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and she told detectives the same thing. rachel gave bob an ultimatum. that weekend prior to the homicide. she told him, i need to see your divorce papers now. narrator: rachel's ultimatum seemed to explain why bob needed jane out of the way. but investigators still needed physical evidence from the murder itself, so they went back to joe gentz's confession. and the driver's side door, the dirt was all disturbed, as if someone brushed up against it or there was a struggle or something. narrator: gentz also described what was left inside the vehicle in addition to jane's body, a description that exactly matched what investigators found.

narrator: gentz told investigators that after dumping the suv, he went to a nearby mcdonald's to get something to eat. police found security camera footage of him doing exactly that. so his story is checking out. over the course of weeks, we were able to corroborate it. narrator: and in a major coup, investigators were able to recover forensic evidence tying gentz directly to the murder. mike narduzzi: he told us that he was wearing these boots and that he got rid of the boots. and he told us that he dropped these boots into a clothing donation box.

narrator: detective narduzzi says they tracked down the boots and sent them off to the lab for testing. her dna was on the bottom of those boots. so his story is corroborated on a major point right there. yes. narrator: but the boot wasn't the only source of dna evidence. gentz told investigators that jane fought for her life during their struggle and showed the cops the scratches to prove it. which is common with struggles. if someone's assaulting somebody and there's a struggle, you get the assaulter's dna under the victim's fingernails. and the victim had a broken fingernail and there was traces of joe gentz there. correct. narrator: after nearly a month long investigation to corroborate gentz's confession, authorities finally felt they had enough to make a move, but only on gentz. marc santia: joe was supposed to have a hearing for an unrelated his daughter. we were there. we were talking to joe.

and we had no idea. narrator: santia's cameraman was rolling as gentz was ushered into a conference room by a cadre of officers. he didn't know what was going on. we asked him. he had no idea. and then that's when everything just started to unravel. so what was he charged with? first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. narrator: joe gentz was now in custody. but bob bashara, the man gentz claimed hired him to do the job, was not. you really believe that the husband's got his fingerprints on this thing. - yes. that he's the architect of the crime, right? yes, absolutely. narrator: so you're going to get to the husband via joe, i think, right? is that the strategy? at that point we believed joe that bob did this. narrator: bob bashara would have a lot to say about that. coming up, bob faces tough questions about his marriage. bob bashara: jane and i had a very good relationship. we had understandings on certain things. would you say it's what they used to call an open marriage in the '70s? it was a little bit like that, yeah.

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but if that was the case, why hadn't bashara himself been arrested for murder yet? the police chief comes out and says there's one person of interest, bob bashara. what had happened there? i have no idea. i mean, they have a man that admitted to killing her. this joe gentz. i was the one that referred joe to them two days after jane's death. and yet, before anybody hears about joe the handyman, they're hearing about you. right. terrible. narrator: the person of interest. the person of interest. and from that point on, the media has ruined my life. the most important thing, though, is i've lost my wife. the number one most important thing. and i have children that have lost their mother. and that's what everyone seems to forget in this whole mess. did you murder your wife? did you cause her death? absolutely not. were you in cahoots with this handyman guy? no. narrator: to come in and do the dirty work? oh no, absolutely not. let me tell you something.

i loved my wife dearly. loved my wife. narrator: it was gentz and gentz alone, said bashara. case closed. bob bashara: all i know is that he's admitted doing this. they have the man behind bars. let me rebuild my life. let me move on. i miss her terribly. the mother of two wonderful children is gone, and that just absolutely saddens me. narrator: bashara said his big mistake was being a soft touch for gentz, trying to throw some work his way. the handyman, he said, was in and out of family court at the time and desperate for money. bob bashara: he called me incessantly, needed to talk, needed money because he had a custody hearing where he needed $1,500 to pay a lawyer. and i wouldn't give it to him. narrator: he tells a story that you're there in the garage with a gun on him. you say do it now. unbelievable that he would even say that. the man is a disturbed man, and he made a mistake.

