Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong was a notorious criminal who was involved in three murders, including the infamous pizza bomber case of 2003. She died in 2017 of natural causes, while serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Texas. She had been suffering from breast cancer, which she refused to treat, and bipolar disorder, which made her violent and manipulative.
The Pizza Bomber Case
The pizza bomber case was a bizarre bank robbery that occurred on August 28, 2003, in Erie, Pennsylvania. A pizza deliveryman, Brian Wells, was forced to wear a collar bomb and rob a bank, under the threat that the bomb would explode if he did not comply. Wells was stopped by the police after the robbery, and the bomb detonated, killing him.
The investigation revealed that Wells was part of a complex plot orchestrated by Diehl-Armstrong and her associates, Kenneth Barnes, William Rothstein, and Floyd Stockton. The motive was to get money to hire a hitman to kill Diehl-Armstrong’s father, whom she believed had a large inheritance for her. Diehl-Armstrong was also the mastermind behind the murder of her boyfriend, James Roden, whom she shot and stuffed in a freezer to keep him quiet about the plan.
Diehl-Armstrong was convicted of conspiracy and armed bank robbery resulting in death in 2010, and sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. She maintained her innocence until the end, and filed several appeals, which were all denied.
The Other Murders
The pizza bomber case was not the first time Diehl-Armstrong killed someone. She had a history of violence and mental illness, dating back to her early 20s. She was a musical prodigy and a highly intelligent student, but she developed bipolar disorder, which made her paranoid, narcissistic, and unstable.
In 1984, she shot and killed her boyfriend, Robert Thomas, in their living room. She claimed self-defense, saying that Thomas had abused her. She was acquitted in 1988, after a sensational trial that drew national attention.
In 2003, shortly before the pizza bomber case, she killed another boyfriend, James Roden, whom she had been dating for 10 years. She shot him in the head with a shotgun, and hid his body in a freezer in the garage of her ex-boyfriend, William Rothstein. She later confessed to the murder, and pleaded guilty but mentally ill. She was sentenced to seven to 20 years in prison.
The Final Years
Diehl-Armstrong spent the last years of her life in the Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Texas, a prison for female inmates with medical and mental health issues. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she refused to undergo chemotherapy or any other treatment. She also refused to eat, take medications, or cooperate with the staff. She died in hospice care on April 4, 2017, at the age of 68. She was pronounced dead of natural causes, but the exact cause of death was not disclosed.
Diehl-Armstrong was a unique and deadly criminal, who left behind a trail of blood and mystery. She was the subject of several books, documentaries, and podcasts, that tried to unravel the twisted mind and motives of the woman behind the pizza bomber case. She was also one of the most infamous criminals in Erie history, and a notorious example of the dangers of untreated mental illness.
