Ronald Gene Simmons Sr. (July 15, 1940 – June 25, 1990) was an American spree killer and former military serviceman who murdered 16 people, including 14 members of his own family, over a week in December 1987 in Arkansas. The killings, considered the deadliest case of familicide in United States history, occurred at his home near Dover and later at a nearby law office, convenience store, and workplace. Simmons served more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy and Air Force before retiring. He was convicted and sentenced to death, waived all appeals, and was executed by lethal injection in 1990, becoming the first person executed by that method in Arkansas.
Among the victims were his daughter, whom he had sexually
abused, and the child he fathered with her. He also killed a former co-worker
and a bystander, and wounded four others. He is regarded as the deadliest mass
murderer in Arkansas history.
Simmons was sentenced to death in two separate trials and
didn't pursue any appeals. His decision became the focus of the 1990 U.S.
Supreme Court case Whitmore v. Arkansas.
He was executed by lethal injection on June 25, 1990, just
one year and four and a half months after his second conviction. At the time,
only Gary Gilmore had been executed more quickly following sentencing during
the modern era of capital punishment.
Personal life and
military career
Ronald Gene Simmons was born on July 15, 1940, in Chicago,
Illinois, to Loretta and William Simmons. He was their second son. A daughter,
Nancy Ellen Simmons (later Madden), was born on February 4, 1942. On January
31, 1943, Simmons’s father died of a stroke. Within a year, his mother
remarried William D. Griffen, a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. The couple had a son, Peter, shortly thereafter. In 1946, the Corps
transferred Griffen to Little Rock, Arkansas, initiating a series of
relocations across central Arkansas over the next decade. For a time, the
family lived in Pope County, near Hector.
By the age of 10, Simmons had developed a reputation as a
bully within the family, often tormenting his younger sister Nancy and his
half-brother Pete. In later years, Pete recalled that Simmons inflicted similar
abuse on his own children. A relative noted that Simmons would relentlessly
exploit perceived weaknesses, and reports from the time describe him as violent
toward animals—frequently striking a family cat until it became aggressive. A
sister-in-law later characterized him as egocentric, quick to anger, and
inclined to blame others. Despite efforts by his parents to address his
behavior, including sending him to stay with family friends during summers and
enrolling him at the Morris School for Boys, a Catholic boarding school near
Searcy, and his behavioral issues persisted.
On September 5, 1957, Simmons dropped out of school and
enlisted in the United States Navy. In November of that year, he was stationed
at a ship repair facility in Guam, where he successfully earned his General
Equivalency Diploma (GED). In July 1959, Simmons, then a Yeoman Third Class, was
assigned to Naval Hospital Bremerton at Naval Station Bremerton in Washington.
While there, he attended a USO dance at the Bremerton YMCA, where he met
Bersabe Rebecca "Becky"
Ulibarri.
The couple was married in Raton, New Mexico, on July 9,
1960. Over the next 18 years, the couple had seven children.
On July 13, 1962, Simmons left the Navy, and, on January 30,
1963, joined the U.S. Air Force. Stationed at Langley Air Force Base, the
couple's first child, Shiela, was born on October 24.
He was eventually assigned to the Air Force Office of
Special Investigations (AFOSI) and, in January 1966, was promoted to Staff
Sergeant. The following year, Simmons reenlisted and volunteered for a tour in
Vietnam in return for a guarantee of a billet with AFOSI in Saigon. Before the
transfer to Saigon, he was assigned to the AFOSI Personnel Investigations
Division. Landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base on August 2, 1967, Simmons was in
Vietnam until July 1968, including the early 1968 Tet Offensive when Saigon was
attacked.
During his over 20-year administrative specialist military
career, Simmons was awarded a Bronze Star Medal, the Republic of Vietnam
Gallantry Cross, and the Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon.
Simmons retired from the Air Force and military service on November 30, 1979,
with the rank of master sergeant. Simmons' service record was spotless and his
performance marks were often exemplary. Simmons's career in the Air Force was
primarily clerical.
