Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Across town, Madeleine Pulver was celebrating her HSC results. She was among those who achieved a mark of 90 or above for Advanced English. The 18-year-old thanked staff at her school, Winona, for helping keep her on track. They were really helpful and they kind of kept me motivated and reassured me, so couldn't have done it without them. We had very low expectations today and they've been exceeded by a big, big margin.
She's planning to take next year off before enrolling in an arts degree at university. It's not often that you see the father of a teenage girl stand in front of television news cameras to confirm having low expectations for his daughter's exam scores. But Bill Pulver had his reasons to doubt his daughter Madeline's academic performance at this time. Her studies had been interrupted, to say the least. Just weeks prior, at 2 p.m. on August 3rd, 2011,
18-year-old Madeline Pulver had been alone at her family's home in Mossman, one of Sydney, Australia's wealthiest suburbs, where she was studying for those exams, when a man wearing a rainbow-colored ski mask entered her room, wielding an aluminum baseball bat. When Maddie became aware of the intruder, she jumped out of her chair, cowered into a corner, and asked the man what he wanted. The man led her downstairs to the kitchen table and told her to sit down and no one would get hurt.
He tilted Maddie's head over the back of the chair and forced a black box against her throat and looped a bike chain around her neck and locked it. The masked man told her that if she moved, she would die and that if she talked to police, he would know. He placed a purple lanyard around her neck that was attached to a plastic document sleeve that contained a USB flash drive and a piece of paper. He instructed Maddie to count down from 200 and he disappeared. Maddie sat in silence for a few minutes, assuming that the man was robbing her house.
But after calling out to him and not receiving a response, Maddie stood up and found her phone and texted her mother to call the police. She then removed the lanyard from her neck and retrieved the piece of paper from the document sleeve and began reading. Part of the note read: "Powerful new technology. Plastic explosives are located in a small black combination case delivered to you. The case is booby-trapped. It can only be opened safely if you follow the instructions and comply with its terms and conditions."
Maddie stopped reading immediately and phoned her father, who then called the police. The note continued: "For the avoidance of any doubt, I am a former Special Forces Green Beret Munition Specialist and have constructed such devices for over 20 years. So act now, think later, or you will inadvertently trigger a tragically avoidable explosion known in the American Armed Forces as a Brian Douglas Wells event."
At the bottom of the letter were instructions for her father to send a confirmation email to the email address: [email protected] Upon receipt, details on how to transfer a quote "defined sum of money" would be provided and the bomb would be deactivated remotely. Two officers arrived on the scene minutes later. One officer remained outside the home, evacuating neighbors and setting up a perimeter.
while the other, Constable Karen Loden, was inside the house without protective gear, providing moral support to the hysterical teenager. Two hours passed before bomb technicians were ready to enter the residence, and it took another six hours before they were finally able to free Madeline from the contraption. She had remained seated at the kitchen table, composed and courageous, without moving, for almost ten hours. She was taken to the hospital to be evaluated and was released around 3 o'clock in the morning.
Meanwhile, back at the Pulver residence, investigators had learned that the device that had been attached to Maddie contained no explosive material. The bomb was a hoax. Obviously, on an initial analysis, we didn't know what we were dealing with. There was certainly a direct reference to the fact that it was a bomb in the note.
And so the reason it took so long is that they just had to be absolutely sure that nothing they did would jeopardise Madeleine's safety. Now there was not a time limit, but what I'm saying is that the analysis and the examination just had to be very thorough and careful to make sure that something didn't detonate.
The investigation continued throughout the night. Police looked under parked cars, searched traffic islands, seized security footage, tore apart computers, and dug up the flower beds of neighboring houses. But they weren't able to find any clues as to who may have done this. The only clues investigators had to work with at this point were Maddie's description of the suspect, the phony bomb, the ransom note, and the USB flash drive. Maddie described the man as being about 60 years old with, quote, a slightly protruding stomach and weathered skin.
which isn't quite specific enough to be effective when canvassing a wealthy suburban area. The bomb itself didn't offer any clues either, and neither did the ransom note, except for the signature at the bottom, the email address, DirkStruin1840 at gmail.com. Dirk Struin is a fictional character from James Clavel's 1966 novel, Taipan, which translates to Supreme Leader.
