The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist

 

Today's  case is one that is still shrouded in mystery years later 46 year old brian wells was working as a pizza delivery man in 2003 when he was caught up in a complex plot in erie pennsylvania on august 28th brian walked into a pnc bank around 2:20 in the afternoon rather than going there to deposit or withdraw his money instead brian handed the bank teller a note that demanded they give him 250 thousand dollars when the teller looked up in confusion brian showed them that he held a shotgun disguised to look like a walking cane with a curved handle he then also showed them that he was wearing a homemade explosive device around his neck hidden under his t-shirt twelve minutes later brian left the bank with a fraction of the money he had demanded only about nine thousand dollars and a dum-dum lollipop he had casually grabbed off of the counter he then headed over to a mcdonald's next door and looked under a rock for a note his threat on the bank teller hadn't gone unnoticed and the police caught up with brian while he was sitting inside a vehicle in the parking lot of an eyeglass world. 

 He was handcuffed by state troopers when authorities say that he admitted to robbing the pnc bank he leaned against the police car as the 30-pound bomb around his neck was heavy court documents reveal that brian then claimed he had been attacked by a group of black men who attached the bomb to him while he was delivering pizza he said that he was given a letter with handwritten instructions brian  warned the state troopers to stay away from him saying i don't have a lot of time i'm not lying it's going to go off allegedly he also pleaded why is it that nobody's trying to come get this off and 20 minutes later the bomb around his neck began to beep for about 10 seconds then it detonated brian was killed instantly lamont king who had worked as a pennsylvanian state police supervisor at the time said that his eyes got real wideand then they went to the back of his head and that was the end of him a crowd had gathered around the scene as brian was handcuffed and so the shocked bystanders watched in horror as he died before their eyes at the time police hadn't been certain that brian was telling them the truth about the bomb and though they eventually called the bomb squad 30 minutes after finding brian it was too late by then investigators began looking into the strange and shocking case the police discovered a series of detailed instructions that had been left for brian that told him what he had to do to disarm and unlock the bomb around his neck brian had to find four keys and a detonation code to free himself but he was caught by police while finding his third key one instruction read most important rule do not radio phone or contact anyone alerting the authorities your company or anyone else will bring your death if we spot police vehicles or aircraft you will be killed it was quickly noted that the instructions were written with the words we and us which led investigators to believe they were looking for multiple people responsible for the robbery and brian's death according to the ny post during an autopsy federal authorities struggled to remove the bomb and ended up decapitating brian just to get it  off the bomb itself was soon called the collar bomb a name that the case was also known by.

 

For months there were very little leads in the case that is until a seemingly unrelated crime was reported william rothstein called state police to tell them that he had a body frozen in his garage according to an fbi affidavit rothstein told investigators that his ex-fiancee marjorie deal armstrong had killed her own boyfriend a man named james rhoden his body was then hidden  in the freezer during the investigationinto james rhoden's death marjorie ended up implicating herself in another crime the collar bomb she reportedly pled guilty but  mentally ill for rhoden's murder in 2005. according to the fbi marjorie admitted to a fellow inmate that she had killed him because he threatened to tell people about her connection to the caller bomb what's more it appears marjorie had partners in crime according to time.com william rothstein was also implicated in the plot and was alleged to have helped to build the bomb and another suspect a friend of marjories named kenneth barnes allegedly confessed to punching wells on the day of the heist when he tried to run away but what was the motive for the plot itself the goal had reportedly been financial gain but it has further been alleged that marjorie had planned to use the money from the bank robbery to pay barnes to kill her father so she could collect her inheritance margaery is alleged to have supplied two egg timers to be used in the collar bomb according to various news sources william rothstein died from terminal cancer before he could be charged for his involvement in the collar bomb.

 Marjorie diehl armstrong and kenneth barnes were both convicted of conspiracy and armed bank robbery charges a question remained though what was brian's role in the robbery was he a randomly targeted victim or was he involved in the plot all along unfortunately this answer isn't clear it appears as if brian was possibly both a conspirator and victim according to investigators brian may have planned with the others to rob the bank for the 250 thousand dollars but he had allegedly believed that the bomb strapped around his neck would be fake according to the fbi  placing the bomb around brian's neck was meant to make him look like a hostage and give him an alibi if arrested when he realized it was real brian had attempted to escape us attorney mary beth buchanan made a statement and said that their investigation led to the belief that brian became involved with the conspirators who planned to rob the pnc bank but that he eventually became an unwilling participant in the scheme it had also been alleged that marjorie had switched the bomb from a fake to a real one one that would detonate no matter what brian did perhaps in order to keep her role in the plot hidden still brian's family was outraged to hear this allegation according to the ny post his autopsy revealed he had been shot with a small bullet which they took as proof that he had been coerced or forced into the deadly bank robbery plot they maintained that brian died as the victim of others greed we may never know all of the answers for these three cases but what we do know for sure is that each case presented a  surprising and unexpected twist which took the investigators down a path authorities never could have seen coming.