Ronald Gene Simmons Sr. (July 15, 1940 â 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 did not 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.
Ronald Gene Simmons was born on July 15, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois, to Loretta and William Simmons. He was the couple's second son. His older brother was Robert, and his younger sister, Nancy Ellen SimmonsâÂÂlater known as Nancy Madden, was born on February 4, 1942. On January 31, 1943, Simmons' 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. From 1946 to 1950, the family lived in Pope County, near Hector. From 1950 to 1956, they lived in the Little Rock area, moving to Albuquerque in 1956 and California in 1957.
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 animalsâÂÂfrequently 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, his behavioral issues persisted.
On September 5, 1957, Simmons dropped out of school and enlisted in the United States Navy. By 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, as a Yeoman, he was assigned to the Naval Hospital at Naval Station Bremerton in Washington. While attending a USO dance at the Bremerton YMCA, he met Bersabe Rebecca "Becky" Ulibarri. The two married on July 9, 1960, in Raton, New Mexico, and would go on to have seven children over the next 18 years.
On July 13, 1962, Simmons left the Navy, going to work as a "money counter" at the Bank of America in San Francisco. Simmons' younger brother said the strain of counting thousands of bills every day caused an "eye problem."
On January 30, 1963, Simmons joined the U.S. Air Force, subsequently serving as an Administrative Specialist in Virginia, California, England, Vietnam, and New Mexico. Stationed at Langley Air Force Base, the couple's first child, Sheila, was born on October 24, 1963.
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' career in the Air Force was primarily clerical in nature.
Becky confided in her sister that Simmons' 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 outside household responsibilities, such as paying bills and buying groceries, while forbidding her from obtaining 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.
From 1976 to 1981, the family lived on a 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, Simmons was assigned to the Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) observatory 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 secret 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.
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. One friend, Sheila Hiller discovered that her friend was pregnant. "She wouldn't talk about it," Ms. Hiller said. "But I knew what had happened."
On April 20, a caseworker went to Cloudcroft 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 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 did not 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 could not recall ever talking to Simmons, but 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 Simmons. 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.
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 and the three incest charges filed against him to the Arkansas Human Service Department on March 17, 1982. Walt Patterson, deputy director of the Arkansas Human Services Department, said on December 31, 1987, that he couldn't find the letter that New Mexico said had been sent, and 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 said, "If we had been contacted by the Simmons family, we would have taken action on the New Mexico alert."
On December 31, 1987, Debby Nye, an attorney for the Arkansas Human Services Department, and other officials checked records and found that "to the best of our ability we cannot find that we have had any contact with that family." She said a letter from New Mexico social services officials had not been located, but that she assumed it had arrived and that "protective service alerts" had been sent to every county office. Unless Simmons or someone in his family applied for food stamps, welfare, or other services, the department had no authority to look for them or to investigate for abuse.
The New Mexico incest charges were conditionally dismissed on August 10, 1982. Former DA Steven Sanders said he decided to withdraw the charges because the district court had verbally requested that he clear the docket of cases that were a year old and unlikely to be prosecuted, describing the procedure as a "general continuing thing to get rid of old cases." He also said the indictment was dismissed because officials had been unable to locate the family, and the only witness was the uncooperative daughter. He said Simmons' son, Gene (Ronald Jr.), told him in July 1982 that the family would return to New Mexico and undergo further counseling if the charges were dropped. Gene did not tell him where the family was living. Sanders also said the New Mexico Human Services Department didn't inform his office that the Simmons family might be in Arkansas. Otero County Sheriff Matt Matheney said that the sheriff's office hadn't been informed, either.
The dismissal included a provision allowing the charges to be reinstated 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.
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 took a permanent position as a personnel clerk 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 was 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 tract of land in Pope County, 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. Sheila 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 did not stop McNulty. He regularly drove 170 miles round trip to court Sheila.
The Simmons property was 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, with little else nearby, aside from 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 soon after.
The property featured a five-bedroom mobile home, with two bedrooms in an attached wooden structure. Aside from a spacious family room with a fireplace, the rest of the house â including the kitchen, dining room, and bedrooms â was relatively small. The surrounding area was heavily wooded. A steep, rutted dirt driveway, with no trespassing signs and gates at the entrance, led to the house at the top of the low ridge, which was secluded from other houses in the area. All but the top of the trailer was hidden from view along Broomfield Road by a concrete block wall Simmons built. A neighbor said Loretta told him once, 'He put it there to keep people from looking up there.'
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. While the house had plumbing, the family used two nearby outhouses rather than repair a broken toilet. 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 stay with his parents until they could afford a new place. They planned to reunite and remarry in February 1988. Gene Jr. arrived at Mockingbird 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 alone in his room. 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, thought her father was a "drunken bum" and hated him, according to Summer Moon, a close friend and classmate who occasionally stayed overnight. Summer said that Loretta would insult him to his face and defy him. Moon said Simmons "had a beer in his hand all the time. He had one little room where he would stay 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 lock 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 the Atkins Pickle Company in Atkins from December 1983 to March 1984 to a "processor" job at a frozen food plant in Russellville. From January 1985 to November 19, 1986, Simmons worked as a clerk at Woodline Motor Freight in Russellville, processing checks and making telephone calls to customers who were past due on their bills. According to Robert Wood, the company's president, Simmons quit under pressure to match the performance of the other clerks. Joyce Butts, whom he later shot, was his immediate boss. Kathy Kendrick, who he killed, had been a co-worker. People who worked with them said Simmons had affection for Kendrick, who was divorced, but that she spurned him and reported his attentions to her supervisors.
He worked part-time at night and on weekends at the Sinclair Mini Mart, which Russell "Rusty" Taylor owned and had managed until the middle of 1986, when he leased it to Salyer.
The number of people in the home had decreased to six. Gene Jr.âÂÂ"Little Gene"âÂÂmoved 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. After an evangelical service on December 3, 1987, she told friends that she was looking forward to leaving with her mother and starting college in the fall.
Becky Simmons had sent Christmas cards to her siblings, each with a letter enclosed. 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. Abe Uliberri, one of her brothers, said she spoke cheerfully about her family in the letter he received.
Simmons owned three weapons. In 1968, while stationed with the Air Force OSI in San Francisco, he purchased a long-barreled Ruger .22-caliber revolver and a Winchester .243-caliber rifle. The rifle was still in its box in 1987. On May 5, 1984, he bought a Harrington & Richardson nine-shot .22-caliber revolver with a three-inch barrel at a Walmart in Russellville. He took the two pistols with him on his December 1987 rampage in Russellville.
Simmons' murders occurred in three phases. Two phases were at the Simmons home, and the third was in Russellville on the first workday after the Christmas weekend, where several others who survived were also shot.
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.
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.
School bus driver Benny "Tiny" Huggins recalled dropping the Simmons children off at their drive that day.
Investigators believed the Simmons children, Loretta, Eddy, Marianne, and Becky (ages seventeen, fourteen, eleven, and eight) were separated. Each was strangled with a braided nylon fish stringer. 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.
Around midday 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 the entire family had been together in four years.
The first to be killed was Simmons' son, Billy, and his wife, Renata, who were both shot dead. Their 20-month-old son, Trae, was strangled. Simmons also shot and killed his oldest daughter, Sheila (whom he had sexually abused), and her husband, Dennis McNulty. Simmons then strangled his child, Sheila's seven-year-old daughter, 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 Sheila's, which 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 out to drink at North 40, a private club in RussellvilleâÂÂPope County being a dry county, alcoholic beverages were only available in "private" clubsâÂÂbefore returning home.
