Evil Genius is a true crime Netflix docu-series from 2018. Netflix’s description of it “[starting] with the grizzly death of a pizza man who robs a bank with a bomb around his neck — and gets weirder from there” could not be more apt. Over the course of four episodes, the show explains who orchestrated one of the most maniacal bank heists in American history. The most captivating element of the show is the prime suspect: Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

Before you continue reading, be cognizant of potential spoilers. Watch the trailer and the show if you are interested before reading further.

Marjorie is described from the beginning as someone who once showed promise. She was incredibly bright from a young age. She was also diagnosed with a number of mental illnesses. Perhaps due to not receiving the proper care, her intelligence manifested in a manipulative personality and an enormous ego. The type of ego that would allow someone to think they could outsmart law enforcement and lead a life of crime without paying any consequences. 

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong

Her personality also shut her off from forming many relationships with other people besides a select few close friends. Co-Director Trey Borzillieri became one of those close few through a long time correspondence via letters and phone calls. This relationship, and it’s documentation, is a vital part of Evil Genius’s story telling. It gives the viewer a look into the psyche of the suspect unlike that of most other true crime shows and in doing so, it highlights her distorted perspective on the world.

Marjorie, as previously stated, believed she was smarter than investigators. She also believed they could be easily manipulated along classist and racist lines. She instructed Brian Wells (the pizza delivery man who robbed the bank) to claim that he was forced to participate in the crime by two black men (notably, there were zero black suspects. This was entirely a fabrication meant to scapegoat the crime through racial bias). She also makes it a point to argue that she is a wealthy woman and would therefore have nothing to gain from the crime. 

Bill Rothstein

Other relevant biases permeate the case as well. For instance, Bill Rothstein, another co-conspirator and possible mastermind behind the plot, became a police informant; he told the authorities that he helped Marjorie hide a body (her former boyfriend whom she murdered). He was careful in how he described her, repeatedly bringing up her mental illnesses to cast doubt upon her, and despite the fact that he suspiciously wrote that he was not connected to the pizza bombing case on an attempted suicide note, he was not convicted of the crime. He unfortunately died a year later, having successfully gotten away with murder. Additionally, while in a federal prison serving time for the murder of her ex-boyfriend, Marjorie confessed to her crimes to fellow inmates. Despite them taking notes and giving them to the authorities, they didn’t make it to the federal investigators until years later, possibly due to being discounted by police because of their gender or status in the criminal justice system. 

This article from Vulture goes more in depth on a few of the points I mentioned above. While I don’t entirely agree with the points in the article, I do think they are interesting to consider after having seen the docu-series.

Overall, I found Evil Genius to be a fascinating watch. If you saw the description of the show and didn’t immediately think “holy cow, I think I have to watch this right now” you should probably reevaluate your standards. Heads up: they do show the footage of the bomb going off on the pizza man’s neck. You’ve been warned.

http://https://youtu.be/Qpdb9zo_1t8