What a difference a week makes. Prior to last Thursday’s gangland-style murder of John J. Gilbride, the man at the center of a MOVE custody battle, the MOVE organization’s e-mail newsletters were rife with ugly allegations and stinging personal criticisms of Gilbride and calls to action to stop this man. Since his demise, those missives have taken a decidedly softer tone. The newsletters are sent several times a week to supporters of the organization and media types.

MOVE, a radical back-to-nature group, has been at vocal odds with the local authorities for 25 years, and is most famous for two confrontations with Philadelphia police in 1978 and 1985 that resulted in the deaths of a police officer and 11 MOVE members, and burned down a West Philadelphia neighborhood.

This latest brouhaha is the result of MOVE's anger at a judge's ruling allowing the late Mr. Gilbride unsupervised visitation with his 6-year-old son Zack by ex-wife Alberta Africa, the widow of MOVE founder John Africa. John Africa was killed in the May 1985 bombing and subsequent fire that destroyed the organization's Osage Avenue headquarters, along with 60 other homes.

More recently, though, in the newsletter dated Sept. 16, titled "Dangerous Developments in MOVE Crisis," the organization, which boarded up its West Philadelphia home to protest the custody decision in a dispute first reported by City Paper two years ago, said Gilbride is "dangerous, violent, sick, and has the potential to kidnap." It goes on:

"John Gilbride has been escalating his threats, leaving no less than eight what can only be described as psychotic messages on Alberta's answering machine. He is further demonstrating the fact that he has no regard for the life of his former wife or his six year old son." The newsletter goes on to state "...it should make people angry, it should make people wake up and get on the MOVE to ensure that this puppet of the government John Gilbride not be allowed to do what he is attempting to do."

Two days after the Sept. 16 "Dangerous Developments" newsletter, another arrived with more opinions on the matter, this time penned by Mumia Abu-Jamal, longtime MOVE friend and supporter and Pennsylvania's most celebrated death row resident.

Mumia states, "There is nothing messier than the cauldron of child custody battles, where love, hate, ego and regret boil up into a stew of sadness and smothered rage.... The stage is being set for another disaster in Philadelphia."

Mumia was right. Disaster indeed befell John Gilbride. Someone woke up and got angry enough to riddle his body with automatic gunfire as he arrived at his Maple Shade, N.J., apartment complex after his shift as a baggage agent for U.S. Air, just before midnight last Thursday. According to Burlington County prosecutor Robert Bernardi, Gilbride had just pulled into the parking lot of the Ryan's Run West complex and parked when he was ambushed. Gilbride was still strapped into his seat belt with the engine running and lights and radio on when a hail of bullets shattered the driver's-side window and struck him in the head and chest. A neighbor called 911 about a half-hour later to complain that a car was left running and shining its lights into her apartment window, and the car radio was blaring. Police arrived minutes later to find Gilbride slumped over the steering wheel, dead.

Bernardi, at a news conference Friday, said that his office would vigorously investigate, but wouldn't compromise that investigation by naming suspects or disclosing certain details of the crime.

"We have some leads, but at present I'd rather not get into those details," said Bernardi, who classified the shooting as an ambush. When questioned by reporters, he fell short of calling it an "execution" or "assassination." He also refused to identify the weapon used, although authorities are aware of the type and caliber. He did confirm, however, that he believes only one weapon was used. On whether the custody issue will be investigated as a possible motive for the killing, and whether MOVE members will be questioned, Bernardi stated, "Of course we'll examine the custody issue, as well as all pertinent leads." Then, with a smile he added, "I'm sure MOVE would want to fully cooperate to help us catch this killer."

Detective Sergeant Jack Smith of Bernardi's office says he was unaware of the MOVE newsletters, and forwarded the information to the investigators on the case.

After news of Gilbride's murder hit the airwaves, the folks who put together the MOVE newsletters did some serious spin-doctoring. On Friday, folks on the mailing list got this in their inboxes:

"MOVE is committed to protecting our children but we're not killers or murderers. Our real fight have [sic] always been with this government, not with John Gilbride.... MOVE knows that it's the government that is behind John Gilbride's actions in the custody case, and it's the government that's to blame for the death of John Gilbride. The MOVE organization is deeply saddened and hurt by the blow we received this morning of the news that John is gone."

Interestingly, this newsletter marks the first one where Gilbride is addressed fondly and by first name only. It also marks the the first time MOVE brings up Gilbride's father, Jack, as having some role in the whole sordid affair.

"John Gilbride was being misused by his racist, hateful father, Jack Gilbride, and John became the unfortunate pawn of this government's, and his own father's treachery," the e-mail explains.

Offered as an explanation, MOVE asserts that Jack Gilbride attempted to lure his son away from MOVE, and encouraged the breakup of John and Alberta's marriage. Then again on Monday, this:

"All Jack Gilbride talked about to the press was how proud he was of John because he spent all his money fighting in the courts to gain custody of his son; pride, money and fighting is what's important to Jack Gilbride, no sorrow, no grief, no personal remembrance of his son.... Jack Gilbride is just as responsible for his son's death as the person that pulled that trigger."

Contacted by phone at the group's University City headquarters Monday afternoon, MOVE leader and spokesperson Ramona Africa insists that the inconsistency between what they said before and after Gilbride's murder exists only in the minds of a biased media.

"There is no inconsistency," Africa says. "What John was doing was irresponsible and the bottom line is we took a strong stand against it. He was not fit to care for a child. But that does not mean that we wanted something like this to happen. How do you think my sister [Alberta] feels? The government took her first husband and now they've taken a second husband and removed all hope of reuniting this family. We never hated John Gilbride. He was not our enemy."

Africa says that MOVE is under constant government surveillance, preventing anyone in the organization from taking such drastic and violent action. Moreover, she says, violence is not in MOVE's nature.

"We do not have a history of violence and murder. This government has a history of violence and murder. We believe in defending ourselves and our property, but self-defense is one thing, murder is another."

Ramona Africa, the lone adult survivor of the 1985 bombing, spent seven years in prison following the disaster. Despite the group's long-running feud with police and authority in general, Africa says they're prepared to assist in the investigation of Gilbride's murder.

"If police want to question MOVE, we will fully cooperate. They certainly know where to find us."