Thomas Gilbert Jr. flew off the handle and killed Thomas Gilbert Sr., 70, after his parents shrank his allowance to $300 a week and said they would stop paying rent for his posh Chelsea pad, the source said.
A wealthy hedge-fund chief was gunned down by his adult son after he threatened to cut his allowance by a $100 a week and stop paying his steep rent, cops said Monday.
Spoiled manchild Thomas Gilbert Jr., 30, flew into a murderous rage when he confronted his fed-up dad, Thomas Gilbert Sr., 70, over the downsizing of financial support, police said.
He was on a stipend from the family. Looks like he was in debt, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said of the accused killer.
The freeloading son, a Princeton grad, shot his father once in the head with a .40-caliber Glock 22 handgun Sunday afternoon inside his parents’ multimillion-dollar Beekman Place apartment, police said.
He then callously staged the murder scene to appear as if it was a suicide, placing the gun on his father’s chest and putting the dead man’s left hand over it, Boyce said.
The gun laying where it was didn’t seem like a self-inflicted wound as we’ve had in the past, Boyce said.
Gilbert Jr. was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, and was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday night.
He showed no emotion and refused to speak to reporters as detectives escorted him out of the 17th Precinct stationhouse Monday evening and hauled him off to court.
Gilbert’s parents recently told him they were cutting his $400 a week allowance by $100, a police source said. His parents also informed him they would no longer pay the rent on his apartment in a Chelsea building, where rents average $3,100 a month, the source said.
The mooching son showed up at his parents’ apartment about 3 p.m. Sunday and asked if he could have a word alone with his father, Boyce said.
His mother, Shelley, obliged and went out to buy her son a sandwich.
About 15 minutes after that she had a bad feeling and decided to return, Boyce said.
After finding her husband’s body, Shelley Gilbert called 911.
Following Gilbert’s arrest at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, police recovered two .40-caliber magazine clips matching the murder weapon, numerous loose rounds and a manufacturer’s box for the Glock 22.
The killer son refused to talk to detectives and requested a lawyer.
The veteran financier’s murder left residents in his posh East Side neighborhood stunned.
I can’t believe a son would do this. How can a son kill his father? asked a tearful Charlie Suk, 57, the owner of a Sutton Place cleaners the senior Gilbert patronized.
He was a good person — a special person, Suk said of Gilbert, a Wall St. whiz, who also graduated from Princeton and Harvard Business School.
Gilbert, who had over 40 years of experience working on Wall St., was the founder of Wainscott Capital Partners, a $200 million hedge fund.
He was always extremely nice to me and my dog, said Gilbert’s Beekman Place neighbor Pierre Gazarian, 75. He was courteous, elegant and well dressed. What I remember most is his smile.