MIDTOWN EAST — The founder of a Manhattan hedge fund was fatally shot in the head by his son in his Beekman Place apartment Sunday, police said.
Thomas Gilbert, the 70-year-old founder of Wainscott Capital Partners Fund, was fighting about money with his 30-year-old son, Tommy Gilbert, in the family's eighth-floor apartment at 20 Beekman Place about 3:30 p.m. Sunday when he was shot in the head, according to police sources.
The younger Gilbert may have wanted more money from his father, who had just docked his allowance of hundreds of dollars each week, sources said. He also got another $2,400 each month, but his parents were threatening steeper cuts in hopes of encouraging him to live more independently, sources said.
The murder plot unfolded Sunday afternoon when the son, carrying a Glock handgun, stopped by his parent's apartment to chat with his dad, NYPD Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said.
Tommy Gilbert asked his mother to leave the apartment so that he could speak to his father alone, the chief said.
She left to get food for her son, but police said she had a bad feeling and returned almost immediately only to find her husband dead in what initially appeared to be a suicide.
When police arrived they found the elder Gilbert in his bedroom with a .40 caliber Glock resting on his chest with his left hand atop the firearm, Boyce said.
Detectives found a "staged crime scene. The gun, laying were it was, didn't seem as a self-inflicted wound that we've had in the past," the chief said.
Investigators staked out the son's West 18th Street apartment, waiting until they saw his light and TV go off to confirm he was home before serving a search warrant on the property, police said.
Detectives found two magazine clips, loose .40 caliber rounds and a manufacture's box for a Glock with a serial number that matched the gun found on the dad's chest, according to Boyce.
"Based on a substantial amount of physical evidence," the chief said.
The son was charged with his father's murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. The city's medical examiner will officially determine if Gilbert's death was a homicide, the police spokesman said.
The elder Gilbert, who has degrees from both Princeton and Harvard, founded Wainscott in 2011 after spending nearly 40 years on Wall Street, according to his hedge fund's website.
The fund, which focuses on biotechnology stocks, was managing about $5 million in 2013 and was hoping to grow its portfolio tenfold, according to government records and an industry newsletter.
"It's quite disturbing. It all seems very tragic. I feel very sorry for his wife," said former Syzgy colleague, Averill Powers.
Wainscott did not immediately return requests for comment.
Staff at businesses near Gilbert's home said he was always friendly and stuck to his habits.
"He always dressed nicely, a suit. When it was raining, he never used an umbrella, always a cowboy hat," said Gilbert's dry cleaner of five years, Charlie Suk, at Cleaners de la Mode, 882 First Ave.
"It's so sad. I saw him Saturday morning. He said 'Happy New Year!' He brought in two pairs of pants and I still have them," Suk added.
Others shared similar memories.
"He was a regular customer. He'd come in a few times a week for coffee and The New York Times," said Michael Lee, 42, who manages U.N. Gourmet Plaza at the corner of East 49th Street and First Avenue.
"He was always smiling and very calm. He was a really nice customer," Lee said.
