It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the city of Boston was left in shock, momentarily paralyzed, after a bombing that took place during the Boston Marathon. But yes, this unfortunate event took place on April 15, 2013, killing three people and permanently injuring hundreds of others.
What followed next was a four-day manhunt that led to the discovery of the Tsarnaev brothers, who were held responsible for the terrorism.
Netflix's newest docuseries, American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing, sheds light on what transpired in the next 100 hours after the two homemade pressure cooker bombs detonated.
The documentary does an excellent retelling of the manhunt that followed. But it leaves out one important piece: the Reddit witch-hunt that led social media into a frenzy.
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In addition to this, Netflix's documentary leaves out a couple of other issues that came from the bombing. Read on for more information.
What Is American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing About?
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing is a limited docuseries directed by Floyd Russ. The show has a total of three episodes, which goes back to the events of the Boston Marathon bombing that left three dead and injured several others.
More importantly, the docuseries reveals how the police were able to identify and look for the bombers in as little time as possible. There was also the case of the false assumption that the bomber was a Saudi national for that reason alone.
How Did Reddit Affect the Boston Marathon Bombing Witch-hunt?
Surprisingly, the Netflix docuseries did not include the crazy witch-hunt that stemmed from a popular forum site called Reddit. There was no mention of the FBI asking the public to help identify the suspects in the bombing throughout the show.
But what happened that time was that the police released footage of the two suspects, hoping that the public could help make their hunt much easier and faster. The suspects were then nicknamed "White Hat" and "Black Hat," based on the hat color they wore at that time.
Unfortunately, this decision was met with a lot of chaos as some anti-Islamic groups showed racist actions. More importantly, there was one man who was mistaken as the Boston Marathon bomber.
Reddit users were thrilled to uncover a Twitter post that alleged his classmate was the Boston bomber. It was that tweet that led people to start looking into Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University undergraduate, who was neither Muslim nor from the Middle East.
Still, this did not stop people from making malicious assumptions. It didn't help that he suddenly disappeared a month prior to the bombing.
Thanks to internet sleuths, traditional media reported on Tripathi as the suspect. This led Tripathi's family to receive "hundreds of threatening and anti-Islamic messages (though they are not Muslim)."
But as it turns out, Tripathi was severely depressed and committed suicide back in March 2013. His body was only discovered on April 23, days after the bombing.
This case of mistaken witch-hunt proved to be a major lesson for amateur internet detectives. So it's really surprising why it wasn't included in the Netflix docuseries.
When Was The Boston Marathon Bomber Caught?
Thanks to "thousands of hours of footage," the police were able to narrow down their hunt for the bombers to the "white hat" and "black hat" guys. They were then identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
But the search wasn't easy. Since facial recognition software was in its early stages, officers had to sift through photos and videos pinning the crime to the Tsarnaev brothers.
Except for Police Commissioner Ed Davis, the officials assigned to the case did not want to release blurry photos of the suspects. That's because once the suspects got word that police were on to them, they would flee.
Unfortunately, the photos were leaked to the media just four days into the investigation. And even though it led to mistakenly identifying one man as the suspect, it also gave the public an idea of who to look for.
Case in point: Danny Meng, a student from China, was driving his Mercedes in Cambridge just 80 hours after the explosion. When he pulled over to read a text, a man got into his car and pointed a gun at him.
In the next few hours, another man joined them in the vehicle. This was when Meng realized the two were the perpetrators of the recent bombing.
After driving for several hours, Meng was able to convince them to stop for gas. It was then that Meng made "the most important decision" of his life.
He fled the area and didn't stop until reaching another gas station. This is where the student called 911 and asked for help from the police.
Police officers were able to track the two in Watertown, MA., where the older brother, Tamerlan, was gunned down by the police. His brother, Dzhokhar, managed to escape but not without running over Tamerlan, who died from these wounds.
After 18 hours, Dzhokhar was found hiding inside a boat in a residential backyard. He was captured alive.
What Was The Motive Behind The Boston Marathon Bomber?
The brothers were said to be motivated by extremist beliefs. But investigations revealed that the two were "not connected to any known terrorist groups."
They were able to learn how to build the homemade explosives via an online magazine that al-Qaeda affiliates based in Yemen published.
The Netflix docuseries also dove into the background of the Tsarnaev brothers, particularly the sudden end of Tamerlan's Olympic boxing career, getting discriminated for being Muslim, and his trip to Dagestan.
Unfortunately, the show did not talk about Tamerlan's past where he revealed to a close friend that he heard inner voices since he was young. These voices gave him orders and required him to do things.
Family acquaintances told The Boston Globe that they feared Tamerlan could have schizophrenia.
Another thing that the docuseries does not reveal was how Dzhokhar decided to become a bomber.
Other Controversies of the Boston Marathon Bombing
Another controversy from the Boston Marathon bombing that wasn't included in the docuseries was Dzhokhar's Rolling Stones cover in its August 2013 issue.
The magazine interviewed the younger Tsarnaev brother and highlighted his life before becoming the Boston Marathon bomber. Dzhokhar also shared how his brother influenced him to get into religious extremism.
Although the story was well received, many did not like the idea of the bomber gracing the cover of the magazine. They thought the magazine portrayed him as a movie star instead of a criminal.
In fact, there were some retailers who announced they would not sell the issue. This, however, did not stop this Rolling Stone issue to be a bestseller.
Where Is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Now?
The docuseries revealed that Dzhokhar is currently in a super-maximum security prison. This is defined as a unit inside a larger prison with the highest security level.
In 2015, Dzhokhar was found guilty of all 30 counts. He was sentenced to death, which he appealed.
To his advantage, the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the evidence in Dzhokhar's original trial was improperly held in 2020. And in March 2022, the US Supreme Court put him back on death row after federal executions were halted by the Justice Department.
Dzhokhar's execution date remains open.
You can check out the trailer of this documentary here:
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing is currently available to stream on Netflix.
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