RedHanded - Episode 296 - Evil Genius: The ‘Pizza Bomber’

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

When delivery driver Brian Wells wound up with a bomb strapped to his neck after trying to fulfill a seemingly normal order of 2 pepperoni pizzas, local police thought their strange day had come to a dramatic end. In reality, it was the start…By the end of their investigation they’d have to solve a scavenger hunt, track down a woman known as “crazy Marge”, and defrost the body of a mystery man tossed inside a freezer.This week Suruthi and Hannah deliver one of the most bizarre cases in American history, and try to unbox the truth behind the ‘Pizza Bomber’.Follow us on social media:InstagramTwitterVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Struti. I'm Hannah. listen to Filthy Ritual yet. We love shouting out limited series and other podcasts on this show all the time. But it's gonna sound like a bit of a dick move because we're gonna shout out our very own but it is so good. I'm three episodes in. Nice. And it's so so good. I'm so proud of it. I'm so proud of Leona, who is our superstar producer. And it was just an incredible project. So go and

listen to it totally for free on global player you can binge the whole thing on global player or anywhere else but they are being released week by week basically just me and hannah and then us interviewing all of these people which is something we've never done before but you guys always ask if we would do more investigative stuff and red-handed isn't the place for it filthy ritual is the place for it yeah we got investigative we went into people's houses we went into fucking lockups like we went and spoke to journalists we went and spoke to victims it was crazy and it is an unbelievable story it's that of this woman called juliet de souza it's basically like a witch doctor slash shaman who was just conning people out of millions and millions of millions

of pounds in this north london suburb of hampst, which if you don't know London, is a very nice part of the country. It's not just about the money, though. I think that's the key thing. She is a fucking horrible, malicious person. And episode two is where you will hear one of the worst things that happened to one of the victims. And if your jaw doesn't drop, I will be alarmed. So go check it out. Yeah. You will enjoy it. to one of the victims and if your jaw doesn't drop i will be alarmed so go check it out yeah

you will enjoy it so that's why my stomach is going because i didn't eat dinner last night because we're on the radio instead and i went straight to bed overslept this morning so i haven't had breakfast either so i expect my stomach will be making many an appearance well we're going to talk a lot about pizza i know that's the problem i think i'm gonna have to get popeyes for lunch i've been thinking about it for weeks do you know what you deserve it do it and you deserve filthy ritual go check it out Do it. And you deserve Filthy Ritual. Go check it out. Like Hannah said, on Global Player, all the episodes are out now.

Or anywhere you listen to your podcasts, just week by week. You can have some of my chicken. Thank you. Now let's get on with today's story, because this one is so fucking good. Just after 1.30pm on the 28th of August 2003, Mamma Mia's Pizzeria... I'm sorry, I think you mean Mamma Mia's Pizzeria. Mamma Mia's Pizzeria in Erie, Pennsylvania, received an order from a mystery caller.

The pizzeria's owner, Tony DeTomo, couldn't quite make out what the caller was saying, so he passed the phone over to 46-year-old Brian Wells. Brian had worked at the pizzeria for well over a decade, and he was good at his job. And he managed to understand what the caller was saying, noted down the order for two pepperoni pizzas and the address, 8631 Peach Street. But the location was strange because it was a transmission tower for a local TV station.

W-S-E-E TV. Is that how it's said? Do we reckon? I would say it might be W-S-E-E. W-S-E-E. Schwing. Or W-C. Sure, any of those things.

Pick your favourite. But it's for a local TV station and it's literally just the transmission tower that's at the bottom of a long dirt track. This is where somebody is requesting two pepperoni pizzas be delivered. Weird stuff. But once the food was ready,

Brian, doing his job, headed off. Little did he know, however, this would be the last pizza delivery of his long career. The events surrounding Brian's arrival at that tower are still somewhat of a mystery. What we do know is that around 2.30, an hour after the order for pizza came into Mama Mia's, Brian was walking into the PNC Bank on Peach Street. He was wearing a baggy white T-shirt and holding a strange cane, and he had something large and bulky around his neck. Calmly, he waited in the queue before handing the bank teller

one of ten notes he had been given at the TV tower. This wasn't your classic give-me-all-your-money-stand-to-deliver-your-money-of-your-life-bank-robber note. Tower. This wasn't your classic give me all your money, stand to deliver your money or your life bank robber note. This note was a full A4 page of instructions. And this A4 page detailed what would happen if Brian wasn't given $250,000, a quarter of a million. The A4 note explained that Brian had a bomb strapped to his neck, which would detonate in exactly 15 minutes. The note also said that someone was watching from outside, and that someone could and would detonate the bomb via cell phone if they noticed anything going wrong in the bank.

