Ronald Gene Simmons

Ronald Gene Simmons (* 15. July 1940 in Chicago , Illinois ; † 25. June 1990 in Arkansas ) was an American serial killer who for the worst mass murder in the history of the State of Arkansas and the worst family massacre in the history of the United States responsible was. From December 22 to 28, 1987, he murdered 14 members of his family and two other people, for which he was executed with lethal injection .

Life

Ronald Gene Simmons was born on July 15, 1940 in Chicago to Loretta and William Simmons. His father died of a stroke on January 31, 1943, and his mother married William Griffen, a United States Army technician . On September 15, 1957, Ronald Simmons left school and went to the US Navy , where he was stationed at Bremerton Naval Base in Washington . On July 9, 1960, he married Rebecca Ulibarri, with whom he fathered seven children over the next 18 years. In 1963 he left the Navy and went to the Air Force , where he worked until November 30, 1979 and retired with the rank of Master Sergeant . During his 22-year military service, he was awarded the Bronze Star , the Republic of Vietnam Cross and the Air Force Ribbon , among others .

On April 3, 1981, it was announced that he had fathered a child with one of his own daughter, who was also a minor. Fearing arrest, he fled to Ward , Lonoke County, and in the summer of 1983 on to Dover , Pope County . He survived with several low-paying jobs near the town of Russellville .

Series of murders

On the morning of December 22, 1987, he shot his wife Rebecca and son Gene and strangled his 3-year-old daughter Barbara. He threw the three bodies into a cesspool, drank a beer and waited for the return of his four children Loretta, Eddy, Marianne and Becky. When they arrived on the school bus, he lured them one by one into a room on the pretext of giving them Christmas presents and strangled them one by one. He dumped the bodies in rain barrels and waited for noon on December 26th when the rest of the family came for the annual Christmas visit. He shot his son Billy and his daughter-in-law Renata, and strangled his grandson Trae with a rope. He then shot his daughter Sheila and her husband Dennis McNulty before strangling his grandson Michael and Sylvia Gail, the girl he had fathered with one of his own daughters. Then he put all 14 of his family's victims in the foyer of his house, sat in front of the television for the next two days and drank beer.

On the morning of December 28th, Simmons drove to a law firm in Russellville and shot and killed the young Kathy Kendrick, who he said was causing him problems again and again . Then he drove to the office of an oil company, shot and killed Jim Chaffin and wounded the owner. He then injured two people in a department store and a woman in a Woodline Motor Freight Company office . He ordered another office worker to alert the police, to whom he then surrendered without resistance.

Sentencing and execution

Ronald Simmons was declared sane and sentenced to death on May 12, 1988 for the murder of Kathy Kendrick and Jim Chaffin and attempted murder on four counts, plus an additional 147 years in prison. On March 16, 1989, he was sentenced to death again for the murder of 14 family members. During the trial he struck down the prosecutor and tried to disarm a police officer; several officers were required to carry him out of the courtroom, handcuffed. A little over 15 months later, on June 25, 1990, Ronald Simmons was executed by lethal injection in Arkansas. This was the shortest time between conviction and execution in the US since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. His last words were: "Justice delayed finally be done is justifiable homicide."

literature

Zero at the Bone by Bryce Marshall and Paul Williams.
Ewing's Fatal Families by Charles Patrick Ewing.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Simmons, Ronald Gene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American mass murderer
DATE OF BIRTH	July 15, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH	June 25, 1990
Place of death	Arkansas