and he crossed the line, killed my wife, and now he's trying to blame it on me. and said he did it for what? little $1,000 or so and an old beat up cadillac. first of all he said 2,000. then it was 6,000. then it was 8,000 and a cadillac. i didn't offer him anything to do anything. think about it just for a moment. if you wanted to harm someone, would you hire a guy with a 68 iq and have the work done in your garage in your home? just for a moment, think about that. does that make any sense? absolutely not. i mean, i'm not a nefarious person, but i'm certainly not going to hire an idiot to kill my wife in my garage. narrator: and the idea that he forced gentz to do it at gunpoint was preposterous, said bashara. i'm not a violent man. i'm a pacifist, actually. i don't own a gun.

narrator: police found no evidence of a gun registered to bashara and no firearms were found in the bashara home. while bashara scoffed at gentz's confession implicating him, he acknowledged there was truth to the rumors circulating around town. were there other women? i do not want to get into a lot of this because of my children, but i will tell you that i did have-- i have a relationship with one other woman. is this the woman known as rachel? yes. but it has nothing to do with this case or anything to do with the death of jane. nothing at all. narrator: he also said, without providing specifics, that his wife was aware of the other woman in his life. bob bashara: jane and i had a very good relationship. we had understandings on certain things. would you say it's what they used to call an open marriage in the '70s? well, i don't want to go that far, but it was a little bit like that, yes. narrator: there was some sort of an understanding? we had an understanding. correct. and that's what people are going to find hard to believe.

her family, her friends. narrator: jane's family declined iew with bob bashara in 2012, they issued a statement rejecting any claims of an open marriage. "we as a family are certain that jane would have chosen to end her marriage rather than participate in an open marriage. any comments made to the contrary should be met with disbelief." did jane know about the alternative lifestyle? no. you try to keep things private, not to embarrass anyone. bob, this really gets complicated by what's being called your alternative lifestyle and people who say they a different bob bashara. they know master bob. well, you know. what do you say about it all? let me tell you, it was a private part of my life. it was nothing-- it had nothing to do with jane. and people talk about that dark side. they don't even know about what's involved with that. narrator: forget his lifestyle, bashara said.

it was irrelevant. the only thing that mattered was that joe gentz had i would hope so. let me rebuild my life. my life's been torn apart. every aspect of it. i've lost my job. i've taken a leave of absence from rotary. it's unbelievable. narrator: unbelievable. that's what you could say about what happened next, because a case that was already sad and strange was about to go completely off the rails. marc santia: you thought the bashara case was askew. you thought the bashara case was strange. get ready. because now everything just started spinning. narrator: coming up, murder for hire take two. narrator: when "dateline" continues.

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did that make you a little scared? well, yeah, but i told them. i kept on telling them. if i were to orchestrate a deal, you would have never found a body. you know what i mean? narrator: tibaudo told police that a few weeks after jane's murder and gentz's arrest, bob asked him to come over to his house to look at a refrigerator that wasn't working. steve tibaudo: next thing, he starts bleeding in my ear about how he needs joe gentz taken care of. so it's not about refrigerators at all. no, it's about silencing joe. so he's got to have gentz killed? yeah, more or less. he was asking me if i could reach out and touch him. narrator: hearing this story, investigators decided to wire up tibaudo to record bob, hoping he would implicate himself in trying to have gentz killed in jail. special agent chris hess with the fbi in detroit was assigned to work with tibaudo on the operation. where is it agreed that tibaudo was going to meet bashara? so the meetings were to take place at tibaudo's shop at his store in detroit.

you're the coach of this thing. what's your last word to him as you send him out to play? my last words to him is be yourself. you know him. you know how to interact with him. narrator: now, you're playing along with the authorities at this point, right? best i can. i don't want to fumble the ball for them, because i know what kind of guy bob was, although i didn't realize he was that extreme. i knew he was an extremist. but to kill your wife, you got to be a psychopath. you know what i mean? narrator: an fbi surveillance team had bob in their sights as he arrived to meet tibaudo. comes to my store, and he looked really terrible, like he hadn't been sleeping. narrator: though it's hard to make out, one of the first things bob told tibaudo was that he didn't kill his wife. narrator: then bob, cut to the chase, saying he could pay tibaudo $20,000

