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Ronald Gene Simmons’ Motive Remains a Mystery After Murdering 14 Members of His Family
Family annihilator and prolific mass murderer never explained why
The most prolific mass murderer in Arkansas history, Ronald Gene Simmons murdered 16 people over the span of a week in Arkansas in 1987. 14 of them were his own family and his victims ranged in age from 1 to 46.
It still remains the largest all-in-one-family massacre in U.S. history.
Who was Ronald Simmons?
Ronald Gene Simmons was born on July 15, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois to parents Loretta and William Simmons. Ronald was only three years old when his father died of a stroke.
His mother then married William Griffen, a civil engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers within a year. This led to several moves across the state of Arkansas, their first being to Little Rock in 1946.
In 1957, Simmons dropped out of school and joined the U.S. Navy. His first station was in Bremerton, Washington, where he met his future wife, Bersabe Rebecca “Becky” Ulibarri. They were married in New Mexico in July 1960.
Simmons left the Navy and in 1965, joined the U.S. Air Force. Also during this time, he and his wife began building their…
