Murder With My Husband - 29. The Pizza Bomber Part 2

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

In this two-part story, Garret and Payton discuss The Pizza Bomber.  LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: Evil genius Netflix documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Wells https://www.wired.com/2010/12/ff-collarbomb/ https://allthatsinteresting.com/brian-wells-evil-genius-marjorie-diehl-armstrong https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/evil-genius-finale-questions https://www.goerie.com/news/20180828/15-years-later-where-are-pizza-bomber-characters-now https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial/comments/cqz83e/the_death_of_brian_wells/ Socials: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back boys and girls. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland and I'm Garrett Moreland and he's the husband and I'm the husband. We are so excited for today's case. This is part two of the case we did on Thursday, which I feel like we got a really good response to. And so I'm really excited. Like I said, this episode is a part two to the pizza bomber case. So I would highly suggest you go listen to part

one of this story. If you haven't already, we will be jumping right back into where we left off, which was Brian Wells had robbed a bank and then died as well as his coworker Robert Panetti in an unrelated incident. Bill Rothstein, a couple weeks later, called the cops on his toxic lover, sometimes on and off again, Marjorie. Dill Armstrong, whose past boyfriends had all mysteriously died.

And now, her current ex-boyfriend was dead in Bill's freezer. Police going investigate, discover there could be a connection between the deaths because of Bill's suicide note about his attempted suicide having nothing to do with the Wells case from a few weeks earlier. Awesome. Let's do it. I had to make sure I stayed off social media. So I wouldn't see anyone on murder with my husband post what what happens next. The discussions. He started reading and a few of you had been like, I heard this case before I started talking about things he didn't know yet. And I was like, hey, get off there.

You can't know that yet. So he stayed completely off. So let's jump right into where we left off. As the FBI and police battle over jurisdiction and which case is related to which, they try to find evidence of a possible connection between the two cases. They have suspicion but no hard evidence. They really wanted to find the pizza bomber as this case was now getting national attention. Investigators discover that before both cases, Bill was actually in a fight over his parents' estate that was left to him

and his siblings, which he was actually living in the house and it was the house on Peach Street, where Marjorie's ex-boyfriend was in the freezer. So he's in a fight with all his siblings over this house. Good old Peach Street. Yeah, his siblings wanted to sell it out from under him as he'd been living their rent free for all of these years He tells his siblings fine fine. I'll put the house up for sell

But what he doesn't tell them is that he overpriced the house at $250,000 Which no one in their right mind would pay for that house that was completely hoarded and old And do you remember how much money the note in the pizza bomber case asked for from the bank teller? $250,000. So police also discovered that Bill actually had a roommate named Floyd Stockton, living with him at the Pete Street house until the day after the Brian Wells case. So after the pizza bombing.

Okay, got it. Floyd told people when he moved out that the reason he had was because of the heat from the pizza bombing case, which makes no sense unless him or Bill was involved, right? Yeah, that's kind of weird. Did no one question that? No. I mean, okay, you have to keep in mind all the all the characters and all the people involved in this case

It's never the full truth. Yeah, like ever it's it's everyone just this kind of and no one ever goes Oh, my friend just said that and it didn't make sense like no one's really on top of things or like thinking of it that way Which which makes sense, I guess. Yes. So, despite the money that Bill needed to buy back his parents' house from his siblings, which was priced at $250,000, and the weird claims from Floyd about, you know, I moved out because of the heat from the pizza bombing, the FBI actually clears both of them as suspects for the pizza bomber.

What? And the FBI hands over Marjorie, Bill Armstrong's boyfriend and the freezer case to local police. Okay, wait. So they knew all this information, but they just were like, oh, no, you're good. Yeah, no hard evidence, which I think is what they were thinking. So they were like, you know what, you local police handle this messy ex boyfriend, hoarder case and will handle the Brian Wells pizza bomb. Oh, man. Okay.

So even weirder is that the FBI profilers said that the pizza bomber would be a hoarder, middle aged and frugal. Okay, there had to be some miscommunication somewhere, right? Like, yeah, this is not the first time you're gonna see either. This makes no sense. Okay. Which that literally describes Bill, Marjorie, Floyd, his roommate. Yeah for the murder of her ex-boyfriend James. Um, she's arrested and taken to court. Bill Rothstein actually cuts a deal for helping out investigators in return for his involvement in the crime, which was cleaning up the crime, hiding him in the freezer for her. But because he called the cops and helped the in-lead the investigators through the house and showed him everything he cuts a deal.

Okay. After much back and forth, Marjorie ends up pleading guilty to killing her ex-boyfriend James Rodin at her house, which they then moved him to Bill's house, and she files as mentally ill as part of her plea. So she's like, I'm guilty, but it's because I'm mentally ill that I killed him. So FBI are still no closer to finding out who the pizza bomber is. And if Brian Wells was in on it or not, and if it was multiple people or want a salant, there were so many unanswered questions with the case, and it goes dead for a bit. Yeah, I was gonna ask, so how long long do you know how long it's been since

right and died, where we kind of are now. So he died in 2003 and we are just now hitting 2004. Okay. So Marjorie has been arrested and charged, pled guilty, bill cut a deal, you know, and the police separated the two cases, the FBI said no, we're gonna handle pizza bomber, you handle this this so all of that takes place in 2003 and they still have nothing for the pizza box case Nothing has to do with Brian's case. Yep, okay, so we're now in 2004 just a year after the pizza bombing Bill Rothstein dies of terminal cancer Most people didn't even know he was sick. So just a year after the pizza bombing,

