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Truth, Stanger than Fiction



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 20th, 2003, 05:12 AM
Indigo Moon Man
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Default Truth, Stanger than Fiction

Carmen spake thusly:

First is a three question form page (Zip Code, Age & Gender) by the
Arizona web company, then when you give them that you're sent to the
news story about the pizza delivery man who robbed the bank with the
bomb around his neck.

It just went straight to the story for me.

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  #2  
Old September 20th, 2003, 12:04 PM
Mary Sunshine
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Posts: n/a
Default Truth, Stanger than Fiction

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 00:04:34 GMT, "Debbie Cusick"
wrote:

Ok, this has piqued my curiosity, but not enough to go there. I never click
blindly on an unknown link (especially one hidden behind a tinyurl) unless I
know where I'm going and why. :-)

Debbie

"Jake" wrote in message
...
http://tinyurl.com/nuaj
Freaky.


Here's the page content:
-----------------------------------------------------

Was bomb-strapped pizza man a robber or a victim?

Kevin Johnson
USA Today
Aug. 17, 2003 10:59 AM

ERIE, Pa. - In the last moments of his life, before the
bomb around his neck blew a postcard-size hole in his
chest, Brian Wells gave police a tantalizing clue about
the man who had locked the device on him and then
sent him on a timed mission to rob a bank.

"He pulled a key out and started a timer," Wells told
officers who stopped and handcuffed him near the
Summit Towne Centre PNC bank shortly after 2 p.m.
on Aug. 28. "I heard the thing ticking when he did it ...
It's gonna go off.

"I don't have much time," Wells, a 46-year-old pizza
deliveryman, also told the officers as they waited for a
bomb squad. "I'm not lying. Did you call my boss?" he
said in a strange, apparent reference to the pizza shop
owner.

What police didn't know then, one law enforcement
source says, is that Wells was carrying a note that told
him to go to four locations after robbing the bank - and
that when police stopped him, Wells had less than 30
minutes to make three more stops. So if Wells' only
chance to survive was to complete the journey and meet
again with the unidentified man who had the key, his
death was virtually ensured when he was arrested by
police.

Every detail that emerges in the investigation into one of
the most unusual bank robbery plots in decades seems
to compound the horror of Wells' death. More than two
weeks after the fatal explosion that drew national
attention, the bizarre case remains awash in questions,
authorities say.

Investigators don't know who locked the bomb on
Wells, and they aren't sure why the mild-mannered
deliveryman who seemed unimpressed by money was
chosen for such a mission. Several investigators believe
Wells probably was a patsy who wasn't initially involved
in the robbery plot, but they aren't certain.

And then there is a chilling question that has emerged in
recent days: What if murder, rather than robbery, was
the plot's goal all along, and Wells was the victim of a
cruel plan aimed at inflicting unimaginable suffering on
him?

Federal agents are investigating that possibility because
of the bizarre nature of the robbery plot. Why, they ask,
would any plotters risk the success of the bank robbery
by directing Wells to stop at four separate locations after
the robbery - the first one, a McDonald's drive-thru
sign, less than one-tenth of a mile from the bank - to
retrieve additional directions?

"Was it part of a game, or was it about the money?"
asks Patrick Berarducci, a senior special agent of the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "We
won't know until we catch the people involved." FBI
spokesman Bill Crowley says that investigators "still
have a pretty open field of ideas."

Whoever locked the bomb around Wells' neck
apparently gave him nine pages of detailed instructions
about how to carry out the robbery, and then what to do
afterward.

The instructions - a four-page set that Wells gave a teller
at the bank and five more pages that authorities later
seized from Wells' Geo Metro sedan - also suggest that
Wells would have understood that he was being watched
at the bank and at every planned stop thereafter, a law
enforcement source says.

Men sought

Investigators have since circulated two sketches of
shaggy-haired white men they want to question. One
was seen walking out of a wooded area not far from the
bank near the time of the robbery. Another was seen
running near a local freeway exit that was designated in
the note as the second stop on Wells' staggered getaway
from the bank.

A third sketch of a black man was pulled back after
investigators located the man and eliminated him as a
suspect and witness.

