JANET B. CAMPBELL / Erie Times-News
An Erie bomb-squad technician works to turn over the body of Brian Wells after the pizza deliveryman was killed when an explosive device strapped to his neck exploded. Wells told police before the blast that he was an innocent victim. The incident occurred on Aug. 28, 2003.
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Elaborate plot is linked to death of pizza man
Wells took about $8,700 from a teller, got into his Geo Metro and was surrounded by police in a parking lot. Hanging from his neck was a triple-banded metal collar and a device with a locking mechanism that kept it in place. Attached to the collar was a bomb.
"It's going to go off," Wells told police. "I'm not lying."
While police waited for the bomb squad, the bomb exploded.
Time Line
July 2003: Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong solicits Kenneth Barnes to kill her father, intending to pay him with proceeds from a bank robbery, federal prosecutors say.
August 2003: Diehl-
Armstrong kills her boy-
friend, James Roden, to keep him from dis-
closing the bank-rob-
bery plot, officials say.
Aug. 28, 2003: A bomb locked around pizza deliveryman Brian Wells' neck explodes, killing him, after he robbed the PNC Bank in Summit Township, south of Erie.
Sept. 14, 2003: William Rothstein, Diehl-
Armstrong's former boyfriend, dumps more than 1,000 pounds of refuse at the Erie landfill to dispose of evidence linking them to the plot, prosecutors say.
Sept. 22, 2003: Diehl-Armstrong is charged with killing Roden, whose remains were found in a freezer in Rothstein's home, next to the road where Wells delivered his last pizza.
Sept. 27, 2003: An official says Rothstein wrote a note proclaim-
ing his innocence.
Feb. 10, 2004: The FBI releases sections of a nine-page note found in Wells' car revealing a list of rules and a threat that Wells would be "destroyed" if he failed to complete his mission.
Feb. 25, 2004: Wells' death is ruled a homicide.
July 30, 2004: Rothstein dies of cancer.
Jan. 7, 2005: Diehl-
