All language subtitles for Very Scary People s06e05 Man Eater.eng

[Lyell Cook]
What we discovered was, whoever shot him...

stood at the foot of the bed
with a shotgun,

and fired twice.

[gun cocking, gunshots]

[Robert Schug]
This is at least the second occurrence of this.

[gunshots]

And so, this is a pattern.

[Kelly Makela]
Marjorie wasn't gonna let anybody turn on her.

And dead men tell no tales.

[opening theme music playing]

Welcome to Very Scary People.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
was a real-life monster,

a toxic combination of murder,
manipulation, and madness.

Her high IQ, combined with
a willingness to kill,

made her a danger to anyone
who crossed her path.

Especially men.

Marjorie left a trail
of bodies in her wake.

But one particular killing
was so diabolical, so bizarre,

that it sent shock waves
around the world.

This is the man eater.

[phone rings]

[operator speaking]

[man speaking]

So, August 28, 2003...

[sirens wailing]

I get a call...

and evil happened that day.

[man speaking]

It's another one
of those calls that you get

as a law enforcement officer
that you think,

"Is this really possible?"

The 911 operator
was talking to the 911 caller,

actually following
the suspect.

"Hey, he's exiting the bank.

He's going around the back.
I can see him now."

He stopped at the McDonald's,
and then, was going around

the back
of the Eyeglass World.

[tire squeals]

And that's when
police see him.

[sirens wailing]

"Stop your vehicle,

turn the keys,
put the keys out the window,"

you know, "come to my voice."

And that's when
they place him under arrest.

[Dave Gluth] He says,
"Hey, I got a bomb on me."

And the one trooper
who went over and cut his shirt open was like,

"Holy cow, this looks
like a real bomb." And then, they back out.

You know, you hear
all these stories about

a bomb being
involved in something.

You never think of it
in small town, America, where you're at.

[Clark] I was going as quickly
as possible. Lights, sirens, the whole thing.

And there's the Pennsylvania State
Police, already talking to this man,

hands behind his back,
handcuffed.

The bomb squad was en route,
but it hadn't arrived yet.

[Ed Palattella] This is
on live television.

One of the TV stations had
a camera.

So, we're wondering
what's going on here.

This guy's got
a bomb around his neck.

Who is this guy?

What happened?
How did he get there?

[Wahlberg] The bank robber
identifies himself as 46-year-old Brian Wells

and gives police
a wild explanation of why he's there.

He said,
"I'm a pizza delivery driver.

I was delivering two pizzas
to a tower site location,

and a group
of Black men shot at me,

put this thing
around my neck."

And the great question
from the trooper

was, "Describe 'em."

He couldn't.

So, immediately, no,

that whole story,
it sounds concocted.

[Wahlberg] As the minutes
tick away,

police and bystanders gather.

No one's exactly sure
what to do.

And while we're waiting
for the bomb squad to make an approach,

you hear a faint
beep, beep, beep...

[beeping]

[explosion]

Bam, detonation.

He fell backwards.

And I saw his chest go down
and it never came back up.

And I thought, "Oh, man,
total fatal situation we have here."

Everyone thinks,
because of a bomb that he was blown to bits,

which was not the case at all.

The only real injury
was a laceration

to the upper chest,
over the heart

from this
really small explosive that caused his death.

[Gluth] The bomb malfunctioned
and only half of it detonated.

Luckily for law enforcement
and everybody else,

and the viewers...
I mean, it was live on TV.

If it would have been
the whole bomb,

there may have been
more people that were hurt.

You're in shock
of what you just witnessed.

I wanted this solved
for myself, for my agency, of all those things.

But for mostly,
for the people here.

This is my hometown,
and I love it.

I didn't want Erie
to be thought of in a bad light.

I said to myself,
"I've got to have this case."

A supervisor from the FBI
was there, and he said, "It's yours."

And here we go.

Everything in my world
changed after that.

[Wahlberg] Investigators
begin by retracing Brian Wells' steps

on the day of the robbery,

and they're stunned
by what they learn.

It was confirmed
right quick that he was a pizza delivery guy.

He was called,
and went on a call for pizza delivery.

And the delivery thing
was a remote area,

a power site for one
of the local TV stations.

[Clark] Mr. Wells then went

from the tower site location

straight to the bank,

where he had the device
around his neck.

But the story wasn't
making sense,

how he got the device there.

To me, it's not
what people do.

They can do things
in a number of ways.

But why do they do it?

[Gluth] We get the video
from the bank.

You see him at first,
he stands in line

when he comes into the bank,

and then, he gets
a little antsy, nervous.

And then, he goes up with
this note to hand it to the teller,

and follow out these rules.

Other bank robberies
that I've handled are, you know,

"Give me all the money"
on a little note

that's a napkin or
a ripped a piece of paper from a receipt.

This was a multiple-page,
you know, block printed,

with a map and everything

as to what Brian Wells
was supposed to do.

[Wahlberg] The note instructed
the teller and Brian

to finish the heist
in 15 minutes.

It also warned that,
if anything went wrong, the bomb would go off.

[Sughrue] The note said,
"I need $250,000 in cash."

Banks just don't have that much
cash sitting out indoors, ever.

She said, "Well, then,
all's I can give you is what's in the drawers."

So, he got $8,207,

well short of the $250,000.

[Wahlberg] The note
also has a series of strange directions

and instructions
for Brian to follow once he has the money.

[Clark] Mr. Wells' role
was to rob the bank,

then go on a series of stops

to receive keys,
like a scavenger hunt,

to unlock the collar
to take the collar off his neck.

So, the interesting part
about this bomb is,

it had two kitchen timers

as the detonator
dialed for the 60 minutes.

But because it had
detonated after an hour,

and he couldn't do
those stops, we did it.

"Leave the bank,
go to the McDonald's,

go into a flower bed,

turn over a rock,
and receive another note."

That note told him,
" Head southbound, get on I-90,

head toward Cleveland,
get back on I-79,

get off at the exit
for Kearsarge,

go into the woods."

There was a Folgers Coffee jar
with a twist-off top.

And inside that
was another note.

It said, "Get back
on Interchange Road,

head 79 southbound,

and get off at
the McKean Township sign.

We got there
and there was nothing.

The thing we did not find
at any of the sites were any keys.

So, that tells you
that device was never coming off,

and that he was
just an expendable witness

that would never be
able to testify.

The notes were
so meticulously written.

The act of harming someone
and thinking about how it was going to happen

must have been
pleasurable for them.

The idea that it was
meant to be a failure,

there was no way
this could have been done,

suggests
a kind of a sadistic quality.

[Clark] So, whoever came up
with that plan was very smart,

with evil intentions.

To start the investigation,
you've got to go backwards on the victim's life

to see why
he would get involved in this.

Brian Wells lived
in Millcreek Township,

single,

never married,

sort of a loner.

