Memorial service for Hell's Angel prosecuter Gilbert

By Glenn Chapman
STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- An Oakland lawyer who vanquished adversaries ranging from Hells Angels killers to well-manicured corporate swindlers will be laid to rest here today. Howard "Mad Dog" Gilbert will be honored at a 1:30 p.m. funeral service at Home of Eternity Cemetery at 5000 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland.

Gilbert woke Sunday, had smoked salmon for breakfast, then suffered a heart attack while mowing the lawn of his home in Riverside. He would have been 63 years old Nov. 19. "It was certainly a shock," said Lane Gilbert, one of the late attorney's three sons. "He is a person intense with life, a very strong force, and to hear he passed away ... I couldn't believe it." Born in Oakland, Gilbert went to the University of California, Berkeley and earned his law degree at Boalt Hall.

Hawaiian inspiration The novel "Hawaii" by James A. Michener inspired Gilbert to move to that island with his young family after law school. Gilbert spent a few years in private practice in Hawaii before returning to Oakland, where he joined the Alameda County district attorney's office.

"Howard was fanatically passionate about whatever he was doing," said District Attorney Tom Orloff, who spoke with Gilbert just last week. "He had one speed, that was full speed." Shortly after Orloff was hired by the district attorney's office in February of 1970, he was assigned to work with Gilbert. "We would spend all day on a case, grab dinner at a Chinese restaurant, then be back at it for hours into the night," Orloff recounted of the pace set by Gilbert. "I still refer to him as the original Mad Dog."

Mad Dog "Mad Dog" was a nickname bred of admiration and respect, said retired defense attorney Lincoln Mintz, who knew Gilbert since the pair attended Oakland High School. "Howard would get his teeth into your calf and it would be impossible to shake him off," Mintz said. "He was an A-bomb. If hard work, perseverance and downright stubbornness were what it took to win criminal prosecution, Howard would have never lost." Gilbert was a bane to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang and won the conviction of two club members charged with beating a man to death in the Oakland hills.

Howard was the nemesis, literally, of the criminal element of the Hells Angels," Mintz said. "When Howard made up his mind he was going to be a one man crusade against Hells Angels criminality, that is what he did." Lane Gilbert remembers death threats that haunted his family during that time, and police cars that sometimes shadowed the bus he rode to elementary school. "Even in the late 70s, when we lived in Montana, we received a Christmas card from the Hells Angels saying "f-- y--, we didn't forget.'" the son recalled. "He was definitely a thorn in their side." Gilbert specialized for a time in consumer fraud cases. He was adept at detecting links between similar crimes and finding ways to legally inform jurors about past vile deeds of accused criminals. Gilbert became part of a team probing an historic fraud case in Montana in 1975. Montana lawyers, doctors and politicians were suspected of looting millions of dollars from that state's workers compensation division.

Varied career Gilbert next went to Washington, D.C., to serve on the House of Representatives committee investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Gilbert returned to Oakland where he and attorney Eugene Brott became the core of an innovative law firm that exposed white collar crime. "Howard was among the most brilliant and hard working lawyers I've ever met," said Associate Justice George Nicholson of the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento. "He was a wonderful, honorable person and lawyer." Nicholson knew Gilbert for more than 30 years. Gilbert eventually moved to Riverside, where he spent the final part of his career as a public defender championing the rights to the accused, most notably in death penalty cases. While Gilbert's legal ferocity was legend, he had a hidden, softer side, his son said Tuesday. Lane, who lives in Oaxaca, Mexico, told of a visit during which his father was welcomed into the home of a Mexican family whose lived in a tin hut with a dirt floor. The family shared what little food they had with their friend, Lane Gilbert, and his father. Howard Gilbert built the family a house, complete with a bathroom and electricity, in Oaxaca. "There was an anonymous, giving side of my dad that a lot of people didn't get to see," Lane Gilbert said. "He didn't talk about it." Howard Gilbert is survived by his wife, Blair; a brother, Gary, in Roseville, and three sons, Reid, Jonathan and Lane.