In the winter of 1987, the community of Russellville, Arkansas, was irrevocably scarred by a chilling sequence of events that claimed the life of James David 'JD' Chaffin. A 33-year-old firefighter, Chaffin was a man caught in the maelstrom of another's rage on December 28th. His death was not an isolated incident but part of a horrific killing spree perpetrated by Ronald Gene Simmons, a retired Air Force sergeant.
Chaffin, a stranger to his killer, was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, working his shift as a delivery driver for an oil company.
The day's violence began earlier when Simmons embarked on a calculated rampage through the town. Before arriving at the Taylor Oil Company, he had already shot and killed a secretary at a local law firm. He then proceeded to the oil company with the intent to kill its owner, his former employer. It was there that he encountered JD Chaffin, who had just returned from responding to a car fire. Simmons shot and wounded the owner, but it was Chaffin who tragically lost his life, killed by a single gunshot to the head at point-blank range. The weapon used in this senseless act was a. 22-caliber pistol.
The terror did not end at the oil company. Simmons continued his spree, wounding several others before finally being apprehended. The true scale of his horrifying acts was yet to be fully revealed. In the days following his arrest, investigators uncovered a grim scene at Simmons' home in the nearby town of Dover. There, they discovered the bodies of fourteen of his family members, all murdered in the days leading up to his public rampage.
Ronald Gene Simmons was subsequently tried and convicted for the murders of JD Chaffin and Kathy Kendrick, the law firm secretary. In a separate trial, he was also convicted for the murders of his family members. He received multiple death sentences and, after waiving all of his appeals, was executed by lethal injection on June 25, 1990. His heinous crimes marked one of the darkest chapters in Arkansas history, leaving a trail of devastation and the tragic loss of innocent lives like that of James David 'JD' Chaffin.