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 car 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 the way, he mailed the letter and two other letters with almost identical wording, along with money, to two nieces. All had a December 28, 1987, Russellville postmark.
Robert Wood, who witnessed one of the shootings, said, "He definitely looked for who he wanted to shoot." Wood also said that Simmons had worked at or knew people at each of the places where the shootings occurred.
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. A divorcee, she had worked for the firm for three months.
As he left, someone called the police department. It was about 10:17 AM.
Traveling on side streets instead of Main Street, which would have been more direct, Simmons went to the office of Taylor Oil Company at 2601 West Main Street, intending to kill owner Russell "Rusty" Taylor, who had once been Simmons' employer at the Sinclair Mini Mart. 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, Juli Money, 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.
In an interview at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center on December 31, 1987, Rusty Taylor said he had no recollection of any dispute and had not had contact with Simmons in over a year. Taylor's mother, Mary Taylor, said Taylor had turned down Simmons' request for a raise because he was only a part-timer. Simmons quit on December 18, 1987.
Simmons then drove back 3.1 miles through downtown to the Sinclair Mini Mart at 2400 East Main Street. The third call came in to the police department at 10:39 a.m.
Store manager David Salyer was shot once in the forehead and employee Roberta Woolery was shot once in the jaw. Salyer was in the back of the store drinking coffee with a customer, Tony Carta, when Simmons walked up to Woolery, who was working the register. Simmons and Woolery exchanged words, and then Simmons pulled out a pistol from under his dark coat and fired twice. Salyer thought it was a joke until Woolery screamed. Salyer grabbed a chair, moved toward Simmons, and threw the chair at him. He said that he thought that Simmons had fired five shots in the store. Two were fired at Salyer, once from near the cash register and again from no more than three or four feet. Salyer believed the second shot struck the chair and then hit him over the left eye, but didn't penetrate very far into his head.
At trial, Woolery said she recognized Simmons as soon as he turned and faced her before he shot.
Salyer later testified, "When he squeezed the very first shot, he was grinning." Carta testified that he ran behind some showcases after the first shot and that he was "picking up six-packs of soda and throwing them at him (Simmons), and hollering and cussing and everything else."
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' 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."
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.
Within a minute of his arrest, Simmons was advised of his rights and asked for his name. He replied, "James Johnson." When asked if he understood his rights, he said, "Yes." That was the last thing he uttered. While he had a billfold, there was no identification in it.
Johnston said Simmons refused to provide any information. Officers learned of his identity from witnesses who knew him, including that he was a retired Air Force master sergeant. State Police Sgt. Dan Short said, according to witnesses, that Simmons had been wearing a long black coat and cowboy hat at the law office where Kendricks was shot, but when arrested, was wearing a blue jacket and blue ball cap.
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 peopleâÂÂonly 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 was not familiar with guns.
Throughout the 45-minute-long rampage, "wielding" two revolvers, Simmons had killed two and wounded four others and briefly held a woman hostage.
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 laying 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. Russellville Police Chief Herb Johnston filed documents supporting charging Simmons with 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, saying he would seek to have Simmons executed if he were found guilty on the capital charges. "Under the circumstances, I think it is the appropriate punishment if a jury finds him guilty," he said... "The murders were cruel and senseless. It was just a cold-blooded deal." He also said he would eventually file charges against Simmons in the deaths of his fourteen family members.
Bolin said the investigation was hindered by Simmons' reclusive nature, noting that after five years in the area, he appeared to have neither close friends nor even casual acquaintances.
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 that bank records indicated Simmons opened the box several times during the Christmas holidays.
A charge of attempted capital murder was filed on January 13, 1988, for shooting at Juli Money at Taylor Oil Company, where Rusty Taylor was wounded, and James Chaffin was killed. Simmons was also charged with kidnapping Vickie Jackson at Woodline Motor Freight, who he had held hostage briefly in an office.
Simmons was charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of 14 family members on January 15. One count was for the seven family members killed before Christmas. The other count was for the seven killed on December 26, 1987. Bynum said two separate charges were filed because the family slayings were "two separate episodes."
The charges were filed after Prosecuting Attorney John Bynym received information from autopsies of the victims and ballistic results from the state crime lab. The results showed that eight of the victims died from strangulation, and five of the family members had been shot by the .22-caliber pistol that Simmons surrendered when he was arrested on December 28. The bullet fragments that killed William H. Simmons could not be positively identified.
Bynum said he would seek the death penalty for the sixteen deaths. Attorney John Harris filed for a change of venue on February 23. He has said that widespread publicity could jeopardize Simmons' right to a fair trial.
Despite outstanding warrants in New Mexico on charges of incest, Simmons had passed a background check when he was hired as a military personnel clerk at the 5th Army's Little Rock Battalion recruiting office. On December 30, 1987, Dave McNully, public affairs officer for the Little Rock office of the Corps of Engineers, said Simmons' fingerprints, along with a history of his activities, were sent to the Office of Personnel Management in Boyers, Pennsylvania, in early 1982, with no discrepancies found. An FBI fingerprint check was one of the requirements for permanent federal employment.
After he was taken into custody, Simmons refused to talk or respond to any questions about his family and shook his head "no" to a request to search his home. Witnesses in Russellville told investigators that Simmons had a large family.
The sheriff's office called Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Don Bourne, asking for advice. Bourne considered Simmons' family's status a "valid emergency," determined that Circuit Judge John S. Patterson was out of town, and relayed that information to the Prosecuting Attorney, John Bynum, who decided that a search warrant was not needed. Bynum reasoned that since Simmons wounded four people, he "wasn't a very good shot" and members of Simmons family, if shot, might still be alive, but in imminent danger of death.
The sheriff determined that an emergency search was warranted. 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.
Bolin and deputies went to the Simmons home on Broomfield Road, about 16 miles north of Russellville, because "We were thinking in terms of what a man like this would do." The house's only outside door, a sliding glass door, was barred from the inside by 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. The adults had each been shot, but, the young girl, found lying face-down on a bed in the rear beadroom, did not have a bullet wound.
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 storedâÂÂluxuries he hoarded.
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.
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, a warrant was obtained for continued searching. Members of the Pope County Marine Rescue Unit began dragging a small pond north of the house, but attention was soon shifted to a pile of freshly dug dirt, covered with corrugated metal. Deputies and state troopers dug with picks and shovels, finding the first of the seven bodies two feet below the surface in a shallow mass grave about 40 yards southwest of the house. Kerosene had been splashed over the bodies, but not ignited. Bolin said the bodies were "just piled in" with heads pointing in the same direction and that the grave was six to seven feet long, 36 to 40 inches wide, and four to four-and-a-half feet deep.
Bolin said that some of those found in the grave were wearing pajamas.
Other searchers then discovered the bodies of two children wrapped in taped green garbage bags in the trunks of two abandoned cars about 125 yards northwest of the house. 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, such as a wrecking bar. Attorney John Harris recalled Simmons telling him he used a hammer.
State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak said on December 30 that positive identifications had been made for all 16 bodies.
The same day, Becky Simmons' family said they would arrange cremations for the bodies of family members not claimed by in-laws.
On December 31, 1987, Bolin announced preliminary 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, 33, 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. Bolin said blood was found on the ceiling, walls, and floor of a rear bedroom, including a bloody handprint, and that, if there was a struggle, it was probably Gene Jr. fighting for his life. He said Mrs. Simmons was placed in the grave first, followed by the oldest son, Gene. Bolin also stated that it would have taken only three to seven minutes to strangle each child, and it could have been done quietly.