Dominance and Control
Becky confided in her sister that Simmons's mother had
warned her about his temper and tendency to dominate those close to him. "She was always trying to tell me what
Gene was like," Becky told her sister. "But I didn't listen."
At Simmons' insistence, Becky stopped wearing makeup and kept
her hair tied back. He handled all household tasks, like bills and groceries,
and forbade her from getting a driver's license or using a phone. She could
only write to her family, but later, he denied her stamps, forcing her to ask
others to mail her letters secretly. Simmons used distant post office boxes to
censor the family's mail and required Becky to wear long dresses. Her sister
noted, "Becky was not stupid by any
means, but she was insecure. Ronald had made her believe that things were her
fault, that she deserved what she got." "He cut her off from all of
us and now he's gone crazy... He wouldn't let her have a telephone and he'd
stand there if she ever made any calls from somewhere else."
Just before Simmons was executed in June 1990, Becky's brother,
Manuel Ulibarri, described him as an evil man who demanded complete control of
his family.
New Mexico
From 1976 to 1981, the family lived on a 2-acre (0.81 ha)
property in Wills Canyon near the small town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
In April 1976, after a four-year stint in the UK stationed
at RAF Alconbury, Air Force Master Sergeant R. Gene Simmons was assigned to the
Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) observatory high in the
Sacramento Mountains east of Alamogordo. The SAMSO Electro-Optical Research
Facility focused its telescopes on Air Force communications satellites and
detectors on high-flying aircraft. Located thirty-two miles from Holloman AFB,
the observatory was a semiautonomous post with a personnel roster of one
officer and seven enlisted personnel, with Simmons being the senior enlisted
man. All had top security clearances.
In November 1976, the Air Force announced that the
observatory would be placed on "caretaker
status" as soon as possible. As the staff numbers at the site decreased,
Simmons took on more responsibilities and ultimately was the last person to "turn out the lights" when the
observatory was deactivated in June 1978. After this, Simmons was transferred
to the 6585th Test Group at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo.
On November 30, 1979, Simmons, who had over 20 years of
service, retired from the Air Force when faced with the possibility of a
promotion to Senior Master Sergeant (E-8) that would require extending his
service obligation and a transfer to Turkey.
On May 5, 1981, Simmons began working as a GS-4 civil
service employee at Holloman AFB.
Allegations,
investigation, and charges
In 1981, Simmons was investigated for allegations of child
sex abuse and for allegedly impregnating his 17-year-old daughter, Sheila.
Social Services had been alerted anonymously on April 17, 1981. The district
attorney at the time, Steven Sanders, stated that Simmons' son, R. Gene Simmons
Jr., revealed to him that he was the informant. The son called two more times
in the next three days, again anonymously. Additionally, authorities learned of
the allegations through friends of Sheila who had been told about the situation
and from school officials.
On April 20, a caseworker went to Cloudcraft to investigate
rumors. Meeting privately, Sheila confirmed the suspicions that she was
pregnant with her father's child.
An assistant Otero County prosecutor was notified on April
21. Under threat of prosecution, Simmons eventually agreed to a program of
psychological counseling for the whole family.
According to authorities, the initial incest had occurred in
July 1980, in a hotel room in Phoenix when Simmons and Sheila were on their way
from New Mexico to California for a coin show. While Simmons loved coin
collecting, Sheila only pretended to enjoy it to please him.
According to social workers' investigations, at least two
more occurrences occurred in September 1980. In March 1981, Sheila recognized
she was pregnant and told her father. She gave birth to a daughter, Sylvia, on
June 17, 1981.
A 1981 New Mexico Social Services report says that social
workers tried to get legal custody of R. Gene Simmons' four daughters after he
insisted the family would raise the child he fathered with the eldest daughter.
