How A Can Of Coke Caught A Killer

He was rich and spoilt… but was he evil?

Her voice was shaking when she described the scene to the emergency operator.

Shelley Gilbert had found her husband of 33 years lying on the floor of their luxury apartment.

Thomas Gilbert Sr, 70, a self-made millionaire who ran a successful hedge fund and enjoyed tennis, had everything to live for.

So why was he lying in a pool of blood, a gun in his left hand?

‘He’s been shot!’ Shelley gasped.

When the operator asked her who’d done it, she didn’t hesitate in answering.

‘My son, who is nuts,’ she replied bluntly. ‘But I had no idea he was this nuts. He shot him in the head.’

Her son was Thomas Gilbert Jr, 30, a 6ft 4in tall university graduate and keen surfer.

On the face of it, Tommy – as he was known to his family – had it all...

Striking good looks, an expensive education – and an endless supply of cash, courtesy of his wealthy parents, who gifted him a weekly allowance and paid his $3500 a month rent.

But Tommy’s gilded lifestyle hid a dark side – mental health issues, drug problems, violent rages.

Something of a loner, he was aimless and jobless.

During his time at university, he’d been arrested for possession of drugs and charged with third-degree aggravated assault after head-butting a hospital nurse who was treating him when he was high on drugs.

He’d taken part in a pre-trial intervention programme and the assault charge had been dismissed, leaving him free to complete his Economics degree.

And yet, it seemed Tommy Gilbert hadn’t learnt his lesson. Five years later, he’d attacked his former flatmate Peter Smith Jr.