American Monsters: Marjorie Diehl -Armstrong and the Pizza Bomber
Sources:
https://www.ranker.com/list/weirdest-true-stories/patrick-thornton
https://pizzabomber.com/timeline-of-pizza-bomber-events/ https://www.goerie.com/story/news/crime/2018/05/01/diehl-armstrong-unique-deadly-criminal/12255559007/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Wells https://medium.com/p/e4114152b60e https://medium.com/@drhpod/the-pennsylvania-pizza-bomber-6986f451eb3d https://www.goerie.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/28/for-erie-s-diehl-armstrong/984919007/ https://www.tmz.com/2018/05/27/jerry-clark-evil-genius-fbi-agent-denies-hooker-jessica-confession/
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now.
Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange, in the darkly comic. I'm Zevan Odelberg, host
Speaker 2: of Kind of Murdery, a podcast that's about more than
Speaker 2: just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to
Speaker 2: a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved,
Speaker 2: the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just
Speaker 2: so long as it's kind of murdery. Indeed, just like
Speaker 2: it says in the intro, I am Zevan Odelberg, and
Speaker 2: this is kind of murdery. In a chilling moment of
Speaker 2: legal assessment, Federal Magistrate Martin C. Carlson didn't hold back
Speaker 2: his condemnation when speaking about Marjorie deal Armstrong. He did
Speaker 2: not mince words, describing her as a quote coldly calculating criminal, recidivist,
Speaker 2: and serial killer. The gravity of those words resonates like
Speaker 2: a thunderclap, echoing the horrors that unfolded in April twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: when one of her appeals was denied. Judge Carlson wrote
Speaker 2: the following, etching a haunting portrait of Marjorie dial Armstrong's deeds.
Speaker 2: The words chosen by Carlson revealed the darkness that tainted
Speaker 2: her actions, portraying them as marked by quote brutality, sadism, cruelty,
Speaker 2: and the morbid abuse of her victims, both living and dead.
Speaker 2: These words, dripping with vividness, paint a picture of unimaginable
Speaker 2: terror inflicted upon others. This is a damning description of
Speaker 2: a human being, albeit one who, according to both facts
Speaker 2: and appearances, seems to have been a monster. Although, as
Speaker 2: I've discussed before, we have a tendency to label those
Speaker 2: who commit heinous acts as monster and inhuman, as if
Speaker 2: by denying their human identity, their fundamental humanity, we gain
Speaker 2: the comfort of firmly separating them from ourselves. And yet
Speaker 2: time and again we are shown that monstrosity is in
Speaker 2: fact a uniquely human quality. I should mention that a
Speaker 2: number of articles were indispensable in putting together today's episode,
Speaker 2: in particular one entitled the Pennsylvania Pizza Bomber, by a
Speaker 2: medium writer who goes by the pen name Down the
Speaker 2: Rabbit Hole All of my sources are in the show notes.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get down to it. Please join me
Speaker 2: as we uncover what truths we can and solve what
Speaker 2: mysteries we may kind of murderies, investigation of some women
Speaker 2: just want to watch the world burn. Marjorie diil Armstrong
Speaker 2: and the Pizza bamb Murders starts.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Imagine a quiet town in Pennsylvania, August twenty eighth, two
Speaker 2: thousand three. The stage is set for a chilling tale
Speaker 2: that will send shivers down your spine. Brian Wells an
Speaker 2: unassuming pizza delivery driver stepping into a bank. But it
Speaker 2: wasn't a simple transaction. He sought no, He demanded a
Speaker 2: staggering two hundred and fifty thousand dollars warning of a
Speaker 2: bomb with a deadly countdown. His voice trembled as he
Speaker 2: spoke those ominous words to the teller. Now picture this, Brian,
Speaker 2: not carrying two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, No, carrying
Speaker 2: only eight thousand, seven hundred and two dollars. Exits the bank,
Speaker 2: encircled by the tightening grip of law enforcement. But there's more.
Speaker 2: A bizarre device is strapped around his neck, a device
Speaker 2: he claims is a bomb. The situation escalates, hearts racing
Speaker 2: as the police and media gather. Then, in a slow
Speaker 2: motion car crash moment, the bomb detonates right before the
Speaker 2: eyes of the world. Brian Wells, the pizza guy, caught
Speaker 2: in a nightmarish ordeal, meets his tragic end. The aftermath
Speaker 2: unveils a twisted puzzle. Inside Well's car, investigators uncover meticulous instructions,
Speaker 2: a chilling road map that led him to that fateful
Speaker 2: bank heist. But here's the gut wrenching truth. Time betrayed him.
Speaker 2: The tasks he needed to complete before the bomb's deadly
Speaker 2: count down reached zero were impossible to finish. And let's
Speaker 2: not forget every murder is a story of a life extinguished,
Speaker 2: not just a tale of the perpetrator. In this grim tapestry,
Speaker 2: will encounter Marjorie diil Armstrong, a name that sends shivers
Speaker 2: down your spine, a name that inspired the famous Netflix
Speaker 2: documentary Evil Genius. But before we delve into diil Armstrong's
Speaker 2: horrifying web, let's pause for a moment and remember the
Speaker 2: life of Brian Wells, the pizza man and shackled by
Speaker 2: a bomb caller. It wasn't an extraordinary life, at least
Speaker 2: not until the end. Born in war in Pennsylvania, he
Speaker 2: lived a quiet existence, the child of Rose and Harold Wells.
Speaker 2: Harold a veteran scarred by the Korean War, Brian's path
Speaker 2: took an unexpected turn. At just sixteen, he walked away
Speaker 2: from high school and embraced life as a mechanic, a
Speaker 2: decision that, like all decisions do, would shape his years
Speaker 2: to come. Two decades later, in nineteen ninety three, at
Speaker 2: the age of thirty six, Brian found another job, delivering
Speaker 2: pizzas for Mamma MIA's pizzeria in Erie, Pennsylvania, a seemingly
Speaker 2: mundane job, Yet it was this very job that led
Speaker 2: him down a chilling path, a path he walked for
Speaker 2: a decade until that fateful day in the bank with
Speaker 2: a bomb for a necklace. Outside of work, Brian enjoyed music,
Speaker 2: cherishing the company of his cats. He had three of them.
Speaker 2: And there was something else, a guilty pleasure, the glow
Speaker 2: of the TV screen while he watched the original hit
Speaker 2: reality competition show Survivor. It was a window into a
Speaker 2: world beyond his own. Despite his solitude, Brian maintained a
Speaker 2: warm rapport with his neighbors and even shared a few
Speaker 2: happy moments with their dogs. And then came that pivotal
Speaker 2: August day, lunchtime, bustling streets, and an order that would
Speaker 2: change everything. Two large pizza, sausage and pepperoni. An ordinary
Speaker 2: order for an extraordinary turn of events. The owner of
Speaker 2: Mamma MIA's pizzeria, Tony Ditmo, handed Brian the phone. The
Speaker 2: address was a riddle that Brian would need to solve.
Speaker 2: As Brian embarked on that routine delivery, he had no
Speaker 2: clue that his life was about to be forever entwined
Speaker 2: with a bomb, a bank, and a web of darkness.
Speaker 2: His seemingly innocuous journey along Peach Street would become a
Speaker 2: chapter in a tale that would echo through time. As
Speaker 2: the clock ticked toward two twenty eight p m. On
Speaker 2: that ominous day, Brian Wells stepped into a P and
Speaker 2: C bank, his presence casting an eerie shadow over the ordinary,
Speaker 2: A short cane in his hand, an odd bulge beneath
Speaker 2: his TV collar, the stage was set for a chilling encounter.
Speaker 2: He slid a note across the counter words that held
Speaker 2: the bank employees captive in a twisted tale of terror.
Speaker 2: The demand gather access codes for the vault and get
Speaker 2: a quarter of a million dollars to fill his bag,
Speaker 2: all within a tight fifteen minute window. But this wasn't
Speaker 2: just a heist. This was a sinister dance of life
Speaker 2: and death. Brian's next move unfurled the horror further. He
Speaker 2: unveiled a box like contraption, heavy and ominous, hanging from
Speaker 2: his neck. The notes's threat materialized in front of them,
Speaker 2: a bomb. Panic and fear danced in the air. As
Speaker 2: Brian's desperate bid to gang access to the vault hit
Speaker 2: a wall. The teller explained the impossibility of their compliance.
