‘Ivy League Dad Killer’ Thomas Gilbert Jr. Found Guilty Of Murdering His Father Over Allowance Cut

Thomas Gilbert Jr. has been found guilty of murdering his father, successful New York City hedge-fund manager, Thomas Gilbert, in 2015 over a monthly allowance dispute.

The Daily Beast reports that the junior Gilbert, 34, a Princeton graduate, was found guilty on three out of four charges, including “second-degree murder and weapon possession charges” and is facing life in prison. The trial was delayed after the defense insisted that Gilbert was not mentally fit to stand trial, but after evaluation, that was found not to be the case.

The case dates back to January 2015 when the junior Gilbert arrived unexpectedly at his parents’ home in Manhattan’s Turtle Bay neighborhood just after his father had told him that he was reducing his weekly allowance to $300. According to his mother, Shelley Gilbert, her son said he was there to talk business with his father, and asked his mother to go and get him a sandwich and a Coke (Gilbert allegedly knew his mother didn’t keep soda in the apartment).

Shelley Gilbert testified that when she returned, her husband had been shot in the head, and the gun was on his chest.

Craig Ortner, an assistant district attorney with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said the gun was placed “as if someone wanted it to appear it was suicide.”

Princeton grad Thomas Gilbert Jr. convicted of killing millionaire father https://t.co/vLSWlHCprQ pic.twitter.com/rZtPLLnfE9

— New York Post (@nypost) June 28, 2019

Mrs. Gilbert found her husband, but her son had left the apartment, and she placed a call to 911, and was asked who did it.

“My husband is, I think, dead. My son — who is nuts. But I didn’t know he was this nuts. I had no idea he was this nuts.”

In the trial, none of Gilbert’s doctors testified that they had suggested anything other than medication and therapy over the years, and he was declared competent to stand trial.

After attending prep school and graduating from Princeton, Gilbert spent most of his time in The Hamptons, according to Ortner, “surfing, playing tennis, working out, and partying.”

His parents had been paying all of his expenses, plus giving him an allowance of $1,000 per week, but that was coming to an end, which is thought to be the motive for the murder.

A movie about the crime and the trial, titled Gilded Rage, is currently in the works with actor and director Jake Gyllenhaal at the helm, says The Inquisitr.

But many “blue blood” sources are complaining that they are concerned that the younger Gilbert will be glamorized in the film.

“It’s so upsetting. They’re just going to glamorize Tommy. He doesn’t deserve that. Tommy can’t be the victim in this film — people need to remember he was a monster — a calculating, rage-filled psychopath.”