Chapter 1
This story is about a bizarre bank robbery wearing a live collar bomb. There are incidents about an armed bank robbery in the past with robbers displaying all kind of firearms and stealing the bank. A man stealing money from the bank wearing a live collar bomb was never heard of before.
It all started with a phone call received at Mama Mia’s pizza delivery centre located at Peach Street in Erie Pennsylvania at about 1.45 PM on 28-Aug-2003. The call was received by Tony, the owner of the pizza delivery centre.
It was an order for delivering two pepperoni sausage large sized pizzas. Toni did not understand the address of the delivery, so he handed over the phone to his pizza delivery man named Brian Wells to note down the address.
Brian takes down the address of delivery of the pizza, even though it was the end of his shift, he decides to deliver them at the south of Peach street. It looked like a routine pizza delivery, two hours later he was on the TV surrounded and handcuffed by police trying to rob a bank.
Chapter 2
Brian Wells was a bald middle-aged man of 5ft 3 inches, has been working as a pizza delivery man for over 10 years in Mamma Mia’s pizza delivery centre. He had a clean record and was never late in his work and always delivered pizza on time.
He used to live alone in his apartment along with his three cats. He was late only once by three hours when one of his cats died. His landlady described Brian as a shy person always helpful. He used to get his breakfast from McDonald’s, browse through the newspaper, look after his cats, and leave for work.
On that day about half an hour later, Brian enters PNC bank wearing a white colour T-Shirt carrying a cane gun and wearing a collar bomb hidden under his T-shirt, which was not his usual uniform shirt.
He was instructed to enter the bank quietly and head straight to the counter without panicking other customers and use the cane gun only if anybody did not cooperate. He heads to the counter and gives the lady a handwritten note stating to, “Gather employees with access to vault code and fill up 250,000 $ in fifteen minutes in a bag. I am strapped with a collar bomb that will explode if conditions are not met”.
He then lifts his shirt to show her the bomb strapped around his neck. The lady at the counter mentions that the person’s in charge of the vault is not present now, and it would require an hour to open the vault and fill in the cash.
She further said that she only had 8702$ with her that she hands over the cash to Brian. Other bank customers observed that Brian was not anxious but was rather cool and after three minutes Brian left the bank with the amount handed over by the lady chewing a dumdum stick that he grabbed at the bank counter. Meanwhile, the bank informs the police.
Chapter 3
Brian drives his car to McDonald’s and stops in the backside, his handlers have given him a note that mentioned: “In the flowerbed beside the sign Thru/Open, there is a rock and a note is taped at the bottom which has your next instruction”.
He takes the two pages of note and reads it, then steps into his car. Instructions were written to head about two miles south of Peach Street to collect the third piece of the clue. As he was about to drive down, the police arrive and instructs Brian to move to a parking lot.
He was instructed to get out of his car with his hand behind his back. One of the police officers puts handcuffs to Brian. He yells at the police that we had a live collar bomb tied to his neck. He also informed that the bomb could go off at any instant.
Police stop the traffic in the nearby road and call the bomb disposal squad. They enquire how he got the bomb, to which Brian says that when we went to deliver pizza, four black men surrounded him and tied this collar bomb to his neck.
He further goes on to say that he has written instructions by them regarding what and how to do. He says he is innocent and been trapped into this by those four men. He further adds that the collar bomb he is wearing has four keys and a three-digit wheel-lock.
The information to the keys will be provided by those men when he accomplishes the task allocated to him and by following their instructions. Those persons also warned him that if he doesn’t accomplish his allocated task, they will detonate the collar bomb with a cell phone device and that he will die.
Suddenly a loud beep-beep sound is heard from the collar bomb. Brian shouts that he is going to die, police move a step backwards, and then suddenly, the bomb explodes. Brian falls backwards with his torso ripped apart from the explosion. The bomb squad arrives a few minutes later; the collar bomb was still attached to Brian’s neck.
Chapter 4
The bomb squad personal were not able to open the lock of this collar bomb, so they decide to cut off Brian’s head to remove the collar bomb. Police then searches his car and obtains all the handwritten instruction documents.
One of the officers heads out to the place where the next instruction was to be found according to the paper retrieved from the flower bed of McDonald’s which read “Move to the junction of an isolated road, south of Peach Street where you will find a bottle beside a post”.
Officer reaches the spot and find an empty bottle, perhaps the conspirators became aware that Brian was dead, and have removed all the following trails of instruction messages. An investigation was started by the police.
The investigation was not proceeding ahead as police did not have any clue regarding the collar bomb. Brian Wells had a clean record and was already dead, the investigation was handed over to FBI.
FBI started an investigation about this bizarre case, they looked over the handwritten instruction notes found in Brian’s car and observed the letters like ‘we’, ‘us’ making them believe that there are more than one suspects involved in this case.
A month later a call is received by the police from a person named William Rothstein, informing them about a body lying in the freezer at his garage located in Peach Street. Police arrived shortly and recovered the body from the freezer at his garage.
The body was so frozen that it was believed by the police that the body was present in the freezer from a month. On enquiring Rothstein, he told the police that he had stored the body in the freezer of his garage as a favour for a friend.
Chapter 5
William Rothstein was a middle-aged man about 6 foot 6 inches tall and used to deal with pens and notebooks. He was an engineer and also was a teacher in a high school. He informed police about the friend who has requested him to store the body in his freezer.
The friend was a lady, Marjorie Armstrong who had shot her then-boyfriend James Rodden with a shotgun requested Rothstein to store his body in the freezer of his garage. Rothstein was an Ex-Boyfriend of Marjorie Armstrong and she had requested Rothstein to put the body of James Rodden into the ice freezer.
