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Gilbride please contact:
Burlington County Prosecutors Office
Main office prosecutor@co.burlington.nj.us (609) 265-5035
Office fax (609) 265-5586
Anonymous Crime Hot Line (609) 267-7667
A father's split with MOVE, fight for son - In a
bitter custody dispute
John Gilbride had just won
more time with Zack, 6. Gilbride was found slain
last week.
Philadelphia Inquirer,
October 3, 2002
Author: Joseph A. Gambardello
John Gilbride wanted to get away from MOVE, but blood ties held him
tight.
A onetime member of the radical back-to-nature group, he came to reject
and ridicule what it stood for. But instead of walking away, he fought
MOVE because he wanted his son Zack, 6, whose whole life has been
within the communal group.
For two years, Gilbride and his former wife, Alberta Wicker Africa
Gilbride, waged an acrimonious battle for the child, during which Gilbride
contended his life had been threatened. The next court hearing in the
dispute had been set for tomorrow, and Alberta Gilbride faced possible
arrest if she did not appear.
But a week ago, John Gilbride was shot dead in his car after arriving at
his Maple Shade apartment complex from his job as an airline baggage
supervisor at Philadelphia International Airport.
MOVE, which had denounced Gilbride when he was alive, has denied any
role in the ambush killing and says it mourns the death of a former
member.
The West Philadelphia-based group has contended that the crime was
the work of the government, and said homicide investigators had not
attempted to interview MOVE members. The Burlington County
Prosecutor's Office said only that the investigation was continuing.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said yesterday that
the investigation was "a New Jersey matter, and Philadelphia police are
not involved in any way."
In their only statement, issued last week, Jack and Frances Gilbride
highlighted their son's love for Zack and said, "He spent every penny he
had to follow the legal process to gain custody."
Lee Schwartz, a lawyer representing Gilbride's parents, said they were
weighing whether to continue the custody fight.
The picture of John Gilbride remains incomplete. But court papers,
interviews with people involved in the custody case, and the recollections
of MOVE members offer some insight into his relationship with MOVE
and his fight against it. The dispute had gone largely unnoticed until
MOVE barricaded its West Philadelphia house last month after Gilbride
won the right to take his son for alternate weekends.
Gilbride fell in with the group while a student at Temple University in the
late 1980s.
In 1985, he had seen the television images of a West Philadelphia
neighborhood in flames after a police helicopter dropped a bomb on a
MOVE house to end a siege.
Eleven MOVE members - six adults and five children - were killed,
including the group's founder, John Africa, who espoused a mix of anti-
establishment radicalism and Franciscan simplicity with an urban edge.
Africa's wife was Alberta Africa, later to become Alberta Gilbride.
Gilbride ran errands for the group and wrote letters to Alberta Africa and
MOVE leader Ramona Africa while both were in jail.
In 1988, Alberta, then 40, was released from jail, and a romance
developed between her and Gilbride, who was 20. On Feb. 22, 1992, they
were married in a civil ceremony in New York.
According to Ramona Africa, Gilbride's parents - angered that their son
had married a black radical - tried to kidnap him and have him
"deprogrammed" by a psychiatrist when the newlyweds visited them in
Virginia. The Gilbrides are white. Gilbride escaped and fled to
Philadelphia, she said.
On May 15, 1996, John Zackary Gilbride was born.
Details of the birth are something of a mystery. People who have seen the
child have said he is white. The Philadelphia City Paper has reported, and
two people familiar with the case have confirmed, the child was conceived
in vitro. Gilbride said in court papers a doctor had told him in May 1995
that he had a low sperm count. The City Paper said the egg donor was
white.
In 1998, the couple moved into a $174,000 house in the Old Orchard
section of Cherry Hill.
On June 10, 1999, Gilbride filed for divorce in Superior Court in Camden,
citing "extreme cruelty."
Alberta Gilbride denied the allegations in court papers.
In his divorce complaints, Gilbride said that whenever he and his wife had
a disagreement or argument, MOVE members would have "an
intervention, wherein I was expected to sit in the middle of the room while
each member and my wife would degrade me."
