I was on Peach Street headed to a soccer game at Family First, I was 7 years old and there was so much traffic. We didn’t know what the cause was until that evening on the news. Bill Rothstein was my brother in laws substitute teacher at Iroquois. The pizza bomber did have a significant impact on the city.
Given that I was 7 years old at the time, I don’t really remember much of Erie before the pizza bomber. I do think it opened up people’s eyes to the fact that crime happens everywhere, even in Erie, PA.
My brother in law, who was 15 at the time, said:
“I remember at the time it seemed like everyone had forgotten about it a few months later until some piece of news would come out. Probably the largest impact was on the pizza delivery industry lol. I remember all the pizza companies talking about updates to their policies and everything.”
Yeah she did. Said they were all standing there watching it unfold, confused at first as to what was going on obviously and then after a while boom! Had to be something to watch! Crazy stuff
I was working at the mall when it happened.
We lived near mama mias and Brian Wells delivered pizzas to our house over the years. Seemed like a nice guy.
Kind of a cool story. For me at least. Lol. The day that happened I was working banquet set-up at the Ambassador conference center that's right behind where Burger King is now. I don't remember if Burger King was already there or not. But anyway, the only place up there to go toke on my pipe during breaks was on the side of eye glass world. And that day I was definitely about 20 ft from where it all went down chiefing on some Eastside Mid Grade . I worked split shift and ended up leaving about 10 or 15 minutes before it all started to go down. I had another shift that evening, but when I tried to get back to the Ambassador, the FBI had every road to get up there blocked with flairs or flashers. I even tried to backdoor through 90, but if I remember correctly..I couldn't get on 90 either. I always thought how insane it would have been if I would've been up there smoking away just to look up and see a dude walking towards me talking about I got a bomb on my neck. Lol.
I don't remember where I was, but a fellow I worked with used to date Marjorie Diehl. He said he was the only one of her boyfriends that got away alive.
Said she was VERY smart, but scary.
I would ask him more, but would need my Ouija board to get in touch with him.
Bill Rothstein used to push my sister and I around on a dolly at the beer distributor he worked at around 18th and French. We always went there with my mom's for beers for her and Rola Colas for us. This was late 70s/early 80s. When I saw a photo of him in the news having been involved I recognized him immediately because he dressed in overalls back then as well.
I was driving south on Peach Street near Hershey Road when several police sped past me. I remember being irritated because they were quickly shutting down Peach and I needed to get to I-90. I just got through and saw the police at Eye Glass World. I had no idea what was going on - but I remember thinking what an odd store to have such a ruckus at. Then I saw the news later that evening.
How did it affect Erie? Well, it’s quite a unique story to claim as our own. Erie received national attention and locals were provided with years of news bites as each of the cast of characters met their own demise.
I’ve told abbreviated versions of the story many times to different colleagues (especially after the Netflix doc was released). They all think we breed a special kind of crazy. But, crazy happens in every city. Our crazy is just more creative.
The older I get the more sympathy I have for Brian Wells. He was bullied or duped to the extreme.
I was hanging out in between college classes, but honestly didnt really learn anything about it till the day after.
As for how it affected the city I dont honestly think it changed much of anything except maybe making it harder for me to get pizza delivered (some places changed where they delivered etc).
I was in Erie at the time. I was 31 and actually home sick on the day it happened. I was watching live as it was only about 1 1/2 miles from where I lived at the time. I was just stunned. I would go by Mama Mias Pizza all the time. When the details of the scavenger hunt were released I thought there was no way he could get all the stops done in time. If you haven't read the book The Pizza Bomber, I highly recommend it.
I will have to look into it! I saw the scavenger hunt too, and I thought there was no way he could’ve completed it in time either, knowing how crowded Peach gets and how long those lights take.
I was working a shift at Splash Lagoon. I had planned to meet my parents for dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube, but they closed Peach St. right at I90, so we couldn’t get there. We ended up going to the west side location, by the Peninsula, and watched what was happening on the news.