a year after him calling the cops on Marjorie and saying, oh, her ex-boyfriends' bodies and my freezer and cutting a deal. And this whole situation was messy. Marjorie and Bill were like publicly fighting and screaming and like acting crate like she was acting so crazy mumbling, rambling to like media. Oh Bill's just a little like and they're just going I'm gonna sue him. I'm gonna sue him for every cent he has for tarnishing my name like just freaking out and then all of a sudden

he just dies. Wait, so the people though actually know that he had cancer or that he was terminally ill? I mean, some people did, but I, I mean, the way they make it seem is it kind of just came out, like, out of nowhere. He didn't act like he was sick. But he had to have been sick.

Cause I was just curious. So has he known about this for a couple of years? And he said. They don't know how long he knew about it. Okay, because that might change some things, right? Okay. So it's also during the year of 2004, that the narrator and investigator that we see on the Netflix documentary about this called evil genius dives deeper into this case on his own. So it's only a year after the case, this investigator from the Netflix documentary shows up, reads about the pizza bomber case,

realizes that there was a slight tie to this Marjorie case, and he's like, there's gotta be more to this. So he drops everything, drives to Eerie, Pennsylvania, and starts investigating on his own. Okay. And in the mid, like right in the early stages of his investigation, Bill dies. Okay. Um, he feels that there's, you know, definitely a connection between the murder of James

Rodin and Brian Wells. The investigator's name is Tray Borsillerie and he starts off his investigation by building a pretty strong relationship with Marjorie while she's serving in prison for killing James Rodin. Does Marjorie know that he's a... Investigator? Yes, he starts straight up. I'm going to make a documentary about your case and you know how people suspected it was you know related to the pizza bomber case and I don't think you did it. Uh-huh. But you're a major player in this case, and she's all for it.

She's like, yeah. So they built, they write back and forth with each other this whole entire time. That's got to be another red flag. Because in all these cases, I feel like the person who's the killer is always like, oh, yeah, let's. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Yeah, let's talk about this.

So he writes back and forth with her talks on the phone with her and builds kind of a friendship in a way. Like he never accused her of anything. He never asked her super hard questions. And so she thought he was on her side. You know, she thought they were building. This was her chance to clear her name. Trey talks to Marjorie about James's death,

but eventually gets into the possible connection to Brian Wells' case. She claims she had absolutely nothing to do with it, but she's pretty sure billed it. This is the first time that someone admits that there might be a connection between the two cases that was one of the involved suspects. So the first time everyone involved speaks up and says, actually, I think he wasn't on it, not just the cop speculating that.

Marjorie brings up that at the time of the Brian Wells case, Bill had a blue van that he towed away from his house right after the pizza bombing, only to bring it back when he and his roommate Floyd Stockton had been cleared to suspects. So I don't know who's done it yet, but Bill's death seems pretty convenient in this whole timeline thing. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? And that'll come into play later. Okay. I'm good smart. You are a game pretty smart. So She's like, oh yeah, you know, I think Bill did it.

And you know, he had this blue van that he towed away and then brought back after he was cleared and I just think that seems suspicious. And so this is actually huge for Tray because as even, you know, the FBI doesn't know about this. No one has talked about the connection to the FBI. So and they cleared the two, the connection. So, and they cleared the connection. And so, Trays, the first person to be like, there is a possible connection because the first

trooper who responded, remember, said there was a blue van at the end of the site who drove away. And now, Marjorie is saying he had a blue van that he had towed away the day after the bombing. And so Tray's like, this is our first physical link between the two. So he goes back through his footage of all the times he had been following Bill or recording Bill trying to get interviews with him and finds a video of him filming the outside of Bill's house. And there's a blue van sitting like sideways, like parked on the street in front of Bill's house. That's so crazy.

I can't believe someone didn't make a connection before. Like that it took Trey, whatever long later, going into figure all this out. Which is what you said. It seems like there was some miscommunication. Yeah, there had to have been. Yeah, and you know, Oh, that's crazy.

I truly hope that we, you know, I wish it was just a stereotype that the FBI and local police have a don't have a good time working together because their ego's getting the way, but it seems like in some of these cases it really is. It's also probably hard because I think as humans, we tend to be sometimes kind of naturally selfish, so we're just kind of in their own world. No, no, no, I know, yeah, I don't need your information like we're we're gonna Yeah, exactly so Tray goes back to the The state trooper who did who saw the blue van Mm-hmm, and he confronts him and says hey or watch this video of this blue van that was outside of you know