if he would find a hitman in jail who could get rid of joe gentz. narrator: bob sounded determined, but also nervous about trusting tibaudo. did he pat you down looking for the device? oh yeah. i strip searched for him. what'd you tell him? i says-- i bent over and mooned him. i says, you see any wires over there? i said, i'm wireless. and i finally, and i told him, you know what, bob? that's it. get out of here. i used a boomerang attack. you know, the effect where you tell somebody i don't want to sell it now. it's too late. bye bye. and then he comes back, he goes, no, no, no, no. he starts begging me. narrator: he was wired, of course. the fbi had cleverly disguised its device.

the two kept talking. tibaudo spun out some creative ideas about how someone could get rid of joe gentz in that jail. so what was the role you had to play at that point? tough guy? i figured i'd focus on movie actors that i've seen. so a little bit of "goodfellas," a little bit of "godfather"? a little bit of "goodfellas" with robert de niro, because he wanted to kill everybody in that movie, and he did kill half of them. you know what i mean? so when you're doing this face to face, how is he behaving, steve? like a nut who's on drugs. he's rattled? he's agitated? and then a couple of days later, he's calm. he's a chameleon. narrator: tibaudo says it was that calmer bob who showed up

three days later at his furniture shop, cash in hand, and whispering. narrator: on the fbi recording, you can even hear bob doling out the down payment. bashara pays him $2,000 in cash and asks for a receipt. a receipt? a receipt for commissioning the hit? well, a receipt for appliances to cover his commissioning of a hit. is that weird to ask for a receipt in a cash deal? i would say it's weird, yes. narrator: with that transaction on tape, the fbi had the goods. minutes after that meeting with tibaudo, police swooped in to arrest bob. reporter: only defender cameras roll as bob bashara leaves the police station

in the back of a squad car. it's not where you expected this thing to go. it is not what we expected at all. we were stunned. but then with this case, you just never really knew what was coming next. narrator: wayne county prosecutors charged bob bashara with solicitation to murder joe gentz. realizing he was caught on tape, bob decided not to fight it and pleaded guilty. in court, he tearfully admitted to the murder for hire plot, but never said why he wanted to kill gentz. bob bashara: i am truly and humbly sorry for my actions. i apologize to this court. i apologize to mr. gentz. narrator: he was sentenced to prison for nearly seven years. then just 10 days later, joe gentz was in court to plead guilty, too. but he cut a deal with prosecutors, pleading to second degree murder in jane's death and given a lesser sentence than the life behind bars he was facing. in exchange, he agreed to testify against bob.

bob bashara offered me money to kill his wife. he threatened me if i did not kill her. narrator: the prosecution now had its star witness. and with bob behind bars, investigators had enough to finally charge the husband with jane's murder. the day came more than a year after her death. today, robert bashara has been charged with one count of first degree premeditated murder. narrator: to that and to other charges, including conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder, bob pleaded not guilty, setting the stage for a roller coaster of a trial. coming up, jane's mom on the stand. the topic, a certain interview. on "dateline," he said they had an open marriage, and that upset me. narrator: when "dateline" continues.

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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. israel's airstrikes killing at least 11 people saturday in beirut, lebanon. dozens were injured as diplomats are scrambling to broker a cease-fire. the fourth to hit the lebanese m less than a week. countries agreed to a target of $300 billion to help develop -- developing nations deal with the impacts of climate change. president biden congratulated saying it puts the world a safer path to the future. for now, back to dateline. narrator: by october 2014, more than two and a half years after jane bashara's death, her husband, big bob to some, master bob to others, was now just defendant bob, preparing to face trial for her murder. by then, he was a pariah to his one time defenders in grosse pointe, including his own son

and daughter, who were set to testify against him. marc santia had moved on to report for wnbc-tv in new york, but followed the trial closely from afar. bob became an outcast. people did not want to be associated with bob at all, because people could see where this was going. in the case tuesday morning. narrator: hank winchester sat in court every day as the case unfolded. people in detroit, the surrounding areas, grosse pointe, they wanted to see how this was going to play out. and trust me, it did not disappoint. this trial was just about as wild as the investigation itself. narrator: judge vonda evans, who has since retired from the bench, presided over the case. in your years on the bench, had you ever encountered a case like that of bob bashara? when you think you've seen it all, you see this. it was everything that made cases interesting.