One such intervention in 1996 followed a disagreement over how he held
their son and lasted for eight hours. "I was told that if I don't pull myself
together, I was out of there, baby or not!" Gilbride said. "I was also told
that any man could take my place."
And in January 1997, Gilbride said, he was told during another
"intervention" that "my attitude towards my wife was going to cause a
situation that would involve my death."
The divorce was granted on March 23, 2000.
MOVE members said Gilbride left the group and his wife after a six-year
campaign by his father to win him back.
But even before John Gilbride filed for divorce, Alberta Gilbride had
launched a custody fight in Philadelphia courts in March 1999. MOVE
alleged he was abusive, but judges in the case found no evidence to
support the allegations.
John Gilbride, who started working for USAirways in the early 1990s, also
filed for bancruptcy protection in March 1999, but withdrew the filing three
months later.
A year ago, Commons Pleas Court Judge Edward Rosenberg ruled
Gilbride could visit his son every Monday and Wednesday from 9 to 11 a.
m. at his former wife's Cherry Hill home "alone without the presence of
mother's family or friends."
Alberta Gilbride and MOVE members have said it is against their beliefs
to separate a mother and her child.
Another round of hearings in the case resulted in a revised order in
August by Common Pleas Judge Shelley Robins New allowing Gilbride to
take the boy from his mother's home for four hours on alternate Fridays
and for the weekend on the other Fridays.
In her opinion, New took both parents to task for their behavior and "lack
of tolerance."
"Ms. Alberta Gilbride is unconsciously using the child against the father,
and she is not aware of the harm her actions and attitudes are causing to
the well-being of the child," New wrote.
"Mr. Gilbride needs to recognize that he must respect the mother's
religious convictions and not engage in disrepectful and sarcastic
comments concerning MOVE and its members," the judge said.
On Sept. 3, Alberta Gilbride withdrew Zack from a private school, and 10
days later John Gilbride went to the Old Orchard home with two Cherry Hill
police officers for his first four-hour visitation. Alberta Gilbride and Zack
were not there.
MOVE members started boarding up the windows at their West
Philadelphia house in the following days.
John Gilbride was supposed to begin his first weekend alone with the boy
on Sept. 20, but when MOVE supporters gathered at the house and held a
demonstration at the Cherry Hill municipal building, he stayed away.
He went to Las Vegas instead, returning just days before the next
opportunity to see his son. But he was shot dead before he could.
Talks of threats before slaying
Philadelphia Inquirer
October 23, 2003
Monica Yant Kinney
Seventeen days before he was murdered, John Gilbride testified in court
that a MOVE supporter had threatened to kill him.
Whether the alleged murder threat was investigated after Gilbride was
found shot to death is anyone's guess.
The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office will say nothing about the year-
old, unsolved case.
Neither will the MOVE supporter Gilbride said threatened to kill him.
And though Gilbride's parents spoke at length last month about their loss,
they declined to comment about the alleged murder threat yesterday.
John Gilbride was found shot to death in the parking lot of his Maple
Shade apartment complex in the early hours of Sept. 27, 2002. The US
Airways baggage supervisor had returned home from work.
He was sitting in his 1985 Crown Victoria when his body was blasted with
bullets from an automatic weapon fired through the car window.
More than a year later, investigators remain stumped, and tight-lipped.
They acknowledge the coincidence of Gilbride's murder happening hours
before he was to see his son alone for the first time since walking out on
his wife - and the West Philadelphia cult MOVE - years earlier.
But that's about it.
Officially, investigators have few leads, no suspects and no comment.
Futile fight
John Gilbride should have known better than to fight his ex-wife for
custody of their son.
Even she said so in the transcript of a Sept. 9, 2002, Family Court hearing
obtained this week by The Inquirer.
The couple were in court that day over a domestic-violence accusation
fueled by a custody battle.
Alberta Africa, MOVE's matriarch, had accused her ex-husband Gilbride
of hurting her hand during an Aug. 27, 2002 argument.
Gilbride went to Africa's Cherry Hill home that morning to pick up his son.