The report, dated June 8, 1981, asked District Attorney Sanders to seek a court
order for custody of the children. Sanders later claimed an assistant district
attorney never relayed the request to him.
Simmons and his family attended counseling for five weeks in
1981, but they stopped in June after their lawyer informed Simmons that
anything he disclosed to social workers could be used against him in court.
Once the counseling sessions ended, a criminal investigation began. On June 19,
the District Attorney's office referred the case to the sheriff for further
investigation.
Deputy Jeff Farmer drove to the Simmons property on June 20,
1981, where he met Sheila Simmons and her mother Becky. Sheila refused to make
any statement or comment. On July 6, school principal Everett Banister, who
lived near the Simmons family, told Farmer that he took assignments to Sheila
at home and made arrangements for her final exams.
Banister said he didn't discuss the allegations with the
family because social workers were handling the case. He said he took classwork
to the Simmons home so she could graduate at the end of May and that the mother
and her children were friendly, but Simmons was strange. He couldn't recall
ever talking to Simmons, but he did remember seeing him and his daughter Sheila
riding down the road once. "She was
sitting so close to him, like boyfriend-girlfriend instead of
father-daughter." Others made similar observations.
Farmer's investigation ended July 11, 1981, after Farmer met
with R. Gene Simmons Jr. Farmer said the younger Simmons would not talk about
the incest allegation because his sister and mother asked him not to, but that
the family was "well-satisfied"
with its counseling session.
Former DA Sanders said Sheila Simmons ignored a grand jury
subpoena and refused to discuss the incest with investigators until Sanders
threatened her with contempt of court. Sheila reluctantly appeared on August 10
and testified against her father, telling the jurors that her father had
intimate relations with her three times. Sanders said, "She testified for two hours... She broke down and cried. She said
she didn't want her father to go to prison." Sheila's statements
eventually led to a criminal charge and an arrest warrant.
On August 11, 1981, in Otero County, New Mexico, two months
after Sheila gave birth to a daughter; Simmons was charged in New Mexico's 12th
Judicial District, with engaging in incest three times in September 1980 and
could have faced up to nine years in prison if convicted. Sheriff's deputies
planning to arrest Simmons arrived at the home 20 miles outside of Cloudcroft
on August 11 to find the family had packed and moved away.
Abe DeLeon, Otero County manager for the New Mexico Human
Services Department said he received an anonymous tip that the Simmons family
had gone to the Little Rock area. DeLeon then sent a "protective Service alert" about Simmons to the Arkansas
Human Service Department on March 17, 1982. Walt Patterson, deputy director of
the Arkansas Human Services Department, said there was no reason for the
department to act on an alert from New Mexico. The proper way to handle that
would have been through law enforcement agencies, who might have traced Simmons
through his military pension payments. Patterson also said, "If we had been contacted by the
Simmons family, we would have taken action on the New Mexico alert."
Former DA Steven Sanders said he met with R. Gene Simmons
Jr. in June or July 1982. Simmons said he did not know where his father lived
but that he could have him returned to New Mexico if the charges were dropped.
The New Mexico incest charges were conditionally dismissed
on August 10, 1982. Former DA Sanders said the indictment was dismissed because
officials had been unable to locate the family and the only witness was the
uncooperative daughter. The dismissal had a provision allowing reinstatement of
the charges if Simmons was arrested. The dismissal canceled the arrest warrant
and any information stored on the FBI's National Crime Information Center
(NCIC) was dropped, leaving no trace.
Arkansas
Fearing arrest, Simmons fled with his family, first to Ward,
Arkansas, where starting September 30, 1981; he worked as a temporary filing
clerk in the medical records division of the John L. McClellan Memorial
Veterans Hospital, North Little Rock Division. On January 10, 1982, he left for
a permanent personnel clerk position at the 5th Army Medical Recruiting
Battalion's Little Rock office.
Family life had nearly collapsed entirely for Simmons. Gene
Jr. declined to relocate to Arkansas, opting instead to remain in New Mexico
with high school friends. Following the incest allegations, Becky ceased
sharing a bed with her husband.
