Brian Douglas Wells (November 15, 1956 – August 28, 2003) was an American man who died after becoming involved in a complex plot involving a bank robbery, a scavenger hunt, and a homemade explosive device. Wells was killed when an explosive collar detonated while he was surrounded by police in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. The collar had been forcibly locked onto his neck as part of the plot. The FBI led a task force investigating the crime, in conjunction with the ATF and the Pennsylvania State Police. People have described the crime as "one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI".^[1]

Investigators concluded that Wells was a knowing participant in the bank robbery, but did not know that his co-conspirators intended to let him die. In a July 2007 indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Wells had been involved in planning the botched bank robbery. A federal grand jury indicted Wells’s co-conspirators, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes, on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy, and weapons charges, while other co-conspirators had died. In 2008, U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin sentenced Barnes to 45 years in federal prison. Two years later, Diehl-Armstrong was sentenced to life in prison, where she died of breast cancer in 2017.^[2] Wells's family argues that he was not a willing participant, adding to the significant attention the story has garnered in mass media.

Brian Wells, a high-school dropout, had worked as a pizza delivery man at the Mama Mia’s Pizzeria in Erie, Pennsylvania for ten years before his death.^[3][4] On the afternoon of August 28, 2003, Wells received a call to deliver two pizzas to 8631 Peach Street, an address a few miles from the pizzeria. The address was WSEE-TV's transmitting tower at the end of a dirt road.^[5]

According to law enforcement reports, Wells participated in the planning for the bank robbery and was aware of the complex plot, although he believed the bomb would be fake.^[6] Upon arriving at the television tower, Wells found the plot had changed and learned that the bomb was real. The details of what occurred at the tower that led to the bomb being attached to Wells's neck have never been firmly established, but evidence suggests that Kenneth Barnes was present at that time.^[7] After the bomb was placed, Wells was given a sophisticated home-made shotgun, which had the appearance of an unusually shaped cane, and nine pages of hand-written instructions.^[8][9] He was instructed to claim that three black men had forced the bomb on him and were holding him as a hostage.^[10]

Wells's family disputes this account of the events at the television tower, and have stated that Wells was accosted at gunpoint by strangers and forced to participate.^[11]

The instructions, addressed to "Bomb Hostage", listed a series of strictly timed tasks to collect keys that would delay the detonation, and eventually defuse it. It also warned that Wells would be under constant surveillance, and any attempts to contact authorities would result in the bomb's detonation. "ACT NOW, THINK LATER OR YOU WILL DIE!" was scrawled at the bottom of the instructions.^[12]

The first task was to "quietly" enter the PNC Bank on Peach Street and give the teller an affixed note demanding $250,000, and to use his shotgun to threaten anyone who was not co-operating or attempting to flee. Upon entering the bank around 2:30,^[13] Wells slid the note to a teller. The note stated that in fifteen minutes the bomb would explode and that the full amount must be handed over within that time. Unable to access the vault that quickly, the teller gave Wells a bag with $8,702 in it, with which he exited the bank.^[14] At 2:38, a witness called 9-1-1 from the bank and reported a male leaving the bank with "a bomb or something wrapped around his neck." This is the first known emergency call for the incident.^[15]

Around fifteen minutes after Wells left the bank, police spotted him standing outside his Geo Metro and promptly arrested him, handcuffing him and leaving him sitting on the ground in the parking lot. Wells claimed that three unnamed black people had placed a bomb around his neck, provided him with the shotgun, and told him that he had to commit the robbery and several other tasks, lest they kill him.^[12]

The responding police officers did not attempt to disarm the device, instead focusing on clearing the immediate area of pedestrians and ensuring that Wells could not detonate the device.^[15] The bomb squad was first called at 3:04 pm, at least thirty minutes after the first 9-1-1 call from the bank, but only about ten minutes after Wells was arrested. At 3:18 pm, just three minutes before the bomb squad arrived, the bomb detonated and blasted a fist-sized hole in Wells's chest, killing him in minutes.^[12][16] Traffic congestion in the area delayed the bomb squad’s arrival, but personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) still considered it an appropriately quick response.^[15]

Although WJET-TV, an Erie-based ABC affiliate, broadcast the event live on the air, they did not show the moment of the detonation live due to a technical problem.^[17] WJET-TV did provide the footage to FBI investigators, ABC's head office, and their sister station in Buffalo, New York.^[18] It subsequently leaked through unknown means to a shock jock on DC101, a radio station in Washington, D.C., who posted it on his website in September 2003. Although he subsequently removed the video at WJET-TV's request, by then it had been posted to numerous other video-sharing websites.^[18]

Though the note claimed that Wells would gain extra time by each found key, police later traveled the route on the note and could not complete it in the time the note allotted to Wells. In other words, regardless of what had unfolded, Wells would not have had enough time to get the bomb defused.^[19]