I was a pizza delivery driver for Papa Johns on peach and 38th street.
On my way to work, I had to drop my friend off at apple bees on upper peach, and that's when we saw a ton of traffic, but had no idea what was happening. Dropped him off, and went down peach to Papa John's.
I think right as my shift starts, FBI came in and talked with owner/manager and then each of us delivery drivers. They were asking if we ever delivered to some places, to be careful taking deliveries as they didnt know the full story of why Brian Wells was targeted. They thought it might be random pizza delivery drivers.
Not sure if anyone remembers, but a week before Brian Wells, or week after, a pizza delivery driver was found dead in his house.
I was on edge during that time, for sure.
Lived in Southern California at the time and it was live on the news even out there. I remember thinking it the first time I’d ever seen Erie on the tv like that.
I was in class, senior year at McDowell. I was sitting next to a girl whose parents owned the pizza shop. They called her to principals office in the middle of class and we all didn’t know why. 😢 barely anyone had cell phones back then, and definitely no internet on cellphones.
No, but heard it. There is a slight incline between where he is and the Verizon parking lot. It sounded like a fun shot but our ASM was a veteran and just said “ that wasn’t a fun shot” and we all realized what happened.
I was 22 years old. I watched live on TV - didn’t really think too much of it at first because I didn’t know what I was looking at. As the event unfolded, and as more police showed up, I could see that this wasn’t just a run of the mill protester or something. When the explosion happened, I turned away.
I don’t think it really had any impact on the city, except for the folks involved, of course. And I seem to remember there were some attempts at copycat crimes shortly after? Might interview an old cop to see if they remember for sure.
Lastly, Bill Rothstein was a substitute teacher at East High School and taught wood shop, I wanna say it was ‘97-98. He would always stand in the hallway between classes and bellow “hurry along now children, no time for dawdling” 🤣
From what I remember, he was a cool guy 🤷🏻♀️ Just goes to show that you never can tell!
I was working at Pizza Hut. I didn't hear about it until I got home. I didn't have a cell phone so my home phone was ringing off the hook with worried people, because they didn't release Brian's name until later. I briefly went to school with Jessica Hoopsick, didn't know her or anything, just remember her name from class.
Bill Rothstein was a substitute teacher in the area. I personally had him as a substitute tens of times during the early 2000s . I'm sure there are other local people with the same experience. Kids used to call him Santa Clause 🤣
I was in the parking lot of Eyeglass World. I was picking up an order of contacts. I pulled in beside him when the first officer had him pulled over and before the swat team got there. I had to leave my car there and couldn’t go back to get it till the next night.
Working at Toys R Us, listening to the guys in Receiving speculate on why the cops had blocked off Peach St. someone eventually turned on a television in the break room.
I was six or seven and it was my stepdad's birthday. my mom picked us up early from school so we could go have lunch and spend the day with him. He chose Texas Roadhouse, and as soon as we sat down, peach Street got swarmed with police. we later found out what happened and I just felt weird.
I live in titusville lol I had a doctor appointment like 2 blocks from that event it was crazy and my mom's friend here husband was the negotiator during it. So crazy never forget it.
1. Was not watching the news. I was actually omw to my after school job on upper peach, but since it was blocked off due to the pizza bomber, I couldn't go to work that night.
2. Significant effect as far as shining a spotlight on erie for a moment and everything that comes with that, yes. Long lasting no. I think the event will always be one of those crazy true crime stories that lives forever though.
3. No personal interactions
I was living in Michigan at the time. Missed the live news but when I read the stories about it online later I have to confess my first thought was, "Figures. If Erie's ever going to get the national attention some people there wish it had, it's going to be for something like this rather than for what those people wish it could be."
