About the Case I accept some think my life is worthless but this is a total waste of my time - no result - I could have told you that! Their murders remain unsolved today. The only solid fact found during the original investigation revealed that Benham and Sloan had been shot more than 10 times before their bodies were dumped into Sloans 1966 Pontiac GTO. One such local went from being a Peeping Tom to a murderer on a cold night in November 1938. Becky was collateral damage.. These letters, which read like manic delusions,claimed that the murderer had killed the first man because he possessed secret documents, and that the killer himself was an agent of an international secret order. The two were found in October1986with their throatsslit. Decades later, after the case was reopened in 1990, 55-year-old Frank Edward Gilley stood trial for the murders after Carolyn Wrobleski and Linda Leveridge gave eyewitness testimonies stating that they had seen another car parked behind Sloans GTO on the night of the murder. They theorized the killer was following a three-week schedule, as the second shooting occurred 26 days after the first shooting, and the third shooting occurred 28 days after the second one. The young lovers survived the attack, but had differing reports of who had carried it out. The couple was at some point forced to get out of the car by a stranger. From January to March of 1977 the Lover's Lane Murder sought out couples and then shot them. What the media quickly dubbed the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, carried out by a shadowy figure the local paper called the "Phantom Killer," sent the small southern city into a panic. But this isnt just the stuff of stories. He explained it might be easier to wrap ones mind around one killer, not four or even more different ones. The term "serial killer" hadn't been coined yet (according to Refinery29, it entered the lexicon via a 1981 article in The New York Times), but authorities in Texarkana strongly believed that a single killer had been behind all of the attacks. Now, a team of former FBI special agents intends to bringing them to justice and providing answers to Read allChilling and eerie connect similarities to four brutal double murders between 1986-1990. Virginia's horrifying Colonial Parkway murders can still be solved [2] Both were still alive when found and they were rushed to the hospital, where both died of their wounds. While the search for answers continues, theories have emerged. Both had been shot in the back of the head. The odds of four double homicides in as many years are extremely rare, which is why the slayings are. At this point, the case sadly remains an open mystery despite the new DNA lead. Both bodies were dumped not far from Spring Lake Park, another lovers lane used by Texarkana teens. At the same time, Gilley blamed another former police officer, Brian Butch Green, who was himself the victim of a double homicide in 1971, for the murders. Rather than strangle McBane and Mann quickly, the killer tightened the rope for stretches at a time, then let it go slack, thus causing his victims to go in and out of consciousness. Almost immediately, the crime scene was ruined by the Multnomah County Sheriffs Department, who rummaged through Peytons car without any consideration toward preserving the integrity of the crime scene. The only decoded cipher the Zodiac sent authorities stated simply at its beginning:I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUE ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAE WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND ALL THEI HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR ATOP MY COLLECTIOG OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE. [2], It wasn't until late March when police revealed to the public that the three shootings were linked. Murders all occurred, she said, within a 30-mile radius and all on a weekend or holiday., Moreover, the slayings occurred at night, and mostly in areas that look like lovers lanes. Killer: Lovers Lane Murders - Atlanta Lover's Lane Murders profiled on Then in 1946, a string of double-murders terrified a small town in Texas. McBane's locked car was found parked at Hillandale Golf Course on a secluded road known as Lovers Lane. Another theory is that Gooderham was killed for skimming 250,000 from the Adams family crime syndicate. It was around midnight on February 22 that a man approached the couple as they were parked on the local lovers lane. Lovers' Lane Murders (TV Series 2021- ) - IMDb The FBI was brought in, as well as the Texas Rangers. Lovers' Lane Murders. These two meet after Mi Joo mistakes Kang Jae as being her sleazy brother-in-law. Benjamin Welton is a freelance journalist based in Boston. The victim, 26-year-old Noel Sowley, was shot while he and 20-year-old Elizabeth Ring were parked in a secluded area near Creedmoor, Queens. The two-day event, "Lover's Lane Murders," is a four-episode series on the locally infamous Colonial Parkway murders. The Twilight Killers and the Delusion of Young Love. The killings were also the inspiration for the 1976 movieThe Town That Dreaded Sundown, which Texarkana still shows each Halloween in a park near one of the crime scenes. Wallets found open in the victims vehicles on the floor and on the dashboard respectively inthe first and third homicides add heft to the law enforcement theory, former FBI profiler Jim Clemente told Lovers Lane Murders. They could have been preparing to show their license or registration. Read More: Beckys wound isnt as deep as Cathys wound, Pettler added. