I'm hoping this icon is a book. Yay!

In my family, we're all into true crime, so much so that it's even part of the fabric of our family lore. My parents had loose ties to Ted Bundy, which is crazy to me still, and I've known a few convicted killers prior to their convictions or deaths. Most of them were just on a tertiary level, where I would not have called them friends and certainly have not kept in touch with them. The only one with whom I have maintained contact, through letter writing, is my friend, Isaac Grimes; because I have known him so long and he's such a sweet boy, it was truly shocking when he confessed to the murder that placed him in prison for 60ish years at 15 years of age.

The triple homicide which Isaac participated in with two other, older boys happened before the advent of social networking, although Isaac does now have a Facebook account which his mother maintains, so neitther he, his co-defendants, nor the young man and two older adults he participated in the murder of don't really have a place on this forum... I mean, unless you want me to post the page his mother maintains for updates on his case an movements? Anyway, though neither he nor his victims had social media accounts on account of the crime taking place on New ywara Eve 2001, there has been a book written about the case in 2007 - "Simon Says" by Kathryn Eastburn - and a two or three part ABC special in 2009, which is still available online in pieces, so I thought maybe some of you here may have some familiarity with the case. I believe ID also covered the case in a series about murders in small communities - Murder Comes to Town, the episode entitled Lord of the Rockies. It is a trippy murder case, rife with brainwashing and military action imagined by boys in what was essentially a cult. It's probably the reason that so many of us - including the mother of Isaac's young victim - still support him. He came clean and confessed at great personal cost. He suffers from PTSD so severe that he's lost teeth to it (he developed prolonged spells of vomiting and GERD in result of the PTSD and it crumbled his teeth. Even though everyone has told him he was tricked, he continues to believe that the military cult he was in exsisted, that it has secret ties with the governments of Guyana and super secret USA ties, and he still truly believes that his family will be slaughtered any day now. He is old enough now to be in general population and has been for a decade, but he was only moved out of the closed psychiatric unit where he'd resided pretty much from the time of his sentencing about two years ago. He is a grown man now, but you'd never believe it from talking to him.

Anyway; I guess I just wondered if any other of Isaac's friends are here, or if anyone had been exposed to the case via Ms. Eastburn's book or one of the televised specials about the case. Or, Hell, even if anyone here is the friend of a killer and how they live with it / if they've stayed in contact with their friend after the homicide(s) occurred. And much more.

If anyone who hasn't heard of this case but is interested, here's the link to the written article related to ABC's two-part special from 2009:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=8347009
Here's part two of the same piece, with some links that send you to some video shorts from the piece:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=8356244
And the ID special, "Lord of the Rockies" from the show "Murder Comes to Town":
https://www.investigationdiscovery.c...of-the-rockies
And this one is from the Denver Post, a somewhat local paper with a fairly good write up of the Eastburn book:
https://www.denverpost.com/2008/01/1...ler-instincts/

So I guess that's that. Anyone here familiar with this case, viewed it on ID or ABC some years ago or whatever, or friends with any of the family involved? I don't know Isaac's codefendants, Simon Sue (the ringleader, hence 'Simon Says') and John Matheny, but maybe someone here does and we can make friends!

This got long and ranty by then end there, didn't it?!? Josie! Shut it!!!

Oh, and if you're not tied to anyone or anything in the case but enjoy a bizarre story, you might just look into this one. I'm shocked it wasn't covered more in the media, just because it is such a fascinating case.