In the novel, Dirk Struan is a 19th century Scottish businessman who uses violence and extortion in attempts to destroy his business rival, thus becoming the supreme leader of Chinese trade. This revelation wasn't helpful in terms of finding a suspect, but perhaps the Dirk Struan character could shed some light on the suspect's motivations. In the USB flash drive, which contained two copies of the ransom note, one a Microsoft Word document and the other in PDF format,
gave authorities their first real break in the case. In the metadata of the word document, there was an author's name, Paul P. The next day, the suspect logged into the Dirk Struan email account three different times from two different locations, ready to send the wire transfer instructions to the extorted.
The police were monitoring the activity of the email account and were able to obtain surveillance video from those locations in which they observed a gray-haired man who looked to be about 60 years old with a protruding belly and weathered skin accessing a computer. One of the videos captures the same man climbing into a Range Rover with the license plate numbers in full display. The vehicle was registered to Paul Douglas Peters. Paul Peters was a well-educated former attorney and investment banker. He was actually 50 years old, not 60.
He enjoyed fine wine. He played polo. He was enrolled in private flying lessons. He was living a very privileged life and spent much of the past several years writing a historical novel. Paul was divorced, but he had three daughters, one about the same age as Maddie Pulver. Now that they had a name, police were able to analyze Paul Peters' recent credit card transactions. They found a purchase for a USB flash drive and purchases of stationery and a lanyard and a baseball bat.
They also found a purchase of a one-way plane ticket from Sydney to Chicago for a flight that had already departed. Paul Peters had fled. In a joint effort between the FBI and the New South Wales Police, authorities caught up with Paul Peters a few days later. They found him in LaGrange, Kentucky, staying at the home of his ex-wife. He was arrested and charged with breaking and entering in the intent to commit a serious, indictable offense, demanding property by force with intent to steal and kidnapping.
When the Pulver family received word that an arrest had been made, there was an incredible sense of relief.
As for Paul Peters, he didn't have much to say. When asked if he had any words for Madeline, he responded with, "I hope she's well."
Peters pleaded guilty to the charges against him in March 2012. But there was one aspect of the case that investigators were still struggling to explain. Why? Why had Paul Peters targeted the Pulver family? Paul Peters and Bill Pulver weren't exactly business rivals, as the email address named after the fictional character may have led one to believe. In fact, other than working for a company that was very distantly linked to the Pulver family, Paul had virtually no business connection with Bill.
Authorities dug deeper and even pondered if the extortion attempt could be related to past rugby matches between rival universities wherein Peters and Pulver as students had played against one another. Strapping a bomb to a teenager for a decades old sports grudge seems unlikely. Peters never explained his motive. He says he suffers from a bipolar disorder and he doesn't even remember the event happening at all. He says he remembers walking up to the steps to the victim's home and then nothing.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, Paul's ex-wife, Deborah Peters, took the stand to testify on her ex-husband's behalf. She explained that their marriage had ended due to Paul's excessive drinking and turbulent mood swings. And even though they had divorced, she still considered Paul her life partner and had been in constant communication with him ever since. And when asked why Paul would do such a thing, even she couldn't explain his actions, replying, quote, I don't even think Paul knows why he did it.
Paul Peters was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison on November 20th, 2012 with eligibility for parole in 10 years.
This is Madeline's father, Bill Pulver, reacting to the sentence. Although the world may never know what motivated Paul Peters' brazen attempt at extortion, we do know what inspired his method.
