Peter Gruich is Wisconsin’s Northwoods Luigi Mangione
Subtitle: Right-wing disinformation is at the heart of political violence caused by mental illness.
*To read owner Kirks’ weekly essay with all of the pics and source links, subscribe to our Substack. Kirk Bangstad, is the of Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC
You’ve probably heard of Luigi Mangione, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and Matthew Alan Livelsberger, but have you heard of Peter Gruich?
The first three have made national news through acts of political violence over the last month.
Luigi Mangione allegedly killed the United Healthcare CEO. His motive was seemingly to fix our broken healthcare system.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar mowed over 14 people in New Orleans. His apparent motive was to kill “apostates,” or those that renounce religion and morality.
Matthew Alan Livelberger blew himself up in a Tesla Cybertruck in front of Trump hotel in Las Vegas. His motive, apart from wartime guilt caused by PTSD, was apparently to bring awareness to his believe that “Democrats should be removed from the federal government and the military.”
Most of you have probably heard of these first three guys, but you probably haven’t yet heard of Peter Gruich from Clinton Township in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, who apparently is currently being jailed in Oneida County, WI.
Why? He violently threatened Gregg Walker; the misogynistic, anti-gay, right-wing publisher of the Lakeland Times; and Judge Sheik, the original Oneida County judge who presided over my bogus criminal defamation arrest which was initiated by Gregg Walker.
Here’s the content of the email that Peter allegedly sent Walker…
“Hey punk, it would be a shame if your ‘newspaper’ burned down or if your local pigs stated [sic] getting killed, wouldn’t it? You and your police chief need a big lawsuit you f—- g punk. F—k you, Pete Gruich Nazi Killer.”
Here’s another email he allegedly sent to the Oneida County Clerk’s office that threatened Judge Sheik.
“Hey a—le, I like suing corrupt p—-y judges and cops that need to be killed. Does that bother you or those f——g a—-les that you work for? F—k you, Pete Gruich Nazi Killer.”
Apparently, when questioned about why he sent those emails, Gruich responded that he had read many of the articles that I had written about being unlawfully arrested for bogus criminal defamation charges by Oneida County Sheriff Hartmann, and how the Oneida County District Attorney, Jillian Pfeiffer, had asked the judge to put me under a gag order so as not to be able to defend myself in a part of the state where the news is controlled by the guy who had me arrested, Gregg Walker.
The sheriff’s department also found an email that Gruich had apparently written to me. Here is the content of that email:
“Kirk, having extensive experience with corrupt cops, I would suggest that you file a FED- ERAL LAWSUIT against the newspaper publisher and its employees, the pig chief and his piglets and the prosecuting attorney and that sh— —e that you reside in. Don’t delay, sue those f—g punks now, in federal court f—k the Nazis. Pete Gruich.”
Now, given that I write to over 100K people every week and get hundreds of replies, one can probably understand how I might have missed this email from Gruich in particular. Other than using off-color language, however, Gruich was right–I’m going to have to sue Gregg Walker and Sheriff Hartmann in federal court because the Oneida County government and justice system have proven time and time again to be in the pocket of Gregg Walker and the “OBNOM” (Old Boy’s Network of Minocqua). My years-long battle to simply operate my business in this county, along with the most insane civil defamation judgement in Wisconsin’s history, certainly proves my point.
I have two different points to make about Gruich’s case. The first one is this:
Over the last 4 years, I’ve probably received about 50 emails, Facebook messages, or voicemails from deranged right-wingers who threatened to physically harm me or my extended family. Not only that, but the Minocqua Brewing Company has received HUNDREDS of fake negative reviews from online trolls trying to destroy my business.
At first, it was pretty alarming, especially the death threats. My lawyer Fred Melms and I acted on two in particular, and we were able to get restraining orders against a guy in Wisconsin Rapids and a woman in Milwaukee. What happened to those two people? Instead of being jailed, like Gruich, they were simply barred from contacting me or posting about me on social media.
Apart from these two incidents, I guess I’ve become jaded and don’t think much of these threats anymore, especially the ones on social media. The level of daily vitriol on these platforms is insane, and keyboard warriors threaten to do the darnedest things from the safety of their mother’s basements—things that they would never have the courage to actually do in person.
Thus, in light of what I’ve been through, I think that throwing this guy in jail, who apparently has never been charged with violence before; and setting bail at $40K, which is apparently too much for him to afford; is pretty heavy-handed.
So why did Oneida County Sheriff Hartmann and Judge Mary Sowinski basically lock Gruich up and throw away the key? Because the receiver of those offending emails was one of the richest men in Oneida county, is in bed with Oneida county government and local law enforcement and is also one of the thinnest-skinned newspaper publishers on earth.
