Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist (2018): Season 1, Episode 1 - Part One: The Heist - full transcript

A bank robbery in Pennsylvania ends in the bombing death of a pizza deliveryman who may or may not have been a hostage forced to commit the crime.

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[Borzillieri] Three things
you need to know

about Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

The first... she was never
what you would call normal.

As a kid, she grew faster, was awkward...

lonely.

When her parents built her
this life-size dollhouse,

the neighborhood kids
finally came over to play.

Marjorie grew up to be a beautiful,
smart, young woman.

She earned a master's degree in education.

People found her captivating.

Especially men,
who would do almost anything for her.



I've been talking with Marge
for over a decade.

This is one of the boxes
of letters from Marge.

And this is probably about...

Oh, I don't know, maybe half
of the letters through the years.

Yeah, there's just-- It's just endless.

I'm trying to get her to tell me the truth

about a pizza deliveryman and a crime
that became FBI major case number 203.

[Marjorie] I'm trying to prevent
your movie from being a flop.

I am not some evil genius
who was greedy and wanted some guy

to rob a bank for me.

I didn't have anything to do
with the goddamn crime!

-[woman 1] 911, what's your emergency?
-[woman 2] We've been robbed.

-[woman 1] Okay, stay on the line.
-[woman 2] Okay.

-[woman 1] Is anyone hurt?
-[woman 2] No.



[man] The guy walked out with
I don't know how much cash in a bag.

He had a bomb or something
wrapped around his neck.

He's sitting in a parking lot
on upper Peach.

I'm watching him
out my rearview mirror.

[woman 3] The man told police that
the bomb had been strapped to his body

and that he was forced to rob the bank.

Maybe you can get the keys?
To get out of this thing.

I don't know if I have enough time.

I'm not lying!

[bomb beeping]

It's gonna go off.

[King] My name is Lamont King.

A retired corporal with Pennsylvania
State Police, crime unit supervisor.

On the, uh, 28th of August...

...of, uh, 2003,

uh, I was in my office, and received
information that the PNC Bank,

located directly across here,

uh, had been robbed by an individual
apparently wearing a collar bomb.

Brian Wells walked into the bank with
a cane and the collar around his neck.

We later learned that the, uh, cane,
it was actually a gun, a cane gun.

He handed the teller a note.

The notes were nine pages.
They were quite rambling in places.

There were a couple that were
instructions for Brian. There were...

One that he was to give
to the bank manager.

One was for police.

Bank notes are...
"I have a gun. Give me all your money."

I mean, they're not usually dissertations

that are miles long.

He had asked for $250,000.

In the end, all he got was what was
in the drawers, somewhere around $8,000.

[King] He exited the bank,
stopped at McDonald's

and picked up apparently, a note.

Got his vehicle on the road,
proceeded to head south on Route 19,

which is Peach Street,
when our units arrived,

at which time
our units spotted his vehicle

and pulled him over
in the Eyeglass World parking lot.

I was assigned
to the patrol unit here in Erie,

and was riding my motorcycle.

I was made aware of the situation
going on over on Peach Street.

[newsman] Police captured
Brian Wells, age 46,

a pizza deliveryman,
just minutes after he left the bank.

[Morgan] We got him and handcuffed him.

And Brian said something about a bomb.

It was Trooper Syzmanski who went up
and, using a small pair of scissors,

cut the sides of the shirt, because
whatever he had was underneath.

When Syzmanski lifted the shirt, he goes:

"Yeah, that looks like a bomb."

That's when they sat him down
to isolate him.

[man 1] I'm gonna need a radio out here.

[man 2] This guy's looking right at us.

[man 1] Shoo them all over to 90.

[King] When I pulled up, the general
consensus is it was probably a fake bomb,

but we never know,
so we act like it's real.

When I arrived, uh, he was already
on his knees, cuffed,

and he was talking calmly.

We were going back and forth with him
being a willing participant or a hostage.

Can you at least take these
freakin' handcuffs off?

[King] I look through binoculars,
and he's talking.