He actually mentions it in the ransom note. The Brian Douglas Wells event. Paul Douglas Peters, like many, had witnessed the events that took place in Erie, Pennsylvania almost a decade earlier, where Brian Wells, a pizza delivery man, walked into a bank with a bomb latched to his neck and demanded money.
A bizarre bank robbery, an elaborate scavenger hunt, and a ruthless double-cross is just the beginning of one of the strangest and most complex cases you will ever hear on this episode of Swindled.
Support for Swindled comes from Rocket Money.
Most Americans think they spend about $62 per month on subscriptions. That's very specific, but get this, the real number is closer to $300. That is literally thousands of dollars a year, half of which we've probably forgotten about.
I know I'm guilty, but thankfully, I started using Rocket Money. They found a bunch of subscriptions I'd forgotten all about and then helped me cancel the ones I didn't want anymore. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so that you can grow your savings. With Rocket Money, I have full control over my subscriptions and a clear view of my expenses.
I can see all of my subscriptions in one place. And if I see something I don't want, Rocket Money can help me cancel it with a few taps. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lower bills for you by up to 20%. All you have to do is submit a picture of your bill and Rocket Money takes care of the rest. They'll deal with customer service for you. It's a dream.
Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash swindled. That's rocketmoney.com slash swindled. rocketmoney.com slash swindled.
For the lack of a better term, Brian Douglas Wells was simple. He was in his mid-40s and single, never married, no kids. He had lived in Erie, Pennsylvania his entire life, and his neighbors described him as being nice, which is a common way to describe someone who is otherwise uninteresting. He had dropped out of high school in 1973 and had been working as a delivery man for Mama Mia's Pizzeria for the past 10 years, where he had only called in sick one time.
Brian went to work, as he typically would, on Thursday, August 28, 2003. Towards the end of his shift, he had volunteered to make one last stop, a delivery for two small sausage and pepperoni pies to some place off the beaten path, only accessible by a dirt road, but not too far from where he lived. After dropping off the pizzas, he planned to clock out and head home, but Brian Wells never made it home.
Instead, less than an hour after that final delivery, surveillance video from the PNC bank in Erie captured Brian Wells calmly entering through the front doors. He's wearing blue jeans and a large white Guess Jeans brand t-shirt that had a noticeable bulge in the collar area as if it were concealing some sort of medical device. He's carrying what looks like a shorter version of a walking cane, which was revealed later to be a homemade gun that fired shotgun shells.
In the video, Brian approaches the front of the bank, grabs a dum-dum lollipop from the bowl on the counter, and hands a note to a teller. The note read, "Gather employees with access codes to vault, and work fast to fill bag with $250,000. You have only 15 minutes." The teller looks up from the note to see Brian lifting his shirt, exposing the device attached to his neck.
which consisted of a triple-banded metal collar that ratcheted shut like a giant handcuff and also included four keyholes and a three-digit combination lock. Below the collar hung an iron box that rested against his chest, which according to the note contained explosives. The bank employee explains to Wells that the vaults were on a timer and could only be unlocked at preset times. With no other choice, Brian directs the teller to empty the cash tills into a bag and she hands it over.
The video ends with Brian Wells exiting the bank with the bag in hand that contained about $8,700. Once outside, Brian fumbled for his keys, climbed inside of his 90s model Geo Metro, and sped away. But Brian Wells didn't make it very far. State troopers spotted him in a parking lot 15 minutes later, where they swarmed on him, forced him to the ground, and handcuffed him.
While seated on the pavement, Wells tried to explain the situation. He told police that he had been accosted by a group of black men who had locked the bomb around his neck at gunpoint and forced them to rob the bank. While waiting for the bomb squad to arrive, the state troopers took position behind their vehicles with their guns fixed on Wells. Minutes later, the device around Brian's neck began to make a beeping noise as he pleaded for help. "Why isn't nobody trying to come get this thing off of me?" "If I don't have a lot of time,
He pulled the key out and started the timer. I heard the thing ticking when he did it. It's gonna go off. He wasn't lying. 25 minutes after being handcuffed, at 3:18 PM, the bomb exploded, ripping a hole through the chest of Brian Wells, killing him instantly. Three minutes later, the bomb squad finally arrived. Local news stations captured the entire event on video. Some of them had even broadcasted it live.
