PA PA - Brian Wells, 46, Erie, 28 Aug 2003

[upallnite]

I'm very curious as to what could be in those blacked out areas in the written instructions given to Brian or why so much of it is being protected. I can understand why some of it would be withheld for proof in case someone confesses, but there's a lot blacked out and I'm assuming from reading the parts that are not blacked out it's just more instructions of where to go and if you don't BANG!!!!

 

[pappanick]

I guess nobody that is on here right now is interested in this but me. My fiance and I sat and watched this on tv and we've been completely hooked. here's more..

Actually, Upallnite I just joined this forum and I am very interested in this case. I have been from the beginning. I am from Erie, PA. I am a lifelong resident and went to college here and I still live and work here. If there are any more details that you may have wondered about the location of this crime and specifics about you are not sure about then let me know. I also lived only a few houses down from Majorie Diehl growing up. Where Rothstein was a frequent visitor. (No lie.) Outside of Marjorie being a little off kilter though, her stay there was undistinguished. Until it came out about the murder of her significant other.

About this case, I find it as puzzling as the rest of you. I can tell you the community was horrified and many deliverymen still 'carry' to this day. I have been to the area where this happened since the incident and I find it just spooky to be honest with you. I almost had a sick feeling looking all the way back through the trees on the gravly road all the way to the woods.. Many feel Wells was an absolute victim and while a possibility, I have not come to that conclusion just yet. I would like to hear your opinion on what you or your fiance thinks may have happened. The truth here in Erie is you cannot get many people to agree on the same theory. I will post more of my feelings on this case in later posts. Maybe you and others will be interested.

 

[Paradise]

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, but the name caught my eye when I read this in the paper and I knew he had been discussed in this thread.

Reading Eagle, Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Gunsmith sentenced for stashing unregistered guns

A Crawford County Man suspected of being a militia leader was charged after weapons were discovered at his home and at a cabin.

The Associated Press

ERIE - A Gunsmith accused by authorities of being a militia leader was sentenced to 35 months in prison Tuesday for stashing 10 unregistered machine guns at his home and a hunting camp, allegedly in preparation for a showdown with federal agents.

Darrell Sivik's attorney had asked a judge to confine Sivik to his home instead of prison, because of medical conditions, including a recent heart bypass surgery and diabetes. But Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Cohill Jr. said the federal Bureau of Prisons is equipped to deal with Sivik's heath problems.

Sivik, 56, of West Mead Township, Crawford County, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of possessing unregistered firearms. He refused to comment as he walked out of the courtroom.

He remained free on bond and will have to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons in a few weeks.

"Given his health, it's a good question whether he'll survive" in prison, defense attorney Joseph Conte said. "He knows what he did was wrong."

Sivik was charged after authorities discovered machine guns at his home and at a cabin near the Allegheny National Forest about 85 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Seven of the weapons were Sten guns, easily reproduced 9mm machine guns originally by the British in World War II.

Sivik was the last of five men to plead guilty or to be convicted in a federal investigation into one of the homemade machine guns that Sivik and another alleged militia leader, George Bilunka, sold to an undercover federal agent last year for $300.

Bilunka, 60, a retiree from Atlantic, Crawford County, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison in December. He pleaded guilty in August 2004 to charges he owned two homemade land mines, a modified SKS carbine rifle, and a Sten gun. He also acknowledged selling the Sten gun to the federal agent along with Sivik.

Federal authorities said Bilunka had trained his six-member Christian American Patriots Survivalists to kill SWAT officers, stocked a bunker on his 27-acre homestead with six months' supply of food and taught his followers how to bury their guns until they were needed.

Federal prosecutors had alleged that Sivik was the leader of the Braveheart Militia, which broadcast a radio show and stashed arms to fend off federal agents. He also threatened agents, saying it was "time for the ammo box rather than the ballot box," and planned to muster militia members if authorities moved against the group, authorities said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini said Sivik's paranoid and violent ideas became dangerous because of the training and arms the other militia members received.
The judge agreed in sentencing Sivik.

"Certainly the case had potential for violence and reflected a serious disregard for the law by showing people how to bury guns and all of that," Cohill said. "We feel that we must deal with this in as serious a way as the situation warrants."

Might I add that in the photo of Sivik that’s with the article, he’s wearing a baseball hat that says, “Death to World Government.”

 

[Becba]

I just thought if they had taken the bomb more seriously, help would have arrived much sooner.

We have had stupid scares where someone sees something along the road or near a building and the bomb squad is there asap.

Course I read there was not much they could have done. Sounded like it was going to blow no matter what anyone did.

 

[gatetrekker44]

and one of the things that struck me was the fact that they removed Brain's head during the autopsy, ostensibly to ensure that the device was not going to go off again. Can you imagine how that made his family feel-the ultimate insult to the ultimate injury?

