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1995...Democrat kills 5 co-workers at Texas lab

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Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Revenge
Number of victims: 5
Date of murders: April 3, 1995
Date of birth: 1967
Victims profile: Walter Rossler, 62, and Joann Rossler, 61 (his 
former boss and his wife); Richard Lee Tomlinson, 34; Derek 
Harrison, 35; and Patty J. "Wendy" Brunson Gilmore, 41 
(employees)
Method of murder: Shooting (Ruger 9mm pistol and a .32 revolver)
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Status: Committed suicide by shooting himself the same day

Entered the Walter Rossler Co. through the front door and shot 
five people with a 9 mm. semiautomatic pistol and .32-caliber 
revolver.

He then left the business through the back door, and shot 
himself behind the building.

Another one from the disgruntled-ex-employee-returns-on-a-
rampage file.

On April 3, 1995, 28-year-old James Simpson walked into the 
Walter Rossler Co., a refinery inspection company in Corpus 
Christi, Texas, and killed his former boss, his wife and three 
other employees. He then walked out the back door and shot 
himself.

Date: April 3, 1995

Location: Walter Rossler Company, Corpus Christi, Texas

Alleged Shooter: James Daniel Simpson

People Killed: Six (shooter committed suicide)

People Injured: None

Firearm(s): Ruger 9mm pistol and a .32 revolver

Circumstances

James Simpson entered his former workplace, Walter Rossler Co., 
systematically shooting employees at point-blank range before 
going out the back door and fatally shooting himself in the 
head. He had worked as a metallurgist for a year at the company 
before quitting in September 1994. According to police, the 
motive for the shooting was Simpson's apparent depression.

How Firearm(s) Acquired

The firearms were purchased legally, however, police would not 
release any information to the public. Simpson had no criminal 
record or mental illness history that would have prevented him 
from buying firearms.

Guman kills 5, then himself

Texas city is rocked by wave of violence

The Phoenix Gazette

April 4, 1995

A gunman inflicted more bloodshed on an already grieving city by 
shooting to death five people at his former workplace before 
killing himself, police said.

Hours before the Monday afternoon massacre at a refinery 
inspection company, family and friends of slain Tejano music 
sensation Selena had bid her a tearful farewell.

Guman kills himself, 5 others in Texas

An ex-employee opened fire at a refinery inspection firm in 
Corpus Christi. The owner and his wife died.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

April 4, 1995

A former employee opened fire yesterday at a refinery inspection 
company, killing the owner, his wife and three workers before 
fatally shooting himself, police said.

James Simpson, 28, entered the Walter Rossler Co. through the 
front door and shot five people with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol 
and .32-caliber revolver, police said. He then left the business 
through the back door, and shot himself behind the building.

Mother, baby spared as gunman killed 5

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

April 4, 1995

CORPUS CHRISTI - A 24-year-old woman clutching her infant son 
was the only person to survive a face-to-face encounter with 
gunman James Simpson as he walked through his former place of 
employment Monday, methodically killing five people and them 
himself.

Lisa Rossler told police she screamed, "Don't shoot" when 
Simpson walked in to face her. She said she was holding her 
infant son and calling frantically for police help.

Suspect analyzed in Corpus Christi slayings

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

April 5, 1995

Experts in aberrant crime say that James Simpson, 28, almost 
certainly was both paranoid and depressed Monday when he is said 
to have fatally shot five people and then killed himself outside 
the Walter Rossler Co. in Corpus Christi.

"Of all crimes, the one most closely associated with serious 
mental illness is mass murder," said Dr. Park Elliott Dietz, a 
forensic psychiatrist who has studied mass killers. "They are 
not schizophrenic," Dietz added, "but they all show signs of 
depression and paranoia."

Victims' families see season of renewal

Emotional wounds still healing 5 years after Rossler Company 
slayings

By Dan Parker - Caller-Times

Monday, April 3, 2000

When Rhonda Rossler-Fowler looks at her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, 
Taylor, she sees something of her parents, Walter and Joann 
Rossler.

"There's a lot of little traits she's carried on," Rossler-
Fowler said. "She sleeps just like my mother did, with her 
little arm over her face. And maybe there's my dad's 
stubbornness. That's why he was so successful. He was very set 
in his mind what he was going to do."

Walter and Joann Rossler were among five people murdered five 
years ago today at the Rossler Company, a refinery inspection 
business now called Petrochem, on Rand Morgan Road. The killer, 
a former employee named James Daniel Simpson, took his own life 
as police closed in.