While in Ward, Simmons impregnated Sheila a second time, the
pregnancy aborted this time by Dr. Chu Iy Tan in Dermott in early 1983.
Purchasing a small "farm
too far from Little Rock to commute" on June 12, 1983, the family took
up residence on a 14-acre (5.7 ha) tract of land in Pope County, 6.5 miles
(10.5 km) north of Dover that they would dub "Mockingbird Hill." He quit the recruiting office job on
August 5, 1983.
Friends and family noted that the relocation was influenced
by an emerging relationship between Simmons' daughter, Sheila, and a young man
named Dennis McNulty. Simmons had enrolled Sheila at the Draughon School of
Business, blocks from the recruiting command where he was employed. Shiela and
Dennis met in early 1983 at the school's snack bar. While Dennis was studying
radio communications, Sheila pursued secretarial courses to secure a job and
gain independence from her parents' home. However, the Simmons family's move to
Pope County didn't stop McNulty. He regularly drove 170 miles round trip to
court Sheila.
The Simmons property was 0.25 miles (0.40 km) east of
Arkansas Highway 7 on a low ridge parallel to Broomfield Road, a paved county road
that traversed a part of Pope County with few paved roads during the 1980s. The
property was located in Pleasant Grove, an unincorporated community north of
Dover, which had little else nearby except for a church, a cemetery, a corner
store, and a campground.
Two days after the family moved in, a "No trespassing" sign went up at the bottom of the road
and a barbed wire fence came soon after.
The property featured a five-bedroom mobile home, with two
bedrooms under an extended roof. The spacious family room included a fireplace,
while the kitchen, dining room, and bedrooms were relatively small. The home
heating and air conditioning system was inoperable. The only heat came from a
wood-burning stove in the family room; only one room had a window air conditioner.
There was a phone, but Simmons wouldn't let it be hooked up because he didn't
want the family to have uncontrolled outside contact. The family used two
nearby outhouses because the toilet was broken. The home was surrounded by a
makeshift privacy fence that was as high as 10 feet tall in some places.
Several weeks before Christmas, Simmons had ordered his family to dig a new
privy pit, which would eventually be where he disposed of some of their bodies.
While reconciling with Wilma, his estranged wife, Gene Jr.
decided to have their three-year-old daughter, Barbara, temporarily spend time
at his parents' house until Gene Jr. and Wilma could afford a new place. They
planned to reunite and remarry in February 1988. Gene Jr. had arrived at
Mocking Bird Hill on December 21. Wilma stayed in New Mexico for Christmas
because she couldn't afford to travel to Arkansas for the visit.
Even at home, Simmons was a recluse who spent much of his
time at home in his room alone. According to Edith Nesby, Becky's sister, "No one was allowed in his bedroom, not
even Becky. He locked the door when he was in it; he locked the door when he
was gone."
He was described variously as a reclusive loner, a quiet and
stingy man, an unsmiling man with a piercing stare who compelled his children
to perform heavy labor, such as carrying five-gallon containers of dirt to
maintain a steep driveway. Loretta Simmons, 17, described her father as a "drunken bum" to a school
classmate who occasionally stayed overnight and who said Simmons "had a beer in his hand all the time.
He had one little room he would stay in all the time. It was dark and seemed
spooky and it stunk. Nobody ever went in there but him." It was the
only room with an inside locks and had always been off-limits to the children.
In Pope County, Simmons worked a string of low-paying jobs,
going from an "industrial"
cleaner's job at a pickle plant in Atkins to a "processor" job at a frozen food plant in Russellville
and, then, part-time clerk on the nightshift at a Sinclair Mini Mart. From
January 1985 to November 19, 1986, Simmons worked as a clerk at Woodline Motor
Freight, processing checks and making telephone calls to customers who were
past due in payment of their bills. According to Robert Wood, president of the
company, Simmons quit under pressure to raise his performance level to that of
the other clerks. Joyce Butts, who he later shot, was his immediate boss. Kathy
Kendrick, who he killed, had been a co-worker at Woodline who reportedly had
rejected Simmons' affections. He worked weekend night shifts at the Mini Mart
for approximately three and a half years before quitting on December 18, 1987.