The notes also contained what sources described as
"inflammatory language" and instructed Wells not to
draw attention to himself. Sources declined to elaborate
on the nature of the language or if the notes indicated
what would happen to Wells if directions were not
followed.

Law enforcement sources said last week that
investigators have no evidence so far that Wells was
willingly involved in the robbery plot.

And although initial descriptions of the bomb compared
it with similar devices used by foreign terrorist groups
such as a Colombian group known as FARC, there's no
evidence to suggest the incident was a sophisticated
terrorist plot.

In fact, officials say, dozens of people, perhaps
hundreds, in the blue-collar workforce of Erie, the
fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania, could possess the
industrial skills to manufacture the unusual metal collar
that attached the bomb to Wells' neck. The actual
explosive device dangled over Wells' chest and was
partially obscured by a T-shirt.

In recent days, local callers to the police tip line have
described the collar as resembling a device used in
industrial plumbing.

"This is not great intellect at work here," Berarducci
said. "This is just the work of a brutal person or
persons."

Started on a dirt road

It all began about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 28, when someone
called Mama Mia's Pizzaria and ordered two sausage
pizzas to be delivered to what was described as a nearby
construction site. Wells was dispatched to make the
delivery, just as he had hundreds of times before in
more than a decade he delivered for Mama Mia's.

Mama Mia's owner Tony Ditomo declined to comment
on Wells' activities that day. But Wells' neighbors and
landlord say Wells was generally at the restaurant to
tend to noontime deliveries.

The pizza order indicates that Wells was instructed to
drive about three miles south of the tiny restaurant to a
dirt road. The winding, deeply-rutted path leads to an
isolated clearing and an area that includes several
satellite-television dishes and an antenna tower.
Authorities said there are no workers stationed there and
that the area generally is deserted.

Investigators believe Wells was likely met there by the
person, or persons, behind the plot that would lead to
his death.

Authorities have constructed a timeline that allowed
enough time for Wells to prepare - willingly or
unwillingly - for the robbery.

Friends and neighbors who believe strongly in Wells'
innocence described him as a gentle, withdrawn man
who probably would not have put up a fight if
confronted with a dangerous or threatening situation.

"Somebody had to take advantage of him," says Linda
Payne, Wells' landlord for the past two years, adding
that she was unaware of any physical or emotional
problems involving her tenant. "He was not somebody
who would fight back. I'm convinced of that."

At some point, Wells - with the collar locked around his
neck and the bomb ticking - steered his sedan back onto
Peach Street for the two-mile drive to the PNC bank.
Investigators aren't sure whether Wells had read through
both sets of written instructions, but his later comment
to police about not having much time before the bomb
would go off suggests that he had read at least some of
them.

Authorities who believe that Wells was coerced into
taking part in the plot said it was likely that Wells
thought he was under surveillance or that he was too
frightened to deviate from his course to call for help.

Once in the bank, Wells presented a bank teller with a
four-page note, demanding $250,000. By all accounts,
Wells followed the written instructions and did not call
attention to himself. Still, his calm exit from the bank
about 2:30 p.m. triggered a wave of panicked 911 calls
from bank employees and customers.

A mysterious call

About 10 minutes later, police received a call that said
Wells, instead of speeding away from the bank, had
stopped just down the street at a McDonald's restaurant.
The caller also told police for the first time that Wells
might be carrying a bomb.

Wells' instructions had told him to stop at the
McDonald's, where federal investigators said that he
retrieved a message before continuing to his next stop.
Investigators declined to comment on the contents of the
message or on the form in which it was delivered.

Within five minutes, Wells had been pulled over by
police a short distance from McDonald's and had
warned officers there was a bomb under his T-shirt. A
subsequent search of the car resulted in the seizure of
the five-page note. Investigators never found the pizzas.

Wells' behavior in the last minutes of his life has baffled
investigators and led to some disagreements about his
role in the plot.

Besides telling police that a man had put the bomb on
him, Wells asked police at one point, "Why is it
nobody's trying to come get this thing off me?"

