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True Crime Documentary - The Ruthless Denver Simmons · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:04
Speaker 1: The USA houses inmates that are ranked as some of
0:08
Speaker 1: the world's most violent and sadistic murderers. One of them
0:14
Speaker 1: is notorious killer Denver Simmons.
0:18
Speaker 2: Denver Simmons ranks at the top of the list of evil.
0:22
Speaker 3: This isn't a serial killer with an mo This is
0:25
Speaker 3: a serial killer who's getting worse.
0:28
Speaker 1: Simmons is as cold hearted as his murders were cold blooded.
0:33
Speaker 2: Any person that kills a woman and a thirteen year
0:37
Speaker 2: old child is a monster.
0:40
Speaker 4: Simmons is an extremely evil individual because he just kills
0:45
Speaker 4: people for the fun of it.
0:47
Speaker 5: Whatever serves him best is what Denver does.
0:51
Speaker 1: Behind bars, simmons barbarous killing streak only continued.
0:57
Speaker 4: To kill in the self back to back. It's extremely
1:00
Speaker 4: rare and it's pretty hard to just commit one murder.
1:05
Speaker 4: He managed to commit four.
1:06
Speaker 6: Want you kill somebody? What's the hearth tun dying? The
1:10
Speaker 6: heck out in the earth.
1:13
Speaker 3: There's no indication that any of his victims ever did
1:16
Speaker 3: anything to wrong him.
1:18
Speaker 7: It was just such a callous act to just do
1:22
Speaker 7: it just because he was bored, just because they annoyed him,
1:28
Speaker 7: and just because he didn't want to die forgotten.
1:56
Speaker 1: A total of sixteen thousand inmates are held in the
1:59
Speaker 1: state of South Carolina, spread out across twenty one penitentiaries.
2:06
Speaker 1: One of these prisons houses a collection of the most
2:09
Speaker 1: terrifying inmates to ever be convicted.
2:13
Speaker 8: Kirkling Correctional Institution is a maximum security prison in Columbia,
2:19
Speaker 8: South Carolina. It is an institution that houses the worst
2:24
Speaker 8: of the worst, its most violent offenders, and often the
2:27
Speaker 8: mentally ill. You have a lot of stainless steel tables
2:32
Speaker 8: and chairs and benches.
2:34
Speaker 9: It's very noisy. It smelled to me very sterile.
2:39
Speaker 7: There was a wing where everybody was fully locked down
2:42
Speaker 7: at all times in isolation, and they were brought food.
2:46
Speaker 7: They weren't allowed to roam.
2:49
Speaker 1: One of the most prolific murderers Kirkland Correctional has ever
2:53
Speaker 1: housed is Denver Simmons.
3:05
Speaker 3: There's no indication that any of his victims ever did
3:08
Speaker 3: anything to wrong him. Not that that would have made
3:11
Speaker 3: it any better, but that just elevates the level of
3:15
Speaker 3: evil in Simmons.
3:22
Speaker 4: The type of individual that takes advantage of mental health
3:25
Speaker 4: individuals or even their frame and kills him is a
3:28
Speaker 4: severely mentally disturbed and evil person and uses.
3:33
Speaker 7: A brunstick to choke him against his throat and then ultimately,
3:37
Speaker 7: after passing out, he stuck the brunstick down his ear.
3:42
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any environment that will actually stop
3:45
Speaker 3: Simmons from murdering.
3:55
Speaker 1: Denver Simmons was born in nineteen eighty one and grew
3:59
Speaker 1: up in the city of Dayton, Tennessee.
4:03
Speaker 5: My name's Tera Lewis, and I am the sister of
4:06
Speaker 5: Denver Simmons. I'm eight years older than him. My first
4:12
Speaker 5: memory of him is just he was a little, chunky
4:15
Speaker 5: baby with no hair. We grew up in Dayton back
4:20
Speaker 5: in the nineties. It was just very small country living.
4:28
Speaker 1: Tara and her brother had the same mother, but different fathers.
4:33
Speaker 5: I have some memories of Denver's dad, and they're all bad.
4:38
Speaker 5: He was the type of person when you were around him,
4:40
Speaker 5: you felt things were off, even when you were little.
4:45
Speaker 1: When Denver was just a toddler, his father left and
4:49
Speaker 1: their mother moved in with her new partner, Gary.
4:55
Speaker 5: They were together for a few years, and I have
4:57
Speaker 5: good memories from when mom and Gary together and then
5:02
Speaker 5: she laughed.
5:04
Speaker 9: His mother was addicted to drugs.
5:07
Speaker 7: Ultimately, his mother ends up leaving the home and Denver behind.
5:13
Speaker 5: When mom left, we would hear farmer sometimes, and then
5:17
Speaker 5: we wouldn't hear farmer. She'd be gone for weeks, months,
5:21
Speaker 5: and nobody would know where she.
5:23
Speaker 3: Was the fact that she abandoned him is letting him
5:29
Speaker 3: know very early on in life that he cannot really
5:33
Speaker 3: count on anyone, particularly the parental figure who's supposed to
5:37
Speaker 3: take care of him the most.
5:38
Speaker 10: That sends the message that he's not worth it.
5:51
Speaker 1: Simmons continued to be raised by his mom's ex partner, Gary,
5:55
Speaker 1: who insured he attended school. Taura lived close by with
6:02
Speaker 1: their grandmother. Her brother would go and visit every weekend.
6:10
Speaker 5: We were spread out in different homes for the most part.
