Bio

James Gene Gilbert was reportedly born in South Dakota in 1952. His complete birth date, early education, and detailed childhood history have not been reliably documented. His parents, Guy Gilbert and Evelyn Bacon, divorced, but later accounts indicate that he remained in contact with both of them. Contemporary newspaper-based research states that he joined the United States Army when he was about 17. He was stationed in the Pacific Northwest and Germany and married for the first time while serving.

During his military service, Gilbert was reportedly absent without leave for nearly two months. His mother persuaded him to surrender, and he spent several months in military confinement in Kansas. After his release, he reenlisted for another three years. His first marriage ended after his discharge, and he returned to South Dakota with limited money and employment prospects. These details come from later research drawing on archived local newspapers rather than an accessible official military record.

Gilbert worked in several temporary occupations, including mobile-home sales and house painting. During the mid-1970s, his mother introduced him to Bonnie, who was raising Dawn, Michelle, and Jason. Gilbert and Bonnie married near the end of 1976 and later had two children together, Gene Jr. and Rachelle. In 1979, they moved to Delmar, Iowa, near Bonnie’s mother and rented a two-story family home.

Gilbert obtained employment with Seven Hills Pavement Maintenance but later lost the job because of reported physical difficulties. He began receiving benefit payments, and the family experienced financial pressure. Michelle also developed health problems that required trips to the University of Iowa Hospitals. Although these circumstances placed additional strain on the household, investigators did not establish financial hardship as the motive for the killings.

Neighbors and acquaintances later described Gilbert as withdrawn and difficult to know. He sometimes left Iowa without much warning to visit relatives in South Dakota, which was why his arrival alone at his father’s home after the killings did not immediately appear unusual. People familiar with the household also described him as a strict disciplinarian who imposed lengthy punishments on the children for minor failures to meet his standards. These accounts were collected after the deaths and were never tested during a criminal trial.

Friends reportedly believed that Bonnie was unhappy and possibly afraid of Gilbert. One of Dawn’s friends told investigators that Gilbert had threatened to kill the family during the previous summer. Another report stated that Bonnie once found knives and axes in the home and asked a local business owner to dispose of them. Because Gilbert died before questioning or prosecution, authorities never had the opportunity to investigate these allegations through a trial.

Gilbert had also told people that he had experienced combat in Vietnam, but later historical research indicated that he had never served there. No verified medical record establishes that he had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. Claims about mental illness or combat trauma should therefore not be used as a factual explanation for the murders.

Murder Story

On January 3, 1981, Gilbert used a .38-caliber handgun to shoot his wife and all five children inside their home in Delmar. Investigators determined that the victims were killed upstairs and that most had apparently been asleep or in bed when they were attacked. Each victim suffered at least one gunshot wound to the head.

Dawn, the oldest child, appeared to have awakened and resisted. A later reconstruction based on contemporary investigative reporting stated that she was overpowered and restrained with nylon cord before being shot. The other victims showed no comparable evidence of resistance.

After killing the family, Gilbert left Iowa and drove approximately 450 miles to his father Guy Gilbert’s home in Yale, South Dakota. He arrived alone and without advance notice. His father did not immediately consider the visit suspicious because Gilbert had previously travelled to South Dakota by himself without warning. Gilbert reportedly said that he had not been feeling well and mentioned that he had also visited his mother.

The following morning, Gilbert’s father and brother left the house for an appointment while he remained behind. When they returned, they found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A revolver was found with him, along with a suicide note addressed to his father. The note reportedly discussed Gilbert’s personal failures but did not mention Bonnie, the children, or the murders.

South Dakota authorities contacted the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department and asked officers to inform Bonnie of Gilbert’s death. Deputies went to the Delmar house at approximately 5:00 p.m. but received no answer. They initially considered whether Bonnie and the children might be attending a Jehovah’s Witness gathering in nearby Maquoketa, but no one could locate them. After several hours, officers entered the residence and found Bonnie and all five children dead upstairs.

The victims were identified as Bonnie Gilbert, 34; Dawn Roling, 13; Michelle Roling, reported as 10 or 11; Jason Roling, 8; Gene Gilbert Jr., 2; and Rachelle Gilbert, approximately 10 months old. The deaths became one of Iowa’s most widely reported mass killings of that period.

Investigators recovered the handgun associated with Gilbert’s suicide and learned that he had purchased it at a Kmart in Clinton, Iowa, several weeks before the killings. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation compared the weapon with evidence from the Delmar home. On January 6, authorities announced that ballistics testing confirmed that the same handgun was used in all seven deaths.

The physical evidence established Gilbert as the person responsible. No evidence indicated that he had an accomplice. Investigators examined his unemployment, financial problems, marriage, reported threats, and increasingly withdrawn behavior, but none provided a definitive explanation. His suicide note contained no confession to the family killings and gave no motive.

Because Gilbert died before the bodies were discovered, he was never arrested, charged, tried, or convicted. His responsibility was established through the matching firearm, the crime-scene evidence, his immediate departure from Iowa, and the investigative reconstruction.

Bonnie and the five children were buried together in Iowa near members of Bonnie’s family. Gilbert was buried separately in South Dakota.