Bolin also observed,
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. The bullets were 22-caliber hollow points.
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.
The autopsy results showed that the victims died from gunshots or strangulation.
Despite the scale and brutality of his crimes, no definitive official analysis of Simmons' motives was ever developed. There were various reasons for this, including:
In New Mexico, Simmons exerted complete control over his family, subjecting them to relentless abuseâÂÂprimarily verbal, but at times physical. He first struck his wife in front of their children in 1978. After school and on weekends, the kids mostly went out and collected rocksâÂÂthey were building a stone wall around the property. The eldest daughter, Sheila, endured the worst of it, suffering sexual abuse at his hands.
According to attorney John Harris, when the family fled New Mexico, Simmons became a fugitive with a felony warrant hanging over him. Unbeknownst to him, New Mexico had ceased pursuing that warrant, and the case became inactive in 1982. Simmons remained convinced that an active warrant for his arrest was still outstanding. As a result, his grip on the family tightened, and the abuse escalated. Financial struggles and personal failures deepened his obsessions, pushing him further into isolation and tightening his oppressive control over those trapped under his rule.
Simmons confided to Harris that he was concerned that his wife might divorce him, and that would be the end of everything with his record (the incest charges). He had substantial debt and had quit his remaining part-time job. Becky had a lump in her breast that compounded his worries.
Simmons kept a tight rein on his family, according to schoolmates, particularly his wife and 17-year-old daughter. While the children were all talented in school, they were intensely shy and reluctant to discuss family life. In two letters that Lorreta managed to get out to a friend, Karen Warnick, she said she was depressed by her home life and limited access to friends. She wrote, "My dad hates me, says I'm not good enough, yet claims I'm conceited. And you can't talk to my mom about anything, she doesn't understand." Loretta asked her friend to come visit, that Loretta's parents wouldn't mind, and provided directions to the house.
According to family acquaintance Linda Mayhew, the children had a strained relationship with their father and preferred his absence. "They didn't like him at all," she said, and that the children had hideouts on the Simmons property to avoid him when he was home. Linda's daughter, Jennifer, noted that the children favored the periods when he worked two jobs, and their mother remarked that they'd be content if he worked "seven days a week, 24 hours a day." Mrs. Mayhew sometimes visited with Becky at the Simmons home while Mr. Simmons was at work and their children played outside, but said she was not close to Mrs. Simmons, who was never allowed to visit anyone. Jennifer only spent the night there twice and didn't enjoy either visit because Simmons' strict rules about keeping quiet. She said that none of the kids liked him.
The Simmons home was a pleasant place, according to Mrs. Mayhew. Dozens of pet chickens, dogs, and geese roamed. Mrs. Simmons' garden had a sign, "Mom's playpen" hanging in front of it.
Mrs. Mayhew said she seldom spoke to Simmons. "I never probably said six words to him, he wasn't one for small talk," she said. "He was the type that when he was looking at you, he didn't see you, he would see right through you."
Becky Simmons stayed with her husband out of fear, according to her sister, Edith Nesby, on December 30, 1987. "I think she was afraid to leave," said Mrs. Nesby. "She was a woman with small children and no work skills. She was too ashamed to turn to her family after the sexual abuse thing. She was just afraid and she didn't know what to do." Nesby said that Becky had been physically abused by Simmons and that the children tried to protect her during the beatings. Nesby said Simmons hated her because she did not like the way he dominated her sister. Simmons wouldn't stay in the same room with her during Nesby's last visit. His only words to her were, "I understand you're leaving, goodbye." Mrs. Nesby said her husband, Pat, didn't like for her to visit the family, warning her, "Something is going to happen to that man someday and he's going to kill his family and I don't want you there." On January 1, Mae Novak, Becky's mother, said Becky came to visit in Colorado with the youngest, but the other children didn't go. "I imagine he did that so she wouldn't leave him or something," she said.
During the investigation, local residents expressed shock over the discovery. Edna Baker, a longtime resident, described it as "the worst thing since the Civil War" to happen in Pleasant Grove. Neighbors recalled seeing Simmons supervising his children as they gathered mud and stones to fill ruts in their drivewayâÂÂa memory that resurfaced for some, including Ron Standridge, upon learning of the tragedy. A pastor from a nearby church said, "I didn't know them. Nobody around here knew them. They kept to themselves."
In a 1987 press briefing on December 31, Pope County sheriff's investigators suggested that Ronald Gene Simmons Sr. may have been driven to rage by his wife Becky's secret plans to leave and divorce him due to the sexual and physical abuse the family endured from Simmons. Summer Mooney, a friend of Loretta, said Loretta told her that her mother had been thinking of leaving with the children for years, but the only thing stopping her was that she was afraid she would not be able to support her children. Most recently, Mrs. Simmons had spoken about going to San Antonio, where the oldest son, Gene, lived. Earlier in the week, relatives of Mrs. Simmons speculated that the killing spree might have been sparked by a decision by Becky to leave and take the children or that Gene Simmons Jr. might take his mother and siblings away
In the briefing, Bolin acknowledged they didn't yet have tangible evidence to link Simmons to the slaying of the family members, but expected that would come from tests being conducted at the state Crime Laboratory at Little Rock. The state medical examiner's office told him that it would be a week to 10 days before the final autopsy results would be available. The sheriff stated that he requested every possible test.
The first tangible link connecting Simmons to the murders of his family came 8 days after he was arrested. Ballistic tests showed that a gun taken from Simmons had fired a bullet removed from the body of his daughter, Sheila McNulty.
In Russellville, witnesses told them Simmons harbored personal grudges against victims shot in Russellville and that he had an unrequited amorous infatuation with Kathy Kendrict, who had rejected repeated advances and filed a sexual harassment complaint against Simmons.
The three oldest siblings, all adults who had left home, were working in concert to convince Becky to leave Simmons.
In a summer 1987 four-page handwritten letter from Becky Simmons to her son William and his wife, Renata, she wrote, in part, "I am a prisoner here and the kids too ... Dad has had me like a prisoner ...." "I don't want to live the rest of my life with Dad." "Every time I think of freedom I want out as soon as possible." The slain wife of R. Gene Simmons was contemplating leaving, but worried she could not find a job but decided to wait. "God is telling me to be more patient, Right now I'll just say (I'll) do some checking and then it will help me make my decision." "I know when I get out I might need help, Dad has had me like a prisoner, that the freedom might be hard for me to take, yet I know it would be great, having my children visit me anytime, having a telephone, going shopping if I want, going to church." The letter was published in the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette on January 3, 1988.
In the letter, Becky Simmons wrote she wanted Loretta to move in with William and Renata after the teen turned 18. "She wants to go to college and she can get a job, too.
A friend of 17-year-old Loretta said that Loretta told her that her mother had been thinking about leaving with the children because of Simmons' repressive and abusive behavior, that the only thing stopping her was that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to support the children, and, most recently, Mrs. Simmons had talked about going to San Antonio, where Loretta's brother, Gene Jr, was living.
In a September 29, 1987, letter to Sheila, Becky wrote, <blockquote>Billy, I know, worries over me so I've been doing a lot of thinking of leaving your dad. I've been a prisoner long enough. Bill and I are trying to find a way. I just don't want to give your dad anything. He has mistreated us all long enough, so I feel no pity for him, and being alone is what he deserves. All this will take time but I don't want to continue this life with Fatso.</blockquote> Becky often referred to Gene as "Fatso" in letters that didn't get mailed through him.