6:16
Speaker 5: Denver would come to Grannie's and that's when he could
6:20
Speaker 5: kind of let his guard down and he could have fun.
6:24
Speaker 5: I was very close with Denver, and I loved him
6:29
Speaker 5: being there. He absolutely loved Grannie's spaghetti and her fudge
6:37
Speaker 5: she would make every weekend. Those were good times.
6:43
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, when Simmons turned ten, his mom,
6:47
Speaker 1: who was now sober, returned to his life and regained
6:50
Speaker 1: custody of him.
6:54
Speaker 5: She raised him from then on now, and at that
6:57
Speaker 5: time her life was completely She was a very good
7:02
Speaker 5: mom to him. Denver was a good kid. He was
7:08
Speaker 5: very smart, but just a.
7:13
Speaker 1: Couple of years later, at the age of thirteen, Denver
7:18
Speaker 1: began to change.
7:23
Speaker 5: Denver started running with some kids. They weren't good influences,
7:29
Speaker 5: and he wanted to fit in with the crowd. He
7:33
Speaker 5: had been stealing and he was selling basketball shorts out
7:36
Speaker 5: of mom's garage. Mom was able at that point in
7:41
Speaker 5: her life to provide for him, so there was no
7:43
Speaker 5: reason for him to be stealing other than I guess
7:46
Speaker 5: it was a thrill for him, like an adrenaline rush.
7:51
Speaker 5: Mom found out about it, he got in trouble. She
7:54
Speaker 5: knew that things were changing with him, and so she
7:57
Speaker 5: took him to see a psychiatrist.
8:02
Speaker 9: He ends up getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
8:06
Speaker 7: He described being on the medication as not feeling like himself,
8:11
Speaker 7: just feeling numb, and so he did not routinely take it.
8:20
Speaker 5: That was a constant battle with him, was trying to
8:23
Speaker 5: get him to stay on his medication.
8:27
Speaker 3: It seems as if the family thinks that the medication
8:30
Speaker 3: is going to be the cure.
8:30
Speaker 10: All well, that's not how it works.
8:33
Speaker 3: He needs nurturing, he needs therapy, he needs peer relationships,
8:37
Speaker 3: he needs life skills. He needs all sorts of things
8:40
Speaker 3: that it doesn't seem more given to him.
8:45
Speaker 1: As a teenager, Simmons was unable to hold down a
8:48
Speaker 1: part time job, often not showing up for work. He
8:52
Speaker 1: preferred to spend his time shoplifting from local stores.
8:57
Speaker 5: I think at that time it was an obsession or
8:59
Speaker 5: an addiction with him. He would steal anything and everything
9:05
Speaker 5: for no reason. He was probably getting the money and
9:09
Speaker 5: buying pot at the time, and then I found out
9:13
Speaker 5: he started doing math. He was very violent when he
9:16
Speaker 5: was on drugs. Most people used drugs to hide from
9:19
Speaker 5: their feelings, and he was using drugs to get the
9:23
Speaker 5: rage out of them.
9:30
Speaker 1: Simmons continued his drug fueled lifestyle while still living with
9:34
Speaker 1: his mom. In his early twenties, he got into a
9:38
Speaker 1: relationship with a girl and they had a son together.
9:43
Speaker 5: He absolutely loved his son, he was crazy about him.
9:47
Speaker 5: But he was violent with a girlfriend and she left
9:51
Speaker 5: him eventually and moved to another state up north.
9:56
Speaker 1: Simmons ex took their son with.
9:58
Speaker 5: Her, and I think he lost his purpose in a law.
10:08
Speaker 1: In two thousand and seven, due to his drug addiction
10:11
Speaker 1: and bad behavior, twenty seven year old Simmons was kicked
10:15
Speaker 1: out of the home he shared with his mother and stepfather.
10:21
Speaker 9: He met a woman.
10:22
Speaker 7: They started dating and they lived together in Georgia, but
10:27
Speaker 7: somewhere along the lines, they and the borrowing money from
10:30
Speaker 7: a family member and decided to move to South Carolina,
10:33
Speaker 7: where she has family.
10:36
Speaker 1: Simmons and his new girlfriend moved three hundred and fifty
10:39
Speaker 1: miles away and moved in with Sheila Dodd, a relative
10:43
Speaker 1: of Simmons' girlfriend.
10:46
Speaker 2: Sheila Dodd was from South Carolina who was a resident
10:49
Speaker 2: of Collideen County. She had one son that was William.
10:56
Speaker 2: He's thirteen years old.
11:00
Speaker 5: So while Dember was in South Carolina, I lost contact
11:04
Speaker 5: with him. I didn't talk to him, didn't hear from him.
11:12
Speaker 1: Simmons and his girlfriend lived with Sheila and William in
11:15
Speaker 1: the small community called Round Oak near the town of Walterborough.
11:22
Speaker 2: Walterborough's a small town. We are about fifty five sixty
11:28
Speaker 2: miles from Charleston, South Carolina. It's a nice place to
11:31
Speaker 2: reise a family.
11:36
Speaker 1: At first, the four of them all got along.
11:41
Speaker 5: They were living at her farm, and they allowed Denver
11:45
Speaker 5: to take William back and forth to school, so they
11:49
Speaker 5: trusted him pretty well. He was welcome there and then
11:55
Speaker 5: things I guess got bad.
11:59
Speaker 2: Sheila told him that he needed to get a job
12:03
Speaker 2: when helped with pain bills, etc. And he agreed that
12:07
Speaker 2: he would try to get a job, but he never did.