The number of people in the home had decreased to six. Gene
Jr.—"Little Gene"—moved out
before the family left New Mexico, later marrying Wilma Sue Pitts in Alamogordo
on February 28, 1984. Sheila married Dennis McNulty on August 11, 1984, and
moved to Camden, taking her daughter, Sylvia. William moved out after securing
full-time hours at Hardee's in Russellville (where he had made shift manager)
in 1984. He married Renata May in October 1985, and the couple moved to
Fordyce. The fourth oldest child, Loretta, was an honors student in the senior
class at Dover High School. Set to graduate the following spring, she had made
little effort to hide her desire to leave home at her first opportunity.
Christmas cards
Becky Simmons had sent Christmas cards, each with a letter
enclosed, to her siblings. Her sister, Edithe Nesby, said, "She was very happy. Her whole family was coming to see her."
She was to have all of her children and grandchildren with her during the
Christmas holiday.
Weapons
Simmons owned three weapons. In 1968, when stationed with
Air Force OSI in San Francisco, he had purchased a long-barreled Ruger
.22-caliber revolver and a Winchester .243-caliber rifle, which was still in
its box in 1987. On May 5, 1984, he bought a snub-nose Harrington &
Richardson revolver at the Walmart store in Russellville. He took the two
pistols with him on his December 1987 rampage in Russellville.
Murders
Simmons' violent murders occurred in three phases. Two were
at the Simmons home and the third was in Russellville on the first workday
after the Christmas weekend.
Simmons' home (near
Dover)
Investigators later concluded that, in the weeks leading up
to the 1987 Christmas holiday, Simmons made a calculated decision to
methodically kill all members of his immediate family. He recognized it as the
one time they would gather together in a short period. Several weeks earlier,
he had instructed his children to dig a large hole, telling them it was for a
new outhouse.
December 22, 1987
On the morning of December 22, he first killed his wife
Becky and eldest son Gene by bludgeoning them and shooting them with a
.22-caliber pistol. He then killed his three-year-old granddaughter Barbara by
strangulation.
Simmons dumped the bodies in a pit he had forced his
children to dig for a new outhouse almost two months earlier.
Simmons then waited for his other children to return from
school for Christmas break. Investigators believed the Simmons children,
Loretta, Eddy, Marianne, and Becky (ages seventeen, fourteen, eleven, and
eight) were separated and that each was strangled. It was thought that each
child's head was held under water in a trash barrel that Simmons had placed in
the nonfunctional bathroom and filled to make sure they were no longer
breathing. The four children were subsequently dumped in the pit with the other
bodies.
They were all wearing school clothes. Eddie had a lunch
ticket in a pocket. The girls still had barrettes in their hair, and one of
them had gum in her mouth. According to the autopsy, Loretta may have struggled
trying to escape. Cuts on her face were consistent with being punched at least
twice. Her watch and one of her earrings were broken.
After he killed the family that had been living at home,
Simmons made plans for what he was going to do in Russellville on Monday after
the holiday weekend, got drunk and went around the house beating holes in the
sheet rock walls and ceiling.
December 26, 1987
Around mid-day on December 26, the remaining family members
arrived at the home, as Simmons had invited them over for the holidays. It
would have been the first time that the entire family had been together at the
same time.
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 also 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. Their bodies were covered with coats except that of
Sheila, who was covered by Becky Simmons' best tablecloth. The bodies of Trae
and Michael were wrapped in plastic sheeting and left in abandoned cars at the
end of the lane.
The older six relatives had been shot as many as seven times
each.
