Varnado Simpson (October 7, 1948 – May 4, 1997) was a U.S. Army soldier who participated in the My Lai massacre, where he personally tortured, murdered, and mutilated multiple South Vietnamese civilians.

Simpson was assigned to Second Platoon, Charlie Company, under the command of Captain Ernest Medina.

Simpson's words from this interview were later reinterpreted by Robert Lowell in his poem "Women, Children, Babies, Cows, Cats.

Simpson said his rampage started after he was ordered to kill a woman by his lieutenant, Stephen Brooks.

So, as she was putting her foot in the door, I shot her about five or six times, and I went there and turned her over and there was a little three‐month‐old baby in her arms... and this kind of cracked me up."

So the platoon leader said, 'Well, I'm turning my back so I don't see what you're doing,’ and this guy ...he grabbed my rifle and went to the heads of everyone and put it to their eyes and just pulled the trigger....

It just grew on.... My platoon leader told me—my officer, Lieutenant Brooks, said—'Kill everyone....' He was always near me ... so I think killed about 18 or 20 people that time.

[6] In 1977, Simpson's 10-year-old son was accidentally killed by a random shot fired by some neighborhood teenagers.

In 1982, he was admitted to a Veterans Affairs hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was diagnosed with chronic and severe post-traumatic stress disorder[8] after recounting his actions in the village, as well as his recurring fears that the dead villagers would come back to wreak vengeance upon him.

[9] In 1989, in an interview for the British documentary Four Hours in My Lai, Simpson claimed to have killed 20 to 25 people and added scalping and bodily mutilation to his description of events.

Old men, women, children, water buffaloes, everything… I just killed… That day in My Lai, I was personally responsible for killing about 25 people.

[12] After three unsuccessful attempts, Simpson took his own life in his home on Sunday, May 4, 1997, at the age of 48, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.