For Rossler-Fowler and other relatives of the victims, emotional 
scars inflicted by the massacre will never go away. But 
religious faith, time and support from friends, relatives and 
the community have gone a long way toward healing family 
members' wounds.

And births in the families during the past five years have 
charged them with a spirit of renewal.

"I really believe God has a purpose," Rossler-Fowler said. "He 
needed our mother and dad, and I don't want to say he replaced 
them, but it's kind of like when you pick a flower - another one 
grows."

In addition to killing Walter Rossler, 62, and Joann Rossler, 
61, Simpson also gunned down Richard Lee Tomlinson, 34; Derek 
Harrison, 35; and Patty J. "Wendy" Brunson Gilmore, 41.

At the time of the shootings, Corpus Christi still was reeling 
from the murder three days earlier of Tejano star Selena 
Quintanilla-Perez. National media already in Corpus Christi 
covering Selena's murder pounced on the Rossler story.

"As far as I can remember, that is probably the worst that ever 
has occurred in this city as far as a situation involving a 
disgruntled (former) employee," said Corpus Christi Police Chief 
Pete Alvarez. "To go to the extreme of returning and killing 
five individuals, that is something very tragic.

"Certainly, that brings a lot of folks together in the community 
to focus on things unexpected," Alvarez said. "I guess it kind 
of opens your eyes to reality, that these things do occur. 
Sometimes, we read about these things in the paper, sometimes 
they occur elsewhere, but when it hits home, it really has an 
impact on a community."

Slow recovery

Rossler-Fowler and her sister, Lisa Rossler-Duff, sold the 
Walter Rossler Company about 18 months after the shootings.

Today, Rossler-Fowler is a homemaker living in Calallen. She is 
married to Cliff Fowler, a coach at Calallen Middle School.

Rossler-Fowler said she has recovered a little more each of the 
past five years since the shootings. But anniversaries of the 
shootings always get her down.

"This time of year every year is really, really rough," Rossler-
Fowler said. "Without even recognizing the date, I can find 
myself really bummed out, and then I notice what day it is. . . 
. It's almost like it's in the air."

Rossler-Fowler said she has found support from friends and 
relatives and from her faith.

"I'm not an ultra-religious person or a steady churchgoer, but 
I'm a strong believer. I know he watches over us. So many (other 
bad) things could have happened that day, but didn't," Rossler-
Fowler said.

Not many understand

Rossler-Fowler was supposed to be working at the Rossler Company 
at the time Simpson began his rampage, but she happened to leave 
the office early that day.

Rossler-Fowler had a stepsister who was murdered in Fort Worth 
several years ago. That murder, combined with the Rossler 
Company slayings, has given Rossler-Fowler a different attitude 
toward her children.

"With my other two kids (born before the Rossler killings), I 
put them in daycare, and I worked," Rossler-Fowler said. "I 
never spent the time with them that I spend with Taylor right 
now. I'm staying at home with her. I know what it's like to have 
something so dear to you and to lose it."

Rossler-Fowler said she will venture alone to Seaside Memorial 
Park today to visit her parents' graves.

"It's a lot easier if I go by myself, because - I don't know how 
to say this - there are not too many people around who really 
understand what's going on. There are people, but . . . it's 
like, you've just got to deal with it yourself."

Tragic day relived

Rossler-Duff, who also worked at the Rossler Co., was sitting in 
the company's front room, typing, when Simpson walked in, 
moments before he started his rampage.

"He turned, and he had a really big scowl on his face, and he 
walked across, through the office to Wendy," Rossler-Duff 
recalled.

"He walked up and said, 'This is for you, bitch.' And then, all 
of a sudden, it looked like he was handing her something. I 
couldn't see what it was. Then it was two or three pops. It 
sounded just like a cap gun. . . . At the time, it didn't 
register. I couldn't see the gun.

"Wendy fell forward," Rossler-Duff said. "My mom ran. The other 
secretary ran. (Simpson) walked across the hallway where my dad 
and Richard and Derek were at. It all happened so fast. . . . He 
shot my dad and as soon as I saw my dad fall, I could smell 
gunpowder. That's when I knew what was going on. I still didn't 
see a gun."

Rossler-Duff grabbed her 8-month-old son and crawled under a 
desk, then ran to another office and called 911.

Then Simpson walked in, carrying a handgun in each hand.

"I closed the door, and I thought I had locked the door. . . . 
But when I was on the phone with 911, he walked into the office 
I was in. I screamed - and all this is on the 911 tape - I told 
him, 'No!' And the look on his face was completely different 
than what it looked like when he first walked into the building.

