We thought yesterday's absurd story of former hedge fund manager James Crombie, founder of Paron Capital Management, who was arrested after found squatting in a million dollar Maryland house, would be as strange as it gets for hedge fund news this weekend. We were wrong: moments ago the WSJ reported that Thomas Gilbert, founder of the $200 million Wainscott hedge fund, whose success Gilbert said previously had come from investing in biotech funds, was found dead with a single bullet to the head in his Manhattan apartment this afternoon, allegedly shot by none other than his 30-year-old son.

From the WSJ:

Thomas Gilbert, 70 years old, founder of the Wainscott Capital Partners Fund, was fatally shot around 3:30 p.m. by a 30-year-old man believed to be his son, the official said. The alleged shooter’s mother called 911 shortly after she found Mr. Gilbert in the bedroom with a handgun nearby, the official said. Mr. Gilbert was declared dead inside the Turtle Bay apartment, the official said. Mr. Gilbert and his son—whose name police didn’t release—were believed to be discussing differences in their relationship before the shooting, but no motive had been determined Sunday evening, the official said. Police said Sunday evening no one had been arrested.

NY Daily News adds more:

The founder of a $200 million hedge fund was gunned down Sunday in his East Side apartment during a fight with his 30-year-old son, who remains on the loose. Thomas Gilbert Sr., the 70-year-old founder and president of Wainscott Capital Partners, was shot in the head during the violent encounter with his son, Thomas Gilbert Jr., cops said. The 3:31 p.m. murder inside the senior Gilbert’s multimillion-dollar apartment at 20 Beekman Pl. near E. 50th St. sent cops fanning out across the tony Sutton Place neighborhood seeking the son, who fled the murder scene on foot, officials said. A porter at the luxury building said he had seen Gilbert Sr. earlier Sunday, but the financier gave no indication of trouble brewing. “I opened the door. He goes outside, he comes in, like always,” said the porter, who described Gilbert as “friendly,” “very nice” and a “gentleman.” Police said Gilbert was dead at the scene from the single gunshot wound to the head. Known as a Wall St. wizard, Gilbert founded his hedge fund in 2011 and helped build it into thriving firm managing $200 million in total assets.

Gilbert was a big biotech investor:

In an interview in November, Gilbert said his company’s success came from investing in biotech funds. “The performance that we had in September and October really set us apart,” he told FinalAlternatives.com. “People wanted to see how we performed in a bear market and that worked out brilliantly for us. We’re not trying to beat all the biotech funds, we’re basically trying to avoid drawdowns.”

From Gilbert's website bio:

Thomas S. Gilbert founded Wainscott Capital Partners Fund, LP in 2011, and is the Managing Member of the General Partnership, Wainscott Capital Partners, LLC and is President of Wainscott Capital Management, LLC, the management company. A graduate of Princeton and Harvard Business School, Mr. Gilbert has extensive knowledge of the alternative investment space having spent 40 years on Wall Street with direct investing experience in the stock market, as well as private equity, real estate, and the fixed income market. Previously, Mr. Gilbert was a Co-Founder of Syzygy Therapeutics, a private equity biotech asset acquisition fund, which focused on identifying and investing in late-stage biotech drug candidates, with potential for billion dollar markets. Mr. Gilbert left Syzygy in April 2011 to form Wainscott Capital Partners. Mr.Gilbert founded and ran Knowledge Delivery Systems, Inc as Chairman and CEO from 2000 through May, 2009, Chairman through December, 2010, and is currently a Director of KDS. He is a former Managing Director of Venture Capital at Loeb Partners Corporation, where he was responsible for originating, structuring, and monitoring a broad spectrum of private equity portfolio investments. Mr. Gilbert is currently a Director of North Atlantic Holding Company, Inc. in addition to Knowledge Delivery Systems.

To be sure, the newsflow out of hedge fund land at the start of every year when the books are squared away tends to get crazy, but this is far and beyond the pale and even put to shame the story of Kim Karapetyan, 29-year old Moscow Hedge Fund wunderkind, who instead of facing his investors following massive losses decided to simply... disappear.