sex, lies, and murder. wow, mr. bashara, you're looking good today. good morning, your honor. vonda evans: how are you? - thank you. narrator: your honor, what did you make of when you saw him in court for the first time? big guy. very large man, but very gentle. it was hard to reconcile the allegations against him looking at him. narrator: prosecutors, of course, believed that bob was far from gentle. with no forensics to link him to that murder scene in the garage, their chief strategy was to attack his character with a parade of witnesses who had many stories to tell about master bob. the goal here was to tear down the facade, tear down the idea that this was a successful man in grosse pointe with a great family who lived a perfect life. how? well, they exposed bob's secret life.

narrator: the cast of characters testifying for the prosecution included several men and women from around detroit who had been with bob at parties and in that dungeon beneath the hard luck lounge, sparking curiosity from the judge. vonda evans: what is the bdsm? [laughs] it's a good question. i was just involved. bob introduced me to it. vonda evans: what is it? i mean, in order to introduce you to someone, you've got to know what it is. it's very hard to explain. narrator: apart from the salacious details, prosecutors were determined to zero in on one particular person in bob's life. rachel gillett, bob's girlfriend. i first met him on an adult website. narrator: on the stand, rachel testified about their first connection online. i was single, a submissive woman looking for a dominant single man.

narrator: she said their initial contact was all based on a lie. vonda evans: and what does he tell you in person after you've spoken to him online about his marital status? that he was a widower. narrator: did she think she was in love with bob or do you think he was in love with her? i think rachel bought into the whole deal. she thought that she was beginning this new life with bob. and it seems like she was just completely blindsided by the whole thing herself, if that's what you believe from her testimony. narrator: and while rachel appeared to be the other woman in bob's life, jurors would hear that he actually had another other woman in his plans. rachel gillett: we had talked off and on about having another woman either live with us or had a relationship with him. vonda evans: ok. and when you say another person lived with you, you're talking about living in the house that you two were buying together? yes. narrator: you heard it right.

a house. prosecutors showed that in the months before jane's death, bob and rachel were looking at real estate in grosse pointe to build their new life together. in fact, they had a closing date set for this house. with all that talk from rachel and from gentz about a deadline, here was a literal one. january 27, three days after jane's murder. and the hope was that their arrangement in that new home would also include this woman, janet leehmann. bob met her online, hoping to recruit her and bring her to grosse pointe to live with him and rachel. well, yes, he told me he was looking for a third, and i told him that i didn't want to be a third wheel and that i was looking for a one on one. and then he contacted me back and said, no, it wouldn't be like that. narrator: she said bob was persistent, and two weeks before jane's murder, he traveled to oregon to spend a weekend with janet and test the waters. vonda evans: at some point when you were together during this weekend, did you begin to have

intimate relationship? yes. narrator: but she testified that the sex with bob was very rough and it convinced her to send bob packing. before he left, she said, she overheard him on the phone in a confrontational conversation that stuck with her. vonda evans: and he said, i want this done. i want this done now. yeah, and i want it done before i get back. vonda evans: he said he wanted it done before he got back. yes. narrator: prosecutors believed that person he was talking to was joe gentz. and what bob wanted was for jane to be murdered. why all this urgency? the guy on the phone, you got to do it now. he's going to lose rachel. and she has said to him, listen, the clock is ticking. if we're going to be together, we have to do this quickly. narrator: prosecutors noted that on the day before his wife's murder, bob was constantly calling joe gentz. that series of 22 calls in total. he was clearly at a point where he was melting down, working to get in touch with joe gentz. if you think joe gentz, bob, is a crazy guy

