Bob Bashara: Businessman who got wife murdered for insurance money to fuel BDSM lifestyle dies in prison
A Detroit businessman who hit national headlines almost a decade ago after he was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill his wife, allegedly because he wanted her life insurance money to supplement his BDSM-lifestyle, has died behind bars. Bob Bashara, 62, had been sentenced to life in prison in January 2015 over the strangulation death of his wife Jane Bashara three years earlier and had been serving his time at the Woodland Center Correctional Facility in Whitmore Lake. Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz confirmed he died at an Ann Arbor area hospital on Monday, August 17.
Gautz said Bashara had been hospitalized on July 26 but that he could not talk further about the case because of protocol. "I cannot talk about the cause of death due to HIPAA, but in case you were wondering if it was COVID, I can’t say that due to the same privacy law," he told Detroit News. "But I can tell you that there were no positive cases at the prison he was at."
Bashara had become infamous in the affluent, upscale Gross Pointe, Michigan community where he lived with Jane in the years since her murder, which had come as a shock to everyone who had known her. She was last seen on the afternoon of January 24, 2012, and was reported missing by her husband at 11:30 pm that night. The next day, her body was discovered in the backseat of her Mercedes SUV, which was parked in an alley on the east side of Detroit. A subsequent autopsy determined she had died from strangulation, and also found she had bruises and broken fingernails, which indicated that she had "fought for her life." From the beginning, investigators with the Grosse Pointe Park police, Detroit Police Department, and Michigan State Police had just one suspect: Bashara, her husband of 26 years.
Despite claiming innocence, he was officially named as the only "person of interest" in the case on January 27, 2012, with investigators revealing that they believed Jane had been murdered at their home and then placed in her SUV. A breakthrough in the case came on February 1, when it was reported that Joseph Gentz, a mentally disabled handyman with an IQ of 67 and who rented a property from Bashara, confessed to authorities that he had helped dispose of Jane's body after she was murdered in her garage. He claimed Bashara had paid him $2,000 and an old Cadillac to murder his wife.
As the official investigation continued, sordid details about Bashara's life began to emerge in the media, including how he allegedly led a double life centering on the underground world of sadomasochism, participated in sexual deviancy with women other than his wife, attended sex parties, and owned a "sex dungeon" in the basement of a building that he owned. He was reportedly known as "Master Bob" in Detroit's BDSM community.
Those reports were followed by claims that he was in a relationship with an alleged mistress, Rachel Rene Gillett, who had been employed in the office of alumni affairs at Wayne State University. Bashara, however, continued to profess his innocence, but curiously, did release a statement via his lawyer where he said he and Jane had been in an "open marriage." In June 2012, Bashara was charged with solicitation of murder but not for his involvement in his wife's death. Instead, authorities revealed that the 62-year-old had tried to orchestrate a hit on Gentz. He eventually admitted he tried to pay a local furniture and appliance store owner to find someone to kill the handyman and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
That conviction was followed by charges for his wife's murder and a highly-publicized trial that featured 74 witnesses, including Bashara’s former mistress, his two children, other family members, and former tenants of his rental properties, and 460 exhibits. Prosecutors revealed he killed Jane so he could collect $800,000 in her 401(k) account. They claimed his plan was to use the money to purchase a house dubbed "the cottage," where he would be served by multiple submissive women and live the BDSM lifestyle full-time.
At the trial's conclusion in 2014, the jury convicted Bashara of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation of murder, obstruction of justice, and witness intimidation, and he was sentenced to life in prison. Before his death, his time behind bars had not been uneventful either. According to Wayne County Jail records obtained by the Detroit Free Press, he had racked up repeated violations, including hiding or hoarding medication, lying, talking when not permitted, and using vulgar language.
Julie Rowe, Jane's sister, said in a statement that she had hoped he would have been jailed longer. "I am disappointed he only spent eight years in prison," wrote. "That is just not long enough for all that he ruined."