Brian Wells: The Pizza Bomber Case, Explained + What Happened

What compels a seemingly ordinary pizza delivery driver to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his neck? The Brian Wells case, a twisted tale of crime, coercion, and conspiracy, continues to baffle and disturb, even decades later.

On August 28, 2003, Brian Douglas Wells, a 46-year-old pizza delivery man from Erie, Pennsylvania, walked into a PNC Bank in Summit Towne Centre. What followed was a macabre sequence of events that would capture the nation's attention and leave an indelible mark on the annals of true crime. Wells wasn't there to make a deposit. He carried a plastic bag and a short cane. Underneath his shirt, a strange bulge hinted at the horror to come. He calmly presented a note demanding $250,000, warning the tellers that he was a "human bomb." He walked out with a bag containing over $8,000 a far cry from his demands and attempted to follow a complex series of instructions that he claimed were given to him by his captors. He didn't get far. Police quickly surrounded him in a nearby parking lot. The images of what happened next, the exact moment of Brian Douglas Wells' death, have never been televised, and for good reason. As Wells pleaded with the authorities, a crudely made metal collar locked around his neck, attached to a pipe bomb, detonated. Brian Wells died at the scene.