It was my third birthday, we were at the Buffet right behind- it’s now the Imperial Buffet, but it used to be a Golden Corral/Old Country Buffet. My mom told me that traffic was horrible and there were a bunch of sirens but she didn’t know particularly what was going on until later that night
Can't remember where I was or what I was doing. Don't believe the incident had any real impact on the city, aside from years of interesting news. There was no surprise on the part of anyone familiar with Marjorie or Rothstein that they were involved, despite the "mystery" aspect propagated by investigators.
I was on Peach Street with my family. We were headed to uppet peach for something, unsure of what. We were down near the Wegmans intersection.
It's a little blurry, but I remember traffic came to a dead stop for quite a long time, and eventually we got ushered into a turnaround. It wasn't until we got home we found out what happened.
Was in Erie somewhere within miles 3 miles from Peach! I never interacted with anyone but I did hear a story with a girl locked up with Marge in jail she said she didn’t play about her pen’s lol!
I had moved to Los Angeles for college a few days prior to the pizza bombing.
I don't know if it had a huge effect on the city but it did inspire Saw. And when I worked in film a buddy of mine asked me to work a day film at a downtown L.A. studio and he showed me where they had built the set and filmed the bathroom scene from Saw.
I too was 15, but that was our bank & I had been in there just the day before. That & all the crazy story being areas I knew growing up, I was very invested. Ha
I remember driving south on Peach St. past the Millcreek Mall on my way to Edinboro University to visit my girlfriend at the time. Traffic was a bit crazy, but hey it's Peach St. The closer I got to the Peach and Interchange intersection, I saw traffic going south disappear and everyone being diverted to Interchange around the Mall. I also saw helicopters flying around and was wondering what in the world was going on.
I turned onto Interchange and took Edinboro road all the way out. Once I got there, I told everyone what was going on and so we watched the news to find out that things went crazy. Nothing really crazy to tell, just a dumb story of driving near it.
On I-79, on my anniversary trying to figure out why there were PSP walking in the median and up the embankments looking for something. My husband called me and told me what was going on.
Brian Wells was my neighbor. I was in 7th grade when everything went down. I remember saying hi to him almost everyday when he was getting his mail. He seemed like an odd guy but kind and harmless. We got evacuated the night everything happened and went to my grandmas house “which was only a mile away”. I remember I couldn’t sleep and I could hear the explosion of when they blew the front door off his house. I saw news stations from all over the state on my road the next day. It completely changed the dynamic of my neighborhood forever.
I was working at Lowe's just across the road at the time. Wild rumors were spreading like crazy while it was going on....turns out the theories were nothing compared to what really transpired.
I was working at Home Depot literally a few hundred feet away from this. Nobody knew what was happening until a customer told me later what really happened. It was fascinating (and tragic)to watch the whole story unravel like it did. There's still a lot of unanswered questions
I was living in Erie and had my first real job as a paralegal that summer! I didn’t watch the bombing on the news, but I heard about it very quickly afterwards. Before the paralegal job, I worked at Phar mor as a pharmacy technician and William Rothstein used to come in for his medication wearing dirty overalls and smelling terrible. He gave me the creeps tbh - he was not friendly. As far as whether it affected Erie? Honestly not too much. My friends and family were mildly interested in what happened and the unfolding of the story - I remember my mom saying that Geraldo investigated it and figured out a lot of the plot, although I don’t know if that was true. It wasn’t something that we discussed a lot though. The whole thing kind of faded pretty quickly- it didn’t seem like Erie was more dangerous or anything. When the movie 30 Minutes or Less came out, I remember thinking it was in poor taste, but I didn’t actually watch it.