and you want no interaction with him in your life, why in the world are you calling him dozens of times a day? it doesn't add up. narrator: bob's cell phone helped tell another story too. fbi special agent chris hess analyzed cell phone tower evidence for bob's phone and testified about his findings. so on the day that jane is murdered, bashara's alibi is he's at that bar and he doesn't get back home until much later. he says, i'm not in the garage with gentz. what's the story told by his telephone? the phone associated with bashara tells a completely different story. he was at one point at the hard luck lounge. however, there was a point in time where he does leave the lounge and he's in the area consistent with their house. he's not at the hard luck lounge the way he says. correct. narrator: with that, prosecutors believe they shot a hole clean through bob's alibi. and while prosecutors put more than 70 witnesses

on the stand, they believed in some ways the most damaging witness against big bob bashara was the man himself in his numerous statements in the media. the state played clips from the interview with bob that "dateline" broadcast in 2012, including bob's description of his marriage to jane. some sort of an understanding? we had an understanding, correct. narrator: jane's mom took the stand to express her anger at her son-in-law. on "dateline," he said they had an open marriage, and that upset me. narrator: back in 2012, bob had also told us about his initial reaction to the news of jane's death. prosecutors played the clip in court. so when do you get the call? the police knocked on the door at 9:30 the next morning. i think i fell to my knees. it was absolutely the worst news i could have gotten. narrator: the detective who met bob that morning took the stand and said that description was a lie. like some other witnesses, he opted not to have

his face appear on camera. there wasn't really a lot of reaction. vonda evans: reaction or emotion? both. narrator: and prosecutors had one more clip to play the jury. joe gentz had claimed that bob pointed a gun at him in that garage, threatening him if he didn't kill jane. bob told us that was untrue and it was this simple. i'm not a violent man. i'm a pacifist, actually. i don't own a gun. narrator: but bob's mother took the stand and said that five months after jane's death, she'd gone to bob's safety deposit box and discovered something. i found a gun. man: had you ever seen that gun before? no. narrator: bob's mother contacted his attorney at the time, david griem, who held on to the gun for 14 months before finally turning it over to investigators. clearly, bob had a gun. now, whether it was held to joe gentz's head

within the garage that night, well, that's now up for the jury to try to put that piece of the puzzle together. narrator: for prosecutors, it all told a story of a man lying through his teeth to anyone who would listen, all to cover up his plan to kill jane and begin a new life with his girlfriend, rachel. what they did was it was like almost finally got to the core. narrator: except one big layer was missing from the prosecution's case. their star witness, joe gentz. and bob's defense would have a lot to say about that. coming up. maybe master bob's sex life wasn't so secret. there's no doubt in my mind that she knew what her husband was into. narrator: when "dateline" continues. (cough cough) (sneeze) (♪♪)

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narrator: bob bashara's one time handyman, joe gentz, had pleaded guilty to strangling and killing jane, but struck a plea deal with prosecutors to cooperate with them. gentz was expected to testify that bob threatened at gunpoint to kill him if he didn't murder jane. but when gentz came into court, he had a surprise for everyone. vonda evans: is your desire at this time not to testify for either party? no, ma'am. narrator: bob, who was serving a prison sentence for trying to order a hit on gentz, sat in court stunned. everyone is expecting joe gentz

to tell his story of killing jane and all the lurid details. and then what, lo and behold, he elects not to testify, which i think is contravening his deal he's got with the prosecutors. but at the end of the day, so many people wanted to hear directly from joe what happened in that garage. how was this all set up, joe? is bob really the mastermind of it all? narrator: prosecutors didn't contest gentz's decision not to testify, believing they had a strong enough case without him. but lillian diallo, one of bob bashara's two defense attorneys at trial, had been eager to cross-examine gentz. i was so unhappy that i couldn't put this man on the witness stand. diallo regarded gentz as an unreliable witness who told multiple versions of his story. what's more, when he was first interviewed by investigators, she says he didn't even mention bob bashara. and all that dna evidence, she says, points in one direction. to joe gentz, not bob. gentz did this all on his own, and then he made this story up.