Speaker 2: They did manage to fill a bag with what they
Speaker 2: could and placed it in Brian's trembling hands. A brave
Speaker 2: woman's call to nine one one pierced the chaos, a
Speaker 2: life line amid the terror. Just minutes later, Brian slipped
Speaker 2: out of the bank, clutching not the riches he had demanded,
Speaker 2: not two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but a mere
Speaker 2: eight thousand, seven hundred and two dollars and a dumb,
Speaker 2: dumb lollipop that he'd taken from the counter and was
Speaker 2: sucking on his escape was fleeting. Within that same fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: state troopers had Brian and his Geometro, which was parked
Speaker 2: in a nearby lot corner. The police swarmed, apprehending him
Speaker 2: with force and precision. Picture this a tense standoff. Brian
Speaker 2: seated cross legged in the Eyeglass World parking lot, desperation
Speaker 2: edched onto his face. He unraveled a horrifying story, a
Speaker 2: tale of being abducted during a delivery, a bomb forcibly
Speaker 2: fastened around his neck, a gun to his back, pushing
Speaker 2: him to commit this unthinkable act. He pleaded with the police,
Speaker 2: his voice cracking with urgency. He wasn't lying, he wasn't crazy.
Speaker 2: The bomb was real, and so the stage was set.
Speaker 2: Police with guns drawn, bomb squad in root, and cameras
Speaker 2: capturing every heartbeat of this surreal tragedy. For twenty five
Speaker 2: excruciating minutes, Brian remained calm, a strange juxtaposition against the
Speaker 2: lethal device around his neck and a demeanor that raised
Speaker 2: eyebrows among the law enforcement, planting seeds of suspicion. In
Speaker 2: an uncanny twist, Brian's concerns seemed misplaced. He asked about
Speaker 2: his job at Mamma MIA's. He asked if they'd called
Speaker 2: his boss, as if his reputation hung in the balance
Speaker 2: more than his life. Time ticked away, the device beeping
Speaker 2: faster more frantically. Brian's movements betrayed his fear, a futile
Speaker 2: attempt to escape the clutches of the bomb, and then,
Speaker 2: in a violent burst of sound and fury, the world erupted.
Speaker 2: The bomb detonated, and the blast hurled him backwards, leaving
Speaker 2: a gruesome wound in his chest. At three eighteen p
Speaker 2: Brian Wells took his final breath, a tragic chapter closing
Speaker 2: in a cloud of smoke. The bomb squad arrived moments
Speaker 2: too late and were left to survey the aftermath, and
Speaker 2: so the man entwined in this chilling tale met his end.
Speaker 2: But as the dust settled, questions arose. Dark corners of
Speaker 2: the narrative hinted at a complex conspiracy, a tale that
Speaker 2: led to Brian's demise, A sinister plot that was conceived
Speaker 2: before Brian Wells took his first step into that bank,
Speaker 2: and at the heart of it all Marjorie dial Armstrong,
Speaker 2: a name that would soon carve its own chilling legacy,
Speaker 2: and one of the questions that arose was whether Brian
Speaker 2: was truly a victim or instead the most tragic of
Speaker 2: all Patsy's the sacrificial co conspirator. But before we answer
Speaker 2: that question, we need to take a step back, shift
Speaker 2: the timeline and peer a little closer at the master
Speaker 2: mind mind behind the conspiracy that led to Brian Wells's death,
Speaker 2: the infamous Marjorie dial Armstrong. Her life began in Erie, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: the same place where Brian's life ended, but when Marjorie
Speaker 2: was a child, it was a place where her potential
Speaker 2: seemed boundless. As a teenager, she stood out for her
Speaker 2: intelligence and refined demeanor, destined, it seemed, for a future
Speaker 2: in teaching or counseling high school students. Her early years
Speaker 2: were marked by recognition as a musical prodigy, a gift
Speaker 2: that continued to shine as she progressed through adolescence. Always
Speaker 2: well dressed and poised, Marjorie appeared to be on a
Speaker 2: path leading to a rewarding career and a great life. Academically,
Speaker 2: she excelled, achieving consistently high grades throughout her school years.
Speaker 2: In addition to her studies, she held secretarial positions in
Speaker 2: various offices around town. Her educational journey took her to
Speaker 2: Mercyhurst College, where she earned bachelor's degrees in social work
Speaker 2: and sociology in nineteen seventy. Further pursuits letter again in college,
Speaker 2: where she embarked on a master's degree in education with
Speaker 2: a focus on guidance counseling, completing it in nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 2: and then, despite amassing twenty one credits toward a doctorate
Speaker 2: in education. Marjorie's career never extended beyond office work. The
Speaker 2: mid nineteen seventies marked a turning point for her as
Speaker 2: her mental illness bipolar disorder present since her early teens,
Speaker 2: began to take a firm grip on her life. Her
Speaker 2: mental well being underwent a distressing decline, leaving her grappling
Speaker 2: with the demands of ordinary life. Douglas Sugrew, her attorney
Speaker 2: for the Pizzabamber case, noted the devastating impact of her
Speaker 2: mental illness, stating that it led to a downward spiral
Speaker 2: that made it nearly impossible for her to navigate everyday challenges.
Speaker 2: Her life took a tragic turn as her struggles intensified.
Speaker 2: In July of two thousand, Marjorie's mother, Agnes Dieal, passed
Speaker 2: away at the age of eighty three. Despite occasional clashes
Speaker 2: and her mother's perfectionist tendencies, Marjorie deeply cherished their relationship.
Speaker 2: In the wake of her mother's death, Marjorie found herself
Speaker 2: without a strong anchor, a loss that left her adrift
Speaker 2: in many ways. Her connection with her mother was revealed
Speaker 2: when she confided to a psychiatrist that, despite differences, her
Speaker 2: mother was all she had. Her attorney speculated that if
Speaker 2: her mother had lived longer, it might have made a
Speaker 2: positive difference in Marjorie's life, offering a stabilizing presence in
Speaker 2: the midst of her struggles. Marjorie's relationship with her bipolar
Speaker 2: disorder was complex, marked by a mix of torment and pride.
Speaker 2: Despite consistently denying any involvement in murder, especially serial killings,
Speaker 2: she drew parallels between herself and accomplished individuals with bipolar disorder,
Speaker 2: like artists and politicians who had achieved greatness despite their challenges.
Speaker 2: This intricate interplay of her mental health and her perception
Speaker 2: of her own identity added a layer of complexity to
Speaker 2: her already mysterious character. In a chilling display of her
Speaker 2: self absorption. Marjorie diil Armstrong once remarked about her bipolar disorder.
Speaker 2: If there was something that could cure me, wouldn't I
Speaker 2: take it? You have to remember, I'm not just boasting
Speaker 2: about it, but it's been linked to genius Lincoln Churchill,
Speaker 2: Teddy Roosevelt, Van go, Beethoven, Hemingway. Some of the greatest
Speaker 2: artists and writers who ever lived were bipolar. This statement
Speaker 2: illustrates her ultimate narcissism, highlighting her ability to intertwine her
Speaker 2: mental health struggles with a sense of superiority. As the
Speaker 2: layers of the pizza bomber case were peeled back, the
Speaker 2: truth of the bank heist and Brian Well's death emerged
Speaker 2: through the efforts of a three headed hydra federal investigation,
Speaker 2: media coverage, and the court system. The initial narrative surrounding
Speaker 2: Brian Wells's murder, or more accurately, his involvement in the
Speaker 2: bank robbery with the collar bomb around his neck, unraveled
Speaker 2: to reveal a much more sinister motive than just stealing money.
Speaker 2: Marjorie G. O. Armstrong had orchestrated the bank robbery as
Speaker 2: a means to raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: to hire a hitman. Her intention was to have her
Speaker 2: own father assassinated so that she could claim her inheritance,
Speaker 2: a claim that she framed by her assertion that she
Speaker 2: needed to quote stop him from spending my inheritance unquote.
Speaker 2: Marjorie's elaborate plan involved using Brian to steal the funds
Speaker 2: from the bank, ultimately leading to Brian's death when the
Speaker 2: bomb detonated. As we know, however, her scheme fell short
Speaker 2: when Brian left the bank with only eight thousand, seven
Speaker 2: hundred and two dollars, not the two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars that diil Armstrong was convinced she needed, and then,
Speaker 2: of course, beyond that, Brian's life ended in a catastrophic
Speaker 2: explosion in front of the police and the bomb squad.