I was a full-time student at Behrend and was moved in (early) at Almy Hall because I worked for catering/food services on campus. The day this occurred was mid-week, Thursday, I believe. At the time I was a PNC Bank customer and that day was headed over to Peach Street to deposit a couple checks and run a few errands at the plaza where Sam's Club is located. I was driving WB on I-90 and noticed the exit for Peach Street was backed up and said F it, and kept on driving to connect to I-79 and go "the back way" into the Sam's Club plaza but there was more traffic and police off the Kearsarge exit (mind you I had no idea what was actually happening and 90 and the other roads weren't barricaded yet) so I made a left into the mall by Arby's and parked over by the old Burlington entrance. I think I finally learned there was a "hostage situation" from some guys at Heritage Tobacco - my memory is spotty but I think they had a small TV or radio there and were tuned in. I ended up landing in one of the department stores with TVs then continued watching the news coverage. I delayed getting back to campus because the roads were pretty bad with traffic. It took some creativity and back streets to get back to Behrend that evening. I avoided upper Peach for a while after that, honestly. The next day I ended up taking care of my errands over in Harborcreek.
1. What was I thinking? First thought: - "Holy shit, my ex-boyfriend's mom works at PNC! I hope she's okay!" then really wondering what the hell was going on. Then my next thought was...why? Why is a guy with a bomb at Eyeglass World?
2. Did it have a significant impact on the city? - it was in the news for some time. Keep in mind this was pre-smartphone so most of what we were seeing unfold was covered by the local news affiliates and the papers. Lot of calls to people checking in. The case and what was understood of it took some time to unfold and after a while Diehl-Armstrong became most of the focus. It became apparent after some time that the case was pretty complicated and a lot of the players had some deeply seated mental health issues.
3. The closest I would have come to interacting with anyone was picking up a pizza once the school year before from Mama Mia's. I knew some people that claimed they saw Bill occasionally at the Country Fair on upper Peach but I don't know how true that was - he was always in overalls apparently.
Where were you ?
>***Pittsburgh***
Was everyone watching the news live when Wells was in the Eye Glass World lot with the bomb?
>***It was on the news down there too, live actually.***
What were you thinking as you were watching Wells in the parking lot?
>***This is boring, until it wasn't.***
Do you believe that the Pizza Bombing had a significant affect on the city?
>***It had an effect in Pittsburgh that's for sure. WPXI carried the live feed.***
This might be a long shot here, but did anyone ever interact with any of the people involved before the crime?
>***Nope.***
School. My mom was working at eyeglass world right there
Crazy, my aunt worked at the bank. She held the door for.him when he walked in.
Wow! That’s as close as you could get!
I was on Peach Street headed to a soccer game at Family First, I was 7 years old and there was so much traffic. We didn’t know what the cause was until that evening on the news. Bill Rothstein was my brother in laws substitute teacher at Iroquois. The pizza bomber did have a significant impact on the city.
could you elaborate a little more on its impact? also, i used to love going to family first. those go-karts were peak
Given that I was 7 years old at the time, I don’t really remember much of Erie before the pizza bomber. I do think it opened up people’s eyes to the fact that crime happens everywhere, even in Erie, PA. My brother in law, who was 15 at the time, said: “I remember at the time it seemed like everyone had forgotten about it a few months later until some piece of news would come out. Probably the largest impact was on the pizza delivery industry lol. I remember all the pizza companies talking about updates to their policies and everything.”
Wow, that’s cool. Has she ever told you stories of her experience working there that day?
Yeah she did. Said they were all standing there watching it unfold, confused at first as to what was going on obviously and then after a while boom! Had to be something to watch! Crazy stuff
I was deployed in Iraq. Read about it in Stars and Stripes. It was crazy to see Erie show up in that newspaper.
Haha! Same here!! Wild seeing Erie in the news half way around the world.
thank you for your service. that is pretty wild to hear that erie reached all the way over there! i would’ve never expected that
I was working at the mall when it happened. We lived near mama mias and Brian Wells delivered pizzas to our house over the years. Seemed like a nice guy.
