Unsolved 50-Year-Old Murder
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Below is an excerpt from my book “Crimes Seen: A Collection of True Life Murder Stories.” This chapter, entitled in the book as “The Monsters Who Came Early for Halloween is about the almost 50-year-old unsolved murders of three members of the Sims family in Tallahassee, Florida. One of the people suspicion fell on was C.A. Roberts, minister at the church that the Sims family attended. You can order “Crimes Seen: A Collection of True Life Murder Mysteries” on Kindle or in paperback by going to Amazon or by sending $12.99 ($9 plus $3.99 shipping and handling) for a signed copy to Jacob Bembry, P.O. Box 9334, Lee, FL 32059.
Halloween was a little more than a week away that October night in 1966 but the monsters showed up early at one house in the city that Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters had immortalized in song just nineteen years earlier as “the Southland at its best.”
Autumn was one month underway in the Capital City of Florida that evening. The weather was still brushing off the sweat from the sweltering humidity of summer that lingers on into late fall in north Florida. With leaves falling from oaks and needles falling from pines, the crisp feel of autumn was in the air, along with the smell of burning leaves as people took advantage of the cool Saturday air to do yard work.
Across Tallahassee, the Florida State Seminoles, coached by Bill Peterson who had a young assistant coach named Bobby Bowden on the sidelines with him, were engaged in battle with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Seminoles had tussled with the Gators a couple of weeks before and came up a field goal short on the 22-19 score for the game. This evening, the Seminoles would pull out the win 10-0 on their way to a date in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas against the Wyoming Cowboys.
While FSU battled Mississippi State, Jenny and Judy Sims, the teenager daughters of Robert and Helen Sims babysat for people attending the game. Their younger sister, Joy Lynn, stayed at home with their parents for what was supposed to be a quiet evening.
Jenny Sims, who got home before her sister, Judy, was stunned by what she found when she arrived home. Mr. Sims, the Director of Data Processing for the State of Florida, had been shot in the head. He was then blindfolded, gagged, and tied. Robert, a nationally known computer expert who also served the First Baptist Church of Tallahassee as its Sunday School superintendent, had died due to the vicious attack.
Joy Lynn had been stabbed six times and shot in the head. Like her father, she had been blindfolded, gagged, and tied. The twelve-year-old junior high school student, who had many friends and sang in the choir, was also dead.
Still breathing, though barely, was Helen Sims. A pretty thirty-seven year old, she worked part-time as the secretary of the First Baptist Church of Tallahassee. She was also bound, gagged and blindfolded. She had been shot in the head twice and once in the leg.
Items used to blindfold and tie the Sims family included neckties and lingerie. The family members were all found dead in the master bedroom of the small brick home in Tallahassee.
Mrs. Sims was taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital where she lingered for days as law officers hoped that she would gain consciousness at least long enough to tell them what had happened that ill-fated evening.
The next day and days after that there was a rush on hardware stores as people bought guns, ammunition and knives. Locks were also at a premium. Ladies were taking judo lessons. Children were not allowed outside the house after dark and adults chose to stay inside because they did not know what lurked in the shadows.
Reward money was posted for the capture and conviction of whoever perpetrated the heinous act on October 22, 1966. The money poured in from the State Cabinet, Florida State University, The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper and from a plethora of private donors wanting to unmask the monsters who had struck fear into the peaceful little town which had not known terror like it now faced.
On October 25, 1966, a funeral was held for Robert Sims and his young daughter at the First Baptist Church of Tallahassee. The pastor of the church, C.A. Roberts, delivered the eulogy. Roberts and Dr. Mode W. Stone announced an education fund had been set up for Jenny and Judy.
Robert W. Sims, Sr., the father and grandfather of the deceased, was unable to attend the service. After he arrived in Tallahassee to care for his surviving granddaughters, he suffered a heart attack and had to be hospitalized.
When Halloween rolled around, Tallahassee’s children were relegated to having to trick or treat before dark because it could prove to be too deadly to do so after dusk.
Earlier that Halloween day, Helen Sims had become the third victim of the unknown monster, who could still be stalking Tallahassee for all anyone knew at the time. She succumbed to the gunshot to the head and passed away without being able to share anything with law officers.
Jenny (Norman Jeanette) would turn seventeen years old on November 30, 1966. She had been a senior in high school before dropping out after the tragedy, along with her sister, Judy (Judith Ann). Judy, who had just turned sixteen years old, was a junior. The two girls had been living with the family of their church’s assistant minister, Marion L. Hayes, until he suffered a heart attack. After his heart attack, they moved in with another friend in Tallahassee so they could be near their mother’s bedside.
They moved to Alabama to live with their mother’s sister after Helen Sims’ funeral in Tallahassee. Mrs. Sims was taken to Meridian, Mississippi where she was buried between Mr. Sims and Joy Lynn.
Almost fifty years later, the crime remains unsolved. At one time, Rev. C.A. Roberts, who Mrs. Sims served as secretary to, was even a suspect. This idea was quickly dismissed by Leon County Sheriff William P. Joyce and his crew after they viewed film of the Florida State-Mississippi State game. Roberts was the team chaplain for the Seminoles and he was at the game at the time the murders occurred. The accusations, however, led Rev. Roberts to resign from the pulpit. Roberts was killed in a car accident years later. Today, there are still those who believe that he was involved in the murders.
Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell who worked as a deputy at the time was the first law officer on the scene. He said that he doesn’t believe Roberts had not role at all to play in the murders. He said that he believes he knows who committed the murders but there is not enough evidence to convict them. He said the only chance of a conviction is from a confession.
Neighbors of the Sims family have speculated that the assailants were two teenagers who lived in the neighborhood at the time.
At the time of the murder, there was no evidence of a break-in at the Sims home and there was no report of a sexual assault. Many years later, Sheriff Campbell said he believed there were two murderers and that the murders were a sex crime. He believed one of the assailants had participated in necrophilia (sex with a corpse).
If the monster or monsters who preyed on Tallahassee that night are still alive, they may be stalking your neighborhood at this moment or they may have met the Grim Reaper.
If they have not died, they need to be discovered and brought to justice to give some degree of peace to the family, friends and colleagues who survive them.
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