Roswell Gilbert; Sparked Debate With ‘Mercy Killing’

Roswell Gilbert, whose 1985 “mercy killing” of his ailing wife thrust the issue of elderly euthanasia into the national debate, has died at his daughter’s Baltimore home at the age of 85.

Gilbert spent more than five years in prison for fatally shooting his wife, Emily, before he was granted clemency in 1990. He had been convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 25 years.

He died in his sleep Saturday at the Baltimore home of Martha (Skipper) Moran, his only child.

“I shouldn’t have killed my wife, now I know that,” Gilbert said in 1990. “I loved her dearly. I truly did.”

He said his wife’s illness “created just a complete state of desperation in my mind. . . . It’s a lousy excuse, but that’s what it was.”

“He was a man of conviction and a very concerned person about his wife’s health,” said John Kinkler, Gilbert’s close friend and former Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., neighbor.

In an interview at the time of Gilbert’s clemency, Moran said she would encourage her father, who suffered from heart and lung disease, to take better care of himself.

The retired engineer chuckled then at a medical report that his death may be imminent. “I’m a tough old rooster . . . don’t believe it,” he said.