OCALA, FL (WSAU) — A former Central Wisconsin resident is accused of trying to have five people killed in Florida.
The Wausau Daily Herald is reporting that Gary Bangstad has been charged with 5 counts of solicitation of murder in Marion County, Florida. Bangstad has been in prison in Ocala since October for violating his probation for domestic battery. While in prison, he tried to recruit a fellow inmate to kill 5 people.
Bangstad is the founder and former director of the Wisconsin Master Chorale in Plover and moved to Florida about two years ago. The current president of the chorale group and friend of Bangstad Robert Prosch said in an interview on Thursday that Bangstad has bipolar disorder and doesn’t know right from wrong when he’s not on his medication.
An inmate told a detention deputy on October 20th that Bangstad offered him $4,000 and a car to kill five people. The inmate said Bangstad told him who they were, how he wanted them murdered, where the potential victims would be, and how much he was willing to pay.
The inmate also gave jail investigator Nathan McLain a note from Bangstad that included a drawing of the house and instructions to feed the victim’s bodies to the pigs and alligators. The inmate then later told Sgt. Tanya Rodrigues and Detective Nick Sutliff that Bangstad approached him about killing the people, one of whom was a child.
The investigators went to the home that the inmate referenced and found it matched the layout in the drawing. The drawing also correctly showed where each person slept in the house. Investigators interviewed Bangstad himself on November 7th, where he talked about his anger towards the people.
When asked about the note, Bangstad denied wanting anyone killed, but did acknowledge he wrote the note. Bangstad explained he and the other inmate agreed on selling his car for $2,000 and that the names in the note were so the inmate knew who was in the home to be able to talk with them.
Later in the interview Bangstad did tell the detectives the intention was for the inmate to kill everyone mentioned in the note.
Bangstad is a former professor who taught music at the college level. He directed several choirs and choruses during his time in Central Wisconsin. Bangstad also taught at UW-Stevens Point for a couple of years in the 1980s.