He didn't have a lot
of materialistic things,

and just lived
a very calm, easygoing life.

[Gluth] Brian was
relatively clean,

didn't have real criminal
history background.

So, it wasn't like, you know,

you would think of
when you're talking about

somebody involved
in a bank robbery.

So, who's the mastermind
behind this?

[Wahlberg] Buried in
the pages of the notes is an entire page

addressed to the police,
bragging about the brilliance of the scheme.

[Clark] The nine total pages of
notes were an immediate send off to me

that we've got somebody
involved here

that has some personality
traits that are very interesting.

The fact that
they designated notes to the police themselves,

and the tone of them
were a taunting:

"Hey, you're not going
to figure this out."

And then, there were
drawings in the notes.

And there were
maps in the notes.

Things that you would
never take the time to do.

Someone took great care,
if not pleasure,

in putting
those things together.

This seems to almost
be an embellishment of an imagination.

[Tom Kubinski] During
the investigation,

they were
trying to figure out,

how could anyone
convince this guy

to put a bomb
around his neck, locked, go in and rob a bank?

Who could ever convince
someone to do that?

And I thought,
"Marjorie Diehl could."

[Wahlberg] When investigators
first dug into the case

that the media dubbed
"The pizza bomber,"

Marjorie's name
didn't come up.

But she was already well known
to law enforcement.

If you were from Erie,
you had heard of

or known of
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

She was, like, uh,
one of those

legends of crime.

If a bad thing happens,
here in Erie,

my suspect pool
starts with Marjorie.

[Schug] Marjorie Diehl
Armstrong was born in Erie, Pennsylvania,

which was a rather small town.

Only child.

Parents were basically
working middle class.

[Palattella] Her mother
was a schoolteacher,

and her father worked
at what was then

the General Electric plant
in Erie, making locomotives.

[Schug] Her mother
was highly educated.

But her father
dropped out of high school.

Her father was...
I remember him as

a real big guy,
kind of like a bear.

And he was gruff,
I would say, but not mean.

But he was just
a big, gruff guy.

Her mother was a higher class.

She was always dressed up
and conservative, kind of protective, too,

I thought, of Marjorie.

Marjorie's relationship
with her mom was loving but tense,

that her mom was always
pressing on her to succeed.

[Sughrue] Her grades
were all very good,

and she received letters
of recommendation

throughout her childhood
and early high school years.

She was able
to get piano lessons and cello lessons,

and she was first chair
in orchestra and symphony

and those sorts of things
when she was growing up.

Marjorie was raised
by a perfectionist mother to be perfect.

If she was to feel loved,

she had to do
something extraordinary.

It's not a very healthy way
to grow up, because, over time,

you can become
sort of very fragile,

and particularly focus
on achievement,

rather than
true emotional connection.

[Kubinski] In my neighborhood,
during those days,

everybody just
went out and played in everyone else's yard.

All the kids knew each other.

During the time we were growing up
together, I didn't see her a whole lot,

but she was a little bit
of a loner, I would say.

She always
thought she was better than everybody else.

And I believe that
even she thought she was better than her dad.

Her mom took care of her,
and she believed her mom, like, walked on water.

Anybody who got against
either her mom or her, she didn't like.

You know, like, her dad

didn't treat her like
the queen all the time.

[Wahlberg] At times,
Marjorie alleged that her home life

could be volatile,
even violent.

At one point, there was some

allegation from Marjorie
that her parents fought.

Her perception
or her experience

with her parents' relationship
at home was not all that great.

At some point in childhood,
it's alleged that...

Marjorie witnessed
her mother attack her father with a knife.

She's learned that a woman
could hold a weapon,

a woman could put
someone else's life in danger,

that a man can acquiesce.

Also, the act of violence
is modeled for the child.

The child learns
something that day:

How to be violent.

[Wahlberg] Marjorie goes
to Mercyhurst College in 1967,

and that's where her obsession with
being the best goes into overdrive.

Marjorie was never afraid
to tell you how smart she was

and was never afraid
to go down what her resume was.

She was always
the best at everything,

the smartest,
and that sort of stuff.

[Wahlberg] But beneath
the star student

is a deeply troubled
young woman,

and when she leaves college,

she struggles
to make a life for herself.

She was a substitute teacher
for a while.

Then she worked as a secretary
for an executive,

but she
couldn't hold a regular job.

The narcissistic side
of her personality

didn't allow her to work her way
up like the rest of us have to do.

It was a slow decline.

But over a period
of a decade or more,

it just went down,
and down, and down.

[Sughrue] She would
ask her parents for money.

Sometimes, they
would give her money.

She applied for
a Social Security disability

and any sort of program
she could get

to make her life as easy
as it could be for her.

[Schug] Marjorie was very good at
manipulating psychological evaluations.

Her education
gave her some exposure to mental illness

and how it presents
and the symptoms of mental illness.

In her mind, rather than going
out and facing the working world,

it's much easier for me to just try
to put one over on the welfare system,

and get free stuff
because I know it'll work.

[Wahlberg] Now 30,

Marjorie has discovered
she craves far more money

than her parents
and the welfare system will provide.

So, she comes up with a scam:

Posing as
a pregnancy counselor.

She required urine samples
to determine whether the client was pregnant.

She said the client
was pregnant.

She would take
a $150 fee from them,

and then, counsel them
if they wanted to get an abortion.

She just doesn't care
about the law.

The consequences
mean nothing to her.

There were complaints,
the police set up an undercover sting,

gave her
a urine sample of a man.

She said
it tested positive for pregnancy,

and of course,
that can't happen.

The police arrest her
and take her to the police station.

She's processed.

[Palattella] This was
the beginning of her evil.

[Wahlberg] Marjorie Diehl
is charged with conspiracy and fraud

over the abortion clinic scam.

[Palattella] For a so-called
abortion clinic,

Marjorie was running
out of the Erie library.

She ended up getting probation
and did community service.

[Wahlberg] Around the time
Marjorie is finishing her community service,

the 34-year-old meets
a man named Bob Thomas.

They bumped into
each other at the food bank in January of 1984.

And they struck up
a relationship.

They were both on food lines.

They were keeping
each other company.

He was also a troubled soul.

[Ambrose] He has
post-traumatic stress

because he was on a ship
during the Vietnam War.

A Navy physician,
a psychiatrist, examined him

and then, said he should be
mustered out of the service, he's unfit.

So, he comes back to here.
He has some odd jobs that never last.

[Palattella] She found him.
He found her,

and they were
the best that they thought for each other.

So, Bob Thomas is an interesting
match, if you will, for Marjorie.

It begs the question,

why would Marjorie
be drawn to that?

When you look at the men
that Marjorie chooses for herself,

she has achieved
more than they have.

That was familiar to her.
That's how she grew up.

Marjorie needed some element of
control with the relationships she had.

