Feds Announce Pizza Bomber Indictments

July 11, 2007 — -- Infamous pizza bomber Brian Wells was not an innocent hostage but a co-conspirator involved in a "limited role'' in the bank robbery plot that eventually killed him, federal authorities said today.

Officials also announced the indictment of two other alleged conspirators in the strange 2003 case that focused national attention on Erie, Pa.

The announcement that Wells was involved confirmed an exclusive ABC News report Tuesday.

Authorities conducted "nearly 1,000 interviews,'' issued numerous search warrants and confiscated thousands of pieces of evidence in their lengthy attempt to solve this case.

"We have worked nonstop to identify the participants and their roles in this extremely bizarre crime,'' U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said today.

Prosecutors could not say whether the two suspects indicted in the case -- Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes -- had "planned'' on Wells' death, but they had planned to retrieve the robbery money from him before he was caught. They failed in that attempt when he was confronted by state police.

Armstrong had earlier that year hatched a plot to have her own father killed, and came up with the pizza bomb bank heist in order to amass the money to pay her father's would-be killer, Buchanan said.

Armstrong shot and killed her boyfriend James Roden in August 2003 because he was apparently going to reveal the plot to authorities, Buchanan said. Armstrong is currently serving a seven to 20 year sentence for that homicide, after pleading guilty but mentally insane in January 2005.

Buchanan said today that investigators met with the family of Wells this morning to inform them that Wells was a participant in the plot.

"As prosecutors and investigators we have not been able to discuss with them the details of the investigation. For some time [the Wells family] have wanted us to publicly disclose the role of their family member?unfortunately our investigation has led to the belief that Brian became involved in a limited role. We do not know the extent to which the others planned for him to die. Sadly, the plans of these other individuals were much more sinister than Brian's…and he died as a result.''

"We're not exactly sure how much the robber knew,'' Buchanan said. "We're not actually sure that he was positive that this bomb was going to go off.''

Wells' brother John has long challenged theories that his brother was involved in the plot, and today he reiterated his belief that Brian was innocent. He said authorities asked his family not to speak publicly about the case until they had solved it. It's been nearly four years.

"We stayed silent for four years and now we have prosecutors implicating the murder victim to make their case easier for them?!" John Wells asked rhetorically, seemingly incredulous.

"I don't want my brother being used to prosecute'' the two indicted suspects, Wells said.

"It's going to be a nightmare for prosecutors if they try and proceed down this avenue," Wells added. "I'd like to see their evidence."

Armstrong had publicly feuded with Barnes repeatedly the summer before the bank heist, accusing Barnes of stealing $133,000 in cash from her over Memorial Day weekend in 2003. It remains unclear what role, if any, that accusation had in bringing the pair together to hatch the bomb plot.

The so-called pizza bomber case stunned and transfixed the nation nearly two years after Sept. 11, and over time, the unsolved mystery wound its way into pop culture — serving as the inspiration for crime dramas like "Law & Order" and "CSI." It was even mentioned in pop thriller novelist Dean Koontz's 2006 tome "The Husband."

The crime put the small, Western Pennsylvania town of Erie on the map. Previously the town's claims to fame were its being the hometowns of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (later to be Homeland Security chief) and actress Ann B. Davis, better known as housekeeper Alice on "The Brady Bunch.''

Wells was known locally as a simple and unassuming man who was fond of crossword puzzles. His brother has said he was an avid musician with a natural ear for music. His only criminal record was an arrest for harassment in 1991 over a dispute with a neighbor about a sign on the neighbor's lawn.

Wells' landlords Linda and Laverne Payne told ABC News that Wells was a model tenant.

More than a year before he died, Laverne Payne said he lent Wells exactly $1,988 for the purchase of a Geo Metro car because Wells' previous car had broken down and he was going to lose his job delivering pizzas. Payne said that Wells paid him back $100 a month and finally paid the balance of the debt in full the week before he died.

But Wells appeared to have a temper. In 2003, rival Papa John's pizza store manager Rob Pasky told ABC News that Wells worked for him for one day before fighting with managers there and quitting. Pasky said Wells argued with his new bosses on the first day of work, because they wanted him to fly a Papa John's banner on his car. Wells refused, according to Pasky.

Later that same first day, Wells returned to the shop and asked to go home early, Pasky said, so he could make it to a local liquor store before closing time. Pasky said he scoffed, but later felt bad and told Wells he could leave early if he did the store dishes. Pasky said Wells complied and began washing dishes, but five minutes into the task, said, "Screw this,'' and quit on the spot. Pasky said he never heard from him again. The Paynes told ABC News that Wells had quit drinking alcohol about a year before his death, for reasons they could not explain.

On Aug. 28, 2003, a call came into Mama Mia's pizzeria in Erie for two pies and Wells was dispatched to deliver the food. The address later proved to be an abandoned radio tower at the end of a dirt road. It was there that authorities believe the bomb was attached to Wells' neck. Within an hour he showed up at the bank with the triple locked metal bomb collar around his neck and a gun fashioned to look like a walking cane. He demanded a quarter million dollars, authorities have said.

Police confronted Wells in a nearby parking lot as he sat at the takeout callbox for a fast food restaurant. Police found a nine-page handwritten instruction note detailing a variety of places around Erie that Wells was instructed to go to before the bomb would be removed. Local residents have said the seeming scavenger hunt reminded them of a townwide game sponsored by a local newspaper, called the Great Key Hunt, in which readers are instructed to visit various random spots around town hunting for keys that would open a box containing cash.

After Wells protested to nearby police in a manner that eyewitnesses have described as remarkably calm, the bomb suddenly exploded, killing Wells. One witness told ABC News there was a loud explosion. "And then you just heard a million little pieces of metal and whatever else was involved just hitting the ground around you,'' Dan Holland, a local cameraman on scene, said this week. "It seemed like it was slow motion and then you heard little pieces falling all around you."

Thousands of items from the crime have been seized and analyzed by FBI and ATF officials in the course of the winding investigation. In August 2005, in a raid on the property of an associate of a now dead suspect in the case, William Rothstein, authorities seized 638 drill bits, 12 cans of paint and 188 screwdrivers, according to an attorney for the witness who owned the garage.

For a long time, the case appeared to stump federal officials. Soon after the bomb explosion in August 2003, FBI officials set up a confidential tip line seeking information on the case, and released numerous photographs of the blue metal collar that was strapped around Wells' neck. But they shut that line down by the time the third anniversary of the bomb explosion came around. Finally, in September 2005 authorities released surveillance photos of Wells in the bank the day of the robbery. After that, federal investigators appeared to have learned what they needed to know.

Until today they have not released any official information.