The other thing that was very troubling was the fact that to this day the FBI has REFUSED to declare Brian Wells a VICTIM-instead they keep insinuating that he was somehow involved in his own death. Much as Richard Jewell was villified by the FBI after the Olympic bombings, it appears that LE is trying to divert attention from their own poor performance by making the VICTIM somehow involved in his own death! If that was the case, I believe he would have "sung like a canary" to LE prior to his death. Instead he kept pleading for help-which it did not appear that LE was in any hurry to provide!

I'm not sure how we can help this family achieve closure-but if anyone out there has any ideas, I'm all ears!


Bring Maura home!

 

[pappanick]

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, but the name caught my eye when I read this in the paper and I knew he had been discussed in this thread.





Might I add that in the photo of Sivik that’s with the article, he’s wearing a baseball hat that says, “Death to World Government.”

If you were from the area you would know that Crawford County and Erie are two entirely parts of Western PA. First of all they are 40 to 50 minutes apart in proximity and are two entirely different ways of life. If Sivik were going to commit a crime like this he would not come to the busiest part of Erie to do it. The person who committed this crime had excellent knowledge of the immediate area in which this crime was committed. And this was not really a crime against the government. It was a crime against Wells and maybe our city and a sick prank.

 

[pappanick]

The reason why Brian Wells has not been completely cleared in this case is because none of it makes any sense. Wells actions do not even make any sense. If Wells was involved he was only involved through a sick prank he was talked into. There are many puzzeling questions surrounding this case you should ask yourself.Before you make any judgement either way.

*Why would Wells care about how much money was in the sack he took from the bank? He told the teller it felt light of the money he requested. Then when she told him the rest was in the vault he said "I'll be back against 15 minutes" Why would he care how much money was in the sack or want to come back for more? He is supposedly a hostage. Makes no sense.

*Wells made no distress signals at the bank to the tellers at all. Yet when the cops pulled him over he was at full disclosure right away concerning his situation and wanted help. ONCE he was CAUGHT. Not before at the bank.

*Wells walked into the bank with a loaded gun that could fire a single shot. In the note it said "Use the weapon you were GIVEN." I don't know anyone who has ever heard of a crime where someone was given the weapon to be used in a crime. And what if he was given a gun and forced by a single person or group to committ a crime. What was stopping Wells from taking that gun and just flat out blowing their head off? Think about it.

*Was this just a random crime against a deliveryman? Or was Wells to be involved all along? I find too many coincidences in this case to think that ANYBODY other than Wells was targeted.

*The game they played with Wells that was so resembling "The Great Key Hunt" played in the Erie paper which had just wrapped up and Wells so loved were similar with the "clue-finding" and all.

*Wells shift was just ending at the pizza shop. Was he duped into a scheme that day to try to get some money to move out of Erie which he had so planned on doing. The only thing that was holding him back was Money which he didn't have and planned on winning the Great Key Hunt to move. After he did not win the contest did he get desperate?

*Many feel Wells was shot at and that is where the damage to his knee came from. And that very well could be BUT think about it; someone or someone's took all this time and intricate planning to play this 'game' and then risked shooting him in a secluded area ruining all their planning and game? What if they shot him and they could not continue doing the game? Would they have just shot him to death? Then their whole plan is ruined. There is no bomb and their is no game which they so wanted. Nobody is 100% sure those pellets did not come from the bomb itself.

*There is so much more. i'll leave it their for now. Take care.

 

[HesterMofet]

I haven't read any of the linked articles, but has anyone else noticed the similarity to the plot of the movie "Saw?"

Rothstein is dying of cancer and forces another guy to ostensibly kill others in order to save himself from death.The main character of Saw was dying and forced his first victim into a situation where she would have to kill someone in order to survive.

Life imitates art or art imitates life?

 

[Paradise]

If you were from the area you would know that Crawford County and Erie are two entirely parts of Western PA. First of all they are 40 to 50 minutes apart in proximity and are two entirely different ways of life. If Sivik were going to commit a crime like this he would not come to the busiest part of Erie to do it. The person who committed this crime had excellent knowledge of the immediate area in which this crime was committed. And this was not really a crime against the government. It was a crime against Wells and maybe our city and a sick prank.

I wasn't saying that Sivik committed this crime, I was merely mentioning that when I read this article I remembered the name and the fact that it had been previously discussed in this thread.

 

[pappanick]

I did not mean that you were accusing him and no one else could have commited the crime. You were mearly suggesting it. I understand. I saw this brought up earlier in the thread by someone else as well. I think when talk about Sivik comes up people are getting off track though. At least one of the people who committed this crime knew Wells personally. I am convinced of it. Wells was NOT randomly picked out. They wanted him or the sole person wanted him but I believe more than one was involved. One of the best ways to break this crime in my opinion is to find the suspect who writes using the = signs to emphasize things. Something like that can absolutely break a case. It was done in the Sally Weiner kidnapping/murder case when a writer wrote with this as emphasis ****. He may have gotten away with it but he kept writing using these **** years later. They matched it to his ransom note and put the case together from there. The same could happen here. And the FBI needs to release more or all of the notes. They have kept it from us for so long that it may have ruined the case forever. This case has gone cold though that has been a major embarrassment for Erie. I will post again. I have more troubling questions about this case.