Speaker 2: Marjorie dil Armstrong's life was full of disturbing patterns of behavior,
Speaker 2: and Brian Wells's death was not the first time that
Speaker 2: she both intended and committed violence against men who were
Speaker 2: close to her. Marjorie got married once to a man
Speaker 2: named Richard Armstrong, a resident of Eerie. Tragically, Richard passed
Speaker 2: away due to a brain hemorrhage in August nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: merely a year and eight months after their wedding. His
Speaker 2: death was determined to be due to natural causes. Notably, Richard,
Speaker 2: much like Marjorie herself, grappled with mental illness, and their
Speaker 2: dynamic mirrored the case of Robert Thomas, Marjorie's boyfriend, whom
Speaker 2: she fatally shot in nineteen eighty four. A glimpse into
Speaker 2: Marjorie's residence in nineteen eighty four during the investigation of
Speaker 2: Robert Thomas's murder revealed an appalling scene. The police had
Speaker 2: to don toxic hazard suits due to the dire conditions
Speaker 2: within her house. Dog feces, clothes, and discarded fast food
Speaker 2: containers cluttered the space, while the discovery of an astonishing
Speaker 2: four hundred pounds of butter and over seven hundred pounds
Speaker 2: of cheese in massive rotting piles added to the grim picture.
Speaker 2: Gjil Armstrong's legal history painted a chilling picture of her
Speaker 2: mental state. She exhibited sharp mood swings and uncontrollable rapid
Speaker 2: speech in court. Psychiatric assessments categorized her as paranoid and narcissistic,
Speaker 2: and she was declared mentally unfit for trial multiple times.
Speaker 2: Despite this, a judge eventually deemed her competent for trial
Speaker 2: related to the murder of Robert Thomas. Marjorie claimed self
Speaker 2: defense and the jury acquitted her. Leonard Ambrose, her lawyer
Speaker 2: in the Thomas case, believed that she should not have
Speaker 2: been prosecuted in the first place, but rather institutionalized due
Speaker 2: to her potential danger to society. He emphasized that her
Speaker 2: intelligence worked against them, making her even more dangerous, cunning,
Speaker 2: and deceitful. He contended that a trial should never have
Speaker 2: taken place and it was only a matter of time
Speaker 2: before she repeated similar actions. As we now know, Ambrose's
Speaker 2: words would prove tragically prophetic. Returning to the scene of
Speaker 2: Brian weas Ells murder, the police delved into a trove
Speaker 2: of physical evidence. Within Brian's delivery car, they discovered what
Speaker 2: seemed to be a two foot long cane used in
Speaker 2: the bank robbery. However, it turned out to be a
Speaker 2: sophisticated homemade gun. The bomb itself was also the work
Speaker 2: of a Dyi craftsman, composed of a triple banded metal
Speaker 2: collar with four keyholes and a three digit combination lock,
Speaker 2: as well as an iron box containing two six inch
Speaker 2: pipe bombs loaded with a double based smokeless powder. The collar,
Speaker 2: akin to a giant handcuff, was securely locked around Brian's neck.
Speaker 2: While it had been constructed with professional tools. It also
Speaker 2: contained two sunbeam kitchen timers and one electronic countdown timer.
Speaker 2: The wires running through it were mere decoys, along with
Speaker 2: deceptive warning stickers intended to mislead any potential disablers. In essence,
Speaker 2: the contraption was an intricate puzzle. The most confounding pieces
Speaker 2: of evidence were the handwritten notes found within in Brian's car.
Speaker 2: A detailed nine page guide addressed to the quote bomb
Speaker 2: hostage unquote. These notes provided step by step instructions. The
Speaker 2: recipient was told to rob the bank, follow a complex
Speaker 2: sequence of time tasks, and locate hidden keys and combination
Speaker 2: codes across eerie. The notes contain drawings, threats, and detailed maps.
Speaker 2: Following the instructions promised the keys and combination needed to
Speaker 2: diffuse the bomb, while failure or disobedience would lead to detonation.
Speaker 2: The notes emphasized that survival required complete cooperation and adherence
Speaker 2: to the instructions. A chilling final statement warned Bryan of
Speaker 2: constant surveillance, with any attempts to contact authorities resulting in
Speaker 2: immediate detonation. In capital letters, the note said act now,
Speaker 2: think later, or you will die. This sinister plan seemed
Speaker 2: designed to put the hostage in a life or death
Speaker 2: race against time, weaving a terrible defying narrative of manipulation, control,
Speaker 2: and deception. Indeed, what unfolded was like a nightmarish scavenger hunt,
Speaker 2: with the prize at stake being in the hostage's very life.
Speaker 2: In the aftermath of Brian's tragic death, law enforcement found
Speaker 2: themselves trying to piece together the puzzle themselves. The initial
Speaker 2: instructions were deceptively simple, exit the bank with the money
Speaker 2: and go to the McDonald's restaurant. Following these directions, Brian
Speaker 2: made his way to a McDonald's, got out of the
Speaker 2: car and headed to a small sign and a flower
Speaker 2: bed which read drive through open twenty four hours. Beneath
Speaker 2: the sign, he discovered a rock with a note taped
Speaker 2: to its bottom. The note provided the next set of instructions.
Speaker 2: Following the guidance of the note, Brian's journey took him
Speaker 2: up Peach Street to a wooded area several miles away. There,
Speaker 2: a container with orange tape was meant to hold the
Speaker 2: subsequent instructions. The note hinted that he would gain additional
Speaker 2: time with each new key found. However, before he could
Speaker 2: reach this second clue, the police apprehended Brian, putting a
Speaker 2: halt to his participation in the terrifying race for survival.
Speaker 2: In the aftermath of his death, investigators took up the
Speaker 2: task of continuing the search. Locating the container with the
Speaker 2: orange tape inside, they found a note that directed them
Speaker 2: two miles south to a small road sign. It was
Speaker 2: at this sign that the next clue was supposedly waiting
Speaker 2: in a jar hidden in the nearby woods. Upon arrival,
Speaker 2: they found the jar, but it was empty. It was
Speaker 2: as if the orchestrator of this complex game had called
Speaker 2: it off one's law enforcement became involved. It's also possible
Speaker 2: that the game was never meant to be truly solvable
Speaker 2: from the start. I'd say that's probable, adding further intrigue
Speaker 2: to the unfolding mystery. Where the clothes Brian was wearing
Speaker 2: when he died. He had on two T shirts, with
Speaker 2: the outer one bearing a handwritten guest clothing logo across
Speaker 2: the chest. Strangely, he hadn't been wearing this shirt when
Speaker 2: he started his workday, and his family confirmed that it
Speaker 2: certainly wasn't his. The presence of words like we and
Speaker 2: us in the instruction led investigators to suspect the involvement
Speaker 2: of multiple conspirators in this elaborate and deadly scheme. This
Speaker 2: revelation painted a chilling picture of an intricate plan with
Speaker 2: many unknown players, each contributing to a chain of events
Speaker 2: that led to the demise of Brian Wells. The pursuit
Speaker 2: of the killer or killers police didn't know yet commenced
Speaker 2: at Mamma MIA's pizzeria, leading investigators to focus on deciphering
Speaker 2: the enigmatic location meant for Brian's delivery. It turned out
Speaker 2: that the address eight six three to one Peachtree Street
Speaker 2: wasn't linked to a residence. Instead, it pointed to a
Speaker 2: TV transmission tower site nestled with in a wooded area
Speaker 2: next to bustling Peachtree Street. However, accessing the site was
Speaker 2: no easy feat, as it was reachable only through a
Speaker 2: dirt road. While exhaustively examining the surroundings, investigators stumbled upon
Speaker 2: shoe prints that matched Brian's footwear and tire tracks consistent
Speaker 2: with the pattern of Brian's geometro, yet the site itself
Speaker 2: didn't provide any clear clues about who had orchestrated Brian's
Speaker 2: arrival or the subsequent events. The following day, a journalist
Speaker 2: and a photographer from the Eerie Times News arrived at
Speaker 2: the tower site despite the barricades set up by authorities
Speaker 2: to secure the dirt road. Their attention was drawn to
Speaker 2: a tall, robust figure dressed in denim carhart overalls. This individual,
Speaker 2: who introduced himself as Bill Rothstein, stood out at an
Speaker 2: impressive height of six feet six inches tall. Notably, Bill
Speaker 2: also taught woodworking at the local high school and was
Speaker 2: an unmarried handyman who had spent his entire life in
Speaker 2: the area. Despite the ongoing investigative activity unfolding near his property,
Speaker 2: Bill seemed unperturbed by the situation. Intrigued by the unfolding events,
Speaker 2: the journalists sought Bill's assistance to navigate through his yard,
Speaker 2: and he readily agreed. Their exploration took them into dense undergrowth,
Speaker 2: although their visibility remained limited. After roughly fifteen minutes, they
Speaker 2: decided to leave the area. Their curiosity piqued by the
Speaker 2: intriguing figure of Bill rothas Stein and the unfolding mysteries
Speaker 2: surrounding the case. Following his encounter with the journalists and
Speaker 2: his return to his workshop, Bill Rothstein resumed his daily routine,
Speaker 2: attending to his tasks and minding his affairs. However, a
Speaker 2: significant shift occurred on September twentieth, less than a month
Speaker 2: after Brian's tragic death. On this day, Bill made a
Speaker 2: startling and unsettling nine one one call, revealing a disturbing
Speaker 2: discovery within the confines of his own home. He informed
Speaker 2: the authorities in a matter of fact tone, at eight
Speaker 2: six four to five Peachtree Street, in the garage, there
Speaker 2: is a frozen body. It's in the freezer. Whose body
Speaker 2: was it? And what did the body, or Bill Rothstein
Speaker 2: for that matter, have to do with the bank robbery
Speaker 2: and the murder of Brian Wells. Within mere hours of
Speaker 2: dialing nine one one, Bill found himself in police custody.
