DATELINE: Death Trap – Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong’s pizza bomb plot

August 28, 2003 pizza delivery man Brain Wells lost his life in the middle of an extremely strange and elaborate bank robbing plot engineered by a woman named Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong. This bizarre case was the subject of a Netflix docuseries called Evil Genius and is the subject of tonight’s episode of Dateline.

Brian Wells entered a bank with an explosive device strapped to his next and demanded money. He walked out of the bank with case and was soon detained by police who soon released he wasn’t kidding about having a ticking bomb strapped to his body. The bomb squad was unable to save him and the device exploded while police surrounded him at a safe distance. Who set him up to this? What was the purpose of this plan?

A month later a body was found in the freezer at the last house Wells delivered pizza to. It was the house of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong who ended up pleading guilty, but mentally ill, to the murder of her boyfriend Jim Roden. To make matters even more sinister, this was not the first time Marjorie had murdered a boyfriend. In 1984 she shot and killed a boyfriend, but was acquitted by a jury when she argued that it was in self defense.

While serving a 20-year sentence for the murder of her last boyfriend, Marjorie was convicted in her role in the pizza bombing in July 2007. She died of breast cancer in prison last year.

Amelia Cunningham is a Starcasm writer and editor @AmeliaStarcasm