and you know what? the forensic work really validates that story, doesn't it? it does you a lot of good because forensically, it says, yes, gentz is do in there just exactly what he described. but the forensic techs don't see much sign of bob bashara there. right. he was there as far as being a resident in the house. but what i'm saying for that per. not in the garage when the killings going down, though. there is no forensic evidence that puts him there at that particular time. narrator: aside from that lack of forensics, diallo's overall strategy throughout the trial was to hammer home that her client's sexual behavior may have made for titillating headlines, but it didn't make bob bashara a murderer. let's get the elephant out of the room. all that bdsm. i'm going to tell you, in all my years of living, i had never, never heard of such things. was it relevant to the charges as you saw the case? no. let's talk about the homicide. let's hit the facts.

let's hit the elements. let's get the inconsistencies. narrator: diallo worked to poke holes in the prosecution's case, arguing bob had no motive for murder and that jane knew about bob's extracurricular activities. there's no doubt in my mind that she knew what her husband was into. jane bashara knew? lillian dialo: she knew. about his taste? lillian dialo: she knew. she was a lady with a family. and her thing is, like so many women's things are, don't embarrass this family. you just don't embarrass us, right. narrator: diallo put one of jane's friends, lois valente, on the stand to illustrate the point. bob had gone to a key party over in livonia or in dearborn or somewhere over there, and he had wanted jane to go with him. lillian dialo: and could you tell this jury what your understanding of key party was from mrs. bashara? so i asked jane, what's a key party? and she said it's where everybody takes their keys, car keys, throws them into a bowl, and you take the key out and you have sex

with whoever you took your-- whose keys you took out of the bowl. narrator: the same friend also testified that jane told bob she didn't want to have anything to do with the key party and that he could do whatever he wanted to do without her. bob bashara had been bob bashara for years. do you understand me? this was nothing new. and something that people may not have known. bob bashara had been married before and divorced. so he knows how to divorce you without killing you. narrator: the final pillar of bashara's defense was a tried and true strategy. discredit the investigation. diallo argued that grosse pointe park police were overwhelmed by this case and made a series of blunders. she called detective mike narduzzi to the stand and pointed out this was his first homicide investigation. lillian dialo: this was huge, big news out of grosse pointe park, the homicide of one of its residents, correct? yes, ma'am.

lillian dialo: nothing like this of this magnitude has ever happened under your watch. correct? correct. narrator: the defense zeroed in on what it said were some key early mistakes made by the grosse pointe park police. they noted officers didn't collect some of the victim's clothing for fiber evidence. they didn't pull the security camera footage outside the hard luck lounge to see if bashara was indeed there the night of the murder. and some of their early witness interviews were conducted improperly. does that lead you down the path of reasonable doubt in your arguments? it can. narrator: prosecutors said the department's mistakes didn't prevent them from coming to the right conclusions. but bob's defense argued that the errors accelerated the officer's rush to judgment that bob bashara was a murderer. you're not investigating to get to, ok, what happened? bob bashara. he's our dude. so let's figure this out. and that's the way this investigation went. narrator: in her closing, diallo reiterated to the jury

that her client's other life was no secret to his wife. bdsm, that was not going to be a motive for murder in this case. narrator: and she kept telling jurors that they never heard from the one person directly tying bob bashara to the murder of his wife. joe gentz. hank winchester: the defense, they just wanted to remind everybody that bob himself, maybe he's a victim in all of this. maybe joe acted alone. and when you go back into that jury room, don't forget about that. narrator: after nearly two months of testimony, judge evans sent jurors into room to answer that one key question. did bob bashara really turn his handyman into a hit man? coming up. one more explosive twist. so i get a letter. i'm like, what's going on? narrator: when "dateline" continues. stay ahead of your child's moderate-to-severe eczema

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learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us narrator: it was december 2014, nearly three years after the murder of jane bashara. the trial of her husband, bob, had exposed his secrets in suburban grosse pointe. now, a jury would decide his fate. it's in the hands of the jury now. i feel like any other attorney feels during a time like this. you don't know. it's up to a jury to decide. narrator: how did you feel about the case? do you think you had it?

