The story was tragic and sensational, catnip to journalists. Among the magazines and newspapers that rushed to cover the bombing — the biggest on American soil since September 11 — was Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone took a different direction from other outlets: They wanted to explore what made these two brothers, Muslim Kyrgyz immigrants with seemingly normal, middle-class lives, into bloodthirsty killers.
The result was a massive feature called “Jahar’s World,” released in June 2013. The writers interviewed the Tsarnaev brothers’ neighbors, teachers, and friends in an attempt to discover “how a charming kid” — the 19-year-old Dzhokhar, or Jahar, specifically — “with a bright future became a monster.” The story explored Dzhokhar’s failing mental health, the fact that both his parents lived far away in Russia, his intensifying religious convictions, and his quiet sympathy for Osama Bin Laden. The cover showed the young man to advantage, with a rock star’s tangled hair and frank gaze, next to other headlines about singers, rappers, and actors.
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue8KroKadX528uHnRqKOloZ6cerTAzqecrGWSpMC1u81mpJqqkam1sLqMm6ammpmjtG6vzq%2Bcq5mXmnqxwdNmq6GdnWK2r3nHqKtmr5GpsrN7