Zero at the Bone, Story of Gene Simmons Mass Murderer [Hardcover]

Bryce Marshall (Author), Paul Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1991

Why did Ronald Gene Simmons brutally murder fourteen of his own family and in a nearby town kill two more and leave four others wounded? Zero at the Bone details the horrifying events that led to one of the worst homicidal rampages in American history. From Simmons' troubled youth to his murders of his family and his explosive trial, this chilling account takes you inside the mind of a man who violated the darkest taboos of our society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The story of Ronald Gene Simmons and his psychotic rampage, which in 1987 left 14 family members in a mass grave behind their trailer home, is presented here in detail. When his military days were over, Simmons, a former Air Force sergeant, began a torturous series of acts of violence and humiliation against his family. While a fierce presence to his wife, Becky, and six of their seven children, he became exceptionally tender with his favorite daughter, Sheila, and forced her into an incestuous relationship that culminated in the birth of a child. Simmons went through a series of menial jobs and, after several moves, finally settled his family in the foothills of the Ozarks. But faced with growing frustration of his need for control, along with his daughter's rejection of him and marriage to another man, which he claimed had ruined his plans to have a happy life alone with her, he prepared the ritual killing of all those who had made his dream unworkable. While for the most part, Williams ( Tankwar ) and Marshall, a journalist, tell the story convincingly, they fail when they attempt to re-create and explain Simmons's thought processes.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Between December 22 and December 28, 1987, former Air Force Master Sargeant Ronald "Gene" Simmons, alienated from his family and unable to hold a job, committed what was perhaps the worst family killing spree in the United States, not only murdering all 14 members of his immediate family but also slaughtering five other people. Coauthors Marshall and Williams have tried to reconstruct Simmons's life to give readers clues as to his motivations for the murders. Having no eyewitnesses, journals, or diaries, they used family records and effects and innumerable interviews with the remaining family, coworkers, and social service and law-enforcement personnel to extrapolate what there was to know of Simmons and his bizarre family life. Much of the book consists of speculative dramatic re-creations. While this "fictionalization" makes for exciting reading, so much is not based on the actual record that this book is not recommended.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; 1st edition (March 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671685112
• ISBN-13: 978-0671685119
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #604,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read, cannot-put-down, horrifying true tale, August 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Zero at the Bone, Story of Gene Simmons Mass Murderer (Hardcover)

Zero at the Bone is without a doubt one of the most horrifying accounts of family massacre ever written. Williams very clearly gets across to the reader the contents of Ronald Gene Simmons' twisted, sick mind. His obsessive lust/love for his daughter Sheila is horrifying; and the detailed steps Simmons took to wipe out his immediate family detail him as nothing less than totally mad. The reader cannot help but feel saddened for Sheila, for she is truly a victim of her father's depraved actions. Simmons' wife Becky is a tragic figure, yet she possesses a core of steel which sustains her up until her murder. Simmons is nothing short of a monster, and Williams spares no words in getting this point across. A note of caution: DO NOT read this book before bedtime!! It is capable of producing some of the worst nightmares, and I would not recommend it for those with weak constitutions. I am an Arkansas native, and remember very vividly these murders. And 15 years later, it still sends shudders down my spine.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Not for the Squeamish!!!!!, October 21, 2007

By 

Sylviastel - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Zero at the Bone, Story of Gene Simmons Mass Murderer (Hardcover)

Until I picked up this book, I had no idea about the crimes committed by Gene Simmons not the Kiss musician but a man who tortured, abused, traumatized, dehumanized, etc. of his own wife, children, and relatives. Gene Simmons was a war hero who earned a Bronze Medal for his services during Vietnam. Despite a military career, Gene's obsession with order and documentation and the control of his own large family. On December 22, 1987, the book begins with an introduction of the crime about a man murdering his own family before Christmas in the Ozarks of Arkansas. The book and it's writers should be commended for writing about this case after Gene's death by execution in 1990 which is suitable punishment for his crimes which are not just murder but cold calculated murder. When you read how he planned and plotted for months for this crime spree, you just get chills to think this is how he treats his own family and people who loved him regardless of the constant abuse, heavy workloads, and a kind of life more in tune with a German concentration camp than with a normal family life. The children never got to be children but slaves to their father who forced them to work over school activities. They were barely allowed to communicate outside the family in facing their father's wrath of terror. Poor Sheila may have been the favorite daughter because she was the oldest but she paid dearly by being her father's mistress as well as the favorite child. She had been unwilling to play the mother and wife role to her own father. Even though they have a child together, Gene never believed he had done anything wrong in raping his own daughter and impregnating her. Unfortunately the New Mexico authorities never caught up with him in time, he fled to the Ozarks. No matter how much he tried to keep his children under his control, it would be more reminiscent of John List who murdered his family in Westfield, New Jersey but at least John never looked them in the eyes. Gene even had his children dig up their own graves prior to the crime spree that not only shocked the town, the state, and perhaps the world before he got caught. Gene purposely and unconsciously murdered his own family because he could not control him and that's a coward. He was afraid of disorder in the family.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true crime treasure, October 25, 2000

By 

Bettye McKee (Fort Smith, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zero at the Bone, Story of Gene Simmons Mass Murderer (Hardcover)

The story of Ronald Gene Simmons is masterfully told. We learn about Gene's life, his family, his intense love and jealousy, his fears and suspicions, and his murders. The monster is made human and we are better able to understand why a man would murder his entire family, then undertake another carefully orchestrated murder spree before docilely surrendering to police.