Seven year old collar bomb robbery mystery still unsolved?

www.bbc.co.uk...

Seven years ago American pizza delivery man Brian Wells was killed when a collar bomb tied around his neck blew up after he had carried out a robbery. On Monday, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 61, was convicted over his death, but the truth about Mr Wells' own involvement remains elusive.

Cameras from a local TV station were rolling on 28 August 2003, as the 46-year-old pizza delivery man pleaded for help from police bomb squad officers.

Mr Wells, armed with a peculiar gun shaped like a walking stick, had just robbed a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania and was surrounded by police officers.

He was wearing a collar device around his neck, which he insisted was a bomb that was about to detonate.

The police have been criticised by his family for the amount of time it took them to call in a bomb squad team.

When they arrived, the collar bomb exploded before they could dismantle it. Mr Wells was killed instantly.

How peculiar a case.

It appears Wells was tricked by friends, or criminal accomplices, into putting on the collar and may have been under the impression it was fake.

Confronted by the truth, he was given several handwritten letters instructing him to steal at least $250,000 from a bank in nearby Summit township

Below is a link to some of the letters.

www.goerie.com...

And a website set up by his brother.

www.brianwells.net...

This seems very, very peculiar. Does anyone know anything about this?

I recall watching it on the news. I think thats how the detonators knew to detonate it. If I recall they aired it live. I don't think they had camera directly on him... It was very sketchy, and seems like a Black Ops. Like the movie "Shooter", where they have that suicide machine pulley system.

I'd say it was such a thing, and may have been for distraction. Or fear. The detonators gained nothing from the event.. nothing.

Warning: this video is very graphic. It shows the poor guy getting blown up. What the hell took police so long to help him? Erie Pennsylvania is a poor area though.

Lol police or not, I wouldn't go up to a guy either who had a bomb strapped to them. In situations like this, they don't know if the threat is real or not so they wait and call in bomb squad. Same as if a guy is barracated, they just set up a perimeter and wait for the srt's to take care of it. I heard the guy actually lived for a lil while after it went off but watching it again, does seem to show some chunks flying eww..Reminds me of those saddam execution vids where he taped grenades to the poor guys.


Deebo

reply to post by mr-lizard


It's not unsolved anymore. He was part of a scheme to rob the bank, and apparently didn't know it was a real bomb until "too late".
Wiki has a page by his name. I found it on Google using "pizza guy collar bomber".
The other people responsible have already been tried; one is set to be sentenced in early 2011.