The Parker Family Massacre

On the night of Friday, February 2, 1990, the Parker family -- Carl, Bobbie Jo, and their two young children, Gregory (12) and Charlotte Jo (9) -- left their church like it was any other evening. They had just attended revival services at Riverside Baptist Church in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and were heading back to their home in the Walnut community on Highway 322, a quiet stretch of road nestled in the rural landscape of Quitman County, near the Coahoma County line.

It was somewhere between 8:45 and 9:15 p.m. when the Parkers were last seen alive, leaving church and stepping out into the cold, dark Mississippi night. By all accounts, they should've arrived to an empty home roughly fifteen minutes later. But what happened next was something out of a nightmare.

At 11:00 p.m., a passerby named Billy King was driving east along Highway 322 when something caught his eye -- flames. He realized it was the Parker home, engulfed in fire.

King immediately pulled up to the house, trying to help. He rushed to the house and attempted to open the unlocked carport door, but the heat and flames forced him back. Unable to help, King drove to the nearest neighbor's house to call for assistance. While calling for help from the neighbor's house, King saw two vehicles speeding out of the Parker's driveway and away from the burning home, heading west on Highway 322.

The same night, Joe McCullough, who was headed east on Highway 322, passed two vehicles tailgating one another headed west on Highway 322. One of those vehicles was a red Chevy Silverado truck -- Carl Parker's.

Lambert Volunteer Firefighter Jerry Wages arrived shortly after and found the house partially collapsed and flames were showing from the west side of the home. Just inside the back door, he found the bodies of Carl, Gregory, and Charlotte Jo. At first, firefighters believed the family had succumbed to smoke inhalation. After pulling them from the home, he found that all three had been bound, and Carl and Gregory appeared to have been shot. Charlotte was partially clothed, with a binding mark on her wrist and a visible wounds to her hip and her back. Bobbie Jo Parker, who was believed to have been kidnapped when the rest of her family was located, was found later lying on a bed in a back bedroom-- her body burned beyond recognition.

Where the Parker home once stood

Firefighters on scene that night said that Carl Parker had almost severed his own wrists struggling against an extension cord that had been used to bind his hands and feet. His finger had also been cut off by the perpetrators to remove his wedding ring.

Autopsies and forensics would later confirm the horror that went on in the Parker household on February 2nd. Carl was shot twice in his side and once between his shoulder blades. His hands had been bound behind his back with an electric cord and his feet bound with what appeared to be the belt from a house robe. Gregory died from gunshot wounds to the back. One of the shots fired into Gregory's back and passed through his heart. Charlotte Jo was shot three times in the back and once in the hip; however, smoke inhalation is what ultimately took her life. It appeared that at some point she was able to break free and run which is possibly when she was shot from behind. She had been sexually assaulted both vaginally and anally, and left to die in the fire. Both Gregory and Charlotte Jo's legs were bound with panty hoses. Bobbie Jo was shot once in the head. Her body was found lying on a bed after the home was extinguished. The Parkers were shot with a .32-20 caliber handgun and what they believed to be a .38 caliber handgun.

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Hours after the fire was extinguished in Walnut, a resident in Clarksdale saw a red truck parked suspiciously between abandoned houses on Ninth Street and phoned the police. Two Black men fled the vehicle on foot and ran into a nearby alley. The truck turned out to be Carl Parker's -- and it was loaded with the Parker family's stolen belongings. It contained furniture, appliances, and firearms. Items found inside of the truck would tie two man, Anthony Carr and Robert Simon, Jr. to the heinous crimes committed late the previous night at the Parker's home. Carr's fingerprint was found on a shotgun located inside of the truck.

After the men were identified as suspects, arrest warrants were obtained in Marks, Mississippi at about noon. A number of locations that Carr was known to frequent or have ties to were staked out by law enforcement agents. At about 3:45 p.m. a white pickup truck with Tennessee tags pulled up at 119 State Street, which was a residence that had been placed under observation. Numerous law enforcement agents converged on the truck with weapons drawn and took both Carr and Simon into custody without incident.

Simon's wife was questioned and told police that Simon and Carr had arrived the night of the massacre in a truck and Carr admitted to stashing the truck keys near the railroad tracks and he had tried to burn the coveralls in a dumpster. Police recovered both -- finding the coveralls smelling heavily of smoke.

Anthony Carr

Robert Simon, Jr.

Back in Memphis, a search of the apartment turned up a black jogging suit, wedding rings, a money clip, and ammunition -- all tied to the Parkers.

The men were interrogated for several hours at the Clarksdale Police Department upon their arrest. They would be transferred from there to the Coahoma County Jail, where they remained until Sunday. On Monday, they were transferred to Quitman County for their first appearances.

While in jail for the crimes against the Parkers, Carr and Simon were also charged with capital murder in connection to the death of a Winstonville man, Leon "Fatback" Johnson, who was murdered just four days prior to the Parkers. Johnson, who owned Johnson's Pool Hall in Shelby, was found by a Bolivar County Road Department employee lying face down next to his pickup truck just outside of Winstonville near an abandoned house.