Speaker 2: Bill confessed that he had been hiding the body for
Speaker 2: a friend. He told authorities that he had been enduring
Speaker 2: weeks of guilt stricken emotional agony, and his claim of
Speaker 2: unsettled misery was corroborated by the evidence investigators on earth.
Speaker 2: At his residence a collection of power tools and supplies
Speaker 2: of professional grade akin to the materials used in crafting
Speaker 2: the notorious collar bomb. In the labyrinth of Bill's personal effects,
Speaker 2: authorities discovered a handwritten suicide note authored in stark black ink.
Speaker 2: The note conveyed Bill Rothstein's regret to quote those who
Speaker 2: cared for or about me, and identified the corpse in
Speaker 2: his freezer as James Rodin, explicitly stating that he quote
Speaker 2: did not kill him nor participate in his death. Intriguingly, suspiciously,
Speaker 2: the note carried a specific disclaimer, quoting again here Bill
Speaker 2: had written, this has nothing to do with the Wells case.
Speaker 2: And if that's what Bill Rothstein wanted the world to believe,
Speaker 2: had he tragically taken his own life, then it seems
Speaker 2: he also wanted them to believe that it was coincidental
Speaker 2: that he possessed not only the skill set, but all
Speaker 2: the tools and supplies required to construct the infamous collar bomb. Hmm,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that passes the smell test, but for now,
Speaker 2: let's dive into this enigmatic friend, for whom Bill was
Speaker 2: storing a body must be a pretty close friend. In
Speaker 2: the middle of August, in the sweltering heat, Bill had
Speaker 2: received a call from none other than Marjorie dial Armstrong,
Speaker 2: who was a love interest from his past. Marjorie confessed
Speaker 2: to him that she had fatally shot her live in partner,
Speaker 2: James Roden over a financial disagreement. Ten miles separated Bill
Speaker 2: Rothstein's home from Marjorie's, yet the gravity of the request
Speaker 2: she made bound them closer. She asked Bill to help
Speaker 2: her hide the body. Bill complied, concealing Rodin's body in
Speaker 2: a freezer for over a month. He took the gun
Speaker 2: that Marjorie had used to shoot her boyfriend, broke it
Speaker 2: down into small pieces, and scattered them across Erie County.
Speaker 2: Bill said he'd had an abrupt change of heart when
Speaker 2: he suddenly started to fear what Marjorie might do to
Speaker 2: him now that he was the keeper of her dark
Speaker 2: and deadly secret. After storing James Roden's body for over
Speaker 2: a month, it occurred to him that he might end
Speaker 2: up stored in someone else's freezer. Hmm. Do we believe
Speaker 2: that it was fear for his own safety that caused
Speaker 2: Bill Rothstein to call nine one one, or perhaps is
Speaker 2: at the fact that the pizza bomb investigation had led
Speaker 2: authorities straight to his property and he wanted to get
Speaker 2: out in front of the narrative. Well, let's see. A
Speaker 2: day after Bill's revelatory call, Marjorie was apprehended for the
Speaker 2: homicide of James Rode. Sixteen months later, a court declared
Speaker 2: her guilty but mentally ill, sentencing her to seven to
Speaker 2: twenty years of incarceration. Bill, however, succumbed to lymphoma before
Speaker 2: Marjorie's conviction. On the surface, James Rodin's death seemed disconnected
Speaker 2: from the federal investigation into the collar bomb case. Yet
Speaker 2: in an ironic twist, Marjorie herself claimed the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: As we know well before her arrest for Rodin's murder,
Speaker 2: she was an infamous figure in Eerie, notable for a
Speaker 2: series of ill fated relationships. You'll recall that when law
Speaker 2: enforcement delved into her home in nineteen eighty four, the
Speaker 2: scene was grim. Rotting food, trash, and fecal matter lay
Speaker 2: strewn around the residence. But despite her criminal record and
Speaker 2: mental health issues, Marjorie was highly intelligent, a detail not
Speaker 2: lost on investigators as authorities piece the puzzle together, deil
Speaker 2: Armstrong fit the profile of someone capable of masterminding the
Speaker 2: complex bank heist. While she maintained her innocence, she divulged
Speaker 2: knowledge about the crime, implicating both Bill and herself, and
Speaker 2: further suspicions arose when confidential informants testified that Marjorie had
Speaker 2: intimate knowledge of the crime. The narrative thickened when an
Speaker 2: additional character, Kenneth Barnes, an x TV repairman turned drug dealer, emerged.
Speaker 2: Kenneth's association with Marjorie led to his implication in the case.
Speaker 2: Pressured by the prospect of an elongated sentence, Barnes corroborated
Speaker 2: the belief that Marjorie was the lynchpin behind the collar
Speaker 2: bomb plot, her motive accumulating cash to hire an assassin
Speaker 2: to eliminate her father, thereby preserving her expected inheritance. On
Speaker 2: February tenth, two thousand and six, federal agents sat down
Speaker 2: with Marjorie Dial Armstrong. They informed her that they had
Speaker 2: amassed sufficient evidence to indict her for the bank heist
Speaker 2: and collar bombing. Marjorie's reaction was explosive, with a fury
Speaker 2: that shook the room. She pounded her fist on the
Speaker 2: conference table and unleashed a torrent of expletives at both
Speaker 2: the agents and her own legal counsel. Yet, perhaps driven
Speaker 2: by an overriding narcissism, she continued to engage in dialogue
Speaker 2: with them. In an ensuing meeting, she took it a
Speaker 2: step further. Deil Armstrong consented to drive around Erie with
Speaker 2: the agents to delineate her whereabouts on the Dave Brian
Speaker 2: Wells had committed the bank robbery. The journey was illuminating.
Speaker 2: She confirmed that she had been at multiple locations closely
Speaker 2: tied to the crime. However, at the conclusion of this
Speaker 2: drive she pulled in the reins, telling agents that she
Speaker 2: wouldn't divulge any more details without an immunity deal. The
Speaker 2: irony here is stark. By this point, she had already
Speaker 2: said too much. Any chance for immunity had effectively vanished
Speaker 2: the moment she decided to cooperate in this morbid sightseeing
Speaker 2: tour with federal agents. In her drive to assert control,
Speaker 2: or perhaps in a miscalculation born out of her complex
Speaker 2: psychological profile, diil Armstrong sealed her own fate. The path
Speaker 2: to indictment had been paved and there was no turning back.
Speaker 2: In this convoluted tale of Marjorie Diil Armstrong and the
Speaker 2: Pizza bombing, the threads of multiple lives were woven into
Speaker 2: a tapestry of deceit, intelligence, and criminality. Each revelation intensified
Speaker 2: the complexity of the investigation, an intricate network of actions
Speaker 2: and motivations, stretching from Bill Rothstein's garage to Marjorie's disturbing past,
Speaker 2: and ultimately culminating in a crime that baffled and horrified
Speaker 2: a community, the nation, and ultimately the world. In July
Speaker 2: of two thousand and seven, US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan
Speaker 2: stood in front of a sea of cameras and declared
Speaker 2: that the collar bomb case was closed. Marjorie Diall Armstrong
Speaker 2: and Kenneth Barnes had been charged. The indictment even implicated
Speaker 2: the victim, Brian Wells, as a co conspirator who had
Speaker 2: later become an unwilling participant. The official narrative had taken
Speaker 2: almost four years in over a thousand interviews to construct.
Speaker 2: For Bryan's family, seated among the press, disbelief and shock
Speaker 2: filled the air. His sister Barbara couldn't contain her outrage,
Speaker 2: yelling liar at Buchanan, and they were not the only skeptics.