He's nervous, but he's not
talking agitated. He's not agitated.

Why is it nobody's trying to come
to get this thing off of me?

He was concerned about
getting the collar off.

It's gonna go off!

[Morgan] Soon as we believed we had
a bomb, the call went to Erie bomb squad.

It's just unfortunate that they were
probably over ten miles away.

And another unfortunate thing is that
in the process of protecting the public

by closing down Peach Street,
we've now created a traffic problem

that the bomb squad
has to contend with this traffic.

-Did you call my boss?
-Yeah, we called him.

We realized what pizza shop he worked at,

and I sent two guys there
to conduct interviews.

[newsman] Coworkers at Mama Mia's Pizzaria
saw Wells leave

to deliver two sausage and pepperoni pies
to a remote location,

an unoccupied radio tower.

He said black people, uh, jumped him
and put the collar around his neck.

He pulled the key out and started a timer.

I heard the thing ticking when he did it.

[King] He never said who it was.

He couldn't describe the black individuals
he claimed put the bomb around his neck.

You know there's probably
not a black person involved,

but that's what they're gonna say.

I was wondering if you guys could
get those instructions to go get the keys.

At that time, I start hearing a beep.

- His whole demeanor changed.
-[bomb beeping]

Maybe you can get the keys?

To get out of this thing.

I don't know if I have enough time now.

[King] It's at that time that he realized
that it is a real bomb.

I'm not lying.

[King] I don't think he realized
until it started beeping.

...tell you where to get the keys.

Can you go to the next site in the car?

-I don't have a lot of time.
-We're gonna have to...

[King] He was getting excited, and then

I kept hearing it. It, you know,
was going beep, beep.

I was zoomed in on his face.

It's gonna go off!

-I'm not lying!
-[bomb beeping faster]

[King] His eyes just got real wide.

Then they went to the back of his head.
And that was the end of him.

A few minutes ago,
I was looking in that direction.

The man was sitting there
as he was since about 3:00

when all of a sudden a loud explosion,
and he flipped onto his back,

and the police troopers scrambled.
They're still holding guns on him.

They're still not sure of his condition.

My name's Tom Stankiewicz.
On August 28th, 2003,

I was the bomb squad commander
for Erie Police.

Within about four blocks of our arrival,

we received information over the radio
a bomb exploded on this suspect.

He had still been breathing up until
a couple of...

Really until the moment before
we had arrived.

We put on bomb suits, took up
the necessary equipment we might need.

On approaching the person at the scene,
it was evident that he was deceased.

The suspect still had
part of the device secured to his neck.

We went through to make sure there were
no more explosive devices on him,

and searched his vehicle for any
potential further explosive devices.

[King] Brian was to go
on a scavenger hunt.

[Morgan] He was supposed to go from
point A to point B to point C to point D

to get further instructions
to eventually lead him to a location

where the keys would be given
to release this bomb.

[King] He was following instructions
from the McDonald's to this site.

Contacted the bomb squad.
They came in and swept the area.

The clue was sitting in the, uh--

In a coffee can,
maybe five or ten yards off the berm.

Just to the right of this sign.
It's not too far from the sign.

From the drop-off point number one,
which was Interchange Road,

he was to go to his next drop-off point,
which was on 79 South,

pretty close to the McKean Township exit.

Where we are is the second place
for the scavenger hunt

that he was directed to come to.

What we found here
as we were looking for other items...

Uh, we found an orange tape sign
with "Vietnam" on it.

As we were looking in through here,

I noticed way back on the other side
of that field

a minivan coming this way
and started to come towards us.

But it looked like he was coming to this
point also and we surprised him.

And, uh, when he saw us,
he stopped for a while,

hesitated, backed up, and took off.

And he was so far away, we couldn't drive
up through here. He basically got away.

It was like a, uh, blue type,
dirty blue type van.

I figured whoever was responsible
for leaving the notes was in that van.

Leaving the notes
at both the drop-off points.

Actually, that van always bothered me.

Always bothered me.

We did our preliminary investigation
and referred it right back to the FBI,

but the van was never mentioned again.

Initially when the call came in,
it was a state police case

because we had had a crime
committed within our jurisdiction.

And being a bank, federal investigators
would eventually be brought in.

Of course, there's always a brief
jurisdictional dispute.

ATF and the FBI and the state police,
everybody had a huddle.

And they're like, "Whose case is this?"
ATF says,

"We have jurisdiction
because it's an explosive device."

Uh, state police said,
"This was on our turf."

FBI said, "No, this is a bank
robbery case, which the FBI handles."

They went back and forth a bit. Turned out
that the FBI was gonna take point,

assisted by the state police and the ATF.

[Clark] My name is Jerry Clark.

I was the lead investigator
as a special agent for the FBI.

Night of the bombing,
I drafted an affidavit with the, uh,

U.S. Attorney's office,

and we executed a search warrant
at Brian Wells' residence.

We made entry into Mr. Wells' residence
using an explosive breach,

because we weren't sure
what we were gonna find.

Once inside, we didn't find a whole lot.

But we did find interesting things,
including an address book

that had the names and telephone numbers
of some local prostitutes.

We never did find any physical evidence
that linked him to the bombing.

[Timon] It was 3 in the morning
by the time we transported him back

to the coroner's office.

We started discussing the collar.

It was the primary
piece of evidence at the time.

Uh, and, of course, uh, the other agencies
didn't want that disrupted very much.

It said in the note the collar was
booby-trapped, but my concern was safety.

That's when the decision was made
to do a, uh,

essentially a surgical decapitation
of the body.

[King]
In order for them to remove the device,

they had to actually cut
his head off to remove it.

[Timon] It was, probably still is,

the most difficult decision
I've ever made.

It was done in a way that was, uh...

I mean, it's difficult to describe,
but it was done in a very, uh...

caring way.

[newsman] 43-year-old Brian Wells, who
lived in a nice Mill Creek neighborhood,

was described by neighbors as very
friendly, very nice, almost childlike.

[Payne] My name is Linda Payne,
and Brian lived in this little house.

And he was a good renter.

He did have three cats
that he kept inside all the time.

Once in a while, he'd carry one out.
He was pretty even-tempered.

Uh, if he did get excited,
he danced a little.

It was just the way he was. You know.

[chuckles]

Sometimes he would take his mother
to the movies.

If there was a free concert,
he'd take his mother and her friend.

He liked scavenger hunts,
the key hunt in the paper.

They put clues in the paper every day,
and it would be some landmark place

around the county that the key would be.

Once he got close but missed it
by a little bit and didn't get it.

So he was disappointed about that.

They might have made the scavenger hunt
because they knew he liked them.

[Clark] The description of Mr. Wells
in the bank was very calm.

Actually stood on line for a second
before he decided to go around

one of the customers in the bank
to hand the teller a note.

Actually reached into the basket
to pull out a lollipop.

Why would you feel comfortable
enough and take a lollipop?

Why would you, as the witness described,
walk out of the bank like Charlie Chaplin,

swinging the bag and the cane gun?

Why or how could an individual

who knew they had a live device
around their neck be so calm?

I didn't think that he was involved.
I thought, he-- They...

He might be easy to, um...

uh, influence.

I thought it'd be easy to grab him
and put the collar bomb on.

[Clark] The call was made
to the pizza delivery shop at 1:30.

We determined that came from the Shell
station not far from the delivery site.

Mr. Tony Ditomo, the owner of the
pizza shop, initially took the call.

And he was talking to that person,

and he was having trouble understanding,
so he handed the phone to Brian Wells,

and Brian Wells wrote his own directions

to the tower where the pizzas
were to be delivered.

[Bremner] Could this dirt road
be the fateful spot

where Wells met the person or persons
who would end his life?

This secluded site
is the last delivery spot for Wells.

Now the question is, was the man forced
to rob the bank by someone else?

[Clark] We found and recovered,
through the Pennsylvania State Police,

who did a fantastic job
in evidence recovery, tire impressions

that indicated that Brian Wells' vehicle
was at this site.

