Criminal Study

Alex Yang

Criminology

Mr. Ryan

Hour 4

A Notorious Criminal: Ronald Gene Simmons

Ronald Gene Simmons was born on July 15, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. In 1957, Simmons dropped out of school and joined the U.S. Navy. He was first stationed at Bremerton Naval base in Washington. There, he met Rebecca Ulibarri and eventually they were married in Mexico in July of 1960. Within their 18 years of married life, they decided to have 7 children. He eventually left the Navy and joined the Air Force two years later. Eventually after 22 years of military service he retires and he was also awarded the bronze star and returns home. Believe it or not Simmons was already being investigated, before the main ordeal had occurred, and he was being suspected of fathering a child with his 17 year old daughter.

Assuming that this unfortunate “mishap” had happened, Ronald feared arrest and so he and the rest of his family decided to settle down in Lonoke County. Their residence came with a rather large acre of land and two older constructed mobile homes that were adjacent to each other. He worked many low-paying jobs and he eventually quit them all because people reported him for inappropriate sexual behavior. His first victim was unfortunately his wife Rebecca and he shot her on December 22, 1987. He then shot his son Ronald Gene Simmons Jr. after visiting him and then moved on to strangling his three year old daughter. The bodies were later on found in a pit which was dug by some of the Simmons children and they were instructed to do so by Ronald. During Christmas break however, he decided to murder a few more of his children, one was 17, another 14, one of them 11, and one who was barely 8 years old. His method was either strangulation or drowning. He then continued on to kill his 23 year old son, William Simmons and his wife Ranata Simmons along with their 20 month year old child. Later that evening, his...