In one letter, Becky said she was a prisoner and yearned for freedom. In another, she wrote, "Another thing I always try to remember, a man who hates suffers more than the man hated." Those words were read on January 2, 1988, at a memorial service in Russellville for the 14 family members who were killed.
Becky Simmons' family said they didn't trust Simmons because he seemed to get stranger and stranger each year. Becky's older sister, Viola O'Shields, said, "He was a very loving man at one time. He loved his family." Viola said Becky explained her daily prayers and bible reading by saying she did it "because I don't want to meet him (Simmons) in hell." Manual Ulibarri, her brother, said Simmons had his sister "so isolated so she couldn't go anywhere or do anything. The only time she could go out was to wash clothes." "Gene never liked his stepfather," said his sister-in-law, Edith Nesby. "Actually, he didn't like anybody. ... Anything that went wrong was always somebody else's fault." She said that Becky stayed with him for the children's sake and "as a martyr to a crappy marriage."
"In my heart, I think I know the reason why. Like told you before, he just had lost control of the family. He couldn't bear to be with... Like a general, he had to have control all the time, said Manuel. "After the incest he lost control. My sister Becky was sleeping in the room with the girls.... Gene just lost control of the family and couldn't take it. In other words, they just didn't have anything to do with him and he couldn't take it. Ulibarri said that another factor that prompted the family massacre was Simmons' belief his family was planning to leave him. "Gene thought he (Ronald Gene Simmons Jr.) was coming to pick up the family and take them with him back to San Antonio."
Simmons initiated communication with KTHV news anchor Anne Jansen through a letter, leading to an exchange that consisted of eight letters from Simmons and four twoâÂÂto three-hour conversations. These interactions occurred across multiple locations: twice at the Pope County Detention Center, once at Tucker Unit, and once at Cummins Unit. Simmons requested that Jansen keep their discussions confidential, emphasizing that he would have ceased communication if he believed they were intended for journalistic use.
In their initial conversation, Jansen noted Simmons' pronounced paranoia. He expressed suspicion that even unsecured objects, such as light bulbs and wall switches, might conceal listening devices. He remained highly vigilant, consistently monitoring his surroundings.
Simmons also communicated with another reporter, Laura Shull of the Russellville Courier Democrat, including once from his Pope County jail cell.
Defense Attorney John Harris said Simmons told him he contemplated committing suicide after his spree in Russellville. He also thought about turning the pistol towards the police to have them shoot him. After several shots from the .22-caliber pistols failed to kill multiple victimsâÂÂhe shot seven people in Russellville and only two diedâÂÂhe worried that using them for suicide might leave him disabled instead. He also doubted his chances of dying if he tried to shoot it out with the police.
On December 30, 1987, without publicity, Simmons was transferred from the Pope County Detention Center to the Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock after Circuit Judge John Patterson ordered him held without bond and to undergo a psychiatric observation and evaluation. Despite a backlog of admissions, Simmons was immediately admitted on an emergency basis at Rogers Hall, which housed the criminally insane, arriving there under heavy security because of threats on his life. Dr. Roy Ragsdale said patients could be admitted quickly if their behavior was psychotic or they were charged with a capital crime. Acting Director Dr. Paula Lynch said that Simmons would be kept in a private cell in a cell block, be accompanied by security, and under observation on a 24-hour basis.
The hospital was asked to find the answers to two questions:
On January 28, Judge Patterson signed an order granting the State Hospital a 30-day extension to complete its examination of Simmons after staff psychiatrist Dr. Irving Kuo requested an additional period "for further observation and evaluation before making a final diagnosis."
Following sixty days at the State Hospital, on February 29, 1988, Dr. Roy Radsdale, the hospital director, said that Simmons was competent to stand trial and was responsible for his actions at the time of the killings. Ragsdale said that Simmons was diagnosed as having a mixed personality disorder "with narcissistic and paranoid features," Ragsdale said. "It is a clinical way of describing coping techniques in dealing with his feelings and stress." Ragsdale said hospital staff concluded that Simmons was able to distinguish right from wrong and could conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
The same day, Simmons was returned to Pope County by Sheriff Bolin and Lt. Jay Winters, and Judge Patterson accepted the state hospital's findings. Patterson set a May 9 trial date. Bolin said Simmons would remain in one of the 53-cell jail's four maximum-security cells due to prior threats on his life.
Simmons' two lawyers, appointed by Judge Patterson, had served as public defenders until Patterson determined Simmons was not indigent.
Patterson said at a hearing on March 7 that he would be "hard-pressed" to classify Simmons as indigent since he was receiving a military pension of approximately $917 per month. He ruled that Simmons could pay for his defense, for which his attorneys had accrued approximately $11,000 in fees and expenses. Prosecutor Bynum objected to the defense's request for payment, stating that it would deplete the county's indigent defense fund, which held only $15,278 in February. Everything of value that Simmons had eventually went to his attorneys, including concrete blocks from the wall that had shielded the house from view on Broomfield Road and Christmas gifts that had never been opened. Before the hearing, Simmons had signed a document authorizing the post office to release his mail to his attorneys.
In a plea arraignment on March 24, 1989, Simmons pleaded innocent to four capital murder charges, five counts of attempted capital murder, and one count of kidnapping. He spoke for the first time in court since his arrest, saying, "I respectfully request my right to a speedy trial on all charges."
In the same hearing, acting on a request by Simmons' attorneys, Judge Patterson ruled that the trial for the Russellville spree would take place in Ozark, in Franklin County. Defense lawyers argued that the case should be moved out of Pope County because of the extensive media coverage it had already received. Under Arkansas law, the trial could be transferred only within the judicial district where the crimes occurred â the Fifth Judicial District, which includes Pope, Johnson, and Franklin counties. Ozark, in Franklin County, was as far from Pope County as the venue could be moved while remaining within the Fifth Judicial District.
Patterson ruled that the charges for the murders of the 14 members of Simmons' family would be tried separately after the first trial was concluded. Simmons' attorneys reserved the right to change the plea later to innocent by reason of insanity. They also filed several motions, including:
The question of Simmons' indigence was raised again, and "heated words" were exchanged between Patterson and the defense. John Harris said the defense lacked funds for various psychological and laboratory tests. Patterson told the defense that anyone receiving a $917 pension was not indigent, and if they didn't want to continue the case, Simmons "in two hours time could have a flock of attorneys" attracted by the notoriety of the case.
A hearing to discuss the suppression of evidence was held on April 4. Paul McDonald, chief firearms examiner for the state Crime Laboratory, testified that bullets recovered from the bodies of Kathy Kendricks and James Chaffin came from the revolver Simmons handed Police Chief Herb Johnston when he surrendered. Dr. Bennett Preston, assistant state medical examiner, said Kendricks was killed by four gunshots to the head and Chaffin by a gunshot to the right eye. Ten witnesses testified about the authenticity of items seized as evidence and about how they were obtained. Circuit Judge John Patterson declined to suppress any of the evidence submitted by the prosecution.
On April 5, Judge Patterson issued an order prohibiting prosecutors for any trial from presenting evidence involving past criminal charges against Simmons.
In his first trial, Simmons was charged with murdering Kendrick and Chaffin, attempting to murder five others, and kidnapping a sixth on December 28, 1987.
Simmons wanted the death penalty from the very beginning. A death sentence, under Arkansas law, was only permitted upon a jury's recommendation. If he had pleaded guilty, the only available sentence would have been life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
During the first trial, security was provided by officers from the Franklin and Pope County sheriff's offices, the Ozark Police Department, and Troop H of the State Police at Fort Smith. Several officers escorted Simmons between the Franklin County Courthouse and the Pope County Detention Center, 47 miles, each day. The U.S. Marshal Service provided a metal detector to check people for weapons.
