The Bizarre Collar Bomb Bank Robbery

This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we discussed the strange necklace

bomb

incident, although some of the culprits in this one have apparently been identified, the details in this one remain murky, we try hard and we're mercenaries, right? I'd say that, but like I said, I know some of the main players or at least we think so, but then I don't, but then yeah, I guess you have to stick around to find out. I mean, on August 28, 2003, a phone call was made during lunchtime, to go to mom. mia's pizza located at 5154 Peach Street tony ditmo the owner of mamma mia's takes an order for two large sausage and pepperoni pizzas tony can't understand the customer telling him the address, so he hands the phone to his employee brian wells wells Approximately 5-foot-3, 46 years old, and bald on top, Wells writes down the address 8631 Peach Street and heads south on Peach Street for what appears to be a normal delivery, and yet, about two hours later, Brian Wells appears on live television for robbing a

bank

, he is handcuffed and surrounded by state troopers in the parking lot of Eyeglass World with a

bomb

strapped to his neck, he tells police the bomb was placed on him by a group of black men who was ordered to rob a

bank

after about 30 minutes of gently trying to communicate his situation well tells the police quote why is no one trying to get this off my back I don't have much time he's going to explode I'm not lying did you call my boss weekend the appointment around 3 18? pm the caller starts beeping loud and fast and then the bomb detonates and Wells falls backward slowly dying while the doctors and police are bewildered in the background Wells dies on the pavement two minutes later the bomb squad finally arrives, You know, that's why you apologize every time someone you know, something trivial goes wrong in their day and they say it's true fml bro, look what happened to this guy in two hours, yeah, he woke up that day and was just going to throw some za, yes, yes, yes, it was a zoslinger, yes. and he got a little more than he thought he was going to make one wrong move suddenly his life is in tatters that's horrible we take so many things for granted we take so many things for granted right, let's appreciate each day you never know when things are going to go wrong go south as if they had a bomb tied to their name on their necklace, bombs are only known to have been used by Colombian drug traffickers in turf wars, making the use of one in mysterious Pennsylvania especially strange, yet Stranger, the police found several pages of instructions telling Wells how to rob the bank and remove the explosive he called The notes were addressed to the hostage bomb final quote The instructions were handwritten with illustrations It seemed Wells was telling the truth They sent him to hunt and his reward was his life.

The case seemed simple enough, but as more details emerged it seemed that Wells might not have been entirely a victim, as I said, things are not exactly what they seem in this case, obviously, This man appears to be a victim, but appearances can be deeply deceiving. All right, let's move on to further elucidate this possibility, let's take a deeper look at Wells. Wells' landlady and neighbor, Linda Payne, claims that Wells was an ordinary Pennsylvania resident. Ella Linda said that she liked helping people that he used to get up for breakfast at McDonald's or somewhere else. and a newspaper he would come home and hang out until it was time to go to work he was very shy he took the hubcaps off his car because they were too bright he was a perfect tenant end of date at the age of 46 wells lived alone with three cats he was a dedicated employee at mamma mia's pizzeria in the 10 years of his employment there he had only called in late to work once due to the death of one of his cats, i admit none of this sounds like it screams bank robber High profile, let's jump on the timeline, the phone call to the pizzeria was made around 1:47 p.m. m.

Wells agreed to take the delivery even though it was the end of his shift. Wells reportedly arrived at 8631 Peach Street around 2 p.m. m. During the investigation it was discovered that the delivery location was not a home but a television broadcast tower site in a wooded area near Peach Street. It could only be reached by a dirt road. The area was swept and they found footprints that matched Well's footwear and tire tracks from his geographic meter. The area offered no clues as to how he had been lured there or what exactly happened when he arrived, but one thing is clear: during this time, Wells was equipped with the

collar

bomb because 20 minutes later, at approximately 2:20 p.m. m., Wells entered the PNC bank wearing the necklace bomb.

The bank was about two miles from Pete Street and Wells was wearing a T-shirt with the word guess on the chest, a T-shirt that he had not worn before and a T-shirt that his relatives said It wasn't his like the brand no, no, the word was written on the shirt yes, strange, my family doesn't know what shirts I have, I have some that I hardly ever wear, yes, that's true, I have shirts in there that I haven't worn in years, maybe we could do it. a little spring cleaning together yeah, no, I mean, we lived in separate places, yeah, we could do it at the same time, facetime though, yeah, that's right, we could do it, yeah, this weekend, sure, fun, on little saturday wells was ordered to cite, go to the bank, enter quietly with the gun given to him avoid panicking tellers or customers use the gun if someone does not cooperate or tries to leave the bank end of quote john seckel a witness in the bank

robbery

saw Wells enter the bank with a shotgun disguised as a baton and what appeared to be a shoe box under his shirt the bomb was already around Wells' neck at this point how do they expect this man don't scare anyone? it was a baton it seems like I don't care how much you try to disguise a shotgun as a baton, he was in an unwinnable situation because he has this bomb, yeah, and he has a t-shirt that has the word guess on it, so he's already drawing some weird looks.

