"The Gilbert Goons:" A Story For Our F*cked-Up Modern Times

Many themes contained in this one.

If you are unfamiliar with the “Gilbert Goons” context/situation, this is a case out of Gilbert, AZ and the surrounding areas — where a 16 year-old kid named Preston Lord was beaten to death at a Halloween party, and an elaborate cover-up came about afterwards, ultimately involving seven other kids (age 17 to 20), their parents, the schools, etc. It seems like Talan Renner, third from top left in the image associated with this post, was the person who actually beat Lord to death — later claiming so in a now-deleted Snapchat where he said “guess I was pretty strong.” Some claim this is tied to gang violence, and that the group (and others) had a crew called “Gilbert Goons,” which was apparently the name of their Snapchat discussion.

Cover-up-wise, this one is juicy. Renner’s dad, who seems to be №2 at a very bro-y marketing and Sales agency, pulled him out of school three days after the incident (one day after Preston Lord died), and took him to an “$800,000 cabin” (not sure if the price really matters in this discussion) in the Arizona wilderness, purportedly to “let his hands heal.” Meisner, another kid who is now charged, sent group messages saying