The Hot Rod Murderer

A few years ago, I was browsing the September, 1956 issue of Rod Builder and Customizer and stumbled across something I had never seen before or since in a hot rod publication of any kind – a wanted poster. It struck me as odd not only because of the rarity of such a bulletin in one of our prized magazines, but also because the wanted was seemingly a “hot rodder” driven to murder. Here’s the poster:

It reads like a clipping from a bad pulp fiction novel. In fact, I had to read it a few times before I realized that this wasn’t fiction created for entertainment, but an actual crime committed with a dead body and a killer on the lose. My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to investigate.

Sometime around December 7, 1955 and elderly man named P.F. Jobe was traveling down highway 67 near Little Rock, Arkansas in his 1951 Oldsmobile when he stopped to pick up a young hitchhiker. The young man jumped in the car, and the two headed south towards Texarkana. Around 12 miles north of the Arkansas/Texas border town, the car pulled over and P.F. was beaten savagely with a ball-peen hammer. His body was then dumped on the side of the road. There were no witnesses and P.F. wasn’t found until hours later when a driver sitting high in his truck noticed the body.

What I didn’t understand was how the FBI was able to label the murderer a “hot rodder.” So, I searched a nationwide database of newspaper articles and came back with a number of hits. What I found out was that P.F. was evidently just one of a number of motiveless murders that happened along highway 67 over the period of about a month. Here’s just one of those clippings:

Due to the nature and timing of the killings, the FBI began to investigate the possibility that a serial killer was on the lose. However, they didn’t (and still have not as far as I can tell) list the specific reasons why they suspected the murderer was a “hot rodder.” I was baffled and spent a small fortune registering for crime and news archives in a search for clues. While I haven’t found anything official as of yet, I have found evidence that more than likely lead the FBI towards the idea of a single killer and the conclusion that this killer, was in fact, a hot rodder.

P.F. was driving a 1951 Oldsmobile – one of the fastest American production cars sold in ’51 and a car still considered a hot little number the year P.F. was murdered – 1955. Three days after killing P.F. and stealing the Olds, the killer showed up at used car lot in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and sold the car. During the transaction, the dealer noted that the springs of the car had been “torched” giving it a lower stance. The presumed killer stated that he was a “hot rod driver” and couldn’t leave anything on four wheels alone.

Still just about every highway 67 murder was done using a different tool of the trade. As mentioned, P.F. was beaten with a hammer. Another victim was strangled with a belt. Yet another was shot in the head. I’d never call myself a crime psychologist, but I’ve watched enough movies and enough episodes of Dexter to know that most serial killers work from a code and most stay pretty consistent. So, how were theses crimes connected?

Late in 1955, one of the victims cars was found abandoned in Stuttgart, Arkansas at a site popular for “organized and unorganized” car racing. A quick google search shows that in the mid-to-late 1950’s, Stuttgart AFB was often used for illegal drag racing. As a result, local authorities decided to host legal and safe racing of all kinds in an effort to stop the dangerous unsanctioned events.

Three months after the car was found, the wanted poster appeared in Rod Builder & Customizer Magazine – driving home my suspicions that the FBI was confident that their suspect in all of the highway 76 murders was, in fact, a hot rodder.

The identity of the “Hot Rod Murderer” remains unknown and the crimes are now all cold cases. In doing my research for this article, I also discovered that there was another serial killer that struck mostly along highway 76 only a decade earlier known as The Phantom Killer. By most accounts, the “Hot Rod Murder” was too young to be involved in these crimes… But it’s hard not to wonder if there could be a connection of some sort. Those crimes remain unsolved as well.