Wells gave a bank teller a white envelope and spoke quietly. to the bank teller said the date gather the employees with access codes to the vault and work quickly to fill the bag with 250,000 you have only 15 minutes end of the date then he lifted his shirt and showed the teller his bomb, which which the note confirmed at one point the cashier yelled audrey, the code for a

robbery

, that's a pretty good code word, no it's not, yes it is because you don't want the code word to scare everyone away either, so if you're Sitting in a bank waiting in line and you see one of the tellers go, oh Audrey, go, oh, just, you know, I'm pretty sure that if the banker leaves, the peacock's nest, a teller whispered to a customer to leave and a group of people began to leave, the teller told Wells that there was no way to enter the vault at that time and I could only hand over eight thousand seven hundred two dollars sekkel said about the wells quote we passed by to him he didn't flinch end quote sequel said wells didn't appear scared or cocky, he was actually calm.

Wells left a sealed note for police along with his driver's license at the ATM, as he was told to do so. A woman with a cell phone called 9-1-1 and about three minutes later Wells left the bank sucking on a dumb fool who took from the bank counter a pretty player who drove off in his car in who knows what mood. lies if he says oh this is just I'm eight k I think it's fair with a sucker in my throat baby I'm going to imagine it would be pretty hard for me to stay calm during this situation at least I'd be sweating yeah but being so cool like a cucumber how cute, it's quite impressive, impressive or suspicious is probably the best word.

Police would later find pages of instructions in Wells' car. The first note said the quote. Leave the bank with the money and go to the McDonald's restaurant. Get out of the car and go to the small sign that says "Drive Through", open 24 hours in the flower bed. the sign there is a rock with a note taped to the bottom it has your next instructions end of date if you want someone to go somewhere discreet don't go to a McDonald's flower bed that's true you loiter around a drive-thru people start yelling at you too, I don't think I've done that, but it's also very obvious to have a grown man picking at a flower, a giant cow digging in a McDonald's flower bed asking for witnesses, and again, he's just incriminating himself. in addition.

Yes, I assume that at McDonald's, Wells picked up a two-page note directing him to go up Peach Street to a wooded area several miles away, shortly after Wells was detained by state police and handcuffed while telling them about the bomb. The police left him sitting. on the ground screaming for help they called the bomb squad as soon as they visually confirmed the device around his neck and the rest is history the notes addressing Wells said quote this powerful booby trap can be removed only by following our instructions act now think later or you will die end quote, Wells was warned that he would be watched for centuries and that if anyone follows us or interferes, we can leave and allow the timer to detonate or call the cell phone detonator.

End of appointment if Wells did as he was told, which included driving. around the city to collect passwords, clues and keys that would disarm the bomb pits would end with a combination to free himself from the bomb, however it seemed based on the instructions that Brian Wells never stood a chance, the plot assumed he could steal a bank of 250 thousand dollars and driving in a geo metro with a bomb

collar

without interference from the police, so he was doomed from the beginning, yes, I was going to say that it seems that everything is against him. What I think they wanted to do is they wanted him to go to the next point, have the hand with the money continue the treasure hunt and then get rid of a loose end because the bomb explodes.

What's wrong with these people? Criminals and police officers attempted to complete the search themselves hours after Wells died by bouncing from clue to clue until finally one of the clue locations was empty. It seemed like whoever was executing this plan had called it off once the police interfered. One thing to note is that the instructions contained words like we and us making it seem like they were multiple conspirators, so now let's get into the suspects, any of these suspects could be part of the gang that carried out this crime. I see that yes, one maybe two maybe more than that. may be responsible but i will say at the end of this at least one of these people is responsible oh boy so for once we'll have some closure stick around yeah you've got a good hook the first suspect is william a rothstein , Rothstein was a six-foot-six-inch Hoarder who wore only dungarees and chest bags filled with pens and notebooks.

