On Friday, May 3, sometime before 9 p.m., Virgil Starks, age 37, a farmer and welder, was in his modest, ranch-style house on a 500-acre farm off Highway 67 East, almost northeast of Texarkana. He turned on his favorite weekly radio show, and his wife, Katie, age 36, gave him a heating pad for his sore back. He sat in his armchair in the sitting room, which was just off of the kitchen and the bedroom. While Katie was in her bedroom lying on the bed in her nightgown, she heard something from the backyard and asked Virgil to turn down the radio. Seconds later, while Virgil was reading the May 3rd edition of the "Texarkana Gazette", two shots were fired into the back of his head from a closed double-window away. Katie did not hear the gunshots; instead, she heard what "sounded like the breaking of glass". She thought Virgil had dropped something and went to see what happened. As she entered the doorway to the living room, she saw Virgil stand up and then suddenly slump back into his chair. She saw blood, then ran to him and lifted up his head. When she realized he was dead, she ran to the phone to call the police.