The Collar Bomb Heist, Asteroid Moons, and a Reluctant Candidate

The Collar Bomb Heist, Asteroid Moons, and a Reluctant Candidate

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Episode description

The Collar Bomb Heist, Asteroid Moons, and a Reluctant Candidate

On 28 August 2003, pizza delivery driver Brian Wells walked into a Pennsylvania bank with a bomb locked around his neck, setting in motion what the FBI would call one of the most bizarre crimes in its history. The same date in 1993 brought two very different discoveries: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft accidentally photographed the first confirmed moon orbiting an asteroid, a tiny rock called Dactyl circling the asteroid Ida. Meanwhile, Singapore held its first popular presidential election, though one candidate had been recruited specifically to make the ballot look contested. From a meticulously planned crime that ended in tragedy, to an unplanned cosmic discovery, to a democratic exercise with pre-sorted outcomes, 28 August offers three stories about what happens when human plans meet reality. Some crimes are too strange for ordinary explanation. Some discoveries hide in the corners of photographs. And some elections have their winners chosen before the voting begins.

Chapters

  • A Bank Robbery Nobody Planned For The story opens with Brian Wells, a pizza delivery driver in Erie, Pennsylvania, who on 28 August 2003 walked into a bank with a bomb locked around his neck. The device was real, the scavenger hunt he’d been given was elaborate, and the twenty-two minutes before the bomb detonated would haunt investigators for years.
  • The Most Bizarre Crime in FBI History The collar bomb case unravelled into one of the FBI’s most complicated investigations. Planned by Marjorie Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes, the crime involved elaborate notes, timed tasks, and a device that represented hours of careful construction directed towards something terrible. The question of how much Wells knew remains uncomfortable.
  • A Moon Nobody Expected On the same date in 1993, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft flew past asteroid Ida and accidentally photographed something in the corner of its images: Dactyl, a tiny moon orbiting the asteroid. It was the first confirmed asteroid moon in history, discovered entirely by chance during a routine flyby.
  • Singapore’s Election with a Reluctant Opponent Also on 28 August 1993, Singapore held its first popular presidential election. Ong Teng Cheong won, but one detail stood out: his opponent had been recruited by the government specifically to make the ballot look contested. Democracy, with its choices pre-sorted.
  • History in the Corners Three stories from 28 August: a crime too strange for easy answers, a cosmic discovery hiding in a photograph’s margin, and a democratic exercise that revealed more than intended. History doesn’t always arrive with trumpets; sometimes it turns up in places no one was quite looking.

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