by Mike Roche
On April 15, 2013, eight-year-old Martin Richard and his family had assembled near the finish line on Boylston Street to cheer on the runners at the Boston Marathon. Unbeknownst to Martin, a killer had just covertly deposited a backpack containing a pressure cooker bomb next him on the ground and walked away. Martin’s gap-tooth smile evaporated forever as the backpack bomb detonated robbing him of his young life while also gravely wounding his family members.
The Boston Bombers provide an interesting contrast. The older of the two Chechen brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was a loser. At 26, he was little more than a washed-up boxer. In previous years, he had won the Golden Gloves competition and had dreams of becoming an Olympian only to be derailed by the U.S. policy of banning non-citizens from participating. Considering that most U.S. Olympic boxers are in their late teens or early 20s, Tamerlan was well past his prime.
At this point in his life, Tamerlan had not managed to complete two years of community college. He was living with his wife and child. The family’s state welfare payments had been reduced in November 2012 and their Section 8 housing subsidy was terminated in January of 2013 which meant his wife was providing the primary financial support for the family. His parents had failed in their employment endeavors and had returned to their native Chechnya despite having requested asylum from there when they originally immigrated to the U.S. Tamerlan’s mother had a minor criminal record, having been previously arrested for shoplifting. Furthermore, Tamerlan claimed to have lacked American friends, which must have increased his isolation.
Sometime earlier, Tamerlan had confided in his mother that he often had the feeling that he had two people living inside him. Being concerned about his mental state, his mother encouraged his friendship with a Muslim convert, Mikhail Allakhverdov, known as Misha. The seeds of radicalization began at the kitchen table as Misha schooled Tamerlan in Islam, the religion of peace. Those who knew Tamerlan said he began to change as he became more devout in his awakened faith.
The Waltham Triple Drug Murder
On September 11, 2011, Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman and Raphael Yeken were murdered in the Waltham apartment of Tamerlan’s former boxing friend, Brendan Mess. The victims’ throats were slashed with such violence that they were nearly decapitated, and thousands of dollars in cash and marijuana were scattered over their bodies. After the killing, Tamerlan became the prime suspect in the murders. The case still remains under investigation, and another person of interest, Ibragim Todashev, 27, has been identified by the Boston authorities.
Ibragim Todashev had also been a former amateur boxer and was now a professional mixed marshal artist. He had previous arrests for assault and had been released on bail for aggravated assault in Orange County, Florida. On May 22, 2013, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police questioned Todashev in his Orlando apartment concerning his possible involvement in the brutal Waltham murders. According to numerous news reports, after a marathon interview session, Todashev was about to sign a confession implicating himself and Tamerlan in the 2011 Waltham slayings. Conflicting reports have come out as to what happened next. The FBI has said that a “violent confrontation was initiated” by Todashev that resulted in his death. Whatever actually transpired in Todashev’s Orlando apartment may always remain murky.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Increasing Alienation
As Tamerlan became more devout in his newly adopted faith, he was exiled by his mosque for espousing radical and inappropriate rhetoric. Once again an outcast (familiar terrain to him by this point), like many poorly-adjusted individuals searching for a place to belong, he turned to the Internet where he began associating with Muslim extremists and expressing his sympathy for their teachings. With grand plans of joining the warriors of jihad, he travelled to Dagestan, a small multi-ethnic nation on the Caspian Sea which has been a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists since the early 1990s.
Things did not go so well for Tamerlan as he tried to gain acceptance into the radical Muslim community. These rebels were for real and they were not too enamored with a wannabe terrorist from Dorchester, Mass. After six months in Dagestan, Tamerlan realized he would never be accepted by the radicals and left, no doubt in some despair and confusion, an outcast from the very people who, in theory, shared his religion and beliefs.
Around the time he was embracing Islam, Tamerlan also befriended a disabled patient, Donald Larking, to whom his mother provided home health care. Larking was a conspiracy theorist and shared his views with Tamerlan, who in turn converted Larking to Islam. They became friends and discussed politics and various government conspiracies including the 9/11 Attacks and the Newtown School Shooting. A Wall Street Journal reporter who visited Mr. Tsarnaev’s apartment in 
Cambridge, Mass after the bombing observed papers including The First Freedom, an Alabama newspaper that espouses “equal rights for whites,” and The Sovereign, a New York journal that alleges that U.S. policy is under the influence of Israeli lobbyists. Tamerlan was also a reader of the al Qaeda online magazine Inspire, which published an article titled “How to Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” This confused and alienated young man also had a marked-up copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which espouses an alleged plan by Jewish leaders to take over the world. Tamerlan’s former brother-in-law, Elmzira Khozhugov, said he began to believe many events were the result of government conspiracy, and he was particularly influenced by the movie Zeitgeist, which called the September 11 attacks a conspiracy authored by elitists. Zeitgeist was also a favorite movie of Jarred Loughner, who shot Congresswomen Gabby Giffords and killed six others in Tucson, Arizona.
