Boston Marathon Bombing Recordings

Monday, April 15, 2013 was a Patriots' Day that seemed like any Patriots' Day before.  To understand this story it is important to have a brief history about Patriots' Day.

Proclaimed a public holiday in 1894 by Massachusetts governor Frederic T. Greenhalge; Patriots' Day replaced Fast Day (a day of fasting and prayer celebrated generally in the New England region of the United States) to celebrate the Battle of Lexington and Concord as well as the Battle of Menotomy.  The date of April 19th and later the third Monday in April was chosen to commemorate the battles.

Ever since the holiday's inception in 1897, the Boston Marathon was run on Patriots' Day.  The only years the Marathon was not run was in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, but the 2021 Marathon was rescheduled to October 11.

However, on April 15, 2013, history would lay its heavy pen on the event when two brothers; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had placed two pressure cooker bombs that went off 14 seconds and 210 yards apart at the finish line of the Marathon killing three people: Martin Richard, age eight of Dorchester, Massachusetts, Lingzi Lu, age 23 of Liaoning, China, and Krystle Campbell, age 29 of Arlington, Massachusetts.  Another 264 were injured.

For the rest of the week, the city of Boston would be on a citywide manhunt for the two brothers.  Boston talk radio station WRKO, particularly morning host Jeff Kuhner would devote their airtime to talking about this god awful experience at such a celebrated event for more than ten decades.  If you had a smart phone or an Internet radio, and the free time you could listen in on the Boston PD radio frequency hearing the crime and the manhunt unfold in real time.  It caused the frequency to crash.

Late into the night of April 18, 2013 and into the early morning hours of April 19, 2013 the Tsarnaev were seen in Cambridge, Massachusetts after having had a shootout with an MIT police officer to steal his Smith and Wesson M&P45.  Officer Sean A. Collier of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department was shot six times; dying shortly thereafter.

They then carjacked a Mercedes -Benz M-Class SUV in the Allston-Brighton Neighborhood of Boston taking Dun Mang, a Chinese Nationalist hostage.  Tamerlan drove the stolen vehicle while Dzhokhar followed in their Honda Civic only to join his brother and the hostage.  It was at this time that the two brothers had decided that they wanted to go to New York City and Bomb Times Square, but they needed money.

The Tsarnaev brothers ended up stoping at an ATM forcing their hostage to withdraw $800 cash from his account.  At this time there was an APB out on the Tsarnaev brothers.

After transferring items from the Civic to the Mercedes-Benz, the two brothers realized that they needed to fill up for the trip to New York City.  While at the Shell station and while Dzhokhar went inside to buy some junkfood for the trip, with fear that the Tsarnaev brothers would harm him; Meng escaped and ran to the Mobil station across the street asking that the clerk call 911.  Because Meng still had his cell phone in the Mercedes-Benz the police were able to track the two brothers in Watertown.

It was just after midnight on April 19, 2013 when hearing over the police radio about two vehicles being pinged that Officer Joseph Reynolds was able to identify the Tsarnaev brothers.  After following the vehicles down Dexter Avenue; Officer Reynolds and then waited for additional support to perform this high risk traffic stop at the intersection of Laurel and Dexter.

Just then, Tamerlan had stepped out of his vehicle and began opening fire on Officer Reynolds and Sergeant (John) MacLellan.  They both had returned fire and requested additional backup.  During this shootout at the 100 block of Laurel Street it was estimated that 200 to 300 shots were fired with 56 of them being shot by the Tsarnaev brothers.  In addition, the two brothers set off another pressure cooker bomb and threw five crude grenades with three of them having exploded.  In this nearly seven minute shootout there were seven police departments involved with most of the officers equipped with Glock 22 or Glock 23 .40 S&W caliber pistols.  And according to Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau the Tsarnaev brothers had an arsenal of guns resulting in Tamerlan running out of ammunition and throwing his empty gun At Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese who tackled him.

At this point, Dzhokhar started driving the stolen car and drove towards his brother and the police as they were trying to handcuff Tamerlan.  However, the car ran over Tamerlan, dragging him a short distance down the street. Dzhokhar fled the car on foot leading to a citywide manhunt.  Tamerlan was taken into custody and died at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at 1:35 AM.

For several hours that day the entire city of Boston was in lockdown during a manhunt of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  Many experts believed that he may have fled to New Hampshire, but really he was right under their noses hiding out in a boat.

While in the search of Dzhokhar, a 20 block radius of Watertown was cordoned off.  Residents were told to stay in their homes and to not answer their doors.  Searchers were dressed in tactical gear and driving around in armored vehicles with helicopters circling the area from above.

Then, two hours after the shelter in place order had been lifted; David Henneberry, a resident of Watertown where the search was not being done noticed the tarp on his parked boat was loose.  Inside was the still alive body of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lying in a pool of blood.  Dzhokhar made gestures in the tarp wanting the police to shoot him.  He was arrested at 8:42 PM on April 19, 2013.

In the end, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty on 30 criminal charges and was sentenced to death.

See also in real time history collections:

• Complete Broadcast 1941 (Pearl Harbor)
• Complete Broadcast 1944 (D-Day Invasion of Normandy) CBS Coverage
• Complete Broadcast 1944 (D-Day Invasion of Normandy) NBC Coverage
• Victory in Europe Day Radio Recordings, 1945
• V-J Day Collection (Victory Over Japan), 1945
• Cuban Missile Crisis Recordings, 1962
• Kent State Shootings, 1970
• Oklahoma City Bombing Recordings, 1995
• 9/11 Attack Recordings, 2001
• DC Riot, 2021