Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Due to the nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of violence, sexual assault, and killing. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. It was an otherwise normal afternoon at Mama Mia's Pizzeria in Erie, Pennsylvania. The employees kept up their usual pace of making and delivering pies.
Just then, the phone rang. Tony DeTomo, the store's owner, answered. The caller asked if they'd delivered to Upper Peach Street. Tony replied that it depended on where on Upper Peach. The customer tried to describe his location, but Tony was having a hard time hearing him over the wind in the background. He replied that they would be able to deliver to him, then quickly handed off the phone to his delivery man.
Brian Wells. Brian listened to the directions, but in truth, he didn't need them. He'd been to Upper Peach before, to that exact location. Today's delivery would be no ordinary run. It was planned. This call was his trigger, and there was more on the agenda than two small pizzas.
I'm Carter Roy, host of Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. You can find us here every Wednesday and be sure to check us out on Instagram at theconspiracypod. Today, I'm joined by my friend and host of Serial Killers, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everybody. Thanks for having me, Carter. Good to have you here. This is our first of three episodes on 46-year-old Brian Wells.
more infamously known as the Pizza Bomber. On August 28, 2003, Wells entered a PNC bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a letter demanding $250,000 in cash and with a live collar bomb strapped to his neck. And behind Brian Wells was a ragtag group of conspirators looking to make a quick buck. We'll unravel this complicated plot today and over the next three weeks.
So, stay with us.
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Hello there, I'm Mike Flanagan, and welcome to Spectre Vision Radio's production of Director's Commentary. Director's Commentary is a deep dive into a film through the eyes of the filmmaker or filmmakers who made it. It combines an in-depth interview format with a classic Director's Commentary track, the likes of which used to be common on physical media releases, but sadly are becoming more and more rare these days. Filmmakers talking about film with filmmakers. For people who love film.
In August of 2003, America was riveted by headlines detailing a major bank heist in Erie, Pennsylvania. Most baffling was the otherwise ordinary man at the center of an extraordinary crime, a 46-year-old pizza delivery man by the name of Brian Wells.
Brian was a native of Erie. In his early academic career, he proved as bright as any other grade school student by consistently achieving straight A's. That is, until he entered junior high school. Around that time, Brian's father's health was deteriorating. Harold Wells struggled with multiple sclerosis, which proved to be a major stressor for his son, Brian. As Harold's health steadily declined, Brian's grades dropped.
In response, a school psychologist performed a study on Brian, the findings of which would prove insightful for future investigators. The psychologist concluded that Brian's academic decline could be somewhat attributed to his father's physical incapacity,
More troubling, however, were Brian's other deep-seated issues. The psychologist noted that Brian's record appears to indicate psychopathic tendencies along with paranoid flavor. The school psychologist had asked Brian to draw a person in order to gauge his self-projection. According to the report, Brian drew a male figure that appeared to be physically strong and dominant.
His examiner concluded that the large figure appeared to indicate slight manic and grandiose signs in Brian's psyche. The study also indicated that, although Brian was intelligent, he was also a troubled and defiant loner with a disdain for authority. According to the report, Brian claimed that he will not please others and he saw adults as being too demanding and that he would lead his own life in his own time.
Brian's self-prophecy came true. In 1973, Brian dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to pursue his interest in mechanics.
Though he seemed to lead a quiet life, his psychological struggles ultimately seemed to take a toll. As an adult, Brian eventually fell into alcoholism. Still, he pressed on without much trouble. Brian's only criminal case occurred in 1992 when he was 36 years old. He was charged with threatening to shoot a magistrate over a dispute with his neighbors.
In the end, he pleaded guilty to harassing the magistrate, an extremely minor offense. It was nothing compared to the treacherous plot he would eventually become ensnared in. In 1994, Brian got a job delivering pizzas for a local joint in Erie, Mama Mia's Pizzeria. He enjoyed the independence of his delivery work, and he otherwise had no attachments, no wife or kids.
By now, Ryan was in recovery for his alcohol use disorder, and the slow pace of the work appealed to him. It allowed him to manage his stress and his schedule. With both these things under control, he was less likely to drink.
As part of his stress management, Brian maintained a peaceful routine. He woke up each day at 7:15 a.m., bought a copy of the Erie Times News, ate breakfast at McDonald's, and drove to Mama Mia's, where his shift started at 11 a.m. He would keep this routine quite literally until the day he died.