Speaker 2: The case had been followed closely by the public. Those
Speaker 2: who had been meticulously tracking each new development were also
Speaker 2: left with a profound sense of dissatisfaction, riddled with questions,
Speaker 2: and a week later those questions ballooned when the FBI
Speaker 2: made another shocking revelation the entire scavenger hunt had been
Speaker 2: an elaborate sham. The collar bomb was designed such that
Speaker 2: any tampering would set it off. Brian had been on
Speaker 2: a path to a predetermined fate death. Then comes Kenneth Barnes,
Speaker 2: a key player in this labyrinthine case. In September of
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, he entered a guilty plead to
Speaker 2: the charges of conspiracy and weapons violations connected to the
Speaker 2: dollar bomb scheme. Barnes was sentenced to forty five years
Speaker 2: in prison, Yet, in a strategic move, he agreed to
Speaker 2: testify against Marjorie dial Armstrong with the hopes of having
Speaker 2: his sentence reduced. Diil Armstrong's trial was anticipated to be
Speaker 2: the crucible in which all lingering mysteries would be resolved,
Speaker 2: but there would be obstacles. First, a federal judge declared
Speaker 2: her mentally unfit to be tried, And then, just when
Speaker 2: it appeared that she might finally stand trial, she was
Speaker 2: diagnosed with glandular cancer, and once again the legal proceedings
Speaker 2: were suspended, pending her medical prognosis. Fast forward to August
Speaker 2: twenty ten, the medical professionals gave their assessment diil Armstrong
Speaker 2: had between three to seven years left on this earth.
Speaker 2: Faced with this grim timeline, the prosecutors made a decision
Speaker 2: the trial would go on. The quest for answers was
Speaker 2: deemed too crucial to be delayed any longer. The trial
Speaker 2: date was reset for October twelfth, twenty ten. The wheels
Speaker 2: of justice, though grinding slowly, were back in motion. It
Speaker 2: was a case too convoluted and too devastating to be
Speaker 2: left unresolved. By the fifth day, the courtroom was heavy
Speaker 2: with tension. Prosecutor Marshall Piccannini had meticulously assembled a case
Speaker 2: as damning as it was intricate. He depicted the participants
Speaker 2: as a cast of quote twisted, intellectually bright, dysfunctional individuals
Speaker 2: who outsmarted themselves unquote. His evidence was bolstered by seven
Speaker 2: former inmates, each recounting disturbing details that Marjorie diol Armstrong
Speaker 2: had shared with them. Then came Ken Barnes, the crown
Speaker 2: jewel in Piccannini's case, a character whose appearance belied his
Speaker 2: role as a critical witness. Barnes looked a decade older
Speaker 2: than his years, and his scant dental array his lack
Speaker 2: of teeth didn't inspire confidence. But when he took the
Speaker 2: oath and sat in the witness box, every ounce of
Speaker 2: doubt seemed to dissipate. The room fell into a hushed
Speaker 2: silence as Barnes began and to speak. According to Barnes,
Speaker 2: Marjorie deil Armstrong was the architect of the entire scheme,
Speaker 2: the puppeteer pulling the strings. Bill Rothstein was one of
Speaker 2: her recruited accomplices, and so was Brian Wells. Lured by
Speaker 2: the prospect of easy money, something Wells desperately needed. It
Speaker 2: turned out that Wells, the seemingly innocuous pizza delivery man,
Speaker 2: had a sordid secret, an ongoing relationship with a prostitute
Speaker 2: funded by crack cocaine obtained with Ken Barnes's assistance. Debt
Speaker 2: was piling up. Brian Wells was sinking fast. The crux
Speaker 2: of Barnes' testimony came when he described the chilling afternoon
Speaker 2: of the crime. Wells had been delivering pizza's to a
Speaker 2: TV transmission tower when the weight of betrayal struck him
Speaker 2: like a bolt of lightning. The bomb he wore was
Speaker 2: not fake. Bringing the pizzas to the address given to
Speaker 2: him by Rothstein, Brian had tried to run when confronted
Speaker 2: with the bomb caller, but it was of no use.
Speaker 2: He was tackled by Rothstein and forcibly secured into the
Speaker 2: nightmarish device Wells had told the truth was not fake.
Speaker 2: As Barnes narrated this, the room remained dead, silent, as
Speaker 2: if every person present was holding their breath. It was
Speaker 2: a grim revelation, outlining a sequence of events that entangled
Speaker 2: multiple lives in a web of deceit, manipulation, and ultimately destruction.
Speaker 2: Throughout Ken Barnes' damning testimony, Marjorie deil Armstrong's face was
Speaker 2: a theater of turmoil. Each of his words seemed to
Speaker 2: land like a personal insult, and she couldn't contain her outrage,
Speaker 2: whispering furiously to her attorney. Her occasional outbursts of liar
Speaker 2: punctuated the courtroom, earning her multiple rebukes from the presiding judge.
Speaker 2: It was clear that the experience of sitting there, subjected
Speaker 2: to a narrative that painted her as a mastermind of malevolence,
Speaker 2: was almost unbearable for her. Then came October twenty sixth,
Speaker 2: the eighth day of the trial, a day that would
Speaker 2: be forever etched in the annals of the case. Marjorie
Speaker 2: took the stand, and for five and a half hours
Speaker 2: spread across two days, she commanded the room. Her unkept,
Speaker 2: greasy black hair framed a face that was both defiant
Speaker 2: and unpredictable. Every time she spoke, she generated an atmosphere
Speaker 2: of bewildering anticipation. Her words were erratic and unexpected. She
Speaker 2: spared no one, neither her own defense attorney, whom she
Speaker 2: accused of asking quote stupid questions unquote, nor the prosecutor,
Speaker 2: whom she openly disparaged, saying, if this is the kind
Speaker 2: of evidence you have against me, I'm telling you this
Speaker 2: is a pitiful case. Her emotional range was operatic. She cried,
Speaker 2: she yelled, She swung wildly between extremes. The judge had
Speaker 2: to rein her in, issuing warnings and cutting her off
Speaker 2: more than fifty times. Marjorie's near omission of Brian Wells
Speaker 2: during her hour's long testimony was a stark contrast to
Speaker 2: the flurry of other accusations and insults she hurled. It
Speaker 2: seemed that during her sometimes unhinged testimony, no one in
Speaker 2: her life, no one in the courtroom, no one involved
Speaker 2: in the case, was spared from dial Armstrong's vitriol. And
Speaker 2: yet someone was spared. Someone was barely mentioned. She addressed
Speaker 2: Brian Wells merely as a footnote in her sprawling diatribe,
Speaker 2: But her single statement dropped like a stone in a
Speaker 2: still pond. Its ripples carried weight. I never met Brian Wells,
Speaker 2: she said, And I never knew Brian Wells never. I
Speaker 2: became aware of him the day that he died. I
Speaker 2: saw it on the news. These words clashed with the
Speaker 2: elaborate narrative that the prosecution had meticulously built, casting a
Speaker 2: shadow of doubt. However, fleeting. Was Marjorie distancing herself from
Speaker 2: Brian as a calculated move or was this a genuine
Speaker 2: proclamation of innocence in regard to him? If the jury
Speaker 2: had already been grappling with Marjorie's credibility. This declaration made
Speaker 2: it even more complex. Her statement left the court room
Speaker 2: suspended in a moment of collective contemplation. Could it be
Speaker 2: that Brian Wells, the man who died so tragically, was
Speaker 2: merely a pawn in a game that he didn't even
Speaker 2: know he was part of? And if Marjorie was telling
Speaker 2: the truth, what did that mean for the case that
Speaker 2: had been so carefully constructed against her, a case that
Speaker 2: presented her as the spider on the web, behind every
Speaker 2: terrible thing that happened, behind everything connected to the bank heist,
Speaker 2: the bomb, the frozen bodies, the murders, the drug abuse, everything.
Speaker 2: This simple moment of calm declaration among the chaos, this
Speaker 2: simple statement, I never met Brian Wells, and I never
Speaker 2: knew Brian Wells never. I became aware of him the
Speaker 2: day that he died. I saw it on the news.
Speaker 2: It read as a quiet declaration of fact, one of
Speaker 2: the few times Marjorie presented as rational rather than wildly unhinged.