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. It was then that a brutal killer took the lives of two young sweethearts who were heavily petting one another. Because of the Colonial Parkways reputation, Thomas and Dowski could have been chosen at random. EBEORIETEMETHHPITI. The bodies of Richard Griffin, 29, and Polly Ann Moore, 17, were discovered the following morning. Eight people were killed over less than three months, all couples that hard parked at local lovers lanes, all assumed to have been killed by the same masked man. Both victims had red lipstick circles on their foreheads. Martin was shot in the face, neck, shoulder, and hand, while Booker was shot in her chest and face. Forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland discusses serial killers, the fascination of true crime and the Colonial Parkway Murders with "Mind Over Murder" co-hosts Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley in this brand new episode. Darlene was married and engaged in an affair with Michael, and so initially police believed Darlenes husband to be the murderer. But as they drove him to the station, the young man asked a strange question for someone accused of car theft: "Will they give me the chair?" [1], On March 12, 1977, 20-year-old Diane Collins was with her fianc in Adams Park. Bloody Hook on the Door Handle: A Chilling Look at the Murder Legend of Your lips are almost touching. Texarkana was on high alert, but despite the best efforts of the authorities, the violence continued. The brutal killings remain one of Houston's most infamous unsolved slayings.. It is after they have sex that the Jay contracts a sort of curse in which she is followed constantly by a malevolent force that takes the form of random people. "An Unexpected Killer" on Friday, Feb. 12 at 8/7c According to Texas Monthly, however, local journalist James Presley's book The Phantom Killer: Unlocking the Mystery of the Texarkana Serial Murders: The Story of a Town in Terror presented a compelling case for Swinney's guilt in 2014. A passing driver noticed the car and thought the couple had fallen asleep, but upon inspection saw that they had been shot and killed, with Richards pockets turned inside out. They had also been shot to death. Both victims survived the attack and gave descriptions of a man who appeared to be under 30 years old. It also fuels a theory about a possible copycat killer who used the 1986 Colonial Parkway slaying as a way to misdirect investigations into the 1988 double homicide. Known as the "Lover's Lane Murders", the brutal killing of 22-year-old Cheryl Henry and 21-year-old Andy Atkinson in August 1990 shocked the Houston, Texas area and is considered one of Houston's most brutal slayings. It was the 11th execution this year in the United States and the sixth in Texas, which has executed more inmates than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Three pairs of victims were recovered, and another couple remains missing and presumed murdered. Myatovich was rushed to a nearby hospital where she told police that a short, stocky, black man had held them up with a shotgun. Police were called after witnesses noticed the car occupants weren't coming out. Lovers' Lane Murders | Oxygen Official Site But before the end of 1971, the case had already gone cold. By 1980 police said the investigation into the Lover's Lane shootings had come to a dead end, with no new suspects having been identified. There is a pattern that OConnell said she cannot ignore.. In the 1980s, the Colonial Parkway was known as a gay lovers lane, according to Spingola. Prosecutors said Garcia was set up by his then girlfriend, who lured him to the remote spot with the promise of sex and drugs but plotted to have him robbed by Castillo and two others. Neither Hollis nor Larey managed to see their attackers face. And so the legend of lovers lane continues in horror films today. Currently, cold case detectives and amateur investigators are looking into two possible suspects, one of whom was affiliated with Watts Hospital in 1971. Lovett had been shot four times in the head, stomach, arm, and leg. In 1986, a 23-mile scenic road run by the National Park Service in Virginia became indelibly linked with a series of double homicides that came to be called the Colonial Parkway murders. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. During the investigation, it was noted that the couple were seen heading to Adams Park, a notorious hang out spot for couples to be involved in sexual intercourse. When Garcia refused and tried to run away, Castillo shot him seven times, prosecutors said. According to the New York Daily News, the terror began on February 22, when a date that was going pretty well ended in tragedy. This is, of course, one of the reasons urban legends tend to center lovers lanes as a nefarious location. Furthermore, the victim in the 1990 rape case had previously worked for Atkinsons father, so its very likely that the murderer knew his victims. Murder legends aside, lovers lane is already a symbol of vulnerability, and in a wide range of ways. Desperate to solve the case, investigators relied on a collection of unreliable eyewitnesses and charged Eddie Jorgenson and Robert Brom with the double homicide. Although police managed to find the pair alive at the scene, Lovett and Hill succumbed to their wounds and died at the hospital. DuringtheOxygen NetworksLovers Lane Murders, you will hear the Phelps-Lauer case is the odd one out the one thatdoesntfit in the sequence of the others. Investigators have spent decades puzzling out the Colonial Parkway murders. He works as a freelance writer and has been published in The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Listverse, and other publications. The lover's lane murders just wouldn't be solved. STREAM NOW. Her fianc was wounded in the head, but survived. Now, a team of former FBI special agents intends to bringing them to justice and providing answers to the victims' families. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!