One evening in late spring of 2003, Brian had a guest with him on his delivery rounds. 24-year-old Jessica Hoopsick. Brian and Jessica's relationship was anything but traditional. She was a sex worker and he a loyal client.
Though it's unclear exactly how Brian and Jessica met, she would later note that they had been good friends for years prior to 2003. Brian seemed to care for Jessica deeply. He frequently helped her run errands, picking up Jessica and her mother and taking them to the grocery store or doctor's appointments.
But Brian enabled Jessica as well. Jessica was addicted to crack cocaine, and though Brian didn't do drugs himself, he would often buy them for Jessica in exchange for sex. He would eventually find himself buried in debt to the local drug dealers, all to support his relationship with Jessica.
On this particular night, Jessica was accompanying Brian near the end of his delivery shift. As they pulled into the next location, a car dealership, Brian double-checked the address on the order. Strangely enough, it was for the parking lot of the dealership, not the building itself. Who was ordering pizza to a parking lot? Suddenly, Brian spotted something in the distance. A bright orange Camaro and a gold Mercury Marquis.
and a small group of people loitered nearby. He pulled up alongside the motley crew, noting the lone woman among them. She was tall, middle-aged, with dark stringy hair. Brian didn't know it yet, but this woman's name was Marjorie Deal Armstrong, and she would soon seal his fate.
Marjorie Deal grew up as an only child with an intense desire to do right by her well-educated mother. She graduated from Erie's Academy High School in 1967 with straight A's, ranking 12th in her class of 413.
Margery would be the first to believe that she was no ordinary woman. Margery was a cut above the rest, even brilliant. She could accomplish whatever she set her mind to, good or bad.
In her spare time, Marjorie taught piano, organ, and cello. She even graduated a year early from Erie's Mercyhurst College with a dual major in sociology and biology. But back when Marjorie was a preteen, she began experiencing difficulties with her mental health. At just 12 years old, she developed anorexia.
She later attributed this disorder to her pursuit of perfection, a fear of sexual attention, and the desire to please her mother. Alongside her anorexia, Marjorie recognized she was experiencing other symptoms of mental disorders. In fact, in 1972, at 23 years old, she decided to undergo psychiatric treatment.
Marjorie explained to the psychiatrist that she wanted to get married and was having trouble finding a partner. She wanted help overcoming her perceived neurotic tendencies, which she felt had been a barrier to her relationships.
But despite her initial willingness to seek treatment, Marjorie's mental health would continue to deteriorate. Retired FBI agent and author Jerry Clark notes that for the rest of Marjorie's life, psychiatrists and psychologists would diagnose her with bipolar disorder marked by narcissism, another possible outcome of her perfectionistic upbringing. Marjorie constantly strove for perfection, both in herself...
and others. And she momentarily believed she'd found it in her one-time fiancé, Bill Rothstein. In 1970, 26-year-old Bill was introduced to 21-year-old Marjorie through a mutual friend. They bonded over their love of numerology and formed an instant connection. The same year they met, Marjorie and Bill got engaged.
But over time, their strong connection was replaced by incompatibility. Both Marjorie and Bill blamed the other for the dissolution of their relationship. Marjorie claimed that Bill tried to push her into converting to Judaism, something she didn't want to do.
Meanwhile, Marjorie's lack of accountability took a toll on Bill. He once said, "Marjorie was a person who never made a mistake. She was never wrong. So, therefore, there's always somebody else. Everything is somebody else's fault." Their nine-month engagement was called off, but they remained friends, and Marjorie moved on to other men. But her next relationship proved deadly.
In 1984, 35-year-old Marjorie shot and killed her then-boyfriend Bob Thomas. In an attempt to conceal the evidence, she offered a friend $25,000 to dispose of Thomas' body. The friend told their mother about Marjorie's request, and the mother called the police.
When officers arrived at Marjorie's home, they found Thomas dead on the couch. Marjorie told them it was self-defense, that Thomas had been physically and sexually abusive. She said she was forced to kill him before he could kill her. And her self-defense plea won. And Marjorie was convicted only for carrying a revolver without a license.
She was given 15 months of probation, but otherwise walked free. But the series of unfortunate events surrounding Marjorie's lovers was just getting started. In 1991, 42-year-old Marjorie married her first and only husband, Richard Armstrong, a relationship that would also end in death.