After the murders, Simmons drove to a Sears store in
Russellville, where he retrieved Christmas gifts that he had previously ordered
for his family. That night, he went for a couple of $2.50 drinks at North 40, a
private club in Russellville—Pope County being a dry county, alcoholic beverages
were only available in "private"
clubs—before returning home.
Russellville
On the morning of December 28, the first Monday after
Christmas, Simmons wrote a short letter, stuck it in an envelope with $250, and
addressed it to his mother-in-law, May Novak. "Dear Ma, sometimes you reap many more times what you sow. This is
just a little token of our appreciation. Keep it in remembrance of us. Love,
Gene."
Then, armed with two .22-caliber revolvers, Simmons drove a
copper-colored Toyota Corolla belonging to his oldest son, Ronald Gene Simmons
Jr., to Russellville.
Simmons had meticulously mapped out his murderous route in
town. At some point along it, he mailed the letter and two other letters with
almost identical wording and money to two nieces. All had a December 28, 1987,
Russellville postmark.
Law office
His first target was Kathy Cribbins Kendrick at Peel, Eddy,
and Gibbons Law Firm, near the town center on South Glenwood Avenue. Simmons
had been infatuated with Kendrick when they both worked at Woodline Motor
Freight Company, but she had rejected him. After walking into the office, he
shot and killed Kendrick with four shots to the head. She died a short time
later at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center.
As he left, someone called the police department. It was
about 10:17 AM. There was one dispatcher on duty. There was also a separate
Pope County Sheriff's Department dispatcher.
Oil Company
Traveling on side streets instead of Main Street, which
would have been more direct, Simmons went to an oil company office at 2601 West
Main Street, intending to kill owner Russell "Rusty" Taylor, a former employer. He shot and wounded
Taylor in the right arm and left side of his chest and killed James David
Chaffin, a firefighter and delivery driver for Taylor, with one shot to the
head at point-blank range. Chaffin was a stranger to Simmons. He had just
returned from a car fire when he encountered Simmons. After the shooting,
Simmons fired at a clerk who escaped by ducking behind boxes, initially
thinking she had been shot. When officers arrived, she gave a detailed
description of Simmons and his vehicle. The second shooting was reported at
10:27 a.m.
At Simmons' first trial, Taylor said Simmons was working at
the Sinclair Mini Mart when Taylor sold the business in October 1986.
Convenience store
Simmons then drove back 3.1 miles through downtown to the
Sinclair Mini Mart at 2400 East Main Street. Store owner David Salyer was shot
once in the forehead and employee Roberta Woolery was shot once in the jaw. At
trial, Woolery said she recognized Simmons as soon as he turned and faced her
before he shot. This shooting was reported at 10:39 a.m.
Salyer later testified, "When
he squeezed the very first shot, he was grinning." A customer Salyer
had been chatting with ran behind some showcases after the first shot and said
he was "picking up six-packs of soda
and throwing them at him (Simmons), and hollering and cussing and everything
else."
Freight Company
His final target was the office of the Woodline Motor
Freight Company on Bernard Way, where he shot his former supervisor, Joyce
Butts, in the head and chest. She later testified that she had no memory of the
shooting and that, as his supervisor, they had once argued over Simmons's pay.
She would also testify that she had to undergo open-heart surgery to remove a
bullet and that she had been left partially paralyzed on her left side. He then
ordered one of the employees, Vicky Jackson, at gunpoint to call the police,
telling her “I’ve come to do what I
wanted to do. It’s all over now. I’ve gotten everybody who wanted to hurt me.”
Police received the call at 10:48 a.m.
Surrender and Arrest
When the police arrived, Russellville Police Chief Herb
Johnston entered the building unarmed and alone. Simmons handed over his gun,
an H&R Model 929 .22-caliber revolver, and surrendered without any
resistance. The Ruger was in a paper bag placed on a desk. Ballistics tests
would show that the pistol Simmons handed to Johnston was the same weapon used
to kill five relatives.