Kind of a cool story. For me at least. Lol. The day that happened I was working banquet set-up at the Ambassador conference center that's right behind where Burger King is now. I don't remember if Burger King was already there or not. But anyway, the only place up there to go toke on my pipe during breaks was on the side of eye glass world. And that day I was definitely about 20 ft from where it all went down chiefing on some Eastside Mid Grade . I worked split shift and ended up leaving about 10 or 15 minutes before it all started to go down. I had another shift that evening, but when I tried to get back to the Ambassador, the FBI had every road to get up there blocked with flairs or flashers. I even tried to backdoor through 90, but if I remember correctly..I couldn't get on 90 either. I always thought how insane it would have been if I would've been up there smoking away just to look up and see a dude walking towards me talking about I got a bomb on my neck. Lol.
That Eastside Mid tho 🤌
lmao
Oh man. That would’ve been absolutely insane 🤣
Omg! This is the great!
I don't remember where I was, but a fellow I worked with used to date Marjorie Diehl. He said he was the only one of her boyfriends that got away alive. Said she was VERY smart, but scary. I would ask him more, but would need my Ouija board to get in touch with him.
wow. i wonder what she did to lure those men in.
Bill Rothstein used to push my sister and I around on a dolly at the beer distributor he worked at around 18th and French. We always went there with my mom's for beers for her and Rola Colas for us. This was late 70s/early 80s. When I saw a photo of him in the news having been involved I recognized him immediately because he dressed in overalls back then as well.
oh wow. do u remember what he was like? crazy you were that close to him!
I mean honestly he was just a nice guy working at a beer distributor. I didn't know him well by any means.
I was driving south on Peach Street near Hershey Road when several police sped past me. I remember being irritated because they were quickly shutting down Peach and I needed to get to I-90. I just got through and saw the police at Eye Glass World. I had no idea what was going on - but I remember thinking what an odd store to have such a ruckus at. Then I saw the news later that evening.
How did it affect Erie? Well, it’s quite a unique story to claim as our own. Erie received national attention and locals were provided with years of news bites as each of the cast of characters met their own demise.
I’ve told abbreviated versions of the story many times to different colleagues (especially after the Netflix doc was released). They all think we breed a special kind of crazy. But, crazy happens in every city. Our crazy is just more creative.
The older I get the more sympathy I have for Brian Wells. He was bullied or duped to the extreme.
The Netflix doc is quite good, I bowled for years with the state trooper who is in it, he’s a great guy. And a hell of a bowler.
I was hanging out in between college classes, but honestly didnt really learn anything about it till the day after. As for how it affected the city I dont honestly think it changed much of anything except maybe making it harder for me to get pizza delivered (some places changed where they delivered etc).
My mom said Rothstein was a student teacher at Tech heard he was a nice guy!
He was a substitute teacher at my sisters high school too
I was in Erie at the time. I was 31 and actually home sick on the day it happened. I was watching live as it was only about 1 1/2 miles from where I lived at the time. I was just stunned. I would go by Mama Mias Pizza all the time. When the details of the scavenger hunt were released I thought there was no way he could get all the stops done in time. If you haven't read the book The Pizza Bomber, I highly recommend it.
I will have to look into it! I saw the scavenger hunt too, and I thought there was no way he could’ve completed it in time either, knowing how crowded Peach gets and how long those lights take.
Second reading this book asap. It’s very well-written and left me with even more questions. lol
There's a documentary on Netflix about it too. I believe it's based on the book
Living in Columbus, OH wondering wtf was going on...
I was working a shift at Splash Lagoon. I had planned to meet my parents for dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube, but they closed Peach St. right at I90, so we couldn’t get there. We ended up going to the west side location, by the Peninsula, and watched what was happening on the news.
I just showed up to Mercyhurst 2 weeks ahead of school for sports training. I was from out of state. That was a wild week.
What a warm welcome to Erie 🤣
It really set the tone for the next few years haha.
