In recent years, the "true crime" genre has become a new cultural obsession. It took hold of the airwaves as a podcast phenomenon with Serial. It was a runaway success on Netfix with Making a Murderer or, the previously reviewed on GGR, Wild Wild Country . There could be a dozen reasons why we love watching or listening to stories like this, but that's above my pay grade. Maybe we'll tackle it on the podcast! Steve and I could discuss this! Maybe we'll get an awesome guest to discuss it with us! Shameless self promotion of the podcast!!

Who are we kidding? We'll talk about Star Wars or sports. That's much more likely.

At any rate, we love watching insane stories that actually happened. Let's just leave it at that...and Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist is definitely that: a story that sounds like the devious plan of a Batman villain but actually happened.

The documentary starts off with the initial crime which occurred in 2003 in the normally unexciting city of Erie, Pennsylvania. A pizza delivery guy named Brian Wells walked into a PNC bank with a bomb affixed to his body. He hands the teller a note that demands $250,000. Not only does he have the bomb on his body, an elaborate "collar bomb" as it's eventually referred to, he also has a strange gun that is made from a walking cane. To make matters even stranger, Brian grabs a lollipop from the basket on the counter as he waits for the teller to get the money. The teller gave him less than $9,000, all that was available in the registers. Brian Wells then walks out of the bank very nonchalantly, lollipop in his mouth, swinging the cane-gun as if he didn't have a care in the world, before being apprehended by police a few minutes later. The story doesn't end there as the timer on the bomb counts down to zero. After the stand off with the police, the story gets even stranger.

Brian Wells walking into the PNC Bank w/ the bomb strapped to him and the subsequent stand off with the police.

This is an incredibly complex case and the story takes some twists and turns. Because of this complexity and it's unique nature, I won't give any more details in the story. You need to watch this documentary. I will let you in on some of the other people involved and how truly weird this story becomes. After the "Pizza Bomber" situation, we find out that another employee from the same pizza place is involved in a questionable situation. A few days after the incident, a man named Bill Rothstein called the police about a specifically stated "not related to the Pizza Bomber" incident involving a corpse and a freezer. In this call, he brings up the name of a woman, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who is a person of interest in both his "unrelated circumstance" and a number of other interesting cases. As the story begins to unfold, you see that Rothstein and Diehl-Armstrong have a sordid history together and are tied to this Pizza Bomber case.

Am I being vague about involvement and details? Yes, but purposefully so. You need to watch this documentary, especially if you are unfamiliar with the original case. I had never heard of it so it was all new to me, and I was hooked. Is it like Serial in that the handling of this case by the authorities leaves doubt as to who orchestrated this crime? No, not really. Is it like Wild Wild Country where there is a subtext that makes us analyze who is really the bad guy in the story? No, you know who the bad guys are... for the most part at least. People give testimony and sworn affidavits, but can they be trusted? Who is the "Evil Genius?" This really happened in Erie, Pennsylvania Quite possibly the most boring place on the planet (yes, I'm counting DMV offices in this assessment)?*

new town slogan "hey, at least we have a Tim Horton's."

When compared to other stories in the true crime genre, Evil Genius is unique. Serial takes pains to show you how inadequate law enforcement and the judicial system can put a possibly innocent man behind bars for more than a decade. Making a Murderer doubles down on this aspect as we see law enforcement take shortcuts in their detective work. Wild Wild Country turns the magnifying glass on Americans and questions our own prejudices about other religions. Evil Genius does none of this. It simply presents the crime, the suspects, the victims, those who investigated it and allows you to see it all play out. Sometimes the narrative of the events themselves is enough. In this particular story, truth is definitely stranger than any fiction you could imagine and more interesting than any subtext that could have been analyzed. Save that for another documentary, Evil Genius is too busy being riveting with the facts.

I give Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist 4.5 out of 5 stars. It's a different story than Wild Wild Country but just as compelling. You know how I feel about spoilers...and I made sure this review was free of any. That should tell you exactly why this is worth your time.

Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen as up next on the review docket is the Hulu smash hit, The Handmaid's Tale.

*Mike's statement about Erie is in jest. Erie is a perfectly wonderful city with lots of great things to do. He especially liked Presque Isle and enjoyed seeing Lake Erie. Here's a pic of his kids in front of one of the lighthouses on the lake!

Movies and TV

What to Watch: Evil Genius