12:09
Speaker 2: She told him that if he didn't get a job,
12:11
Speaker 2: he'd have to leave.
12:14
Speaker 3: Simmons feels that he is entitled to live where he
12:18
Speaker 3: wants to live. He doesn't have to work, he doesn't
12:21
Speaker 3: have to pay his way.
12:22
Speaker 10: People should do for.
12:23
Speaker 3: Him what he refuses to do for himself. He's developed
12:29
Speaker 3: the coping skill of the way to advance in life
12:32
Speaker 3: is to take advantage of other people.
12:37
Speaker 1: Nothing changed, so Sheila Dodd asked Simmons and his girlfriend
12:42
Speaker 1: to leave the farm.
12:44
Speaker 5: She went back home to her family, and he had
12:47
Speaker 5: nowhere to go and he couldn't come home.
12:57
Speaker 1: On May first, two thousand and seven, year old Sheila
13:01
Speaker 1: Dodd took her now fourteen year old son, William to
13:04
Speaker 1: school and then returned home.
13:09
Speaker 2: When she came back to the house, Denver was inside.
13:13
Speaker 2: They had words. She told him that you're not supposed
13:15
Speaker 2: to be here. He got her gun, which was already
13:19
Speaker 2: in the house, and he shot her.
13:32
Speaker 3: It was pretty calculated and planned. He knew what time
13:36
Speaker 3: she was coming home. Shila just happened to be an
13:39
Speaker 3: easy target. He clearly had raged towards her and was
13:43
Speaker 3: viewing her as the source of his problems, as opposed
13:46
Speaker 3: to taking accountability for.
13:47
Speaker 10: His own irresponsibility.
13:50
Speaker 2: Once he shot her, he draw her body to the
13:52
Speaker 2: back of the yard and he took a white sheet
13:56
Speaker 2: out and covered the body.
13:58
Speaker 7: He didn't take her car keys, takes her debit card
14:02
Speaker 7: and goes off with them. He has lunch with her
14:07
Speaker 7: debit card and then decides it he's going to go
14:10
Speaker 7: pick up her son at school.
14:15
Speaker 1: Twenty five year old Simmons met William at the school
14:20
Speaker 1: and told him his mom was at a doctor's appointment.
14:25
Speaker 1: The fourteen year old trusted Simmons, so he got into
14:29
Speaker 1: the car. They drove to the house.
14:35
Speaker 2: They walked in the house, William started walking around and
14:38
Speaker 2: realize his mom's cell phone was in the house. I
14:42
Speaker 2: think he even seen his mom pers in the house,
14:46
Speaker 2: and he started questioning, in Denver, whereas my mom, she
14:49
Speaker 2: would not leave these things in here.
14:54
Speaker 1: William then spotted a white sheet in the yard that,
14:58
Speaker 1: unknown to him, was covered his mom's buddy. With his
15:04
Speaker 1: suspicions raised the fourteen year old walked towards it.
15:09
Speaker 2: Denver gets the gun, walks out the front door, goes
15:14
Speaker 2: around the house and aims at William as he's walking
15:21
Speaker 2: towards the back of the yard, and he shoots him.
15:31
Speaker 2: This is a photograph of the don family property. William
15:35
Speaker 2: asking the back door. Simmons came out of this door,
15:38
Speaker 2: which is the front door, walked around the house and
15:42
Speaker 2: from somewhere in this general area, he shot William as
15:46
Speaker 2: he was walking. I don't think William seen is coming.
15:50
Speaker 2: He was walking away from Denver when he was shot.
15:53
Speaker 2: He was walking away from him.
15:58
Speaker 10: It seems there's no hesitation.
16:00
Speaker 3: Shooting an innocent teenager execution style in the back of
16:04
Speaker 3: the head doesn't even seem to make Simmons flinch. There's
16:08
Speaker 3: a real lack of concern for human life, a real callousness,
16:13
Speaker 3: a real lack of empathy to him, William is simply disposable.
16:20
Speaker 1: Leaving both bodies at the house, Simmons casually drove to
16:23
Speaker 1: Walterborough to meet a friend. Later that evening, he returned.
16:31
Speaker 2: He went out and builded pile into the yard as
16:34
Speaker 2: if he was cleaning the yards, and he put both
16:37
Speaker 2: bodies on this pile and poured gasoline all over them
16:41
Speaker 2: and set the body to fire. Roum three am. He
16:46
Speaker 2: went back out and realized that the body was not
16:51
Speaker 2: completely burned. So now he's got a figure. What am
16:54
Speaker 2: I gonna do with these remains?
16:57
Speaker 7: He ends up discarding the bodies somewhere along South Carolina's
17:01
Speaker 7: rural roads, and then.
17:03
Speaker 9: He gets back in Sheila's car and.
17:06
Speaker 3: He runs for it, having gone to the extent of
17:11
Speaker 3: burning the bodies and disposing of the bodies in different areas.
17:14
Speaker 3: To me, it goes above and beyond what's actually necessary.
17:18
Speaker 3: People who are high on psychopathy tend to have a
17:21
Speaker 3: need for stimulation. That's one of the personality traits within
17:25
Speaker 3: the construct of psychopathy. I suspect that Simmons is enjoying
17:30
Speaker 3: this entire process. He's still feeling in power and control.