On August 22nd, 1992, a mere 20 months after the wedding, paramedics entered Marjorie and Richard's home. They found Richard on the floor in a pool of his own vomit, dizzy and unable to walk. Richard said he had fallen and struck his head on the table, an injury that would result in a brain hemorrhage and eventually a coma. He died just two days after the incident.
Marjorie filed a wrongful death suit against the hospital where Richard died, and four years later, she was awarded $175,000.
The mysterious events surrounding Richard's death cast perpetual doubt about Marjorie's involvement, but it was never investigated further. Now, Marjorie was constantly preoccupied with money, often hoarding her cash. When her mother, Agnes, passed away in 2000, Marjorie became obsessed with securing her inheritance.
She was furious when the local PNC bank, not knowing of Agnes Deal's passing, allowed Agnes' husband, Harold, to access the safe deposit box before the will was settled. Several days later, Marjorie arrived at the bank with her personal lawyer. She believed the money was rightfully hers, and her father should not have been allowed to touch it, never mind the fact that he was the surviving spouse.
It was the beginning of an ongoing dispute over the estate, and Marjorie was further incensed when, in the summer of 2003, she learned that her father was giving away the money he'd taken.
Marjorie was irate. She was determined to stop her father from giving away her inheritance at any cost. Even if it meant killing him.
Marjorie had gotten rid of problematic men before, and she could do it again. So she decided to visit her ex-fiance and longtime friend, 59-year-old Bill Rothstein.
Marjorie sat at the kitchen table with Bill and his longtime friend, Floyd Stockton. Floyd was a registered sex offender with a long-standing record. Just a year before, in May of 2002, he was charged with raping a 16-year-old disabled girl. By the time the prosecutor issued charges, Floyd had gone on the lam. Bill had invited Floyd to move in, or rather hide out, at his house.
The three of them sat around the table commiserating their woes. Marjorie complained about her father's reckless spending, Floyd about the rape charges, and Bill had recent financial troubles of his own. His mother had died three years prior in August of 2000. Her estate, however, remained unsettled.
Bill's sister had taken him to court, claiming that Bill, who was the executor of the estate, had failed to liquidate its assets, including the house he currently lived in.
Bill reluctantly listed the house for sale, with an asking price that significantly surpassed its actual value. While the home was appraised for $83,000, Bill had listed it for $250,000. He was in no rush to sell. It was his childhood home, and more importantly, he had no money of his own and nowhere else to go.
Marjorie and Bill described the perfect crime, insisting it was fail-proof, despite how dangerous it would look from the outside. The plan was for Brian to wear a fake bomb while executing the heist. No one would dare question a man wearing a bomb, yet Brian himself would not be in any real danger. Bill and Marjorie perked up. The idea of pulling off a bank heist was extremely appealing to them.
Both were desperately in need of cash. Marjorie was toying with the idea of hiring a hit on her father, while Bill was looking to pay off his sister and keep the house. A successful bank robbery seemed like the perfect solution. Now that the seed was planted, there was no turning back. Floyd suggested that they should use a pizza delivery man in the robbery, since Bill loved pizza so much.
Bill, a self-proclaimed mastermind, loved this personal touch. They would soon cross paths with the perfect candidate.
In the meantime, Marjorie and Bill began laying the groundwork for the robbery. They decided to target PNC Bank, the same institution that had allowed Marjorie's father to access her deceased mother's safe deposit box. Next, they got to work hammering out the technicalities of the heist. Marjorie knew that another of her friends, 49-year-old Kenneth Barnes, was a skilled technician.
She hoped to pick his brain about making a homemade bomb.
Ken was once a television repairman. For 14 years, he had taken apart and reassembled TV sets, computers, stereos, and vacuum cleaners. But all of that had changed in 1998 when a car accident left him injured and on disability. After the accident, he collected $152 a month in food stamps and $630 in Social Security benefits.
He supplemented his income through his drug dealing, and he frequently rented out rooms to sex workers looking for a place to entertain clients. Coincidentally, one of these tenants was Brian's friend, Jessica Hoopsick. In the late spring of 2003, Marjorie and her boyfriend Jim hired Ken to help them remodel an attic space in Marjorie's house. She used the opportunity to ask him if he wanted to help her rob a bank.
Ken declined, but Marjorie was nothing if not persistent. She asked Ken flat out if he knew how to make a bomb.
He admitted that he did, but that he wouldn't be making one for her. Still, she pressed him. And at last, Ken relented. He agreed to build a pipe bomb. He offered to give Marjorie some LEDs, a circuit board from a VCR player, and a radio electronics magazine. He said that the magazine contained a diagram with instructions for building a timer. Pushing her luck a little further, Marjorie asked Ken if he would kill her father.