He spoke several languages. He was an engineer and high school shop or introductory mechanics teacher. Less than a month after the collarbone incident, Rostein called the police and told the dispatcher. at 8645 Peach Street in the garage there is a frozen body, it's in the freezer. End of quote. The address was Rothstein's home and he claimed the body was there because he was keeping it as a favor for a friend. End of quote. Big favor. Big favorite. Great request. Yeah, I don't think I can call any of my friends and say "hey man, remember that time I helped you move that couch." Yeah, I'm going to call one on this is kind of like that, except instead of a couch it's a dead person, yeah, the dude. in question was a woman named marjorie deal armstrong the body was 45 year old james rhoden who was murdered by his then girlfriend marjorie by shotgun blast while he was sleeping in his room this occurred on august 13 approximately six weeks before the rodin rothstein's body had been engaged twice to negotiate with Armstrong, so given his history, he agreed to get rid of Margaery's shotgun and kept the body, but claimed he called the police once Marjorie suggested that Rostein put too much effort into it. rest of Rhoden's body in an ice crusher.

Yes, that was yes. she crossed the line, man, either way, I love the costume, he has this weird moral compass where he likes to hide the body, okay, next step is cutting up the body, he can't do that, I can imagine her talking to him on the phone and I'm just suggesting that while we're honking, would you mind taking that body and running it through the ice grinder? Then just a drop of silence and he just sighs and she knows he's going to say, oh, that one, what was I? thinking yes, too many damn margaery, they took him into custody hours later he agreed to testify against marjorie to get immunity.

She told police that she had felt incredibly guilty and that at one point she was considering suicide. Police found a suicide note on a desk in her home. StartInterestingly, the note began with a quote. This has nothing to do with the Wells case. End of quote. Which is actually kind of strange because from an outside perspective it has no apparent relationship. My friend went to New Orleans recently and she was like, “Oh, me.” I would love to buy a house here, yes, and one of the signs said "for sale" and under that sign was a big red sign that said "not haunted." Oh, that house I don't believe in ghosts, but I think that house is haunted.

It's strange for me to say that this has nothing to do with this case that it has nothing to do with this don't investigate it at all the only link between rostein and brian wells seemed to be a coincidence rothstein's house was one of the only houses in the vicinity of Brian Wells' last pizza delivery at Woods Rothstein's house was just a five-minute walk away, plus the phone call that placed the pizza order was traced to a pay phone at 8228 Peach Street in a garage Shell just a half mile away from Rostine's. house lorraine blodgett, the manager of the convenience store in shell's garage, said that rostine would come often quote unquote, she had come in to buy newspapers and cookies, she would sit outside in her car and eat lunch, read the newspaper, end of the quote.rothstein also used to make calls from the pay phone when you combine these circumstantial details with the fact that Rostein brought up the Wells case without provocation, it is undoubtedly suspicious and brings Rostein's mechanical prowess to the fore.

Police searched his home and found power tools, soldering irons and a date. lots of old machinery end quote an npr article claims that Rosting had the mechanical know-how to build the ingenious bomb that killed the wells end quote the collar was made of a triple-folded metal collar with four keyhole holes and a three-digit number combination lock and an iron box containing two six-inch pipe bombs loaded with double bass smokeless powder the hinged collar locked around Wells's neck like a giant handcuff end of quote investigators were able to tell that the device had been made with professional tools in 2007 in Pennsylvania The grand jury agreed that Rostine had dumped more than 1,000 pounds of evidence in a local landfill, but even if Rostein made the bomb, it didn't quite fit the profile of the mastermind of such a cruel operation and that's why we discussed Marjory Deal Armstrong in our second suspect after Rostein tipped off the police about the murder of James Rhoden the police entered Marjorie's house which was a mess of dog feces clothes and fast food cartons the police had to wear hazmat suits I hate this whole story ryan the dirt here is doing my skin crawls, this is the woman who made him save a body for her, her boyfriend murdered, she must have been very pretty or devious.

I mean, why would you propose twice to a woman whose house is full of dogs? Maybe she just had a hook on him. you know you can't let it go every time she went for a walk and she smelled like a puppy, it was like ah marjorie marjorie the scent the scent of margaery margery already had a reputation in erie and had killed before she admitted to surprising her boyfriend robert thomas in 1984 but she was acquitted because she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse, her first husband hanged himself and her second died after hitting her head in her house on a coffee table, I mean she's obviously an evil person but just living a life so full of chaos sounds stressful, but also this person needs to be eradicated from the rest of normal society, we should separate him, yes sure, we should put him there, find him a place where he can no longer marry people because it is obviously a fatal thing. .