yes, i did. and to me, it was a no brainer. he did it. how could he not be found guilty? narrator: after nearly three full days of deliberations, the jury gave its knock on the door. we all got back and got down there, and the courtroom was packed with interested people. the media family. and you could hear a pin drop. vonda evans: homicide, murder first degree, premeditated. juror: guilty of homicide, murder first degree, premeditated. narrator: guilty on all counts, including first degree murder. at that moment, for me personally, i felt good for the family. i felt good for jane's sisters and her mom. and i felt bad for bob's family. but i mostly felt really satisfied by the work that the entire team did. narrator: hearing the verdict that he'd been found guilty, how did he take that? lillian dialo: i think he looked disgusted, like, you've got it wrong.

you've got it wrong. i think bob right into the very end believed that he was going to get away with this, that there was a moment where he was going to be able to control this. would master bob be able to control the courtroom, the jury, the judge? i mean, really, it's his final act of control. and is he going to get away with it? well, he doesn't. narrator: judge vonda evans sentenced bob bashara to the mandatory life in prison. your desire to have rachel was obsessive. you openly conducted a relationship with this woman around your family and friends. narrator: bashara remained defiant. i am innocent that i had nothing to do with my wife's death, terrible, terrible death. narrator: and with that, it looked like the tragic and salacious saga of bob bashara was over. until it wasn't. the news came to the judge's mailbox in december 2015, one

year after bob's conviction. so i get a letter and it's from joe gentz. ok. so my assistant reads it. she says, judge, you got to read this. this is explosive. narrator: it was an affidavit from gentz dictated to a fellow inmate. in it, gentz said he went to the bashara home back in january 2012 on his own, angry that bob hadn't paid him for some work. he continued, "i knew mr. bashara was not in his house, so i broke into his home, walked into the garage, and mrs. jane bashara caught me and i lost control. i could not longer live knowing that mr. robert bashara was completely innocent. robert bashara was not even in his house when i killed his wife." i'm like, am i going to have to retry this case? what's going on?

i didn't know. i was on pins and needles. narrator: bob bashara was already appealing his case, seeking a new trial. this could be a game changer. and now joe gentz is back in the spotlight and he's saying he will tell his story. which in itself is another bombshell. i mean, now are we going to hear from joe and what story is joe going to tell? narrator: judge evans convened a special hearing. and lo and behold, we bring joe to court. and i tell him, do you understand you've taken a plea agreement? and do you realize that the plea agreement was premised upon you being truthful? you lied. you're now facing some serious stuff. i am not ready to proceed. narrator: bob sat in court expecting his one time nemesis, joe gentz, to bring him a new ticket to freedom, or at least a new trial. but gentz took the stand and did another 180, stunning the courtroom.

he said he made up the version in that new affidavit, believing it would help him get less prison time. what, this? this is garbage. narrator: he went on to testify that bob was, in fact, there in the garage with him. it was his original story with some additional details. next thing i know, he pulls a gun on me and says, shut her up. they were arguing still. and he says, do it now. so i broke her neck. yes. be honest, i did do that. but meanwhile, after she was dead, he walks over. her top was open. he goes over to her and he says, i'm sorry, baby. i didn't mean it. he didn't stumble. he was methodical in his explanation of what occurred. the truth gave joe gentz courage to be the master in that courtroom that day. do you believe all of joe gentz's story, some of it, or most of it?

what do you think? i believe every single thing that he said. when bob saw joe, he didn't know what to think. but as the testimony began to unfold, he knew that joe gentz had his fate in his hand and it was over. narrator: judge evans denied bob bashara a new trial, and he later lost an appeal to the michigan supreme court. in late 2016, the building that was once the hard luck lounge and that dungeon burned to the ground. and then in august 2020, bob bashara, big bob, master bob, inmate bob, was taken to a hospital where he died. he was 62. it seemed like it was never going to be over, and then it was over with a finality. yep, it's over. it's over. and i think the world is a little bit better off with him not in it, quite frankly.

marc santia: it was a tough one to cover, because you would get caught up in bob and the alternative lifestyle and joe. but then you would always come back to jane. justice for jane. jane's free. she's free because bob is gone. and so now she can rest and be the angel that she is. [music playing] hello, i'm andrea canning, and this is "dateline."er. he's evil. he's pure evil. he is that character in those horror movies. andrea canning: he hid in the shadows, a killer in a mask.