All language subtitles for FBI.True.S06E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- Hundreds of bank robberies
you do in a career.

This one felt different
from the minute I got there.

This thing was so confusing
right from the start.

He's saying,
I'm a pizza delivery driver.

- A group of Black men shot
at me and put a bomb on me

and told me to rob the bank.

- Uh, the guy just walked
out with, uh, I don't know

how much cash in the bag.

He had a bomb or something
wrapped around his neck.

- You don't know
if he's a hostage.

You don't know if
he's a cooperator.

- Typically,
with bank robberies,

you'll see a bomb hoax,
never a real device.

- You hear this faint
beep, beep, beep.

He turned just a little bit
on the ground, and then--

- In the FBI, we make
a lot of headlines.

Drug busts,

mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze!
- FBI.

- FBI!
- Action!

- But they don't know
the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking
agent-to-agent.

This is "FBI True."

- Hey, guys.
- Kristy, how are you?

- Jerry, how you doing?
Nice to see you.

- Nice to see you.

- Jerry Clark spent 27 years
in law enforcement,

working for NCIS and the DEA
before joining the FBI.

He mostly worked
Violent Crime,

investigating hundreds
of bank robberies.

- Andrew.
- Hey, good to see you.

- Andrew Wilson is
a 26-year veteran of the FBI.

He worked Counterterrorism
before becoming the supervisor

of the resident agency
in Erie, Pennsylvania.

- Oh, thank you.

It's a hot summer,
2003, August.

What's happening
in your life, Jerry?

- Kristy Kottis is
a 24-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked Gangs,
Crimes Against Children,

as well as
Human and Drug Trafficking.

- It's an average day
working at the FBI.

Get a call,
bank robbery up at Peach Street

in Erie, Pennsylvania,
PNC Bank.

- This one sounded
a little different

right out of the chute.

We were getting reports that
the robber

stood in line for a second
to rob the bank.

You don't normally see that.

So he went around
a couple people

and handed a note
to the teller.

While she's reading the note,

he reaches in
the teller counter basket

and pulls out a lollipop
and starts sucking on it.

And the note said,
"This is a bank robbery.

I need $250,000 in cash."

And the teller said to him,
listen, that's a lot of money

and our bank manager
is at lunch.

You're gonna have to come back.

Well, I'm robbing the bank.
I can't come back.

So instead they filled
a bag with $8,207.

So he was well short
of the money he went in for.

And he walked out swinging
the bag with the cane,

just as casual as could be.

We had great detail
from an individual

in the bank who
was talking to 911.

He's saying, hey,
I'm watching this guy.

He's got something under his
shirt, a bomb or something.

- Oh, wow.

- And he said he
got in his vehicle,

and he only drove
a short distance.

He stopped at a McDonald's,
and he's in the flowerbed.

He's in there
turning over rocks.

And then he obtains something
from underneath one

of the rocks, and he
gets back in his vehicle,

pulls through a lane to
an Eyeglass World parking lot.

He had only got
a few hundred yards.

Pennsylvania State Police
identified the car.

They do a felony car stop.

So the trooper,
after handcuffing him,

decides he's gonna
slice open the shirt,

pull it back, and take
a look at the device.

He takes a look and thought,
boy, that looks awful real.

- Typically
you work bank robberies,

you'll see a bomb hoax
where it'll be

road flares taped together
or a cardboard box

with wires sticking out.

It's never a real device.

- So when I roll up, I see
an individual handcuffed,

talking to the
Pennsylvania State Police.

It immediately felt different.

Hundreds of bank robberies
you do in a career.

This one felt different
from the minute I got there.

- So the guy's
sitting on the ground.

Supposedly he has
a bomb attached to him?

- Exactly, and under his shirt
I could see the protrusion,

so he definitely had
something under there.

Whether it was real or not,
we didn't know.

We blocked off both ends
of Peach Street,

which is a very,
very busy road.

We set up a perimeter
and we called the Bomb Squad,

and the Bomb Squad
was en route.

- And you have the local
news station setting up live

as he's sitting there
in handcuffs.

- He has two Pennsylvania
State Police troopers

leaning over their vehicles,
guns drawn,

in a conversation with him.

And now I can start
to hear the conversation.

They're asking him how
he got here, what's going on.

He's saying,
my name is Brian Wells.

He said, I work at
Mama Mia's Pizzeria in Erie.

- Is he crying
or saying help me?

- Not really.
He was asking for a cigarette.

He was saying
the bomb was heavy.

He was asking about
us calling his boss.

- He said that he was told
to deliver two pizzas

to a tower site,
8645 Peach Street,

and that when he got there,

he's saying a group
of Black men shot at me

and put this thing on me
and told me to rob the bank.

It bothered me
that an individual

would drive that far down

into this wooded tower site
area that nobody goes to,

and him feeling
comfortable enough to do that.

One of the questions
to him was, hey,

can you describe these people?

And he really couldn't.

Your mind is going,
oh, my gosh,

he can't describe people
that just put this on him?

You don't know
if he's a hostage.

You don't know
if he's a cooperator.

Something was off.

- So we've called
the bomb techs.

They're rolling up
and suiting up.

What's happening
while they're doing that?

- We're trying to figure out

when they're gonna make
an approach.

That was the only thing
in my mind.

Hey, let's make this approach.

Let's find out it's...

- What do we have?
- Not a real device...

- Right.
- And let's end this thing.

- Right before 3:18, you hear
this faint beep, beep, beep.

And everybody who was close
enough to hear that thought,

what the heck is that?

- And I could see
the individual handcuffed

was very sort of
taken back by it himself.

- He turned just a little bit
on the ground, and then--

- Anybody who was
there on scene

will always remember it
for the rest of their life.

I watched Mr. Wells.
He fell back.

I watched his chest go down,
and it never came back up.

You could feel
the percussion from it.

And then you start
hearing items flying

and pieces in the air
landing on the concrete

and making noise.

And it just--you just couldn't
believe what you just saw.

Immediately, you know,
everyone wants

to run up and take a look.

And then somebody had
the--the wits to say,

hey, secondary, secondary.

Everybody get back, get back.

Uh, because bomb builders
love to hurt first responders.

We didn't know
if it was a terrorism event,

if it was international,
if it was gonna happen again

in ten minutes or two weeks.

- He's lying there,
obviously deceased.

We're worried
about a secondary.

What are--I mean,
where do we go now?

- We had bomb techs
make the approach

and start looking
to see exactly what we had.

The device had a collar.
It was like a handcuff.

The collar held a small
box under his chin

that had four keyholes
for keys to unlock the collar.

And then the box
that held below

that other box was actually in
pieces all over Peach Street.

- There were components
that were identified,

such as kitchen timers.

- So what are your first steps
in the investigation?

- So a lot going on.

Bank, we have people.

Pizza shop, we have people.

Tower site, we have people.

We had determined
that the pizzas

were ordered from a pay phone

at the Shell station
on 8228 Peach Street.

- What did you find
in Brian's car?

- Well, we found the cane
that he had taken

when he went into the bank.

The cane is actually
a functioning shotgun

and would work if he
would pull the trigger.

- Why did he have that?
- So this was a mystery, right?

You are a bank hostage
with a bomb around your neck,

but they still give you a gun.

So that was incongruent.
How is this possible?

Why would you give
the guy a gun?

- What else did you
find in Brian's car?

- We have notes that we
recovered from Mr. Wells's car,

indicating that he was to go
on basically a scavenger hunt

to retrieve keys at each site

to unlock the collar
around his neck.

There were also notes
that the teller had,

but he had notes specifically
designed for him.

- These are the notes
that--from the car?

- These are actually some
of the notes from the car.

- Tell me a little bit
what these notes say.

- So the one that I have here,

this was
in Mr. Wells's vehicle.

- Okay.

- And this was written
specifically to him.

Bomb hostage is
what they call him.

There's so much in here,
but it's basically

telling him, "Do not delay.

Act now, think later,
or you will die."

And there's even a little
drawing that indicated

he needs to go
to the McDonald's site.

It says, get out of the car
near the small sign

that says "24 hours open."

Go in the flowerbed,
and there's

a sign underneath a rock
that's taped to the bottom.

So when Mr. Wells
left the bank,

immediately he went to that
flower bed in the McDonald's.

And there was a note
to the police saying,

you're not as smart as me.

- So it says,
"If bomb hostage is delayed

"for more than 10 minutes,

"he will not have enough time
to continue.

"Our team has spent
combined 7 1/2 years in prison

"perfecting this plan.

"Do not think that
you can outsmart us

"in less than one hour.

"Save bomb hostage and people
targeted for retaliation

by standing down."

- The word "retaliate,"
in nine pages of notes,

was used 51 times.

So when you start
to think about that

on the psychological side,
you're starting to think,

man, somebody's obsessive.

- When he was on the ground,
did he ever say,

I have instructions, or I
was supposed to follow this?

He never mentions
this situation?

- He never mentions the
scavenger hunt or these notes,

so we don't know that
until we open his vehicle

and find the notes in there.

What we needed to do next
was follow the scavenger hunt

that Mr. Wells was
supposed to do

but couldn't
because he's deceased,

and figure out
what was at each site.

But that's a very
dangerous situation, right?

Because we don't know
what they're going

to find when they get there.

And that could be a,
you know, a tripwire or sniper

or some sort of situation
where they're going

to hurt other law enforcement.

So we had to do
those very carefully.

- And where was he
supposed to go next?

- He actually was to go through
the back of the Eyeglass World,

which he did, and that's where
he was a felony car stop.

But he was to go
to a fire hydrant

in front of that
Eyeglass World and tie

an orange ribbon indicating
that he had

received the money
from the bank.

He never got that far.

He then was to get back
in the vehicle,

head southbound
on Peach Street,

get on a major I-90 interstate,
get off on I-79,

go northbound,
and get off at a place

where he was
to receive another note.

When we went to the site,
the first site

we went to in the woods,
as directed, went in.

There was an orange
piece of tape

that was tied to a tree
that was tied to a Folgers

coffee jar
with a twist-off lid,

and inside that
was another note.

What was missing
at that site was a key.

After we received the note
in the Folgers jar,

it indicated, get back on
the highway interchange road

heading southbound and to
go into a sign in the woods

that said McKean Township.

Unbelievable.

We got there,
went into the woods.

Orange piece of tape,
just like at the first site.

But it was torn,
and there was nothing there.

So we don't know if
that was the last site

or there would have
been another note,

but somebody definitely
got there before us.

And any of the sites that
we went to from then on,

no keys were ever found.

- Andrew, when you saw this,
were you thinking,

well, that poor bastard,

of course he's not gonna
get through this?

- You could barely
read all the notes,

you know, in an hour
and figure out what to do,

let alone actually go
to the places.

There's no way this guy was
going to get the keys

to free the device
from himself.

- So at this point,
we had enough probable cause

to get a search warrant
to go into Mr. Wells's house.

He lived in a real
small apartment

behind someone's residence.

He lived alone.

He wasn't married
and didn't have any children.

In the middle of the night, we
had to go to the judge's house

to have her sign the warrant.

At 1:36 in the morning,
we finally make entry.

Inside, we were
surprised to see that

there was not much in there,
not a lot of belongings.

The really key piece
that we found in there

was not related
to the device or the robbery,

but it turns out
to be vitally important.

And that's a notebook
on his desk

in the middle
of his living room,

and it listed every person
that he knew

and their phone number.

He did not know
a lot of people,

because it could
barely fill the page.

But the two people that
he knew that were listed

in his own handwriting,

whose names his family
didn't recognize,

were Jessica and Angie,
and their phone numbers.

And both those phone numbers
we did a subscriber check for,

and determined that
they had criminal histories

for prostitution.

- When we approach these ladies
and ask them about Brian Wells,

are they shocked
that this happened?

- They weren't.

Something amiss here,

that neither of them seemed
overly shocked about it.

Angie has a boyfriend named
Jimmy, African American guy.

And after we did some digging,

we determined he was
in the military

and he worked with explosives.

He actually worked at a
position at a company in Erie,

would close the door
sometimes at his job,

and he'd say, don't bother me.
I'm working on something.

We're immediately thinking, oh,
my God, he's building a bomb.

It's a manufacturing plant.

It's got all the
tools he needs.

He could make the device.

- You're probably
thinking, finally,

we got a break in the case.

Brian says he's kidnapped
by Black guys.

You're talking to these ladies
whose name are in his book.

- Yes.

Perfectly fit the scenario,
the conceptualization

of what happened.

But it became clear that
Jimmy didn't know Brian Wells

and had no connection
to the case.

Then, after interviewing
people at the pizza shop,

we determined that
the pizza shop

had an employee, Greg,
that was fired

for stealing
from the cash register.

And so he becomes
interesting to us,

because as he's walking
out the door of being fired,

he said, you're gonna pay
for this, to the owner.

So now we think he's
retaliating against the owner

for being fired.

When we do interview him,
we determine

that he was across the street
at the time the bank

was being robbed,
at a PetSmart,

saying he was filling out
a job application.

It was like, can this be
any more of a coincidence,

and how many coincidences
can we have in this thing?

So we were interviewing
Brian Wells's co-workers

at the pizza shop,
and Robert Pinetti

was one of them.

Pinetti said,
I've got some work.

I'm busy on shift.

Can you come back on Monday,
and I'll talk to you then?

Well, of course, as it goes,
Monday never happened,

because Pinetti dies on Sunday.

- What?

- Now you have two dead
pizza delivery guys

from the same restaurant.

- Once the tox came back,
we knew it was an overdose.

We knew that it was Xanax
and methadone combination,

which was lethal
synergistically.

- Was he known to be
a heroin addict, or--

- No.

So whoever gave that to him

intentionally wanted him dead.

- Wow.

What makes you think
he even knew anything?

- The fact that
he was so nervous.

Robert Pinetti was actually
going to his sister

looking for a gun that she had.

He was acting very suspicious
and strange.

But unfortunately,
it was one of the most

difficult parts
for me, personally.

Whatever he knew was now gone.

So now we're totally
in the dark here,

trying to figure out
how this is all related.

Is Brian a hostage?

Is he a cooperator?

Are there
other people involved?

Is this a bigger conspiracy?

Is it an outside force?

You know, all these different
aspects that are out there.

Three weeks after
the whole bombing incident,

Pennsylvania State Police
receive a call, and it's a guy.

He describes himself
as Bill Rothstein,

and he said that
there's a dead body

in the freezer of his garage.

- Next time on "FBI True"...

- Bill Rothstein said
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

killed her boyfriend,

and that's why
he's in the freezer.

- Three dead bodies in three
weeks, all in close proximity.

What the hell is going on?

- The tower site
where Brian Wells

delivers the pizzas
is steps away

from Bill Rothstein's
driveway.

- I helped her with it.

I put it basically
in my garage.

She wanted it
completely destroyed.

- If you were from Erie,
you knew the name

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

She had a lot of death
around her.

- Rothstein should be charged
with the murder of Brian Wells

and a lot of other charges.

- You didn't shoot
that guy, Marjorie?

- It'll come out in court
what happened, and you'll see.