If she is going to share
her life with someone who's succeeding,

it would make her
feel bad, right?

Because she needs
to be the one,

the top head
on the totem pole.

So, I think Marjorie
had some desire or pull towards men

that are lesser
than her In her eyes.

[Palattella]
But they definitely had a volatile relationship.

He's paranoid, and he is
potentially dangerous.

Marjorie reported that
and other people witnessed

that Bob Thomas beat her
on a food line at least once.

There were public beatings
and, in addition to, Marjorie testified,

there were private beatings.

[siren whoops]

[Wahlberg] And on
July 29, 1984,

their twisted relationship
of six months finally explodes.

The police and
the coroner's office

were called to
Sunset Boulevard

in Erie for a reported death.

The police entered
and found Robert Thomas, 43-year-old male,

dead on the couch,
with gunshot wounds.

He was living there
with Marjorie Diehl.

So, she naturally became
the assumed assailant.

She was charged
and arrested for the murder of Bob Thomas.

The way she recounted it,
that night,

it was his birthday,
kind of a romantic night.

And as a birthday gift,
she had purchased a handgun...

along with the bullets

that we saw
on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

[Palattella] They were
watching An Officer and a Gentleman together,

the Richard Gere movie.

[Ambrose] He accused her
of wanting to have sex with Richard Gere,

and she tried to dissuade him
that wasn't the case.

Then, they got into a fight.

So this continued on.
They were arguing all night.

At some point in time,
he had grabbed a knife.

She was cut on her chest.
He was cut on his chest.

And ultimately, it wound down.

But he kept on telling her,
"I could kill you anytime I want."

So, at some point,
she went into bed.

He goes to sleep on the couch.

But later, she gets up,
and he's on the couch

and he starts
to wake up asking her, "Where are you going?"

The gun is loaded
at this point in time.

It was on the coffee table.

Marjorie testified
that he starts to reach towards the gun.

He says, "Maybe
I should shoot you."

And at that point in time,
she grabbed the gun and backed up.

And she said that,
as he started to get off the couch,

because he was
going to get the gun, in her mind, and kill her,

she shot him.

[Wahlberg] But soon, witnesses
come forward with testimony

that discredits Marjorie's
claims of self-defense.

[Palattella] Marjorie had
a small settlement from an automobile accident.

Around that time,
she was getting disability benefits.

So, she's carrying around
all this cash.

After Bob Thomas was killed,
Marjorie had a bag of $18,000,

and she went out with that bag
and solicited two women.

They had met in the food lines
and had witnessed some of the beatings.

She says, "I need a favor.

Would you help me
remove a body...

from the house?

I have a chainsaw,
we can cut it up

and put the parts
in various places."

Marjorie's so-called friends,
they were appalled at this type of behavior.

They didn't want
anything to do with it.

So, they called the police,
and that's how Marjorie was arrested.

She overestimated her ability

to convince someone to
help her and keep it secret.

[Wahlberg] Police find
further disturbing evidence

of Marjorie's
troubled mental state.

[Palattella] During the search
of her house,

they just found it was
filled from floor to ceiling,

even the attic,
with surplus food,

that she was getting from
food banks around town.

The dollar amount
of the food at that time was more than $9,000.

We're talking
an inordinate amount of food here,

including 37 dozen eggs,
399 pounds of butter,

seven hundred and twenty seven
pounds of cheese.

And the temperature
in the attic was 95 degrees.

[flies buzzing]

Police officers at the scene
said it was

some of the foulest smells
they had ever experienced.

[Schug] Hoarding has historically
been classified as an anxiety condition,

specifically a variant
of obsessive compulsive disorder.

They're so worried
about losing something or throwing something away

that they're going to need

that they don't throw
anything away.

And so, holding onto
meaningless items

becomes a way to combat
those obsessive thoughts.

Marjorie claimed she was
in an abusive relationship,

and that she
was defending herself by killing Bob Thomas.

[Cook] But when the body
was taken to the coroner's office for autopsy,

I determined that
there were approximately six gunshot wounds.

[gunshots]

She emptied
a revolver into him.

It wasn't like
this was one shot, "What have I done here?"

It was six rapid shots
into a guy.

[Cook] There were bullets
found in the couch,

which indicated
that he was lying on the couch

at the time he was shot.

[Ambrose] The prosecution's
theory was, she shot him six times

while he was sleeping
on his sofa.

[gunshot]

So, it was an execution.

The evidence against Marjorie
is mounting,

and prosecutors
believe they have

an airtight murder case
against her.

But they'll soon find out
there is a method to her madness,

more cunning
than anything they've ever seen before.

[Wahlberg] Marjorie Diehl
is charged with first degree murder...

[gunshots]

...for killing her boyfriend,
Bob Thomas.

She claimed
she shot Thomas in self-defense.

But after a mental evaluation,

Marjorie is sent to a hospital
for further testing.

Her parents hire an attorney
to fight the charges.

[Ambrose]
She comes in the room,

and she sits down
and she says, "Who in the hell are you?"

I gave her my name
and I said, you know,

"Your parents are asking me
to represent you on this."

And she threw
all her papers on the floor.

And then she indicated,

"I don't think
you're intelligent enough to handle this case

because I'm
a very intelligent person."

And I said,
"I've done a number of these cases, about 30,

and I think I'm fine
for representing you."

My assessment was that
this woman was in need

of serious mental confinement

in a humane facility
for long term treatment.

Now, our legal system
is set up in a way

that if an individual
has a mental illness,

and because
of that mental illness,

cannot participate
in their defense,

they are not allowed
to go to trial.

And if you're incompetent
to stand trial,

you go to
the state hospital system

until you are restored
to competency,

and can then
be brought back to jail, and then, to the court.

[Wahlberg] Doctors at
a state mental hospital treat Marjorie for months

and declare her fit
to stand trial.

But, over time, her behavior
becomes more deranged.

She'd go off on tangents
and she'd be talking about things

totally unrelated to the case.

And I told the court
I was going to be filing a motion

so she could be sent
to Pennsylvania State mental hospitals

until she was
ready to go to trial.

[Clark] You know, Marjorie
was really manipulative.

She knew what the system was,

and she knew
everything about how that operates,

or was she actually
battling mental illness?

Marjorie had the presence
of several personality disorders.

She had obsessive
compulsive disorder,

where a person
gets an intrusive thought,

and then they have to engage
in some sort of behavior,

like handwashing or checking
a door handle or something

to ease the anxiety
associated with that thought.

[Palattella] The doctors
noticed that she would

obsessively brush her teeth.

Thirty-two times,
brushing each tooth.

[Schug] Borderline
personality disorder

is this pervasive pattern
of instability,

instability in the way
one perceives themselves, their identity.

[Schug] The narcissistic
personality disorder.

This is a pattern
of grandiosity,

of inflated self-worth.

She had to be...
look the best,

she had to think the best,
she had to outwit you.

She was very much into showing
that she was smarter than you.

[Schug] And then, finally,

the antisocial
personality disorder.

This is just a pervasive
pattern of disregard

for the rights of others.

And so, you might see
deceitfulness, and lying,

and irresponsibility,

along with
potential criminal activity.

And at times she got
aggressive towards me.

[bleep]

[Ambrose] And I said,
"Listen, I'm the only thing

that stands between you and life
in the [bleep] hole here that you're in."

[Schug] She was
in a state hospital for four years,

which is an exceptionally
long period of time.

[Wahlberg] Finally, in 1988,

Marjorie is ruled fit
to stand trial.

Prosecutors claim she knew exactly what
she was doing when she shot Bob Thomas.

The state argued,
the purchase of the gun before

was evidence
of planning or premeditation.

I needed to put her
on the stand.

Because she had
to testify that she was in a state of fear,

which was the first prong
of self-defense.

And this was
because of the beatings, the public beatings,

and a cycle of
the battered-woman syndrome.

We got a trial date,

and then, all I did was
work on her case for a month and a half

to try to get her prepared.

And the key with Marjorie
is to get her to settle down,

to testify in a way
that the jury can see her as a human being

rather than just
a crazy person. And she did that.

[Ambrose] And then, the trial went
on for roughly three and a half weeks.

The jury was out
three days in this case.

When the jury goes out,
that's the most difficult time

because you think about
all the things

you could have done,
would have done, should have done.

And it's self-punishment.

[Palattella] So, that was
basically her word against the prosecution's.

And she won.

[Wahlberg] On June 1, 1988,

Marjorie is acquitted of first degree
murder in the killing of Bob Thomas.

It was a stunning verdict.

[gunshot]

[Schug] She learned
that she's capable of killing someone.

She probably realized,
"Oh, this is a way I can solve problems now."

And that, if she
plays her cards right,

she gets to walk scot-free.

[Wahlberg]
Marjorie is acquitted of murdering Bob Thomas,

but she's convicted of using
an unlicensed firearm during the shooting,

and sentenced to probation.

Back in 1988,

I was a parole officer for
Erie County Adult Probation,

and I was assigned
as Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong's

intensive supervision officer.

In a regular parole officer
caseload of 200,

there was nobody like
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

That energy
that came off of her

wasn't like an energy
of excitement or someone you want to be around.

[Clark] She could
go from laughing, and joking with you,

and talking normally,
to all of a sudden...

"What did you say?
Why are you asking me that?"

Or "What are you doing to me?"

Just an amazing
change in personality.

Even though she could
follow the rules,

she would often come
as near as she could to violating them,

and she never liked
somebody giving her orders.

She never liked
the fact that, "Hey, I have authority over you

to make sure you finish this probation
and get integrated back into society."

She did what she had to do
in order to get off of it.

But, inside, it was all
just a game to get her where she needed to be.

[Wahlberg] Once
she's off probation,

forty one year-old
Diehl meets someone new,

Richard Armstrong.

He, too, lives
an unstable, chaotic life.

Richard Armstrong
grew up in Cleveland, played the trumpet,

played in a number of bands,

and then, ended up
moving to Erie,

and basically, worked
for one of the food banks.

He was what Marjorie Diehl
described as her true love.

According to Marjorie,
they met one day in downtown Erie.

She walked by,
he commented on her beauty,

and said, "I've never
seen someone so beautiful."

Their relationship
blossomed from there.

[Wahlberg]
But the relationship was rocky from the start.

[Palattella] During the course
of their relationship,

there were a lot of incidents
of violence and abuse.

In May 1990,
Armstrong threw a brick at Marjorie Diehl.

She claimed
he was assaulting her.

He was convicted,
was sentenced to six-to-12-months in prison.

The following January,
there was another incident...

in which she claimed he broke
some glass that cut her.

He was sentenced
to 30 more days and got probation.

Despite all this,
they ended up getting married in January of 1991.

[Wahlberg] But, "till death do
us apart" came early in this marriage.

[sirens wailing]

The case
of Richard Armstrong, was very, very unusual.

[Palattella] The circumstances
are a little murky.

But Marjorie claimed
that he wasn't feeling well,

and that
he was kind of unsteady on his feet.

And that he fell
and hit his head on this table.

[medical device beeping]

[Cook] Richard Armstrong
was pronounced dead in the emergency room

at one of
the local hospitals...

-[flatline sound]
-...which by law has to be reported to the coroner.

And then,
it's up to us to decide

whether we need to investigate
further or release it.

Well, they never called us,

and the body was immediately
taken somehow.

They couldn't tell us
who picked the body up.

We don't know where it went.

So, we have
absolutely no record of what he died from.

But we did find out later on that he
had been cremated immediately by Marjorie.

And what better way to get rid of
evidence of a murder than to cremate?

Because, now, all you have
is 12 pounds of calcium.

Game over.

And so, consequently,
we have absolutely nothing.

It's certainly suspicious,
knowing her behavior with other men.

[gunshots]

[Wahlberg] Soon after
cremating her husband,

Diehl-Armstrong cashes in
on his death.

Marjorie raised complaints
about how the hospital treated him,

and whether they recognized
early on the true extent of his injuries.

She ended up
suing the hospital

and settling for a quarter
of a million dollars.

There was never any indication
that she was a suspect in his death.

I mean, it's just
a very strange situation.

And there's no way
of knowing if that was all part of the plan.

But it does sort of suggest,

in a moment where
one would be grieving

the loss of a partner,

that Marjorie is focused
on financial matters.

So, Marjorie
is in her '40s now,

and she's connected
to two deaths of men

that she was close to
in some way.

-[gunshot]
-Bob Thomas and Richard Armstrong.

Even one death
is challenging enough to explain.

But, with Marjorie,
there are now two.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

believes she's always
the smartest person in the room,

and can scheme and talk
her way out of anything.

Now, she's learned
a perverse lesson.

Sometimes, you can
get away with murder.

And she's going
to put that lesson into practice

by masterminding a bizarre and heinous
crime that will shock the world.

[Wahlberg] Bob Thomas
and Richard Armstrong are dead,

and their suspected killer,
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong,

is on the prowl for a new man
and maybe a fresh victim.

[Palattella] She visited
a psychic and came to believe

that she was going to meet
another man of her dreams.

Nine months later,

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
meets James Roden.

She met him at a tavern.

She was there on a date

and Roden could not
keep his eyes off of her.

They became
boyfriend and girlfriend.

[Palattella] He had
alcohol issues, substance abuse issues.

[Sughrue] Marjorie loved him.

She looked to him
for protection.

She looked for him
to be her partner

in whatever scheme
she wanted to do.

They also fished together.
They did everything together.

So he was
a material part of her life

for a significant
period of time, lived with her.

