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As is common after disasters in the Internet age (e.g., the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Sandy Hook shooting), the online word is abuzz with a variety of rumors and conspiracy theories related to that event. Below we attempt to chart some of the most prevalent items associated with the Boston Marathon bombings of 15 April 2013: FBI Previous Investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev On 19 April 2013, the FBI confirmed that it had previously investigated the background of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, stating in a press release that: Suspects Became Citizens on 9/11 One rumor posited the irony that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev (originally from the Russian republic of Kyrgyzstan or Chechnya) had become naturalized citizens of the U.S. on September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. According to news accounts, Dzhokar came to America on 1 July 2002 as a tourist, asked for asylum, and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen on 11 September 2012. However, his older brother Tamerlan came to the U.S. later; although Tamerlan eventually acquired permanent residency status, he did not obtain U.S. citizenship. 'Coexist' Bumper Sticker Over the night of April 18-19, the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, reportedly fatally shot an MIT police officer in Cambridge, carjacked a Mercedes SUV, led police on a car chase into Watertown, and engaged in a firefight that ended with Tamerlan being shot dead. His younger brother Dzhokar eventually abandoned the stolen vehicle and fled on foot; he was captured that evening after being discovered hiding in a boat parked behind a house. Rumor later claimed that the vehicle the Tsarnaev brothers carjacked bore a 'Coexist' bumper sticker, a claim based on the following screen capture from a television news report: However, the vehicle shown in that image does not appear to match the Mercedes SUV that other news accounts described and pictured as the one carjacked by the Tsarnaev brothers: Pressure Cooker Ad On 18 April 2013, both the print and digital versions of the Minneapolis Star Tribune inadvertently ran a Macy's advertisement for pressure cookers adjacent to a story about citizens helping victims wounded in the Boston Marathon bombings, something of a faux pas because it is believed that the Boston bombings were carried out using pressure cookers packed with explosives: Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), of Topeka, Kansas, is headed by pastor Fred Phelps. WBC is widely known for its anti-homosexual stance, and members of its congregation have drawn much publicity by staging anti-gay protests and picketing at the funerals of military members and celebrities. (At such funerals, WBC members typically portray the deceased's passing as God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.) As they did after the Sandy Hook shootings, the WBC has announced an intention to picket the funerals of those killed in the Boston Marathon bombings in the sense that they stated so in a Twitter announcement on the afternoon of the bombings: However, although the Westboro Baptist Church had said they planned to picket the funeral of Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, motorcyclists lined up at the site of the service that day to confront the WBC's protesters, and the latter never did materialize. Supporters of the Boston Marathon victims are hoping the WBC will be no-shows at the funerals of those killed in that tragedy as well.Suspect/Backpack Photos A pair of circulated photographs purportedly show a black backpack from the scene of the Boston Marathon bombings and a man in the crowd at the marathon (who is said to be wanted by police) wearing a blue jacket and carrying what looks like that backpack: According to news accounts, the former picture was included in a security bulletin issued to law enforcement agencies by the FBI and shows a shredded backpack in which one of the bombs was hidden. The latter picture was not one that was distributed by police for help in locating a suspect; rather, it is the product of various individuals on the Internet scouring photos of the Boston Marathon scene for clues and circulating their speculations online. . On Thursday, 18 April 2013, the FBI released photographs of two suspects they were seeking additional information about, neither of whom was the man pictured above. On 19 April, one of the suspects was killed in a shootout with police, and the second was apprehended later that same day in Watertown, Massachusetts.Early Creation Facebook Pages As occurred after the Sandy Hook shooting, conspiracy proponents claimed that a number of the Facebook Boston Marathon bombing-related pages of the type which inevitably spring up in the aftermath of such tragedies (e.g., memorials, tributes, condolences, and donation sites for victims) bear dates indicating they were created earlier than the occurrence of the events they reference, thus exposing those tragedies as false flag events planned and coordinated by some sinister force (usually said to be the government) intent on deflecting blame away from the real perpetrators. After the Boston Marathon bombing, one page titled Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved in the Boston bombings was flagged as such because it was allegedly created several hours prior to the bombings, and another (since removed) page with the title Thoughts go out to all involved in the Boston explosions was similarly identified as suspicious because it bore a Joined Facebook date of Saturday, April 13 (two days before the bombings it references). However, as we discuss in another article, the dates shown on Facebook pages are not reliable indicators of their dates of creation. The date indicating when the entity associated with the page was Born, Founded, Started, Created, Opened, or Launched is a user-selectable value that can be set to anything the page creator wishes to choose. (Hence our own snopes.com Facebook page bears the legend Launched in 1994, because that's when we first began publishing material about urban legends on the web.) Likewise, Joined Facebook dates by themselves do not provide reliable timelines documenting the creation dates of Facebook pages. Facebook page names can be changed, and pages which were initially created prior to particular events for other reasons and then renamed/repurposed after those events retain their original pre-tragedy dates. So, an unused Facebook page created in March 2013 can be quickly renamed to serve as a memorial for victims who died in an April 2013 bombing, but the Joined Facebook date will reflect the earlier (March 2013) date.Sandy Hook Child Killed in Bombing One prominent rumor claimed that one of the Boston Marathon bombing victims was an 8-year-old girl who attended school at Sandy Hook and/or was running the marathon for the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings. Some iterations of the rumor included a photograph of the purported victim: This rumor is false: the child killed in the bombings was not a participant in the race, and children are not allowed on the course. As reported in the Boston