Texarkana Moonlight Murders - The Victims - Katherine Ila "Katie" Starks

Katherine Ila "Katie" Starks

Katie Starks was born September 25, 1909. Katie was 36 at the time of the attack. She was an attractive brunette married to Virgil Starks and lived at their farmhouse of five years on 500 acres of farmland off Highway 67 East almost 10 miles northeast of Texarkana. Her sister, Mrs. Allen, lived directly across the street from her. She was the daughter of Jim Strickland. Her and Virgil went to school together growing up because their parents lived on neighboring farms in Red Springs, Texas. A friend had stated that she and Virgil were two of the best people he had ever known. After discovering her husband dead, she ran to telephone police. She rung the phone twice when she was shot two times in the face. One bullet went through the right cheek beside the nose, emerging behind the left ear, and the other went in her lower jaw below the lip; breaking her jaw and splintering several teeth before lodging under her tongue. She ran to a neighbor's house who then took her to the hospital where she recovered.

She eventually remarried. At 84 years old, she died as Katie Starks Sutton on July 3, 1994 and is buried between both husbands in Hillcrest cemetery.