Brian Douglas Wells

Brian_Douglas_Wells

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Brian Douglas Wells (November 15, 1956 – August 28, 2003) was an unfortunate American pizza delivery man who was killed by a time bomb fastened to his neck, purportedly under coercion from the maker of the bomb. After he was apprehended by the police for robbing a bank, the bomb exploded. The bizarre affair was subject to much media coverage.

Wells was a high school dropout who had steadfastly worked as a pizza delivery man for nearly 30 years without incident in Erie, Pennsylvania. On the afternoon of August 28, 2003, Wells received a call to deliver two pizzas to an address a few miles away. It was later found that the address was that of a TV transmission tower, at the end of a secluded dirt road.

According to law enforcement reports, Wells was meeting people he thought were his accomplices. Wells allegedly participated in the planning for the robbery; he had been told the bomb was going to be fake and he was to claim that three black men forced the bomb on him and he was to tell police he was a hostage.

At the television tower, Wells was told by the waiting gang that the device was real. He wrestled with the men and tried to flee, but one of them fired a gun, causing Wells to capitulate. The collar bomb was attached. The men gave him a sophisticated home-made shotgun, which looked like an oddly shaped cane, and told him to use it if he found trouble at the bank.

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Wells then entered a bank with the shotgun and demanded $250,000. When police arrived to interve, Wells claimed that three unnamed people had placed a bomb around his neck, provided him with the shotgun, and told him that he had to commit the robbery and several other tasks, otherwise he would be killed.

At first, thinking this was part of an elaborate alibi, the police made no attempt to disarm the device. The bomb squad was finally called at 3:04 PM, at least 30 minutes after the first 911 call. At 3:18 PM, the bomb detonated on Wells’ chest, killing him just three minutes before the bomb squad arrived. The event was also broadcast live on television and subsequently the footage found its way to video sharing sites.

A note found on Wells had instructions for him to carry out four tasks—the first of which was the bank robbery—in a set period of time before the bomb went off. Wells would gain extra time with the completion of each task. However, it was later determined that regardless of what had unfolded, Wells would never have had enough time to complete the tasks to get the bomb defused: Police traveled the route on the note and couldn’t complete it in the time the note allocated to Wells.

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In a July 2007 indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Wells had been involved in the planning of the botched crime. Two of his conspirators, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy, and weapons charges. Kenneth Barnes subsequently pleaded guilty in September 2008 and largely confirmed that Wells was indeed involved in planning the robbery but also revealed Wells was under the impression that an actual bomb would not be used.

On December 4, 2008, U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin sentenced Barnes to 45 years in federal prison for his role in the bank robbery and use of a destructive device during a crime of violence. On November 1, 2010, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong was found guilty of participating in the crime, and was sentenced to life plus 30 years on February 28, 2011.

 

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In between dealing with all things technological in the Dabbler engine room, Worm writes the weekly Wikiworm column every Saturday and our monthly Book Club newsletters.