Defended by two local court-appointed attorneys, John Harris and Robert "Doc" Irwin, Simmons' first trial began on Monday, May 9, 1988, in OzarkâÂÂmoved there because of widespread news coverage. A seven-man, five-woman, all white jury, with two alternates, was selected on Monday, May 9 from a jury pool of 113 people. Jury selection took about 6 hours. The jury was overwhelmingly older, working-class, with limited formal education.
On Tuesday afternoon, Judge Patterson excused a juror following an hour-long meeting with attorneys. He had been told the juror made a derogatory remark about Simmons but declined to declare a mistrial, citing the availability of two alternates. Seventeen prosecution witnesses testified on Tuesday, including Juli Money, the Taylor Oil Company clerk, and Russellville Police Chief Herb Jonnston. Among the thirteen witnesses that testified on Wednesday were Joyce Butts, a supervisor Simmons shot at Woodline Motor Freight, and Vicky Jackson, who had been held hostage at Woodline. Nine of the thirty prosecution witnesses identified Simmons as the man involved in the rampage. One witness, Paul Epperson, a bread and pastry route salesman, said Simmons had told him he would "like to get even" with some people in the area and that there were a few people in town he would like to get even with.
In the four-day trial, Simmons was linked to shootings at four businesses through eyewitness accounts and ballistics evidence.
The defense rested without presenting evidence or calling any witnesses, even though they had subpoenaed eleven. They had previously decided against an insanity defense. "Doc" Irwin had said he planned to call about five witnesses but told the Gazette he was unable to find one. "We didn't have any witnesses," he admitted after the verdicts were reached. "We looked high and low."
Prosecutor John Bynum, arguing for death, said, "There is nothing in the record that says this man is entitled to a breakâÂÂnothing.
The jury deliberated less than 1ý hours before convicting Simmons on May 12, 1988. After hearing arguments on whether to sentence him to life in prison or death, they deliberated another one hour and twenty minutes and returned with a sentence of death. Simmons was also sentenced for 30 years for each of four attempted capital murder counts, 20 years for a fifth attempted capital court, and 7 years for a first-degree false imprisonment charge, with the sentences to run consecutively, a total 147 years.
After the jurors were excused, Simmons told Circuit Judge John Patterson he had a statement to make. Speaking softly from the witness stand, Simmons stated in open court that, after careful thought and consideration, he was ready to waive all his rights to appeal.
Later that evening, one juror said, "It's something the jury was not proud of." Another said the jury had no problem with its decision.
Simmons' statement:
After Simmons read his statement, Dr. Lew Neal, a psychiatrist, testified that Simmons was mentally competent to make the request. "There is no way he is going to change his feelings on this," Dr. Neal said. Simmons' attorneys stated that Simmons wrote the statement days earlier, against their advice.
Dr. Neal told the Arkansas Gazette that Simmons said one of his guns malfunctioned the day of the shooting and that, had it worked properly, he would have killed himself. In a statement notarized four days before the trial started, Dr. Neal said he had no reservations in concluding that the crimes Simmons was charged with were "indeed committed by Mr. Simmons in a meticulously premeditated manner. It also said Simmons would accept the death penalty because "all of his family and everyone meaningful in his life is now gone."
Later that evening, James Lee, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said that Simmons had the right to waive his right to appeal. "Under Arkansas law, the appeal is not automatic, it is not mandatory."
Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark and attorneys in the Simmons case all agreed on May 13 that Simmons could not be forced to appeal the murder conviction. Defense Attorney John Harris said that he had known Simmons wanted the death penalty since shortly after he first visited with him about the case. Dr. Lew Neal, a defense psychiatrist who had testified on Thursday, said in documents filed on May 13 that Simmons went to trial solely to increase the likelihood that he would be executed, that Simmons went to trial rather than plead guilty because only a jury could impose the death penalty in Arkansas. Potentially, Simmons could have been executed before the second trial, then scheduled for July 14, on charges that he killed 14 members of his family. Under Arkansas law in 1988, an execution date could not be set earlier than 30 days after the sentence was imposed. Clark said some outside party could intervene on Simmons' behalf to halt the execution and that he fully expected it, adding that he didn't expect such an intervention to be successful. Attorney John Harris said that he and "Doc" Irwin would have to prepare to defend Simmons because of the possibility Simmons might change his mind on not appealing.
Simmons said, "Death is not to be feared," in a May 15 two-hour interview with a reporter from the Russellville Courier-Democrat. "It is what comes before death" that is to be feared. "I have no doubts that this (death sentence) is right, but I won't believe it until it happens." Refusing to answer anything about what happened at his home, he criticized the criminal justice system, saying those who need punishment don't get it. Describing himself as an introvert, he stated that he didn't answer all the questions during his examination at the State Hospital.
On May 16, Judge Patterson found Simmons to be of sound mind and could waive his right to appeal. Patterson issued an order for Simmons to be executed by lethal injection at 11 a.m. June 27. Attorney Robert E. "Doc" Irwin told the court that there were grounds for appeal and that Simmons had been advised against waiving his right to an appeal.
Calling his sentence "proper punishment for the crime," Simmons told the judge he would not try to stop the execution, stating that "I arrived at my decision in regard to the proper punishment on Dec. 28 and don't hold your breath for me to change it." Simmons told Patterson he had decided to seek execution on the day of the shooting spree.
Judge Patterson reminded Simmons that "any time prior to execution, you have the right to change your mind and appeal." Simmons told the court that his decision was made the day of the shootings in Russellville and that he wouldn't change his mind.
Simmons was moved from the Pope County Detention Center to the Arkansas Department of Corrections' Maximum Security Unit in Jefferson County on May 18, 1988, where Department of Corrections officers took him into custody and placed him in a cell on death row.
In early January 1988, Dorothy Goeller of Woodhaven, N.Y., filed a foreclosure suit against Simmons, seeking the return of the property she had sold to Simmons on Broomfield Road and $28,081.11 in alleged unpaid balance. Simmons and his mother-in-law Mae Noval were named as defendants The foreclosure petition was approved in May after there had been no payments since November 1987. On June 15, the property was sold at an auction on the steps of the Pope County Courthouse. The auction was covered by three television crews and two newspaper reporters. The only bid came from the woman from whom Simmons had bought the property. On March 29, 1989, the house, which had been subjected to ongoing vandalism, was destroyed by fire. The state fire marshal ruled the blaze arson. The site has since faded from public attention with no subsequent property development.
Simmons met several times with Roger and Viola O'Shields. Viola was Becky's sister. Simmons told Roger that he had intended to kill himself after he was finished with his victims. When Roger asked him why he changed his mind, Simmons told him, "Do you know what kind of ammunition I was using? .22 caliber hollow points. They don't penetrate. They splatter. I did not want to shoot myself and become a vegetable."
A Morrilton attorney, Mark Cambiano, announced on June 1 that he had been asked to appeal the Simmons case by Arkansas Churches for Life, a nonprofit organization formed in 1987 and chaired by the Rev. Louis J. FranzâÂÂa Catholic priestâÂÂof Star City (Lincoln County), who also counseled death-row inmates in Arkansas. Simmons' attorneys, John C. Harris and Robert E. "Doc" Irwin, said they would oppose any intervention efforts.
On June 6, Cambiamo asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to review Simmons' death sentence for clarification on whether an appeal was mandatory. Additionally, a petition was filed in the Franklin County Circuit Court seeking to allow the Rev. Louis J. Franz to intervene. A motion for a stay of execution and a notice of appeal were also filed.