We also had shoe impressions.

Mr. Wells' shoe, his sneaker,
that indicated that he was at this site.

All right? And we had a scuff mark,

uh, right in the, uh, this area right here

that indicated that there was some
sort of struggle that had ensued.

A case of this size, you would think
that somewhere in the pieces recovered

you'd have some evidence
that could be used forensically.

We took every step we could
to develop DNA,

fingerprints, any forensic evidence
that we could use to compare,

and we just didn't have much luck
with that in this case.

[Heid] Good morning.

My name is Jean Heid.

I'm one of Brian Wells' three sisters.

I first heard about the suffering
and death of my brother, Brian,

on the news.

Brian was handcuffed.

The officers continued to point their guns
at him,

even though he was fully cooperating
in their custody.

And why was no ambulance present
to try to help

when he laid dying upon the ground,
grasping for life?

The decision was made
to cut off Brian's head...

to preserve the collar bomb.

This beheading of Brian...

took from us the closure we sought

by being able to view Brian
at his funeral.

Tears streamed down Mom's face
as she learned the news

that Brian's body was not fit
for open-casket viewing.

The removed head could not be supported
in position.

More respect was shown
for the destructive device

than for Brian's body.

As a kindhearted listener,

Brian touched our lives
in so many beautiful ways

by his humble and quiet presence,

and his devoted, selfless care
and service for our family.

We believe that what happened
to Brian was monstrous.

The absence of clarity and truth
in the investigation

has been a horrendous ordeal
for our entire family.

[Bremner] Erie has its share, for
a small town, of kind of bizarre events.

We've had a number of things happen.

But there is nothing

that captured the imagination
of the public,

that raised so many questions,
that was just so...

sincerely bizarre as this case.

It's a bank robbery, but a scavenger hunt,
a guy has a cane gun, and it was loaded.

He had the Guess shirt on.
You know, "Guess what this is."

It took on this mythic proportion,
'cause it just kept getting weirder.

This is a Fox News alert.
Breaking news tonight

in the so-called Pizza Bomber mystery.

There is a twist
in a bizarre bank-robbery story

in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The captured bank robber had a bomb
on him. Now he's dead.

And so was a coworker, who also died

under mysterious circumstances.

The second incident occurred
on Sunday, August 31st,

when a coworker and friend of Wells,
Robert Thomas Pinetti,

was discovered unresponsive
by family members.

[Timon] As the story developed,
and they learned who it was

and his relationship with
the pizza business and Mr. Wells--

So, when they got that,
they pulled back.

Again, a perimeter was set up.

There was no signs
of any pathologic condition he had,

like a stroke or a heart attack...

or anything along those lines.

Similar scenario to Mr. Wells, he was...

transported to our office
and an autopsy was done.

[reporter] Officials hope an autopsy
reveals the cause of that death

and helps determine whether
the strange fates of the two pizza workers

are somehow connected.

[Gluth] I was on the task force
that we worked with the PSP.

A lot of the FBI, a lot of the ATF.

There were Erie city officers
assigned to it.

Well, Bob Pinetti was an important subject
in the investigation,

because he changed his actions
right after it occurred.

He got nervous. He was going around.

We have interviews where he was looking
for some type of protection

'cause he thought they were coming
after him next.

[Clark] Initially, Mr. Pinetti was going

to be interviewed by investigators,
and they had met

with him at the pizza shop.

Mr. Pinetti was working a shift

and asked if he could move his interview

until Monday.

Well, as it turned out,

Monday never came for investigators
because...

he died that Sunday evening.

[Gluth] He did appear to have
a drug issue.

That's something that's not uncommon
in the Erie area. It's a plague right now,

with all the ODs, with heroin, the pills,
and those types of things.

And could it be that this added anxiety
from this investigation--?

His buddy just got a bomb strapped on him
and blew up.

I get worked up, more drugs to take
the edge off, and accidentally OD.

Now you have

a second pizza deliveryman
who has also died.

The question became:
Did he play a role in this?

Did he help set Brian up to deliver
that pizza on that day?

