Gilbert Coney

Gilbert Coney is one of the boys Frank Minna recruits from St. Vincent’s and a steady presence in Lionel Essrog’s life, first as a fellow resident of the Home and later as a colleague at L&L. Stocky and sullen, he can project toughness without making it his only defining quality: he is also tolerant of Lionel’s verbal tics, shares private discoveries with him, and forms an adult friendship with Loomis. After Minna’s death, Gilbert’s place in the group becomes precarious when police identify him in connection with Ullman’s murder. The account reports suspicion and arrest, but does not establish that he committed either killing.

Background and Place Among the Boys

Gilbert is thirteen when Minna first gathers him, Lionel, Tony Vermonte, and Danny Fantl into the back of his van. At St. Vincent’s, Gilbert is Tony’s right hand: he passes for tough, and would have welcomed being called a thug. He is especially hard on Steven Grossman, whose weight is presented as an uncomfortable mirror for Gilbert, but treats Lionel more gently. The contrast matters. Gilbert participates in the boys’ rough hierarchy, yet he does not make Lionel’s difference a reason to exclude him.

The narrator recalls Gilbert as a companion in small departures from the group’s ordinary routine. Two years before Minna’s recruitment, during a visit to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, the boys slipped away together from the official outing and returned to a hall of undersea dioramas beneath the suspended blue whale. They lingered at scenes of marine life until the room was nearly empty. Gilbert then found an unlocked, very small brass door beside the penguin display; it opened behind and into the scene. His invitation to Lionel to enter makes this discovery one of their shared secrets, a private adventure based on curiosity and trust rather than status.

Companionship and Everyday Conduct

Gilbert’s tolerance is visible in an ordinary car ride. When Lionel’s verbal outburst interrupts them, Gilbert answers with a dry joke about having a full mouth and nudges a bag of White Castle burgers toward him. The narrator notes that Gilbert is accustomed to the ticcing and does not usually comment on it. Lionel eats, then settles enough to return his attention to the house outside. Gilbert’s response is neither alarm nor ceremony: he makes room for Lionel’s behavior and offers food, a practical gesture that briefly eases the pressure of the moment.

That matter-of-fact acceptance complements their earlier museum secret. The two episodes show a friendship built less through declarations than through accommodation and shared attention. Gilbert can be sullen and can join in the boys’ hard treatment of others, but with Lionel he is not simply an enforcer of the group’s rules. The narrator’s account gives him a presence that is sometimes rough, sometimes quietly considerate, and notably unembarrassed by Lionel’s difference.

Adult Life and Connection to Loomis

Near the end of high school, Gilbert befriends Loomis while they spend time at Carroll Street park watching older men play bocce. Loomis appeals to the less disciplined side of Gilbert, away from the polish and expectations associated with Minna and the other boys. He later drifts around L&L, but does not show much interest in either its public identity as a car service or the detective work beneath it. The friendship links Gilbert to someone outside the core group and offers a different register from the toughness that marked his place at St. Vincent’s.

Minna gives Loomis the nickname Butt Trust, applying it with genuine tenderness. That detail also illuminates the world Gilbert inhabits: even a teasing name can carry affection, and the relationships around L&L do not fit neatly into the distinction between mockery and loyalty. When Loomis later serves as a sanitation police officer, he is positioned to report what he learns about Gilbert’s arrest, bringing their earlier friendship into the investigation’s aftermath.

Minna’s Death and the Ullman Case

After Minna dies, Gilbert and Lionel return from the hospital to L&L in a numb, hurried state. Tony tells them that a police officer had come looking for them. As the group tries to respond, Tony says Gilbert is the name the police have and sends him to look for Ullman. Lionel offers to help. The task places Gilbert at the center of the inquiry just as the group, deprived of Minna’s authority, is trying to decide how to hold together.

The search quickly turns into a criminal allegation. Gilbert is reported arrested on suspicion of killing Ullman, and Tony learns that he will spend the night in custody. Loomis says Gilbert did not want to say much without a lawyer. According to Loomis’s account, Ullman was already dead when Gilbert arrived, and homicide officers picked Gilbert up as he left the place, apparently having been tipped off. Loomis also reports that Gilbert had been roughed around and had asked for a lawyer. These details establish how the police came to hold him and how little he was willing to say; they do not resolve what happened at the scene.

Suspicion and Narrative Role

During a later encounter, Detective Seminole proposes a broader suspicion: Gilbert may have killed Frank Minna before killing Ullman, and may be acting with Julia Minna. Lionel rejects the theory and insists Gilbert did not kill anyone. Seminole counters that none of the group has investigator credentials in the police records; their licenses identify them as limousine operators. The exchange exposes both the vulnerability of the Minna Men’s assumed authority and the danger of treating a police theory as a settled account. The material supplied here leaves the accusation against Gilbert unresolved.

Gilbert’s role in the narrative is consequently defined by two kinds of evidence that pull in different directions. In Lionel’s memories, he is a familiar companion whose tolerance and shared adventures precede the adult investigation. In the present case, his silence, the circumstances of his arrest, and the officers’ suspicion make him an uncertain figure within the mystery. The contrast does not prove innocence or guilt; it keeps Gilbert’s loyalties and knowledge in question while showing how quickly the group’s everyday bonds are tested once Minna is gone.