The pair would now stand accused of 5 counts of capital murder among a list of other charges connected to their crimes.

Investigators were also contacted by Montgomery County Sheriff Robert Tompkins while Carr and Simon were incarcerated as it was believed that the two were responsible for a break-in that took place in his jurisdiction. On January 28, 1990, just one day before the death of Leon Johnson and 5 days before the Parker murders, Cecil Elmore returned home from church on a Sunday evening. Inside she found two Black men ransacking her residence. The men had broken into her house on Highway 51 North in Winona, Mississippi, and were surprised by Mrs. Elmore's arrival. They terrorized her, demanded money and drugs, locked her inside a bedroom closet, destroyed many of her belongings, and stole some of her items before leaving. It is believed that there was a third person, who was a getaway driver, in a small blue car.

One of the men admitted that they had gotten the guns used in the Parker family massacre from an old lady in Winona. Simon said that someone told him to break into a specific home in Winona but that they believed they had gotten the wrong house because an old lady walked in on them. He also stated that they had planned to cut her head off and burn her house down but they decided against it because she was old, had been nice to them, and did everything they told her to do. The guns taken from Mrs. Elmore were a .32-20 caliber and .38 caliber pistol.

The pair would soon become a trio when Willie Lee Henderson was also charged with capital murder in connection to the Parker family murders. Just one month after those charges were brought against Henderson, they would be dropped. Henderson was transferred to the Coahoma County Jail and formally charged with burglary for his participation in a break-in at a home in Davenport, Mississippi on March 2, 1989. Just 4 months before the courts dropped the charges of capital murder against Henderson, he was indicted for capital rape in Coahoma County Circuit Court for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl on a park bench in Clarksdale. Before that case reached trial in January 1990, the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Four Caskets laid out at The Parker Family's Memorial Service. Over 1,200 people came to pay their respects.

On Monday, March 12, 1990, Carr and Simon were arraigned in the Quitman County Court on four counts of capital murder and other charges before Circuit Court Judge Elzy Smith. Both entered please of "not guilty" to the eleven separate charges they were facing.

Robert Simon, Jr. 26, was convicted on June 23, 1990 of capital murder, kidnapping, and the sexual battery of Charlotte Jo. He would stand trial for the other killings in October. For the crimes against young Charlotte Jo, Simon was sentenced to life plus 60 years after an 8 woman, 4 man jury in Jones County were unable to unanimously agree on the death sentence. He would stand trial for the other Parker murders in early October of that year.

Anthony Carr went to trial in early September of 1990. One of the key witnesses against him in this trial was the wife of his co-conspirator, Robert Simon. Simon's wife would take the stand during the trial and testify to the events that unfolded when Carr returned to Clarksdale after leaving the Parker's farm on the night of the murders. She expressed that at about 12:30 a.m. on February 3, 1990, she was driving to her mother's home and saw Carr on Paul Edwards Street. She stopped and he asked her if she had seen Simon. She replied, "I thought y'all was together?" Carr told her that he had returned to Clarksdale and that Simon was coming behind him. She asked Carr how he got back to Clarksdale and he said he was driving a truck that he had parked over on 9th Street. He said it had some stuff on it.

Police would find Carl Parker's red 1988 Chevy Silverado parked on Ninth Street after a neighbor reported it as suspicious. When the police responded to the area he saw two men run from the truck just before a police car with blue lights flashing pulled up. That witness was unable to identify who ran from the truck due to it being dark at the time.

Mrs. Simon testified that Carr told her to tell her husband that he was looking for him. He also told her that he had dumped the truck keys on the railroad tracks and had thrown a pair of coveralls inside a dumpster. Law enforcement officials would later testify that they found olive green coveralls with a pair of light brown leather gloves inside the dumpster. They stated that the gloves they found smelled of smoke.

Mrs. Simon said that Carr, who had lived with her and her husband for about three weeks, came to her mother's house at about 8 a.m. on February 3rd, still looking for her husband. She called Coahoma County Sheriff Andrew Thompson after Carr left.

A couple of hours later, Carr and her husband arrived back at her mother's home in her husband's white 1989 Dodge Dakota pickup truck. She said she stepped inside the house to speak with Simon and he told her that they were going back to Memphis. They left shortly after. When they left, she called Sheriff Thompson and relayed the information to him. She called him several more times throughout the day trying to update him on what she could.

She testified that Carr was wearing a black jogging suit when she saw him on February 2nd and February 3rd. That jogging suit would later be found at the Simon's apartment in Memphis when a search warrant was executed there.

Bill Ellis, a Mississippi Highway Patrol investigator, was stopped from testifying during Carr's trial about a notebook that was also found at the Simon's apartment during the search. At Simon's trial, Ellis testified that the notebook had the name "Parker" written in it and that the name was circled. This information was not allowed to be presented during Carr's trial.

