Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns, and Murder

Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns, and Murder
by Kathryn Eastburn

Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns, and Murder
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $14.99
You Save: $10.01 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.85 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Kathryn Eastburn
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-25
ISBN: 0306815524
Number of pages: 328
Publisher: Da Capo Press

Book Reviews of Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns, and Murder

Book Review: RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "SENSELESS MURDERS, BY TEENAGERS WITH NO SENSE!"
Summary: 5 Stars

The shocking teen violence and depravity in this country that a decade ago seemed like a horrid anomaly, unfortunately now seems to have become a weekly occurrence. On New Year's Eve 2000 in the rural countryside outside of Colorado Springs, just twenty months after the Columbine massacre, a Grandmother, Grandfather and their fifteen year old Grandson were brutally and senselessly murdered.

The investigation that followed revealed that four teenage boys with ages that ranged from fifteen to nineteen years old were involved in committing the murders, planning the murders, and destroying crucial evidence. One of the boys, fifteen year old Isaac Grimes, who was later convicted of murdering fifteen year old Tony Dutcher by slitting his throat from behind with a knife in such a heinous way as described in the court records: "at issue, is the brutality with which the defendant killed Tony. The autopsy showed he sawed back and forth." "The D.A. demonstrated a sawing motion with his hand against the loose skin of his own neck." "He severed the spinal cord, not just the spinal column." What makes this repulsive crime even more incredulous is the fact that Isaac and Tony used to be best friends.

The Grandparent's Carl and Joanna Dutcher were slaughtered in a salvo of bullets. But the backdrop of this horrendous crime that joggles the imagination and all human sensibilities, is the relationship and "pecking order" of the four teenage criminal sociopaths Simon Sue, Jon Matheny, Isaac Grimes and to a lesser extent Glen Urban. (He destroyed evidence.) Simon at nineteen was the oldest high school student and he filled the role as a "Svengali" like leader. His parents were originally from Guyana a small South American country. None of the future criminals had many real friends, so Simon targeted them to become part of a non-existent "secret" paramilitary organization, "Operations and Reconnaissance Agents" (OARA). Simon said "OARA stood ready to serve should a coup arise against the standing Guyanese government, the People's Progressive Party. Under Simon's tutelage the boys learned to assemble and disassemble weapons, practiced shooting and planned and carried out burglaries. All without any of their parents knowing what was going on. When Simon demanded they murder Tony Dutcher and his Grandparents while Simon was conveniently out of the country, the other boys followed orders, later saying Simon's threats to murder their families kept them from telling anyone.

After the murders the police and CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigation) during the course of their investigation turned up among other things at Simon's house alone; THIRTY SIX GUNS, MOST OF THEM MILITARY ASSAULT RIFLES, WEDGED INTO A CLOSET... THEY TAGGED UZIS, SKS,'S AND AK-47'S. As heart wrenching as the murders themselves are, the domino "death-affect" tremors of loss to all surviving family members is just as important in the telling of this tragic senseless crime. Charles Dutcher alone lost his son and his Mother and Father. The authors writing style is not poetic, nor does it revive memories of Hemingway or other famous authors. But what the author does succeed at is terrific investigative reporting. There is not a wasted chapter or a wasted page. The reader is taken step by step through this entire sordid mess. She cannot give you the big answers, because that's the problem with this heart-breaking catastrophe, no logical person with a heart beating with even an ounce of humanity can answer the questions that this story and far too many stories like this raise. As many scientists state: "THE BEST EXPERIMENTS CREATE MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS" AND PERHAPS THIS BOOK SHOULD BE FILED UNDER THE SAME HEADING!

Summary of Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns, and Murder

On a frigid New Year?s Eve, just twenty months after the Columbine massacre, three teenage boys carefully plotted the murder of a schoolmate and his grandparents at their mountain hideaway outside of Colorado Springs. The boys? leader, Simon Sue, was responsible for strong-arming the others into believing they were members of a secret paramilitary organization-and that their very lives depended on successfully executing the organization?s “mission.? Simon Says tells the page-turning story of how these boys? lives could have gone so horribly astray, how their parents assumed all was right in their sons? lives, and what the fallout of the grisly murders was on all the families. Through painstaking research, journalist Kathryn Eastburn gets into the minds of these boys to reveal a place where the rites of passage to young manhood, to acceptance, come at an exorbitant price.

Murder & Mayhem Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Murder & Mayhem Books
The Soul of a Cop ImageThe Soul of a Cop
by Paul Ragonese, Berry Stainback
St Martins Mass Market Paper; Published: 1992-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.90
Who Named the Knife: A True Story of Murder and Memory ImageWho Named the Knife: A True Story of Murder and Memory
by Linda Spalding
Anchor; Published: 2008-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.63
Price in other shops: $14.95
Murder, Inc.: The Story Of The Syndicate ImageMurder, Inc.: The Story Of The Syndicate
by Burton B. Turkus, Sid Feder
Da Capo Press; Published: 2003-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops: $23.50
Protecting Your Life, Home, and Property: A Cop Shows You How ImageProtecting Your Life, Home, and Property: A Cop Shows You How
by Robert L. Snow
Plenum Pr; Published: 1995-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.47
Price in other shops: $15.95
Victims: THE LDS CHURCH AND THE MARK HOFMANN CASE ImageVictims: THE LDS CHURCH AND THE MARK HOFMANN CASE
by Richard E. Turley
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1992-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.46
Price in other shops: $31.95
The Serpent's Tooth ImageThe Serpent's Tooth
by Christopher P. Andersen
Harpercollins; Published: 1987-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.01
Price in other shops: $16.95
American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps ImageAmerican Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps
by Philip Weiss
Harper; Published: 2004-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.39
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Invention of Murder ImageThe Invention of Murder
by Judith Flanders
Harper; Published: 2011; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.26
The Enforcer: Johnny "Pops" Papalia: A Life and Death in the Mafia ImageThe Enforcer: Johnny "Pops" Papalia: A Life and Death in the Mafia
HarperCollins Publishers; Paperback; Book
Best price: $159.82
Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution ImageLincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution
by James L. Swanson, Daniel Weinberg
William Morrow; Published: 2006-10-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.13
Price in other shops: $39.95
Similar Books and other products
A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground (At Table) ImageA Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground (At Table)
by Kathryn Eastburn
University of Nebraska Press; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.02
Price in other shops: $24.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories