Brian Wells had been a pizza delivery guy in Erie, Pennsylvania for thirty years before the events of August 28th 2003. That afternoon, he delivered two pizzas to an address a few miles away and was assaulted: a remote-controlled bomb was secured to his neck via a collar, and he was told to follow the orders of his assailants to the letter, or the bomb would be detonated. The first of the four tasks he was given was to rob a bank of $250,000: however Wells would get away with only $8,702, and police caught up with him outside the bank in question. Holding him there, police were slow to contact the bomb squad upon hearing his story, and the bomb was detonated, killing him, three minutes before they finally appeared. When the conspirators were located and interrogated by police, the plot thickened. Kenneth Barnes and Marjorie Deihl-Armstrong swore blind that Wells had been in on it the whole time: the only part he wasnt informed of was that the bomb was to be real. When he found out, he tried to run, but was forced back into service and fitted with the collar. Amazingly, the FBI and federal prosecutors would agree, and Wells was posthumously named a fellow conspirator in the robbing of the bank and his own death. Even stranger, the motivation for the odd crime for Barnes and Deihl-Armstrong was to raise enough money to be able to organise the death of her father, in order that she might inherit his wealth. What she didnt twig was that dear old dad had spent a large proportion of his loot, and her inheritance was far, far less than shed been led to believe. Equally, Wells was rubbish at robbing banks: at the rate he was going, hed have had to go for fifteen banks to get the money they needed.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