Johnston later recalled, "When
I was walking him to the car I asked him 'Why didn't you kill yourself?' He
said he was afraid he would make a mess of it. He didn't want to be a
vegetable.”
After his first trial, his attorney, John Harris,
substantiated Simmons' intent, saying his client never intended to survive,
that he intended to take his life after the Russellville shootings, but didn't "because of the trouble he was having
killing people....He shot seven people—only two of them died." Harris
also said Simmons expected to be killed at the first scene, the law firm, by
police or a firm employee. While he did receive an Air Force Ribbon for small
arms marksmanship, Simmons had told Harris that he was not a hunter and not familiar
with guns.
Throughout the 45-minute-long rampage, "wielding" two revolvers, Simmons had killed 2, and
wounded four others and briefly held a woman hostage.
Charges and
investigation
On December 29, 1987, Sheriff Bolin told a reporter, "He's done nothing in his cell other
than lay in his bunk with his face to the wall, just lying there." Circuit
Court Judge John G. Patterson held a probable cause hearing for Simmons, who
wouldn't answer any questions. He wouldn't even nod or shake his head.
Frustrated, Patterson ordered Simmons held without bond and appointed two local
lawyers, John Harris and Robert E. "Doc"
Irwin as his defense attorneys after
Russellville Police Chief Herb Johnston filed information accusing Simmons of
two counts of capital murder and four of attempted capital murder. Prosecutor
John Bynum filed two counts of capital murder and four counts of attempted
murder on December 30 for the victims shot in Russellville. He said he would
seek to have Simmons executed if he was found guilty on the capital charges. He
also said he would eventually file charges against Simmons in the deaths of his
fourteen family members.
On December 30, the FBI joined the sheriff's office and the
Arkansas State Police in the investigation because of their expertise in
tracking out-of-state witnesses and conducting background checks. Simmons' safe
deposit box at Peoples Bank & Trust was ordered sealed. A bank attorney had
informed authorities bank records indicated Simmons opened the box
"several times during the Christmas holidays.
Simmons was charged with two counts of capital murder in the
deaths of 14 family members on January 15, 1988. One count was for the seven
family members killed before Christmas. The other count was for those killed on
December 26, 1987. The charges were filed after Prosecuting Attorney John Bynym
received completed ballistic results from the state crime lab. The results
showed that five of the family members had been shot by the .22-caliber pistol
that Simmons surrendered when he was arrested on December 28. Bynum said two
separate charges were filed because the family slayings were "two separate episodes."
Despite outstanding warrants in New Mexico on charges of
incest, Simmons had passed a background check in early 1982 when he was hired
as a military personnel clerk at the 5th Army's Little Rock Battalion
recruiting office.
Discoveries at the
home
"There's nobody
here, no sign of life." Sheriff's deputy James Hardy reported from
outside the Simmons home on Broomfield Road around 1 P.M. on December 28, 1987.
After he was taken into custody, Simmons refused to talk or
respond to any questions about his family. Sheriff James Bolin knew from
witnesses in Russellville that Simmons had a large family. With the judge
handling search warrants out of town, the sheriff decided an emergency search
was justified. Bolin later testified that one reason for entering the home was
because tears formed in Simmons' eyes and his lips quivered when he asked about
his family.
After the shootings in Russellville, authorities went to the
Simmons home on Broomfield Road, about 16 miles north of Russellville. The
house's only outside door, a sliding glass door, was barred from the inside
with a broom handle inserted in the lower track. They entered the residence
shortly before 3 p.m., after Sheriff Bolin, without a warrant, gained access
through an unlocked window on the south side of the residence. A deputy, Ray
Caldwell, later said the entry was made to determine if "anybody was alive."
The bodies of William and Renata Simmons and Sheila, Dennis,
and Sylvia McNulty were found inside. They had apparently been killed
immediately upon arrival, as they were still wearing coats when found.