17:40
Speaker 1: Simmons drove for six hours through the night to the
17:43
Speaker 1: town of Fort Oglethorpe on the Georgia Tennessee border, three
17:47
Speaker 1: hundred miles away. He abandoned Sheila's vehicle in the parking
17:52
Speaker 1: lot of a medical center and called his mom to
17:55
Speaker 1: come and pick him up.
17:58
Speaker 7: He visits his mother and then ultimately took himself into
18:02
Speaker 7: a psychiatric hospital in Tennessee.
18:06
Speaker 1: Whilst he was with his mother, Simmons had made a
18:09
Speaker 1: shocking confession.
18:12
Speaker 5: Mom called me and told me that he had killed
18:16
Speaker 5: a woman and her child. I couldn't believe that he
18:20
Speaker 5: had done that. At some point she got him to
18:24
Speaker 5: that mental health hospital and had him admitted.
18:31
Speaker 3: His mother is likely somebody he feels he can confess
18:35
Speaker 3: to without having to face the repercussions. He's already setting
18:41
Speaker 3: up his future defense, which is that I'm mentally ill
18:46
Speaker 3: and therefore I'm not accountable for my actions, and I'm
18:49
Speaker 3: going to prove that to you by checking myself into
18:51
Speaker 3: a mental health hospital.
18:54
Speaker 5: I went to my sisters and we went to the
18:57
Speaker 5: cops and we told him what we knew, and they
19:01
Speaker 5: kind of look out of soccer're crazy. Dayton's a small
19:04
Speaker 5: town and stuff like that don't normally happen, and they
19:08
Speaker 5: said they would check into it.
19:13
Speaker 1: The police reached out to their counterparts in South Carolina.
19:23
Speaker 2: I was a lieutenant with the Criminal Investigation's Division at
19:26
Speaker 2: the Callington Countyship's office. I received a call from my
19:31
Speaker 2: dispatcher about mid morning and she stated that there was
19:35
Speaker 2: a young man there that told his mother that he
19:39
Speaker 2: had killed a lady and took a car. Simmons didn't
19:44
Speaker 2: give a name as to who he had killed. Pargathorpe.
19:48
Speaker 2: Georgia sent investigators to the mental hospital that Denver had
19:53
Speaker 2: checked himself in. Once they got to the hospital, the
19:58
Speaker 2: interview Denver. The only thing he said, I did not
20:01
Speaker 2: tell my mother that I didn't tell them that I
20:05
Speaker 2: killed anybody. Due to the fact that this guy was
20:12
Speaker 2: in a mental hospital, it's unknown whether these allegations were
20:16
Speaker 2: true or not. We had no information. Was working kind
20:20
Speaker 2: of like in the blind, so to speak.
20:28
Speaker 1: The next day, an abandoned car was discovered in the
20:31
Speaker 1: hospital parking lot. In Georgia. Police were alerted following a
20:37
Speaker 1: vehicle database search. Lieutenant Johnson was informed that the owner
20:41
Speaker 1: of the vehicle was Sheila Dodd from Walterboro, South Carolina.
20:46
Speaker 1: He immediately spoke to her family.
20:50
Speaker 2: She hadn't been seen for at least two to three days.
20:55
Speaker 2: They mentioned the fact that she had a son named William.
20:58
Speaker 2: Nobody had seen him at school. At at that point,
21:00
Speaker 2: we discovered that he was also missing.
21:04
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Johnson headed to Sheila's property with an official search warrant.
21:09
Speaker 1: As soon as they entered the house, Jeane and his
21:11
Speaker 1: team noticed concerning signs.
21:16
Speaker 2: We found blood spots in the kitchen leading out to
21:20
Speaker 2: the back door onto the back porch. This is a
21:23
Speaker 2: blood spot from the crime scene that we collected at
21:28
Speaker 2: the Dodds family home. When we were doing our search.
21:34
Speaker 1: The burn pile in the backyard was quickly discovered.
21:38
Speaker 2: We spent two three days or so at the dog
21:41
Speaker 2: family home. As the agents went through that burn pile,
21:45
Speaker 2: they located what appeared to be bone fragments. At the
21:49
Speaker 2: time we could tell well there was human bone or not.
21:51
Speaker 2: There was two cell phones in.
21:53
Speaker 1: The found Lieutenant Johnson was now convinced that what Denver
21:57
Speaker 1: Simmons had allegedly confessed to his mother was true. He
22:02
Speaker 1: had killed a woman and her teenage son.
22:05
Speaker 2: In my mind at that time, I honestly knew he
22:09
Speaker 2: burned bodies.
22:11
Speaker 1: Seven days after the murders were committed, police in Georgia
22:14
Speaker 1: arrested Simmons in connection with the disappearance of both Sheila
22:19
Speaker 1: and her son William.
22:27
Speaker 7: Once he was taken into custody, he confessed to having
22:30
Speaker 7: committed the crime. He was willing to waive extradition without issue,
22:35
Speaker 7: and it was brought back to South Carolina.
22:41
Speaker 2: They took him in an interview room and it was
22:43
Speaker 2: a recorded interview when he admitted everything that he had done.
22:48
Speaker 2: I think he had enough time for this crime to
22:50
Speaker 2: sink in and began to be remorseful for what had happened.
22:57
Speaker 3: He's likely never had kudos or accola for anything else
23:00
Speaker 3: he's done in his life. He might as well take
23:03
Speaker 3: this moment where all the attention is on him and
23:05
Speaker 3: make the most out of it. This really points to
23:08
Speaker 3: narcissistic traits within him. This is his time to shine,
23:12
Speaker 3: This is his time to brag, this is his time
23:14
Speaker 3: to boast.