So Brian waited calmly, pointing his strange cane around, as the teller scrambled to gather as much money as she could. But, unable to get into the bank vault in such a short amount of time, the teller handed Brian a bag containing just $8,702. Brian took the bag, grabbed a lollipop from the desk, and left the bank swinging his cane, Charlie Chaplin style as he went. But Brian's task was far from over. Once he'd left the bank with the money,

he looked at the other nine pages of instruction that he'd been given at the tower. And these notes set out instructions for a scavenger hunt across Erie. It's like Die Hard 2. It is Die Hard 2. According to the nine pages of notes that Brian had been given, each task added a few more minutes to the bomb's timer and the hunt, if successful, would eventually end to the bomb's diffusion. Brian completed the first part of the scavenger hunt, if successful, would eventually end to the bomb's diffusion. Brian completed the first part of the scavenger hunt with relative ease, finding a note taped to a stone by a McDonald's before heading off in his car to the next location. By this time, the police had received their first call from a witness

saying they'd seen a man leave the PNC bank on Peach Street with, quote, a bomb or something wrapped around his neck. The police then found Brian parking his car outside a local optician's called Eyeglass World. He was there because he was attempting part two of his lengthy scavenger hunt. Brian was rushed by officers to the ground, which is quite a rogue move when he has a bomb strapped to his neck. Anyway, they push him to the ground, they handcuff Brian, and they leave him sitting in the car park. And then the police

backed away slowly, waiting for their bomb squad to arrive. As Brian sat waiting, he calmly explained his side of the story to police. According to him, he got the pizza order, he drove to the TV tower, Wow. and then sent him on his way. Brian also then explained the scavenger hunt, and that he, quote, didn't have a lot of time. Unfortunately for Brian, time was about to become a major factor in his odds of survival. And in the kind of tragedy we're all a little too familiar with here at Red Handed, the blockade that had been formed around Brian to protect the public meant that the bomb squad was delayed in getting to the fucking scene.

So as Brian sat there, asking if anyone was going to help him, the device strapped to his neck began to tick and beep. I cannot even imagine the level of panic and fear. I'm panicking now. Yes, I feel my blood pressure going up. Have you seen the documentary on this on Netflix, Evil Genius? No, but I have seen The Bus That Wouldn't Slow Down. Very similar premise.

So I have watched the documentary Evil Genius. This scene in that, horrifying, absolutely horrifying. If I remember correctly, because I watched it years ago, they have CCTV or like police dash cam footage. And my god, if you've seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And when the bomb around his neck started to beep and tick, it was at this point that Brian's calm demeanor drastically changed, and he began urgently begging for help. Exactly why Brian had previously been so unbothered by the bomb is still up for debate. Some people suggest that it's because up until this point, he didn't believe that the bomb was real. Others say that it's because up until this point, Brian hadn't fully comprehended the danger that he was in. Brian's a complicated character.

Yes, he is, he is. So we don't know why he was behaving like Charlie Chaplin-style, waving that fucking cane around, and why he was so chill. But there you go. Either way, Brian did know now, whether he had known in the beginning or not, that he was in an immense amount of danger. As the bomb strapped to his neck began to tick faster and faster,

Brian began to shuffle backwards as if trying to escape the device strapped to his throat. That is horrifying. Yeah. I hate it. What else would you do? You would just Oh, hello! Oh no, that was my mouth. That was my mouth. That was my

Marge Simpson grumble. No, it's because I was just thinking like in saw movies for example when they do things like this you know you're like do you chop your arm off to save the rest of you to save your life here what are you gonna do chop your head off to save your life like there's nothing you can do it's horrifying i was thinking about you know that that 127 Hours film? Mm-hmm. I think it would take me 45 minutes. I'd be like, it would be, I'd be like, oh, well, okay. I'd be like, oh, she wasn't even in a crevasse. She was just in Sainsbury's.

Just bit her own arm. At 3.18pm, the bomb around Brian's neck detonated, blowing a fist-sized hole in Brian's chest, killing him instantly. When this scene happens in the documentary, I literally could not believe my eyes. I was like, you know, we've all got poor attention spans these days. I was watching it and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. This happened and I was like, what the actual fuck did I just see? It is unbelievable. It is like sore, isn't it?

It really, really is. Oh. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either, until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying

and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come.

