John Glatt is one of my favorite authors in the true crime genre. Especially after reading his book on Chris Watts (EEWWW), I was happy to receive a copy of Golden Boy from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. Although I am an avid fan of true crime books and podcasts, this particular case was new to me, although the subtitle (“Murder Among the Hamptons Elite) gave me advance notice that this would be a story generally about people I don’t really relate to and specifically about one tragic family.

The Gilberts (hedge fund founder Thomas Sr., his wife Shelley, and their son Thomas Jr., known as Tommy) are the kind of rich Manhattan folk who send their kids to schools like The Buckley School, Deerfield Academy, and Princeton (all of which Tommy attended) and use terms like “summer” as a verb (as in “we summered in the Hamptons”). One one level, this is a straightforward story about the murder of Thomas by his son Tommy, a fact no one disputes. There is lots of background about the family, Tommy’s childhood and apparent path toward the kind of success his father and uncle had achieved. But there were some rough spots during Tommy’s teen years, and things started to spiral out of control, leading up to his full-blown hatred of his father that resulted in the murder. 

Another level in this well-written book is the exploration of the justice system’s complete lack of help for people with mental illness. And Tommy was definitely sick. After graduating from Princeton, he seemed poised for success. But his early signs of mental illness (including OCD, paranoia, and extreme hatred of his father) were magnified when he led an aimless life, subsidized by his parents, who “appeared more concerned about their reputation than their son’s highly dangerous mental state.” Life was good for Tommy, with his seemingly endless source of funds allowing him to fill his days with surfing and socializing with other rich people.Once of his girlfriends said “He did want to have a job…wasn’t that he was this layabout just living off his parents. He was trying to start a hedge fund…” Tommy kept getting in trouble, and in a revelatory line about his parents’ response, “...instead of confronting his son directly, Tom asked Shelley to do so.” 

So yeah, he was just living off his parents..right up until the day he went to their apartment, sent his mother out ostensibly to buy food for him, and shot his father in the head. His parents had urged him to seek help, but Tommy was mostly into self-medicating and partying and burning down his friend’s family house in the Hamptons (for which he was never charged).

After reading this, part of me is so sad for the wasted lives, and part of me thinks people could and maybe should have seen this tragic end coming for years. Whether it’s more of a procedural about a horrific crime or a look at the social costs of ignoring mental health and the resulting impact on the justice system, it’s a good read. Oh, and it also addresses the incredible privilege being rich and white brings as well as the need for mental health services, even among the rich. Four stars.