The footage can still be found on the internet today if you look hard enough. If you're into that kind of stuff. Police began their investigation by searching Brian Wells' car, where they found a set of handwritten, detailed instructions sitting in the passenger seat, addressed to, quote, the entire note reads,
Bomb hostage. You are to go to PNC Bank at Summit Town Center on Pete Street. Quietly give the following demand notes to a receptionist or bank manager. Do not cause alarm. Get required money and deliver to a specified location by following notes that you will collect as you race against time. Each note leads to the next note and key until finished. You will collect several keys in combination to remove bomb. After, police won't charge you because you were a hostage.
Most important rule: Do not radio, phone, or contact anyone. Alerting authorities, your company, or anyone else will bring your death. If we spot police vehicles or aircraft, you will be killed.
This powerful booby-trapped bomb can be removed only by following our instructions. Using time attempting to escape, it will fail and leave you short of time to follow instructions. Do not delay. You have less than 55 minutes until detonation. Spend no more than 20 minutes in the bank. You will need 25 minutes travel time.
You have a safety margin less than 10 minutes. Use all remaining time to retrieve and obey our instructions. You'll be given all keys and combinations after money is received and safely counted. We will leave keys and combination as you progress. If you delay, disobey, or alert anyone, you will die. It is your choice to live or bring death. If you do not obey and leave bank without money, you will die. So will others. Stay calm and do as instructed. To survive,
We're following your moves in three cars to make sure you obey. Three sentries are driving and looking out for authorities. We are scanning police radio frequencies and cell phone calls. If police or aircraft are involved, you will be destroyed. Alerting authorities or anyone else will prevent you from completing the mission. Go to the bank and quietly enter with the weapon you are given.
Give the demands to the receptionist or manager. Avoid panicking the tower or customers. Use the weapon if anyone does not cooperate or attempts to leave the bank. Weapon instructions are near the trigger. You must deliver the money alone. You must return all weapons and notes to us. Turn yourself in to bank and police after we release you to safety. Act now, think later, or you will die. Support for Swindled comes from Simply Safe.
If you're like me, you're constantly thinking about the safety of the people and things you value most. After my neighbor was robbed at knife point, I knew I needed to secure my home with the best. My research led me to SimpliSafe.com.
I've trusted SimpliSafe to protect my home for five years now, and the level of security and customer care has been incredible. I sleep better every night knowing SimpliSafe's 24-7 monitoring agents are standing by to protect me if someone tries to break in and to send emergency help when I need it most.
I want you to have the same peace of mind that I and so many listeners experience every day, which is why I've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer listeners 20% off a system. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. What I love most about SimpliSafe is that it just keeps getting better. With exclusive live guard protection, SimpliSafe agents can act within five seconds of receiving your alarm and can even see and speak to intruders inside your home, warning them that the police are on their way.
As a SimpliSafe user, it's no surprise that SimpliSafe has been named Best Home Security Systems by U.S. News & World Report for five years running and the Best Customer Service in Home Security by Newsweek.
I'm a huge proponent of SimpliSafe, and I'm very happy with my security system. And you will be too. Protect your home this summer with 20% off any new SimpliSafe system when you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. That's simplisafe.com slash swindled. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.
Included with the note were complex illustrations and maps that would be needed to find the keys and combinations required to detach the bomb, with a separate note directing him to the first of four locations that were part of some kind of scavenger hunt. The note said, "Exit bank with the money and go to the McDonald's restaurant. Get out of the car and go to the small sign reading 'Drive-Thru Open 24 hours' in the flower bed. By the sign, there is a rock with a note taped to the bottom. It has your next instructions."