Bill's house because Marjorie says she thinks there's a connection and the state state she per watch then, he's like, yeah, that's literally the blue van that I saw at that site that day. And Tray's like, thought of being bought a boom, I saw just kidding. But no, I mean, he's like, holy crap. Like I'm doing this and the FBI and local police don't even know. So does he send this now back to the FBI? Yes, he communicates with them the whole time. So around the time that Marjorie and Tray,

you know, their friendship, they start discussing the pizza bomber case now. Marjorie also decides to write the state police, not the FBI, about Bill's involvement with the pizza bomber in an attempt to lessen her sentence for James Rodin's murder. She tells them that she can give them information about the pizza bombing. She tells them that there is, you know, another person involved with the pizza bombing case with Bill,

so he had an accomplice, and she is very tentative with her information, only answering questions halfway and keeping things to herself. She's smart. She's not gonna just go, here's everything I know. Now she holds back information, she tells half truths. I was just gonna say, she's obviously insane. Like she's obviously crazy, but she's smart. Like she's playing the police now. Oh yeah. And so she doesn't write the FBI,

because it's the FBI's case, she writes state police. Says, hey, I have information about the piece of bombing case because state police were the police who handled her case with James Rodin. So the FBI then hears that Marjorie is talking to state police about their pizza bombing case and decide to go through all of the stuff collected at her house for the James Rodin murder. So they're like, oh crap. We finally have a person who might know who's involved talking, but we cleared him. So they're like, we're just gonna go through everything

that was collected at her house to see if we can find any. Now we're gonna go through and see if there's anything linking her, you know. So in the process, they discover a letter that she had wrote back before either murder was committed and it was addressed to the local PNC bank branch which was the bank that Brian Wells robbed for the robbery. Yes. In the letter, she was irate with them for not giving her all of the inheritance she thinks was left to her from her mother's death. Comes out around this time. The Marjorie feels like her father stole her part of the inheritance from her mother's death comes out around this time. The Marjorie feels like her father

stole her part of the inheritance from her mother and she absolutely hated him for doing this they hadn't talked in years. So before either murder happened, she was writing letters to PNC saying, give me the money that's rightfully mine or else bad things are going to happen to you guys. So how did they not find this before, you know what I'm saying? How did they not? I don't think that they, I mean, okay, I can't speak for them. And I can either. But I think they thought with how meticulous

and how strategic and how diabolical the crime was, there was no way it was two people who lived down the street that were hoarders that were mentally ill. That makes sense. I can see that. Like, I think they thought it was more advanced than this. But Bill and Marjorie were smart. Yeah, she's obviously smart.

Like, talking you, talking about her, she's obviously a smart lady. So I think they just wanted it to be bigger than small town crime. Like I think they wanted it to be this serial killer bomber who's gonna do it to more people and it just ended up not being that. Mm-hmm. So it's at this point in the case that the FBI actually decide,

okay, you know what, we just found this letter to the PNC bank which now is another connection of Marjorie to the bank. So it's time to start completely over on the pizza bombing case, you know, with these new people coming forward and talking and things coming up, they want a fresh look. They rewatch all of the videos, they take out all of the evidence for Bill and Brian's cases. So now they're looking back into the possibility that they're connected. It's during this time when watching the walk-through video that Bill made at his house for the James Rodeon case with local police that

they catch a glimpse of a paper sitting on his desk in the video. It's like the cameras just scrolling by and they pause it and there's like something on the desk. Well there's a lot of stuff on the desk but they pause it and there's like something on the desk. Okay. Well, there's a lot of stuff on the desk, but they see something and it's literally like any crime show that you've seen of people finding something in a video that should have been obvious like the first time and they're like, wait, rewind that. And they like, the tech rewinds it and they're like, look, do you see that right there? And it's like solves the case. It's literally this situation.

It doesn't solve the case, but it's like a huge piece of evidence. How did we not see that before? Yeah, like we, they physically walked through it. How did local police not see it in the physical walkthrough? Yeah. And then after, why didn't no one rewatch these videos and find it, you know, why is it so much later?

So there was a drawing on Bill's desk on the piece of paper that is eerily familiar to one that was found on the color bomb that was on Brian's neck Almost like it was a mock drawing that they put on a paper Before they drew the real one on the bomb. Okay, and it's like I'll I'll post a picture if I can find one and it is it's like the same Like I'll post a picture if I can find one and it is it's like the same Directions drawing on the paper that was found on the bomb. Oh, you would know instantly. Okay. They they did it Okay, you guys we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story about how Garrett and I were both paying separately for Peacock and then we used rocket money and realized how dumb we are and our so happy rocket money helped us stop doing that. Rocket money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions,

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And he told police that. Yeah, he didn't know it was Marjorie, but he called and said, hey, I don't know if this has anything to do with the case. But the day of the pizza bombing, I saw a woman driving the wrong way, driving crazy on the freeway, the wrong way, the day of the pizza bombing. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but it looked like a getaway. It was weird. And now later, as the case has gone on

and it stayed in the media, and then they kind of slightly made the connection between margaries, he was like, hey, I saw that. That was the woman I saw and no one ever followed up with me, but that is the woman I saw driving that. That's crazy. He was sure it was her. They confront Marjorie with this information and she says, it's true. It was me that day. But I she doesn't remember why she was driving the wrong way, but she knows that it has nothing to do with the pizza bomber case.

I wonder why she would admit it, because I feel like there's no hard evidence that she did it. She could have just said, oh, he's just making that up. Because I think she admitted to it because she knew she did it. And she knew there was a witness like they probably came in and say, hey, we had someone I do you like it's definitely you. So she had to admit to it because there was heart like some there was a physical witness to it, but she didn't have to admit that it had anything to do with the pizza bomber.