Speaker 2: But it was a moment that offered no answers, only
Speaker 2: more questions. This brief mention of Brian, isolated in a
Speaker 2: torrent of words, posed a stark contrast to the elaborate
Speaker 2: stories spun around her. It was as if Marjorie was
Speaker 2: in a universe all her own, impervious to the narratives
Speaker 2: that sought to define her, but fundamentally linked to the
Speaker 2: tragedy that unfolded on that fateful day. The court room
Speaker 2: had become an arena where the last act of this
Speaker 2: grim story unfolded. Each participant, from the accused to the accusers,
Speaker 2: had laid out their version of events. The prosecution, spearheaded
Speaker 2: by Marshall Piccinnini, had unspooled a compelling narrative depicting Marjorie
Speaker 2: and her circle as a web of and I imagine
Speaker 2: you remember this quote, twisted intellectually bright, dysfunctional individuals who
Speaker 2: outsmarted themselves against this backdrop. Marjorie had taken the stand,
Speaker 2: her erratic performance doing little to clarify the intricacies of
Speaker 2: the case. Yet it was her near omission of Brian
Speaker 2: Wells that stood as a puzzling outlier, one that seemed
Speaker 2: to underscore the myriad complexities and unanswered questions still looming
Speaker 2: over this tragic affair. The jury found themselves at a crossroads,
Speaker 2: left to sift through a mountain of evidence, and hours
Speaker 2: of testimony. Their task was monumental to piece together a
Speaker 2: story that had unraveled across years and involved multiple lives,
Speaker 2: all steeped in deceit and dire intentions. The weight of
Speaker 2: the decision ahead of them was immense, not just a verdict,
Speaker 2: but the final punctuation on a narrative rife with human
Speaker 2: tragedy and moral darkness. With the eyes of the court
Speaker 2: upon them, they withdrew to deliberate. Their conclusion would be
Speaker 2: the next and perhaps final, although perhaps not chapter in
Speaker 2: a saga that had already caused so much loss, sorrow,
Speaker 2: and endless questions. When Marjorie deal Arms took the stand,
Speaker 2: one could almost feel the collective anticipation in the courtroom.
Speaker 2: The jury watched, their faces etched with skepticism, and the
Speaker 2: moment she began to speak, it became palpable. Her words
Speaker 2: weren't convincing them. After Marjorie's performance, the jury sequestered for
Speaker 2: eleven grueling hours, not very long really for such a
Speaker 2: high profile case. They were dissecting every piece of evidence,
Speaker 2: every testimony. When they re emerged, the weight of their
Speaker 2: decision was monumental. They found her guilty on all counts,
Speaker 2: armed robbery, conspiracy and deploying a destructive device during a
Speaker 2: crime of violence. The words echoed in the courtroom, resonating
Speaker 2: with grim finality. It wasn't just a verdict. It was
Speaker 2: the ceiling of Marjorie's fate. Mandatory life. Imprisonment loomed before her,
Speaker 2: an unyielding wall she couldn't scale or bypass. This was
Speaker 2: no ordinary case. The destructive device, the bomb caller, had
Speaker 2: not just been an instrument of fear. It had consequences
Speaker 2: devastating and irreversible. It's worth noting, and maybe this is obvious,
Speaker 2: but it's something that you might not think about when
Speaker 2: caught up in the narrative of Marjorie Dial Armstrong and
Speaker 2: the murder of Brian Wells. But explosive devices place everyone
Speaker 2: at risk, not just the direct victim, police bystanders, anyone
Speaker 2: within the bomb's radius. Not to mention the victim, the
Speaker 2: victim's family, friends, people that live in the city, in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood, even in the state. All of them can
Speaker 2: potentially face unforeseen and often tragic outcomes. It's similar to
Speaker 2: the reason why those convicted of arson face more severe
Speaker 2: penalties than those convicted of murder. Why you wonder, how
Speaker 2: is burning down a building worse than murdering someone. Well,
Speaker 2: you may intend to only burn down a building, but
Speaker 2: what if that fire you start burns down an entire city?
Speaker 2: Here as there, the jury's decision, the penalties for the
Speaker 2: crime aren't just a judgment on Marjorie. There a statement
Speaker 2: against a particular kind of reckless violence, the tears of
Speaker 2: the very fabric of society. Imagine being in that jury
Speaker 2: room grappling with the heavy burden of judgment. The facts
Speaker 2: were intricate, the stake's colossal, But in the end, the
Speaker 2: group of twelve men and women tasked with carrying this
Speaker 2: burden decided that the evidence left no room for doubt.
Speaker 2: This was not a spur of the moment decision, not
Speaker 2: the jury's verdict, but the crime committed. It was a
Speaker 2: calculated act, meticulously planned and coldly executed. As the verdict
Speaker 2: was read, the courtroom held its breath, then exhaled. The
Speaker 2: jurors had done their duty and without compromise. For Marjorie,
Speaker 2: the courtroom became a stage where the drama of her
Speaker 2: life reached its tragic climax. As the gabble fell, signaling
Speaker 2: the end of this harrowing legal saga. One couldn't help
Speaker 2: but reflect on the enormity of what had just transpired.
Speaker 2: Justice in its most solemn form had been served, or
Speaker 2: had it? We turned now to a man who doubts
Speaker 2: that justice was done. Seven years is a long time
Speaker 2: for questions to fester, for doubts to worm their way
Speaker 2: into the corners of one's mind. The verdict had answered
Speaker 2: many questions for the public and perhaps even for some investigators,
Speaker 2: but not for Jim Fisher, ex FBI agent and criminal
Speaker 2: justice professor at Edinburgh University in Edinburgh, Pennsylvania. Jim believed
Speaker 2: that serious questions remained. His obsession with the Collerbomb heist
Speaker 2: was more than professional. It was almost as if the
Speaker 2: case had gripped him, refusing to let go until every
Speaker 2: puzzle piece snapped into place. Fisher followed the case closely,
Speaker 2: scrutinized the meaning of every shred of evidence revealed to
Speaker 2: the public, analyzed every media report. Something didn't sit right
Speaker 2: with him. The FBI's behavioral analysis had painted a specific picture.
Speaker 2: This wasn't a straightforward bankheist. This crime was something more sinister,
Speaker 2: a puzzle designed not to a man cash, but to
Speaker 2: confound to bewilder those who would dare to solve it.
Speaker 2: It was like a dark riddle whispered in the dead
Speaker 2: of night, aimed more at the minds of investigators than
Speaker 2: the vault of the bank. Now, Marjorie dil Armstrong was
Speaker 2: many things, but a creator of complex, enigmatic puzzles. Well
Speaker 2: that didn't align with what Fisher knew of her. Her
Speaker 2: motive was straightforward, secure money to pay a hitman. There
Speaker 2: was no evidence to suggest she delighted in taunting law
Speaker 2: enforcement or sending them on a wild goose chase. This
Speaker 2: gap between the FBI's psychological profile and Marjorie's known objectives
Speaker 2: was a chasm that Jim Fisher couldn't bridge. Think about it,
Speaker 2: You're a retired FBI agent who's seen countless crimes, examined
Speaker 2: the psychological contours of myriad criminals, and yet here is
Speaker 2: a case that defies categorization, that resists resolution. It's like
Speaker 2: a book with missing pages, a story with an ending
Speaker 2: that contradicts its beginning. Jim Fisher's unsatisfied curiosity speaks to
Speaker 2: something deep, deeper, an elemental aspect of human nature. It's
Speaker 2: not just about solving a case. It's about understanding the motives,
Speaker 2: the dark underbelly that propels people into committing such heinous acts,
Speaker 2: and until that gap is bridged, until that chasm is
Speaker 2: filled with a mortar of understanding, the case for Fisher
Speaker 2: at least, remained an unsettling enigma. The verdict had closed
Speaker 2: a chapter, but for Jim Fisher, the book was far
Speaker 2: from over. It still beckoned with unanswered questions, compelling him
Speaker 2: to search for that final piece that would make the
Speaker 2: puzzle complete, render it fully understood. Until he found that piece,
Speaker 2: the Pizza bomber case would remain in the back of
Speaker 2: his mind, an unsolved mystery within a solved one. Fisher
Speaker 2: believed the spotlight should have been shifted from Marjorie to
Speaker 2: Bill Rothstein, her neighbor, a man who, while under no
Speaker 2: cloud of suspicion of his own volition, freely confessed to
Speaker 2: something pretty disturbing, storing a human corpse, and not just
Speaker 2: a corpse, but a murder victim in his freezer. If
Speaker 2: that wasn't unsettling enough, Rothstein also perfectly fit the FBI's
Speaker 2: behavioral analysis of the bomb maker. The description was uncanny
Speaker 2: someone quote comfortable around a wide variety of power tools,
Speaker 2: frugal yet creative. Rothstein wasn't just a person of interest.
