Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cousin speaks: ‘Very strict’ father created an emotionless, isolated home

By Georgia Worrell | New York Post

He grew up in a home filled with silence and was raised by a dad who acted like a ghost.

Thomas Matthew Crooks — the 20-year-old gunman who nearly assassinated Donald Trump a year ago Sunday — spent his childhood in a strange, emotionless environment dictated by a “very strict” father, according to a relative. 

On July 13, 2024, Crooks opened fire on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper. His motives and background have largely remained a mystery, but his first cousin Mark Crooks, 44, this week gave The Post a glimpse into his family’s odd and antisocial behavior.

The last time Mark saw Thomas, his sister and their parents was in March 2019 at their grandfather’s funeral, where the future assassin and his sibling “stood next to [parents Matthew and Mary] like statues.

“It’s like they were under strict orders. Like, they didn’t budge. It was really weird. We all said that,” Mark recalled.

Shortly thereafter, Matthew “pretty much told us, ‘You’ll never see us again,’” Mark said – and they didn’t. 

Mark had no idea what Thomas “liked to do” in his later teenage years – and had no clue that the college science/engineering student was struggling with mental health issues, and was building homemade bombs in the months leading up to the shooting.

He said Crooks’ reclusive dad, Matthew Crooks, 54, did everything in his power to keep his family apart from his brother Mark Sr.’s family, even though both broods lived in Pennsylvania within an hour’s driving distance.

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