Join local author, David Durst, as he signs copies of his book, The Other Evil Genius: His Side of the Pizza Bomber Story, on Sunday, August 23 from 2-4 PM.
In 2003, the city of Erie was shaken by one of the strangest crimes in American history: a pizza delivery driver forced into a collar bomb and sent on a scavenger‑hunt‑style bank robbery. The world remembers the headlines. The chaos. The explosion.
But no one ever heard his story. Bill Rothstein — brilliant, manipulative, terrified, and dying — finally tells it here.
Through hallucinations, memories, and the ghosts of the people destroyed along the way, Rothstein recounts his twisted bond with Marjorie Diehl‑Armstrong, the plot that spiraled out of control, and the guilt he carried to the grave. What emerges is a dark psychological descent into obsession, denial, and the lies we invent to survive.
Was he a victim? A mastermind? A coward? A genius? Or all of them at once. The Other Evil Genius is a haunting, character‑driven novella inspired by the real pizza bomber case — perfect for readers of psychological crime fiction, unreliable narrators, and true‑crime‑inspired thrillers.
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David Durst is a writer and playwright from Erie, Pennsylvania, whose work spans comedic theater and psychologically driven fiction. He created The Pizza Bomber Play: A Devoted Surrender, serving as writer, director, and producer, exploring one of Erie’s most infamous cases through themes of memory, perception, and mental health.
Durst has also written audience‑interactive comedy plays for the Station Dinner Theatre, including A Canterbury Feast, showcasing his talent for humor, improvisation, and character‑driven storytelling. His fiction blends emotional depth with narrative momentum, often bridging fact and fiction to explore human behavior, moral consequence, and the tension between personal truth and objective reality.
A lifelong Erie resident with his wife, Pam, Durst remains active in the local arts community while continuing to develop immersive, reflective fiction.
