The Nation - News from Jan. 1, 1988

Nine victims of one of America’s worst mass slayings were buried, including four members of a young family remembered as gentle people whose faith helped ease the burdens of others. Dennis McNulty, Sheila Simmons McNulty and her two children were found dead Monday at the home of her father, R. Gene Simmons Sr. near Dover, Ark., where they had gone for a holiday visit. Simmons is accused of killing 14 relatives and two other people in a rampage that apparently began at his home before Christmas and ended in a 45-minute shooting spree in downtown Russellville, Ark. Also eulogized was the first of the Russellville victims, 24-year-old Kathy Kendrick, who was said to have spurned the attentions of Simmons. Other funerals were held at Fordyce for the three-member William Simmons family, and at Russellville for J.D. Chaffin, 33. The accused Simmons was in custody at the State Hospital in Little Rock, undergoing a court-ordered psychiatric examination. He was under tight security because of half a dozen death threats against him, officials said.