12 Crimes of Christmas: Santa's Spree
Just before Christmas in 1987, Ronald Gene Simmons began a murder spree that claimed the lives of 14 memebers of his family and 2 strangers over the course of several days. Ronald invited his 7 children and their partners over for a holiday dinner, with a plan to systematically murder all of them.
On the morning of December 22, 1987 the spree began. He first shot and bludgeoned his wife Rebecca, then shot his oldest son, Ronald, and strangled his 3 year old granddaughter Barbara. Later that day, when his four youngest children, Loretta, Eddy, Marianne, and Rebecca, got home from school, he told them he had presents for them. He then strangled them to death.
On December 26th, the rest of his family came over to his home for their annual Christmas dinner. When his son Billy, wife Renata, and their 20 month son, Trae, arrived, he killed them as well, shooting Billy and Renata and strangling Trae. He did the same to his daughter Sheila, her husband, Dennis, their 6 year old Sylvia, and 21 month old Michael, shooting the adults and strangling the children.
On December 28th, his crime spree continued when he drove to a law office in Russellville and killed a secretary named Kathy Kendrick, and then to Taylor Oil Company, where he shot the owner Rusty Taylor (who survived) and an employee Jim Chaffin (who died at the scene).
Afterwards, Ronald drove to the office of the Woodline Motor Freight Company, where he shot and wounded a woman. He then sat in the office and chatted with one of the secretaries while waiting for the police, and then surrendered to the police. He was executed for his crimes in Arkansas on June 25, 1990.
