Imagine a regular day in Erie, Pennsylvania, back in 2003. Brian Wells, a hardworking pizza delivery man, did something unbelievable – he walked into a bank carrying a concealed shotgun disguised as a walking cane. But that’s not all. As if the situation wasn’t mind-boggling enough, Brian wore a bizarre collar bomb around his neck, as per a frightening note. It stated that if he didn’t receive $250,000, the bomb would explode. With a bag containing only $8,000, Brian calmly left the bank.

However, his plans were dashed when the police swiftly surrounded him. What came next was truly surreal and would later become widely known as the “Brian Wells Death video.” Brian sat on the ground, pleading for assistance, tearfully admitting that three people had forced him to rob the bank. Initially arriving with pizzas in hand, he found himself trapped by these individuals who strapped the explosive device to him and demanded that he retrieve a quarter of a million dollars.

Facing imminent danger, Brian begged for his life while the bomb on his neck began beeping louder and faster, leaving him with little time. Shockingly, news cameras were present to document the chilling moment when the bomb eventually exploded, capturing Brian Wells’ death video on live television for everyone to witness. Later on, the police found some papers in Wells’ car that had detailed instructions written by hand.

These instructions were meant for the person holding Wells hostage with the bomb. They first told him to rob the bank and then go on a complicated search to find keys and codes to deactivate the bomb that Wells was wearing. But here’s the strange part among all the other strange parts: it wouldn’t have been realistically possible for Wells to follow the instructions and save himself from the bomb in time.

After investigating, the authorities concluded that the bomb, with its four locks and combination dial, couldn’t have been safely taken off. In this article, we aim to explain the astonishing events surrounding the perplexing bank robbery and shed light on the now-infamous “Brian Wells death video.” Prepare yourself as we embark on a journey into this eerie and heart-wrenching true story that has baffled investigators and fascinated people across the globe.

The Puzzling Case of the “Pizza Bomber” and the Controversial Collar Bomb Heist

Years have passed, but people still have questions about the “pizza bomber” case. Was Brian Wells really a victim or did he help plan the bank robbery? Some think he was tricked into taking part. Others believe he was involved.  In 2003, a person who works for the government said they couldn’t believe what happened to Brian Wells.

They’ve seen people do strange things before, but this was really hard to understand. There is even a video called the “Brian Wells death video” that shows what happened. The people who confessed to being part of the robbery have blamed each other while saying they are innocent. It’s all very confusing. A couple of filmmakers, Barbara Schroeder and Trey Borzillieri, made a documentary series called Evil Genius.

They talked to a lot of people and learned about Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who was involved in the planning and connected to other bad things. You can watch the series on Netflix. In Evil Genius, different people tell different stories about Brian Wells’ role in the crime. Some say he was tricked, while others think he was involved on purpose. It’s hard to know what really happened.

The Case Unraveled: Authorities’ Account of Events

According to authorities, they were initially confused by the complexity of the crime but eventually focused their attention on Diehl-Armstrong. As claimed in court, Diehl-Armstrong came up with a plan to make Wells rob the PNC Bank in Erie with a ticking bomb attached to his neck because she believed it would help her get money to hire someone to kill her father, whom she thought was rich.

Police reported that approximately one month prior to the robbery, Diehl-Armstrong asked Barnes if he was familiar with creating pipe bombs. At the same time, she presented two egg timers to the handyman and former partner Rothstein, who likely constructed the collar bomb that killed Wells by causing a large wound in his chest.

In 2007 July, four years after the robbery, federal prosecutors declared that they thought Barnes and Diehl-Armstrong, as well as others including Wells, were responsible for the crime. They said that Wells played a small role in the planning, as he needed money to pay off his debts. United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan sadly described the others involved as having more sinister intentions. During the announcement, Wells’ family strongly disagreed with this accusation.

Authorities have said that Rothstein helped plan the robbery and bombing. Thanks to information from different sources and statements made by Diehl-Armstrong, the case started to unravel. She and Barnes admitted to being somewhat involved in the robbery during the investigation. At one point, a prosecutor in the case apparently described the suspects as disturbed, smart, and dysfunctional individuals who ended up outsmarting themselves.

The Blame Game: Brian Wells Death and the Controversy

Shortly after Brian Wells’ unfortunate passing, the former boyfriend of Diehl-Armstrong, Rothstein, accused her of shooting and killing her current boyfriend, James Roden. Rothstein even guided the police to Roden’s body, which had been hidden in a freezer in his garage. Authorities claimed that Diehl-Armstrong took Roden’s life because he knew about the upcoming bank heist and threatened to inform the police.

Eventually, she admitted to third-degree murder pleading guilty but mentally ill, although she maintained that she was not responsible and simply wanted to avoid a longer sentence. It’s noteworthy that Roden wasn’t the first man to die under suspicious circumstances connected to Diehl-Armstrong. In 1984, she shot and killed her then-boyfriend, Robert Thomas, although she was acquitted by arguing self-defense. Similarly, her husband Richard Armstrong passed away in 1992 due to a cerebral hemorrhage, for which she won a legal battle against the hospital where he was treated.

In a 2007 report, Diehl-Armstrong’s friends described her as highly intelligent. Despite being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she achieved academic success, becoming the valedictorian of her high school and earning a master’s degree. Two individuals were convicted of robbery and weapons charges in connection with the death of Brian Wells. However, no one was charged with murder as authorities believed that Wells had been part of planning and carrying out the crime.

Wells’ family firmly believed that he would never have taken part in such a crime. Speaking in 2003, two of his neighbors remembered him as a simple, likable man who lived a modest life. Additionally, a woman named Jessica Hoopsick, who worked as a prostitute and was a friend of Wells, confessed in the “Brian Wells death video” that she facilitated Wells’ participation in the crime by providing one of the conspirators with his name and his pizza delivery schedule in exchange for money and drugs.

In 2008, one of the accomplices, Barnes, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and using a destructive device in a violent crime. He received a 45-year federal prison sentence in December 2008. Barnes also testified against Diehl-Armstrong, which led to a reduction in his sentence in 2011. Barnes stayed at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C., near Raleigh until he passed away on June 20, 2019. According to Barnes, Wells was aware of the plan but tried to back out when he discovered that the collar bomb was real and not a fake, as he had been initially told.

In November 2010, Diehl-Armstrong was convicted of armed bank robbery, conspiracy, and use of a destructive device in a violent crime. On February 28th, 2011 she was sentenced to life imprisonment plus an additional 30 years.  During her incarceration, Diehl-Armstrong continued to assert that Wells was involved in the robbery and that Rothstein had orchestrated it.

Barnes backed up this assertion. Unfortunately, Rothstein died from lymphoma on July 30th 2004, less than a year after Wells passed away. Diehl-Armstrong passed away in prison from breast cancer on April 4, 2017, and was laid to rest in an unmarked grave, as stated in the “Brian Wells death video.” Until her last days, she insisted that she was not responsible for Wells’ death.

Bottom Line

The infamous “Brian Wells death video” captured the chilling moment when Brian Wells met his tragic demise after a bank robbery involving a collar bomb strapped to his neck. Despite the controversy surrounding the case, the true extent of Wells’ involvement in the heist remains a mystery, leaving investigators and viewers of the video perplexed by the events that unfolded on that fateful day in Erie, Pennsylvania.

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