This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts. And just like Saruti Bala, the police, the public, and TV news crews watched in horror as a fine mist of blood, smoke, and shrapnel fell around the scene. The bomb squad arrived three minutes later and five minutes too late. So as the dust quite literally settled on one of the most brutal televised deaths in America's history, the local police began searching Brian's car. First they found the shotgun cane, which Brian said had been given to him by the three black guys at the tower. Then they came across his written

instructions for the audacious heist. These notes, of course, immediately became of huge importance to the case, because they showed the meticulous level of preparation that had gone into the robbery. The notes included very specific instructions not only for Brian, but also for the bank teller, bank manager and other members of staff. There was nothing spontaneous about any of this. This robbery must have been planned for weeks. As the bomb squad began tentatively investigating the site of the explosion, they found even more evidence of incredibly detailed planning.

The bomb, attached to Brian's neck, was well constructed. It was covered in detailed labels and arrows which pointed to the various functioning parts of the bomb. The bomb also had a list of do's and don'ts written on the side, which instructed the police not to attempt to cut any wires or the bomb would detonate. And in a detail straight out of Saw, there were a series of locks on the bomb to be opened, keys to be turned and combinations to be entered before the explosive could be disarmed. And even more sadistically than that, the bomb contained various red herrings, which would have almost certainly fooled the police into wasting time or even accidentally detonating the bomb itself. And these details, combined with the complicated scavenger hunt, made the whole thing feel a bit more like

something Batman would have to go through, not a pizza delivery guy. But the police's next logical step was just as cartoonish, because they had no choice but to follow the scavenger hunt. Once the bomb squad had swept the area, Officer Leonard King found the second clue that Brian had been searching for, hidden in a coffee can by the curb. From there, he and another officer followed the notes

to find the third clue at an interchange several miles from the bomb site. At this third site, they found an orange piece of tape simply with the word Vietnam written on it. This didn't feel like enough, so Officer King and his team began thoroughly searching the area for other clues. When suddenly, a metallic blue van came speeding over the horizon. When the van saw the two officers searching through the undergrowth, it screeched to a halt a few hundred metres from the police.

The van then watched King and his colleagues for a few moments before speeding away. The police didn't have any chance to give chase. Instead, the two officers went to the next location of the scavenger hunt. But there, they found only an old jar with nothing in it. At location number five, again, they found nothing. There were no clues left at any of the remaining locations. It looked a lot like someone had been clearing up after themselves. Someone, perhaps, in a metallic blue van. Back at the scene of the crime, or should I say,

Brian explosion, things were ramping up as well. America's press had descended on the parking lot where a pizza delivery man had been blown to bits, and the case was handed over to the FBI pretty sharpish. Brian's body, with the bomb still attached to it, was transported to the coroner's office for examination. And as the coroner began attempting to separate Brian's remains from the device, the sheer complexity of the bomb was becoming more and more terrifying. The collar of the device had been designed similarly to a handcuff. It was a hinged circle of steel, closed around the neck, and locked with a ratcheting mechanism.

And this meant that any attempt to tamper with the hinge simply forced it to tighten more around Brian's neck. A note on the bomb also suggested that the locking mechanism was booby-trapped and would detonate a second charge if it was opened. And because of this, with the preservation of evidence in mind, authorities made the decision that none of them had wanted to make. They decided to behead Brian's corpse so they could remove the bomb. Unsurprisingly, Brian's family were pretty

distressed to find out that Brian had his head lopped off in the interest of preserving evidence, but there really wasn't anything else the police could have done. And I do get it, what else could they have done, really? But according to Deputy Coroner Korak Timon, it was the most difficult decision that he has ever made. So with the bomb and Brian now separated, the fiendish device could be examined more closely. Unfortunately though, this only made things more confusing. The inside of the device was a complex mess of wires, timers and cell phones. Various arrows and labels seemed to be intentionally confusing for investigators. Eventually they resigned themselves to the fact

that they would never really know whether the bomb had intended to detonate when it did or if there was even enough time for Brian to have completed the scavenger hunt before it went off. Even more frustrating for the FBI. Whoever had made the bomb had taken a leaf out of the Unabomber's book

because all of the bomb's component parts had either been salvaged from scrap, been purchased second-hand, or been fabricated by hand. This is like genius. Very, very, very, very well thought out, very well put together from the perspective of a bad person. So obviously, all of this meant that tracking down who had built this device was near impossible. At this point, you might be thinking, sure, guys, it's a very sneaky bomb. But didn't whoever make it also leave 10 pages of handwritten notes? Why aren't you looking at those? And you, listener, are correct. The FBI did indeed have 10 pages of handwritten notes written by the evil genius behind all of it. However, whoever had written these notes was at least two steps ahead, again. The original notes had been written on a typewriter and then been traced over in pen.

And that meant that neither the typewriter's font nor the writer's handwriting could be analysed. Because neither of them were on the notes. That's so good! It is! I hate it, but it's so good. Fuck. Phenome. Yes, exactly.

So, as you can tell, a general lack of evidence was becoming a theme in this case. None of the evidence that the FBI had collected had any remnants of DNA on it, apart from, of course, Brian's. They were, however, able to track the call that had been made to the pizzeria. It had come from a payphone at a shell garage across the street from the pizzeria itself. But they still had no idea who had made the call. Even when the TV tower was searched for evidence, the best the police could find were some tyre marks and shoe indents that proved Brian had been there, and evidence of some kind of scuffle. The only place left to search was Brian's house. Brian Wells had lived in Erie all of his life.

He'd struggled at school, academically as well as socially, and eventually he dropped out. Brian was a bit different from his peers, but he was outgoing, friendly, social. He's not the sitting-in-the-corner type. He didn't have a girlfriend, but he did have a very close relationship with a local sex worker called Jessica Hoopsick. And Brian paid Jessica for sex. But he also took her grocery shopping and hung out with her family. Very complicated, but Brian definitely did love Jessica. The FBI got a warrant to search Brian's house.

But they didn't find anything of note inside. Except for an address book filled with the names and numbers of dozens of local sex workers. Top of that list was naturally Jessica Hoopsick, but probably not being the most trusting of the police given her line of work, she refused to talk. And so, at this point, the final potential lead for the FBI was Mamma Mia's pizzeria. Was there perhaps someone there with any clues as to why one of their drivers wound up with a bomb around his neck? The owner, Tony DeTomo, wasn't

much help. He also hadn't done anything to really raise any suspicion. He gave a few TV interviews and mourned the death of a valued employee, but he seemed just as confused as anyone else. But then there was someone else who did catch the eye of the FBI. Bill Pinetti. Bill was a fellow delivery driver who'd been working on the day Brian was killed. According to investigators, after Brian's death, Bill began putting feelers out to hire some kind of protection, suggesting that he thought that he might be in some kind of danger. And at first, it just felt like Panetti was freaked out by a co-worker's death, though the FBI wondered why he was so concerned. Did he know something?

So they arranged an interview with Bill the next day, but he didn't turn up. On Monday, the 31st of August, the day of his interview, Bill Panetti was found dead. Soundboard, soundboard, soundboard. I say so awkward because it just goes on for way too long. Yeah, we're in our studio in our offices. We're having major problems with the mic, so we had to bring our roadcaster down.

And the only positive of having to do that is that we have the soundboard but we still don't know which one is which so there's just eight mystery buttons in front of me so bill panetti's death and also i imagine the applause that we just played caused uproar in the press in erie the second pizza delivery man from the same pizzeria was found dead in less than a month. And on the day of his police interview, it doesn't look good and rumours swirled. Was Bill Pinetti the intended target of the original pizza bomb? Had Pinetti introduced Brian to the gang who'd taken his life? Nobody knew, but everyone seemed utterly convinced that there had to be a link, including the FBI. Bill Panetti's body was taken away for examination by the coroner and once again

the strange-o-meter went up a dial. Despite the fact that Panetti was clearly dead, what wasn't obvious was what had killed him. He had no pre-existing medical conditions, there were no injuries to his body, and there were no signs of struggle. It was like he just dropped dead out of nowhere. In the end, his death was chalked up to an accidental drug overdose. Panetti was a known user and was considered just yet another victim of the US opioid epidemic. So with their final lead now six feet under, the FBI had no choice but to turn to suspect profiling.

With the evidence they'd gathered from the bomb, the gun cane and the notes, they compiled a profile and announced it at a press conference. Investigators told the public that they believed the collar bomber was a handyman who was competent with putting it quite lightly. Yeah, I feel like they have to say that. So they're like, not this guy is a genius.

Yeah, they don't have to reveal to the world how they didn't understand anything about the bomb. Right. Authorities also said that they believe the suspect may be a weapons collector and that there was a good chance they'd made something similar to the cane gun before. As for the culprit's character, they said that from the lengthy instructions they could tell that control was clearly important, as was a need to demonstrate their intelligence. And they said that the suspect would be secretive, patient and deceptive.

But despite this detailed character profile, if a bit generic, behind the scenes, the FBI were still struggling to find any kind of motive. The whole thing had been set up like a robbery, but the method just didn't really make sense. And as several investigators point out in the Netflix documentary, explosive devices are almost never used in bank robberies, nor are unwilling hostages. Yeah, presumably you don't use a bomb in a bank robbery because it'll blow up all the money.

Yeah. And the more officers looked at the bomb and the scavenger hunt, the more it seemed like the whole thing had been designed to fail. Investigators ran the route of the scavenger hunt themselves and concluded that even with the extra time from solving the various puzzles, it would have been almost impossible for Brian to complete the scavenger hunt without the bomb going off. It's like when you do a job interview and they give you a task that's impossible to do in the time just to see how you cope with pressure. But they don't blow you up at the end. I feel like I've been blown up at the end of many a job interview. Anyway, given that the scavenger hunt was impossible and that the bomb did very much go off, it seemed unfathomable that Brian himself could have been

in on the job. And yet, his relaxed attitude in the bank, his cane swinging, and his stunned reaction as the bomb began to detonate, suggested that he might have at least thought that he did know the plan. So now the FBI were following tips for every mildly intelligent gun-toting control freak in Pennsylvania. But nothing really happened, and the case seemed to sit on ice for a while. Speaking of ice, the Strangometer in Erie, Pennsylvania was about to get cranked up to 11. I think that usually happens in places called Erie.

And that was thanks to a discovery in the freezer of a certain Bill Rothstein. On the 20th of September 2003, just over a month after Brian Wells had been beheaded, the local police department received this incredibly bizarre phone call. State Police, what's your emergency? At 8645 P Street in the garage, there's a frozen body. It's in the freezer in the garage.

There's a woman there that you might want to pick up and question. 8645 P Street? Yes. How do you know that, sir? to pick up and question. 8645 P Street? Yes. How do you know that, sir? Trust me, I know. Who are you? I'm the guy who lives there. What is your name, sir?

Bill Rothstein. And what is her name? Marjorie Deal. D-I-E-H-L. Okay, and Marjorie Deal is at that residence now? Yes. Who is she to you, sir? Well, I'll give you guys my story later on.

For the local police, the FBI, for us, and I'm sure for you, the call we just heard raises a lot more questions than it does answers. Who is Marjorie Deal Armstrong? Who's Bill Rothstein? And who is in that freezer? Well, let's start with Marjorie Dale Armstrong? Who's Bill Rothstein? And who is in that freezer? Well, let's start with Marjorie Dale Armstrong. She was born on the 29th of February, 1949, and had a history of mental health issues. She struggled to maintain friendships and relationships and was known as a bit of a loose cannon.

Despite this, she was a very gifted student and graduated with two master's degrees in sociology and education. As a young woman, Marjorie was good-looking and charismatic, but her mental health and inability to hold down a steady job meant that by the time she entered our story, she was already known locally as Crazy Marge. crazy marge sounds like a biker crazy marge sounds like some horrible like butter substitute yeah some horrible flavored butter substitute which i don't want to know about yeah they used to dye margarine blue or green because it was so bad for you yeah the nazis loved it didn't they They did love a Marge, yeah. Weird, weird.

So by 2003, Crazy Marge had been seen by 38 different mental health professionals and diagnosed with a whole host of issues. She had bipolar, depression, pressured speech and narcissism, apparently. That's quite the shopping list. Cocktail. But what's more relevant, is that by 2003 at least five of her previous partners had died under mysterious circumstances.

Soundboard. Well done. That one's better. Well done. Well done me for randomly pressing buttons. Marge's husband had died after falling and hitting his head on a coffee table. He was alive when he arrived at hospital and died in the care of the local medical staff. So Marjorie sued the hospital for negligence and won a settlement for over $175,000. But not before taking a piece of his leg bone so she could clone him in the future. Crazy Marge. Crazy Marge. You crazy. leg bone so she could clone him in the future crazy marge crazy marge you crazy marjorie was even charged with the murder of another long-term partner in 1984

who she shot six times while he was lying on the sofa but somehow she was able to escape any conviction by successfully claiming self-defense how i don't know how is someone attacking you if they're lying down i mean yeah so crazy marge has got quite the past she's got form so given what we've just heard the who was the man in the freezer question seems to be answering itself because yes it was another of Crazy Marge's partners who had wound up dead and frozen. And that man was called James Roden. But we have more questions. We still haven't told you who Bill Rothstein is, and we still don't know why James Roden ended up in his freezer. Let's answer the first one. Bill Rothstein was 60 years old when he called the Erie police.

He had dated Crazy Marge, but almost 40 years before, when they were both in their 20s. Bill Rothstein was tall, burly, charismatic, and he liked to think of himself as an eccentric intellectual. He was a part-time handyman and teacher who specialised in woodwork. It's right there. See, this is why. I don't trust it.