23:15
Speaker 10: He's reveling in this attention.
23:23
Speaker 1: Three days later, Simmons wilfully led investigators to the locations
23:27
Speaker 1: of the remains.
23:30
Speaker 2: We're at the first crime scene that we found the
23:33
Speaker 2: first part of the remains of Sheila Dodd, and the
23:37
Speaker 2: air is very remote as a hunting area. There's nobody
23:40
Speaker 2: that actually comes down this road. Once I got here
23:44
Speaker 2: along with other investigators, what we found was it looked
23:49
Speaker 2: like part of maybe the torsu of this DoD and
23:53
Speaker 2: maybe a legged thigh and other remains. We bagged everything
24:00
Speaker 2: photograph and we lowered up into.
24:04
Speaker 1: The corners Van Simmons had dumped the remains at around
24:10
Speaker 1: three am on the night of the murders.
24:13
Speaker 2: This is the second location. That was a cooler and
24:17
Speaker 2: a couple buckets, and they both had remains in him.
24:22
Speaker 2: There was charged so bad we couldn't identify whether it
24:24
Speaker 2: was male or female.
24:31
Speaker 1: Simmons was charged with the murders of both Sheila and
24:35
Speaker 1: William Dodd. He was sent to the Collington County Detention
24:40
Speaker 1: Center to await trial. The murders made the headlines.
24:46
Speaker 5: I don't know that it truly sunk in until you
24:50
Speaker 5: start seeing clips of the news where they had found
24:53
Speaker 5: the bodies. It was hard to process. It fells like
25:00
Speaker 5: talking about a book that I read about somebody else's life.
25:04
Speaker 5: It's just really weird. I can't imagine the impact it
25:09
Speaker 5: had on William and Sheila's family. They had to be
25:13
Speaker 5: living with my brother and probably the entire family. I mean,
25:17
Speaker 5: and I don't blame him. I would be too.
25:21
Speaker 2: Sheila was very close to her family that was very heartbroken.
25:26
Speaker 2: They was in turmol They couldn't believe that this has happened.
25:30
Speaker 2: As far as the motive why he would have killed William,
25:32
Speaker 2: I don't know, but killing Sheila. I think his motive
25:36
Speaker 2: was the fact that she put him out of the
25:38
Speaker 2: house would allow him to come back.
25:41
Speaker 7: Why killed the woman who hoopened her home to you?
25:44
Speaker 7: But even then, why kill her son? Just the fact
25:49
Speaker 7: that he goes and he picks him up. You had
25:51
Speaker 7: the opportunity to let the boy live, and you chose
25:54
Speaker 7: not to.
26:01
Speaker 1: Three years later, Denver Simmons, now aged twenty nine, faced
26:05
Speaker 1: a judge at Collington County Courthouse for the murders of
26:09
Speaker 1: forty five year old Shila Dodd and her fourteen year
26:12
Speaker 1: old son William.
26:16
Speaker 7: Initially, there was some question about whether he was competent
26:19
Speaker 7: to stand trial, given his mental illness history and the
26:23
Speaker 7: fact that he was found at a mental illness facility,
26:26
Speaker 7: but a joj ultimately determines.
26:28
Speaker 9: That he is.
26:30
Speaker 1: Initially, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty, but instead a
26:38
Speaker 1: plea deal was struck.
26:40
Speaker 9: Simmons led guilty to the crimes.
26:42
Speaker 7: He ends up accepting the deal and in turn gd
26:46
Speaker 7: sentenced to spending the rest of his life in prison.
27:00
Speaker 5: Make sure you do know you're never going to see
27:03
Speaker 5: a lot of day again. You're never going to not
27:05
Speaker 5: be in jail. And he knew I was thankful that
27:09
Speaker 5: he pleaded guilty, that he didn't try to get out
27:11
Speaker 5: of it for insanity or anything like that.
27:21
Speaker 1: Simmons was sent to Kirkland Correctional Facility in South Carolina.
27:27
Speaker 1: Although the judge had passed a full sentence and Simmons
27:31
Speaker 1: hadn't pled mental illness, he was placed into the mental
27:34
Speaker 1: health wing so doctors could assess him due to his
27:39
Speaker 1: previous bipolar diagnosis.
27:43
Speaker 4: When an inmate enters the system and they're flag as
27:46
Speaker 4: having mental issues, they will be designated to go to
27:49
Speaker 4: those facilities that are able to provide him with the
27:52
Speaker 4: care and resources to address those mental health needs.
27:57
Speaker 3: Mental health in prisons is considered a desirable place to be.
28:01
Speaker 3: You have access to medications, you have access to therapists.
28:04
Speaker 3: Sometimes you get your own self. Sometimes you're avoiding conflicts
28:07
Speaker 3: and problems with people who are in general population.
28:11
Speaker 1: Once incarcerated, Simmons displayed suicidal tendencies.
28:16
Speaker 7: He attempted to explore the idea of self harm, and
28:20
Speaker 7: he just admitted to it being too hard to kill himself,
28:25
Speaker 7: that it hurts.
28:29
Speaker 3: The way to get what he wants in prison is
28:31
Speaker 3: through behaviors such as self injury. That could be whether
28:37
Speaker 3: he wants more attention, whether he wants to talk to
28:40
Speaker 3: a therapist, maybe spend time with a female who's working
28:43
Speaker 3: in corrections.