On June 7, Reverend Franz, represented by Cambiano, filed briefs with the Arkansas Supreme Court seeking a mandatory appeal of death sentences, arguing that the U.S. Constitution required a review of all death sentence cases. Cambiano also filed documents asking the Court to stop the execution of Simmons, allow Franz to participate in the case to raise issues about mandatory reviews of death sentences and Simmons' competence, and order the Franklin County Circuit Court to assemble the documents needed for the Court to consider the issues.
In a letter to the Russellville Courier Democrat dated June 7, Simmons said he objected to any intervention in his case and questioned Cambiano's motives for attempting to intervene. In a second letter dated June 11, Simmons harshly criticized attempts to delay the execution by Arkansas Churches for Life and attorney Cambiona. He also claimed that there was a deliberate attempt by "high-ranking officials within the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC), Maximum Security Unit" to keep him uninformed about news coverage related to their attempted intervention. He also stated that his success in avoiding an appeal would not deny other inmates the right to appeal their sentences. The letter was sent to John Robert Starr, managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat, and Laura Shull at the Russellville Courier Democrat.
In an interview with Russellville's Courier-Democrat on June 16, Simmons said he had prepared himself mentally for the possibility that he might not die on the date scheduled and that he thought the state Supreme Court or Governor Bill Clinton would grant a stay of his scheduled execution so that his conviction and sentence could be appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Simmons also said other death row inmates saw him as a threat to their attempts to stay alive because he wants to die, and they are trying to avoid execution. There had not been an execution in Arkansas for 24 years.
After a two-hour hearing in Ozark on June 17, Circuit Judge John S. Patterson denied the petition to delay Simmons' scheduled execution filed by Cambiano, despite testimony from Dr. Irving Kuo, a State Hospital psychiatrist, that Simmons might suffer from a mental illness. During the hearing, Simmons took the stand to oppose allowing anyone to enter his case or have his execution delayed. Judge Patterson expressed disappointment that Reverend Franz, the petitioner, was not present.
Seven days before his scheduled execution, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on June 20 after attorney Mark S. Cambiano, for Catholic priest Louis J. Franz, raised issues of whether Arkansas had or should have had a mandatory review of capital cases or the waiver of appeals in such cases. The ruling was 6 to 1 to stay the execution to give the Court time to consider the petitions by Franz.
After the state Supreme Court action, on June 21, Circuit Judge Patterson said that the trial for the murders of the Simmons family members, initially scheduled for July 18, would be postponed indefinitely pending decisions by the higher court. Patterson added that the state must try Simmons within a year of his arrest, meaning a trial would be held before December 28 if Simmons wasn't executed.
The Arkansas Supreme Court heard arguments on June 27 on whether it should review Simmons' conviction and death sentence. Also at issue was whether Simmons was competent to waive an appeal, whether someone could intervene on his behalf, and whether an appeal of a death sentence should be mandatory. Simmons' attorneys, Robert E. "Doc" Brian and John C. Harris, argued that if a defendant waives his conviction and death sentence, an appeals-court review is probably a necessary safeguard for the sentencing portion of the state's death penalty law to withstand a test before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mark Cambiano, attorney for Arkansas Churches for Life, argued, "We don't want the precedent of someone going straight from court to the death chamber without any type of review."
The temporary stay was terminated by the Arkansas Sumpreme Court on July 11, 1988, in a 5âÂÂ2 ruling, that also held that that Rev. Franz did not have standing in the case and that Simmons understood his choice not to appeal. The Court said state law didn't require an appeal in death sentence cases, and it didn't have to require one to be constitutional. The court established a procedure for situations in which a condemned person did not appeal, holding that the Supreme Court must review trial court determinations that the defendant made a knowing and intelligent waiver of appeal. On July 25, in a one-sentence order, the Court rejected Rev. Franz's request for a rehearing. His attorney, Mark Cambiano, said he would be filing writs with Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the high court to decide if Arkansas can execute a man whose conviction had not been reviewed by an appeals court.
With the stay lifted, on July 15, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton set Simmons' execution date for August 9 in a proclamation. A.L. "Art" Lockhart, director of the Arkansas Department of Corrections, was to set the execution time. Copies of the proclamation setting the execution date were sent to Lockhart and Simmons.
A "next friend" appeal seeking mandatory review of Simmons' conviction and sentence was filed in U.S. District Court on August 2 by death row inmate Darrell Wayne Hill and Mark Cabiano, representing Rev. Louis J. Franz. Cambiano asked U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele to issue a stay of Simmons' scheduled execution. The petition claimed there was reason to believe Simmons was mentally incompetent and unable to knowingly decide to waive his right to appeal and that Simmons had not received a fair trial because his lawyers were ineffective.
At a conference called by Judge Eisele to consider motions on August 3, 1988, Eisele stayed the execution and asked the attorneys to submit briefs on the issue of mandatory review. Setting August deadlines for the submission of briefs, he said he expected to decide in September whether a court review in death-penalty cases is mandatory, but wouldn't consider whether others had standing to intervene or whether Simmons was competent to waive his right to appeal. The judge said that Simmons could not be put to death until questions about review of death penalty cases were resolved. Eisele noted that if the courts would not allow Gary Gilmore's mother to appeal on his behalf in 1976, it was unlikely Franz, Hill or the church group would be allowed to appeal on Simmons' behalf.
Attorney Mark Cambiano filed a motion on August 12 asking that a temporary guardian be appointed to represent Simmons and try to determine if he was mentally competent, claiming that Simmons' attorneys, John Harris and Robert W. "Doc" Irwin, had provided ineffective assistance of counsel. The motion said that Mitchell A. Karlan, a New York lawyer, had volunteered to take the appointment.
After Circuit Judge John S. Patterson scheduled a tentative trial date for the first week of December, defense attorneys requested that Simmons be brought to Russellville to make him more accessible for preparing motions pending in state and federal courts. Simmons was moved from death row to the Russellville jail on August 19 and returned to death row at the Maximum Security Unit near Tucker on September 1.
Judge Eisele ruled on September 23 that Rev. Franz and inmate Hill lacked standing to appeal Simmons' execution and that Simmons himself must pursue any further appeals in the case. He also ruled that the Arkansas Supreme Court had held that mandatory appeals in capital cases were not required.
In a hearing on September 29, Judge Eisele ordered more psychiatric evaluations for Simmons. Eisele appointed Little Rock lawyer John Wesley Hall Jr. to advise Simmons on possible avenues of appeal and ordered a transcript of the trial for that purpose. During the hearing, Eisle asked Simmons several questions. Simmons said he was aware of his rights and had discussed the trial with his attorney. Before making a final ruling on the competency issue, Eisele wanted a 30-day assessment of Simmons by authorities at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. A transcript was also sent to the federal hospital for use in the evaluation. Judge Eisele later extended the evaluation period by another 15 days.
On November 3, 1988, John Wesley Hall said that his role was to meet with Simmons and his attorneys and "explore whether it is a knowing waiver of his rights." He subsequently thoroughly reviewed the case records and concluded that Simmons' attorneys had made all appropriate arguments and objections and that the issues on appeal had been addressed.