Bill, this is laughable, was part of a group that called themselves the Fractured Intellectuals. No. Which I hate. I wish I had pressed the soundboard yeah and apparently this group was for intelligent people who struggled to settle into day-to-day life which reminds me of so i was in a training company before i went to university

and so there's a cohort every year blah blah blah everyone is aware of the years above who go on to drama school or you know know, to be staple manufacturers or whatever. And there was one year that was referred to exclusively as the bad year. And in the bad year, there was a group of three girls, like classic, like bitchy, exclusive, horrible bitches. And they called themselves the urban bohemia. Bin. Bin. I never met any of them, but I am aware of their existence. That is... How old would they have been when they called themselves that?

18, 19. Ugh, still. Like, it's never acceptable. No. That's disgusting. I hate that. I hate that for them. And I hate that for myself, because now I've heard it. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last

person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host

of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. So once Bill was in police custody, he was more than happy to fill the police in on any remaining details. He told them that although the romantic relationship between him and Marge had ended, he was still one of Marjorie's oldest friends and one of the only people who she felt really understood her. And this is why, according to Bill,

she had called him and asked for help after she'd shot her most recent partner. And Bill said he'd gone to help her because he felt sorry for Marge and because she'd offered him $2,000 to sweeten the deal. Yeah, he's not being that nice about it. No. So Bill said he then put the body in his freezer while he worked out what to do with it. But when Marjorie suggested that they rent a wood chipper...

Crazy Marge. Bill had started to panic. And that's when he decided to call the police. So not only did Bill happily give all of these details, he also said he'd give the police a tour of both his and Marjorie's houses once they'd arrested Crazy Marge. So officers were sent over to Bill Rothstein's house at 8645 Peach Street.

There, hidden behind a tarpaulin in the garage, they found a freezer containing the body of James Roden. And upstairs, sitting on the bed, they found a distressed Marjorie Deal Armstrong. The video of Bill's house and the tour he gave the police are both available on YouTube. And if you watch them, like we have, you'll see that two things are very, very evident. The first thing being that the house is utterly disgusting. It's a shit heap.

There are newspapers, clothes, pieces of wood strewn everywhere. And the garage in particular looks like a literal skip. The second thing you'll notice is that Bill Rothstein loves being the centre of attention. He happily tells officers every bit of the history of his house, his life, and even his relationship with Crazy Marge. Rothstein clearly thinks that he is playing the police. But in reality, they were the ones playing him. By going along with his intellectual, fractured intellectual facade, officers convinced Bill to take them straight to where the body was hidden and tell

them in great detail, on camera, exactly how he and Marge had gone about disposing of it. And at this point, Rothstein also accidentally revealed the single seed that connected this bizarre tale to the pizza bombing a month before. As he walked the police around his house, he told them about a suicide attempt he made after Marge had told him it was time to get the wood chipper. And to prove his point, Rothstein produced a bloodied razor blade, which he had used to cut his wrist, along with a suicide note that he had written. And the first thing that was written on that suicide note was this. This has nothing to do with the Wells case. So, pretty evidently, it did. Excellent work.

Thank you. James Roden's body was taken over to the coroner, where it was left for four days to defrost. That is a horrible piece of information that we all now know. How long does it take to defrost a whole human body? And in the meantime, Bill Rothstein and Marjorie Deal Armstrong were arrested and charged with James Roden's murder. Bill managed to get out on bail thanks to his cooperation with the investigation. Marge, on the other hand, did not. It was their negligence. They were not certified and they will be sued by me if necessary for myself and Rothstein will be sued because he's a filthy liar. He says you committed the murder. Rothstein is a

filthy liar. Rothstein is trying to uh rape me but he's not going to get away with it. You didn't shoot that guy Marjorie? He'll come out in court what happened and you'll see. If I ever get a decent oh please criminal lawyers civil, some more of them, come down and see me. I need all the help I can get, believe me. No, obviously it wasn't lost on detectives that both Bill and Marge could be a match for the collar bomber profile. They were both intelligent and liked people to know it. And it soon became clear that if Bill and Marge

were involved with the collar bomber, then there must have been others. For one, on the day of the pizza bombing, Bill's lodger abruptly moved out. Floyd Stockton was a convicted rapist who'd been living in Bill's house, but for some reason he'd upped and bolted on the day of the pizza bombing. The FBI felt that this was just a little too suspicious to be chalked up to coincidence, and so they labelled Floyd as another person of interest in the case. With Marge in jail and Bill out on bail, the search to find the elusive collar bomber was finally picking up steam. In late 2003, Crazy Marge was