"Because Dylan was in my arms and screaming, I think that 
brought him back. The look on his face changed to, like, reality 
had set in, like, 'Oh my God, what have I done?' ''

Simpson backed out of the office, walked into another room and 
shot himself dead.

Co-workers described Simpson as a quiet, somewhat meek man. 
Corpus Christi City Councilman Henry Garrett, who was police 
chief at the time of the shootings, said.

Never know why

Simpson likely was angry with the Rossler Company because he was 
given an assignment at work he didn't like and ended up 
quitting. Then the Rossler Company tried to get Simpson to repay 
money the company loaned him for educational purposes, Garrett 
said.

"These things piled up on him," Garrett said.

Rossler-Duff said Simpson was not given a new assignment. He 
wanted to do metallurgy exclusively but was hired with the 
understanding that he had to take on tasks in addition to 
metallurgy, including inspections, Rossler-Duff said. Still, 
after a time, he let his superiors know that he didn't want to 
do inspections. So, he quit.

"My dad sent both supervisors over there, reaching out beyond 
what most company presidents would do, trying to get him to come 
back, because they did appreciate his knowledge in the 
metallurgical field," Rossler-Duff said.

But Simpson refused to go back.

Rossler-Duff said Simpson never seemed angry with anyone at the 
company. She can't understand why Simpson would leave and then 
come back eight months later to commit the massacre.

"I was hoping that the toxicology report would show he was drunk 
or on any kind of drug - something to explain why he did this," 
Rossler-Duff said.

"But it said he was a normal, healthy 28-year-old male. And I 
think that is the hardest part of all of this, because I'll 
never know why. Never."

'No time to grieve'

Today, Rossler-Duff is a 29-year-old student studying 
agricultural science at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. She 
will have her degree this spring and hopes to become a teacher.

Rossler-Duff said she put off her grieving for a long time after 
her parents were murdered.

"For the first year, I had so many responsibilities," she said. 
"Between making sure my dad's company didn't go down . . . and 
going to school and raising my children, between all that, I had 
no time to grieve. I had to set all my grieving behind and make 
sure things were taken care of."

Rossler-Duff said she grieves every day now.

"I have nightmares about it pretty much every night," she said. 
"It has changed my life. . . . I have to be selective with what 
I read, with what type of TV I watch, with the radio stations, 
the songs I listen to, because if I happen to be going through a 
depression moment, it will just trigger me into sobs, or it 
gives me nightmares, and it makes me relive the whole horrible 
incident."

A new life

But she is getting better, she said.

"The big difference now is that I have learned to let myself 
grieve," she said. "I don't hold it back even if I am in H-E-B. 
Certain smells will remind me of my mom, and I deal with it a 
lot better now. If people see me crying, they'll just have to 
understand."

Rossler-Duff said her husband, Chris, has offered her great 
support and that has eased her ordeal.

The couple has had two sons since the shootings took place: 
Ryder, who will be 3 years old April 27, and Colton, who will 
turn 1 on May 24. The children have helped Rossler-Duff recover.

"They do keep me so busy that I can't think of what is lost as 
much as I can just see the new life that is beginning and that I 
am responsible for," she said.

The passage of time

Derek Harrison is buried at a gravesite that overlooks a lake on 
his parents' 150-acre ranch in Barksdale, near Uvalde.

Hesta Harrison has decorated a 3-foot wood cross with silk 
lilies, daffodils and irises, and she plans to place the cross 
on her son's grave today.

Derek Harrison lived in Corpus Christi, but he visited his 
parents' ranch often.

"He was a pretty constant part of our life here, and we miss him 
a lot," Hesta Harrison said. "It brings back so many memories 
each season. Hunting season. He loved to hunt. And he's missed, 
I think, by me more at that time of year than his birthday or 
death date or any other time."

Having a loving family has helped the slow process of healing.

"The first two years were extremely difficult," Harrison said. 
"The fact that I do have my daughter and my granddaughters and 
my husband helped a lot getting through that period. I miss 
Derek every day, and that hasn't stopped. But, in general, I 
would say my ability to cope and deal with his loss has gotten 
somewhat better with the passage of time."

A granddaughter born in 1997 boosted Harrison's ability to cope.

"It helps so much," she said. "I love children, and they just 
are such a big part of my life. They would have been in any 
event, but I just thank God so many times in this period of time 
I have had them come into my life to help me through it, and 
they have, immensely."

The victims

Walter Rossler, 62, and Joann Rossler, 61

Patty J. "Wendy" Brunson Gilmore, 41.

Derek Harrison, 35.

Richard Lee Tomlinson, 34.
         

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