So just like make it casual. Yeah. Oh yeah, I do do that that day. Okay. This new piece of evidence sparks interest in this case again nationally and the pizza bombing is aired on an episode of America's most wanted. After the episode a man calls the FBI and says the day of the bombing back in 2003 he saw a man in overalls and a woman making a call from the payphone at the shell station in

Erie, Pennsylvania and And he only knew because they were acting weird and he like kind of had to pull around him and then the pizza bombing happened. And so that day just like was kind of engraved in his head. But now as they've shown that you know it could have been Bill and it could have been Marjorie, he calls in. This is a big deal because Bill Rothstein only wore overalls. It was like his signature thing, like the picture I posted on Instagram of him overalls. All the interviews I saw of him overalls. That's so cool that he saw it on TV and was like, wait, wait, I saw like I remember that because they had like, I

don't remember what it was, but they had some sort of like interaction like they either almost hit them or something in the parking lot that made him Remember it and then the bombing happened so like it was still stuck in his head. Yep. That makes sense Once again, they confront Marjorie with this information and she tells them she was in fact at the shell station that day, but it was definitely for something else. It had nothing to do with the pizza bombing and Bill just must have positioned her there that day to make her look guilty because he knew he was doing the pizza bombing that day. Okay. So she's blaming everything on Bill. Like I said earlier, it's pretty convenient that he happens to be dead.

Oh, yeah. So let me tell you something. Yeah, he happens to be dead. Oh yeah. So let me tell you something. If you were somewhere innocently years ago, and police ask you where you were, you wouldn't know you were at the Shell Station that exact day.

If she didn't make a call at the Shell Station that day that had something to do with the pizza bombing, how would she know? Actually, I was at the Shell Station that day, but I must have been set up. You wouldn't know that you were set up to go to the shell station that day. Unless you knew that you were guilty.

That's a good point, yeah. So that, to me, is like a big deal. Like, I don't even remember what I ate for breakfast this morning. I wouldn't know what, if I was happened to be at a gas station that was used to call a bank robbery three years ago, I would know which exact day I was there. That's true, because people always ask us,

so what'd you do this weekend? And we're like, uh. Yeah, like I don't even remember. And you wouldn't know the exact day. Yeah, that's a good point. Unless it was tied to something big. So investigators decide to bring in Marjorie's prison mates to see if she had mentioned anything about the pizza bombing in prison or if she was just bluffing to get a deal.

They interview more than one inmate and all of them say the same thing. Marjorie says that she killed James Rodin, her ex-boyfriend, because he was supposed to be the getaway driver for the pizza bombing heist but he was supposed to be the getaway driver for the pizza bombing heist but he was threatening to uncover the plot to authorities. Oh wow. They also say that Floyd Stockton, Bill's roommate who moved out after the bombing because of the heat from it was involved. The mates also said that Marjorie told people that they measured Brian's neck for the caller beforehand.

I'm not sure how or what they don't go into detail with that, but she says in such a sinister way that almost every single inmate brings it up. For being a quote unquote smart lady, I don't know why she would tell the inmates all this information. Because I feel like we see this, some people just, they, you know, especially actually bombers, like we see this in a lot of bombers cases, the unabomber, he wouldn't have probably got caught,

but he could not stand the fact that people didn't know that he was the brilliant genius behind the bombings. Yeah, I mean, definitely has something to do with their egos. Yeah, so he wrote into police, like not giving his identity, but giving the unibomber an identity. Like this is how smart I am, and this is why I'm doing it.

And so that's the only reason he got caught really, literally. And so, I mean, I think we see this a lot with people who feel like they're so smart. It's like, well, I'm so smart and nobody knows. Nobody knows that I put on this huge diabolical plan, you know. So I think that's why they talk about it. At this point, the FBI obviously need to interview Bill's ex-roomate Floyd Stockton. His name has been dropped a lot and this, you know, they locate him. He's actually in prison now and they try to interview him.

He refuses to talk about it. In the fall of 2005, the FBI here, the name Ken Barnes, being thrown around in conjunction with the case. So they find him to talk about it. He's apparently a good friend of Marjories and they refer to him as her fishing buddy because that's how they met and then they were fishing buddies for years. Local police had actually already interviewed Ken Barnes

back in 2003 about the James Road and Murder because he was friends with all of them. There's a lot of people involved in this case. So they just went to Floyd Stockton, Bill's ex-room mate, who everyone's saying was involved. He refuses to talk about it and they have no hard evidence to demand it. Yeah. Ken Barnes' name starts getting thrown around. So they go find him and discover the local police had already interviewed him back in 2003 about James Rodin's murder because he was friends with James Rodin and Bill and Marjorie. Ken Barnes brings up the name Jessica Hoopsick, who is a mutual friend with him and Marjorie. It's put together at this point that Jessica was a sex worker who happened to service none other than Brian Wells, our pizza-bomb victim, quite frequently.

They had a very close relationship. How it worked was Brian Wells would pick up Jessica Hoopsick and then drive her to Ken Barnes' house where they would then sleep together. Brian would pay Jessica. Okay, wait, why Ken's house? So Ken is the the middle point between Brian, Jessica, Marjorie and Bill. Okay, got it. Ken is friends with Marjorie and Bill, but also friends with Jessica and Brian. So Brian and Jessica would meet and go to Ken's house, who they could have run into Marjorie and Bill.