 

[Paradise]

I thought they did release most of the letter? From what I remember seeing there were very few parts of it that were blacked out.

 

[pappanick]

No, you are incorrect paradise. Most of the note is blacked out. It contains nine pages and only about half (if that) has been released. there are some pages of the note where only the first sentence is shown. The rest is blacked out. They should just release the whole note, they have not done enough with it. It is very important they get the public involved again. The note is on a website at I believe brianwells.net. It is a website that his family set up for him. You can check it out there.

 

[Casshew]

Fresh clues in pizza bomber death


New information surfaced in the murder investigation of Brian Wells. His name is, arguably, not as memorable as his occupation. Brian Wells delivered pizzas. Sunday, his family marked the second anniversary of his death and hope for some resolution to the bizarre circumstances that led to it: cryptic instructions, a bank robbery and a bomb strapped to the deliveryman’s neck.

After all this time, no arrests have been made and investigators say there are no new leads. But, the FBI says this was not a random crime.

“Brian Wells was identified as the person to be targeted in this case,” says Bob Rudge, FBI. “We don‘t believe that it was a random attack on just an unknown pizza delivery person."

Full Story

 

[Paradise]

Fresh clues in pizza bomber death


New information surfaced in the murder investigation of Brian Wells. His name is, arguably, not as memorable as his occupation. Brian Wells delivered pizzas. Sunday, his family marked the second anniversary of his death and hope for some resolution to the bizarre circumstances that led to it: cryptic instructions, a bank robbery and a bomb strapped to the deliveryman’s neck.

After all this time, no arrests have been made and investigators say there are no new leads. But, the FBI says this was not a random crime.

“Brian Wells was identified as the person to be targeted in this case,” says Bob Rudge, FBI. “We don‘t believe that it was a random attack on just an unknown pizza delivery person."

Full Story

What are the new clues? It specifically says in the article that there have been no arrests and no new leads.

 

[Casshew]

What are the new clues? It specifically says in the article that there have been no arrests and no new leads.

Holy cow.. I didn't read the whole article - but I just did and I don't see anything that is a new development :doh:

Sorry about the red herring article.

 

[Paradise]

haha that's ok I was just checking cause I'm really tired and I thought maybe I missed something there.

 

[pappanick]

Maybe the new information is that is was NOT a random crime. Many suspected for years now that it might have been. But there are too many coincidences for this to be random. Like I said before release the whole note for pete's sake. This was committed by more than one person familiar with Wells and familiar with immediate area in Summit where this occurred.

 

[mysteriew]

"AMERICA'S MOST WANTED: AMERICA FIGHTS BACK" SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, ON FOX

After AMERICA'S MOST WANTED aired an in-depth story about the murdered pizza delivery man in Erie, PA, who had a bomb strapped to his neck and then robbed a bank, new information was brought forth – only to AMERICA'S MOST WANTED. Now AMW reveals this exclusive new information, which could help authorities solve the case and unmask the mastermind of a horrendous crime.

On Aug. 28, 2003, Brian Wells, a 46-year-old pizza deliveryman, perished as a bomb that was strapped around his neck exploded. Authorities have been puzzled by the bizarre details of that day's events, unsure if Wells was involved in the bank robbery or a pawn in someone else's game. The FBI says that soon after he walked out of the pizza shop on an apparent delivery, he robbed a bank with a bomb strapped around his neck. When cops caught up with him, he said he had been abducted and forced to play a sadistic game – a scavenger hunt for his life. He also begged them to free him from the bomb. But before that could happen, the bomb went off, killing him. Tune in for exclusive new information that could solve this case on AMERICA'S MOST WANTED: AMERICA FIGHTS BACK Saturday, Nov. 5 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/pr.cgi?id=20051031fox01

 

[pappanick]

Thank you for posting that upcoming program that will air Saturday. I am very interested in hearing what they have to say. Hopefully it is something about the note writer's printing being recognized by someone out there. That is one of the best ways to solve this case at this point.

 

[upallnite]

If you were from the area you would know that Crawford County and Erie are two entirely parts of Western PA. First of all they are 40 to 50 minutes apart in proximity and are two entirely different ways of life. If Sivik were going to commit a crime like this he would not come to the busiest part of Erie to do it. The person who committed this crime had excellent knowledge of the immediate area in which this crime was committed. And this was not really a crime against the government. It was a crime against Wells and maybe our city and a sick prank.

I agree Papp, I think that's excactly what this was, a sick prank. it sort of reminds me something the zodiac killer dreamed of doing. I think the killer is still out there and I think he will either do it again or confess someday.