Gregory Rodriguez, Sportsman Channel host of "A Rifleman's Journal," killed by gunman who also killed himself, Mont. police say

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Gregory Rodriguez

/ gaohunts.com

(CBS/AP) WHITEFISH, Mont. - A Montana man shot and killed Gregory Rodriguez, the host of the Sportsman Channel show "A Rifleman's Journal," when the shooter found the TV personality visiting his wife, police said Friday.

PICTURES: Cops: TV show host murdered

Wayne Bengston, 41, then beat his wife, took his 2-year-old son to a relative's house and drove to his home about 25 miles away in West Glacier, where he apparently killed himself, Whitefish police said.

The victim, Rodriguez, was 43, from Sugar Land, Texas. Bengston's wife told police that Rodriguez was in town on business and visiting her at her mother's house in Whitefish when her husband showed up Thursday night.

It wasn't clear how Rodriguez and the woman were acquainted.

After the shooting, Flathead County sheriff's deputies found Bengston's truck parked in his driveway. Efforts by a police SWAT team to contact Bengston inside the house were unsuccessful, and officers found the man's body with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Besides appearing on TV, Rodriguez was the founder and CEO of Global Adventure Outfitters. According to the outfitter's website, he was an editor at Shooting Times Magazine and a contributing editor at Petersen's Hunting, Guns & Ammo and Dangerous Game.

He was a mortgage banker before founding Global Adventure Outfitters, and he has hunted in 21 countries, the website says.

"A Rifleman's Journal" tracked Rodriguez's hunting travels to exotic locations, according to a Sportsman Channel description.

He had a wife and two children, it says.

A woman who answered the phone at Global Adventure Outfitters Friday confirmed Rodriguez had been in Montana, but said the organization would not be making a statement at the time.

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by JosieAnneG March 17, 2013 2:05 PM EDT: Karma bites, he who lives by the sword (gun)dies by the sword (gun), but he won't be going where he sent all those beautiful creatures he slaughtered.; Reply to this comment


by AmandaHuggenkiss March 11, 2013 6:42 AM EDT: Note to self, even if one is a famous television personality, you cannot have sex with other people's spouses indiscriminately, their jealous partners might not accept how wonderful you are and just might blow your fn head off anyway.; Reply to this comment


by voxpopulus March 10, 2013 9:41 PM EDT: In the eyes of some, when a man cheats it's because men are jerks. When a woman cheats it's because of "relationship problems". In other words, the man's fault.; Reply to this comment


by voxpopulus March 10, 2013 9:01 PM EDT: Well that's how I want to go .... at the age of 104.; Reply to this comment


by Pabsk67 March 9, 2013 10:45 PM EST: If the shooter and his wife had a good marriage it would make you wonder why her husband would be so upset that Rodriguez was making a friendly business visit to the wife's mother's home. So upset that he'd kill himself over the whole thing. So my thinking is that Rodriguez was having a relationship with this woman, her husband found out about it and did what he did. Why kill himself though? Because he didn't want to go to jail? Or was he just unstable? I'm sure the answer will come out soon. I know I wouldn't be too thrilled to find out my husband went on a business trip and was at the home of another woman late at night. I wouldn't go do what this guy did though.; Reply to this comment


by andthetruthis March 9, 2013 7:47 PM EST: Mr Rodriguez lived a 'macho' lifestyle.
But,come on,you know in that world,men are men,and you would do well to respect a man,especially about his wife,the mother of his child.
You meet them both together,at their home.

No? You do what you want? OOOOOK.......; Reply to this comment


by CincyJazzy March 9, 2013 5:56 PM EST: He was cheating on his wife and was shot by his lovers' husband.
Not a good way to go but I guess he learned his lesson...the hard way.; Reply to this comment

by concernicus March 9, 2013 4:35 PM EST

I am a gun owner who detests the NRA. Detests. It is true that guns made it easier for the husband to commit murder and then kill himself. However, had the sleazy wife not been sleeping around, it is possible that none of this would have happened. And spare me the you don't know she was sleeping around tripe.

There are very few things that will set a man off to the degree that this guy went off. Not saying it is right, acceptable or anything else. Murder is murder. Am saying the woman should have gotten legally divorced before even looking at another man. You never, ever know how someone will react to cheating. Odds are, it will not be good.

Saddest part of all...a young child has lost both parents.

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by gbgentleman March 9, 2013 6:43 PM EST: There is no however. When someone loses his temper and there is a gun close by, it's a recipe for disaster.

A man does not own a woman. She sleeps around him, then divorce or her.


by rustysqueezebox March 9, 2013 6:50 PM EST: False. The mother of the child is alive


by Decoren45 March 9, 2013 4:18 PM EST: Too bad for the family. No matter what this woman did or didn't do, it is all very unfortunate.; Reply to this comment


by AwednotShocked March 9, 2013 2:56 PM EST: The traditionally married pistol whipping wife beating murderer's shiny twinkly new widow <---- is a gun manufacturer whom Rodriguez met at a trade show.

Wanna' bet yer bippy the murdering hubby used one of Mrs. Mommy Dearest's guns to perpetrate cordite karma upon the trophy hunting virulently anti-gun regulation (because guns don't kill people!) NRA killing machine of a TV star?; Reply to this comment