28:46
Speaker 10: Self mutilation in.
28:47
Speaker 3: A correctional facility is a very powerful manipulative tool.
28:56
Speaker 1: For the next seven years, Simmons received additional help for
29:00
Speaker 1: his mental health, ending up in the Intermediate Care Services unit.
29:05
Speaker 9: At Kirkland, Denver.
29:08
Speaker 7: Was under a crisis intervention program, which involves a little
29:13
Speaker 7: more of an involved care to ensure that he's getting
29:16
Speaker 7: the needed medication and the needed treatment, whether that's psychological
29:21
Speaker 7: or psychiatric treatment.
29:30
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, Simmons, now aged thirty five, was working
29:34
Speaker 1: in the prison as a ward keeper.
29:39
Speaker 4: Wardkeepers are tasked with keeping inventory of the cleaning supplies
29:44
Speaker 4: and distributing it to the other inmates. You would have
29:48
Speaker 4: access to other areas and tools of the prison that
29:50
Speaker 4: a normal inmate would not.
29:53
Speaker 1: Working alongside Simmons was twenty five year old Jacob Philip.
30:00
Speaker 7: He had led guilty to killing his girlfriend and her
30:02
Speaker 7: eight year old daughter. He was also somebody who was
30:05
Speaker 7: mentally ill and at the time when he went through
30:09
Speaker 7: the child process, it is determined that he could simply
30:12
Speaker 7: not be given the death penalty.
30:14
Speaker 9: Given his mental capacities.
30:18
Speaker 7: And so he was sentenced to life in prison at
30:21
Speaker 7: Criclan Correction.
30:23
Speaker 4: It is extremely common for convicted murders to be given
30:27
Speaker 4: jobs in the prison with the mentally ill inmates. It's
30:31
Speaker 4: also common because you don't want to be violating their rights.
30:37
Speaker 4: Simmons and Phillips were chosen as work keepers because they
30:40
Speaker 4: have minimal to no disciplinary actions against them.
30:45
Speaker 7: They were able to keep their doors unlocked for the
30:47
Speaker 7: majority of the day as they roamed the wing, providing
30:52
Speaker 7: others with their supplies.
30:55
Speaker 1: On April seventh, the day in the mental health wing
30:59
Speaker 1: with its one hundred and thirty nine inmates, began like
31:03
Speaker 1: any other, But at six in the morning, Simmons and
31:09
Speaker 1: Philip hatched a brutal plan, seemingly out of the blue.
31:14
Speaker 7: They had been discussing ways to pass time, and they
31:20
Speaker 7: decided that they were going to attempt to kill as
31:23
Speaker 7: many people as they could. Their plan was to law
31:26
Speaker 7: as many prisoners as possible, to denver Simmons's cell, and
31:30
Speaker 7: kill them as quickly as possible.
31:34
Speaker 3: The friendship between Phillips and Simmons was very transactional. It
31:38
Speaker 3: was almost the perfect storm of two probably psychopathic individual
31:43
Speaker 3: inmates who can now help each other further their criminal activity.
31:50
Speaker 1: Simmons and Philip targeted their first victim.
31:56
Speaker 9: The first inmate was John King.
31:59
Speaker 7: He'd been in prison for theft, but he was a
32:03
Speaker 7: nuisance to Denver, Simmons and Jacob Philip, and so they
32:07
Speaker 7: lured him to the cell with the premise of coffee.
32:12
Speaker 7: Philip walks him in and comes up from behind him
32:15
Speaker 7: and chokes him with his arm until he passes out
32:19
Speaker 7: and ultimately dies, and then he pushed his body under
32:26
Speaker 7: his bunk.
32:33
Speaker 1: The deadly duo immediately moved on to their next target.
32:38
Speaker 7: The next prisoner that Denver and Jacob and the bluring
32:41
Speaker 7: ends up being William Scruggs. They had known each other
32:45
Speaker 7: from working with each other. He was waiting in line
32:49
Speaker 7: to go to the bathroom and he lures them under
32:52
Speaker 7: the pretense of getting a cookie.
32:56
Speaker 4: Simons used an extension chord from a lamp and wrap
33:00
Speaker 4: it around Scrug's neck while he was facing him. He
33:03
Speaker 4: ended up choking them out. You also got a towel
33:09
Speaker 4: and hung it from the bunk to conceal Scruggs' corpse.
33:14
Speaker 3: It's such a depraved, sick and twisted way to lure
33:19
Speaker 3: their victims with such menial things.
33:22
Speaker 10: Like coffee and cookies. This is just a game.
33:26
Speaker 3: The first part of the game is how do we
33:28
Speaker 3: lure the person. The second part of the game is
33:30
Speaker 3: the actual murder. The third part of the game is
33:34
Speaker 3: concealing a body. It's almost like they've come up with
33:38
Speaker 3: a checklist of how they're supposed to execute these crimes.
33:44
Speaker 1: The two correctional officers working on the wing had no
33:48
Speaker 1: idea what was happening, due to the fact that between
33:52
Speaker 1: them they were overseeing one hundred and thirty nine inmates.
33:57
Speaker 1: Simmons had also done his best to put them off
34:01
Speaker 1: the scent.
34:04
Speaker 4: Simmons hung a flat over the narrow window in his room,
34:07
Speaker 4: in this case a trash bag with the words scrawled
34:11
Speaker 4: using the restroom don't bother.