He jokingly replied that he'd do it for a quarter of a million dollars. Marjorie promised to use the money from the bank robbery as a down payment for the hit, to which Ken seemed to agree. The mechanics of the plots were all coming together, but they still needed to secure their hostage. None of them were willing to wear the homemade bomb themselves. The perfect opportunity would soon present itself.
In late spring of 2003, Marjorie, Jim, and Ken took a break from their attic renovation to go out for pizza. On the way, Marjorie's car stalled, and she called Bill to come help. Bill arrived and tried to jumpstart the Camaro, but to no avail. As they struggled to revive the car, Marjorie decided to have a pizza delivered right then and there. Roughly ten minutes later, Brian Wells arrived.
with Jessica Hoopsick in the passenger seat. As Brian got out to deliver the pizza, Ken recognized Jessica. She often rented a room in his home for sex work. Brian and Jessica hung around in the parking lot to talk for a few minutes. The details of this conversation remain unclear, but in the end, Bill decided to drive back to his house to find a part to fix the Camaro.
Marjorie, Kim, and Ken loaded into Bill's car and drove off. Brian and Jessica followed suit. When they got to Bill's house, Brian got out of the car, telling Jessica he'd be right back. She later recalled watching as he made his way over to Marjorie and Bill. The trio spoke intently. They may have been using the opportunity to enlist Brian's help with the robbery in exchange for the promise of a big payday.
Marjorie and Bill described the perfect crime, insisting it was fail-proof, despite how dangerous it would look from the outside. The plan was for Brian to wear a fake bomb while executing the heist. No one would dare question a man wearing the bomb, yet Brian himself would not be in any real danger. There was even an insurance policy built in.
On the off chance Brian was caught by police, he could absolve himself by claiming he was forced to wear a bomb. Either way, Brian would be safe. Brian mulled over this proposal. He considered his quiet life and the daily routine that kept him sober. Did he really want to upend everything? He also undoubtedly thought of the steep debt he had acquired thanks to his relationship with Jessica.
Time and time again, he had purchased drugs on credit to pay her for sex. Eventually, he needed to pay off the dealers. This could be his chance. After all, if he wanted to keep Jessica around, he needed to keep paying her. To this day, it's unclear exactly when Brian Wells decided to proceed with the PNC bank heist.
Most likely he was hesitant. So the plan's masterminds, Marjorie Deal Armstrong and Bill Rothstein, recruited another Mamma Mia Pizzeria employee to persuade him, 43-year-old Robert Panetti. Whatever Panetti said seemed to convince Brian. He agreed to participate. Marjorie and Bill now had their hostage.
Marjorie and Bill were the masterminds, but strangely gave themselves small roles in the heist itself. Instead, they recruited their friends to do the dirty work.
Marjorie's boyfriend, Jim Roden, would drive Brian to the PNC branch. Brian would go in and rob the place with a fake bomb strapped to himself. Bill would intercept the money from Brian, and Ken would be the getaway driver. The money would then be handed off to Floyd, who would hide it until the commotion died down. So far, everything was going smoothly. That is, until Marjorie began getting pushback from her boyfriend, Jim.
In the summer of 2003, Jim got cold feet. He no longer wanted to go through with the plan. Marjorie was worried that Jim would go to the police. She couldn't take that chance. Nothing was going to get in her way. So in the middle of the night on August 10th, 2003, Marjorie climbed the staircase of her house up to the bedroom. Her unsuspecting boyfriend lay clothed on the bed. He was face down, sleeping.
Marjorie frowned at him, disgusted by his cowardice. Then she aimed a shotgun. Buckshot plowed through the middle of Jim's back, killing him instantly. Marjorie ran out of the house straight for her jeep. She hid out there for several days, contemplating how to dispose of his body. Finally, she called Bill.
Marjorie offered him $78,000 from her own bank account to help get rid of Jim's body. Bill accepted. On August 12th at roughly 10 p.m., the pair drove back to Marjorie's house where Jim had been dead for two days. Armed with a van and several plastic tarps, they wrapped up Jim's bloodied body.
They dragged it down the stairs, spilling blood as they made their way through Marjorie's fly-infested house. Jim's body was loaded into the van and taken to Bill's house, where Jim was left on the floor of the garage.
