The Waltham Murders

by Susan Zalkind

On Sunday, September 11, 2011, three men were murdered in a second-floor apartment on a dead-end street in Waltham, Massachusetts. The killers slit the victims’ throats, dumped a pound and a half of marijuana on two of the bodies, and left $5,000 cash at the scene of the crime.

One of the victims, Brendan Mess, 25, had been friends and sparring partners with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a local boxer with a thick Slavic accent.

Eighteen months later, Tamerlan bombed the Boston Marathon with his younger brother, Dzhokhar, murdered four people, mutilated and maimed dozens of others, and inspired a new era of domestic terrorism and fear. The bombing raised dark questions about Tamerlan and the 9/11/11 killing.

the point is that we are not from Boston. We are from here,

My father is a criminal defense attorney. I’ve been collecting tales about crime and criminals for as long as I can remember.