He ended up moving in
with Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

[Wahlberg] But like all
her previous relationships,

that honeymoon phase
doesn't last long.

They got into many arguments.

Physical arguments.

He cut her thigh,
tried to push her through a glass window.

The neighbors ended up
calling the cops to save her.

He went to jail for it.

She got a protective order
against him,

stayed with him,
just like the other instances.

[Schug] We always have
to consider the possibility

that perhaps Marjorie
was staying in this relationship

because she had
some feelings for him.

They feel
an emotional connection.

If they broke that connection,

that would be far worse
than enduring the abuse.

Although with Marjorie,
because she's complex,

the power differential
is one reason that would make it worth staying.

Perhaps he was
feeding her ego,

you know,
telling her how great she is.

There could be a lot of ways
she would be benefiting from this relationship.

Marjorie had her father
bail James out of jail.

Marjorie says, "I need you
to help and you will help me with this."

[Wahlberg] Marjorie's father
was another man she was able to manipulate.

Maybe her first.

But she now manages
to drive him away, too.

[Palattella]
Their relationship really fell apart

to the point of no return

after Marjorie's mother,
Agnes, died in July 2000.

[Palattella] The will made
Marjorie's father the executor of the estate.

I heard about the death
of Marjorie's mother from her father.

-[phone ringing]
-I was an attorney and he called my office

and asked me
if I would take care of his wife's estate,

and I said I would.

Now, I hadn't spoken
with Margie in 40 years.

The mother's will
named the father and Marjorie as heirs.

The estate had $150,000,
including the house.

And so I sent out
the notices to the heirs,

and a few days later
I got a phone call from Marjorie.

She started off the phone call
very friendly, you know.

"Oh, Tommy Kubinksi
from the neighborhood. How are you doing?"

And within a minute or two,
she went on a rant

that I couldn't believe.

She didn't want money
going to other people.

Every time I said anything,

and she had three responses
one after the other.

[Kubinski] I finally had
to hang up.

In the end,
I completed the estate.

She got about $50,000.

At that time,
Harold Diehl had about $1.8 million in assets.

[Palattella] He was pretty frugal,
but also good with investing.

Marjorie believed
that all that money should go to her.

But it was still her father's.

She'd scream on the phone
to her dad.

She would ask him for money

and she would tell him
she hated him.

She wished he would die.

[Clark] The money that he had,
he was not gonna give to her,

and she thought,

"I'll just get it
through an inheritance.

But if he's alive,
I'm never going to get it,

and I'm not gonna wait
until he dies."

And that's where
this whole plot came from.

[news presenter]
A pizza deliveryman, Brian Wells, robs a bank

with an elaborate bomb
locked around his neck.

[Clark] Right around 3:18,

while we're waiting
for the bomb squad to make an approach,

you hear a faint beep,
beep, beep, beep.

[beeping]

[explosion]

It's one of those moments,
I had thought I had seen a lot.

I had never seen that.

So we were able to pull back,
gather our wits among us,

and start collectively
thinking, "Oh, my gosh, what do we do now?"

This case immediately
was full of challenge.

Challenge after challenge.

Number one,
you have a bank robbery,

but you have a deceased body
in the parking lot.

I would say that was one
of the biggest challenges of the investigation,

is multi agencies
being involved,

and it was leading
in multiple directions.

Three weeks later,
we still did not have any initial suspects.

[Wahlberg] But their luck
turns when police get an unusual call

from a man
named Bill Rothstein.

On September 21, 2003,

Bill Rothstein
calls the state police 911,

and said,
"I'm driving around town,

I've got a gun in the van,
and I'm gonna kill myself".

[911 operator speaking]

Rothstein
and Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

had a history
all the way back to the '70s.

[Palattella] Bill Rothstein
was most likely

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong's
first,

what she would consider,
a romantic relationship.

[Clark] He's a smart guy,
graduated college.

He was able to start
his own handyman company,

where he was doing HVAC stuff
and electrical work.

He also taught
as a substitute teacher.

[Schug] In many ways,
they're very similar people.

The most prominent similarity
is the grandiosity.

Both, in their own minds,
had this increased intellectual ability.

They were always
kind of in and out of each other's lives.

He was very dependable to her.

Later on, she knew
whenever she was in trouble, he was always there.

Marge had that about her,
with the men.

They were kind of like
mesmerized by her.

And they would
listen to anything

and everything she would say
like it was gospel.

And they would do it.

[Clark] It's the best of times,
and it's the worst of times,

all in one relationship.

They would fight,
they'd get along,

they'd argue,
they'd get along.

And that was her history
any time she was with men.

And it was mostly
over the manipulation factor.

If she could manipulate him
to do something, she would do it.

So between the power
that she had

or the black widow of her,
or the sex...

I don't understand
the control,

but that was
definitely involved in this case.

[Clark] She got men to do
some of the most crazy things you could think of.

She had that, that...
that lure over men.

It was incredible
what she could get them to do.

[Wahlberg] But as Rothstein
talks to police,

it's clear his devotion
to his old flame is waning.

[Gluth] He said,
"Marjorie Diehl comes to my house

and somehow talks me
into disposing of a body for her,

help dispose of the murder weapon
of her boyfriend she killed."

"Marjorie's at my house
right now,

and you have
to go arrest her."

[Clark] I arrive on scene,
police everywhere.

Erie Police Department,
Pennsylvania State Police, now FBI.

You get in there
and everything's just in disarray.

[Cook] The first floor
of Marjorie's house

was stacked to the ceiling

with things that looked
like an archeological dig.

There were stacks of newspapers,
magazines, pizza boxes, a dead cat,

and a bunch of cutting wheels
and muriatic acid

on the kitchen table,

which you would
think of using to dispose of a body

This is a woman
who may have been exaggerating

psychological symptoms
for her own benefit.

And a good way to do that

would be to have
your house be messy.

And we went
into this gigantic garage, and it was even worse.

If you can imagine searching
just a big, huge junkyard.

In the garage
was a half-length chest freezer.

Clearly brand new.

[Clark] You're thinking,
"Is it possible we're going to open this

and actually see,
you know, a human?"

We opened it up
and there was a body.

It was wrapped in green tarp,
and taped and tied.

I reached in to try
to move the body,

and it was frozen
right to the sides.

So we came up with a plan
to unplug the freezer,

put it in the back of a van,

drive it
to the coroner's office.

And we set it up on its side,
opened the door,

and then just let
nature take over.

We waited until we determined
that the body had thawed enough

to continue with the autopsy.

What we discovered was,
whoever shot him

stood at the foot of the bed
with a shotgun,

and fired twice.

[gun loading]

[gunshot]

[gun loading]

[gunshot]

[Wahlberg] When the body
of James Roden

is discovered
at Bill Rothstein's house,

police race to find
a connection

between his murder
and the bank robbery.