Brian Wells had made it to the first destination. He found the note with the directions to the second location in the exact spot where it was supposed to be. He was on his way to the second destination when he was spotted by the state troopers. Needless to say, that's where his search and his life ended. But investigators picked up where Brian Wells left off and followed the clues to the second destination, which was a wooded area several miles away.
They found the directions to the third location in a container denoted with orange tape, which led them about two miles away to a glass jar signified by a specific road sign. Investigators found the jar when they arrived, but it was empty. Either they had been beaten to the punch and the note had been retrieved by its author before the police could find it, or maybe the final note never existed at all. Perhaps the scavenger hunt was never meant to have a successful ending.
Perhaps the whole plot was a sick joke to get a desperate man to race around Erie, fearing for his life, all the while the mastermind sat in their cars and watched from afar. Police did find footprints that looked like they belonged to Brian Wells, and tire tracks that seemed to match the treads on his Geo Metro, but other than that, they came up empty-handed, and just like the road that had led them there, their investigation had come to a dead end.
With no other leads to go on, a $50,000 reward was offered to the public for any information leading to an arrest of anyone involved in the bank robbery or the murder of Brian Wells. Investigators also released photos and information about the homemade bomb. It had been expertly crafted, so they hoped someone would be able to recognize the exceptional handiwork.
We are hopeful that someone may recognize the instrument, the metal, the locking material that's used to secure it to the neck and certainly call us with that information. And then I will show the locking device that was protruding from the front throat area. Four locks and also a dial combination lock. Investigators followed up on false leads for weeks with no luck.
and their bizarre case had only gotten weirder since then. Three days after the robbery, a friend and coworker of Brian Wells named Robert Panetti was found dead from a suspicious overdose. Maybe his death was completely unrelated to the Wells case, or perhaps maybe someone knew a bit too much. Either way, investigators hadn't made any progress on solving the puzzle since the day it happened.
Almost a month had passed without any new information until September 20th when a man named Bill Rothstein dialed 911. At 8645 Peach Street, Rothstein told the emergency operator, "In the garage, there is a frozen body. It's in the freezer." Bill Rothstein was a lifelong resident of Erie. He was a big guy and incredibly bright. His speech was eloquent, probably molded by his time spent as a substitute science teacher.
He was fluent in French and Hebrew and he was crafty. Bill Rothstein was an expert electrician and handyman. When he made the call to 911, Rothstein was driving around town in his van plagued with guilt. He told police that he had been contemplating killing himself and that there was a suicide note inside of his desk at home. Police arrived at the house moments later and found the body in the freezer where it had been stored for up to five weeks.
The body was so frozen that the crime scene investigators were unable to remove it on site. The entire freezer had to be transported to the coroner's office, where it sat for three days thawing out before the body was able to be extracted. The body was identified in the suicide note that Rothstein had written as a man named James Roden. Rothstein also professed his innocence in the note, writing, "...I did not kill him, nor participate in his death."
But what really caught the detective's attention was the disclaimer that Bill had included at the beginning of the note that read, quote, Luckily, Bill Rothstein didn't follow through with the suicide, and he was apprehended within hours of making the 911 call.
He was forthcoming while being questioned by the detectives, offering a very detailed account of how the body had ended up in the freezer in his garage. I put a cut piece of green tarp down here to put his body on. Okay. What came in first, the body or the freezer? The body came in, I put it on a cart, I'll show you what the cart is. The cart has big wheels, not the cart with the small wheels. The wooden one? Yes, that one there.
Rothstein was so detailed, he even noticed the typo in the affidavit he was given to sign. Bill Rothstein told authorities that sometime in mid-August, he had received a phone call from a woman named Marjorie Deal Armstrong. Bill and Marjorie had dated off and on in the 1970s and had remained friendly in the following decades.
