Slayings of 16 May Have Started Before Christmas

The madness began long before Gene Simmons’ 25-minute killing spree through town on Monday.

Pope County Sheriff Jim Bolin thinks it may have started a day or two before Christmas, when the first seven members of Simmons’ family--his wife, Becky, three daughters, two sons and a grandchild--were killed and buried in a shallow grave behind the house. He thinks it happened that early because, when the bodies were found, not a present under the Christmas tree had been opened.

He theorizes that the next seven killings probably came a day later. Again, they were all family members. The five found inside the house--their bodies covered with blankets and quilts where they fell--included a son, a daughter, their spouses and a grandchild. Bolin thinks the other two grandsons, found Tuesday in the trunks of two old junk cars on the 14-acre farm, were killed the same day.

Finally came Monday, when Simmons, 47, went through Russellville, methodically shooting people. When he was finished, four were wounded and two more were dead--16 deaths in all, making this one of the worst mass murders of the decade. It is surpassed only by the 20 killed at a San Ysidro McDonald’s restaurant in 1984.

And since he gave up Monday to Chief of Police Herb Johnston, Simmons has not said a word, not to anybody. He sits in an isolation cell at the Pope County Detention Center here, acknowledging that he understands what is being said only with a nod.

So far, there is nothing to indicate what happened, what made Simmons snap. A theory propounded after Simmons’ arrest is that one of those killed Monday, a secretary in a legal firm, had once shunned his amorous advances. But that does not explain the killings of 14 family members.

“I can’t come up with even a reasonable theory on why this happened,” Bolin said. “I just don’t know. I’m sure the information is there if we can piece it out and put it together just right.”

What police know so far is that on Monday morning, Simmons drove to Russellville, a central Arkansas town of about 17,500, and began methodically opening fire with two .22-caliber pistols. The first place he went was the law office of Richard Peel. Sitting at the receptionist’s desk was Kathy Kendrick, 24, who knew Simmons from a time when they both worked at the local Woodline Motor freight trucking company.

No Chance to Get Help

Kendrick was dead before she could even call for help.

“He fired four, five or six shots and then turned around and walked out,” Peel said. “It wasn’t more than five or six seconds.”

“I assume he had run out of things to do. What do you do when you’ve shot all your family?” he said. “I assume he just wanted to shoot a bunch of people he didn’t like.”

Law enforcement officials described the next 30 minutes as a quick succession of shootings, all over town. The second target was the Taylor Oil Co., owner of the convenience store at which Simmons last worked. He quit there on Dec. 18, Bolin said. Rusty Taylor, the owner, was wounded. Another man, employee J. D. Chaffin, 33, was killed when he apparently was caught in the line of fire.

Next was the local Sinclair convenience store where Simmons had worked. There, he shot and wounded manager David Salyer and clerk Roberta Woolery. Salyer had picked up a chair to throw at Simmons and believes that the chair saved his life by slowing the bullet, which struck him above the eye but barely penetrated his forehead.

Woman Taken Hostage

Simmons’ final stop was Woodline, where he wounded one employee, Joyce Butts, and took another woman hostage. He barricaded himself in a computer room but surrendered to Johnston a few minutes later.

At that point, Bolin said he sensed what they would find at the Simmons home on 14 acres of land about 15 miles north of Russellville. When deputies and highway patrolmen knocked on the door, there was no answer. They found the first five bodies after obtaining a search warrant and forcing their way inside.

Dennis McNulty and his wife, Shelia, were in the living room. Officers found William Simmons and his wife, Grenada, in the dining room. All four were wearing overcoats, as if they had just arrived.

The body of Sylvia McNulty, 6, was found in a bedroom. She had apparently been suffocated, officials said.

Then, on Tuesday, searchers found the shallow grave, covered with a piece of corrugated metal. One of the seven bodies was a 3-year-old granddaughter. A short time later, the two other grandchildren’s bodies were found in the car trunks. They were both boys, 20 months and 21 months old.

Clue of Christmas Gifts

As investigators have pieced it together, the first killings almost surely took place before Christmas. A Simmons son found in the grave, Ronald Gene Jr., had left Texas for Arkansas on Dec. 22 and had presumably arrived that day or the next. And then, again, there was the clue of the Christmas gifts.

“There were Christmas gifts under the tree, but most of them were in the closet and had not been put under the tree yet,” Bolin said.

Neighbors said the Simmonses kept to themselves and there is no record of sheriff’s deputies ever answering a disturbance call at their home since they moved there in 1983.

Bolin said there was no sign of alcohol or drug abuse at the house.

“I only have information that he was in the Air Force and was living in New Mexico before he came here,” Bolin said. “He was quiet and reserved.”

Simmons has been charged with two counts of capital murder and four more of attempted murder. He is expected to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Bolin said other charges should be filed against Simmons within the week.

Asked if Simmons had spoken at all, Bolin replied: “Not one word.”

Late Christmas Card

In Santee, Calif., a small city east of San Diego, a relative of Simmons’ wife who asked not to be named said she received a late Christmas card on Monday from the Simmons family.

She said she had met Simmons only once or twice about 20 years ago when he was in the Air Force and the couple were newly married. After that, she said, the family seemed to move regularly. Cards that often came from a new state were the only contact with the couple in recent years.

This year, Becky Simmons wrote that she was looking forward to a family reunion, with children and grandchildren coming from miles around. “She was happy,” the relative recalled Tuesday. “They were having a big get-together.”

Staff Writer Janny Scott in San Diego contributed to this story.