Ronald Gene Simmons



Details
Date: December 22 – 28, 1987
Location(s): Dover and Russellville, Arkansas, United States
Target(s): Family, acquaintances
Killed: 16
Injured: 4

Ronald Gene Simmons, Sr. (July 15, 1940 – June 25, 1990) was an American spree killer and rapist, who killed 16 people over a week-long period in Arkansas in 1987. A retired military serviceman, Simmons murdered 14 members of his family, including a daughter he had sexually abused and the child he had fathered with her, a former co-worker, and a stranger, and wounded four others.

Simmons was sentenced to death 16 times, and after refusing to appeal his sentence, was executed in Arkansas on June 25, 1990.

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Murder Spree

Dover

Shortly before Christmas 1987, Simmons decided to kill all the members of his family. On the morning of December 22, he first killed his wife Rebecca and eldest son Gene by shooting them with a .22-caliber pistol and then killed his three-year-old granddaughter Barbara by strangulation. Simmons dumped the bodies in a cesspit he had forced his children to dig previously. Simmons then waited for his other children to return to the house, and after their arrival, he told them he had presents for them, but wanted to give them one at a time. He first killed his daughter, 17-year-old Loretta, whom Simmons strangled and held under the water in a rain barrel. The three other children, Eddy, Marianne, and Becky, were then killed in the same way.

Around mid-day on December 26, the remaining members of the family arrived for their Christmas visit. The first to be killed was Simmons' son Billy and his wife Renata, who were both shot dead. He then strangled and drowned their 20-month-old son, Trae. Simmons shot and killed his oldest daughter, Sheila (whom he had sexually abused), and her husband, Dennis McNulty. Simmons then strangled his child by Sheila, seven-year-old Sylvia Gail, and finally his 21-month-old grandson Michael. Simmons laid the bodies of his whole family in neat rows in the lounge. All the corpses were covered with coats except that of Sheila, who was covered by Rebecca Simmons' best tablecloth. The bodies of the two grandsons were wrapped in plastic sheeting and left in abandoned cars at the end of the lane. After the murders, Simmons went for a drink in a local bar, then returned to the house and, apparently oblivious to the corpses lined up around him, spent the rest of the evening and the following day drinking beer and watching television.

Russellville

On the morning of December 28, Simmons drove into Russellville, walked into a law office, and killed the receptionist, a young woman named Kathy Kendrick. Simmons had previously been infatuated with Kendrick, but she had rejected him. He next went to an oil company office, where he shot dead a man named J.D. Chaffin and wounded the owner, Rusty Taylor, and then drove on to a convenience store where he had previously worked, shooting and wounding two more people. Afterwards, Simmons went to the office of the Woodline Motor Freight Company, where he shot and wounded a woman. Simmons then simply sat in the office and chatted with one of the secretaries while waiting for the police. When they arrived, Simmons handed over his gun and surrendered without any resistance.

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