Beoria Simmons
Born
Beoria Abraham Simmons II

(1954-05-17) May 17, 1954
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Conviction(s)Murder (x3)
Attempted murder
Kidnapping resulting in death (x3)
Kidnapping
First degree rape (x3)
Attempted first degree rape
Criminal penaltyDeath; commuted to life imprisonment
Details
Victims3
Span of crimes
May 18, 1981 – March 12, 1983
CountryUnited States
State(s)Kentucky
Date apprehended
June 11, 1983
Imprisoned atKentucky State Penitentiary

Beoria Abraham Simmons II (born May 17, 1954) is an American serial killer who kidnapped and murdered a teenage girl and two women in Jefferson County, Kentucky, between 1981 and 1983. He also attempted to abduct another woman and a teenage girl, and one other man was wrongfully jailed for one of Simmons' crimes. Simmons was sentenced to death in 1985, but his sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2010.[1][2]

Early life

Beoria Abraham Simmons II was born on May 17, 1954, in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a retired Army sergeant.[3] Although not much is known about his upbringing, as a young man he attended Louisville's Spalding College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work. Afterward, a supervisor netted him a date with his sister-in-law. Six months before his 1983 arrest, Simmons was granted a job as a halfway-house counselor. Though he was considered an upstanding young man by his peers, a psychiatrist who would later evaluate Simmons before his trial diagnosed him with mild depression.[4]

Murders

Robin L. Barnes

On May 18, 1981, a fisherman discovered the body of 15-year-old Robin L. Barnes in a marshy area of south Jefferson County. Barnes was a former middle school cheerleader who had a history of running away from home and was known to hitchhike.[5] She was fully clothed, and police originally began investigating relatives and acquaintances of Barnes, reportedly conducted as many as 75 interviews with people with ties to Barnes. Eventually, detectives located a singular pubic hair on her coat, which suggested she might have been raped.[5]

Investigators collected three bullet casings from beneath her body and shipped them off to the Kentucky State Police Regional Crime Lab in Louisville, and experts concluded the bullets had been fired from a .360 caliber pistol.[5] Detective Pat Conkling made trips to three gun shops in the area and ran reports on customers who had recently bought or owned a .360 caliber pistol. However, each person had an alibi at the time of the murder. With few leads to go off of, investigators presented the case on Crimestoppers, and this fueled dozens of tips but none led anywhere. The case began to run cold.[5]

Shannon House

On March 25, 1982, over ten months after Barnes' murder, a roofer on his day off found the body of 29-year-old Shannon House in a wooded area near Iroquois Park in southern Louisville.[6] At the time, there was no connection police knew with House's case with Barnes'; House was twice Barnes' age, was shot once while Barnes was shot three times, and the murder scenes were 12 miles apart.[6] The only thing similar was that both had been raped, but police still had no evidence at the time to suggest that they were connected.

As with Barnes' case, police investigated acquaintances of House, but all were eventually ruled out.[6] During the investigation, detectives uncovered a bullet casing, which was confirmed to have been fired from a .360 caliber pistol, which investigators used to link both cases together.[6]

Nancy Bettman

On March 12, 1983, three boys discovered the body of 39-year-old Nancy Bettman laying in a creek beside a golf course.[6] Bettman had been shot once in the back of the head, and unlike the previous victims, she was partially nude. Police suspected her murder was related to the others, and ballistics evidence confirmed it.[6]

Investigation

A profile of the suspected killer was made. Psychologists theorized the killer had been raised in a religious family and had an authoritarian father.[3] They also believed the killer was well known in the community and had a good reputation.[3] Due to the killer's pattern of striking once a year, investigators theorized he might have been passing through, killing elsewhere when not in Louisville. Detectives reached out to police departments all around the country about any murders that fitted the profile, but none were found.[3]

Arrest

In the early hours of June 11, 1983, a 16-year-old girl was kidnapped by a heavy-set black man at gunpoint, who later drove her to Iroquois Park.[7] When there, the man got out and ordered her to do the same, but when she did she stabbed him with a pocketknife and ran away.[7] She found shelter in a nearby convenience store and called the police to report the attack. At the same time, police became aware of a man who had arrived at Humana Hospital with a knife wound. The man, 29-year-old Beoria Abraham Simmons II, claimed he had been robbed and stabbed by three hitchhikers.[4]

Police made a connection; the girl said her attacker had driven a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba, which Simmons had also owned. The girl identified Simmons's vehicle and later Simmons himself. Simmons was questioned, and confessed.[4] Police also immediately linked him to the murders due to finding a .360 caliber pistol under the driver seat of his car, which matched the murder weapon used in the killings. When confronted he confessed, but claimed the killings were accidental after heated arguments with the victims.[4]

Wrongful conviction of Paul Thomas

On June 10, 1982, a woman named Phyllis Downes was accosted by a black man welding a gun at a bus stop in Louisville.[8] The man attempted to force Downes into his car, which was a lime-green Chevrolet Camaro, but instead of getting in she ran to a nearby bus attempting to get it to stop, and the man drove away.[9] She described her attacker as a black man with large arms, a heavyset build, a big head, and no facial hair. Police began investigating Paul Davis Thomas, a black man with a similar build who owned a dark green vehicle.[9] They arrested him after Downes identified him from a series of photos, and he was also charged with the rape of a woman that occurred days prior to Downes' attempted abduction.[9] Thomas was tried under an all-white jury and was convicted, receiving a three-year sentence, and was acquitted in the rape case. Following Simmons' arrest five months after Thomas' conviction, the prosecutor involved in Thomas' case became overwhelmed after seeing Simmons' picture and ran a report to the Louisville homicide office, where it was learned that Simmons drove a light green Camaro and owned a semi-automatic pistol.[9][10]

Following this, Thomas was given three lie detector tests, all of which proved he was telling the truth when he denied committing the crime. When Downes returned to Kentucky from North Carolina, she was shown Simmons' photo, and identified him as the culprit who she ran into that night.[9] Consequently, Thomas' convictions were overturned and he was released from prison. In a post-release interview, Thomas said he believed he was convicted since he was a black man going up trying to defend himself against a bunch of white people.[9]

Trial and aftermath

Simmons went to trial 20 months later. He admitted to killing the three women but claimed to be insane, attempting an insanity defense.[4] A psychologist reviewed him and diagnosed him with depression, but said he was not insane. In the end, Simmons was found criminally responsible and guilty of murdering the three women, with the jury imposing the sentence of death.[11] In 2010, his sentence was reduced to life in prison after a successful appeal. In a deal with prosecutors, Simmons agreed to waive his right to parole.[1][12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Charles Gazaway (March 3, 2010). "Plea deal changes death sentence to life sentence for convicted killer". Wave.
  2. ↑ "Offender Information - Kentucky Department of Corrections - Offender Online Lookup System". kool.corrections.ky.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "TO CATCH A KILLER". Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "TO CATCH A KILLER". Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "TO CATCH A KILLER". Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "TO CATCH A KILLER". Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  7. 1 2 "Man booked in murders of 3 women". The Courier-Journal. June 13, 1983. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  8. ↑ Alan Judd (August 27, 1983). "Man jailed wrongly is cleared of charges". The Courier-Journal.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Innocent man free after 5 months in jail". The Courier-Journal. August 26, 1983. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  10. ↑ Alan Judd (August 26, 1983). "Innocent man is freed after five months in jail". The Courier-Journal.
  11. ↑ Andrew Wolfson (March 7, 1985). "Jury says Simmons should be sentenced to death for killings". The Courier-Journal.
  12. ↑ "Confessed serial killer taken off death row, gets 6 life sentences". whas11.com. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
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