# Explosions at Boston Marathon **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 15, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781 "2013-04-15T19:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 67
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1321 "2013-04-23T19:20:22Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > But this brings up another point. When they killed OBL, a big deal was made to get him buried, even at sea, within a certain time frame observed by Muslims. This guy’s a Muslim, too, but all that cultural sensitivity seems to have gone out the window here. The U.S. was sort of responsible for burying Bin Laden because of his status as a stateless fugitive and because his family didn’t want anything to do with him. They’re not responsible for burying this guy- his wife and mother both live in the area. I thought maybe the father is traveling to the U.S. and that could be responsible for the delay. I just read something else crazy: [prosecutors think maybe Tamerlan was involved in a triple murder in 2011.](http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/feds-accused-bombers-dark-side/story?id=19018798#.UXbelErovUc) Three Jewish men were killed in Waltham on September 11, 2011, and he knew one of them. Police decided earlier that the victims probably knew the killer and now they are considering him as a suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1322 "2013-04-23T20:59:39Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I just read something else crazy: [prosecutors think maybe Tamerlan was involved in a triple murder in 2011.](http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/feds-accused-bombers-dark-side/story?id=19018798#.UXbelErovUc) Three Jewish men were killed in Waltham on September 11, 2011, and he knew one of them. Police decided earlier that the victims probably knew the killer and now they are considering him as a suspect. Yes. The killer apparently left cannabis and cash arranged on the bodies. There’s a theory that one of the guys was selling pot to Jahar and his big brother wanted to put a stop to it. Bit extreme? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1323 "2013-04-23T21:06:35Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Bit extreme? Sounds like Joe Don Baker. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1324 "2013-04-23T21:20:31Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Yes. The killer apparently left cannabis and cash arranged on the bodies. There’s a theory that one of the guys was selling pot to Jahar and his big brother wanted to put a stop to it. > > Bit extreme? To me it sounds like an extremely clumsy attempt to disguise the motive for the crime by making it look like a drug thing. That it worked is kind of stupefying. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1325 "2013-04-24T04:49:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > No, I can’t say I do. I don’t find her wording ambiguous or misleading either. If they questioned someone who had nothing to do with the bombings and deported him because (say) his visa had expired, who cares? Was there a news story I missed about deporting people here illegally? ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1326 "2013-04-24T10:59:22Z")
The local news is now saying that bomber 1 was on public assistance until last year. (I believe the phrase "shocking development was used) Another strange link to the story - the missing Brown student that was originally named as one of the bombing suspect - they apparantly just pulled his body out of the Providence river. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1327 "2013-04-24T11:46:34Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Yes. The killer apparently left cannabis and cash arranged on the bodies. There’s a theory that one of the guys was selling pot to Jahar and his big brother wanted to put a stop to it. > > Bit extreme? Say Tamerlan has problems. He’s got a wire loose, he’s killed a couple of people, he’s got a record, he’s got a screw loose. His options are dwindling, so he is prone to self-radicalizing. He’s already got the idea to martyr/redeem himself, but he can’t do it alone, so he lectures his pot-smoking brother into doing this same, maybe with a little bit of “if you don’t do it I’ll tell dad you are smoking pot.” Blackmailing his little brother for smoking pot would really go a lot further toward explaining his complicity. Just wild-ass speculation, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1328 "2013-04-24T14:38:47Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Was there a news story I missed about deporting people here illegally? Once again I’m not sure what you mean. Duncan was trying to ream Napolitano out over the deportation of someone who might’ve been a suspect, and that didn’t happen. If I remember right he’d conflated two different people: the student who was injured in the bombing and who people kind of assumed was a suspect, and someone else who was questioned and was never a suspect. Which of these do you think is significant? > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Say Tamerlan has problems. He’s got a wire loose, he’s killed a couple of people, he’s got a record, he’s got a screw loose. His options are dwindling, so he is prone to self-radicalizing. If he killed those guys, he was already a radical. It would take a great deal of evidence to convince me that he brutally murdered two or three Jewish guys on September 11th for reasons that had nothing to do with religion. > [@lieu](#): > > Does anyone know what will happen to Tamerlan’s body? > [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > When they killed OBL, a big deal was made to get him buried, even at sea, within a certain time frame observed by Muslims. This guy’s a Muslim, too, but all that cultural sensitivity seems to have gone out the window here. [The government has told the family they can have the body, but they’re having problems finding a mosque that will conduct the funeral.](http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/24/17893358-boston-bomb-suspects-aunt-mosque-wont-bury-tamerlan-tsarnaev?lite) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1329 "2013-04-24T14:43:12Z")
Does anyone know how the names Sunil Tripathi and Mike Mulugeta got mixed into the events? Were those names ever mentioned in any official capacity? Also, if the brothers hijacked an SUV, how did they wind up with two cars at the scene of the shoot-out with police? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1330 "2013-04-24T14:55:59Z")
