Charlene D’Avanzo: On April 15, 2013, two explosions occurred near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring over 200. An unprecedented manhunt was launched to find the perpetrators, one of whom was killed and the other was taken into custody.
Three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, and more than 260 were injured when twin explosions ripped through the crowds near the finish line of the Boston Marathon April 15.
Marc Fucarile was one of the victims near the finish line with a group of friends from his hometown of Stoneham when the blasts were detonated. He lost his left leg above the knee and suffered permanent hearing loss, along with shrapnel wounds and burns. His friends, brothers JP and Paul Norden, also each lost a leg.
Timeline: What Happened at the Boston Marathon Bombing
The April 15, 2013 bombing inflicted horror on a beloved Boston tradition and led to one of the most intensive manhunts in history.
Ten years ago, terrorists detonated two bombs 14 seconds apart near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The blasts killed three people, injured nearly 300 others, shook a city, state and nation, and forever changed the lives of thousands. One Boston Day, observed every April 15, now honors the victims—including two police officers—survivors and first responders of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Supreme Court Restores Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber
The Biden administration, which announced a moratorium on federal executions, has pursued the case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 bombings.
March 4, 2022
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday reinstated the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of helping carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured hundreds more.
The bombings, near the finish line of the marathon, transformed a beloved tradition into bloody carnage. The attack left 260 injured, many of them grievously. Seventeen people lost limbs.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan, Justice Thomas wrote, “each brought a backpack containing a homemade pressure-cooker bomb packed with explosives inside a layer of nails, BBs and other metal scraps.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/trial-date-set-accused-boston-marathon-bomber/story?id=22478389
It was a horrific day.
I was on the Green Line that day with my daughter, headed for the finish line to cheer on my 63-year-old husband running Boston for the first time. Luckily, his loathsome boss called from Seattle the night before and gave him an emergency assignment, so he rode the bus out to the starting line on three hours sleep. Otherwise, he would likely have run at his qualifying pace. As it was, he was stopped by a barricade at mile 25.5 after the first bomb went off. So if not for the terrible boss, he would have been there too, perhaps blown off his feet like Bill Iffrig, the old man pictured on the cover of the following week’s Sports Illustrated (he and my husband qualified at the same race in Washington state and finished less than a minute apart). And my daughter and I, who had timed our arrival at the finish line to match his expected pace, would have seen it all firsthand. What a nightmare it was! No trains, no information, just 20 minutes of terror before we heard my husband was okay. I became a lifetime member of Boston Strong that day. PS – he ran it the following year and finished! PPS – my husband retired three months later and was able to bid goodbye to the icky boss!
That’s terrifying, Katherine. Let’s raise a toast to icky bosses! Congratulations to your husband for qualifying and for finishing Boston. It’s quite the accomplishment.