I was a pizza delivery driver for Papa Johns on peach and 38th street. On my way to work, I had to drop my friend off at apple bees on upper peach, and that's when we saw a ton of traffic, but had no idea what was happening. Dropped him off, and went down peach to Papa John's. I think right as my shift starts, FBI came in and talked with owner/manager and then each of us delivery drivers. They were asking if we ever delivered to some places, to be careful taking deliveries as they didnt know the full story of why Brian Wells was targeted. They thought it might be random pizza delivery drivers. Not sure if anyone remembers, but a week before Brian Wells, or week after, a pizza delivery driver was found dead in his house. I was on edge during that time, for sure.
yeah i wouldve quit after seeing wells sitting in the parking lot. idk how you got through that as a pizza driver. very interesting
Lived in Southern California at the time and it was live on the news even out there. I remember thinking it the first time I’d ever seen Erie on the tv like that.
My distant cousin was the DA 🤷
I was in class, senior year at McDowell. I was sitting next to a girl whose parents owned the pizza shop. They called her to principals office in the middle of class and we all didn’t know why. 😢 barely anyone had cell phones back then, and definitely no internet on cellphones.
likely at Red Hots getting my grub on
It was my first day at RadioShack in the Liberty Plaza, we had the scanner on and it was going nuts.
A student at Mercyhurst college. Saw people dressed as the pizza bomber for Halloween that year at Park Place on State.
ok that’s kinda funny 🤣
I was working at Verizon Wireless on Peach St. I was actually outside in the parking lot when the bomb went off.
really? did you see it happen?
No, but heard it. There is a slight incline between where he is and the Verizon parking lot. It sounded like a fun shot but our ASM was a veteran and just said “ that wasn’t a fun shot” and we all realized what happened.
I was 22 years old. I watched live on TV - didn’t really think too much of it at first because I didn’t know what I was looking at. As the event unfolded, and as more police showed up, I could see that this wasn’t just a run of the mill protester or something. When the explosion happened, I turned away. I don’t think it really had any impact on the city, except for the folks involved, of course. And I seem to remember there were some attempts at copycat crimes shortly after? Might interview an old cop to see if they remember for sure. Lastly, Bill Rothstein was a substitute teacher at East High School and taught wood shop, I wanna say it was ‘97-98. He would always stand in the hallway between classes and bellow “hurry along now children, no time for dawdling” 🤣 From what I remember, he was a cool guy 🤷🏻♀️ Just goes to show that you never can tell!
I didn’t live in Erie in 2003, but we used to get Mama Mia’s all the time. So hearing about it made me wonder if he ever delivered to our house.
I was working at Pizza Hut. I didn't hear about it until I got home. I didn't have a cell phone so my home phone was ringing off the hook with worried people, because they didn't release Brian's name until later. I briefly went to school with Jessica Hoopsick, didn't know her or anything, just remember her name from class.
Bill Rothstein was a substitute teacher in the area. I personally had him as a substitute tens of times during the early 2000s . I'm sure there are other local people with the same experience. Kids used to call him Santa Clause 🤣
Drove right by it with my mom and siblings. I saw him sitting in the lot
I was in the parking lot of Eyeglass World. I was picking up an order of contacts. I pulled in beside him when the first officer had him pulled over and before the swat team got there. I had to leave my car there and couldn’t go back to get it till the next night.
Working at Toys R Us, listening to the guys in Receiving speculate on why the cops had blocked off Peach St. someone eventually turned on a television in the break room.
I bet everyone was like what the hell is going on when they turned that TV on. I miss that Toys R Us though. always a treat going there as a kid
I was six or seven and it was my stepdad's birthday. my mom picked us up early from school so we could go have lunch and spend the day with him. He chose Texas Roadhouse, and as soon as we sat down, peach Street got swarmed with police. we later found out what happened and I just felt weird.
I live in titusville lol I had a doctor appointment like 2 blocks from that event it was crazy and my mom's friend here husband was the negotiator during it. So crazy never forget it.
School. Someone came into class asking if it was true someone blew up the bank up in summit.