Does that make sense? So it's all tying back together. There's a loop tying everyone in the case and they're just barely figuring it out. And this is big, because this is the first time they've actually tied Brian the victim to somebody from Bill and Marjorie's world. So anyways, they'd go to Ken's house,

they'd sleep together, Bill would pay Jessica, Jessica would then go downstairs and use the money from Brian to buy cocaine from Ken because Ken was the local drug dealer. Oh man, this is crazy. It was a win-win for everyone. Everyone got what they wanted, everyone made money.

Well, besides Brian, but he still got what he wanted. So now we've discovered our connection to Brian. Brian knows Jessica, who knows Ken, who knows Marjorie, who knows James, who knows Bill, who knows Floyd. This is actually pretty confusing. It kind of makes sense now why there are so many loopholes and everything, because there's just, not random people, but it It kind of makes sense now why there are so many loopholes and everything because there's just not random people, but it was kind of hard to make that connection

to Brian. Because it went through so many people. So I would highly suggest at this point if you're listening and you're feeling a bit confused. I will post a picture on Instagram of everyone's faces and their connection to who, like a diagram. Okay. So get on, put the face to the person and look at the connection, establish who everyone is before we go on with the story because it's only about to get more confusing.

Which is probably why it was so hard for FBI and police to put this together. So they tried to bring Jessica Hoopsick in for an interview at this point as she's the connection, the biggest connection to Brian that's also connected to everyone else. But she won't talk as well. And they have no physical evidence to demand to arrest her and hold her and demand her to talk.

Okay. They're basically chasing down every person who might be involved and waiting for the first one to talk, but literally no one is. They have so many characters and nobody's talking. I'm surprised no one's caved, right? Like, felt this pressure on their shoulders. Police search Ken Barnes' house, as he's the only one who's somewhat said anything. He brought up Jessica's name, who made the connection to Brian.

He's not giving answers, but he's at least cooperating and surprised, surprise, he's a hoarder. Literally, every house in this story is a hoarder house, I swear. That's so crazy. They find nothing in his house that links him to the bomb. They keep pressing Ken on the issue. And he eventually spills about this story, how one time Marjorie asked him to kill her father. She said that

she could rob a bank to get enough money to pay him for it if he did. He says he never did it, but she was probably serious about the plan. So he doesn't say, oh, Marjorie did the pizza bombing and this is who was involved in this, but one time Marjorie asked me to kill her father and she would rob a bank to pay him back for doing it for being the hitman. And he said no, but you know, he felt like she was probably serious because she's crazy. That's how he said it. The FBI at this point go back to Marjorie.

They confront her, hey, we know all these connections. We know this person, this person, this person, this person, this person, and we have a pretty good feeling, you know, that at least one of these people is involved. So, you know, this is what everyone said. Ken told us that you asked him to hire someone, you tried to hire him to kill your dad, and she denies everything. These people are back, crap crazy. I'm going to sue every single one of them. I'm going to sue you guys for coming in here and accusing me of this Keep in mind Marjorie has sued a lot of people and been pretty successful at it So that's why she keeps threatening to sue everyone does she not know that they've talked to the inmates though No, she doesn't she says the inmates are crazy and trying to frame her. Oh my god. She says everyone in this case is trying to frame her She's the victim. Yes. Oh, yeah

At one point, Marjorie does tell the FBI, though, that Bill had asked her for two kitchen timers around the time of the bombing, and she just thought that was weird. But it's a big deal, because two kitchen timers were used in the pizza bomb, but that information wasn't ever released to the public and she didn't know that. So only people who made the bomb would know that two kitchen timers were used in the Oh, okay. And she drops. He asked me for two kitchen timers around the time of the pizza bombing, which could have been used to make the bomb. But no one else knew that. But no one else knew that.

That's pretty crazy. And she, like in the footage, because this is all filmed in the footage when she says that she Panics has a panic attack starts screaming at everyone and demands to go back to herself. Because she realized she made a mistake. Wow. So things are unraveling for those involved. Police are pretty suspicious of the whole friend group that we talked about and all the friends in the group. No. suspicious of the whole friend group that we talked about and all the friends in the group know. But there are still so many unanswered questions and no physical evidence. On December 9, 2005, after much pushing, Ken Barnes admits to police that he was in on the heist and Marjorie was the mastermind. So the first person to speak and say, actually, I had a part in the pizza bombing was Ken Barnes. Was it because they tried to make a deal with him?

No, yeah, they were just pressuring him and everyone was like, everyone involved, if you were involved, you knew that they were talking to everybody. And they had made connections now. So I mean, I think people had been relying on the fact that nobody knew that all of us were involved, like it all made a loop, it all came back to the beginning, but now police had made that connection. So I think Ken was panicking. Yeah, I was wondering if it was just because he was panicking or if they said,

look, you admitted them blah, blah, blah. I don't think they did that with Ken. I think they just told him like, Marjorie could fold, you could fold, Floyd could fold, Jessica could fold, Bill's dead, Brian's dead. That would be, that would be so. James is dead. That's crazy. That would be so stressful. Yes.

I'm not, I feel stressed and I, You're not even Ken. I'm not even Ken. I didn't kill anybody. So he Tells police that the day before the robbery there was a group meeting with everyone to nail down everyone's role in the heist job in the pizza bombing. Bill Ross steam, Marjorie Dillarmstrong, Ken Barnes, Floyd stocked in the roommate, Robert Panetti, the coworker who died, and even Brian Wells were at this meeting, he says. So now we've pulled Robert Panetti, the one who said, they're going to kill me too. Ken Barnes just

named him at being at the planning meeting for the pizza bombing. Wow. James Rodin was supposed to be at the meeting for the pizza bombing, he was supposed to be the getaway driver, but according to Marjorie and Bill, he had the flu. He was actually dead in Bill's freezer. So she killed him because he didn't want to be the getaway driver. He was going to go to police. Okay.