While at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Simmons refused to cooperate, and the psychiatric team was unable to determine his mental competency, according to a report submitted to Judge Eisele dated November 19. They concluded that Simmons might be paranoid, but offered no opinion on whether he was competent to waive his federal appeals. The team reported that Simmons not only refused to cooperate but also deliberately hindered their efforts to assess his thinking. Simmons had stated he was transferred to the federal prison hospital "under protest," and he didn't believe the transfer was justified because he had already undergone prior evaluations of his mental condition. Simmons told them he believe a psychiatrist involved in his evaluation at the Arkansas state hospital had betrayed him. Simmons' attorneys had advised him "to cooperate fully during the evaluation, but not to discuss any aspects of any charges with anyone." Attorney John Wesley Hall said he would probably have advised the same thing.
In a 19-page order, on December 29, Judge Eisle ruled, "Simmons has the capacity to appreciate his position and to make a rational choice with respect to continuing or abandoning further litigation."
Attorney John Wesley Hall Jr. filed a 74-page report in U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele's court on February 28, 1988, stating that there were at least three issues from Simmons' May 1987 trial that could reverse that conviction. The alleged errors included juror misconduct, an improper search of the car Simmons drove the day of the shootings in Russellville, and identification evidence withheld by the prosecution. The report also said there was an error related to the death sentence and an error in the 157-year sentence on the attempted murder and kidnapping charges.
On December 21, 1988, Judge John Patterson issued an order moving Simmons' trial for the murders of his 14 family members to Clarksville, in Johnson County because of pre-trial publicity. Five days were set aside for the trial, set to begin on February 6, 1989, with a pretrial hearing scheduled for February 18 in Russellville. The 14 deaths had been consolidated into one count of capital murder.
In advance of the trial of Simmons on the murders of his family, Judge Patterson held an evidentiary hearing in Russellville on January 18 and 19, 1989, on defense motions seeking to suppress evidence and to dismiss the case for violation of a speedy trial rule and double jeopardy rules.
Attorney Robert E. "Doc" Brian's motion on suppressing evidence held that authorities had searched Simmons' home without a warrant and that all evidence should be suppressed. Sheriff Jim Bolen and other officers testified that they entered the home on December 27, 1987, after Simmons had been arrested in Russellville following the shootings there. They testified that their concern was for the family's welfare. They entered pursuant to guidelines that authorize officers to take action when they have reason to believe an emergency exists. Bolin said he thought Simmons' family members could be injured, perhaps bleeding to death in the house, and that this concern was based on Simmons' reaction when asked about his family. Though Simmons wouldn't answer any questions, Bolin said that, when asked if he would consent to a search of the residence, Simmons "shook his head, no, his lips was quivering, and his eyes watered up." Sheriff Bolin testified, "I felt very deeply that his family might be in there, might be shot, and needing medical help. We couldn't find them. He wouldn't tell us where they were." He also said, "The first thing we did when we got in there was to check each body to see whether there was any life left in them."
Some items were excluded from evidence. Officers entered the house on December 28, 1987, because an emergency existed. They returned the next morning and continued searching when the emergency conditions no longer existed. A search warrant was obtained at 6:10 pm.
The motion to dismiss Simmons's case for violation of the right to a speedy trial within one year was denied. Prosecuting attorney John Bynum had argued that the two months Simmons was in a state hospital undergoing psychiatric evaluations couldn't be counted against that time.
The defense team held that trying Simmons on the murders of his family would constitute double jeopardy, arguing that the crimes at the Simmons home and in Russellville were all one criminal episode and should have all been tried as one case. Patterson denied that motion, ruling that there were two criminal episodesâÂÂone near Dover where 14 people died and another in Russellville.
After Bynum said he would file an amended order that would charge Simmons with one count of capital murder for the deaths of family members, Patterson ruled that the 14 deaths would be treated as one count of capital murder.
Simmons' trial for the December 1987 deaths of 14 family members began on Monday, February 6, with jury selection from a pool of 89 potential jurors. Judge Patterson addressed the publicity issue by asking, "Is there anybody who has not heard anything about this case?" Nobody raised their hands.
Security was tight for the trial. It included officers from the Pope County Sheriff's Office, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, the Clarksville Police Department, and the Arkansas State Police. Every entrance to the courthouse was manned, and a metal detector was set up at the trial courtroom entrance. Simmons was being transported from the Pope County Jail every day because the Johnson County jail was closed.
Jury selection was completed late Tuesday, with four women and eight men seated. The last two jurors were selected after the defense exhausted its peremptory challenges.
During opening arguments on Wednesday, February 8, in a Clarksville courtroom crowded with about 100 spectators, prosecutor John Bynum said the prosecution "knows" Simmons' motive for killing 14 family members. He said he would present notes by Simmons that authorities found in a safe deposit box at Peoples Bank in Russellville in January 1988. "It will show you and indicate to you a motive as to why Mr. Simmons killed some of these people," Bynum said, and that it would describe a love-hate relationship with his oldest daughter with whom he had fathered a child. Defense attorneys objected to the notes being entered as evidence.
More than a dozen relatives of the victims sat on two benches at the front of the courtroom.
Nine people, primarily law enforcement officers, testified for the prosecution on February 8.
Testimony on the morning of February 9 from law enforcement officers focused on the discovery of five bodies found in the Simmons home after his arrest. Evidence presented included eight photographs of the graves and car trunks; a 15-inch piece of cord from the bottom of the grave; and a videotape of the bodies being removed from the grave and from the car trunks. Relatives of the victims bowed their heads to avoid watching the tape and asked several members of the media to stand in front of them to block their view even more.
Dr. Bennett G. Preston, former assistant medical examiner for Arkansas, summarized what he found when he did autopsies on the 14 bodies. Other testimony indicated that no firearms were found at the Simmons home. (See Victim and Causes of Death for more information)
As to motive in the trial, a family friend told investigators that Simmons' wife had been saving up money to divorce Simmons when the killings happened.
On the morning of February 10, a state firearms and tool marks examiner testified that bullets taken from the bodies of five of the victims matched a gun Simmons had with him when he was arrested. Bullet fragments from the sixth victim could not be positively identified.
During a routine sidebar conference just before noon between the judge and both parties, Simmons lunged between the lawyers and punched John Bynum, the prosecutor, in the chin, "sending spectators shrieking and ducking beneath their seats" After missing with a second punch and reaching for the holstered gun of one of the bailiffs, Simmons was subdued by court officers who swarmed over him and whisked him out a side door. Startled jurors watched, and some relatives of the slain family dove for the floor. Charlotte Crosston, whose daughter and son-in-law died in the murder spree, said, "I'm glad he showed the jury, and I'm glad the jury got to see what he's really like."
Bynum had introduced a letter between Simmons and his daughter Sheila in which Simmons expressed anger that Sheila had revealed that he was the father of her child, and that he would see her in Hell. Bynum later said he saw the punch coming right before it landed. "I was startled, but it didn't hurt me. He may have tried to hit me on the chest, but the only blow I felt was the one to the face."
Judge Patterson immediately had the startled jurors removed from the courtroom and, before declaring a recess, told them, "I want you to set aside what happened in the courtroom just now." "The trial has gone on for five days. We want to finish if we can. You need to disregard the incident that just happened here today."
When asked by his attorney why he had punched the prosecutor, Simmons replied "I am in control, I am in control." Harris thought it was intended to sabotage any defense that might be offered. Simmons sought no sympathy from the jury and aimed for a death sentence, even striking Bynum to ensure it.
Sometime later, in one of their confidential, off-the-record meetings, Ann Jansen spoke with Simmons about hitting the prosecutor. She asked, "Gene, what did you do?" He smirked and replied, "MNM," explaining it stood for "mitigating or mitigation neutralizing maneuver." He wanted the jury's last impression to be an act of violence to secure the death penalty.
