The Collar Bomb Heist
Brian Wells calmly walked into the PNC bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of August 28, 2003, and handed a note to the bank teller. He demanded $25,000 within the next 15 minutes, or the box-like bomb strapped around his neck would explode. The bank teller only had access to $8,702 and handed it to him in a bag. Wells accepted it, grabbed a lollipop, and left. Police found Wells outside his car in a nearby parking lot. They handcuffed his hands behind his back and took cover behind their vehicles, waiting for the arrival of the bomb squad. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Wells told them that he had delivered pizzas at a remote TV transmission tower when three men grabbed him and put the collar around his neck. He had to give them the money, or the bomb would explode. Television crews arrived in time to film Wells as the collar started beeping incessantly and then exploded. Wells died on the spot.
In Wells' car, the police found a note explaining a bizarre scavenger hunt that promised to unlock a part of the collar with each clue. It started at the transmission tower, led to the PNC bank, and then to the drive-through of a McDonald's, but Wells couldn't complete the hunt as the police caught up with him. The police investigated the nearby woods to find two more clues, but the pot containing the final clue was empty. The bomb proved too sophisticated to be homemade, with many decoy wires and warning stickers to confuse anyone trying to make it safe. FBI bomb experts concluded that the bomb couldn't have been removed without exploding. A hunt that led nowhere, a bomb that couldn't be made safe: whoever planned this heist seemed to be challenging the police. When the perpetrators put the bomb collar on Wells, they also made him wear a white T-shirt with the word 'GUESS' written in paint on the front.
On September 21, Bill Rothstein called the Erie police. They rushed to his house, which bordered the transmission tower where Wells had made his last delivery. In a freezer in Rothstein's garage, they found the frozen body of William Roden. Rothstein's ex-girlfriend, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, had shot her boyfriend Roden in the back with a hunting rifle a month earlier during an argument. Rothstein helped Diehl-Armstrong hide the crime but refused to dispose of the body. The police suspected that Diehl-Armstrong had previously murdered a friend and her husband. However, she pleaded guilty to Roden's murder and was sent to the Muncy State Prison in January 2005. Rothstein died of cancer the year before the trial. During the investigation into Roden's death, the police found a draft of a suicide note in his desk drawer. It began with: "This has nothing to do with the Wells case." For some reason, they believed him.
Diehl-Armstrong spent three months in the Muncy State Prison before offering information about the Wells case in exchange for a transfer to a minimum-security prison. She told the FBI that Rothstein had planned the heist with Wells, and she had only helped gather supplies. However, prisoners in the prison heard a version where Diehl-Armstrong was more involved, with Roden murdered to prevent him from going to the police and telling them about the heist. In exchange for leniency, Kenneth Barnes, an acquaintance of Diehl-Armstrong serving time on drug charges, revealed that Diehl-Armstrong had planned the heist. She needed money to pay Barnes for her father's murder, so she could receive her inheritance. The FBI continued talking to Diehl-Armstrong but did not offer her any plea deals. Eventually, she admitted to knowing more about the heist. When she finally asked for immunity in February 2006, she was instead charged with conspiracy and armed robbery.
During Diehl-Armstrong's trial in October 2010, Barnes told the jury that Diehl-Armstrong had planned the heist, Rothstein had built the bomb, and Wells had acted as the victim. Diehl-Armstrong consistently objected to this version of events, denying she ever knew Wells. The jury didn't believe her. She was convicted and sent to prison, where she died in 2017. Barnes received only 20 years in prison, thanks to his testimony. Wells' family members claim he was an unwilling victim, and the police concocted this story to limit their own culpability in preventing his death. Others also doubt that Diehl-Armstrong, briefly declared mentally unfit to stand trial, could have organized this heist, suspecting Rothstein as the true mastermind instead. Despite these lingering questions, the case is now closed.
Watching recommendation: Evil Genius on Netflix about the Collar Bomb Heist.