[newsman] The multi-agency task force

investigating the robbery and the death
of the robber

is considering three scenarios.

One, that 46-year-old Brian Wells
committed the robbery on his own.

But why would he use a live bomb?

The second scenario,
Wells was abducted by others.

Told he had 20 minutes to rob the bank

and get back, or the bomb
they attached would go off.

Third, that Wells and fellow employee,
43-year-old Robert Pinetti,

-planned the robbery together.
-[Payne] I did know that he would go

with Pinetti to do some gambling.

I figured, maybe he could have
needed money enough to rob a bank.

Robert was a very gentle fellow,
and he wasn't out to hurt anybody.

And he wouldn't do that.

[newswoman] Pinetti, whose health is
clearly failing, says her son is innocent.

It makes me feel really bad.

Really bad, when you know
that it's not true. You know?

That's what hurts.
He didn't have anything to do with it.

[Bremner] As for Robert Pinetti,
the coworker of Wells who was found dead,

an autopsy has been completed.

Preliminary results show, perhaps,
either an accidental overdose or suicide.

[King] Now we have two dead pizza delivery
guys, and the city's feeling shocked.

How could this happen?

You know, who's the mastermind?
Because this made worldwide news.

[newsman] Was this a robbery gone
wrong, or a sadistic public execution?

[reporter speaking in Japanese]

[Clark] We had a few investigative teams
in operation.

We knew
that Mr. Wells frequented prostitutes.

We had a prostitute team,
due to the fact that Mr. Wells had

the prostitutes' names in a notebook.

We began to run out one potential
suspect at the time that may have had

knowledge because he was the boyfriend
of one of the prostitutes.

He had a history of some military
background with explosives,

that was African-American, that had been
working on a special project at work,

utilizing the equipment,
would shut the door to the room.

We had information
that looked interesting.

And, again, you can't discount
what Mr. Wells had said early,

though investigators felt,
"It's not accurate."

But we actually found no evidence
to connect him to the case.

We had a second team that we called
the Mama Mia's Pizzaria team,

to investigate one disgruntled
former employee

who had actually threatened, uh, the owner
of the pizza shop, Mr. Ditomo.

And we later determined
that he had a good alibi

and that it was not related to this case.

We are hopeful
that by showing a picture of the device...

...someone may have or may recognize...

the instrument, the metal,

the locking material used to secure it

-to the neck.
-[Bremner] Members gave the public

its first look at the cane shotgun used
in the robbery. For the first time,

those investigators admitted the gun
was loaded and would have fired.

It has been tested,

and it does function properly.

It is constructed from wood and metal.

[Bremner] That's important. FBI profilers
believe that whoever built the gun

and the collar is a handyman
competent with wood and metal.

He probably collects or makes weapons,

and may have other cane guns
that he's shown to others.

He is patient, they say,
and deceptive and secretive.

[Rudge] Being in control

is very important for him.

Through his words,
attempts to tightly control

the actions of Brian Wells,
as well as law enforcement.

My name is Jason Wick.

Uh, I work for ATF.
I've been with ATF for 25 years.

I had the opportunity to be a part
of the evidence collection team

at the World Trade Center bombing.

Uh, and an evidence collection team
on 9/11 in Shanksville,

where United Flight 93 crashed.

Without a doubt,

this case trumps all others
as far as how bizarre it was.

We had the device put back together.
Problem was, we couldn't match any tools.

Again, as made very public by Ted
Kaczynski in the Unabomber case,

bomb makers throw their tools away.
They try not to purchase materials.

That's what happened here.

It was going to be
a long-term investigation, not short.

[Stankiewicz] Part of our role

as bomb technicians is
to thoroughly go through the scene,

and collect all the debris and determine
what is part of the device and what isn't.

In this case, we easily captured
90-some percent of the components.

From all the components
recovered at the scene,

I was able to assemble what I believe is
an accurate replica of that device.

The neck cuff would have operated like
a standard handcuff in that, when closed,

it would ratchet and lock.

