The pretty boy Ivy League grad who gunned down his dad more than a decade ago in Manhattan because his allowance was slashed debuted a shocking new look as he sat down for his first-ever jailhouse interview.
Sporting a scraggly beard and long locks — and apparently smelling terrible — Thomas Gilbert Jr. maintained his innocence in the 2015 murder of his hedge-fund father, Thomas Sr., at his Beekman Place pad.
The Princeton grad told Court TV’s David Scott that the spoiled “golden boy”-gone-bad narrative “misses a lot of the other facts of the case.”
Thomas Gilbert Jr. had unkempt hair — and smelled awful — when interviewed by Court TV. Court TV
Thomas Gilbert Jr. appears in court in 2015. Stephen Yang
His childhood, he said, “was good, pretty wholesome for the most part.”
He spoke little and struggled to answer information about his case and growing up in a life of luxury during the brief interview — but nodded affirmatively when asked if he was innocent.
Gilbert is serving 30 years to life for the heinous slaying.
Gilbert, known for his good looks, was 30 years old and unemployed when his parents decided to cut his allowance, which at one point was $800 a month.
After his grant was cut again earlier in the day to $300, Gilbert showed up unannounced at his parents’ home on Jan. 4, 2015, and blasted his father in the head.
Thomas Gilbert Jr. went to Princeton and was a well-known playboy before he was convicted of murdering his dad.
Gilbert’s mom, whom he had asked to run out and get a sandwich, found her husband dead in a pool of blood when she returned moments later.
Gilbert had fled.
Gilbert was convicted of murdering his father at his Upper East Side apartment in 2015. Steven Hirsch
Gilbert Jr. fatally shot his father, Thomas Gilbert Sr. Court TV
When she called 911, she told the dispatcher her son killed her husband.
“My son, who’s nuts. But I didn’t know this nuts,” she said, according to an audio recording.
Gilbert grew up privileged, attending the best prep schools, including Deerfield and Buckley, summering in the Hamptons and traveling the world — all on his parents’ dime.
The front page of the New York Post on Jan. 6, 2015.
Thomas Gilbert Jr. discusses his father’s murder in his first television interview. Court TV
Gilbert’s defense lawyers during his 2019 trial argued that he suffered from schizophrenia and other mental disorders and that it was psychosis and paranoia, not greed, that drove him to murder his father.
He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, despite his mother’s pleas for leniency.