Bill made it his business to find out about Kathleen. She shared a room with her old maid sister at the Clarksville hotel, which also functioned as a boarding house. She heard she already had a boyfriend, but taking care of that wasn’t much of a hill for a climber. He called for her at the hotel. The clerk called up the stairs. “Miss Kathleen, you got a call.”
Kathleen and her boyfriend, Gene, had tentative plans to go to the movies., if he got back in time from his delivery run. She really wanted to go to the movie and if he didn’t call now, it would be too late. She was already mad when the clerk called up the stairs. Gene had stood her up one too many times getting back too late! “Miss Kathleen, you got a call.” Relieved, she grabbed her purse and a sweater and bounced down the stairs.
Grabbing the phone breathlessly, thinking it was Gene, she spoke impatiently, “I thought you’d never call. I’ve been waiting for you!”
Bill cackled, anticipating her embarrassment. “Girl, if I’d known you wanted me to call that bad, I’d have called sooner!” She was mortified!
“I thought you were somebody else!” she snapped, irritated, “my boyfriend, calling to take me to the movie.”
“Now don’t hang up! I’ll take you to the movie.” Bill offered.
There was a bit of a backstory here. Only sixty miles from Clarksville, Texas, in Texarkana, between February and May, 1946, The Phantom Killer had killed and maimed several couples, creeping up on them on parked cars on Lover’s Lanes. One person was even attacked in her rural home. Everyone was one edge. Women were warned not to go out with strangers and definitely not to go parking. It was a terrifying time.
Gene had left her waiting one too many times. Though she knew she shouldn’t, she accepted his invitation. The Phantom Killer operated around Texarkana, after all. Bill picked her up in an impressive coupe. The only flaw was a missing door handle on the passenger side, so she had to slide in under steering wheel. Chiding herself, she climbed in and they were off. This seemed like a bad idea. She could never tell Annie or Mama and Daddy she’d gone out with a strange man.
Bill hadn’t eaten yet , so they decided to stop off for a bite, then catch the late movie. They got there to late to get a close spot, so they had to park on a side street, a couple of blocks from thee movie. Kathleen thought nothing of this. After the movie let out, Bill met a friend who was also leaving. He stood and talked to his buddy for about twenty minutes before the friend got into his nearby car and drove away. The abandoned streets increased her anxiety as they walked her to his lonesome car a few blocks away. Again, she had to slide in on driver’s s side before edging as close as she could to the handleless door. He sat there quietly while lighting a cigarette. looking even bigger in the dark. She knew then she had no business being alone with this man she didn’t know.. He exhaled, then turned to look at her and spoke softly, “What would you say if I told you I was the phantom Killer?”
She knew in that moment she was going to die, so she bluffed. ” I have a gun in my purse.”
Realizing he had gone too far, Daddy folded. “I had you fooled for a minute, didn’t I?” He laughed starting the car.
She married him three weeks later.
Addendum: Daddy couldn’t have been the killer. He was working hundreds of miles away at the time. The killer was never caught.
Billy was a good eater. He was over six feet tall by the time he was twelve, worked hard every day and was always hungry. Since Daddy had known real hunger growing up during the depression, he encouraged him to “eat well.” Billy liked to drink his milk from a quart jar to cut down on troublesome refills, and he would hurt a kid over a piece of leftover fried chicken. When Mother was serving chicken, he’d take a piece or two, eat a couple of bites, put it on his plate, and go for seconds. This made sure he got plenty before it ran out. By the time he was in high school, if there were leftovers, Mother took to freezing them, hoping to have some for the next meal. He caught on to that and soon she’d hear the creaking of the freezer door in the dark.
Nutsrok 