Which is what all of her inmate said she had said. And now Ken Barnes just said, said well apparently he had the flu So we just all didn't know why he was there. He wasn't there Ken Barnes said that his role in the pizza bombing was to be to act as the lookout This next section that I'm gonna tell you will be the events of August 28th 2003 the pizza bombing day from Ken Barnes' confession. He said the day of the pizza bombing, Marjorie came to pick him up from his house around noon. They went to the shell station and met Bill, where they then made the call to

Mama Mia's pizza ria for the two pizzas. They then went up to the radio tower, which was the delivery place. They wait there for Brian to show up. And then Ken says, when he did, they all start eating the pizza that he delivered. He says it was at this point, the Bill's roommate Floyd Stockton brought the caller bomb out. Ken says now at this point, Brian started to freak out a little and try to actually run away. Oh my God. He was like, I don't want to do it anymore. I don't want to do it. They all grab him, punch him and tell him he's going to do what he agreed to do. Bill fires a gun into the air to settle everyone down and tells Brian you're going to put the

collar on and you're going to go rob the bank like we said. Did Brian think that it was going to be a fake bomb? We don't know. Okay. I, there, so there are people who think so because of how he was acting in the bank, that would have been why he was acting casually. Yeah, it just came to my head like maybe he thought it was fake, but he was always going to be freaking out still because he's running.

So Ken says at this time that he didn't know whether or not Brian thought the bomb was fake or not. But he said he thought the bomb was fake. Oh, Ken thought the bomb was fake. It was never supposed to be real according to Ken. And what about the caller? I'm sure you're going to get there, but how was the caller made?

Or is that come later in the story? You do mean like what it looks like or do you mean? No, like who made it? Because it was obviously designed well. Depends on who you ask. So we, I can't tell you for sure who made it. Oh, so no one knows who actually made it. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. This is nuts. So Ken says that Marjorie and Bill then grabbed one of Brian's arms, so Marjorie on one side Bill on the other and Floyd stalked in the roommate, put the collar on Brian. Ken says that Brian was yelling at this point that he didn't want to do it anymore. Please don't make me do it. Marjorie puts the guess t-shirt, ties it over the the bomb and gives Brian the notes. People assume that the guest shirt was like a tease like,

look how smart we are. Guess what's under here? It's a bomb. People think that's why they used that shirt. This is when they tell Brian, if you get caught, tell police that some black guys robbed you and put the bomb on you. And that's what he said to police. That's a horrible cover story.

And so, so racist and prejudice because they did it on purpose. They thought that story would be more believable. They also give him the shotgun cane and tell him to use it if he needs it. And this whole time Ken is recalling the story and when police are like, okay, well, where the shotgun king come from. He's like, I don't know. and tell him to use it if he needs it. And this whole time Ken is recalling the story in one police they're like, okay, well, where the shotgun king come from? He's like, I don't know, I didn't even know we had a shotgun king.

Yeah, that's what I'm still trying to figure out is who made this shotgun cane, who made this collar? Because they obviously knew what they were doing. And Ken's not fessing, we didn't know. Okay. Brian leaves to go to the bank at this point. And Marjorie and Ken drive to the Eton Park. There was a cross the street from the bank They park in the parking lot and take turns watching the bank robbery through binoculars

So they were watching the bank robbery When the cops showed up faster than everyone had thought they would they leave and drive south on Peach Street to Bill's house where they switch vehicles. Marjorie then leaves, gets on a freeway, driving the wrong direction. She drives to the last site and waits. Did she do that because she was just going crazy or why did she do that? I mean, I think you're in a panic, right?

Like you know, you thought he was gonna make it farther She do that. I mean, I think you're in a panic, right? Uh-huh. You know, you thought he was gonna make it farther because he still has the money. They didn't even get the money. I mean, Brian had the money when cops found him because he hadn't even made it very far away from the bank. Yeah.

And so I think everyone's like, you know, okay, we're smart, we're smart, this highest one through, but I just, I think you're not thinking. Ken says at this point, he went home, turned on his TV and watched the live coverage of the cops holding Brian in the middle of the road. He said he felt bad when the bomb actually went off because he thought that everyone was under the assumption that

it was fake. He was, he says he was told it was under the assumption that it was fake. He says he was told it was a fake bomb. He didn't know it was real. After Ken's confession, police head back to the prison where Floyd Stockton is and they confront him with what they know. Hey, Ken Barnes came forward, told us you put the bomb on him.