Rothstein admitted
that this occurred at 7th and Bacon,

which was Marjorie's house
on the east side of Erie.

He was saying
that Marjorie calls him

and says, "Hey,
you got to come get this body."

So he goes over
to Marjorie's house.

The bed was roughly
around here,

and his back against here.

Like about here,
his body was lying roughly...

Forty-five-degree angle
on the bed.

[officer] And his head?
His head was here?

-This is his back here.
-Okay.

He was facing that way.

[Schug] This isn't
a fair stand-up fight.

This is killing someone
while they're not conscious.

This is at least
the second occurrence of this.

Bob Thomas was sleeping
on a couch,

and Marjorie
shot him six times while he was there.

[gunshots]

And so this is a pattern.

And put a cut piece
of green tarp down here to put his body on.

And then we took the tarp
and folded it up around it,

and tried to use
some duct tape

and packaging tape
to wrap it up.

And then pull the body
back down here and pull it downstairs.

[Cook] Rothstein did
an admirable job in covering his tracks.

He had tore out the steps
where they dragged the body down,

painted everything, so there was
absolutely no evidence there whatsoever.

[Rothstein] This is where
he cut up the rifle.

He used
an acetylene torch here

to cut it up completely
and reduce it to slag.

So it wasn't really cut up.
It was more like, melted.

[Wahlberg] And
as the body thaws,

Rothstein reveals to police
who they will find in the freezer.

He said, "The body is a guy
named James Roden,

and he was a boyfriend
of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong."

And Rothstein said

he was afraid
she was gonna kill him, too.

I don't know for sure.

What are we talking,
hours or days?

I don't know.

The body was found
to be in a moderate state of decomposition,

with fly larva,

so he'd obviously
laid in the open

for some period of time
before he was wrapped and frozen.

[Rothstein] I had to
maneuver things around.

I was putting
the freezer over there.

Did she know that-

She knew the body was here,
though, right?

She knew it was in the garage.

So why did Bill Rothstein
never turn in Marjorie anyway?

He even went as far as taking
care of a homicide scene for her.

[Clark] It was because
he was afraid of her.

As it turned out,
Marjorie was rushing Bill.

She's saying, "You've got
to get this body cut up.

We gotta get rid
of this body."

[Wahlberg] As detectives
search the scene,

they discover
a strange coincidence.

We've got a body
in the freezer, in a garage.

8645 Peach Street.

Now I'm remembering
that 8631 Peach Street

is where the pizza were delivered
by Brian Wells for the Pizza Bomber case.

[Gluth] And Shazam.

That's right at the road
to where the bomb

was allegedly
put on Brian Wells.

[Clark] It's steps away
from the tower site.

[Wahlberg] And while police
begin to connect the dots between the two cases,

they narrow in
on Marjorie's whereabouts.

Marjorie had taken off,
and she had got to her house,

and that's when
law enforcement made the arrest.

I could tell
she didn't want to flee to another state.

She didn't want
to get out of town.

She was just going to wait
to see what happened.

Bill Rothstein,
I think really deep down, loved Marge.

He would do anything for her,
I mean.

So she had control
over Bill Rothstein.

[Wahlberg] And because
Rothstein destroyed any evidence,

there's nothing tying Marjorie
to the murder of James Roden.

It's his word against hers.

She was confident
she was going to work her way out of this.

She had gotten
out of it before,

and was acquitted
of killing someone.

And I really believe she felt that
she was going to get out of this one, too.

After she was charged
and arrested and sent to jail,

Marjorie even phoned me
from prison.

She wouldn't stop
for 10 minutes

before the conversation
would automatically end.

Marjorie's wickedness
has so far cost three men their lives.

She's beaten the system
at every turn,

and seems to be invincible.

Is she gonna get away
with murder again?

Or can police
stop the Man Eater before she takes another life?

[Makela]
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

was brought
into the Erie County Prison.

She was at one end
of the table,

I was at the other end.

And she looked lost,
lonely, she needed a friend.

The other inmates
were scared to death of her

because they saw
the news reports

of her wanting
to chop up Roden into little itty-bitty pieces.

I offered her a cup of coffee.

She said,
"Are you talking to me?"

And I said, "Yeah."

She's like,
"You're not afraid of me." and I said, "No."

And she's like,
"But everybody is."

So as our friendship
began to grow

over that little cup
of coffee,

she's of course,
denying everything.

She's telling me
she didn't kill Roden,

and she did not
want to be tied to the Pizza Bomber case.

[Wahlberg] As detectives
consider the link between these two cases,

they zero in on an odd clue

left at Bill Rothstein's
house.

[Wahlberg] A suicide note

for a suicide
he never attempted.

[Clark] The suicide note

a number of items
listed on it,

and number one on the list

was, "This has nothing
to do with the Wells case."

And I immediately thought,
"Now, why would you have to tell somebody that?"

I interviewed Bill Rothstein,

and I walked in and I said,
"Hey, Bill, how you doing?

"Jerry Clark from the FBI.
You mind if I talk to you?"

And he said, "Yeah,
you can talk to me,

but I need
to tell you something.

I'm the smartest guy
in this room."

I kept telling him,

"I know you say
you know nothing about the Brian Wells case,

but, boy,
can you help me out with this?

I'm having trouble."

I was playing to his ego.

And I said,
"Bill, hypothetically,

why would Brian Wells

get a device
put around his neck,

and not drive straight
to a police department,

say, 'Get this thing off me.
It's a bomb.'"

He said, "Hypothetically,

"What if they told him
there were wires in the collar,

and if he veered off course,
they'd give him a shock."

And I sat in the chair there
trying not to look astounded,

because I knew
there was wires in the collar

and he didn't,
unless he made it.

He knew things that no one else
would know after I interviewed him.

And then I see
he's attached to Marjorie,

I knew she was involved.

I didn't know how,
I didn't know why yet,

but I knew she was involved.

[Wahlberg] In January 2004,

Bill Rothstein is charged
with abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering.

Based on his confession,

police charge
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

for the murder of James Roden.

But once again,

Diehl-Armstrong
and her attorney argue she isn't fit for trial.

[Clark] There is no doubt
in my mind

that she knew exactly
what she was doing.

But she was going to make
this thing be as difficult

and as challenging as possible
until it went away.

I would speculate
that Marjorie knew what to do

to not be restored
to competency,

so she could go
to the state hospital

as opposed
to having to go to jail

or eventually face trial
and perhaps face prison.

I think this underscores
her manipulative nature.

Marge knew
how to play the game.

So I said to her, I'm like,
"Marge do you think you're crazy?"

She would say,
"I'm crazy like a fox, Kelly".

[laughter]

She knew exactly what to say,
how to say it, what to do.

She learned all these tricks
from the first murder.

[gunshots]

So she's sent to Mayview
Correctional Facility,

where they're going
to do an evaluation.