The case and the collar itself would
have taken

somebody some time,
probably on the order of a month

in their spare time to assemble this.

[Wick] The first timer attached
to the first bomb

was probably activated
by the release of a cotter pin.

There's a second cotter pin on there.

If that pin was pulled,
it would've given Mr. Wells another hour.

[Stankiewicz] An extension is put
on the handle and it merely swings around

and closes the contact
when it gets down to zero.

[Wick] The one thing that sticks out was
all of the red herrings

that were incorporated into the device.

Um, that was, in my opinion,
in the investigative team's opinion,

designed to prevent the bomb squad
from tampering with it.

There were wires
that didn't mean anything.

There was a plastic cell phone
that didn't mean anything.

The device was fairly sophisticated,
although,

in the end, it was just two pipe bombs
and two timers.

[Stankiewicz] Interesting thing
about it was,

the number of warning labels
that were on it.

And it almost mirrored the instructions
that were given to Wells

in that they were overly wordy.

It was a lot of info
that would have been distracting

for somebody to take in
as they're trying to figure it out.

It alluded to a lot of different types
of booby traps

being activated by a cell phone,

the wire being a booby trap.

There were a lot of warnings,
to that effect.

[Wick] We're hoping to gain leads on where
the componentry came from.

We tried to determine where those items
may have been purchased.

We tried to ascertain tool marks,
things of that nature.

That was the biggest problem.
We couldn't match anything.

The back plate was scored,

basically cut, I guess,
with a cutting tool,

to cause shrapnel effect.

It was cut into a form of a checkerboard.

It didn't shrapnel, I believe,

as the builder intended.
It did fracture, but it didn't shrapnel.

It didn't blow into pieces,
meaning the scoring wasn't deep enough.

However, it did cause

a severe wound in Mr. Wells's chest,
an inch deep,

maybe 8-by-10 inches square,
which ultimately killed him.

[Bremner] Task force members say
the bomb that killed Wells

was common, but that the collar
was unique, with four key locks

and a tumbler lock.

It had only one purpose:

To hold a bomb around a human neck.

Of the four keyholes,
there were only two locks

keeping the device locked.

If he would've recovered two of the keys,

he could've unlocked it,
but I don't believe

he was ever going to find those keys.
I believe he was meant to die that day.

The scavenger hunt,
that whole game playing, that whole:

"Let's control the situation.
Let's send the police on a sideshow."

Yeah, I thought the scavenger hunt
was a red herring.

It was a diversion.

Investigators wanted to determine

if we had time to trace the route
that Wells was to actually go through.

And we actually got in the vehicle,
same time of day, same day of the week,

same weather conditions,

and drove the route.

[Bremner] Erie County is the smokestack

on the corner of Pennsylvania.

It gives Pennsylvania its access
to the Great Lakes.

Water on one side, New York State
to the other, Ohio to the other side.

Banks on upper Peach Tree are near
the I-90 Interstate,

where you can be in one
of two different states in 20 minutes.

The way to rob a bank in Erie County

is to switch vehicles,
rob it in one vehicle, switch vehicles,

get on the interstate, be in another state
in 20 minutes, avoiding detection.

Here were people that put
this complex scavenger-hunt thing,

where you go around in this big circle,

and go round and round in circles
near the crime site.

To whom does that make sense?
Doesn't make sense to anyone.

[Clark] It was determined that Brian Wells

could've not finished the route,

in time, before the detonation
of that device.

[newswoman] The FBI released parts of
the letter, in hopes of getting a reaction

from the public, hoping they recognize
the handwriting or linguistic skills.

[Wick] Of course we tried
to match the writing.

And I think, early on,
it was fairly agreed upon that

notes looked like they were typed
and traced from a typed piece of paper.

Look at the margins, the indentation.
They're consistent with a typewriter.

Matching handwriting was not going
to happen.

The best lead we had from the notes
was indented writing.

[Bremner] Lab workers
lifted these images,

pressed into instructions
found in Wells' car,

probably by the crime's mastermind
writing over the notes on other paper.