After the recess, Lt. Jay Winters of the Pope County Sheriff's Department read the letter introduced by Bynum, which was to Simmons' eldest daughter, Sheila McNulty. "I told you that your lack of communication with me was going to be your downfall," Simmons wrote. "You have destroyed me, and in time you will destroy yourself." "If you are trying to hurt me, then you should be very proud of yourself, because you have done a very good job of it. You have destroyed me. I do not want D. to set foot on my property. He turned you against me. You want me out of your life. I will be out of your life. I will see you in hell."
The trial included 18 prosecution witnesses, and the defense didn't present any witnesses in its case. However, before Simmons' attack on Bynum, the defense had planned to call a ballistics expert, a police dispatcher, and Vicky JacksonâÂÂthe Woodline Freight employee Simmons told to call police.
Handcuffed after the earlier outburst, Simmons showed no emotion when the jury found him guilty that evening at 8:30 PM after deliberating for more than four hours. The jury returned with a sentence by lethal injection at 11:08 PM. Relatives of the victims clapped when the verdict was announced, but the courtroom was silent when the sentence was read.
On February 11, after Simmons told Judge Patterson he knew of no reason he should not be immediately sentenced, the judge set the execution for March 16.
He refused to appeal his death sentence, stating, "To those who oppose the death penalty â in my particular case, anything short of death would be cruel and unusual punishment." The trial court conducted a hearing concerning Simmons' competence to waive further proceedings and concluded that his decision was knowing and intelligent.
Judge John Patterson allowed Simmons to waive his appeal of the death sentence in a March 1, 1989, hearing. After the hearing, Simmons talked to reporters in a rare move. While he declined to discuss the crimes or his apparent death wish, he made threatening and disparaging statements about people who had blocked his first death sentence, namely Rev. Louis J. Franz of Star City and Morrilton attorney Mark Cambiano. "Perhaps you folks can suggest to Scum-Cambiano and Joker Franz that as they crawl through their self-created cesspool, that maybe they ought to keep an eye over their shoulder," Simmons said. "Someone might just want to put their lights out."
On March 10, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Simmons competent to waive his appeal for his February conviction. On March 13, the court rejected a petition for review from another death row inmate, Jonas Whitmore. The following day, the petition was filed with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who referred it to the entire court. On March 15, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the execution scheduled for the next day.
On March 29, 1989, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals again delayed Simmons' execution, set for April 5 by Governor Clinton, to review Eisele's ruling in the first trial and allow the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh Whitmore's petition on the family slayings subject to the second trial.
On July 3, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Whitmore's appeal, with arguments scheduled for October.
The situation was bizarre as Ronald Gene Simmons and Attorney General Steve Clark both wanted the trial to end. Simmons submitted a sworn statement saying, "Do not appeal for me or try to help me; I willingly accept my punishment."
After a 13-month pause due to Whitmore's appeal, on April 24, 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Whitmore v. Arkansas that Whitmore had no standing to intervene, leaving the denial of an appeal for a death sentence unaddressed. The net effect of the ruling was that the only person that could stop the execution was Simmons.
On May 31, Governor Bill Clinton signed a new death warrant for Simmons for June 25, 1990, nearly two years after the original date. There would be no more obstaclesâÂÂSimmons was set to die, leaving many wondering if this would bring the relief they sought.
Simmons was kept alone on death row. Other prisoners were upset that Simmons didn't fight his death sentence because they thought it hurt their own cases.
In June, Assistant Attorney General Jack Gillean said Simmons could stop the execution at any time up to the point of the lethal injection by saying he wanted to pursue his right to an appeal. "That is because he is a volunteer, which is the word we're using for people who aren't appealing and who want to be executed."
On May 31, 1990, Arkansas governor (later President) Bill Clinton signed Simmons' execution warrant.
Before his execution on June 25, Simmons gave a brief, confusing final statement: "Justice delayed finally be done is justifiable homicide." One of his attorneys, John Harris, said he thought Simmons accepted his punishment but felt that it had been delayed for too long.
Fourteen people were present in a darkened witness room. Two witnesses were reportersâÂÂBob Simmons (Associated Press bureau chief) and Scott Bowles (Arkansas Gazette).
At 9 p.m., curtains over the windows of the execution chamber opened without notice. Light from the bare white room brightened the witness room.
Simmons laid strapped in a gurney about eight feet from the first row of witnesses, his head to the witnesses' left, his feet to the right. Two intravenous bottles hung over his head.
He looked straight up, into the fluorescent lights of the chamber, blinking frequently.
Simmons was covered from chin to toe in a white sheet with his arms bared and strapped to his side. Catheters were in each arm.
"He's not a very big man, is he?" (one of the) witnesses whispered to himself.
At 9:02 p.m., Warden Willis Seargent announced the execution was to begin.
Simmons continued to blink and glance about him. His head, held tight by a leather brow strap, was unable to move, but he tried to glance above him at the executioner's room.
He then looked once to his right, toward the witnesses. His eyes returned to the ceiling, blinking frequently.
At 9:06, Simmons called out, "Oh, oh," and he began to cough.
His eyes shut. He seemed to nod off, as if asleep.
He continued to cough after his eyes shut. The convulsions raised the sheet around his stomach and caused his gurney to move.
Over the next four minutes, Simmons continued to convulse and shake the gurney, although less frequently as the minutes passed. His fingers and face began to turn purple.
By 9:10 p.m., Simmons was still.
At 9:15, prison medical administrator Byus checked the catheter in Simmons' right arm. At 9:17 p.m., Byus held a stethoscope to Simmons' chest, held Simmons' right wrist, then touched the man's neck. At 9:18 p.m., the Lincoln County coroner entered the chamber and examined Simmons. He pronounced Simmons dead at 9:19 pm.
Simmons died by the method he had chosen, lethal injection, in the Cummins Unit. This execution was significant for Arkansas: it was the first by lethal injection, the first where an inmate waived his right to appeal, and the second execution since the resumption of capital punishment after a 26-year moratorium, occurring just one week after the prior execution.
Two hours prior to his execution, prison officials inquired about Simmons' wishes for the disposition of his remains. He responded, "No comment." With no surviving relatives willing to claim his body and no specific burial instructions provided, Simmons was buried in Lincoln Memorial Lawn cemetery near the Varner Unit in Lincoln County, Arkansas. Details of the burial arrangements remained undisclosed until 20 minutes before the service. Nancy Madden, Simmons' sister, and members of her family were present at the graveside ceremony.
Three videotapes from the murder scenes at the Simmons property were burned in mid-August 1990 after Judge Patterson authorized their destruction.
"I did what I've wanted to do ever since Simmons was executed, destroy the tapes," Sheriff Bolin said. "I've had calls from all over the country, even before he was executed, from people wanting the videotapes. The calls have been heavy since the execution."
The tapes document the condition of 14 bodies: four adults and one child found in the house, seven from a shallow grave, and two children wrapped in trash bags in the trunks of two abandoned cars. Segments from the videos were shown to the jury during Simmons' trials.
Simmons' two pistols were auctioned for $2,925. One gun, which was not used in the murders, was sold to a resident of Pottsville, who bought it as a souvenir for $1,325. The second weapon, the gun Simmons used to kill eight people, was purchased by John C. Harris, one of Simmons' attorneys. He said he thought bids on his former client's guns were "too low." Most of the crowd of over 100, including about a dozen journalists, were there for the spectacle. Only 13 people bid on either gun and virtually all of the bidding was done by just four men.
! colspan="3" | Executions carried out in Arkansas
|- ! colspan="3" | Executions carried out in the United States