1966 Rose-Mar College of Beauty shooting
On November 12, 1966, 18-year-old Robert Smith shot and killed five people, four women and a toddler, and injured two others at the Rose-Mar College of Beauty in Mesa, Arizona.[1] All seven victims had been shot and one of the victims who initially survived her wounds was stabbed in the back.[2]
| 1966 Rose-Mar College of Beauty shooting | |
|---|---|
| Part of mass shootings in the United States and school shootings in the United States | |
| Location | Rose-Mar College of Beauty Mesa, Arizona |
| Date | November 12, 1966 |
Attack type | Mass shooting, school shooting, mass murder, stabbing |
| Weapons | .22 caliber six shooter revolver; knife |
| Deaths | 5 |
| Injured | 2 |
| Perpetrator | Robert Benjamin Smith |
The shooting is considered to be the first copycat mass shooting with Smith indicating that he had wanted to kill more than Charles Whitman, the perpetrator of the University of Texas tower shooting earlier the same year.[3]
Attack
Smith entered the Rose-Mar College of Beauty and brandished his weapon to gain the attention of the people inside and when no one paid attention he fired a warning shot and then ordered everyone, five students and one customer along with the customer's two babies to head to the back room of the building. Once there, Smith made the victims lie down in a circle with their heads in the center and attempted to put sandwich bags over their heads in an attempt to suffocate them, but was unable to fit the bags over their heads.[1]
Smith then shot and killed three of his victims with shots to head, but the oldest baby survived her wounds and squirmed before being stabbed to death by Smith. The customer, Joyce Sellers, managed to shield the body of her youngest child and the child survived with a gunshot wound in the arm. The fifth woman, Bonita Harris, survived by playing dead after she was shot. Harris recounted to the police that Smith had laughed as he shot his victims.[1]
While Smith was killing the women in the back room, the operator of the school, Eveline Cummings, entered the school and heard the gunshots. Upon hearing this, Cummings fled and called the police who arrived shortly afterwards. Smith turned himself in to the responding police officers without incident.[1]
Victims
Dead
- Mary Olsen, 18 (student)
- Glenda Carter, 18 (student)
- Carol Farmer, 19 (student)
- Joyce Sellers, 27 (customer)
- Debra Sellers, 3 (child of Joyce Sellers)
Injured
- Bonita Harris, 18 (student)
- Tammy Sellers, 3-months (child of Joyce Sellers)
Perpetrator
The gunman, 18-year-old Robert Benjamin Smith, a resident of Mesa, surrendered without incident to responding police. Smith was a high school senior at the time of the attack.
Smith told police that he was inspired by mass murderers Charles Whitman and Richard Speck who had carried out mass murders earlier the same year. Smith told responding police that he simply sought infamy and wanted to be known and remembered. Smith explained that he had hoped to kill ten times as many people as he had. It was later observed that Smith had become captivated with historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar, and later Adolf Hitler. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Smith also became awe-struck by Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.[2]
He was considered to have had mental health issues. As of 2023, he is still alive and in prison, having worked labor jobs on and off while incarcerated. He had been up for parole several times, but was denied each time. Within his first year of imprisonment, he was disciplined for committing a physical assault while locked up.[4]
References
- "Crime: Slaughter in the College of Beauty". Time. 18 November 1966. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
- Day, Meagan (7 November 2016). "The story of the first copycat mass shooter". Medium. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
- "Madera Tribune 14 November 1966 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
- "Inmate data". Arizona Corrections.