Later she requested Rothstein to put the body in an ice grinder. This was too much for Rothstein; he called the police this time informing them about the body in his freezer at his garage.
Investigators arrested Rothstein and placed him in their custody and requested him to testify against Marjorie Armstrong to which Rothstein agreed. He testified in court that he was so disappointed with the act of Marjorie Armstrong and that he thought of committing suicide.
Investigators searched his house and found a suicide note that started with “This has nothing to do with Wells case”. They were surprised by the initial statement. They immediately knew this case has some connection with the death of Brian Wells, but nothing seems apparent between these two cases.
The only connection between these two cases was the fact that Rothstein’s house was the nearest in the vicinity of the area where Brian Wells went to deliver the pizza. Also, the payphone location requesting the pizza was about a kilometre from Rothstein’s house and that was a store.
The owner of the store confirmed that Rothstein regularly visited the store to buy newspapers and cookies and also used the payphone to make frequent calls.
Chapter 6
Combining the unsuspected circumstantial findings of Rothstein and Brian Wells police concluded a link between these two cases. During the search in Rothstein’s house Investigators also found many unused machine tools.
They knew that Rothstein can create such a collar bomb. The collar bomb was made from a metal collar containing four keyholes and a three-digit combination code along with an iron box containing pipe bombs.
Investigators turned their attention towards Marjorie Armstrong. She was a middle-aged lady with a dubious character and was already involved in a murder before. She had shot her Ex-boyfriend Robert Thomas with a shotgun earlier. She was then acquitted from the case citing domestic violation.
Her first husband hung himself and her second husband died after crashing his head against a tea table. Her school friends described her as a very knowledgeable person but she was suffering from multiple disorders and other mental sickness resulting in violent mood swings.
Investigators were not sure that she could create such an improvised device as a collar bomb. A couple of years later a call received by FBI that a man named Kenneth Barnes may be involved in the killing of Brian Wells.
Kenneth Barnes was a TV mechanic and who also used to deal with drugs. The caller was a sex worker named Jessica Hoopsick. She further informed that Brian Wells used to meet her at Kenneth Barnes apartment. Barnes used to supply Jessica with drugs in exchange for sex.
He also loved to go fishing with Marjorie Armstrong, thus connecting Brian Wells, Kenneth Barnes and Marjorie Armstrong. Barnes was also arrested earlier for drug trafficking by police. Kenneth Barnes agreed to co-operate with the investigators for a reduced sentence.
Barnes confirmed to the Investigators that Marjorie Armstrong was the mastermind of the plot. He stated that Marjorie Armstrong needed the money from bank robbery to kill her father. She believed that her father was blowing away the money that she was supposed to inherit.
Chapter 7
In captivity, Marjorie Armstrong confided to one of her cellmates about the details of the bomb plot. She also told her that she had killed her boyfriend James Rodden because he was going to expose the entire bomb plot.
Investigators approached her and she said that she would disclose everything if she is transferred to a lower security prison close to her house. She remained firm on her stand that she has supplied the timer but knew nothing about the collar bomb.
Though she informed the investigators that she was within a mile of the bank robbery and also took a drive with investigators to the locations she was present during this entire plot that were all in close proximity of the PNC bank.
Marjorie Armstrong also confirmed that she was with Rothstein and Barnes that day in the store about a kilometre from Rothstein’s house, and Rothstein had used the payphone at the store during that time.
Investigators now had enough evidence that it was Rothstein that made the call to the pizza shop from that store. Armstrong claimed that Rothstein was the mastermind and Brian Wells was also involved in the plan.
Investigators switched their focus on Wells. They found that Brian Wells was pretty calm wearing the collar bomb that day and did not display any signs of anxiety. They also could not find any evidence to backup Brian’s story that he was forced to wear the collar bomb at gunpoint by four black men.
One question kept bothering Investigators, how a man can become conspirator for his own death. It was further confirmed during the investigation that Brian Wells was leading an expensive life and showering money on Jessica Hoopsick.
Chapter 8
Working over the case for about five years with over a thousand interviews, Investigators put forward their findings amidst court. The district attorney gave her judgment after hearing all the pleas. She stated that Brian Wells was a part of the plot; Marjorie Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes were waiting to take away the money.
They left the plot when they saw cops surrounding Brian. Brian initially believed the collar bomb was a hoax or fake and just meant to fool the cops when he saw the bomb he grew suspicious and was not willing to wear that. He was then forced to wear the collar bomb at gunpoint.
Making Brian Wells wear the collar bomb means that he will stick to the plot and anyway they would be killing Brian after receiving the money from him so that, he cannot become a witness against other conspirators.
Investigators were able to produce a witness who claimed that Brian Wells had talked about this robbery a month before he committed it.
Finally, the investigation was over court adjudged that Marjorie Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes were the main conspirators of this crime. Rothstein and Brian Wells were also part of the conspiracy. Brian Wells later changed from a co-conspirator to an unwilling participant and was double-crossed.
FBI investigations also revealed that bomb would have blasted if anyone tried to remove the bomb even with keys and correct digital lock and Brian Wells would have died no matter whatever he tried.
When the sentence was pronounced, Brian Wells’ sister could not believe that Brian was a conspirator of the plot and not a victim. Rothstein had already died during the period of investigation.
Six years later Marjorie Armstrong also died of breast cancer. Kenneth Barnes was sentenced to 45 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced to 20 years as he had cooperated with investigators.
Brian Wells’ family still believes that he was innocent and was a victim in this entire collar bomb bank robbery.
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