American Notes CRIME

Three days after Christmas, Gene Simmons, 47, drove from his family's mobile home in Dover, Ark., to nearby Russellville. Packing two .22-cal. pistols, he entered a law office and fatally shot a young receptionist who had rejected his amorous advances. Then, in a 30-minute shooting spree across town, the retired Air Force master sergeant murdered a 33-year-old fireman and wounded four others. "Don't worry," he told a hostage minutes before surrendering to police. "I've gotten everybody who hurt me."

The full extent of Simmons' rampage became clear when authorities entered his home. There, amid unopened Christmas gifts, they found the bodies of one of Simmons' sons, a daughter, their spouses, and a grandchild. A shallow grave behind the house and the trunks of two junked cars contained the bodies of nine other family members: Mrs. Simmons, five more of her children and three grandchildren.

Formally charged with two of the 16 killings, Simmons was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. While police searched for a motive, word arrived from New Mexico that he had been indicted in 1981 for committing incest with his 17-year-old daughter.

In an unrelated but chillingly similar incident last week, seven members of an Iowa family were found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide.