km² (25.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.39% water.
Local lore
Due perhaps to its nature as a "twin city" and its remoteness from large urban areas, Texarkana has long been known for as a hotbed for ghost stories, mysteries, and other colorful local lore. Some of the best known of these are:
"The Town That Dreaded Sundown": No mere spooky story, this all-too-true tale of mass murder began in 1946. Starting that year, Texarkana was the site of one of America's first widely-publicized serial murders, in which five people were ultimately killed and several others injured by an unknown assailant. Dubbed by papers as the "Moonlight Murders," the sexually violent assaults were directed at young couples parked on backroads, lovers' lanes, and other remote trysting spots. The only description of the killer given by his surviving victims was that of a man whose head was covered by a plain pillowcase with eyeholes cut out.
Youell Swinney, a 29-year old man at the time, was arrested and charged with the murders shortly after they occurred. He had been implicated by his wife who claimed she was present when he committed the murders, yet her various accounts varied each time she told them. Swinney was released from prison in 1974 after serving 28 years for felony auto theft, when a judge acknowledged his appeal that he had not received a fair trial. He maintained his innocence until his death in 1993 at age 76. Many continue to believe he was the murderer, including several of his prison inmates who claimed Swinney had confessed to them.
These events inspired the 1977 AIP film The Town That Dreaded Sundown starring Ben Johnson and Dawn Wells. Some of the facts of the original case were fictionalized or altered for the film, including victims' names.
The case of the Moonlight Murderer was never conclusively solved. In recent years, most area police and sherriff's records of the case were discovered by investigative journalists to be mysteriously missing. No active files on the case are currently being maintained by area law enforcement agencies. Some locals believe that the Phantom Killer died long ago. Some claim that he was a member of the local upper class aristocracy, which collaborated to keep his identity quiet in order to avoid scandal. Other say that he was more a supernatural force than a human being (e.g. Jack the Ripper), and that he will return again some day to resume his bloody deeds.
The Robed Ones: The land to the north of the city's Pleasant Grove neighborhood -- an area known as Wamba (pronounced "WAHM-bee") -- is a swampy and densely-forested area, and is reputed to be the domain of a mysterious group of night-dwelling robed men. Many local residents claim to have seen these robed figures standing in circles, conducting torchlit parades, or celebrating eldritch rituals in the broad bottomlands to the south of the Red River. Over the years, these strangers have been identified by various observers as members of Satanist groups, Wiccans, Nazis, or "knights" of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Fouke Swamp Monster: The small outlying town of Fouke, Arkansas, which lies in similarly swampy terrain near Boggy Creek, is the reputed home of an anthropoid monster similar in appearance and behavior to the Pacific Northwest's Bigfoot and Sasquatch, and to the Skunk Ape of Florida legend. A film dramatizing these stories, entitled The Legend of Boggy Creek, was released in 1973 with considerable commercial success.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 34,782 people, 13,569 households, and 8,941 families residing in the city. The population density was 524.0/km² (1,357.3/mi²). There were 15,105 housing units at an average density of 227.5/km² (589.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 59.18% White, 37.05% African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.73% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.43% from other races and 1.22% from two or more races. 2.91% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 13,569 households out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 19.3% have a female householder with no husband present and 34.1% were non-families. 29.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.01.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.0% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 89.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $29,727, and the median income for a family was $38,505. Males had a median income of $34,155 versus $21,143 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,815. 24.0% of the population and 19.4% of families were below the poverty line. 34.8% of those under the age of 18 and 13.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
External links
- Lengthy 2001 Dallas Observer article on the Phantom Killer case
- CourtTV Crime Library site on the Phantom Killer
- The Texarkana Phantom
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