Brendan's two murdered friends were definitely Jewish; for Brendan, the accounts differ. In the media, and also here on DU, it has been surmised that the murderers had anti-semitic motives. Given the cruel and ritualized nature of the murders (all of them had the throats deeply cut, were covered with weed etc.), I find it hard to believe that Tamerlan Tsarnaev killed his friend this way to fulfill his Islamic anti-semitic mission.
The NYT article downplays the role of the girlfriend of Brendan Mess, who told the Boston Globe some intime details about Tamerlan and Brendan and their relation. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was practicing Islam and admonished her sometimes to follow Islamic rules more strictly, but she apparently quite liked him and didn't view him as a radical Islamist. But - her account leaves room for the possibility that Tamerlan was a FBI undercover agent to infiltrate radical Islamists.
She said she found the victims — Mess, 25; Erik H. Weissman, 31; and Raphael M. Teken, 37 — in separate rooms, their throats slashed, their bodies covered with marijuana.
The woman said she did not describe Tsarnaev to police as a suspect in the triple homicide but rather identified him as one of many visitors to the apartment. Police did not ask her about Tsarnaev after she gave them his name, she said.
“But if they questioned everyone whose fingerprints were in the apartment, I’m sure Tam’s fingerprints had to be there,’’ she told the Globe in a phone interview Friday.
The woman said Tsarnaev, who was born and lived his early years in former Soviet republics, had told Mess in the weeks before the killings that the FBI had placed him on a terrorist watch list.
“Brendan said, ‘The FBI is watching him; they think he’s a terrorist,’ ’’ the woman recalled. “We laughed about it. We never took it seriously.’’
Federal authorities have said that the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of the Russian government.
Mess’s girlfriend said she knew with certainty that he kept a handgun in the apartment. Another friend said earlier this week that Mess had been badly beaten by his marijuana supplier years earlier when he was short on his payment and then familiarized himself with firearms.
Mess and his girlfriend shared the apartment with Weissman, who was struggling financially after Boston police had seized a large amount of cash and drugs in a raid on his Roslindale apartment.
“They were pretty peaceful people, but I know Brendan had one gun,’’ his girlfriend said. “I think it was for protection. I don’t understand why he couldn’t have used it’’ during the deadly assault.
The woman said she never understood what the motive for the killings could have been, other than perhaps a robbery. Although about $5,000 remained in the apartment after the slayings, she said, she was aware that Mess and Weissman had a much larger amount of cash. She could not estimate how much.
She said Mess was such a close friend of Tsarnaev that he often asked her to cook only halal meat for Tsarnaev to honor his Muslim customs when he visited.
“I just can’t believe Tam would back stab Brendan like that,’’ she said. “It’s so painful to me, because Brendan was so open and loving with Tam.’’
In the week before the slayings, she said, she had an intense quarrel with Mess. She said she went to Florida to visit a friend and “clear my head.’’
She was scheduled to return on the morning of Sept. 12, 2011, and expected Mess to pick her up at Logan International Airport. She said she called him at 7:30 the previous night.
“It was the last time I heard his voice,’’ she said. “He said, ‘I love you.’ ’’
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/24/friend-triple-murder-victim-says-police-knew-ties-marathon-bombing-suspect/tUZsGAQb59kYYXo7emjbHM/story.html
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