Yes, apparently (besides the wife) only the father may return to help bury Tamerlan as the mother may face an [outstanding warrant](http://gma.yahoo.com/mother-accused-bombers-faces-her-015923054.html) on charges she shoplifted $1600 worth of garmets from a Lord & Taylors. Hmmm… coincidentally, isn’t that the store that provided a crucial bit of video surveliance tape in their initial identification? I think I need to go buy something there. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1331 "2013-04-24T15:00:54Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Does anyone know how the names Sunil Tripathi and Mike Mulugeta got mixed into the events? Were those names ever mentioned in any official capacity? [Here’s an article about it.](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/it-wasnt-sunil-tripathi-the-anatomy-of-a-misinformation-disaster/275155/) The gist was that someone on Reddit who was listening to a Boston police scanner said that he heard the name Sunil Tripathi and repeated this as the name of a suspect. Nobody else heard the name and there’s no record of it ever being used, but for whatever reason this seems to have been accepted at face value. It may have just been trolling. Right after that the name Mulugeta was spelled out for reasons that are unclear. The officer who spelled the name said “M as in Mike,” and people thought that meant they were looking for a Mike Mulugeta. :rolleyes: Nobody knows who the name refers to and there is no such person as Mike Mulugeta as far as anyone can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1332 "2013-04-24T15:57:51Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Does anyone know how the names Sunil Tripathi and Mike Mulugeta got mixed into the events? Were those names ever mentioned in any official capacity? I just came in here to ask the same thing. [This is a good dissection](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/it-wasnt-sunil-tripathi-the-anatomy-of-a-misinformation-disaster/275155/) of the false info. The name Mulugeta was mentioned once on the police scanner, but it’s unclear whether “Mike” was meant to be a first name or just spelling out the initial letter M. Sunil Tripathi’s name was apparently never mentioned by police, but the rumour seems to have started with a Tweet from Greg Hughes (@hughesgca), who seems to have deleted his account now. I know Tripathi’s name had been doing the rounds on Twitter, but Mike Mulugeta is a mystery. Nobody seems to know who this person is and why he got implicated. (Suspicion briefly fell on a [British student](https://twitter.com/muluman) of the same name, who seems to have taken it in relatively good humour… Edit… and apparently I hadn’t refreshed this page for nearly an hour and so missed **Marley23** ’s reply essentially duplicating my post! Other than to say that at least two people named Mike Mulugeta were found on Twitter. The other one is [https://twitter.com/mikemulugeta](https://twitter.com/mikemulugeta) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1333 "2013-04-24T16:10:58Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The name Mulugeta was mentioned once on the police scanner, but it’s unclear whether “Mike” was meant to be a first name or just spelling out the initial letter M. Assuming the quote in the article is complete, that definitely wasn’t supposed to be a name. It’s kind of weird that anyone would take “M as in Mike” to mean “Mike.” But I didn’t realize there were actually some people with that name - I was hoping there weren’t, but it looks like the consequences were minimal. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1334 "2013-04-24T16:39:06Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Assuming the quote in the article is complete, that definitely wasn’t supposed to be a name. It’s kind of weird that anyone would take “M as in Mike” to mean “Mike.” But I didn’t realize there were actually some people with that name - I was hoping there weren’t, but it looks like the consequences were minimal. There are almost 50 profiles by that name on Facebook (including “Michael Mulugeta”). Apparently Mulugeta is an Ethiopian name, and fairly common. As for “M as in Mike”, it could be taken to mean “Mulugeta, M.”, as in the first initial is also M. But I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1335 "2013-04-24T16:39:45Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Also, if the brothers hijacked an SUV, how did they wind up with two cars at the scene of the shoot-out with police? They had their own car, they carjacked the MB and forced the driver to withdraw money from an ATM. They drove both cars (one brother in each) with the carjacked person before he managed to run away. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1336 "2013-04-25T03:31:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Once again I’m not sure what you mean. Duncan was trying to ream Napolitano out over the deportation of someone who might’ve been a suspect, and that didn’t happen. If I remember right he’d conflated two different people: the student who was injured in the bombing and who people kind of assumed was a suspect, and someone else who was questioned and was never a suspect. Which of these do you think is significant? Is it now the official position of the federal government to deport illegal aliens as we find them? I thought my original question was crystal clear: Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that someone would be questioned as a result of an investigation and deported? Particularly in light of the current political atmosphere of amnesty for illegal immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1337 "2013-04-25T03:40:30Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Is it now the official position of the federal government to deport illegal aliens as we find them? > > I thought my original question was crystal clear: > > Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that someone would be questioned as a result of an investigation and deported? Particularly in light of the current political atmosphere of amnesty for illegal immigrants. The current administration is deporting people at [record levels](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/21/record-2012-deportations/1785725/) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1338 "2013-04-25T04:02:09Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > The current administration is deporting people at [record levels](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/21/record-2012-deportations/1785725/) That’s nice. Again, in light of the current political atmosphere, don’t you think it’s a bit odd that someone would be questioned and deported? Why is the person being deported? Pretty simple question to answer. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1339 "2013-04-25T11:40:34Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that someone would be questioned as a result of an investigation and deported? No. I don’t know what I am supposed to find odd here. > [@](#): > > Particularly in light of the current political atmosphere of amnesty for illegal immigrants. I think this is a subject for another thread. In the meantime, we have a guy being questioned and then deported after it was found he was not related to the bombings. I fail to see the big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781/1340 "2013-04-25T11:57:12Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > That’s nice. > > Again, in light of the current political atmosphere, don’t you think it’s a bit odd that someone would be questioned and deported? Why is the person being deported? Pretty simple question to answer. Your post makes no sense. You respond to evidence that deportations are up by doubling down on the assertion that the current atmosphere is easy on deportations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781.md?page=66) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosions-at-boston-marathon/655781.md?page=68)