34:15
Speaker 7: The third prisoner that they lured in was Jimmy Ham,
34:18
Speaker 7: and they lured him in the pretendons that they had drugs,
34:21
Speaker 7: so they invited him over to share.
34:24
Speaker 4: They advised Ham to cut the tablets up so they
34:27
Speaker 4: can snort it. Philip attempted to pounce on them, but
34:29
Speaker 4: he slipped. A struggle ensued, so Simmons grabbed a broom
34:34
Speaker 4: handle and hit ham over the head twice, and in
34:37
Speaker 4: order to silence him, he shoved the broom handle down
34:40
Speaker 4: his throat.
34:50
Speaker 7: At this point, they were at three prisoners. With each
34:53
Speaker 7: one they kept killing them and then moving them by
34:56
Speaker 7: their bunk bed, or under the bunk bed, or next
34:59
Speaker 7: to each other.
35:04
Speaker 1: They're killing, Frenzy continued.
35:07
Speaker 7: They decided to target Jason Kelly, who was serving fifteen years.
35:12
Speaker 7: And what was different about Jason is that Denver considered
35:16
Speaker 7: him a friend, and yet.
35:17
Speaker 9: They just decided he was going to lure him in
35:19
Speaker 9: as well.
35:21
Speaker 7: They go up to Jason, Hey, come on over, I
35:25
Speaker 7: had to show you something over at my bunk And
35:29
Speaker 7: so as Jason is peeking behind the sheets he finds
35:34
Speaker 7: the bodies, Denver pounces on him and uses the broomstick
35:41
Speaker 7: to press it on his throat until he ultimately passes out,
35:47
Speaker 7: and not knowing whether he was conscious or dead, he
35:51
Speaker 7: decided to ram the broomstick down his ear.
35:59
Speaker 3: Now it's not just enough to murder. It's not just
36:02
Speaker 3: enough to choke somebody out. Now we have to murder
36:04
Speaker 3: somebody who we consider a friend. It's almost like an
36:07
Speaker 3: alcohol abuser or somebody who's addicted to drugs. The tolerance
36:10
Speaker 3: level has to increase, and so the level of depravity
36:14
Speaker 3: and the sadism has to go a little bit higher.
36:21
Speaker 7: Once Kelly had passed, they decided that they just were
36:24
Speaker 7: done hiding the bodies, and so Simmons turns to Jacob says, hey,
36:30
Speaker 7: who do you want to do next? And Jacob Philip
36:32
Speaker 7: basically says that he's kind of bored and he doesn't
36:35
Speaker 7: want to do it anymore, and so they both just
36:38
Speaker 7: kind of nonchalantly agreed that they're done with it and
36:40
Speaker 7: they're done with their killings.
36:41
Speaker 1: Free, Simmons walked straight up to one of the correctional
36:47
Speaker 1: officers and told them to look in his cell.
36:52
Speaker 7: That's where they find Kelly, who's lying on the ground uncovered.
36:55
Speaker 7: And ultimately the three others who were behind.
36:59
Speaker 4: The bunk, Phillips and Simmons admitted that they planned the
37:03
Speaker 4: murders and they displayed no remorse.
37:06
Speaker 3: It's really a cowardly move here, very easy on a
37:10
Speaker 3: mental health unit in prison for the high functioning inmates
37:12
Speaker 3: to take advantage of the low functioning inmates, and that's
37:15
Speaker 3: exactly what happened here. They were vulnerable people who were
37:18
Speaker 3: easy prey.
37:20
Speaker 1: The crime scene was locked down.
37:26
Speaker 4: So for a correctional officer to deal with numerous inmates
37:29
Speaker 4: passing away on their shifts, it's extremely hectic. You identify
37:34
Speaker 4: the suspects, escort the suspects, ensure that there's brown paper
37:37
Speaker 4: bags on their hands so they don't wash their hands,
37:39
Speaker 4: or get rid of any DNA evidence preservation. You place
37:43
Speaker 4: the inmate the suspect in an administrative segregation for the murder,
37:48
Speaker 4: and then ultimately you'll call the coroner.
37:56
Speaker 5: When I found out the hay killed four more people,
38:02
Speaker 5: I was in disbelief shock. I can't wrap my mind
38:10
Speaker 5: around what he was thinking, Wow, he did what he did.
38:18
Speaker 1: Thirty five year old Denver Simmons was transferred to Labor
38:22
Speaker 1: Correctional Facility in Ridgeville, where he remained until a trial
38:26
Speaker 1: date could be set, and a self serving motive for
38:31
Speaker 1: the murders was starting to emerge.
38:36
Speaker 7: To be sentenced to life in prison and die, basically
38:40
Speaker 7: forgotten is.
38:41
Speaker 9: A worse sentence than death.
38:45
Speaker 7: As people forget you, as the system forgets you, as
38:48
Speaker 7: reporters forget you.
38:49
Speaker 9: And everything moves on. Becomes one of those situations where
38:54
Speaker 9: what do I do next? And in Denver's case, it
38:58
Speaker 9: was I am bored and what a way.
39:02
Speaker 7: To get attention again, then to get.
39:06
Speaker 9: Rid of these people who WINNOI the heck out of me.
39:10
Speaker 5: I believe at that moment he probably did want the
39:14
Speaker 5: death penalty. I know he had tried to kill himself
39:17
Speaker 5: before in prison, but he's even said it's hard to
39:22
Speaker 5: do to yourself, so he thought of doing that, he
39:25
Speaker 5: would be killing himself at the hand of the state.