Everything becomes
more difficult the longer it takes you

to get somebody to trial
because anything could happen.

She knew that,
and she was just playing us along.

[Wahlberg] Now under
psychiatric evaluation,

Diehl-Armstrong
can't be questioned again

until she's deemed competent
and put on trial.

But, if and when
she does go to trial,

the prosecution will be
without its star witness.

Mr. Rothstein
had become very ill with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma,

which is a form of cancer.

[Clark] And I thought
I'd better go see him.

He's lying in his bed.

I thought he was just sick.

And now I see him, he's dying.

So I start going at him.

"Bill, don't take this
with you. Cleanse your soul.

Tell me right now,
are these two cases related?"

And he lifted his big arm
out of the bed and he made a "No."

Bill Rothstein
was dead four days later.

[Wahlberg] After more
than a year at a mental hospital,

Diehl-Armstrong is ruled fit to
stand trial in the Roden murder case.

But once again,
she throws prosecutors a curveball.

[Clark] In 2005,

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
pleads guilty for killing James Roden...

[gunshot]

...which was completely out of character
for her because she fights everything.

She realized the risk-reward
for her was too tight,

and she was gonna
take the deal she had.

The plea she negotiated
for the Roden case

was a seven years to 20 years.

So in Pennsylvania,

that meant upon
the expiration of seven years,

she could come up for parole.

[Clark] Now I'm afraid
of what she's gonna do if she gets out.

We really have
to look at the body count,

as men around her die
at an alarming rate.

Does that mean
more men will die?

Seven and a half years
for killing somebody.

She wouldn't do all of that
even with good behavior.

It was the deal
of the century in my mind.

So she gets sent to a state
correctional institution in Muncy, Pennsylvania,

and I can go interview her.

We're in the underbelly
of this prison.

I can hear Marjorie shuffling
with her chains on her feet, coming to us,

and she walks in the room
and sits down.

And I said, "Hey, Marge,
we're here to talk to you about the Wells case."

And she immediately goes to, "Well,
I'm not telling you anything about that

until you move me closer
to Erie."

She wanted to be in a prison
closer to home.

And I said, "Well, Marge,
I'll see what we can do."

That's when she said to me,
going out the door,

"You better check on that guy
named Ken Barnes."

Ken Barnes, we knew,
was a local crack dealer,

and he sampled
his own product.

He was very smart.

He actually
was a television repairman for many years.

Could take a television apart,
put it back together.

Same with your computer.

At that time,

he and Marjorie
would get together with their friends

in a group they called themselves
the "Fractured Intellectuals."

The people she hung out with
also lived the same way.

They're just sort of
one step away

from the bottom
coming out of their lives.

This cast of characters
had Bill Rothstein and James Roden,

and found each other
with like-minded evil intent.

And they did engage
with criminal activity.

[Gluth] Ken Barnes
was looking for money.

I mean,
that's the bottom line.

Easy score.

He was the type of person
I would think

would be involved
in a bank robbery.

So we went and talked to him.

He went from,
"Yeah, I've heard the name Brian Wells",

to, "I solicited the same lady
as he did, Jessica Hoopsick."

[Clark] We found Jessica
had been arrested

multiple times
for prostitution,

and Jessica used to drive over
to Ken Barnes' house to get crack cocaine.

Turns out,
Brian Wells drove her there.

So now, we have
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong,

who knows Ken Barnes,

who knows Jessica,

who knows Brian Wells,

and we're finally starting
to make the links we need in the case.

[Wahlberg] In late 2005,

two years
after the bank robbery,

Ken Barnes is arrested
on drug charges,

and he cracks wide open.

Once we picked Ken up,
Ken went the whole way,

and told us stories
about the day of the bank robbery.

Marjorie said, "Hey,
my father has some money.

I'd like him dead.
Who can kill him?"

It's really hard to say
if Marjorie was serious about this plan

to kill her father.

I just- We can't rule it out.

Of course she would, right?

It's just like
it's too consistent with her character.

[Clark] And Ken Barnes said,
"Hey, I'll kill your father.

But I need $250,000."

And she said, "Where am I
going to get $250,000?"

"Let's rob a bank."

And Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
had a plan.

She said to Rothstein,
"Do you know how to build a bomb?"

And he said,
"Of course," you know?

And then he explained
different ways,

he said "Remote detonation."

[Clark] This bomb only had one
purpose, and that was to kill somebody.

They took a knob
of a kitchen timer and screwed it in,

and then dialed that knob
for the 60 minutes.

It had wires
that went to nowhere and did nothing.

It had a back plate in it
so that the shrapnel would come out.

It was intended
to kill first responders

that they were trying
to adjust it.

So this was just
a horrific device.

[Wahlberg] The collar bomb
is ready.

Now they need a neck
to hang it on.

Ken Barnes
asked Jessica Hoopsick if she knows any guys

who might want
to make some easy money.

Jessica suggests
a loyal client.

Pizza delivery man,
Brian Wells.

Brian Wells was a very naive,
gullible, nice guy.

He was in their mind,

simple minded
and easy to control.

He was introduced
to these people by Jessica.

So they meet Brian Wells
at Ken Barnes' house

and start talking to him.

Hey, Brian, "Would you be interested
in making a little money?"

He says,
"What do I have to do?"

"Well, we'll give you $5,000
if you just wear this device.

It's not real.

If you get caught,
you're a hostage.

If you don't get caught,
we'll take it off you

and we'll pay you the money.
You're all set."

He never in his mind
would ever understand

how diabolical
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong really was.

That takes this kind of,
you know, antisocial piece

of Marjorie to a new level,

that she enjoyed
harming someone,

and thinking about how
it was gonna happen.

With a man who just-
He had no chance.

[Wahlberg] But there's a snag
in this malevolent plan.

James Roden decided
he didn't want to go through with it.

And he kept telling Marge,
"I'm done. I'm out.

I don't want anything more
to do with it.

I'm not robbing any banks."

[Clark] And
she immediately thought,

this guy, I'm not gonna
be able to trust anymore.

[Makela] Marjorie wasn't gonna
let anybody turn on her.

And dead men tell no tales.

[gun loads]

[gunshot]

[Wahlberg] And with Roden
out of the picture,

the Fractured Intellectuals
continue with their grisly plot.

[Clark] That day, Ken Barnes

was at the tower site location
where the pizzas are delivered

with Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
and Bill Rothstein.

Brian Wells shows up,
delivers the pizzas.

They pull the device out,
and they're gonna put it on.

He says, "No, no, no, no, no.

I'm not gonna
do this anymore. That looks real."

[Gluth] Ken Barnes even admits
"I punched Brian Wells in the mouth.

He tried to run,
knocked him down.

We put the bomb on him."

[Clark] They tell him,
if you're caught,

a group of Black guys
did it to you, and go rob the bank.