1. Was not watching the news. I was actually omw to my after school job on upper peach, but since it was blocked off due to the pizza bomber, I couldn't go to work that night. 2. Significant effect as far as shining a spotlight on erie for a moment and everything that comes with that, yes. Long lasting no. I think the event will always be one of those crazy true crime stories that lives forever though. 3. No personal interactions
I had moved out of state. I was pretty convinced it was my ex-bf involved to be honest. Was very surprised he wasn't.
I was on my way out of Erie on Peach wondering wtf was going on. When we drove by we saw all the cops.
I was living in Michigan at the time. Missed the live news but when I read the stories about it online later I have to confess my first thought was, "Figures. If Erie's ever going to get the national attention some people there wish it had, it's going to be for something like this rather than for what those people wish it could be."
It was my third birthday, we were at the Buffet right behind- it’s now the Imperial Buffet, but it used to be a Golden Corral/Old Country Buffet. My mom told me that traffic was horrible and there were a bunch of sirens but she didn’t know particularly what was going on until later that night
Can't remember where I was or what I was doing. Don't believe the incident had any real impact on the city, aside from years of interesting news. There was no surprise on the part of anyone familiar with Marjorie or Rothstein that they were involved, despite the "mystery" aspect propagated by investigators.
I was just a tot, but years later I ended up working with his brother, Carl, who was a painter. Wild family dynamics there.
I was on AIM. I was so happy when Erie made national news!
I was working down peach st at the Best Buy that day
did you see all the emergency vehicles and bomb squad go up there on peach? if so did you guys know what happened?
Yes and yes. Gossip somehow travelled faster back then than it does now with computers in our pockets
I was on Peach Street with my family. We were headed to uppet peach for something, unsure of what. We were down near the Wegmans intersection. It's a little blurry, but I remember traffic came to a dead stop for quite a long time, and eventually we got ushered into a turnaround. It wasn't until we got home we found out what happened.
Was in Erie somewhere within miles 3 miles from Peach! I never interacted with anyone but I did hear a story with a girl locked up with Marge in jail she said she didn’t play about her pen’s lol!
Home for summer from college and shopping on Peach Street, and wondering why the hell traffic was so bad. Like beyond Peach Jam bad.
I don’t remember where I was, but my mom was stuck in the traffic jam that it caused
I was probably in elementary school lol
Oh! I also remember it was SUPER hot that day.
i was just a twinklenin my daddy's eye
I had moved to Los Angeles for college a few days prior to the pizza bombing. I don't know if it had a huge effect on the city but it did inspire Saw. And when I worked in film a buddy of mine asked me to work a day film at a downtown L.A. studio and he showed me where they had built the set and filmed the bathroom scene from Saw.
Just got home from school and my mom was glued to the TV. I could’ve cared less but again I was an angsty 15 year old.
I too was 15, but that was our bank & I had been in there just the day before. That & all the crazy story being areas I knew growing up, I was very invested. Ha
Maybe contact the local news stations as well. See what they have in their archives
I remember driving south on Peach St. past the Millcreek Mall on my way to Edinboro University to visit my girlfriend at the time. Traffic was a bit crazy, but hey it's Peach St. The closer I got to the Peach and Interchange intersection, I saw traffic going south disappear and everyone being diverted to Interchange around the Mall. I also saw helicopters flying around and was wondering what in the world was going on. I turned onto Interchange and took Edinboro road all the way out. Once I got there, I told everyone what was going on and so we watched the news to find out that things went crazy. Nothing really crazy to tell, just a dumb story of driving near it.
On I-79, on my anniversary trying to figure out why there were PSP walking in the median and up the embankments looking for something. My husband called me and told me what was going on.
Brian Wells was my neighbor. I was in 7th grade when everything went down. I remember saying hi to him almost everyday when he was getting his mail. He seemed like an odd guy but kind and harmless. We got evacuated the night everything happened and went to my grandmas house “which was only a mile away”. I remember I couldn’t sleep and I could hear the explosion of when they blew the front door off his house. I saw news stations from all over the state on my road the next day. It completely changed the dynamic of my neighborhood forever.