formally charged with the murder of James Rodden and Bill was set to be charged with the much lesser misdemeanor charges related to tampering with a body. Marjorie, sensing the net closing in, took a plea deal. She confessed to murdering her partner, but said that she was not of sound mind when she did so. Before the pair could even get to a courtroom, the most bizarre case in Pennsylvania's recent memory threw out another shocking twist. In July 2004, Bill Rothstein checked himself into a local hospital with Hodgkin's lymphoma and promptly died. Marjorie eventually pleaded guilty and was handed a sentence of just seven years for killing her partner, provided she check herself into a mental health facility upon her release,

and we all know how difficult it is to get out of those. And when Marge got to prison, she started feeling a bit more talkative. In 2005, she sent a letter to the FBI saying that she had information on a fishing buddy called Ken Barnes. At the time, the FBI didn't know who Ken Barnes was or why on earth they should care about him, so they rejected Marge's offer, but put a pin in it because it's coming back later.

Sensing that she was going to have to plate up something a bit more juicy, Marge wrote to the FBI again, this time suggesting that she had information on the pizza bomber. And pretty soon after that second letter, Marge was sitting across from Jerry Clark, the FBI's lead investigator on the pizza bomber case. And in pretty classic Marge fashion, she talked a lot in that meeting, but said almost nothing of value. She made vague hints that Bill Rothstein was responsible for the bombing, but couldn't give them any solid evidence to prove it. So sensing that Marge knew more than she was letting on, the FBI offered her the chance to move to a prison closer to Erie,

if she could give them something concrete on the case. It was at this point that they got their first new piece of evidence in almost two years. Marjorie told the FBI that Bill had moved a blue van off his property on the day of the bombing and that he hadn't brought it back until he was cleared as a suspect. This was massive because nobody had mentioned a blue van in connection with the case since one had been seen on the day of the bombing. That piece of evidence was never made public so for Marjorie to know that was something worth taking seriously. So the FBI moved Marge closer to home and little by little she began giving up more and more evidence. And it's important to note here that although these conversations with Marge contained useful information, the good bits, the usable bits, were peppered through lots of verbal diarrhea.

You can watch interviews with Marge online and you can immediately see her habit of saying or hinting at something of importance before refusing to talk about it happens again and again. And sometimes she just denies that she said anything at all. One such crucial bit of information masquerading as nonsense was the fact that Marge had given Bill Rothstein two kitchen timers a month or so before the bombing. Marge also gave a vague suggestion that she might have killed James Roden to silence him, after which she froze up and refused to answer any more questions.

But whilst Marge was never going to sign any sort of written confession or even repeat her statements again, it was enough to convince Jerry Clark that Bill Rothstein and Marjorie Dahl Armstrong Crazy Marge must have been involved in the pizza bombing. Meanwhile, the FBI decided to take a look at Ken Barnes, the fishing buddy that Marge had mentioned the first time she wanted to make a deal.

Ken was an ex-television repairman and crack dealer who gave himself the nickname Cocaine Ken. It does what it says on the tin. He also turned out to be an absolute fucking liability. Surprise, surprise. Because, yeah, he really let down this motley crew behind the pizza bombing. Because in Ken's first interview with the FBI in July 2005, he openly admitted, without much persuasion, that Marge had offered him the princely sum of $250,000 to kill her dad.

That's right, her dad. Why? Because he was, quote, giving away all of her dad. That's right, her dad. Why? Because he was, quote, giving away all of her inheritance. Now, we don't really have time today to go into Marge's dad. There are more than enough names in this story already. But, all in all, honestly, he seems like quite a lovely man. Marge's dad had retired a few years before the pizza bombing and had began giving away chunks of his money to local charities and people in need,

which absolutely fucking infuriated Marge. So she'd offered Ken Barnes 250 grand to kill him. But the irony of all of this was that Marge wasn't actually in her dad's will anyway. So whatever she'd done, the whole lot would have gone to charity regardless. Off the back of this wild confession, the FBI gained a warrant to search Ken's house, which as a shock to absolutely no one, was completely rank. However, despite thoroughly searching through all of that mess, the FBI found nothing but a list of local sex workers, similar to the one that they'd found at the house

of the dead Brian Wells. The only connection between these two lists was the name Jessica Hoopsick. But Hoopsick still didn't want to do anything for the FBI. But the FBI weren't about to let Cocaine Ken know that. Instead, they did the classic we've-got-you-bang-to-rights approach, which is illegal in this country, but that's what they did to him when he came in for another interview in December 2005. And it was then that Cocaine Ken crumbled.