Floyd's attorney ends up getting him immunity in exchange for his testimony against Marjorie Dill Armstrong. Floyd admits to police that he helped build a couple pieces of the neck bomb, but Bill took over and built it. So now Floyd says Bill built the neck bomb. How did Bill know how to do this? He tells them that Marjorie was definitely in on it. She was there that day, and that Bill was the one who asked him to put the caller on Brian at the radio tower. He says that he could tell Brian was scared

when he put the bomb on his neck. Oh, yeah. He admits that after he put the bomb on Brian, he immediately left. He didn't know who all built the bomb, who wrote the notes, or made the gun that was a cane. He said he honestly didn't even know who originally even came up with the idea. They were all just supposed to do this and split the money. He said

he also didn't know how Robert Panetti, the coworker, was even involved. It's kind of confusing to me how they all didn't know anything yet. They were still just doing it if they're even telling the truth. You know what I'm saying? Oh, I don't know. We were just doing this and we were supposed to put the money in happy ending. You basically just read what I wrote. I said after this interview, the investigators conclude that the ring leader or leaders were

separating the people involved to keep them from knowing the whole plan. They insured that everyone had their job and only knew what their job entailed. They didn't ever tell anyone the whole plan. Or that's what everyone's making it seem like at this point. They think it was originally about the money, but eventually turned more into a game for everyone involved. Like it was more about, could we get away with this?

They most definitely thought they were smarter than everyone else. On July 9th, 2007, Bank robbery charges were filed against both Marjorie Dill Armstrong and Ken Barnes. Bill Rothstein, Brian Wells, and Robert Panetti had already passed and Floyd Stockton had immunity. Now I know it feels wrong that I just included Brian in that, in the people who were involved.

But at this time, and today, Brian is listed as a co-conspirator for the bank robbery. Because he wanted to rob the bank. He's listed as that. That's what peep. That's what if you look up the police file, he's listed as part of the co-conspirators who robbed the bank. But we don't know. We obviously don't know for sure. So was Brian a victim or a participant? According to this theory, he was both. He agreed to do it, but then when he got there, he got cold feet and they punched him and tackled him and put it on him anyways and made him do it It doesn't help when witness when a witness comes forward at after this claiming that they actually saw Brian pull out of Bill's house

The day before the bombing like he was at the meeting. Okay But did he know them the coworker could have been involved to make sure it was Brian that took the delivery that day He could have been an unknowing part of the story. So many unanswered questions. Marjorie pleads not guilty to the bank robbery charge. The judge declares her competent to stand trial. But Floyd's docked in ends up actually needing heart surgery so he couldn't keep up his end of the deal and testify against her like he promised. On October 15, 2012, the trial starts and witnesses take the stand. Jessica Hoopsick, the sex worker, testifies at this trial and states that she had actually over her talk of a bank robbery during her time working and buying cocaine at Ken's house. Marjorie ends up taking the stand at her own trial and people were worried that it actually helped her case.

I feel like this happens a lot. I mean, I don't know many murder cases like you do, but the ones you've told me, this always seems to happen, they seem, oh, I'm gonna do it myself, because I'm so smart and I'm gonna get out of this. And so people were a little bit excited at first, like, oh, she's gonna botch this.

Yeah. But then she gets up and testifies and people are like crap. She was so manipulative that she actually, people were worried she convinced the jury to actually feel bad for her and like her. Yeah. Also, I just wanted to say, of course,

it's convenient that Floyd had heart surgery during all this. I I know oh my gosh So in total it was a 10-day trial and the jury deliberated for only an hour and a half before coming back With a guilty verdict. Okay. I thought you were gonna say not guilty. I know. I was worried too Marjorie deal arm shong was sentenced to life plus 30 years in February of 2011 So Armstrong was sentenced to life plus 30 years in February of 2011 for bank robbery charges. She wasn't charged for the murder of Brian Wells. Wow.

Marjorie insisted she was innocent even after sentencing. I think if you tell yourself alive for long enough, you start to believe it because at this point, she had been doing interviews with Tray and interviews with everyone for years claiming she didn't do this. So then how did she get 30 years for just bank robbery? Is that I don't know enough about the legal system in the area. Well it was life plus 20 years. Yeah I don't know. I don't know. I guess if anyone knows anything about how that system works, you know I'm curious. So it was like robbery with a weapon, robbery with the ended in a death was also on the theme. OK.

Ken Barnes stated that he was happy to be in prison because he was finally off drugs and didn't miss much of the outside world. Ken and Marjorie are the only two who have ever been charged for this crime, but they weren't even charged for Brian Wells murder just to make robbery. All of Marjorie's appeals were denied. She does an on-camera interview with Tray, the investigator, and you can watch it. When Tray had shown up at the court

for her hearing, she asked him to sit behind her, and he did. They built a weird friendship. He decides now that she's been convicted. He is going to be more blunt with her and ask her if she really did have something to do with the pizza bombing because before this, he was just going along with her saying, so, so then why did it build this and what did it never, never saying the evidence adds up to you? Yeah, just trying to get on her side. Yes. So he's going to do it. He's going to confront her. She literally freaks out on him. Hangs up to you. Just trying to get on her side. Yes. So he's gonna do it. He's gonna confront her.

She literally freaks out on him, hangs up on him. Oh wow. Jessica Hoopsick ends up going to prison for drug charges and writes tray while she's in there. She had denied his first attempt at an interview after she testified at the hearing, but now she says she's ready to do an interview. This is important because she's never talked to anyone, not even police.

How long is she supposed to be in prison for? She just had drug charges, so I don't even know how long her prison sentence was. The whole reason is she went to the same prison as Marjorie, and so Tray had talked to Marjorie about her, and Marjorie was like, yeah, I went up and confronted her and told her that she had lied on stand and she never, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Surprise, she didn't try to kill her. I know.