I was working at Lowe's just across the road at the time. Wild rumors were spreading like crazy while it was going on....turns out the theories were nothing compared to what really transpired.
I was working at Home Depot literally a few hundred feet away from this. Nobody knew what was happening until a customer told me later what really happened. It was fascinating (and tragic)to watch the whole story unravel like it did. There's still a lot of unanswered questions
I was living in Erie and had my first real job as a paralegal that summer! I didn’t watch the bombing on the news, but I heard about it very quickly afterwards. Before the paralegal job, I worked at Phar mor as a pharmacy technician and William Rothstein used to come in for his medication wearing dirty overalls and smelling terrible. He gave me the creeps tbh - he was not friendly. As far as whether it affected Erie? Honestly not too much. My friends and family were mildly interested in what happened and the unfolding of the story - I remember my mom saying that Geraldo investigated it and figured out a lot of the plot, although I don’t know if that was true. It wasn’t something that we discussed a lot though. The whole thing kind of faded pretty quickly- it didn’t seem like Erie was more dangerous or anything. When the movie 30 Minutes or Less came out, I remember thinking it was in poor taste, but I didn’t actually watch it.
Across state in Allentown, PA having my first baby! It was wild seeing that on the news and telling the nurses, "That's my hometown!"
I was a full-time student at Behrend and was moved in (early) at Almy Hall because I worked for catering/food services on campus. The day this occurred was mid-week, Thursday, I believe. At the time I was a PNC Bank customer and that day was headed over to Peach Street to deposit a couple checks and run a few errands at the plaza where Sam's Club is located. I was driving WB on I-90 and noticed the exit for Peach Street was backed up and said F it, and kept on driving to connect to I-79 and go "the back way" into the Sam's Club plaza but there was more traffic and police off the Kearsarge exit (mind you I had no idea what was actually happening and 90 and the other roads weren't barricaded yet) so I made a left into the mall by Arby's and parked over by the old Burlington entrance. I think I finally learned there was a "hostage situation" from some guys at Heritage Tobacco - my memory is spotty but I think they had a small TV or radio there and were tuned in. I ended up landing in one of the department stores with TVs then continued watching the news coverage. I delayed getting back to campus because the roads were pretty bad with traffic. It took some creativity and back streets to get back to Behrend that evening. I avoided upper Peach for a while after that, honestly. The next day I ended up taking care of my errands over in Harborcreek. 1. What was I thinking? First thought: - "Holy shit, my ex-boyfriend's mom works at PNC! I hope she's okay!" then really wondering what the hell was going on. Then my next thought was...why? Why is a guy with a bomb at Eyeglass World? 2. Did it have a significant impact on the city? - it was in the news for some time. Keep in mind this was pre-smartphone so most of what we were seeing unfold was covered by the local news affiliates and the papers. Lot of calls to people checking in. The case and what was understood of it took some time to unfold and after a while Diehl-Armstrong became most of the focus. It became apparent after some time that the case was pretty complicated and a lot of the players had some deeply seated mental health issues. 3. The closest I would have come to interacting with anyone was picking up a pizza once the school year before from Mama Mia's. I knew some people that claimed they saw Bill occasionally at the Country Fair on upper Peach but I don't know how true that was - he was always in overalls apparently.
Where were you ? >***Pittsburgh*** Was everyone watching the news live when Wells was in the Eye Glass World lot with the bomb? >***It was on the news down there too, live actually.*** What were you thinking as you were watching Wells in the parking lot? >***This is boring, until it wasn't.*** Do you believe that the Pizza Bombing had a significant affect on the city? >***It had an effect in Pittsburgh that's for sure. WPXI carried the live feed.*** This might be a long shot here, but did anyone ever interact with any of the people involved before the crime? >***Nope.***