He told Jerry Clark, point-blank, that he, Bill Rothstein, Marjorie Dahl Armstrong, and Floyd Stockton had come up with a plan to raise $250,000 so that he could kill Marge's dad. And that plan ended up being the pizza bombing. So surely now you're screaming, I can hear you, surely the FBI really do have the pizza bombers bang to rights.

Like the rest of this case and most of the ones that we do on this show, it really wasn't going to be that simple. Despite Ken's very blatant statement, Marge refused to talk and the FBI wanted it watertight. So they spent two years trying to get something resembling a confession out of Marge. Between December 2005 and July 2007, they interviewed Marge eight times. And despite the advice from her own lawyer that now might be a good time to talk, Marge downright refused to give them anything. Since the two-year maximum term was approaching, the federal grand jury had no choice.

They went with what they had and indicted Marge and Ken with armed bank robbery, conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, and using a destructive device in a crime of violence. On top of this, they also named Bill Rothstein and Brian Wells as unindicted co-conspirators. Shockingly, though, they did not indict Floyd Stockton, Bill's ex-lodger. Despite being named in Ken Barnes' confession and being a convicted rapist, Floyd managed to secure an immunity deal in return for testifying against Ken and March. Stockton made several statements. He even confessed that he was the one who put the collar bomb on Brian Wells.

But due to his immunity deal and ill health, he never actually appeared in court. Ken Barnes went on trial first because it was still undecided whether Marge was mentally fit to stand trial. Cocaine Ken pleaded guilty to using a destructive device during a crime of violence and conspiracy to commit a bank robbery. He was given 45 years, something which he since maintained was the best thing that ever happened to him. Ken said that his sentence, quote, kept him away from the drugs and the whores. Lovely. You can get all that in prison, can't you? Yes, I think you can.

Marjorie, Crazy Marge, was eventually found mentally fit to stand trial in September 2009. However, the trial was pushed back even farther when a cancerous lump was found in her neck. After hearing a report that Marge had between three and seven years to live, US District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin eventually decided that Marjorie was still fit to stand trial. And so, on November 1, 2011, eight years after the pizza bomber robbery, Marjorie Dale Armstrong was found guilty on all charges. Four months later, she was sentenced to life in prison and 30 years. Ken Barnes, who testified at the second trial, was given a sentence reduction,

making him eligible for release in 2027. But he didn't make it. He died in 2019, about halfway through his sentence. But what about Brian Wells, the man who paid the ultimate price for the sake of $8,000? Well, despite the fact that Floyd Stockton admitted to putting the collar bomb around Brian's neck, nobody was ever sentenced for Brian's murder. And he is still named as nothing more than an unindicted co-conspirator in the plot, much to Brian's family's dismay. However, in 2018, as part of the Netflix documentary on this case called Evil Genius, Brian's favourite sex worker and the closest thing he had to a partner, Jessica Hoopsick, finally gave her

side of the story. According to Jessica, she had been buying crack cocaine from Cocaine Ken and she'd overheard the plan to rob the PNC bank on Peach Street. The group were talking about how they needed someone who would be scared of them and scared of robbing the bank so they would have complete control over the heist. Jessica Hoopsick said that she knew someone who was a pushover. And so, for $2,000 and some crack, Jessica Hoopsick introduced Brian Wells to the team. And according to Jessica, Brian had no idea what they were planning. She just brought him over the night before the heist

so that they could see how placid he was before she sent him home and took another handful of crack from Ken Barnes. Jessica Hoopsick spent the next two days high. When she came down, Brian was dead. Something she says she will have to carry with her For the rest of her life Yeah damn right Jessica Because now you've lost your fucking golden goose That was buying all your groceries and paying you all the time What did you think was going to happen?

That's ridiculous That makes me really sad It's really sad and really fucking infuriating But yeah It is just such a bonkers case it's absolutely fucking bizarre the intricacy of it like they're not idiots they're not stupid people no no no no absolutely it's absolutely nuts but yeah that is the story of i don't even know marjorie i guess she's the person i. She's the instigator behind all of this.

She's the one with the motive. She's the one who's doing this for specific reasons, though. Yes, that is the story of the Evil Genius documentary, which is on Netflix, which you should definitely go watch because it is very well made and an absolutely batshit story. And if you haven't yet listened, go and check out our brand new six-part series, Filthy Ritual, which launched last week.

You can listen to all six episodes now for free on Global Player, which is just like a podcast app that you can download, or you can listen wherever you listen to your podcast, but it's being released episode by episode, week by week, everywhere else. So go and do those things, and we'll see you there or here or maybe under your bed. Bye. Goodbye. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding,

I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now, exclusively on Wondery+. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go.

A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding and this time if all goes to plan we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs.

Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom.

But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus.