Unlikely Victims, a book by B.K. Smith, will be out before the end of the year. (A final date is coming soon – fingers crossed it’s before Thanksgiving ’24!)
Please scroll down to see the collections of photos and documentation for this book.
- Shirley Ann Stark, Susan Jean Rigsby, and Chi Omega House
- Friends and Family of Shirley & Susan
- The Day the Bodies Were Found
- Jim Cross, His Parents, Friends, and Apartment
- Law Enforcement and Lawyers (In Progress)
- Documentation – Victims (Susan & Shirley)
- Documentation – Perpetrator (Jim Cross)
If you need to contact the author with concerns, questions, corrections or information to share, please use the information on the Contact tab/page of this site
Disclosure: Photos are for limited educational use only. Most are a matter of public record and are freely available on the Internet. There is no charge on this site to view them.
1 – Shirley Ann Stark, Susan Jean Rigsby, and Chi Omega House
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- Shirley, age 21, had one more class to take before she would receive her teaching certificate. This picture came from Ancestry.com.
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- Susan was 21 years old and embarking on her last two semesters of college. This picture came from Ancestry.com.
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- Shirley on the left and Susan on the right.
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- Shirley’s Senior Picture in Woodrow Wilson High School 1961 Yearbook. The following activities were listed after her name: English, History, Spanish, Mathematics. Art Service Club; Future Teachers’ Club; Future Nurses’ Club; Dallas Historical Society; Ice Skating Club; Little Theater; Pan-American Student Forum; Y-Teens; Senior Honor Library Council, Social Chairman; Spanish National Honor Society; Red Cross Volunteer..
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- Susan’s sorority picture in 1964
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- Susan at a late 1964 or early 1965 Chi Omega event.
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- This is what the interior of the Chi Omega Sorority House looked like in the 1960s. Property of Texas History Portal Mears, Dewey G. [Interior View of the Chi Omega Sorority House],
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- Photograph of an interior view of the Chi Omega Sorority House. There is a carpeted spiral staircase, and a mural on the wall in the background with a hanging light in the center of the foyer.
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- Chi Omega House in 1960s located at 2613 Wichita Street, Austin, TX 78712.
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- An interior view of the Chi Omega Sorority House. There are exterior windows with floral curtains, and couches and chairs around the hallway.
2 – Friends and Family of Shirley & Susan
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- Susan’s mother, Robbie Robin Rigsby.
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- Theo Rigsby, Susan’s father.
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- Theo Rigsby, Susan’s father.
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- The Shackelfords, Shirley’s sister (Donna), mother (Margaret), and stepfather (Joe)
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- Left to right Mitchell Stark (Shirley’s father), J. Neill Kinard (Shirley’s uncle by marriage), Cissy Kinard, Shirley’s aunt.
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- Left to right: J. Neill Kinard (uncle), Cissy Kinard (aunt), Mitchell Stark (Shirley’s father)
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- Martha Blount, 1961 Senior Picture in High School Yearbook.
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- Martha’s sorority photo in the 1966 U.T. Yearbook.
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- College photo of Martha Blount.
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- John Stemmons Senior High School picture from 1961.
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- Bill Norman, Shirley’s ex-fiance’ in 1960 high school yearbook.
3 – The Day the Bodies Were Found (In Progress)
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- Two of the Surveyors stand back while the investigators are looking at the site where the bodies were found.
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- Left to right: Gordon Powell, Rayburn Holstine, and Chester Guynes. They found the girls’ bodies in a field they were surveying on 7/18/1965.
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- The bodies of Susan Rigsby and Shirley Ann Stark were found near the intersection of North Lamar Blvd. and Rundberg Lane.
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- Police in the field where the girls were found looking inch by inch for clues in the dump site.
4 – Jim Cross, His Parents, Friends, and Apartment (In Progress)
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- Jim Cross’s 1965 picture in the U.T. Yearbook
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- Jim Cross is the young man second from the left.
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- Jim Cross Attending Attending the New Trial in 1987.
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- Jim Cross at his new trial in 1987.
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- Jim Cross, Sophomore in High School.
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- The Cross Family, Louise, James Jr., and James Sr. Probably taken around 1946.
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- Jim Cross’s Mother, Louise Cross in 1940, three years before he was born.
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- Jim Cross’s parents at his trial.
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- James C. Cross , Sr. collecting his son’s belongings from his apartment.
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- Judy Ramsey waiting to testify at Jim Cross’s trial. She had a date with Jim Cross the night he murdered Susan and Shirley. Their bodies were in the apartment when she and other friends were there later in the evening.
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- This is the apartment drawing based on a reporter’s description after he visited .
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- Gloria Stafford married Jim Cross on 26 May 1987 in Hays County, Texas while he was out a short time before his new trial.
Video Clips Related to Jim Cross
From the The KHOU-TV Collection at TexasArchive.org. When played, these clips should show a scene like the thumbnail image. They are short videos I clipped from a larger one.
Video – Jim Cross in February 1966 at his trial.
Video – Outside of the Manor Villa Apartments Where Jim Cross Lived
Video – The Field in North Austin Where the Girls’ Bodies Were Found
5 – Law Enforcement, Investigation,
and Lawyers (In Progress)
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- This 1964 map is provided as a visual reference of locations for those who aren’t familiar with Austin. There is a link in the below and right. It looks like, “1461 × 1254.” Click on that to blow it up larger.
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- The girls were killed in Jim Cross’s apartment in the 2400 Block of Manor Road in Austin. He stored their bodies in his closet while he had friends over and then went on a date.
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- Police moved Shirley’s 1964 Corvair Monza to begin collecting fingerprints and processing the car for evidence.
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- Two places where fingerprints were found in Shirley’s car. (This car is not hers. Owners link: ’64 Corvair Restoration by Youtube.eom/@BenBenCorvair9071 http://my.linkpod.site/BenBenCorvair
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- The box contains clothing recovered from the ditch beside the 700 Block of Rundberg Lane on the evening of July 20, 1965 by Mrs. Noah Phillips.
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- Photo of Lt. Det. George Phifer at the beginning of his Austin Police career.
6 – Documentation – Victims (Susan & Shirley)
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- Susan’s death certificate. The girls’ death certificates had several “undetermined” designations.
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- Shirley’s death certificate. Several facts were designated as “undetermined.”
7 – Documentation – Perpetrator (Jim Cross)
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- This is a post-death record of Jim Cross’s service in the Army.
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- Jim Cross died in Abilene, Texas in 2001 at the age of 59 years old. It will be two more years before his death certificate will be released to the public.
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- This is a snapshot of information about Jim Cross’s death on Findagrave.com
A few details about the crime…
Introduction to the Story (Through a blog post on this site.)
Victims
Shirley Ann Stark and Susan Jean Rigsby; both were 21 years old.
Date of Death
July 18, 1965
Perpetrator
James C. Cross, Jr. (Jim Cross), Convicted in February 1966.
Manor of Death
Strangulation
Place of Death
In his apartment on Manor Road in Austin, Texas.
Bodies Located
The nearly naked bodies of Susan Rigsby and Shirley Ann Stark were found by surveyors in a vacant, treeless field of wild sunflowers on July 30, 1965. The site was near the corner of North Lamar Blvd. and Rundberg Lane in Austin.