Marjorie explained to Bill that she had murdered her current boyfriend, James Roden, in a dispute over money. She had shot Roden in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun and needed Bill's assistance with disposing of the body and cleaning up the mess. Rothstein met Marjorie at her house about 10 miles away and immediately went to work loading the body into his van and scrubbing the floors. When he returned to his house, Bill transferred the body from his van to the freezer in his garage and melted down the murder weapon.
Marjorie had also requested that Bill use a chainsaw to cut the frozen body into smaller sections in order to feed it into an ice chipper. Marjorie planned to scatter the resulting ice-sized pieces of James Roden's body throughout Erie County at a later time. But that's where Bill Rothstein drew the line. He told police that he refused to grind up James Roden's body in the ice chipper, which is why it remained in the freezer for over five weeks.
Bill's newfound reticence led authorities to follow up with the question, "Why would you agree to help Marjorie dispose of the body in the first place?" Well, according to Rothstein, he helped Marjorie because he was afraid of Marjorie. And with one peek into the history of Marjorie Dill Armstrong's mental state and string of dead lovers, you could understand why. In 1984, when she was 35 years old, Marjorie was charged with the murder of her then boyfriend, Robert Thomas. She had shot Robert six times while he slept.
When investigators arrived at the crime scene, they found a woman that clearly had some mental issues. There were over 727 pounds of cheese, 389 pounds of butter, and 37 dozen eggs stored inside her home, rotting without refrigeration. Psychiatrists had ruled Marjorie mentally incompetent seven times before a judge finally allowed her to stand trial for the murder of Robert Thomas, where she was then acquitted by a jury for self-defense.
In 1988, Marjorie's first and last husband, Richard Armstrong, was found dead in the couple's living room. It was reported that he had collapsed during a stroke and smashed his head on the corner of a coffee table, and that was the extent of the investigation. Richard Armstrong's death was ruled accidental, but Marjorie Dill Armstrong hadn't always been the narcissistic and violent person that she had ultimately become.
In high school, she was known for her unbelievable intellect. She was actually the valedictorian of her graduating class. People that knew her often commented on her encyclopedia-like knowledge on multiple subjects. They included history, literature, and law. Some of this knowledge would still reveal itself every now and then in between ramblings of paranoia and madness. When police arrested Marjorie for the murder of James Roden, she was defiant. She proclaimed her innocence, and she did everything she could to take Bill Rothstein down with her.
even suggesting that he was involved with the bank robbery and the death of Brian Wells. It's a tragedy and it's a travesty on being railroaded, but the truth is going to come out in court. Bill Ross thinks it's a filthy liar that's going to get sued.
He's a filthy liar. What did he have to say about Rothstein? Rothstein should be charged with the murder of Brian Wells and a lot of other charges. And he had a fugitive from justice, a rapist that I turned into the FBI in his house for two years. He says you committed the murder. Rothstein is a filthy liar. By the time Marjorie's court date arrived in January 2005, she had accepted her fate and pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the murder of James Roden.
She claimed she killed her boyfriend because he was abusive and he didn't do enough to help her investigate a robbery that had occurred at their shared home a few months earlier. Marjorie was sentenced to 7 to 20 years behind bars at Muncie State Penitentiary. Bill Rothstein no longer had to fear Marjorie Dill Armstrong, not because she was locked in a prison far away somewhere, but because Bill Rothstein was dead. He had died from lymphoma six months prior to Marjorie's sentencing.
and whatever secrets he may have known about the Brian Wells bank robbery case were buried with him. Four months into her prison sentence, Marjorie Dill Armstrong had become homesick. The state correctional facility where she was housed was almost a five-hour drive away from Erie. She'd have rather been at the prison in Cambridge Springs, which was much closer to home, and she came up with a plan to make that happen.