We had some phone numbers, and we had
some writing that the lab discovered

through their examination that, again,
were pretty good leads, but led nowhere.

[Bremner] Only 2 or 3 percent
of bank robberies are done

with any kind of explosive device.

And of those,

only a very small, less than 1 percent,
is done with a live device.

We have had instances
where individuals, um...

state that they do have
an explosive device or a bomb.

However, certainly, this is the first time

that a device has actually, uh, exploded.

[Wick] I've never seen a device strapped
around anybody's neck.

We've heard of fake devices,
people coming into banks,

or going into businesses
with fake devices, saying, "I have a bomb.

Please comply with my demands."

Um, but never wrapped
around somebody's neck.

[Clark] The reason this case was elevated
to FBI major case number 203,

something like this had never happened
in the history of the FBI

where a potential hostage is sent
into the bank

with a device, ordered to rob the bank,
and the device detonates,

resulting in death.
This had never happened.

Somebody murdered Brian Wells that day.

Whether he was involved or not,
it's still a murder.

[Bremner] FBI profilers
from the Behavioral Analysis Unit say

the plan's mastermind,
a person they call "Collar Bomber,"

may have had Wells' death in mind
all along.

The end result ended in the murder
and death of Brian Wells,

and, uh, again, according to BAU, um...

that is probably, in their opinion,
one of the motives in the case.

[Bremner] Also released, more details
about Collar Bomber from the profilers,

saying that the person involved is frugal,
a pack rat who might save scrap metal,

is mechanically inclined,
could hide a violent nature...

There was a lot of tips coming in,
but nothing that was a smoking gun.

And then it fizzled out.

[Clark] This case did not have
a lot of forensic evidence.

This case was gonna involve somebody
spilling a secret, quite honestly.

It was gonna involve somebody coming out

and saying, "I have some information
that can help you."

[Borzillieri] The second thing to know
about Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong,

she's smart.

But she's also mentally ill.

When Marge was 23,
she took herself to see a therapist

because she was scared.

Something was wrong with her mind.

She told the doctor

she was most sad about her inability
to have close, gratifying relationships.

Over the years, Marjorie's been seen
by numerous experts

who diagnosed several conditions:

Bipolar.

Mania.

Pressured speech.

One psychiatrist suggested
Marjorie wasn't mentally ill.

She just suffered from narcissism
and a severe personality disorder.

Regardless,
Marjorie couldn't hold down a job.

She struggled with daily life,
started to let herself go.

In one of her therapy sessions,
she sighed and told the doctor:

"I used to be the prettiest girl in town."

The third thing you need to know
about Marjorie:

Most of the men in her life don't seem
to last very long.

For example, the one time
she was briefly married,

her husband, Richard Armstrong,

died after he fell and hit his head
on their coffee table.

Marge sued the hospital for negligence
and won a $175,000 settlement.

Before her husband was buried,
Marge asked for a piece of his leg bone,

in case she might be able
to clone him in the future.

And then there are
the other dead boyfriends.

One hung himself after she moved out.

There are at least five men in her life

that died prematurely
of either strange circumstances

or by outright violence.

[phone line ringing]

[dispatcher] State Police,
what's your emergency?

[man] At 8645 Peach Street, in the garage,
there is a frozen body,

it's in the freezer. There's a woman there
you might wanna pick up and question.

-[dispatcher] 8645 Peach Street?
-Yes.

[dispatcher] How do you know that, sir?

-[man] Trust me. I know.
-Who are you?

-[man] I'm the guy who lives there.
-What is your name, sir?

[man] Bill... Rothstein...

-[dispatcher] And what is her name?
-Marjorie... Diehl.

D-I-E-H-L.

-Marjorie Diehl is at that residence now?
-[Rothstein] Yes.

[dispatcher] Who is she to you, sir?

[Rothstein] Uh... I'll give you guys
my story later on.

[dispatcher]
There's a frozen body in the freezer?

[Rothstein] In the garage,
that is correct.

[dispatcher] Do you know who the person is
in the freezer?

[Rothstein] Uh...