Weeks earlier, a Philadelphia judge granted him unsupervised visits.
But MOVE, and Alberta Africa, were adamant: Gilbride was not to be
trusted alone with the boy.
"He knows what MOVE's belief is," Africa testified. "John knows that my
belief would never allow me to just hand him over my son like that."
Gilbride and Africa testified that they argued about her refusal to honor the
court order.
Eventually, Gilbride said MOVE supporter Mario Hardy intervened.
"I told him, 'Don't you come close to me. This has nothing to do with you,' "
Gilbride testified.
Fearing a confrontation, Gilbride said he tried to leave. But Alberta
blocked and locked the door.
"And then this guy Mario grabbed me, threw me against the closet door,"
Gilbride said. "And he said, 'Move and I'll kill you.' "
More silence
Gilbride did move. He reached for his cellular phone and dialed 911.
But by the time the Cherry Hill police arrived and left, it was Gilbride who
was written up for allegedly grabbing Africa and injuring her hand.
Her abuse claim was later rejected by the Camden County Family Court
judge, citing inconsistent testimony from Africa, Hardy and the three
MOVE members/supporters in the house during the argument.
The judge said nothing about Gilbride's testimony that his life had been
threatened, which came to light only this week with the release of the court
transcript.
After twice hanging up on me, Hardy said he'd "rather not" comment.
Hardy said he's read my previous columns on the Gilbride murder mystery
and found them to contain "a lot of slander, a lot of untruths."
Alberta Africa slammed her front door on me yesterday before I could ask
her about the allegation.
And MOVE spokeswoman Ramona Africa, who can usually be counted
on for a comment, hung up on me.
"We are not going to take this s-," she said. "You're not interested in the
truth. You're only interested in sensationalizing."
This, from a woman who first speculated the government killed Gilbride.
Lately, she's taken to saying Gilbride's not even really dead, that his "so-
called murder" may have been staged to harass MOVE.
So much for sensationalism.
What A Difference a Murder Makes
Tony Allen
Before ex-MOVE supporter John Gilbride was savagely gunned down in
his car after returning home from work, his ex-wife (current MOVE leader
and opponent in John's battle for custody of his son) had this to say in a
letter to the judge in charge of Philadelphia Family Court Judge Myrna
Field during their custody dispute:
"John is a traitor to me, to his son, and to MOVE, and he is an enemy, not
a friend."
Not long after John's savage assassination, MOVE member and
spokesperson Ramona Africa was in damage control mode. In an
interview with a Philadelphia City Paper reporter, she had this to say:
"We never hated John Gilbride. He was not our enemy."
What a difference a murder makes.
Does anyone besides me view MOVE's turnabout as being anything other
than extremely suspicious?
In Court With MOVE and John Gilbride
by Tony Allen
Only 17 days before he was gunned down in front of his apartment, John
Gilbride was in court testifying that a long-time MOVE Supporter
threatened his life.
The significance of this court proceeding is based in the fact that there
was an on-going custody dispute between Alberta Africa and John
Gilbride for visitation rights and primary custody.
A crucial ruling in the custody case by Judge Shelley Robins New had
granted unsupervised alternate weekend visitations to Gilbride. Alberta
Africa had clearly stated on various occasions that she would never allow
for Gilbride to be alone with his son.
This put the MOVE Organization into a virtual state of panic, to which their
reaction (which follows in suit to how they respond to conflict) was to cover
the windows of their headquarters with wooden slats and issue public
statements to the press that their intentions were to defy the court order.
It was a bleak and desperate scenario that had previously, on two other
occasions, proven to be disastrous for the sect. The outcome of the many
confrontations with authorities had resulted in extensive prisons sentences
for many of its members (8 of which are still imprisoned today) and the
deaths of eleven adults and children of MOVE.
For MOVE, something had to be done.
The custody case was presided over in New Jersey. Family Court laws
qualify that if one of the parties in a custody dispute has a restraining
order against them for violence by the other party, the ability of the
offending party to win a custody case is greatly diminished.
The prospect of John Gilbride ever gaining custody of his son would likely
never occur, had Alberta Africa succeeded in obtaining the restraining
order against him.
Having been a witness to the court proceeding on this domestic violence
issue, as well as other things I had observed and heard prior to the
incident, I came to the belief that John Gilbride was set-up that day. It was
clear that Africa was attempting falsely to portray Gilbride as an abuser.
Incidentally, Africa had also begun, around the same time, to accuse
Gilbride of abuse during their marriage, as well.
Incidentally, I happened to be in court that day with other MOVE
supporters and members. There was an organized rally of MOVE's
followers to pack the courtroom, as well as to picket outside of the
courthouse.
I was one of MOVE’s “writers,” and thus was sent inside the courtroom,
along with all of the mothers whom had small babies. The judge became
quickly irritated with the distraction that the animated children made and
ordered that the mothers and children remain out of the room. MOVE
replaced them with other supporters who were demonstrating outside.
Mercifully, the case was first on the docket. Alberta Africa took the stand
looking very annoyed and scowled at John Gilbride throughout her
testimony.
If my memory serves me properly, she recounted some kind of argument
with Gilbride and then claimed that he hurt her wrist. At first, this seemed
a plausible story.
As evidence of her terrible injury, she offered her wrist brace and an
emergency room document that says that she suffered a “contusion” or, in
plain English, a bruise. This proof she had offered was a few weeks after
the alleged attack occurred. Yet, she was still wearing her brace.
Something was obviously not right. I had been around Alberta Africa
within the days prior to the hearing. She was not wearing a brace then
and she was not showing any difficulty or pain when she used this
supposedly injured hand.
After Alberta Africa stepped off of the witness stand, her alleged
witnesses were called forth to testify about their versions of what
transpired that day. One by one, Mario Harding, Sue Africa, Carlos
Africa, and a couple of other MOVE members all testified that Gilbride
had brutally grabbed Africa and hurt her arm.
Unfortunately for Alberta Africa, none of her witnesses told the same story.
They all contradicted each other while being questioned by the judge.
My face was burning red with embarrassment as I realize that some of the
people testifying for Alberta Africa probably were not even there when the
incident occurred. Likely, they probably were not even in the same state.
After Alberta Africa’s witnesses exited, it was Gilbride's turn to explain the
events that took place. The only person who was there to support Gilbride
was his father, whom sat across the room by himself, away from the
MOVE supporters and other spectators.
John Gilbride proceeds to tell of how he came to the house to see his son
and how MOVE was waiting for him. At some point, there was a verbal
dispute. He said he was going to leave when Alberta Africa blocked his
path and locked the door.
John Gilbride said he again tried to leave and that Mario Harding pinned
him against the wall and issued the alleged threat. Either bravely or
stupidly, Gilbride said that he pulled out his cell-phone and called the
police.
Of the two scenarios presented to the judge, it was not a surprise that the
judge disbelieved the latter. Consider the most likely chain of events: 1)
Alberta Africa plots with her most loyal minions to place Gilbride in a
situation where he was alone and surrounded by MOVE members. In
typical MOVE fashion, they set up a “confrontation” with Gilbride in an
effort to make him look like an abuser.
Or 2) John Gilbride came to a MOVE house full of MOVE’s most
dedicated members, roughed up the group’s matriarch, and than called
the police on himself, ruining any chances of seeing his son.
Unbeknown to the judge, MOVE had already tried to get John Gilbride
fired from his job. They tried to intimidate him into dropping his case.
They tried to slander him in demonstrations. They tried to libel him
through email missives. They even went so far as to accused his parents
of being child molesters and picketed their neighborhood.
Nothing had stopped John Gilbride in his quest to see his son.
Thankfully, the judge saw well enough that there were deliberate falsities
and ruled against Alberta Africa's request for a restraining order.
I recall Alberta Africa stormed out of the courtroom without a word as court
officials chased after her, attempting to get her to sign paperwork.
John Gilbride left with his father and a detachment of police, whom walked
with him. A few muted “motherfuckers” were thrown towards him by the
cache of MOVE supporters as he passed by.
It was the last time that I saw John Gilbride.