Carr later confessed details of the crime to an inmate at the Tate County jail, saying, "We had a ball," and admitting he and Simon had raped Charlotte Jo and set the house on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.

On September 17, 1990, the defense would rest their case and closing statements from both sides would begin at 8:30 a.m. on the following day. On Tuesday, September 18, 1990, the five woman, seven man jury would then begin to decide whether Anthony Carr was guilty in the Parker family massacre.

Two and a half hours after walking out of the courtroom to decide on their verdict, the jury would walk back in and were seated. 11th District Circuit Court Judge Elzy Smith read the verdict aloud to the courtroom. Carr was found guilty on all counts. The decision to sentence Carr to death by lethal injection was unanimous.

Judge Smith stated that the execution by lethal injection was to be administered on October 31, 1990, though the death sentence carries with it an automatic appeal. Carr showed no change of emotion when he heard the verdicts and sentence read.

On Tuesday, October 9, 1990, Robert Simon, Jr.’s second trial would take place for his participation in the murders of Carl, Gregory, and Bobbie Jo Parker. On the date the trial was to take place, pages of testimony from the preliminary hearing were released. They had been sealed until the seating of the jury took place in DeSoto County for Simon’s final trial. Those documents would paint him as a calculating, remorseless killer, with a history of violent crimes in both Mississippi and Alabama for years.

In those documents were statements made by Simon, on February 5, 1990, to Highway Patrol Investigator Kenneth Dickerson. Simon told him that a man, who he would not name, told him that he needed a job done and drew Simon a diagram of the Parker home. He told Simon he would be paid $1,500 to carry out the “job.” Simon also admitted to the murder of Leon Johnson. He stated that he killed him with the same guns he used to kill the Parker’s. Simon touted that he had killed as many as 13 people and burned and robbed 20 houses. He said he had burglarized more than that but had not burned those homes. He said that he would be paid $500 to burglarize a house and get guns as part of a gun fencing operation.

On Friday, October 12, 1990, an all-woman jury deliberated for two hours before they found Simon guilty on three counts of capital murder in the deaths of Carl, Gregory, and Bobbie Jo Parker. That jury would sentence Simon to death by lethal injection on the following day, Saturday, October 13, 1990.

On October 24, 1990, the Mississippi Supreme Court stayed the execution of Anthony Carr in order for all of his appeals to be filed. 

Carr's attorney filed an appeal in the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2013 based on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said states cannot execute a mentally disabled person. His IQ score was found to be between 69 and 75. The IQ score alone was not an error but the judge did not consider whether or not he had behavior problems severe enough to be deemed mentally disabled. During his 2013 appeal, two psychologists evaluated him. They disagreed on whether or not Carr was mentally disabled. A Quitman County Circuit Court judge would rule that it was too close to call and upheld Carr's death sentence. In 2016, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned this ruling and sent the appeal back to the Circuit Court. Currently, Anthony Parker remains on death row.

In 2011, Simon was nearing his scheduled execution for May 24, 2011. On May 13, 2011, Simon filed a federal petition and motion for his execution to be stayed on the grounds that he too was mentally incompetent to be executed. On May 24, 2011, just hours before his execution a federal appeals court panel stopped the execution to consider Simon's claim further. Simon stated that he was incompetent due to a brain injury he sustained from a fall and that he had no memory. On March 1, 2012, the 5th Circuit Court reversed the denial of the petiton and remanded the case for further proceedings. In 2015, a federal judge ruled that Simon had faked his memory loss and placed him back on death row for execution. Simon again appealed the ruling.

In November 2023, the state of Mississippi attempted to seek and set an execution date for Simon. His attorneys sought to delay execution, stating that they still had not been able to have his mental competence evaluated. His attorneys also added that Simon had not yet exhausted all of his legal options, pointing out several issues. Those issues were inadequate legal representation and no funds for an expert evaluation of his mental competency. Mississippi Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, did not provide an answer to Simon's rebuttal stating his intellectual disabilities. The Mississippi Supreme Court declared that they would not authorize or move forward with setting an execution date for Simon until Fitch responded to his claims. Fitch had until December 20, 2023, to file a rebuttal. That case is still pending.

Anthony Carr (Current Photo)

Robert Simon, Jr. (Current Photo)

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Carl Parker had two older sons from a previous marriage. Scott and Dean Parker were in their early 20s when their father, step-mother, and two younger siblings lives were taken. Scott and Dean's mother passed due to injuries sustained in a car accident when they were young. All of their immediate family had been taken from them tragically. Both Parker men would pass away before witnessing the execution of Carr and Simon carried out. Anthony Carr and Robert Simon, Jr. remain in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections at this time.

The Parker family murders remain one of the most gruesome and senseless crimes in Mississippi history -- a shocking collision of brutality, greed, and pure evil that tore through the heart of a faithful family simply arriving home from church just as they had done so many times before.

Arrests came swiftly, but the trauma lingers still.