39:29
Speaker 3: If Simmons really wanted to take his own life, he
39:31
Speaker 3: could have done it.
39:33
Speaker 10: That simply wasn't the case.
39:35
Speaker 3: I don't know that he has the capability of being
39:37
Speaker 3: suicidal because his ego and his will to not only
39:43
Speaker 3: live but to inflict harm on others is what.
39:45
Speaker 10: Keeps him going.
39:55
Speaker 1: Two months after the murders, Simmons gave an interview to
39:59
Speaker 1: reporters where he explained his actions. Along with Jacob Phillips, we.
40:05
Speaker 6: Come up with who is easiest or are Joan who
40:09
Speaker 6: entrusted us? He was older, but he was small and
40:14
Speaker 6: he wouldn't offer, but resitions could be long, just come
40:20
Speaker 6: up to my own. I didn't want him on the
40:22
Speaker 6: list because I knew he would find and Jacob, as
40:25
Speaker 6: big as he is, he's easy's non fighter, but he
40:29
Speaker 6: was annoying, and but he was a good guy, he
40:32
Speaker 6: really was, and he didn't deserve what happened.
40:36
Speaker 3: He's almost saying that like he's reading a recipe. What's
40:39
Speaker 3: interesting about psychopathy is that a lot of the times
40:42
Speaker 3: they learned to mimic human emotions. He knows that what
40:46
Speaker 3: he did is going to be viewed as bad and
40:49
Speaker 3: that it's horrible that he knew them and that some
40:52
Speaker 3: of them trusted them. But I don't think he buys
40:55
Speaker 3: what he's saying.
40:59
Speaker 6: Once you kill, so what's the first time is doing
41:02
Speaker 6: is to take it is is what it is.
41:08
Speaker 5: Denver doesn't process lockwaydo. He doesn't feel lockwaydo. He is
41:13
Speaker 5: very self serving.
41:18
Speaker 1: Simmons ultimately admitted that his goal was to die and
41:23
Speaker 1: that he murdered in order to receive the death penalty.
41:28
Speaker 1: Despite this, he was doubtful of his future sentencing before
41:32
Speaker 1: he even went to trial and death.
41:35
Speaker 6: They don't death no anymore. All of what happened is
41:38
Speaker 6: they're going to give me four more Senator.
41:42
Speaker 7: Typically, this kind of action in South Carolina would carry
41:49
Speaker 7: the death sentence, but given their mental illness, it is
41:54
Speaker 7: far less likely for a judge sentence a prisoner with
41:59
Speaker 7: this type of metal history to a death sentence.
42:05
Speaker 6: We need it all for And again that made it
42:08
Speaker 6: even worse the hacking, for.
42:14
Speaker 3: It's a very odd way of Simmons rationalizing his behavior.
42:18
Speaker 3: You know, if you're suicidal, that doesn't equate to homicidal.
42:22
Speaker 3: I'm not saying they can't coexist, but I don't think
42:25
Speaker 3: that's the case here with Simmons.
42:28
Speaker 1: In November twenty nineteen, Simmons and Jacob Philip were sentenced
42:32
Speaker 1: to four life sentences each for the murders of John King,
42:39
Speaker 1: William Scruggs, Jimmy Hamm and Jason Kelly.
42:49
Speaker 5: When in the courthouse in Colombia, it was very short.
42:54
Speaker 5: There was no emotion in that courtroom from him at all.
43:00
Speaker 5: It was just very did you do this, Yes, I
43:03
Speaker 5: did it, and that was the end of it. No
43:06
Speaker 5: feeling from him.
43:13
Speaker 1: The murders of the four inmates remains a shocking tragedy.
43:22
Speaker 7: The hardest thing was that the majority of them we're
43:24
Speaker 7: going to reintegrate into society. Is just heartbreaking for them,
43:29
Speaker 7: for their families, for the people who thought my brother,
43:32
Speaker 7: my cousin, my dad is coming home in just a
43:36
Speaker 7: few years, and now he's not.
43:45
Speaker 5: The person that killed all these people feels like a
43:49
Speaker 5: different person than the brother that I know. I've never
43:55
Speaker 5: stopped loving my brother. Ever, I had pushed him a way.
44:01
Speaker 5: He puts his self away out of my wave. I'm
44:04
Speaker 5: still angry at him. I think I'll always be angry
44:07
Speaker 5: at him.
44:11
Speaker 1: Denver Simmons is now being held in Perry Correctional Institution,
44:17
Speaker 1: a maximum security prison in South Carolina.
44:21
Speaker 3: He's incapable of taking responsibility for his actions. He's callous,
44:26
Speaker 3: he's manipulative, he lacks remorse. He lived a parasitic lifestyle.
44:30
Speaker 3: These are all traits that, when you put them together,
44:32
Speaker 3: really make up what we call a psychopath or what
44:36
Speaker 3: we would refer to as evil.
44:40
Speaker 10: I struggle with.
44:41
Speaker 7: The word evil because he was mentally ill, but his
44:44
Speaker 7: actions were definitely evil, because taking anyone's life can be
44:48
Speaker 7: considered nothing but evil.
44:54
Speaker 5: As long as he's alive and able, I think he
44:57
Speaker 5: will always be a danger to other people. I don't
45:02
Speaker 5: want to believe that he's evil, but I know that
45:05
Speaker 5: there's evil in him. There's no doubt he would have
45:10
Speaker 5: to be an evil person to kill six people.