Speaker 2: He was, in Fisher's eyes, the missing piece, the elusive
Speaker 2: mastermind who could tie the entire mystery together. Here was
Speaker 2: a man who had demonstrated a certain comfort with death,
Speaker 2: whose workshop was filled with tools that could construct not
Speaker 2: just machinery, but also chaos. Think about the enormity of
Speaker 2: such a revelation. After years of focusing on Marjorie. The
Speaker 2: real architect could be someone else, someone who had almost
Speaker 2: been hiding in plain sight, lurking in the shadow of
Speaker 2: another suspect. In the high stakes chessboard of the investigation
Speaker 2: into the pizza bombing. Rothstein had presented himself as a pawn,
Speaker 2: but Fisher saw him as the player, not a piece.
Speaker 2: Rothstein was the puppeteer manipulating the strings, not a marionette
Speaker 2: dancing to someone else's tune. If Fischer's hypothesis is correct,
Speaker 2: it reframes the entire narrative, turning it into a tale
Speaker 2: not just of criminal intent, but of manipulation and cunning.
Speaker 2: The implication would be staggering. Rothstein, hiding behind the facade
Speaker 2: of a neighbor, could be the one who orchestrated the
Speaker 2: entire intricate ballet of crime and deception, and if Rothstein
Speaker 2: was indeed the puppeteer, then the full complexity of this
Speaker 2: disturbing narrative has yet to be revealed. Fischer didn't see
Speaker 2: diel Armstrong's conviction as the end of the road. Instead,
Speaker 2: it was a dark and uncertain detour leading deeper into
Speaker 2: the tangled woods of a case that refused to be easily, understandably,
Speaker 2: satisfactorily solved. Rothstein had manipulated the entire case, Fischer argued.
Speaker 2: He crafted the scavenger hunt as a means to mislead
Speaker 2: investigators and waste their time time, just as Brian Wells
Speaker 2: had wasted his final moments following fruitless clues. Rothstein's early
Speaker 2: involvement in the case, including the nine to one one
Speaker 2: call that implicated Marjorie in a different crime, set the
Speaker 2: stage for the entire investigation to unfold on his terms. Rothstein,
Speaker 2: voluntarily meeting with authorities created the illusion of a man
Speaker 2: with nothing to hide. Even on his deathbed, Rothstein maintained
Speaker 2: his innocence regarding the collar bomb, still controlling the narrative
Speaker 2: even when he seemingly had nothing left to lose. Fisher's
Speaker 2: assertion sums it up quote he died with all the secrets.
Speaker 2: He died taking all the answers with him. Rothstein, in
Speaker 2: Fischer's estimation, was the Moriarty, the ultimate mastermind, scripting the
Speaker 2: story to the very end. He evaded legal retribution, sidestepped detection,
Speaker 2: and left the world grappling with a cadre of what
Speaker 2: Fisher referred to as idiots. Marjorie diil Armstrong and her
Speaker 2: ragtag band of mechanicals were individuals who were part of
Speaker 2: the narrat but had little understanding of the full scope
Speaker 2: of the events, the cause and effect that Rothstein had
Speaker 2: set into motion. His was the evil genius that flicked
Speaker 2: the first domino over and then watched the rest of
Speaker 2: them inevitably fall according to his plan. Consequently, Fisher believes
Speaker 2: that the story of Marjorie diil Armstrong and the Pizza
Speaker 2: Bomber was left riddled with lingering questions, a cryptic puzzle
Speaker 2: with missing pieces, forever obscuring the complete picture. Bill Rothstein
Speaker 2: took it all to the grave, leaving investigators wrestling with
Speaker 2: a Gordian knot that might never fully unravel. In this way,
Speaker 2: Bill Rothstein secured the final word, crafting an unsolved mystery
Speaker 2: that continued to perplex and confound He orchestrated his own exit,
Speaker 2: evading capture in life and remaining mysterious in death. That,
Speaker 2: according to Fisher, was Rothstein's ultimate victory. He got the
Speaker 2: last laugh while everyone else was left at asking the
Speaker 2: unanswered questions. Marjorie passed away in a Texas prison. Brian
Speaker 2: Wells lost his life in that fateful parking lot. The
Speaker 2: only person who might hold further answers is XTV repairman
Speaker 2: and crack dealer Kenneth Barnes, whose sentence was reduced from
Speaker 2: forty five years to twenty years due to his cooperation.
Speaker 2: He's expected to be released in twenty twenty seven, making
Speaker 2: him the last surviving individual connected to this confounding case.
Speaker 2: So was Bill Rothstein, who seems to have died of
Speaker 2: natural causes, And this is a bizarre way to describe it,
Speaker 2: but at a convenient time, was Bill Rothstein the real
Speaker 2: mastermind behind the Pizzabamber case? As we've now learned, Ex
Speaker 2: FBI agent Jim Fisher certainly thinks so, but others who
Speaker 2: were intimately familiar with the case disagree. We turn now
Speaker 2: to Leonard Ambrose and Doug sugre Within the intricate web
Speaker 2: of crime and intrigue surrounding the Pizzabamber case, Leonard Ambrose
Speaker 2: and Doug Sugreus stand as key figures. These two defense
Speaker 2: attorneys had a front row seat to the saga of
Speaker 2: Marjorie deil Armstrong. Ambrose and sugru represented deil Armstrong at
Speaker 2: different critical junctures of her life steeped in violence and chaos.
Speaker 2: Ambrose took the helm in her first homicide trial, a
Speaker 2: top legal drama that played out in Erie County court
Speaker 2: back in nineteen eighty nine, deil Armstrong, proclaiming self defense,
Speaker 2: was acquitted for the killing of her boyfriend Bob Thomas.
Speaker 2: He was shot six times while lounging on a couch
Speaker 2: in their home, a home that was overflowing with hoarded
Speaker 2: food and a palpable air of dysfunction. Years later, sugrew
Speaker 2: would be appointed to represent her in the trial that
Speaker 2: became her legal finale, the one we've just been covering.
Speaker 2: The federal case in Erie related to the pizza bomb plot. Now,
Speaker 2: as we know, deil Armstrong was convicted for her role
Speaker 2: in the tragic demise of Brian Wells and sentenced in
Speaker 2: twenty eleven to life plus thirty years. We should probably
Speaker 2: mention one more time, only because it's easy to get
Speaker 2: sidetracked in all life is full of chaos and violence,
Speaker 2: as diil Armstrong's was, and yet it's important to remember
Speaker 2: that a human life is never a detail to be forgotten.
Speaker 2: That Marjorie also allegedly murdered a third man, boyfriend James Rodin,
Speaker 2: another man from her romantic past, who ended up as
Speaker 2: a frozen corpse in Bill Rothstein's Garage Freezer, part and
Speaker 2: parcel of this grim narrative. So both of these attorneys,
Speaker 2: Ambrose and Sugar lived through the experience of representing the
Speaker 2: complex and troubling individual that was Marjorie deil Armstrong. As such,
Speaker 2: they are the custodians of first hand insights into a
Speaker 2: woman linked to multiple deaths in a string of nefarious activities,
Speaker 2: into both her actions and her psychology. Ambrose and Sugar
Speaker 2: are not mere footnotes in this dark chapter of crime.
Speaker 2: Their experiences form a crucial layer of understanding when it
Speaker 2: comes to grasping the complex mystery that was Marjorie deil Armstrong.
Speaker 2: They bear witnes to a life filled with unsettling questions,
Speaker 2: leaving us to ponder what might have been if her
Speaker 2: mental illness had been adequately addressed and she had been
Speaker 2: confined within institutional walls. While Diil Armstrong herself met her
Speaker 2: end in twenty seventeen, succumbing to breast cancer in a
Speaker 2: Texas federal prison at the age of sixty eight, her
Speaker 2: legacy persists. Her story has been chronicled in various mediums,
Speaker 2: including this podcast, and we know that ex FBI agent
Speaker 2: and criminal justice professor at Edinburgh University Jim Fisher has
Speaker 2: persistent questions about what really occurred in the Pizza Bamber case.
Speaker 2: But for Ambrose, there's an entirely different, unsettling what if
Speaker 2: that haunts the narrative. Leonard Ambrose has remained resolute in
Speaker 2: his conviction that Diil Armstrong should never have faced a
Speaker 2: judge and jury. For decades after he secured her acquittal
Speaker 2: in the Thomas case, he remained steadfast in his belief
Speaker 2: that she should have been placed in a mental instace
Speaker 2: rather than facing criminal trial. She never should have been tried,
Speaker 2: he insists. Now he may be jumping to conclusions, but
Speaker 2: frankly they're the logical conclusions. According to Ambrose, had diil
Speaker 2: Armstrong been institutionalized, a number of things would not have transpired.