On balance, it’s accurate to state that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a stereotypical third wave jihadist as described by Dr. Mark Sageman, the author of Understanding Terror Networks. The third wave is primarily comprised of thugs and losers. Tamerlan clearly fits this profile. His brother Dzhokhar’s path to radicalization, however, is not as easy to follow.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Dzhokhar appears to have been more focused on smoking pot than on his studies, Islamist or otherwise, and he has been described by those close to him as easygoing and not overtly religious. Those who knew him claim never to have heard him espouse any radical thoughts or jihadist rhetoric. One possible explanation for his apparent non-threatening demeanor is we may be confronted with the Façade Effect, in which we think we understand those around us, but are only really responding to the public persona displayed by the individual in question. In these instances, we really don’t know what is going on behind the façade. However, Dzhokhar did share with one friend that he felt terrorism was justified in response to US military action. Despite being considered an able student, Dzhokhar’s college grades reflect a profound indifference. He routinely failed most of his classes, while compiling a large student debt. Like his brother Tsarnaez, when Dzhokhar’s parents divorced and moved back to Russia, he lost much of his support network. To make matters worse, his sisters lived out of state. Dzhokhar’s only deeply rooted social support system was his dysfunctional brother.
As with many new college students, Dzhokhar probably experienced a fair amount of internal conflict and stress. For many students moving away from home, adapting to higher academic standards, and adjusting to making new friends can result in a great deal of anxiety, and the first year is usually the toughest.
He was perhaps heavily influenced by his older brother, but Dzhokhar was not a reluctant terrorist. He willingly placed the pressure cooker bomb next to Martin Richard and walked away. Dzhokhar audaciously attended a party that same evening at school, where the conversation naturally focused on the Boston Marathon Bombing. Who could attend a party with such cavalier indifference? The next morning, without displaying any empathy for Martin and the other victims, Dzhokhar worked out at the school gym. These are not the actions of someone consumed with grief or guilt.
Despite his fans on Facebook and his front cover expose in Rolling Stone magazine, the fact remains that most of Dzhokhar’s victims will be scarred psychologically and will carry the physical scars of dismemberment and permanent disabilities for the rest of their lives. On Thursday Jan. 30th, Attorney General Holder announced that the Department of Justice plans to seek the death penalty in the penalty phase of Dzhokhar’s trial.
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Many of these homegrown terrorists harbor feelings of having been rejected by society and are consumed by their negative emotional vortex. They have a long list of personal failures and are desperately in search of an identity or an affirmation for their feelings of despair. Many can find solace in a virtual house of worship. This “virtual influencer” could be any political, religious or social cause that adds significance to their lonely lives. Recall Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City, David Koresh in Waco, or Floyd Lee Corkins’ attack on the Family Research Council in 2012 while armed with a 9mm pistol and fifteen Chick-fil-A sandwiches. It does not matter if these troubled souls are moved to action by their belief in an environmental movement, religious fanaticism, or political activism; whatever their belief system is they can use it as a rationale for an all-encompassing violence.
Out of carnage in Boston, rose a spirit of strength. The community and nation embraced the Boston Strong concept. Martin Richard’s joyous smile lives on in his legacy through a ‘pay it forward’ concept. The Team MR8 Foundation hopes to recruit a team of runners for the Boston Marathon on April 21, 2014. These runners will promote the spirit that was displayed on a poster held by Martin that read, “No more hurting people – peace.”
Please click here to view Mike Roche’s previous posts:
Don’t Text at the Movies, The Life You Lose May Be Your Own!
Killers and the Catcher in the Rye
Mike Roche has over three decades of law enforcement experience. He began his career with the Little Rock Police Department, and spent twenty-two years with the U.S. Secret Service. The last fifteen years of his career were focused on conducting behavioral threat assessments of those threatening to engage in targeted violence. He is the author of three novels and two nonfiction works on mass murder and also rapport building. Retired, Mike is currently a security consultant at Protective Threat LLC, and an adjunct instructor at Saint Leo University. He resides in Florida with his family.
Mass Killers: How you Can Identify, Workplace, School, or Public Killers Before They Strikehttp://www.amazon.com/Mass-
Face 2 Face: Observation, Interviewing and Rapport Building Skills: an Ex-Secret Service Agent’s Guidehttp://www.amazon.com/Face-2-
The Blue Monster http://www.amazon.com/The-
Coins of Death http://www.amazon.com/Coins-