Rick Anderson and his girlfriend Chantina Ginn were carnies, following a travelling carnival from Kansas to Arkansas in September of 1980.  At the campground where the two slept, they met another couple. The two men, strung out on uppers and looking for cash, made plans to rob a jewelry store. Of course, their intended victims had no idea of what was coming.

Join us at the quiet end for The Staton Jewelry Store Slayings. Kenneth Staton opened his family store for the last time on September 10.  His youngest daughter, Suzanne, was working with him that day. It wasn’t until that evening, when Suzanne and Kenneth didn’t show up for dinner and no one answered the store’s phone, that the rest of the Staton family realized that something had gone terribly wrong.

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Sources

Anderson v. State, Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1/17/1983

Arkansas Democrat Gazette Archives, 1980-1993

Arkansas Execution For 1980 Double Murder, The New York Times, 8/7/1997

Closing Time by Anita Paddock

Perry v. State, Supreme Court of Arkansas, 11/15/1982