Boston bomber and the Waltham, Mass triple murder

I heard about it first on the radio, then this via Ynet:

Bombing leads police to reopen investigation into triple 2011 murder. One victim was Tsarnaev's best friend, but according to man who knew the two during that period, 'Tamerlan didn't even go to the funeral'

Well, to be perfectly cynical: why wouldn't Waltham cops want to conveniently close an open file (in triplicate)? It's only natural...

But then I let my fingers walk around the intertubes a bit. The starting point was a pointer at the place (Waltham, Mass), of course, and the names of the victims in the above linked article:

[Brendan] Mess's body was found in his home on September 12, 2011, alongside the bodies of two additional friends. Raphael Teken and Erik Weissman. The Jewish Daily Forward reported that all three victims were Jewish.

Then a short clip, taken at the place of the murder:



Now two different points are contained in the following quote from a local Mass. media:

Previously, investigators had said that Brendan Mess, 25, along with Erik Weissman, 25, and Raphael Teken, 37, were killed on Sept. 12, 2011, in Mess’s apartment on Harding Street, a quiet residential street in Waltham. They also said they believed drugs were involved.

But the relative interviewed by the Globe said the murders took place the evening before, on Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The relative said he knew this because he was texting one of the victims about a Sunday night football game between the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys when communication with the victims suddenly stopped at about 8:15 that evening.

First of all, the drug connection. It is enforced re Erik Weissman in another article:

In 2008, Weissman was charged with marijuana possession and intent to distribute, according to a report. Police pulled Weissman over for failing to yield and smelled marijuana smoke in the vehicle. When asked about it, Weissman said, “I knew you would smell it,’’ and handed the officer a brown paper bag filled with bags of marijuana, police said.

He also told police he had been previously arrested on charges of marijuana possession and said he was carrying marijuana to share with his friends.

The same suspicion is raised about Raphael Teken:

Teken lived in Waltham, and two neighbors who asked to remain anonymous said they believed he was a drug dealer, saying he rarely left the house and had a steady stream of visitors.

And, back to the previous article:

And friends of the victims have said their bodies were left covered with marijuana, according to the relative who was interviewed by the Globe.

Besides, where pot is concerned: listen to the clip in this (stupid) article, it is around 50-th second. And now this clip, around 2 min 10 sec:



So Dzhokhar, the little brother, was not a stranger to the weed. One can safely assume that it didn't come to be without the inspiration from the big brother.

What else? This:

The Globe reported Saturday that Tamerlan had introduced Mess to John Allan, owner of Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts in Allston, describing him as his “best friend.”

And this:

Mess, who was active in martial arts, received a bachelor’s degree in professional writing from Champlain College in 2008.

This was way before Tamerlan complained about not having any American friends. Before he got embraced by his own branch of Islam. And I couldn't pass over this, of course:

Tamerlan had become radicalized in his religious and political beliefs shortly before the murder and was an accomplished amateur heavyweight boxer, while Dzhokhar was a former captain of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin wrestling team and was also known as an adept boxer.
...
Records show that the Tsarnaev family and at least one member of the Mess family were neighbors in their Cambridge neighborhood.

So, for circumstantial support we have: a common neighborhood, a common interest in martial arts and a common interest in pot. Not bad for starters. And now to the second point I've promised earlier: it is the date of the murder, coupled with the special kind of the chosen victims - three Jews, the worst kind of infidels for a novice (which usually means particularly fervent) fundie, slaughtered by cutting their throats on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

And I wouldn't be surprised that covering the bodies by marijuana was a symbolic act of denouncing that infidels' sin, as I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the young Dzhokhar didn't touch the weed since that day. To be fair, there could be another explanation for the motive of the murder: enraged Tamerlan, learning that his little bro smokes pot, purchased from his very own "best friend"... etc.

Of course, all the above wouldn't be enough to make a judge blink, not to mention a murder charge.

But...