Well, we don't actually know what happened. There was a confrontation altercation and no one can tell the truth about it. We don't know what happened. Tray tries to confront both of them. So this is when, just because Tray's been talking to Marjorie, he tried to interview me at the trial, but I didn't want to. I'm going to contact him now. So she writes him. She gets together with him because she has like work release. So she meets him during her work release hours to do an interview. She

tells Tray, and this is the biggest part of the case. She tells Trey that it's time she makes things right. Brian Wells was more than a customer to her. He took care of her. He drove her to the grocery store. She says they had a very special relationship. She tells Trey that one day she walked into Ken Barnes' house and him and his friends were planning on robbing a bank. She says they asked her if she knew anyone that they could use to rob the bank.

They told her, you know, we need someone who wouldn't run and tell the cops. They tell her, if you find someone that can go in and rob this bank for us, we'll give you $5,000 of the money. Oh, no. She asked them, you know, if I tell you a name now, will you give me money before the bank robbery? I just want it now. Can't tell her no, but I'll give you some crack. If you find someone right now. Okay. She tells them you should use Brian Wells. He's a pushover. Oh no. She brings him over to the house later so everyone can see his face and recognize

him and then they leave. She gives them his work schedule. She tells Trey that she doesn't think Brian knew what was going on. She had never talked to him about it and he didn't go to the meeting the day before because he was with her. Jessica says Brian was truly an innocent victim in it. He showed up that day to the radio tower, just thinking he was delivering pizza. So it was Ken lying there when he was saying that Brian said he didn't wanna do it anymore. Do you think that was a lie?

Personally, yes, I do. Okay, no, I do too. I was wondering if... Yes, in the police reports though, in the case file? No, they think he's involved. They think he's involved personally. Because keep in mind, I traded this interview, not the FBI. This is horrible. This is a hard one. Yeah. I mean, that's so sad. I mean, I don't know what I don't even know. So I mean, after we posted on Saturday, I cried after, because yeah, I just, this case sucks. Personally, I do feel like Brian was a victim, but he hasn't been like released as a victim.

Yeah. And so it's a sucky case. Trey actually sits with this new information and then he calls Ken and tells him what Jessica said. So instead of going to the cops, he calls Ken Barnes and says, Hey, Jessica just told me the truth. Ken Pannix confirms to Trey that Brian didn't know the robbery was happening that day and he wasn't at the meeting. Oh my gosh. Okay, so then why is this still in the police records? Because this is a private, this is an investigative journalist. Did he never, did he go to the police after and tell them?

And they just were like, yeah, it's closed. It is what it is. People were charged. Marjorie went to her death from breast cancer on April 4th, 2017, insisting that she was innocent in the pizza bombing. What an ego that she couldn't. Jessica gave birth shortly after the heist to who she believes to be Brian's baby. The child looks exactly like him.

No one has ever been convicted for the murder of Brian Wells. And that's the story of the pizza bomber. Oh man Ended pretty sad because we know and knows What happened with Brian? I mean it sounds like I mean my opinion. I don't think he was involved But it's just crazy. Yeah, I mean everyone's changed their stories I mean, and it says a lot to me that when Tray went and confronted Ken with this information,

he changed his story. Because I think Ken was thinking he couldn't get a murder charge if Brian was involved. They could only get a bank robbery charge, which they did. Only get a bank robbery charge. So I think if he said that Brian was an accomplice, and there was no one really left to prove that he wasn't besides Jessica Because Marjorie was gonna go to her deathbed saying she didn't know she was not involved and

Bill's dead Brian's dead everyone's dead. Yeah, and Floyd Stockton has heart disease So I mean, I think he was just like if I just say Brian's involved I won't get a murder charge. I think that's the reason they said he was involved. And so Jessica comes forward and says, I have to be honest, I'm the one who gave them Brian. And he was a victim. He didn't know that he went and delivered those pizzas that day. And that's why I think Robert Panetti, the co-worker, was involved to make sure that Brian was the one who delivered the pizzas, that it wasn't another worker. Yeah, no, it all makes sense.

This is a pretty wild one. I mean, all the pieces kind of fell in the place at the end, so it definitely makes sense. And I think this is obviously my personal opinion. Like I said, the police file does states that Brian is a co-conspirator. So I personally believe that he wasn't and I feel bad about the way he was treated before and after his death. And I feel bad that his name is still listed as a co-conspirator when people have come forward that were involved that said he wasn't. But I don't know if you have any physical

evidence of that. Yeah. I don't think there ever will be physical evidence. It's kind of sucks. So yeah, I mean, my heart goes out to his family and I think it's important that we share the full story just like traded. I'm proud of trade for going forward and getting this full story.

Yeah, I kind of wish there was like big rewards for private investigators. Yeah. Because I feel like they always solve these types of cases and all they kind of get is, hey, pat on the back, thanks for helping us. I mean, we can help reward them by going and watching the evil genius Netflix documentary, like watching his documentary, supporting his documentary. Totally.

Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just a complicated one. But yeah, that's the story of the pizza bomber. That's the roller coaster ride of the pizza bomber that's just a complicated one, but yeah, that's the story of the pizza bomber. That's the rollercoaster ride of the pizza bomber That's just insane Yeah, hopefully everyone's listening to the second half because I feel like that's when things started picking up Yeah, so go to our social media Murder with my husband on everything and check out all of the images. I posted images from last time and I will be Posting there's a lot there's a lot of images for this case

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