According to her former high school classmates, she was known for her intelligence, but as the years went by she mixed with madness. She suffered from multiple mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, paranoia and narcissism. Her mood changed. and seemed unable to stop her rapid-fire speech, the local prosecutor, Brad Falk, who had also attended school with Marjorie, described Marjorie as one of those people who thinks she is smarter, smarter and brighter than everyone else and that at the end of the day she believes she will win or prevail in whatever she does, that's how it's been for 40 years. end of quote, she seemed like the type who would make a bank robbery more complicated than necessary and she also seemed like the type who would need to brag about her genius plan.

The FBI profiled the neck bomber based on behavioral analysis. collar bomber was profiled as a comfortable hoarder with workshop machines and power tools the collar bomber also had access to work with only these tools and took pride in his dual purpose creations a collar and a bomb and a baton and a shotgun they had a violent past and a superiority complex this profile fit the combination of rostein and dil armstrong she had a complex a violent past and he had store skills, although we are not done with the deal with Armstrong yet, now I will introduce our third suspect, a man named Kenneth Barnes.

A witness came forward in 2005 and said Kenneth Barnes was involved. He was a former television repairman who became a crack dealer in early 2007. Age 27. Sex worker Jessica Hoopsick came forward saying she knew Brian Wells and that she had tricked and dated him at Kenneth Barnes' house. Hoopsick had left a message on Brian's answering machine and it was a link between Brian and Deal Armstrong. It turned out that Kenneth Barnes, who supplied drugs to Hoopsick, used to go fishing with Marjory Deal Armstrong, so he hooked Barnes up with Brian and now Armstrong to meet these people in which town Barnes had talked too freely about the Collarbon plan and his brother-in-law turned him in while Barnes was already in jail on unrelated drug charges Barnes and Deal Armstrong had also been seen driving the wrong way on the highway near one of the search locations Barnes said he would exchange information for a reduced sentence Barnes It also confirmed the FBI's belief that Dil Armstrong was the mastermind.

She said Dil Armstrong needed the money because she wanted to pay Barnes to kill his father, who she believed was wasting his fortune, which was money she hoped to inherit. Barnes claimed that he was not informed about most of the matter. plan, but she had already corroborated it with much of what the FBI had already heard, other than that Barnes investigators had previously spent weeks with informants who said Dil Armstrong talked about the bomb plans in intimate detail. A fellow inmate of Dil Armstrong told authorities that the deal Armstrong had admitted to killing her boyfriend James Rhoden because he was going to expose the bomb plot the FBI met with Deal Armstrong while she was serving time for the murder. by James Rhoden.

Deal Armstrong promised to tell them everything about her if she was transferred from the Muncie State Penitentiary. to Cambridge Springs, a minimum security prison closer to Erie, Dil Armstrong insisted to the FBI that she had nothing to do with the collarbone plot, but she did provide the kitchen timers used for the bomb and was a mile from the bank robbery when it occurred. She agreed to drive ominously with officers and showed them where she had been that day, linking her to several crime scenes. Marjorie also admitted to the FBI that on the day Brian died, she had gone to the Shell station with her Jeep and bought ten. gas dollars, Rosting and Barnes were also with her.

Rosting had used the pay phone before Wells died, implying that Rothstein made the phone call to the pizzeria and then claimed that he would not provide more information without immunity, but had already revealed too much information. The FBI informed Diel Armstrong that they had enough information to charge her, frankly, this is stressful, Ryan, it's very stressful, so she gave him all these details and I thought, "I'm not going to tell you more unless I get immunity and they be like you." She's told us all this enough to charge you, you know, so she effectively put herself behind bars, yeah, which is kind of funny.

He claimed that Rostein planned the whole thing and more importantly that Wells was involved in the heist, which brings us to our fourth and final suspect, Brian Wells, that's surprising, why would this man be involved in this? Well, what I'm about to break down may bother you a little. It has been a very disturbing day. Ryan, yes, it has been. Let's hear more. It's okay when we look. Based on the known details of the timeline, two things seem suspicious about Wells: first, that his demeanor was so calm during the robbery and second, that there appears to be no evidence to support Wells' story that he was attacked by a group of black men who held him by the neck at gunpoint Wells's calm throughout the situation worried police, who were never able to rule him out as a conspirator in his own death in 2007.

District Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan testified who believes that Wells was involved in the plot along with rostein barnes and dil armstrong, who was the mastermind, the prosecutor also believes that deal armstrong and barnes had planned to take brian's money as soon as he robbed the bank, but fled when they saw the police and left Brian for dead because Wells supposedly never stood a chance in his doomed treasure hunt. D. Buchanan believes Brian was part of the operation and was given a necklace bomb as an alibi. The person she called would also make sure Brian stuck to the plan, he would hand over the money and if things went downhill. quote he would not survive to be a witness against the other conspirators end quote kenneth barnes also claimed that Wells had been talking about the robbery approximately a month before it occurred according to the FBI affidavit another witness had corroborated this in July 2007 d.a buchanan announced The investigation had ended indicating that Dil Armstrong and Barnes were accused of carrying out the crime.

The prosecution also declared that Rosting and Wells were conspirators based on information gathered over four years from more than a thousand interviews. Wells was accused of being in on the plan from the beginning. Kenneth Barnes claims Wells was willing to help with the promise of money because he was in an expensive relationship with sex worker Jessica Hoopsick. According to the indictment completed in 2007, Wells thought the bomb was fake and he agreed to use it. They told him it was fake. He intended to fool the police if he was caught, he could blame the threatening instructions. Barnes claims Wells only realized when he delivered the pizzas to the television broadcast tower that the bomb was real and they locked him in the device at gunpoint when he tried to flee.

Why didn't he just assume it was fake? Still I was thinking that probably some cartoon looking bomb gets there, it's professionally made and he realizes that this may actually be a real bomb, maybe he even said something like hey, that bomb looks pretty real, guys and They all didn't laugh when he started laughing and said oh oh, I guess you get what you pay for if you're hanging out with people who agree that maybe it's a good idea for you to use a fake bomb and rob a bank you can't be outraged when they give you a real one district attorney buchanan said that over time Wells had gone from being an accomplice to an unwilling participant Wells was betrayed to make things more confusing.

A week later, the FBI concluded that the entire plot was a hoax. They believed the bomb would have exploded if anyone had tried to remove it and Wells would have died no matter what he did. Jim Fisher, a retired FBI agent, believes that Welles' death was part of the planned quote, it was a first-degree murder, this was an intentional and premeditated homicide, and it was extremely cruel in the way the crime was carried out. Despite the debate the Wells family firmly believes that he was a victim as Buchanan completed his statement from the investigation one of Welles' sisters continually shouted liars the official consequences unfolded as follows in February 2011 Marjorie Repart Armstrong was sentenced to Life sentence plus 30 years for his role in the robbery Dil Armstrong claimed on his first day on the stand that he had never met Brian Wells and had never heard of him until he appeared on the news.

Armstrong claimed that she is not the killer and that they are still out there. Armstrong died on April 4, 2017 of natural causes in a Texas prison. Kenneth Barnes was sentenced in 2008 for conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery using and carrying a firearm during a violent crime end quote Barnes' 45-year sentence was reduced to 20 because he cooperated with authorities and admitted his participation. He is expected to be released in 2027. William Rostein died of terminal cancer in the summer. of 2004 before facing any charges for what the retired FBI agent andcriminal justice professor jim fisher believes rostein was the real mastermind quote the son of ended up winning died with all the secrets died taking all the answers with him laughs last in that sense escaped punishment escaped detection end of quote and finally Brian Wells, whose alleged involvement is what classifies this case as a cold case for many despite the official conclusion that Wells had been part of the plan, many point to evidence against this idea, such as the fact that he left He walked people out of the bank during the robbery and the note he left for the teller easily led police to him, but some prosecutors say it was intentional.

Well, family and friends say he was cited 100 for an innocent ending. quote and there was no way he could have been involved others say Well started out as a willing participant but was betrayed and became a victim. It seems clear that Deal Armstrong Rosting and Barnes were involved to some extent, but whether or not Brian Wells' involvement goes beyond simply delivering a pizza at the wrong time remains unclear, although the official ruling is that Wells was involved in at least the robbery. There are many who still classify his role in this heist as unsolved. I could see what he is like.

It remains a murky situation in terms of his involvement. I could believe that maybe he wasn't involved to begin with. I also feel like this Barnes character, yeah, he could be saying anything to get out of any kind of reduced sentence. I do not like this. Barnes, a bit, we take the word of a lot of slippery people here and I don't like the idea of ​​a dead man being put on trial, one thing's for sure, he's out of this collection of morons who seem to be perhaps the least obligated, I mean , they all look like monsters or yes, actually they are all murderers, yes, and he was a guy trying to get some money for a relationship, at worst just a pizza guy who didn't do it either. murdering someone in the bank, no, whether he was involved in this or not, at least he had some commendable qualities and he loved those cats, apparently that's true, he loved those cats.