Speaker 2: There would have been no pizza bomber case, no trial,
Speaker 2: no one in a refrigerator, he said. Ambrose sees diil
Speaker 2: Armstrong's commission of additional violence as an inescapable outcome, a
Speaker 2: fate that could have been averted if proper measures were taken.
Speaker 2: Quoting Ambrose again here, it was inevitable that once she
Speaker 2: was acquitted, she would have been involved in something of
Speaker 2: a similar nature. It was inevitable to Ambrose institutionalizing dial
Speaker 2: Armstrong would not only have been better for her, but
Speaker 2: could have spared the lives of two or three other individuals.
Speaker 2: Ambrose points out that diil Armstrong was aware of her
Speaker 2: bipolar condition and openly acknowledged it. During the Thomas trial,
Speaker 2: he and diil Armstrong wove a complex defense narrative. They
Speaker 2: focused on claims of self offense, allegations of abuse, and
Speaker 2: a spiraling relationship riddled with mutual mental health struggles. In
Speaker 2: that trial, diel Armstrong's testimony threw light on a chaotic
Speaker 2: mental state. You really get to the point where you're
Speaker 2: burned out. She articulated detailing why she had fired six
Speaker 2: lethal shots into her boyfriend's chest. As we've discussed previously,
Speaker 2: her household shared with Thomas became part of Erie's dark mythology.
Speaker 2: Inside their Sunset Boulevard residence, they stored rotting government surplus food, butter, cheese,
Speaker 2: and more collected from various food pantries across the city.
Speaker 2: This hoarding wasn't just bizarre, It was a manifest symptom
Speaker 2: of their dysfunctional lives and shattered mental health. Ambrose himself
Speaker 2: was more than just a spectator to deal Armstrong's mental
Speaker 2: health struggles. He was often directly in the line of
Speaker 2: her erratic behavior. Frequently she would call him from prison
Speaker 2: at all hours, leaving him tethered to a phone line.
Speaker 2: Her bipolar disorder included symptoms like pressured speech, leading her
Speaker 2: to engage in extensive, often rambling monologues. These conversations were
Speaker 2: so prolonged Ambrose admitted that with Marjorie tying up the line,
Speaker 2: he quote had no phone service sometimes all night. What
Speaker 2: emerges is a portrait of an individual severely impacted by
Speaker 2: mental illness. Ambrose, having been close to the whirlwind that
Speaker 2: was Deil Armstrong, can't shake off the belief that her
Speaker 2: place wasn't in a courtroom, but rather in a mental institution.
Speaker 2: For him, that might have changed the entire trajectory, not
Speaker 2: just of her life, but of everyone caught in her orbit.
Speaker 2: We know that Marjorie deil Armstrong was a woman of contradictions.
Speaker 2: She claimed high intelligence without hesitation, and that claim was
Speaker 2: backed by her academic record straight a's from Academy High School,
Speaker 2: where she ranked twelfth among four hundred and thirteen classmates
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty seven. Yet despite frequently bragging about her
Speaker 2: high intellect, she vehemently denied being the evil genius or
Speaker 2: scheming brain behind the notorious pizza bomber plot, seemingly unaware
Speaker 2: that claiming to be a genius, just not this particular genius,
Speaker 2: may not have helped her case. Ambrose found her to
Speaker 2: be a glaring testament to the coexistence of intelligence and
Speaker 2: mental instability. He said intelligence has nothing to do with
Speaker 2: delusional beliefs, making the point that one's intellectual capacity doesn't
Speaker 2: immunize them from the debilitating impact of mental disorders. In
Speaker 2: November two thousand and seven, five months post indictment in
Speaker 2: the Pizza Bamber case, Marjorie deil Armstrong made a resounding
Speaker 2: declaration over the phone from prison. I am one thousand
Speaker 2: percent innocent, she stated forcefully. This wasn't a casual call
Speaker 2: to a friend, it was a public claim made to
Speaker 2: the Erie Times News. Her plea was born out of desperation.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get extricated from this maze. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to see daylight. My time is running out here, she expressed.
Speaker 2: At the time, she was striving to remove her then
Speaker 2: lawyer Thomas Patten from her legal defense. Patten, a federal
Speaker 2: public defender highly regarded in Erie, was eventually dismissed, making
Speaker 2: room for Doug sugru. U s District Judge Sean J.
Speaker 2: McLaughlin issued a stern warning to dial Armstrong if she
Speaker 2: found herself dissatisfied with Suegru, she'd have no other option
Speaker 2: but to represent herself. While diel Armstrong was known for
Speaker 2: her volatile temperament, she didn't attempt to out sugru who
Speaker 2: maintained a calm demeanor throughout the case. Suegru reflecting on
Speaker 2: his time with dial Armstrong, remembered their extended conversations about
Speaker 2: her past, conversations that painted a picture of a promising
Speaker 2: young woman. She was a smart teenager, impeccably dressed, on
Speaker 2: a track for both academic and professional success. According to
Speaker 2: suegru even in her most tumultuous moments, characterized by pressured
Speaker 2: speech and manic behavior, Diil Armstrong could still be guided
Speaker 2: to recall a time when her life seemed full of potential.
Speaker 2: She would focus on her exemplary grades and various secretarial
Speaker 2: roles she had assumed around erie. It was a brief respite,
Speaker 2: a glimpse into what might have been amid a life
Speaker 2: overtaken by mental health struggles and criminal notoriety. We've already
Speaker 2: heard how the death of Diil Armstrong's mother had a
Speaker 2: debilitating impact on her mental health, leaving her completely unmoored.
Speaker 2: She said at the time, my mother was a clean,
Speaker 2: living woman. I loved my mother. I might have had
Speaker 2: differences with her, but she was all that I had.
Speaker 2: Sue Grew speculates on the impact of this loss, saying quote,
Speaker 2: if her mother could have lived longer, I think that
Speaker 2: would have helped. The Absence of a maternal anchor seemed
Speaker 2: to accelerate Deil Armstrong's descent into a reality dominated by
Speaker 2: mental health struggles and violence. Three years after the death
Speaker 2: of her mother on August twenty eight, two thousand and three,
Speaker 2: Deil Armstrong's name would become inextricably tied synonymous with the
Speaker 2: notorious Pizza Baumber. The violent end of Brian Wells signaled
Speaker 2: that the chaos in Diil Armstrong's life had escalated beyond
Speaker 2: any point of redemption. To be fair to the millions
Speaker 2: of nonviolent people who struggle with mental health issues and
Speaker 2: even bipolar disorder or narcissism, Deil Armstrong's involvement in both
Speaker 2: the murder of Bob Thomas and the death of Wells
Speaker 2: cannot wholly be explained away by her mental instability. As
Speaker 2: we've already heard her former attorney, Leonard Ambrose opine, she
Speaker 2: was a menace to society who ought to have been
Speaker 2: committed to an institution, But as we now know, the
Speaker 2: judicial system had a different outcome in store for her.
Speaker 2: She was ultimately sentenced to life plus thirty years in prison,
Speaker 2: a terminal verdict, and as we heard at the very
Speaker 2: top of this story at the beginning of episode one, one,
Speaker 2: federal magistrate judge, in rejecting one of deal Armstrong's many
Speaker 2: appeals labeled her as a quote coldly calculated criminal, recidivist
Speaker 2: and serial killer. In case you're not sure what recidivist means,
Speaker 2: I had to look it up myself. It means repeat offender.
Speaker 2: The federal magistrate assessment of Deil Armstrong's character coincides with
Speaker 2: those given by both of her defense attorneys, Leonard Ambrose
Speaker 2: and Doug Sugro. Each man was professionally obligated to delve
Speaker 2: into her chaotic and apparently malevolent mind, and they emerged
Speaker 2: with a shared assessment. Deil Armstrong was a woman whose potential,
Speaker 2: brilliance and possible place as a productive member of society
Speaker 2: was overwhelmed by a life disordered by mental illness and
Speaker 2: violence triggered by loneliness, leading her down a dark path
Speaker 2: filled with destruction, murder, and incarceration. As her attorney, Leonard
Speaker 2: Ambrose soberly summarized, it's just a sad epitaph. It really is.
Speaker 2: I'm Zevan Odelberg and this has been kind of murdery.
Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at
Speaker 1: Kino Murdery or email at Kinomurdery at gmail dot com.
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