And because Gregg Walker pulls the levers of Oneida County and his MAGA-informed Christianity forbids his brain from accessing “empathy” as an emotion (that same emotion being a basic tenet of the Christian faith), I have no doubt that the powers-that-be will throw the book at Peter Gruich and attempt to ruin his life–when probably tens of thousands of right-wing nut jobs get away with exactly what Gruich did every day across America.
The second point I want to make about Gruich being jailed is this:
While stories of Mangione, Jabbar, and Livelberger involve actual acts of violence rather than Gruich’s probably-drunk threatening emails, there is one common thread among all four guys:
They all reached a mental breaking point because they lost faith in their government.
Jabbar turned to violence because he felt America’s government was sliding into religious sin. Livelsberger turned to violence because he felt America’s Democrats were killing our country. Mangione turned to violence because he believed America’s healthcare system was corrupt. Gruich turned to violent emails because he believed Oneida County’s justice system was corrupt.
In the case of Jabbar and Livelberger, their breaking points came as a result of them believing Islamic and right-wing disinformation, respectively, which was meant to radicalize them against their government.
In the case of Mangione and Gruich, their breaking points came as a result of witnessing injustice and refusing to lay down and do nothing about it.
Is the latter any better than the former? Are Mangione and Gruich (had Gruich actually made good on his threats) less “evil” than Jabbar and Livelsberger because the rationale for their violence/threats sprung from actual facts rather than disinformation?
That’s a tough question to answer. Of course, the “correct” answer is “no,” because all of these acts or threats, at least in the unwell minds of the guys who performed them, came from a place of “righteousness.” But my heart doesn’t want to condemn Mangione and Gruich as much as I want to condemn Jabbar and Livelsberger, because I feel the former’s pain.
I’ve been deeply screwed by insurance companies over the last several years and have been deeply screwed by a corrupt, rural, right-wing Wisconsin county that bathes in Gregg Walker’s putrid disinformation—which is clumsily regurgitated from national right-wing propaganda.
I believe that if we had laws that stopped right-wing political disinformation from being poured all over the working class to purposefully keep them at each other’s throats while the rich get richer, all four of these men might not have reached their breaking points.
Had Jabbar and Livelsberger ingested the same set of “facts” as Mangione and Gruich, they might have put their energy into changing the system instead of trying to blow it up.
Had Mangione and Gruich saw that conservatives simply disagreed with them because they had different solutions to the problems caused by the same set of facts, as opposed to witnessing the mass manipulation of an entire political party through rampant lies like “the illegals in Ohio are eating your dogs,” they might have believed America could solve its problems peacefully and not have reached a mental breaking point that, in their minds, called for “drastic action.”
Yes, the problem common to all four men was mental illness (probably only momentarily for Gruich)—but I believe much of that mental illness stems from constant right-wing attempts to manipulate and destabilize us–which is Gregg Walker’s stock in trade.
Speaking of mental health, I’m about to take a much-needed break from the vitriol of social media and go on my first vacation since losing the $750K civil defamation lawsuit against Walker last October 2023.
While away, my lawyer Fred Melms will be fighting the Oneida County Board of Adjustment to reverse the unlawful decision by the “old boys club” on the zoning committee to pull my permit to do business last summer. He’ll also be fighting Oneida County’s $28K suit against me for unpaid and “selectively enforced” zoning violations. He’ll also manage the ongoing criminal defamation charges leveled against me by, you guessed it, Gregg Walker of the Lakeland Times. We’re ultimately getting another judge for that case because both Judges Shiek and Sowinski recused themselves due to Gruich’s threats. Ironically, the next judge assigned to this case was Forrest County Judge Leon Stenz, the hyper-partisan incompetent who presided over my civil defamation case. Luckily, we used our one legal judge substitution on him and are awaiting the appointment of yet a fourth judge to take over.
While I’m recharging my batteries, Peter Gruich is going to be sitting in jail because he wrote a few threatening emails and can’t afford to make bail. Conversely over this same period, Trump is likely going to pardon most of the domestic terrorists who violently attacked our nation’s capital and our nation’s law enforcement officers on January 6, 2021.
Peter, if you can read this, I empathize with you. While I can’t condone your violently threatening a judge, I worry that you won’t be treated fairly. Hopefully this essay will once again shine a light on the rampant corruption of Oneida County’s government and justice system, and there will at least be public scrutiny over your case.
For everyone else reading, thanks for sticking with the Minocqua Brewing Company. You may or may not hear from me next week, but you definitely WON’T hear from me in the last half of January. That being said, I’ve enlisted a lot of wonderful progressive journalists and activists to help keep you up to speed on what’s going on.
My upcoming fights with Oneida County, the fight to hold onto Wisconsin’s progressive Supreme Court, and the fight to resist the dumpster fire that will be the Trump administration, will require a healthy mind and body. Hopefully I’ll at least get the mind part fixed over the next few weeks (haha).
