Jessica Hoopsick is the Erie, Pennsylvania, woman who confessed in the 2018 Netflix documentary Evil Genius that she helped set up pizza delivery driver Brian Wells for the bizarre 2003 collar-bomb bank robbery that killed him. A sex worker and crack cocaine user who had been one of Wells’ regular customers for years, Hoopsick said she identified him to the plotters as an easy mark, passed along his work schedule, and introduced him to the people who would strap a live bomb to his neck. The FBI agents who worked the case don’t believe her account that Wells was entirely innocent, and no agency has charged her.
How She Knew Brian Wells
Hoopsick had sex with Wells roughly twice a month for about five years. The encounters typically took place at a Perry Street house in Erie rented by Kenneth Barnes, who let sex workers use rooms in exchange for drugs or cash. Wells was a steady customer who paid $15 to $20 per visit.1Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Suspect’s Dad Unsurprised by Allegation That Daughter Targeted Him
That arrangement is what made Hoopsick useful to the conspirators. Barnes was her crack dealer as well as her landlord of convenience, and he was already deep in the circle around Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, the woman prosecutors identified as the ringleader of the bank robbery plot. Hoopsick knew Wells, trusted him, and knew his routine. Barnes knew her.2Cleveland.com. A Follower Became a Robber
During the original federal investigation, Hoopsick testified before a grand jury about the fact that Wells and Barnes knew each other. Her attorney at the time, Daniel Brabender, expected her to be called at trial to help establish that link. She was not called, and for the next decade and a half she said nothing publicly about any role in the plot itself.1Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Suspect’s Dad Unsurprised by Allegation That Daughter Targeted Him
What She Confessed in Evil Genius
When Evil Genius premiered on Netflix in May 2018, Hoopsick’s on-camera interview went well past anything she had told investigators. She said a conspirator asked her to find a “gopher” who could be pressured into robbing a bank, and that she suggested Wells because he was, in her words, a “pushover” who could be “easily manipulated.”3NME. Evil Genius Questions Left by True Crime Documentary
She said she gave the group Wells’ schedule at Mama Mia’s Pizza and introduced him to Barnes, Diehl-Armstrong, William Rothstein, and Floyd Stockton in exchange for cash.4Digital Spy. Evil Genius Ending: Jessica Hoopsick Confession She claimed she was offered $5,000 for her part. She said Stockton was the one who physically locked the collar bomb around Wells’ neck. And she insisted Wells had “no parts in the planning” and “had no idea what was going to happen to him.”5TIME. Collar Bomb Netflix Evil Genius
Hoopsick cried through the interview, saying the secret had been “eating her up inside” and that she wanted people to know Wells was innocent. The filmmakers, Barbara Schroeder and Trey Borzillieri, said she was not paid or promised anything for talking.5TIME. Collar Bomb Netflix Evil Genius
Why Investigators Don’t Believe Her Innocence Claim
Hoopsick’s confession was really two claims. One: that she helped set Wells up. Two: that Wells himself had no idea. The first is what she could be prosecuted for. The second is what the federal case has always disputed.
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said investigators were “not exactly sure how much” Wells knew, and described him as someone whose “role transitioned from that of the planning stages to being an unwilling participant in the scheme.”6FBI. Collar Bomb Investigation The federal indictment named Wells as an unindicted co-conspirator, meaning the government believed he took part in planning the robbery but could not be charged because he was dead.7GovInfo. United States v. Diehl-Armstrong, Case No. 1:07-cr-00026
Kenneth Barnes testified under oath that Wells was at Rothstein’s house on August 27, 2003, the day before the robbery, and that Diehl-Armstrong measured Wells’ neck for the bomb during that meeting.8GoErie. Pizza Bomber Co-Plotter Dies A draftsman named Michael Douglas testified that around 12:30 p.m. that same day he saw Wells’ green Geo Metro pulling out of a dirt road near Rothstein’s property, the same road leading to the transmission tower site where the FBI said the bomb was eventually attached. Wells had no authorized pizza delivery to that spot.9GoErie. Pizza Bomber Case Revisited: Witness
Hoopsick told the filmmakers she was with Wells from roughly noon to 2:30 p.m. on August 27, which would make the meeting impossible. That alibi came out fifteen years after the fact and contradicts Barnes’ sworn testimony.9GoErie. Pizza Bomber Case Revisited: Witness
Retired FBI lead investigator Jerry Clark said “there is evidence that directly conflicts with what she’s saying,” and questioned her motives: “There’s always some underlying reason for her cooperation. The fact that she’s saying it, you got to wonder why.” Clark and retired ATF Special Agent Jason Wick both noted that if Hoopsick’s confession were taken at face value, it would make her a conspirator in the robbery and Wells’ death, for which there is no statute of limitations.5TIME. Collar Bomb Netflix Evil Genius
Why She Hasn’t Been Charged
No agency has moved against Hoopsick. Director Barbara Schroeder said that while “technically, she could be charged,” every agency the filmmakers contacted indicated “there was no interest.” The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania declined to comment on the documentary.5TIME. Collar Bomb Netflix Evil Genius
Part of the reason is practical. The four main conspirators are all dead. Diehl-Armstrong died at a federal medical center in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 4, 2017.10Corrections1. Woman Serving Life in Pa. Collar Bomb Robbery Dies in Prison Rothstein died of lymphoma in July 2004 before trial.11U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Diehl-Armstrong Appeal Opinion Barnes died at a federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina, on June 20, 2019.8GoErie. Pizza Bomber Co-Plotter Dies Stockton died in Washington state on August 10, 2022.12YourErie. Final Member of Infamous Pizza Bomber Case Dies The witnesses who could confirm or demolish her specific claims are gone.
Her Life After the Documentary
Weeks after Evil Genius aired, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, police arrested Hoopsick in a June 2018 prostitution sting near a Hampton Inn.13TribLive. Woman Involved in Erie Collar Bomb Case Jailed on Prostitution Charge in Greensburg She skipped her July 2018 hearing, District Judge Chris Flanigan issued a bench warrant, and she was picked up in Erie County and taken to Westmoreland County Prison on $10,000 bail.14GoErie. Erie Woman Involved in Pizza Bomber Case Jailed on Prostitution Charge At her arraignment she told the court she had two prior prostitution convictions in Erie, had worked at a sheet metal plant in Beaver County within the previous year, and used prostitution to pay for crack. She pleaded guilty.15TribLive. FBI Agent Who Investigated Erie Pizza Bomber Case Speaks at Duquesne
She also surfaced that year as a potential witness in a separate Erie homicide. After Windi C. Thomas killed her boyfriend Keeno Butler on March 18, 2018, Thomas tried to buy crack from several people, including Hoopsick. Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Lightner said investigators interviewed her and would have subpoenaed her if the case had gone to trial. Thomas pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and received 18 to 36 years in state prison.16GoErie. Woman Gets Prison for Fatally Killing Boyfriend
Hoopsick remains one of the strangest loose ends in the pizza bomber case. She has publicly described conduct that could amount to conspiracy to commit murder, yet investigators doubt her enough, and the practical case for charging her has shrunk enough, that she has walked away from the confession without consequences. Whether her account of Wells’ innocence is honest or self-serving is a question that, with everyone else in the plot dead, may never be answered.