Marjorie met with the state police in 2005, where she admitted to them that she didn't kill James Roden because he was abusive or because of the house burglary. She killed James Roden because he knew too much about the Brian Wells bank robbery, and she admitted that she too knew all about the Brian Wells bank robbery, and she would tell them everything if they would let her transfer to the prison closer to Erie. The authorities agreed, and Marjorie spilt the beans, but she prefaced her statement by emphasizing that she had no involvement, she just knew about it.
And she might have supplied the kitchen timers that were used in the construction of the bomb. Oh, and she was within a mile of the bank at the time of the robbery. But other than that, it was all Bill Rothstein. He masterminded the whole thing. And Brian Wells. Brian Wells wasn't a victim. According to Marjorie, Brian Wells was in on the plan the whole time. Which probably explains why he told police that a group of black men had strapped the bomb to him rather than the true perpetrators.
As informative as the conversation had been for authorities, and as self-incriminating as it had been for Marjorie, it didn't really help authorities come any closer to solving the case. They had already suspected Marjorie was involved. They had already met with four separate informants who had relayed that Marjorie had been talking about the case incessantly, about how she killed Roden because he was going to rat her out, and how she had helped measure Brian Wells' neck to be fitted for the bomb. It wasn't until a year later that the case truly broke open for investigators.
Another witness came forward with new information. A man claimed that his brother-in-law, Kenneth Barnes, had spoken freely about being involved in the bank robbery. Kenneth Barnes was an old friend of Marjorie Dill Armstrong's. He was a television repairman turned crack dealer, and he was already in jail on an unrelated drug charge. When faced with the enormous amount of potential prison time, Barnes agreed to talk. He confessed to detectives that the bank robbery was all Marjorie's idea, and that she had enlisted Bill Rothstein to construct the bomb.
Barnes explained that Marjorie needed the money from the bank robbery to pay him in exchange for killing her father. Marjorie's father was a millionaire who had practically disowned his daughter and was currently spending and giving away his fortune at a rapid pace. To ensure that she would receive the bulk of his estate, Marjorie wanted her father killed and she offered to pay Kenneth Barnes to do it. Even if her plot had been successful, it would have been a fruitless endeavor for the most part.
because Marjorie's father had already essentially written her out of the will by that point, opting to leave her a measly $2,000, a fact that Marjorie obviously wasn't privy to at the time. Kenneth Barnes also confirmed Marjorie's statement that Brian Wells was in on the planning of the heist from the beginning. Although from the outside he appeared to be an innocent victim of circumstance, Brian Wells had a secret that not even his family knew about. Wells had been seeing a prostitute, and in exchange for sex, he had been providing the prostitute with crack.
crack that he was acquiring through Kenneth Barnes' connections. Wells soon fell into debt with his crack dealer and was looking for a quick way out, so he agreed to rob the bank wearing a fake bomb. The plan was to use the scavenger hunt devised by Dill Armstrong and Rothstein as an alibi in case he was apprehended. Barnes explained that at some point, Marjorie and Bill Rothstein decided to replace the fake bomb with the real one, and Brian Wells went from being a willing participant to an involuntary hostage.
Kenneth Barnes had witnessed the double cross. He recalled being at Rothstein's house the day of the robbery. He watched as Brian Wells sprinted away on foot upon discovering that the bomb was real. Wells stopped in his tracks when Rothstein fired a gun into the air. Wells was tackled to the ground and at gunpoint, locked into the device that would take his life less than an hour later, as Barnes and Marjorie sat in a car across the street and watched.
In fact, the FBI concluded that the bomb was rigged in a way so that it would detonate on any attempt at removal, with keys or by force. Brian Wells' chances of survival were zero. He was doomed from the beginning.