One of the investigators followed Caldwell with a video
camera borrowed from the Arkansas State Police as he entered every room. R.
Gene Simmons' room was the last to be entered. It was locked until Sheriff
Bolin kicked it in. The only room with an air conditioner, it had shelves lined
with books, and behind a curtain, imported beer and gourmet food were
stored—luxuries he hoarded.
Sheriff Bolin commented later that electricity to the house
had been turned off and that victims might have been dead for several days
since unopened presents were found under the tree. Other gifts, also unopened,
were found in closets.
Just before sunset, the bodies in the house were taken out
in body bags and loaded into vans.
After that discovery, authorities planned to search a large
pond for other family members thought to be missing. Pope County Sheriff Jim
Bolin said that Simmons' wife; four of their children, aged 7 to 17, and four
grandchildren were unaccounted for. On December 29, seven bodies were
discovered in a mass grave about 150 feet from the house. When a deputy noticed
the freshly dug earth, the search in the pond was stopped and the crew started
digging. The burial pit was 3 feet, 4 inches wide and 6 feet, 2 inches long.
The first of the seven bodies was located two feet below the surface.
Other searchers then discovered the bodies of the children
in the two cars. Of the 14 bodies, six were shot and eight were strangled "with cord." Testimony and
video in the trial identified the cords used were fish stringers.
Sheriff Bolin said walls and the ceiling in the house had
been punched-in in places by what looked like blows from a heavy metal tool,
suck as a wrecking bar. Attorney John Harris recalled Simmons telling him he
used a hammer.
Autopsy results and
other evidence
On December 31, 1987, Sheriff Jim Bolin announced autopsy
results for 14 bodies found at the Simmons residence. Eight were strangled, and
six were shot. Becky Simmons, 46, was shot twice in the head; Gene Jr., 26,
four times in the head and once in the abdomen; Sheila, 24, six times in the
head; Dennis McNulty, 23, once in the head; William H. Simmons II twice in the
head; Renata five times in the head and twice in the neck. Bolin noted some
bodies had cords around their necks.
On January 5, 1988, Prosecutor John Bynam stated that the
gun used to kill Kathy Kendrick and J.D. Chaffin in Russellville was also used
to kill Sheila, Simmons' daughter. Ballistics tests confirmed that bullets
found in their bodies were fired from the same .22-caliber pistol. In May 1988,
ballistic expert Paul McDonald testified that the bullets from the Sinclair
Mini Market matched those fired from the nine-shot revolver surrendered by
Simmons, used in the killings of Kendrick and Chaffin.
During the trial for the family's deaths, Dr. Bennett
Preston, the former assistant state medical examiner, testified that all adult
victims had been fatally shot, while all minor victims had been strangled using
a type of rope.
Victims
The autopsy results showed that the victims died from
gunshots or strangulation.
December 22, 1987
Ronald Gene Simmons Jr. 26 Son Gunshot
Bersabe Rebecca Simmons 46 Wife Gunshot
Barbara Sue Simmons 3 Granddaughter (daughter of Ronald
Gene Simmons Jr. Strangulation
Loretta Simmons 17 Daughter Strangulation
Eddy Simmons 14 Son Strangulation
Marianne Simmons 11 Daughter Strangulation
Rebecca "Becky"
Simmons 8 Daughter Strangulation
December 26, 1987
William "Billy"
Simmons II 22 Son Gunshot
Renata Lynne May Simmons 21 Daughter-in-Law Gunshot
William H. "Trae"
Simmons III 1 Grandson Drowning
Sheila Simmons McNulty 24 Daughter Gunshot
Dennis McNulty 33 Son-in-Law Gunshot
Sylvia Gail McNulty 6 Granddaughter/Daughter Strangulation
Michael McNulty 1 Grandson Strangulation
December 28, 1987
Kathleen "Kathy"
Kendrick 24 Acquaintance Gunshot
James David "Jim"
Chaffin 33 Stranger Gunshot
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