In the winter of 1987, a 24-year-old woman named Kathy Kendrick was working as a secretary at the Peel, Eddy, and Gibbons Law Firm in Russellville, Arkansas. On the morning of December 28th, her life was tragically cut short in a horrifying act of violence that was part of a larger, devastating crime spree. That day, a former coworker, Ronald Gene Simmons, entered the law firm and shot Kathy four times in the head as she sat at her reception desk.
She was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries a few hours later.
The attack on Kathy was not a random act. Simmons had previously worked with her at Woodline Motor Freight, where he had made unwanted romantic advances. After she rejected him, he continued to harass and stalk her, which eventually led to her complaining to management. Simmons later quit his job, but his obsession with Kathy festered. Her murder was the beginning of the public phase of a killing spree that had started days earlier over the Christmas holiday, during which Simmons murdered 14 members of his own family.
Following the shooting at the law firm, Simmons continued his rampage, shooting two other people at a different location, one of whom also died. His violent spree, which claimed a total of 16 lives, remains the deadliest case of familicide in United States history.
Ronald Gene Simmons was apprehended and subsequently charged with 16 counts of murder. He was found guilty and sentenced to death for his crimes. On June 25, 1990, Simmons was executed by lethal injection. The community of Russellville was left to mourn the loss of Kathy Kendrick, a young mother remembered as a special person who loved others, and the many other innocent victims of a senseless and tragic massacre.