The next day, Bill bought a freezer to store Jim's body. Then he shifted his focus to the murder weapon. Bill cut the shotgun into little pieces with a reciprocating saw and an acetylene torch. He then drove around Erie, dispersing the pieces. After this was done, he and Marjorie returned to her house and scrubbed the murder scene with Clorox and hydrogen peroxide.
Once the house was clean of evidence, they could refocus on the more pressing task at hand. The PNC robbery, which was scheduled to go down in just a few weeks. On August 27, 2003, Brian Wells drove up to the TV tower on Peach Street, right near Bill's house. Marjorie, Bill, and Ken were already assembled. Jim, of course, was conspicuously absent.
Brian took a deep breath as he approached them, steadying his nerves. They walked Brian through the plan one last time. He would drive to the bank and walk in wearing the fake collar bomb. They had written instructions for Brian to present to the tellers. The notes threatened that Brian's bomb would detonate if the bank didn't fork over $250,000 in cash.
They instructed Brian to leave the bank with the money and immediately hand it over to Bill, who would be waiting outside. This way, if the police caught up with Brian, he would have no money on hand. Bill disappeared momentarily. When he reappeared, he was holding the fake bomb.
Marjorie measured Brian's neck to make sure the collar would fit. Once it was all set, Brian got back in his car and left, completely unaware of the dark turn of events that would take place in his absence. After Brian left, Ken approached Bill, concerned with the appearance of the metal collar.
Right now, it had an empty box dangling from the front. There was obviously no bomb inside. Bill asked Ken what he would do to make it look more authentic. Ken replied that he would put some wires in it from the collar down, put them in the box, but don't have them go anywhere. Bill ultimately would do more than that. In fact, he would go the extra mile and rig the box with an active bomb.
It's unclear who knew about Bill's addition to the plan, but Ken would later testify that he had no prior knowledge of the working device. He had thought it was a gag to scare the teller. What's certain, though, is that Brian Wells had no idea. On August 28th, 2003, Marjorie woke up with even more energy than usual. The big day had arrived.
She picked up Ken Barnes in her red Jeep Cherokee around 10:30 a.m. Then they made their way to the Barnes & Noble on Peach Street, where Bill was supposed to meet them in the parking lot. Bill's car was nowhere to be seen, so Marjorie and Ken went inside and ordered coffee from the Starbucks. Marjorie even bought a book. But when they came back outside, Bill still wasn't there.
They left and finally met up with Bill a little while later at the nearby Shell station. Bill pulled up in his Mercury Marquis, and while Ken filled Marjorie's Jeep with gas, she and Bill made their way over to a payphone. The fateful call to Mama Mia's was placed. Bill ordered two small pizzas to be delivered to Upper Peach Street, a signal for Brian. Brian nervously took his cue.
There was no turning back now. He packed up the pizzas and got in his car. Then he made his way back to the TV tower on Peach. When he arrived, Brian saw Ken, Marjorie, Bill, and his co-worker Robert Panetti in the distance. Brian got out of the car, doing his best to stifle his mounting anxiety. He carried over the pizzas and set them on the hood of Bill's van.
Of course, that's because it was. Brian's eyes went wide with panic. He didn't want to go through with this. He turned and ran.
Bill fired his pistol into the air, a warning shot. While Brian was distracted, Robert and Floyd ran over and tackled him. They pinned Brian to the ground while Marjorie and Bill rushed over with the device and strapped it around Brian's neck. Brian screamed that he didn't want to be part of this, but Ken walked up and punched him in the face.
For a moment, Brian had the wind knocked out of him, but it was nothing compared to the fate that awaited him. As the collar clicked into place, Brian went from being a faux hostage to a very real one. He had one hour left to live. Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast.
We'll be back next week with part two of this story. And be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. For more information on Marjorie Deal Armstrong, amongst the many sources we used, we found Mania and Marjorie Deal Armstrong by Jerry Clark and Ed Palatella, extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story.
And the official story isn't always the truth. Stay safe out there. Conspiracy theories and serial killers are Spotify podcasts. This episode was written by Natalie McKeeran, edited by Kate Gallagher, researched by Adriana Gomez, fact-checked by Cara Macerlene, and sound designed by Sam Baer.
Our head of programming is Julian Boisreau. Our head of production is Nick Johnson. And Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. Serial Killers is hosted by Vanessa Richardson. And Conspiracy Theories is hosted by me, Carter Roy. This episode is brought to you by Hills Pet Nutrition.
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