Wells was allegedly drawn into the plot through Barnes, whom he knew through a mutual acquaintance named Jessica Hoopsick.^[19] The plot was hatched to get funds to pay Barnes enough money to kill Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong's father, Harold Diehl, so that she would receive an inheritance, according to the federal indictment released on July 2007.^[20] However, Wells was handed only $8,702 by the teller,^[21] far from the $250,000 needed for the killing. Furthermore, the inheritance Diehl-Armstrong reportedly coveted was ultimately denied to her. Her father's estate had once been valued about $1.8 million, but gifts to friends had lowered the value to less than $120,000 at his death in January 2014, at the age of 95.^[22] In an interview conducted before his death, Harold Diehl reported that he had cut off financial support for his daughter decades earlier due to her criminal behavior and failure to hold a steady job. Additionally, his last will and testament left only $2,000 to Diehl-Armstrong, yet the estate's obligation to pay outstanding medical bills before inheritances meant she received nothing.^[22]

Wells was believed to have been killed by Diehl-Armstrong and her conspirators to reduce the number of witnesses against herself and others.^[19]

On August 31, 2003, a colleague of Wells, Robert Thomas Pinetti, was found dead in his home.^[23] While he was never directly linked to the crime, investigators suspected Pinetti might have been involved in or known about the crime and noted that his behavior changed after Wells's death and he became paranoid; he was to be interviewed by police the day after his death. His death was ruled an accidental drug overdose.

On September 20, William "Bill" Rothstein, who lived in a house near the television tower, called police to inform them that the body of a man, James Roden, was hidden in a freezer in a garage at his house. After he telephoned police, Rothstein wrote a suicide note indicating that his planned suicide had nothing to do with Wells,^[24] though he never attempted suicide.^[25]

In custody, Rothstein claimed that Diehl-Armstrong, an ex-girlfriend he had dated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, had murdered her then-boyfriend Roden with a 12-gauge shotgun during a dispute over money. Rothstein claimed she subsequently paid him $2,000 to help hide the body and clean the crime scene at her house.^[26] He claimed to have called the police out of fear, describing Diehl-Armstrong as dangerous and manipulative. The following day, she was arrested.

Diehl-Armstrong had a history of suffering from multiple mental illnesses since her early teens, including compulsive hoarding and bipolar disorder.^[27][28] Before her mental health deteriorated in her twenties, she was an “exemplary student” in high school and earned a master’s degree from what was then Gannon College.^[29][27] Diehl-Armstrong was known to Erie authorities due to her husband and several later partners dying under suspicious circumstances.^[24] In 1984, she was arrested for killing boyfriend Robert Thomas, but was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.^[27] Rothstein had been implicated in a 1977 murder after having given a handgun to a friend who used the weapon to murder a romantic rival; he later attempted to destroy the weapon but was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony.^[26]

Rothstein was admitted to the Millcreek Community Hospital on July 23, 2004. He had previously been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma showing myeloproliferative lymphoma, diffuse large cell type. Rothstein died on July 30, aged 60.^[12] Floyd Stockton (Stockling), a friend who lived at Rothstein's house at the time of the robbery plot, was also believed to be involved. He was granted immunity for his testimony against Rothstein, but was never called to testify in court due to illness.^[1]

In January 2005, Diehl-Armstrong pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the murder of Roden and was sentenced to seven to twenty years in prison. She is believed to have killed Roden to prevent him from informing authorities about the robbery plot.^[30] In April 2005, she confided to a state trooper that she had information about the Wells case, and after meeting with FBI agents, said she would tell them everything she knew if she was transferred from the Muncy Correctional Institution to a minimum-security prison in Cambridge Springs. During a series of interviews, Diehl-Armstrong admitted to providing the kitchen timers used for the bomb, stated that Rothstein masterminded the plot, and that Wells had been directly involved in the plan.^[31]

An FBI affidavit reported that two witnesses had confirmed that Wells had conversations about the robbery about a month before it occurred.^[1] In late 2005, Barnes, an ex-television repairman who was in jail on unrelated drug charges and friend of Diehl-Armstrong, was turned in by his brother-in-law after revealing details of the crime to him. In return for a reduced sentence, Barnes told investigators that Diehl-Armstrong was the true mastermind of the crime and that she wanted the money to pay Barnes to kill her father, who she believed was wasting her inheritance.^[12]

In July 2007, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced that Diehl-Armstrong and Barnes had been charged with the crime, with Diehl-Armstrong as the mastermind. The deceased Rothstein and Wells were named as unindicted co-conspirators.^[6] Buchanan stated that Wells had been involved in the plot from the beginning, and had thought that the fake bomb and the instructions would provide him with an alibi if he got caught, but that his co-conspirators fitted him with a real bomb that would have exploded even if it was removed.^[32][33] When he discovered that the bomb was real, Barnes said a pistol was fired in order to force Wells's compliance, and witnesses confirmed hearing a gunshot.^[34]

