What Was Dzhokhar Thinking?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Now that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has begun talking to authorities and those who knew him are also sharing their insights, two predictable images have emerged.

First, he was a nice normal kid with lots of friends and interests who no one would have suspected had this dark and murderous side. Many of his friends have pledged to testify to his character and some – including his mother – are even in denial that he actually could  be guilty. The second image is of a worshipful younger brother who was heavily influenced and possibly even “brainwashed” by his older sibling Tamerlan.

And while both of these images may be accurate in their own contexts, there is another aspect of his personality that interests me even more.

What always fascinates me when John Douglas and I look into high profile “spectacle” cases like this one, where a good deal of advanced logistical planning is involved, is how much the subject actually planned his own future.

Let’s take a well-known case from 1981 as an example. Enamored of teen actress Jodie Foster and inspired by her role in the movie Taxi Driver, John Hinckley planned to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, commandeer an airplane, trade the hostages for Miss Foster, who would be impressed by his devotional act of political commitment and join him on his flight to God knows where.

And then what?

Now, admittedly, the entire plan was pretty whacky, but it was a plan. And there seems to have been no serious consideration given to what happened after the dramatic act itself.

In the same manner, I have to wonder what Dzhokhar was thinking – if he was thinking at all – about what would happen if he went along with his brother’s murderous scheme. Was he arrogant enough to think they were going to get away with it and whatever other acts of improvised terror they planned to commit? Did he think they would go out in a blaze of suicide-by-cop glory, enjoy their special place in heaven and go down in history as martyrs for this cause?

Or did he ever consider that if he got caught, everything that he had aspired to and worked for would suddenly be over and that, at nineteen years of age, he would never walk the streets again as a free man? Did his thinking and planning ahead stop short with the act of casually walking away from the bomb blasts?

I know, particularly if long-ago personal memory serves, that teens don’t always think straight. And I know that he may have been brainwashed. But contrary to popular movie beliefs, brainwashing does not turn prisoners of war or cult followers into mindless automatons, ready to follow any instruction or commit any act at the proper signal. They can still think and evaluate options.

So what made Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – sufficiently invested in American society to achieve citizenship, make numerous friends, enroll in a good college, exercise his body and live a “normal” college kid existence – risk giving it all away for a vague cause?

From a behavioral standpoint, I think that is the most intriguing question of all.

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