But then Wells became quiet, and he did not mention
any others involved in the robbery plot or how he
landed in the middle of such danger. Wells was arching
his back in what appeared to be a brief fight against the
tight collar strapped to his neck when the bomb
detonated at 3:18 p.m., according to video of the violent
explosion captured by Erie's local ABC affiliate, WJET.

Investigators say Wells did not act like someone who
was fighting for his life. His lack of visible panic or
agitation has led a few investigators to hesitate in
declaring that he was a victim and that his case should
be considered a homicide.

Those investigators believe that Wells' steadiness in his
final moments could be an indication that he was
involved in the robbery plot. If Wells had known that his
life was in jeopardy, some investigators wonder why he
didn't become more animated or plead for help more
desperately.

Others believe that Wells likely knew that the bomb
would explode soon after he was stopped by police, and
that while waiting for a bomb squad to arrive he may
have resigned himself to a violent death.

Since the incident, federal and local investigators, who
represent the FBI, ATF, Pennsylvania State Police, the
Erie Police Department and the department's bomb
squad, cast a wide net. They have interviewed and
re-interviewed Wells' co-workers and family members
and have attempted to trace the source of the metal
collar and bombmaking materials.

Last Friday, agents were back at Mama Mia's during the
busy lunch-time rush where Ditomo was back taking
orders and manning the counter. "I'll just let the FBI
agents do their job," Ditomo says.

About a week ago, Payne says, FBI profilers arrived at
the small, white cottage behind her home where Wells
lived for the past two years with three small cats. Payne
says they asked questions such as, Did he have a lot of
visitors? How did he behave? Who were his friends?

'No mystery about Brian'

"I know what they are trying to do," Payne says. "But
there is no mystery about Brian. My husband would not
have let him come here if he thought he was a threat.
He didn't have much, and he didn't need much."

Payne and her husband, LaVerne Payne, say Wells
passed the time reading newspapers, doing crossword
puzzles and tinkering with cars. She says Wells was
working toward building his own car from odd parts and
kept two car doors in the bedroom of his cottage so he
could work on them day or night.

Most of all, Payne says, Wells seemed to enjoy a spare
lifestyle.

He was so uncomfortable with materialism that he took
the hubcaps off his small car because he thought they
were too gaudy.

The Paynes think it impossible that Wells could have
been involved. "No way," LaVerne Payne says. "No
way."

Many others in the quiet, working-class neighborhood
have expressed support for Wells. Neighbors John Bell,
Gary Porsch, Danelle Stone and Marsha DePaoli and
her husband, Cy, are convinced that Wells was
incapable of planning or willingly participating in a bank
robbery plot.

"I don't think he had more than a mattress on the floor
and a television sitting on a desk" in his cottage, Bell
says. But "he seemed perfectly happy with that."

Bell says he understood that Wells was looking forward
to a family gathering the weekend after the robbery.

Wells' mother lives in the Erie area, along with other
relatives. And neighbors believed that others might have
been planning to visit from out of town. "He wouldn't be
planning that if he was gonna rob a bank," Bell says.

For the most part, Wells' family has refused to discuss
the incident. But Wells' sister, Jean Heid, thinks there is
no way her brother could have been a willing
participant.

"My brother was an innocent man, totally innocent," she
said from behind the glass storm door of her Erie home.

Porsch says the last time he saw Wells was early on the
day the deliveryman died. "He was on his way to get the
newspaper," Porsch said of the ritual Wells followed
every day about 7:15 a.m.

"I just remember it was a great day outside. He waved
and had this great big smile on his face. What happened
later that day just didn't fit with the person."

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  #3  
Old September 20th, 2003, 12:53 PM
Carmen
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Truth, Stanger than Fiction

Hi,
On 19-Sep-2003, "Indigo Moon Man" wrote:

First is a three question form page (Zip Code, Age & Gender) by the
Arizona web company, then when you give them that you're sent to the
news story about the pizza delivery man who robbed the bank with the
bomb around his neck.

It just went straight to the story for me.


The first time it went straight to the story. The second time I got the
questionaire.

Take care,
Carmen
 




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