Globe, the young victim was Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy who was killed as he waited near the finish line with his parents and siblings: The picture of the girl is completely unrelated to the Boston Marathon bombings; it's a photograph taken from another race (the3rd Annual Joe Cassella 5K) run in Virginia back in May 2012. Martin Richard Photo After Martin Richard was identified as the 8-year-old child who had been killed by one of the explosions, a photograph was circulated showing a boy holding up a sign decorated with hearts and a peace sign and bearing the legend No more hurting people. Peace. This photo was said to be a picture of Martin Richard: This is indeed a picture of Martin Richard, taken in April 2012 during a classroom lesson on the shooting of Trayvon Martin. A photo gallery published by the New York Post includes this image along with other photographs of Martin Richard and pictures of well-wishers visiting the Richard's home to leave messages, flowers, and other tokens of support. Woman Killed Before Boyfriend's Proposal One circulated photograph reportedly showed a man in a posture of anguish after learning that his girlfriend, whom he planned to propose to after she completed running the Boston Marathon, had been killed in the bombings: According to news accounts, this photograph shows a man attempting to render aid to Sydney Corcoran, an 18-year-old high school student whose legs were shredded by shrapnel from one of the bombs. The so far unidentified man in the red shirt has been described as a stranger and not her boyfriend, and Sydney Corcoran was not a participant in the race (nor was she killed by the explosion that injured her): Boston Globe Tweet On the afternoon of April 15, the Twitter feed of the Boston Globe reported that officials had stated There will be a controlled explosion opposite the library within one minute as part of bomb squad activities: This tweet was proffered by conspiracy theorists as proof that officials planned for a controlled explosion to be under way at the same time as the marathon explosions, a highly suspect coincidence that indicated the bombings were false flag operation. However, this tweet was issued about an hour after the bomb blasts and referenced a controlled detonation of a suspicious device near the central branch of the Boston Public Library, which is on the stretch of Boylston Street where the initial explosions occurred. A fire coincidentally broke out at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum at about the same time as the explosions, and as a precaution police were summoned to the scene while bomb squads swept the building for explosive devices: False Victim As happened with the Sandy Hook shooting, conspiracy buffs have circulated images claiming that persons associated with the Boston Marathon bombing are not who they claim to be, but rather actors or plants employed to pull off a staged event. One such image stated that a news photograph showing a bombing victim who suffered a serious leg injury in one of the explosions actually pictured Nick Vogt, a U.S. Army lieutenant who lost both his legs to an IED explosion in Afghanistan in November 2011: However, the Boston Marathon bombing victim pictured in the upper left-hand quadrant of this image was identified on Facebook as Jeff Bauman Jr., of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, by his father, Jeff Bauman Sr.: From his hospital room, Jeff Bauman Jr. provided the FBI with a description of a man whom he saw drop a bag near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, information which may have helped law enforcement identify one of the suspects.Sandy Hook Principal Another image purportedly demonstrated a connection between the Boston Marathon bombing and the Sandy Hook shooting: The woman pictured above is the late Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the school principal who was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings, and the right-hand panel purportedly shows her picture being displayed on the screen during an interview with someone named Donna about the Boston Marathon bombings. Some commentators have noted that the woman who stepped in as principal at Sandy Hook after Dawn Hochsprung's death was Donna Page and theorized that the former was the Donna referenced during the pictured interview about the Boston Marathon bombings (in the course of which her predecessor's picture was shown on-screen). Although at least one woman named Donna who ran in the marathon that day did give media interviews about her experience, the only such reference we have seen that mentioned a surname identified the interviewee as Donna Bruce, not Donna Page. A group of Newtown parents known as Team Newtown Strong entered the Boston Marathon and ran the 26 miles to honor the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, so it's possible Dawn Hochsprung would have been mentioned if one or more of those team members had been interviewed.Man on the Roof Another widely circulated image was snapped by college student Dan Lampariello, who was taking pictures along the race sidelines and coincidentally happened to capture the moment when one of the bombs exploded. The picture he took became a subject of great interest online because it showed a figure striding across the roof of a high-rise building block just as the explosion occurred on the street below, causing many to speculate (without foundation) that the person pictured in the photo had some connection to the bombings: No evidence yet suggests there is any reason to connect the person atop a nearby building with either of the explosions, as there are plenty of innocuous reasons why someone might have been in that location at the time.Saudi Man Various news accounts reported that 20-year-old Saudi national named Abdul Rahman Ali Al-harbi who was injured in one of the explosions was being investigated as a person of interest by law enforcement authorities to ascertain whether he might have had any connection to the bombings: Later news accounts reported that the young man was considered a witness, not a suspect: A few days after the bombings, a rumor began to circulate that the U.S. would be deporting Alharbi back to Saudi Arabia the following week on security and related grounds. Since then contradictory reports have claimed that he is being deported, that he is not being deported, and that the U.S. government was planning to deport him but is now reconsidering the move (or has decided against it).Suspect Caught on CCTV The Help Catch the Boston Marathon Bomber Facebook page posted a picture of a man who was supposedly captured on a CCTV security camera outside a chemical distribution warehouse in the Boston area: This picture has absolutely nothing to do with the Boston Marathon bombings. It originated with CCTV footage taken back in August 2011 and shows one of three men who were observed leaving a building where a burglary took place in Oakham, the county town of Rutland, East Midlands, England. 'Family Guy' Hoax A clip posted on the Internet purported to show a segment from the 17 March 2013 episode of the animated Family Guy television series depicting the Boston Marathon bombings:
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