From the interview with Kenneth Barnes, authorities also learned that there was another man present at Bill Rothstein's house on the day of the bombing, a man named Jay Stockton, a convicted rapist who was living with Rothstein at the time. Barnes accused Stockton of being heavily involved in the planning of the event.
remembering that he was the person who had fetched the bomb from the garage when it was time to affix it to the victim. But authorities already knew about Jay Stockton. He's the fugitive that Marjorie had accused Rothstein of harboring. Stockton was also recorded speaking about his involvement in the plot in a phone call from jail. Authorities also knew that the handwriting on the bomb hostage instructions was an identical match to Jay Stockton's handwriting. Yet, after being questioned by police in a move that has been heavily criticized, Jay Stockton was never arrested.
He was released and given immunity after agreeing to testify. He has since vanished. His last known address is in Bellingham, Washington. What about Mr. Stockton? What can you tell us about his status and will he ever be prosecuted for this? We're not in a position to comment on him, Mr. Stockton. Kenneth Barnes and Marjorie Dale Armstrong weren't as fortunate. In September 2008, Kenneth Barnes pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiring to rob a bank and to aiding and abetting.
He received a reduced sentence of 45 years in exchange for his testimony against Marjorie Deal Armstrong. At his sentencing, Barnes apologized to the family of Brian Wells saying quote, "What happened to him was something that was not supposed to happen." Marjorie Deal Armstrong's trial had been delayed as she had again been considered mentally unfit. The trial was delayed again four months later when Marjorie was diagnosed with breast cancer. The proceedings finally began on October 21, 2010.
In a trial that lasted over a week, Marjorie interrupted the judge, ridiculed her own defense team, and belittled the prosecution. She would scream "liar" at the witnesses, and for whatever reason, these actions did not work to her advantage. After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury found Marjorie Dill Armstrong guilty of armed bank robbery, conspiracy, and using a destructive device in a crime of violence. She was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
It took four years, but police finally pieced together a plot that apparently Wells, the delivery man, was in on to an extent. Police say Wells was part of the bank robbery scheme, but that he didn't realize that he'd be wearing an actual bomb. That, prosecutors say, was the work of four other people, including 61-year-old Marjorie Deal Armstrong. Prosecutors say Deal Armstrong came up with the plot in order to raise money for another crime she wanted to pull off, the murder-for-hire case.
of her own father. She faces a mandatory sentence today of life in prison. So finally, John, a case closed on a crime that people will be talking about for years to come. After four years and thousands of interviews, the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation were happy that justice had been served. At the end of it all, our system worked. Our law enforcement partners solved the puzzle.
and we achieved convictions and long sentences. Harold Deal, Marjorie's father, wasn't surprised at the outcome, saying, quote, She, in my estimation, should have a tendency to do anything that's possible because I think her mind is a little bit goofed up. Marjorie, who died in prison of breast cancer in 2017, had addressed the Wells family during the sentencing phase of her trial, saying, quote, My heart goes out to the family. The true killers is still out there.
and the family of Brian Wells agreed. They knew Brian and maintained that he was innocent. They insist that Brian wasn't capable of being involved in developing such a complicated scheme. And Jim Fisher, a retired criminal investigator, tends to agree, telling Wired Magazine that he believed Bill Rothstein was the true mastermind of the plot. Fisher is convinced that Rothstein had manipulated everyone involved and that stealing money was never the ultimate goal. Rothstein wanted to showcase his brilliance to the world,
He wanted to execute a crime that would baffle authorities for years to come. And according to Jim Fisher, he had been successful. Telling Wired, quote, Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen.
For more information about the show, check us out at swindledpodcast.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Swindled Podcast. If you like the show, please consider rating and reviewing us on Apple Podcasts. It really does help us out. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever else you may get your podcasts. If you want to support the show, visit patreon.com slash swindled.
For a few bucks a month, you will receive early access to new episodes and exclusive access to bonus episodes. That's patreon.com slash swindled. Thanks for listening. Thanks to SimpliSafe for sponsoring the show. Protect your home this summer with 20% off any new SimpliSafe system when you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. That's simplisafe.com slash swindled. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.