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1966 Rose-Mar College of Beauty shooting

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Coordinates: 33°24′28″N 111°56′39″W / 33.4078°N 111.9441°W / 33.4078; -111.9441
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1966 Rose-Mar College of Beauty shooting
Smith, pictured being escorted to his arraignment, November 12, 1966
LocationRose-Mar College of Beauty
Mesa, Arizona, US
Coordinates33°24′28″N 111°56′39″W / 33.4078°N 111.9441°W / 33.4078; -111.9441
DateNovember 12, 1966 (1966-11-12)
Attack type
Mass shooting, school shooting, mass murder, stabbing
Weapons.22-caliber single-action six-shooter revolver; knife
Deaths5
Injured2
PerpetratorRobert Benjamin Smith

On November 12, 1966, 18-year-old Robert Benjamin 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, United States.[1] All seven victims had been shot and one of the victims who initially survived her wounds was stabbed in the back.[2]

The shooting is considered[by whom?] 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

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Smith entered the Rose-Mar College of Beauty and brandished his weapon to gain the attention of the people inside. When no one paid attention, he fired a warning shot and ordered everyone, five students and one customer, along with the customer's baby and toddler, 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 the head; the customer's toddler daughter initially survived her wounds and began "jumping around" before being stabbed to death by Smith.[4] 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. Upon hearing the gunshots, Cummings fled and called the police, who arrived shortly afterward. Smith surrendered to the responding police officers without incident.[1]

Victims

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Dead

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Injured

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  • Bonita Sue Harris, 18 (student)
  • Tamera Sellers, 3-months (child of Joyce Sellers)

Perpetrator

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The gunman, 18-year-old Robert Benjamin Smith (February 10, 1948 – April 21, 2024), was born in Houston, Missouri, and was a resident of Mesa, and he surrendered without incident to responding police. Smith was a high school senior at Mesa High School at the time of the attack.[5]

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 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. Smith told investigators that he had scoped out a high school and another beauty shop as a place to attack and that he had considered returning to Houston and committing a crime at a bank where he knew people.[5] 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 and 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.[6]

Smith was transferred to Abrazo West Campus hospital in Goodyear where he died on April 21, 2024.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Crime: Slaughter in the College of Beauty". Time. 18 November 1966. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b Day, Meagan (7 November 2016). "The story of the first copycat mass shooter". Medium. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Madera Tribune 14 November 1966 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Being Late Costs Lives of Two". The Tennessean. 13 November 1966. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  5. ^ a b Davies, David (13 November 1966). "Mass Slayings". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  6. ^ "Inmate data". Arizona Corrections.
  7. ^ "Inmate Death Notification – Robert Smith". Arizona Corrections.
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