Thomas Gilbert, Jr.
Thomas Gilbert, Jr., 30, had everything. His father was a Wall Street multimillionaire. He grew up amid wealth and luxury. He had attended the best private schools, and graduated from Princeton University in 2009 with a degree in economics. He was 6’3″ tall, healthy, good-looking, and flitted about the high-class society scenes with beautiful women on his arm.
Just one problem.
He didn’t have a job.
Why should he, when his $3,000 a month allowance from his wealthy father paid his rent and gave him some pocket money? He preferred to hang around his father’s multimillion-dollar mansion in East Hampton, NY, hit the gym, do some yoga, and then go surfing.
He did try to start a hedge fund like his father, but it didn’t get very far. He was in debt. And he had no income of his own to match his high-end lifestyle.
Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
After months of tension with his father over the monthly allowance, which his father was starting to cut off, Tommy Gilbert finally took matters into his own hands. He headed over to his parents’ New York City apartment and told his mother, Shelley Gilbert, to go out and get him a sandwich and soda. Once she was gone, he put a bullet in his father’s head and left.
That, anyway, is what all the evidence points to. For more on the story, see these articles at ABC News, the U.K. Daily Mail, and the New York Post.
What went wrong?
Like any story about human beings, this one is complex and many-sided. But one thing seems clear enough: free money and easy living were not a blessing, but a curse in the life of Tommy Gilbert.
For more on the curse of free money and easy living, please click here to read on.
Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life 