On July 29, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Sean J. McLaughlin made an initial finding that Diehl-Armstrong was mentally incompetent to stand trial due to a number of mental disorders, indicating that this ruling would be reviewed after she had received a period of treatment in a mental hospital.^[35] Diehl-Armstrong was then transferred for treatment to a federal mental-health facility in Texas.^[36]

On September 3, 2008, Barnes pleaded guilty to conspiring to rob a bank and to aiding and abetting.^[34][37] On December 3, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison by a federal judge in Erie for his role in the crime.^[38]

On February 24, 2009, Judge McLaughlin scheduled a hearing for March 11 to determine if Diehl-Armstrong was now competent to stand trial.^[39] On September 9, the judge determined that she was now indeed competent. In October 2010, Diehl-Armstrong took the stand to testify on her own behalf as part of her defense.^[40] She asked for a change of venue, arguing that extensive media coverage of the case prevented her from receiving a fair trial in Erie. Judge McLaughlin denied this request, noting that while the allegations were unusual, "the [news] coverage as a whole has been about as factual and objective as it could be under the circumstances."^[41]

On November 1, 2010, Diehl-Armstrong was convicted of armed bank robbery, conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, and of using a destructive device in a crime.^[42] On February 28, 2011, she was sentenced to life in prison, to be served consecutively with the prison term previously imposed in 2005 for killing Roden.^[43] In November 2012, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed her conviction.^[44] In January 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court denied her petition for certiorari, declining to hear her case.^[44][45] In December 2015, Diehl-Armstrong lost a second appeal of her conviction.^[46] She died in prison of breast cancer on April 4, 2017, at the age of 68.^[27]

In 2018, Jessica Hoopsick admitted to involvement in the plot. In 2003, she was a prostitute whose regular clients included Wells and Barnes.^[47] Melissa Chan of Time wrote: "Hoopsick says a conspirator approached her to find a 'gopher' who could be scared into robbing a bank."^[48] In the 2018 documentary Evil Genius, Hoopsick identifies the conspirator as Barnes and alleges she recommended Wells, whom she described as "a pushover".^[49] Admitting to setting Wells up in exchange for money and drugs,^[48] Hoopsick expressed regret for her role and claimed Wells had no advance knowledge of the robbery.^[48][50] ATF agent Jason Wick stated Hoopsick was uncooperative in 2003, but authorities "always believed that [she] knew more" about the case; however, Wick also expressed concern that Hoopsick might not be a credible witness.^[48]

American national media frequently covered the incident and investigation as the case continued to develop. When the story broke, many wrongly believed the incident to be terrorism-related.^[51] Fox's America's Most Wanted featured the story three times with newly released evidence in hopes officials could gather new clues behind the case.^[52] The January 2011 issue of Wired magazine also covered the story.^[53] In 2012, Jerry Clark and Ed Palattella published Pizza Bomber: The Untold Story of America's Most Shocking Bank Robbery (ISBN 0425250555), a true-crime book detailing the events.^[54] In May 2018, Netflix released a documentary series about the case, Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist.^[55]

Due to its novelty and complexity, the story remains a fascination for many. Since 2017, multiple podcasts of varying subjects have covered the case. Georgia Hardstark of My Favorite Murder detailed the story in a July 2017 episode. In August 2017, Dave Warneke reported on the story for the Australian podcast Do Go On.^[56] Swindled, a podcast dealing with white-collar crime, covered the Wells story in February 2018.^[57] In April 2018, Casefile True Crime released an episode about the incident.^[16] In May 2018, the podcast Stuff You Should Know covered this story in an episode. In July 2018, the YouTube series BuzzFeed Unsolved released an episode about the case.

The incident has been the apparent inspiration for a number of works of fiction. A short lived 2006 NBC series, Heist, dramatized the incident in a pilot featuring Zac Efron as a teenage pizza delivery boy with a bomb on his chest forced to commit a robbery. As in the real-life incident, the bomb was detonated and killed the victim, though in the TV show, the mechanism was updated with a wireless transmitter. It is believed that the 2007 Colombian film PVC-1 was inspired by the case.^[58][59] The 2011 American comedy film 30 Minutes or Less depicts a pizza delivery man being forced to wear a collar bomb and rob a bank. The film's apparent similarity to the Wells case was criticized by Wells's family, but the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group denied that the filmmakers had any awareness of the Wells case.^[60]

A collection of news articles that reported developments in the Wells story was analyzed in a scientific study of information novelty.^[61]