[Gluth] When he comes
into the bank,

Marjorie and Ken
had a pair of binoculars

and was watching
the bank robbery happen.

[sirens blaring]

So we had Ken Barnes,

who admitted
to his involvement in the crime.

Now we need
to talk to Marjorie.

[Clark] We picked Marjorie
up in the jail,

and said, "Marge,
we're gonna go take a ride.

I want to show you
some of the sites for the pizza bomber."

She'd say, "Sure."

[Gluth] I'm driving the car.

Her personal attorney
leans up, and he says,

"You know, Dave,
Marjorie sort of likes you."

I turn around and I says,
"Marge, no disrespect,

but it seems to me,

guys you take a liking to
don't last very long."

Well, she starts
this manic laugh,

and I can
still remember her hands,

for a woman,
she had incredibly big hands,

she's slapping
her leg laughing,

sort of send chills
down your back.

So we go out
and we start a drive-around,

and we're going through
where she was.

She'd say, "Oh, yeah, I was where the
call was made, ordering the pizzas at 1:30,

but I don't know
why I was there.

Bill wanted me to be there."

And, "Oh, yeah,
I was across the street from the bank

when it was getting robbed,

sitting with
Ken Barnes watching,

but I didn't know why
I was there."

Her whole goal
was to convince us

that even though
she was at multiple sites

involved in
the Pizza Bomber case,

that she was only there
because Bill Rothstein directed her to be there,

and that she had no idea
why she was there.

So that didn't make sense
to anybody.

[Wahlberg] Diehl-Armstrong
puts herself at the crime scene,

but never confesses.

However, there is someone who's heard
the entire story in the Man Eater's own words.

Marjorie started
telling me stuff.

And she would shift gears
from one subject to another subject.

We talked
about the Pizza Bomber case.

They needed a patsy.

That was Wells.

Marjorie opening up
to her cellmate, Kelly,

after denying all of this
for years and years was strange.

Was there some sort
of secondary gain that Marjorie got

from sharing this information
with Kelly?

Could it have helped her case
in any way?

She knew I knew
how cops did things,

and I could help her
get out of it.

So I got to write it down,
you know.

And little by little,
like peeling back an onion, I got to the truth.

Wells was, in their mind,

simple-minded
and easy to control.

She's like,
"We sat him down in a chair,

in the kitchen,
Rothstein's house,

and we measured his neck
for the collar."

And then
she burst out laughing.

I really was trying
to help her get out of it.

In the beginning, I really-
She was my friend.

And then when I realized,

if she gets out,
she's gonna kill again.

And I couldn't
let that happen.

[Wahlberg] In the fall
of 2010,

seven years
after the bank robbery,

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
is once again found fit to stand trial.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
was the star of her own trial.

Whenever she came
into that courtroom,

you could feel kind of the crackle
in the air just by her being there.

When the jury
went out of the box,

and the judge left the bench,

she'd swing that chair around
and she'd look right at me, and she'd go,

"Jerry Clark,
you're a dumbass."

[Sughrue] In Marjorie's case,

she had always said
that she was going to testify,

and there's just no reason
to fight it.

When I was taking her
through her direct testimony,

she got more angry with me
than she did the prosecutors.

The theme and theory
of our defense was that

she was forced to do
what Bill Rothstein wanted her to do.

Otherwise,
maybe Bill Rothstein

would turn her in
on the dead body case.

Which, by the way, he did do.

The worst piece of evidence
for Marjorie

was Marjorie's statements
to other people.

There is nothing
that's more persuasive

than someone's own words
being used against them,

and to a large extent,

we could try to show
that what the inmate testified to

was in the newspapers
somewhat, but not all of it.

Had she stayed silent,

had she not trusted
those people with certain facts,

the case would have been
much harder to prove.

She had to talk.

She had to have that.
She had to look important.

She had to look involved.

[Diehl-Armstrong laughing]

[Wahlberg]
On November 1st, 2010,

after three weeks of testimony
from more than 50 witnesses,

the jury reaches a verdict.

[Sughrue] She was found guilty of the
crime of conspiracy to commit bank robbery,

bank robbery, and use
of a destructive device

and furtherance
of a crime of violence.

[Palattella] When
Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong heard the verdict,

there wasn't wailing
in the courtroom or anything like that.

It was almost as if
it was a foregone conclusion

and she was prepared for it.

If society looks and wonders,
"Was Marjorie regretful?"

The answer would be no.

With the mixture
of personality disorders

and mental illness
that Marjorie had,

it was impossible
for her brain

to view herself
as anything other than a victim.

Marjorie sentenced
to life imprisonment,

plus an additional 30 years

for using
a destructive device.

So she was never
getting out of jail.

Brian Wells, by all means,
was a very average guy.

And the fact
that they tricked him and duped him

into doing something like this
was just sinful.

Whether or not
he participated, and-

That didn't matter to me.

He was killed
in a very, very nasty way.

[Palattella] Why she was
so violent,

why she carried out
these things,

you can't discount
her mental illness.

What's the link
between mental illness and murder?

In Marjorie's case,

these murders
are consistent with her personality disorders.

You know,
most of us have empathy.

We don't want to hurt people.

She's free
from those restraints.

She just did not care
one ounce

what other people were feeling

or how bad
she was making people feel.

[gunshots]

But we also have to consider

that even people
with severe mental illnesses

can commit crimes

for the reasons
that everyone else commits crimes,

because they're angry
at people,

because they need money
or something, right?

So the mental illness
may play no role at all whatsoever in the crime.

[gunshot]

I fully believe
that Marjorie's "Why?" in this case,

is greed.

That's why she was looking
to kill her father.

The money that he had, right,

she just couldn't
get enough money.

[Palattella]
She would use people to meet her own ends,

and then when
when she didn't have any need for them anymore,

she would just discard them
or kill them.

[Wahlberg] Seven years
into her sentence,

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong
dies of cancer at the age of 68.

[Makela] When I heard
she passed on the news, I felt bad.

She was my friend at one time.

But, you know,
she chose that life.

She chose those roads.

She knew she was doing wrong.

She just thought
she'd get away with it.

[Cook] She was
a brilliant woman.

But there was that fine line
between brilliance and sanity

that she was bouncing
back and forth over.

[Clark] I hate to say evil
about anybody,

because God created us all,

but some people have evil mind
and evil intent,

and she certainly had it.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

was a brilliant
and talented woman,

but her evil impulses
drove her to commit crimes

of unimaginable darkness.

Her malice, mixed with greed,

fueled a lifetime
of gruesome violence,

culminating in one
of the most shocking crimes in our history.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

Next time on
Very Scary People...

[boxing bell dings]

Thomas liked to hurt people.

I told Lisa he's going to
kill you.

She was dead in her bedroom
with her child.

This dude is just evil.

??

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